2022-06-29: A Kindness I Don't Recognize
- Log: 2022-06-29: A Kindness I Don't Recognize
- Cast: Akane Shinjo's friend Ramo Marusa, Sayla Mass
- Where: Tsutsujidai - Shogi Parlor; Tsutsujidai - Denpa's
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-06-29
- Summary: Sayla Mass tracks down one of Akane's friends as she tries to understand just what Akane's struggling with.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Things have gotten... worse, in Tsutsujidai, in some ways. The heat is leveling off a bit -- but only a bit. Akane's going to school, but she's skipping out at top speed the instant school ends -- and she must be taking a kind of circuitous route to slip away, because even waiting at the front door doesn't help.
Her friends... also aren't much help. Ako isn't exactly the talkative type to casual observers, in general, and her decisions about her appearance are all oriented on making her hard to engage with. Marusan... is busy.
No, scratch that. Marusan professes to be busy, but something else is going on.
Any asking after her, or Akane, eventually leads to the conclusion that she has Dance Club today... but asking around at Dance Club indicates the opposite -- Marusan's off attending to a family issue.
Catching up with her trail leads to a less-traveled part of Tsutsujidai -- all the way south, almost to the limits, almost into the fog. It's a dingy little building -- it wouldn't be out of place in darker slices of Nouvelle Tokyo's streets, even.
It advertises itself as a shogi parlor.
The truth in that is... well, present, but incomplete. Entering... well, it *is* a shogi parlor, and none of it seems to suggest backrooms or anything on the extreme end of sketchy. All of the tables, though, seem to be in pairs between 40-60 year old men and girls between 15 and 20.
It's well-maintained inside, though the carpet really ought to have been replaced a couple years ago, and the smell of smoke clings to the walls a little bit. One of the patrons smells a little bit too much like alcohol.
... Did Marusan really sneak all the way off here?
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
A certain outsider has had lots of reason to return to Tsutsujidai lately. Indeed, she's been at the school a few times, but both her targets- Akane and the new Maths Teacher- have been hard to catch. Akane's friends, on the other hand...
Sayla is confident of her tailing- especially since Marusan didn't seem to notice. She's been doing this long enough. More importantly... someone stands out above the thrum. And there is simply no point being subtle at this point. No one comes here by chance. It's right at the edge of reality. Right near the fog.
And so she walks into the dingy building and looks around. Cigarette smoke, but alcohol limited to one customer. So not a bar. Lots of old men and young girls does set off a red flag, but there's not enough to suggest that sort of business. Seedy, but not doing something exploitative and illegal. It feels like the seediest place she's seen in this world. It's the sort of thing that she hasn't encountered here until now.
Sayla walks up to the counter, reading the room. Shogi. Not her ideal game, but... This is her opportunity. Sometimes you just have to catch a person where they won't try to escape. Marusan is in here, she's sure of it.
The doctor walks to the counter. "I'd like some games. What's the rate?" Her presence here is clearly unlikely, but on the other hand- older, tired looking out of towner? Maybe she knows someone who told her. She's got cash. Why treat her unlike any other customer.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"75 gilla per hour, maximum three," the man at the counter says. He sounds a little tired. It's not an uncommon affliction here in Tsutsujidai. Under normal circumstances, he might ask if she has any preferences on girl -- but the only one available is the one who just got here from the other end of the ward.
He waits patiently for Sayla to pay; when, presumably, she does, he snaps his fingers at a small backroom. (It's too small to be anything but a waiting room, and enough of it is visible that it'd make a poor choice for anything sketchy.)
Unlike the other patrons -- and like Akane -- Marusan *does* recognize Sayla. When she comes out, her eyes momentarily widen; it makes her look more tired. "... I see," she says, quiet. She moves to sit down without complaint or comment -- but the exhaustion comes out a bit as she asks, "You're Miss Mass. ... Is this about Akane?"
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Sayla decides to take a risk. She can always walk out early, and that amount of money means very little. 225 gilla get handed over calmly- and Marusan steps out, as expected. Not in the expected uniform. Interesting.
Her tiredness and exhaustion leak out. An image is coming together of the young woman ahead of her. It's concerning. Nonetheless, Sayla walks forward to meet her- and presumably be guided to a table- so she can converse more quietly.
"That's right." She decides not to shout Marusan's name to the ground. "...And yes." There's no point in lying here, Marusan seems the sort who likes directness. "I'll be honest, I've been wondering how she's doing and haven't been able to get in touch." Amongst other things. She seems to be missing the last piece of the jigsaw right now.
"That said, if there are other things you want to talk about first, I can listen." Maybe do something, she thinks to herself. "I've not played before, so there'll be a lot of dead air otherwise." That's standard, perhaps. Hopefully there's movement rules at the table. Either way, she's hoping to make this talk easy for Marusan.
That's not to say she won't drag information out of her.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Mmrm... well, I guess we can move to the beginner table," Marusan replies. She goes to do just that; she can make this easier on Sayla. It's only reasonable. She collects herself -- adjusts the uniform, which fits just a little bit ill -- and then gets settled back in. "I guess I can teach opening theory for a few hours. It might make me a little better at it, anyway."
The spectre of the actual conversation hangs around. "I don't think there's anything to talk about?" comes Ramo's answer, with a slight cant of her head. "Akane's been back in school for weeks now." Marusan sinks back into her seat slightly, here; she looks a little uneasy -- like she knows where this is headed and doesn't like it, but doesn't have any way to stop it, either.
Regardless, the board is already set up. "If you've played chess, it's a lot like that. The pieces move a little differently, though." And then back to what Sayla actually wants to talk about. "It's kind of rude to pry into her home life, though... I know you already know some of it, but why keep following up? She says things are getting better."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Sayla follows because, well, that's the goal. That's why she's here. "Sounds like a plan." Still, Akane's been back at school was something she wanted to hear. "That's good, at least." Sayla responds, as Ramo shows her the board. But there's caution in her voice. As she can tell Ramo's worried about where this goes. Take it easy for now.
"I'm passable at chess. More for card games, lately, but I used to play when I was younger." Sayla pauses, then nods. "It's because I'm worried for her, and her little brother." She said she wouldn't talk about what happened with Anti that day. But she can mention that Anti exists. "Do you know what I do for a living, Miss Marusa?" She asks. The foundation has been vaguely defined here, if at all. She has no reason to know.
Sayla starts playing. Her opening moves are cautious, as she feels out the board and works out how things moves. What she is, however, is prepared to play very aggressively with officers, while pawns advance slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Not really," comes Marusan's answer, as she starts to maneuver around the board. "Akane mentioned you work with kids, or something?" Her goal is to model better play; she normally tends to be aggressive, but to demonstrate theory for Sayla, she starts building a fortress instead.
The topic of Akane's little brother, though... "I didn't even know about him until recently," Ramo notes. The guilt is... definitely present, there, a bit. "Akane's never talked about her home life... that's been fine with me, because I don't think it's a good topic either." That much, too, is absolutely true.
Her brow furrows a little. "... We -- shouldn't talk about this more," she says, with obvious and deep unease, after a little longer.
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Sayla response to a fortress is a pause, it's a much more difficult thing to breach, and the defensive structure is different from Chess. "One moment..." She gets out a pen and small notebook, jotting down thoughts based on what she sees from Marusan. Indeed, Sayla's defense of her king is almost begrudging, and her trades are almost reckless. When she sacrifices pawns, however, those sacrifices are calculated and done with thought. She's not truly a tactician. But Deikun brain is a chronic condition.
"Well, two things. Firstly, I'm a doctor. A pediatrician, even if I practice less than I did. The second is that I run a charity. It started out after the One Year War, giving aid to war orphans. Helping getting them out of bad places and to safety, medical treatments, housing, doing what we can so they can live a life they want. Nowadays my remit has expanded, but I'm still pretty hands on." If Marusa believes her, well, who knows if that's a plus or a minus.
"...I see. I don't think you should feel too bad about that. I think he's a relatively new addition to family." Sayla chooses to let the matter rest a little... but not entirely let the matter off. "You don't sleep well, do you?" She can tell that easily. That level of exhaustion is not a single night. Calmly, she drops a pawn just shy of the promotion zone, and keeps asking. "I'm guessing this place has you work late?" She's not actually speaking of what's obvious- Marusa's home life means she's exhausted. But is this work a symptom?
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"There is one big difference with shogi," Marusan points out. "You can use the pieces you capture. It makes it harder to get stuck than chess." She redeploys one of Sayla's pawns to arrest her other pawn's motion. She's definitely got the advantage. "... Is that why you're trying to help Akane? I don't think she's an orphan... though I guess her parents aren't around, and she moved here alone."
Talking about *her* is a little easier than talking about Akane and Anti, though; after all, the thing Marusan tries to keep secret is something Sayla already knows, now. Ramo Marusa is stuck dealing with what's in front of her.
"... I'm just busy. I just get dark circles under my eyes," Marusan answers; she doesn't want to admit how tired she is. "This is a pretty short job... it's never more than three hours. I can get home by dinner. Most of the time I eat out, though. I take home more than 100 gilla a day for only a few hours' worth of work, so I can afford it."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Sayla smirks, but it's a bit of a sad one. "So a piece in Shogi serves whoever controls it. Whereas in chess, anything lost is gone, but also replacable. You can tell they're made for generals and rulers." She considers Marusan's counter drop, and decides to leave that pawn be for now. Sayla pauses. "...Honestly, no. The more business I had here, the more I kept running into her." She hovers over the pieces, before making a risky play with her rook. "And I noticed a few things. She's a lot lonelier than she lets on, isn't she?" She wants to know what Marusan's noticed. She seems observant.
"Remember how I said I'm a doctor, Miss Marusa?" She says, looking the girl in the eyes. Her eyes track to Marusan's shoulders, obviously. There's also... concern. The way Sayla gets overly involved too quick these days. But better to be involved than not. "I'm curious, if a client books your time and then leaves before then, do you have to take on another client?" She's quiet, so that the other workers and the boss couldn't overhear her. Maybe she could just leave and let her take a nap. But that's not it.
Sayla's playstyle comes out slowly. She's more defensive, but absolutely sets up traps where she can, some obvious, some less so, while she sneaks a unit to promotion. But she definitively loses the first game, unfamiliarity with the board, the rules and her opponent leading to moves she can't take back. But the whole time she's losing, she takes some notes.
And then she slides her notebook to Marusan. "I'm sorry, could you just check I've got this right? About the Fortress..."
What the page actually says is: Are you safe at home? Do you need to get some distance?
Sayla's pen is just there, and for all the world she just seems like a rookie getting advice, like all that notebook is doing is a drawing of a Gold Fortress.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Marusan recognizes game, at least; when she sees that it's literally just lack of familiarity with the specific movement rules and that Sayla's a pretty keen tactical mind, she gets excited. This is a *harder* conversation than she's used to having, but it's a better one, too -- and a better game, overall.
"She doesn't talk about that much," Marusan answers, letting Sayla take that risk and not having any clean answer. "When she first moved here, I think we all became friends because we didn't dig into each other's lives, but..." ... there's something wrong in that house, Marusan thinks. It's getting harder and harder to ignore that Akane's... adrift, somehow. It's beyond her, but...
"And, uh -- yeah, you did mention that, and... no, I could be done at that point, if I wanted." She breathes out slowly, then looks down to Sayla's notebook. Light returns to her eyes, a bit. She picks up the pen.
"... Give me just a second," she says. "This is kind of complicated..."
'I live with my dad, and he's kind of a deadbeat. He suspects I'm not telling him the truth about doing this kind of work... I think if he confronts me, I'm going to have to stop, and I kind of expect it soon. My sister knows I do this, and he's leaning on her now, too. I don't really want to go back to living with my mom, either. They're not abusive or anything, or even neglectful, just kind of disappointing people.'
That tired look deepens a bit. She keeps writing, though.
'I don't have any time for a less sketchy job. I'm in Dance Club and two school committees.'
This is the first time someone's really cared, and managed to pierce *Ramo's* fortress. Even Ako... well. Marusan doesn't like to make her think about a lot of this stuff.
'Don't tell anyone this, but when Ako wanted to take a trip during spring break... I told Ako I'd handle getting everyone to pay their share, but the truth is I just paid it myself. She really wanted it, and I wanted her to have a good time.'
Even at a kids' rate of 50 gilla a head, Marusan must have dropped... very real money on that experience. Probably weeks' worth of work, even at her seemingly fairly lavish compensation-to-time ratio. That's saying nothing about the rafts and everything, too...
It's at this point -- halfway through just... dumping everything -- that Marusan stops herself from continuing, and instead writes:
'If you want to talk somewhere else I can talk. I'll need to explain to the manager. Give me ten minutes.'
She slides the notebook back across to Sayla, looking at her expectantly.
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Marusan's response seems to get a slow nod from Sayla. "...but you have a bad feeling now." Sayla completes for her. She's also pretty confident that Marusan got her inference. Sayla reads as Marusan writes. There's a lot there. Spring break... so she was there when Go'yavec, the Devadadan and... Anti attacked. It's a good thing she doesn't remember, Marusa seems to sort who would take the guilt onto herself.
When she puts the question out there... She decides to trust that Marusan wants to talk and isn't ditching her. No one writes that much if they don't need someone to see it.
'Okay. I'll wait outside, down the street.' She pauses, then writes down her mobile number. 'If there's any problems, text me.'
From there, Sayla feints her phone getting a message, and grimaces. "...Thanks for the games. I have to run early, though. I hope you have a good evening." She leaves via the front, giving a quick 'No problems, just business' to the manager so Marusan doesn't have any problem there.
Sayla is waiting down the road, she said. She's ready to call a taxi if need be, but not until they decide to move. If there's a place Marusan wants to go, that's there destination. If not, well, Sayla has eyed a few cafes a little nicer than Starbows that afford some privacy.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Marusan decides she likes Sayla a lot. She's... discreet, and she appreciates that. She checks in with the manager, affirming that she actually intends to take her good luck today and head out early; there's a bit of a shrug at that, and she's given 150 gilla in cash a moment later. She slips out through a side door.
She catches up with Sayla in a little less time than she'd said she would; she suggests Denpa's, a Britannian diner that's really dug in in Japan with good omurice, good pancakes, and a lot of dessert items.
Marusan is used to treats being large in both directions; she doesn't skimp on ordering. "Akane... offered to keep my secrets if I kept hers," Marusan admits, once they're situated and food is ordered. "I'd keep them anyway, but it felt like... it's not that she doesn't trust me anymore, but it feels like she's scared, and because she's scared, she doesn't think I'll keep a secret just because she asks."
Drinks arrive quickly. Marusan has coffee, of course -- extra large, sweet. She needs it. Sipping at it, she thinks back. "She's always been a little on the secretive side, though, but I kind of just assumed it was an art girl thing... I don't really know exactly what she does, but I think it's sculpting. I remember in... right before we went on spring break, actually, she was suddenly really motivated to make a diorama? She was getting all these bottles from the school science club... I guess she might have been doing a volcano chain or something? Using the mouths of the bottles for structure... I kind of wanted to see it, because it sounded like she spent all of March working on it."
She glances off, sipping at her coffee. "When we got back to school, I asked about it, and she just kind of shrugged it off. She said she dropped it... but that was fine, apparently. Sometimes she seems like even the littlest things freak her out, but sometimes she can shrug everything off..."
Looking down into her cup, Ramo admits, "Maybe I should ask her more about what she does, but... for the longest time I thought caring about her just kind of meant giving her her own space."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Denpa's it is. Sayla is happy to go with that choice, even if she's not particularly a fan of Britannian food. Sure, the occasional late night McDaniel's on an all nighter. Or that burger joint down the road from the Loum Medical School... She wonders if they ever rebuilt.
That said, she has no problem with Marusan ordering big. Not enough people take her up on that, and no one has yet to top 'two of the biggest sandwiches on the menu and entire Tiramisu'.
And yet she's pretty sure Judau was just warming up.
Sayla also orders a coffee, and also some curly fries with ketchup. Sayla only needed a snack. Still, she's ready to listen to Marusan, as she said she would. "...I see." Scared. She felt that before, too. "Like she has to be transactional, right?" Sayla's thoughtful, but it scans. She exploited that transactionality already to get her to listen to her.
'She was getting all these bottles from the school science club... I guess she might have been doing a volcano chain or something?'
Working all of March, two months after Calibur made contact with Sayla. Destroyed after they came back from the trip. Alexis is Akane's guardian, and gives her things she wants or needs. Akane can want someone like Anti- a kaiju that was fighting alongside the one they ID'd as Go'yavec in that time period. A huge, walking volcano diarama that tried to kill them.
And Akane had to have made it.
Sayla, to her credit, does not swear or slam the table or anything like that. She doesn't even choke on her coffee. But her heart chills. This is the shape of Alexis using Akane that Kaworu warned her about, and Sayla failed to realize when she was told to her face. Right now, Doctor Mass hates herself. A lot.
"...Caring is more easily said than done, Miss Marusa. And it can be difficult to tell when others have problems when you're dealing with your own. Akane's good at presenting someone who is always okay. If it weren't for my experience, I wouldn't have noticed. I suspect she would say she's fine, or 'just kidding' her way out of any real questions." Sayla, after all, is an expert at deflection, she's knows another when she sees them. "I'm not saying you shouldn't feel any guilt, but don't beat yourself up for what's done."
Sayla dips a fry in ketchup, and promptly devours it. "I think right now, though, if you can continue being secret keeper..." She pauses, thinking how to go forward. "Be there for her. See if you can get her to take part in things. And maybe..." Sayla pauses. "Well, I won't lie, this might be a touch manipulative but not a lie. If she knows about this job, maybe say they're closed for a day or cancelled your shift and you need an excuse to be out. She's more likely to agree to something if she thinks she's helping you, and it keeps her from isolating herself." Sayla's mind is spinning. Marusan could be a useful ally in getting Akane away from Kerib. "Don't push, don't press, just show that you're here and show that you want her around from time to time, but don't try and force her." Sayla pauses for a few moments.
"...As for your own problems," Sayla says, reminding them both this isn't JUST about Akane. "I might be able to help there too, especially if you're worried about your father making you stop work. I might need a little time to get set up, though."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"She does do that," Marusan agrees; it's just been part of their friendship up until now, but... maybe that's not really the right thing to do? To intrude, to wait... maybe just to make your presence known.
It's something. Sayla seems like a smart, experienced adult; certainly White Base did a lot for her. Marusan takes another drink of her coffee before getting started on the food itself. She can tell Sayla's at least trying to help Akane in a genuine way -- and, for that matter, trying to help her in a genuine way. She can accept that, and that in turn means that Ramo Marusa is her ally -- at least for the moment.
Eating some omurice, the younger girl agrees, "Now that she's actually coming to school every week, I can do that." It sounds like she's going to need to cancel a few shifts -- but that might get her father off her back long enough for her to move in with her mother instead... and...
... Ramo misses making it to every Dance Club meeting. It's not that she regrets adding another obligation, especially for Ako's sake, but... she's tired. Maybe spending time with the people she cares about will reduce the bags under her eyes -- or at least give her less of a complex.
The implied offer actually gets a little bit of a smile. "... I can't add a volunteer commitment," she notes, reading between the lines. "I'll keep in touch, though. Let's trade phone numbers."
Once they've done *that*, the conversation gets a little more casual, mostly because: Marusan actually does feel like she owes Sayla the shogi time she paid for, and it's clear she's got some degree of talent for the game and interest besides. She *actually* starts outlining both openers and defensive strategy.