2022-07-03: Plan
- Log: 2022-07-03: Plan
- Cast: Sheryl Nome, Brera Sterne, Akane Shinjo
- Where: Tsutsujidai - Kamesan Park
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-07-03
- Summary: Sheryl and Brera return to Tsutsujidai to take a few looks at the park, and maybe draw out Tsutsujidai's God. They succeed.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
It wasn't too long ago that Sheryl had started to drag Brera with her to Tsutsujidai via Junius 7. At the time, they'd been interrupted by Renais, who'd been present just outside the hotel by sheer coincidence, and who'd told them some important things about the strange seemingly extradimensional space. Sheryl had likewise seemed to back down at the time... only to get Brera to take her there anyway, though only to make sure they could find the way. It was a trip there and a trip back, just to confirm the route.
Today, though... *today*, she's going to get some answers. She's thus come in disguise: blonde hair tied up in a bun at the back of her head, a sunhat tilted down over her face, large novelty shades in heart shapes over her eyes, and a cute babydoll sundress in pink and cream, her fair skin protected by Nome Pure Shield.
a) Nobody said it was going to be a better disguise than her normal; b) of course she's using her own product. Sheryl Nome isn't going to settle for anything less than the best, and having been involved in its creation, she knows for a *fact* that this stuff is top quality.
"Hmmm... So this is how the park looks in the daytime," she comments, tilting her shades down as she surveys Kamesan Park. If Brera's allowed her to wrap her arm around his in an attempt to look as though they're a tourist couple and not a superstar and her bodyguard, she'll drag him along with her towards the veranda; otherwise, she'll attempt to grab him by the crook of the arm and drag him along *now*. I-it's better than ditching him?
"The thing that bothers *me* the most is that the people here just forgot all about it," she adds, loudly, because if this 'God' is here then being loud is a great way of drawing their attention. (Why not simply come as Sheryl Nome, then? What, and attract every Tom, Dick, and Harry? Come on.) "As if I'd end a concert because of a little rain! I didn't even stop for a giant monster!"
...Not that she hasn't stopped for giant monsters in the past. Though in fairness, she stopped because Catherine made her stop... but she still stopped, letting herself say to let the professional soldiers handle the fighting. Look, Sheryl contains multitudes, okay? At least she's not afraid of getting her own hands dirty!
<Pose Tracker> Brera Sterne has posed.
Brera has settled into the realization that assisting Sheryl in some of her more reckless endeavors is going to make his job easier than trying to convince her to cease her choice in behavior. As with most things, there's slightly more to it than that. There are promises involved, and even though Brera does not know what to make of them yet, he knows he would like to make something of them.
If only her methods were more... comprehensible.
One day, the quality of Sheryl's disguises may not matter. Brera makes no effort of his own, and while he's no Sheryl Nome, he's not exactly one for blending in. He stares blankly at her taking his arm, making some comment about how this is impractically restricting before getting dragged, stumbling until finding pace.
The odds that Brera will have any luck -- or any awareness -- playing one half of a couple are very, very poor.
"... It would be preferable if that is not what bothered you most."
But it is strange...
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane is, indeed, in the park, and it is in fact for exactly the reason you'd expect -- or at least, adjacent thereto. The consciousness of guilt is getting to her worse and worse, day after day; it feels for all the world like something's going to snap at any second.
Sure enough, Sheryl shouting about what she did or didn't do gets Akane's attention immediately; even if she's making herself unidentifiable visually, she's definitely admitting to who she is out loud by talking about the concert and what she did and didn't forget.
It'd probably be kinder and easier if she did forget, Akane reflects. She honestly could stand to upgrade the Venora, at this rate. (Is such a thing even possible? She'll have to ask Alexis.)
Doing it the way she has been... hasn't been cutting it. Maybe it never really did.
She stalks a little closer from the park table she'd been sitting at, getting to overhear that flat delivery. She looks between Sheryl and Brera for a moment.
... Hm. It must be nice to get this kind of relationship the easy way. ... it's certainly fairer.
Akane's presence in Brera and Sheryl's rear arc feels *quite* abrupt; it's like one minute there was no one approaching, and the next: there's Akane Shinjo. "You guys should probably keep your voices down if you're gonna talk about that stuff," she says, trying to sound hush-hush but coming off kind of flat and cold. "Not exactly the smart play when it comes to talking about a kaiju attack most people forgot."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Depressingly, Brera is probably better about playing the part of one half of a couple than Alto is. Not that Alto COULDN'T play that part. Just that he WON'T. Brera... also won't, but at least he doesn't complain when she drags him along on things.
Maybe that promise they share now helps. Sheryl doesn't really think of it that way. She intends on fulfilling that promise, but that and this are separate in her mind.
"You have another arm," she points out when he comments about the impracticalities--but she does let go, if only to step up inside that veranda and get a closer look around, hands on her hips. "And what do *you* think I should think is more important, then?"
When first she turned, there wasn't anyone there--but now, as she looks again, suddenly: AKANE. Sheryl rears back in surprise, stumbling a few steps before she collects herself, haughtily tossing her hair. Part of this is so *Brera* doesn't freak out. She appreciates his being on the ball, but he's got something of a hair trigger. Akane might be trying to just sound hush-hush, but that flatness of hers makes it sound a little like a threat--and Brera definitely doesn't tolerate even a little.
"Is that what you think? It brought *you* out of the woodworks, didn't it?" Sheryl asks... though she does lower her voice *now*. "If you're talking about that, clearly *you* remember, right?" She looks Akane over. Renais's advice had been to avoid anyone who gives off any *particularly* sinister vibes. Akane feels a little off, but... she's also clearly(?) a high schooler, a girl her own age. Not exactly super-sinister in Sheryl's book. "So you know about the Venora, hm? What else do you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Brera Sterne has posed.
Where Brera fails is he largely does not understand the concept rather than a lack of cooperation. It's a matter of context and perspective which is more difficult to work with. He does not fluster at the involved behaviors, but... that doesn't necessarily help sell it, either.
"Two is ideal." He does not fight for his arm back, though. He can manage with one. For now.
He answers his question with the same flat tone, as if it does not surprise nor disturb him that her priorities are amiss: "The risk of bodily harm."
Where he fails at fake dating, Brera has a constant, sharp awareness of his surroundings due to his experiences and his cybernetics built with those experiences in mind. He has become a tool for a purpose, and that purpose requires him to be alert.
Akane is not there. And then she is there.
Brera does not like that.
It turns out there are advantages to Sheryl holding his arm, which is preventing it from becoming suddenly knives. But she can feel the tension coiling Brera up like a spring, ready to pounce.
His gaze locks onto Akane, scanning with subtle, but unnatural movements of his pupils. He may be aware of the conversation, but it is the least of his concerns right now.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Obvious threat rolls off of Brera; Akane can see the tension there, see the scanning stare. She's got one of those, too; it's a little more natural, but as one hand comes up to her hip, it's clear that she's performing...
... probably not the *same* assessment. But not a wholly different one, either.
"I know a lot of things," Akane replies, now sounding a little smug. "I know you two are here to poke around where you had that concert a couple months ago. I know you're looking for something."
Unbothered, she continues, "I also know three people died at that concert, and all of them were part of the same four-person streaming group! *That's* something only like five people around here know." Blandly, she affirms, "Glad it wasn't you. Wish it was four, though!" with... less enthusiasm than ought to accompany an exclamation point, and yet, no real sense that happiness about it is *wrong*, either. She doesn't bother giving the mitigating conditions on that statement... at least, not yet.
"So -- I know *you*, but who's your pet boy here? Guessing he's not really a boyfriend." Blandly, she continues: "Did someone make him to clean up messes for you?" ... How's *that* her first go-to?
Maybe she's seen the pattern before.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
'The risk of bodily harm,' Brera replies, and Sheryl purses her lips. That is an extremely good point, and as little as she wants to lose any argument, she has to give him that.
In her head, anyway. Out loud, she protests, "Of course I don't want to get hurt! How could I keep singing if I were killed or mangled? I don't want to die any more than anyone else!" She shakes her head. "Need I remind you that I brought you with me here to keep that from happening?" A huff of a sigh. "Next you'll start saying I should just stay holed up in my hotel room and do nothing!"
But Akane appears, and Sheryl does indeed feel the tension in Brera's arm. It's hard not to. She at least can feign nonchalance with the best of them once she's gotten past her surprise--though even that turns into a keen-eyed frown when this girl gets into some information that Sheryl hadn't known. And it seems like something some random girl shouldn't just know either...
She looks Akane up and down assessingly. According to Renais, the 'God' of Tsutsujidai had sent that kaiju for a specific, violent purpose. Three people died, and this girl wishes it'd been four. As monstrous an attitude as that is, Sheryl keeps her knee-jerk reaction in check, though she has to bite her tongue to do it. Renais said that this place is dangerous, so she has to treat this like an interview, and not simply say the first thing on her mind. The way this girl's talking... "You could have waited until *after* the show," she huffs, tossing her hair a bit even as she watches Akane carefully. If her guess is right...
But then she asks after her companion. That's only reasonable, really. "He's my bodyguard. This is Brera," Sheryl replies, gesturing upwards at him. She pauses, though, at Akane's follow-up question. 'Clean up messes'? "He's my bodyguard, not my maid," she retorts, though she's not entirely sure that's what Akane means. Who *does* clean up messes for her? ...That'd be Grace, wouldn't it? And Grace hired Brera, so...
Hm. She doesn't like this train of thought. "What name do *you* go by?" she asks instead.
<Pose Tracker> Brera Sterne has posed.
Sheryl locked up in her hotel room...
"That would greatly diminish opportunities for injury."
Brera's in favor.
He is more in favor of it now that Akane is here, the two of them staring each other down in their respective ways. He betrays nothing in his expression, but only because there's little to betray: fear for the rapidly increasing danger is absent, only acknowledgment for it and constant assessment on what should be done to deliver Sheryl safely through it.
There are aspects of this social exchange that Brera struggles to follow. Three dead, should have been four, but not Sheryl... A threatening aura, but driven by what logic?
Being referred to as a pet does not see Brera flinching, nor any other insinuation... which may be more evidence to Akane's assumptions than against them.
"I am authorized to do whatever is necessary to protect her."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Brera gets addressed first; Akane ultimately responds to threat before anything else, and Brera is pretty threatening. "Ah, so I figured it out pretty quick!" she enthuses. She raises both hands, making a 'snip-snip' gesture as she does so, middle and ring fingers parting side to side. "Don't worry. I'll keep my hands where you can see 'em~, Mister Bodyguard~."
... It's hard to say if Akane's having fun with this. Her tone is playful, certainly, and her approaches consistent in their nonchalance -- but there's no *verve* -- even as she takes a few steps toward Brera, looking him over; her gaze rests for just a moment on his eyes. "Hmmm. Interesting." Is she clocking him as a cyborg...? It's hard to be sure.
"*I* could've waited? That's skipping a few steps, right~?" she teases, letting one hand drop and the other come to her hip again. She leans a little closer in toward Sheryl. "Maybe I just don't like it when boys get that close to me." The hand not on her hip comes up a moment, wagging a finger.
"Akane Shinjo," she says, tone pretty bright. "Anyway -- let's say you're right, though. I *could've* stalked them one at a time, sure. Maybe if things were different I would've!" A beat, before she appends: "... *If* I were the one sending out kaiju to deal with every lazy teacher, college creep, and idiot volleyball player."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Brera's in favor. Sheryl simply rolls her eyes, though with a good-natured exasperation rather than irritation. As she just stated multiple times, he *is* her bodyguard. Of course he wants to do a good job. So, just this once, she lets him have that one. (Be grateful, Brera!)
For now, though, there's the matter of Akane. She and Brera sniff each other, so to speak, each of them making their respective stances clear. Sheryl glances between the two of them. It's good that there won't be any violence... for now, anyway. She'd be willing to sic her bodyguard on the person who ruined her concert if it seemed like Akane had done that on purpose, but it sounds like...
'Maybe I just don't like it when boys get that close to me.'
Sheryl tilts her head thoughtfully, still frowning. She was of course too busy performing to notice anything going on in the crowds, but the way she says that... maybe she can understand after all.
Though of course Akane tries to roll it back by implying she isn't the culprit here. Sheryl smirks, dry and knowing. "Are you really going to try to play innocent, Akane?" she challenges her. It's true that she *is* skipping a few steps, and she doesn't really know this for sure, but that's *why* she's pushing like this: to make sure.
Besides which, it's not like Akane's giving her reason so far to think she's misunderstood. If anything, she's just making that vibe of being 'God' even stronger by giving specific examples of things Sheryl didn't even ask about (as far as she can tell). But if they're playing this game, she may as well ask outright rather than rely on intuition.
"So those four boys you mentioned..." Technically Akane said 'people' but again: Sheryl's skipping a few steps here. Regardless, a flicker of concern enters her blue eyes, though it might be tough to see behind her shades. "Were they getting handsy with you? Is *that* why you did it?"
<Pose Tracker> Brera Sterne has posed.
(Gratitude hasn't been properly learned yet, Sheryl!)
Nothing about Akane's manner or demeanor is lowering her threat level. The opposite is happening. The nature of this place, and the things that can happen within in... What Brera can and cannot see is not to be relied on. It will be up to his reflexes to account for any sudden changes.
He does not move as she comes closer, nor is any effort made to hide what he is. He does not even think to.
But Brera is a bodyguard. He understands battle -- the sort with guns and blades and giant machines. He does not understand the way too teenage girls battle with words. (He would not understand it with two teenage boys, either.)
Brera glances to Sheryl, uncertain.
"...Handsy?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Hmmm. Say they were watching me dancing a little too close, and one of them touched me and grabbed my phone. Say one of them grabbed my butt. Say they didn't do anything and I just think IRL streamers are boring!" Akane presents a few options, yet again simply... offering conclusions. She's presented two extremes and a pretty plausible-sounding middle. "Does it make a difference? They're dead! And no one remembers." Well. No one except Akane, at least.
Akane glances over to Brera again, at 'handsy.' "You know. In your personal space, Mister Bodyguard. Or do you not have personal space? Then again... even if *you* don't, you probably get it for her sake." A jerk of the thumb to Sheryl.
She continues to give Sheryl bread crumbs -- no, scratch that; she's giving her the whole bun, hand-feeding it to her and Brera one step at a time. "Anyway, this is a pretty dangerous place for you. You're definitely right to bring a bodyguard along. ... Wait, weren't you the guy in the plane? The red one, right?" One of Sheryl's defenders. "Oh man, this is totally great!" She smiles broadly, saying, "It took me a minute, but I totally remember you! You picked up that little girl who almost ate it right off of Anti!"
She claps, clearly enthused. "I thought she was done for for *sure!* Hahahaha... snnrrkh... wow! The same stupid hero complex... the same demeanor... ahahaha, wow." Back to cold in an instant. "I bet it'd be even easier for you to lie and say he's your little brother than mine."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Sheryl of course knows way less about Tsutsujidai than she's attempting to front herself as knowing. Until she met Renais last week, she had no idea there was even 'God' pulling the strings, responsible for the movements of those kaiju. She sure wouldn't have ever guessed that that 'God' would be (take the form of?) a teenage girl. She's still not 100% this *is* God, though when you're instead 99% sure, how much does that last one percent count?
She pauses when Brera asks about 'handsy,' remembering in an instant that he remembers literally nothing of his past. It makes her hesitate, briefly at a loss for how to explain that. Akane weighs in, and Sheryl decides to go with, "I'll explain it later."
Her frown only deepens when Akane presents a variety of scenarios, implying that maybe she just finds streamers annoying. It makes her want to snap at her for being so cavalier about people's lives--she thinks she can understand how Alto felt that day when she brushed her fans' safety off as a problem for the professionals--but she manages to keep a lid on it.
But she *does* get icier. "So if nobody remembers, it doesn't make a difference, hm? Is that what all the memory erasure stuff is about? So you get to do whatever you want with no consequences?" She shakes her head, folding her arms under her chest. "I don't know what's more pitiful: if you actually are this awful, or if you're just faking it so you don't look like a victim."
It's when Akane starts laughing about Ranka having almost died, though, that Sheryl finally loses her temper. She storms up to Akane and snaps, "Enough is enough! I don't care if you ARE 'God' of this place! You can't mock my friends like that!"
<Pose Tracker> Brera Sterne has posed.
Brera does not understand most people. He does not understand Sheryl Nome, but he understands Akane Shinjo far less. Suggested possibilities, but only one truth. No willingness to answer, yet no unwillingness to speak. A dangerous power, and one that can -- and has, if Sheryl's instincts are right (and maybe he wants to trust her here, where she can read between the lines he finds too confusing to follow) -- killed.
"Retribution dissuades further aggression," he says, piecing this all together in his own way. "...It is less effective without aggressors understanding the cause and effect."
This is neither approval nor disapproval, or perhaps even accurate. But Brera must process.
But now he's being asked about personal space, and the blank look he gives Akane lacks promise. Always empty, not hiding anything, but not having anything to give. Until Akane mentions that little girl. His pupils shrink. His body tenses. His expression flickers dangerously close to resembling the living, and with Akane's laughter at Ranka's brush with death, that life takes the shape of narrowed eyes and a set jaw.
But his mind is still blank with words. He simply seethes, latching impulsively onto the burst of energy that comes with it until it makes his entire body shake.
It's Sheryl who has to speak, knocking Brera out of the emotional trance. But that she did spawns a different sort of flicker in his soul, one even more difficult to describe.
"You..."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Hmmm. Maybe it is. Maybe it's just that it's better if the world moves on from horrible people and forgets them," Akane replies, back to bland tone so quickly after that momentary outburst of laughter. Mentioning that she finds either stance Akane could be taking pitiful, though...
Akane takes a full step in toward Brera again, while still staying roughly as close to Sheryl as Sheryl opted into. A risky move -- speaking of personal space, Akane's *very* much invading two slices of it now. "Hmm? I'm not mocking *her*," Akane says, with a dismissive little wave. "I'm poking at *him*. He's a kaiju. He ought to know better! You can't exactly save people with giant murder claws attached to those dumb little accordion tubing limbs, right? I mean, how dumb can you get."
She turns to orient toward Brera instead of Sheryl. "Hmmmm," she murmurs, looking at that shaking, seething cyborg body. Then, when she's addressed: "What's your plan here, cyborg?" Akane's nice and close. "I bet you're stronger than a human. Why, you might even be stronger than a kaiju~. That's a lot of power..."
A thin smile, mirthless in the eyes. "Wanna be a little indiscreet with it? I bet it'd feel good."
A beat: "Don't worry. Nothing in my pockets." Her hands slip into them, leaving her defenseless.
Even as the temperatures in Tsutsujidai get past 35 C, Akane Shinjo doesn't sweat.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Facing Akane as she is, Sheryl doesn't see the way Brera reacts, from the dilation of his pupils to the way he starts to shake. He does weigh in on the inefficiency of murdering a bunch of dudes as a way of warning others off the same behavior, and that's not *really* Sheryl's point, but she appreciates that he tried.
"I meant him, too!" she counters--but when Akane makes it clear that the 'him' she means *isn't* Brera, the wind gets knocked out of her sails a bit. A kaiju? What did she say--Anti? There's a lot there she doesn't know anything about, beyond that this monster apparently tried to protect Ranka, and she has no idea how to process it now that she realizes the misunderstanding. In that moment, Akane takes a step forward, now in her space *and* Brera's, and makes her next social attack.
"He has a *name*, and you know it," Sheryl snaps, rousing back into anger. It's likely that Brera doesn't care if he's addressed as 'cyborg' or not--there's a lot he doesn't have a lot of strong opinions about--but Sheryl knows that it upsets *Grace*, and either way, she doesn't like the way Akane's going out of her way to try to dehumanize him. It surprises her that Akane then tries to bait him into attacking her, though. Even Sheryl can't tell what she's angling at here.
But it *is* clear that she's trying to play a game of boy-brain-ball, something that Brera's not going to know how to handle. Her best guess is that she's trying to provoke Brera into attacking her so she can lay some kind of devastating counter on him somehow. So, as close as Akane is to Brera now, Sheryl shoves herself in between them and pushes her weight forward, chest-first, to attempt to force Akane back and prevent Brera from taking any potentially unwise maneuvers.
"Let's make one thing clear," she utters, tone dripping with haughty contempt. "*You* don't get to mess with *my* friend. The one with the plan here is *me*. So the real question is..." She pulls her shades off then, and lets them dangle from her fingers as she sets her hand on her hip and glowers down at her. "...what's *your* plan?
"My manager had to set up that concert with *someone*. If you're 'God' here, that means you're in charge. That means you must've been part of it, so you must've wanted it to happen. But then you go and turn around and ruin it to kill a few guys for, you're trying to imply, just because you could? What are you even *doing*, Akane Shinjo? Answer me!"
<Pose Tracker> Brera Sterne has posed.
The subjects of this conversation keep changing. Metaphors for one another, in a strange dance Brera is unfamiliar with.
Brera tries to push Sheryl a short distance back to make it so it's largely his personal space Akane's invading. That is dangerous. Discomfort is a fuzzier quantity. But Brera does not find anything nice about this closeness.
He does not know why Sheryl insists on his name, but there is something nice about that. Brera is... Brera.
It's all he is.
"My plan is to protect Sheryl." On anyone else, this would be a calm and cool conviction bravely displayed in the face of a threat. On Brera, who Akane has already found how to slip the proverbial knife into him, it's evidence of latching back onto a simple purpose when everything else slips out of reach.
So he does not understand her 'offer' right away. It dawns on him, slow and one shift of his head toward the side at a time.
Then Sheryl is the one between the both of them, and alarms blare in Brera's head. And that feeling from before, that anger, brief and energetic and fiery, rises again. But this one's different. It's already impossible to understand one shade of it, and now there's two.
"Sheryl." It's the first time today there's been any emotion in his voice, and he's mad.
But he does not yet move to act, aware that in this fight -- bizarre as it is -- any sudden action could provoke an unpredictable result. He has decided against preemptive strikes, determining that he who acts first stands to lose.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Sheryl interrupts the situation, and Akane takes a step back once she does. Sheryl yells at her, and then highlights that she had to be involved with the concert. True, or at least truth-adjacent... so she decides to keep that thread going, at least.
"My guardian suggested it! And I figured, hey, why not? There's a girl in my class who really likes you. She even got to go backstage during your Macross City concert! Nice gift for her, right?" she replies. "I did have a good time for the first half of the concert or so, though... even if it's kinda turned me off dancing where anyone can see it again." That certainly suggests something happened with those guys beyond 'Akane just hates RL streamers,' doesn't it? ... Akane's never been a great liar, though.
Taking a few more steps back when she realizes that, while Brera's angry, he's also paralyzed by being lost in the situation, Akane decides to pick at him just a *bit* more. "Wow. They're really the same. All anger and no good ideas. No wonder they went for the same little girl and everything!" She turns and starts to walk away. "Watch out. Eventually he'll start getting his own ideas, and they're all gonna suck~"
She keeps walking. "Later, you two. Sorry, but that's all you're getting." As always, Akane leaves before people can get too far into poking at the inconsistencies.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
When Brera attempts to push Sheryl back to increase her space from Akane, she utters an indignant little, "Hey!" It's a little thing, though, and she lets him do it--until of course Akane does her own pressing, and Sheryl does something about it.
So when Brera speaks her name, this time with anger, she snaps a glare back at him. "*What*?! You expect me to just stand back and let her bully you?!" She does get why he's upset--it's the same reason he always gets upset when she oversteps like this--but *still*.
However, she also demanded answers from Akane, and when she starts giving them, Sheryl faces her anew. Her eyebrows furrow. Her guardian... That's weird. What's a 'God' need a guardian for? Renais had mentioned someone with really atrocious vibes, though, and to stay away from him. Are those two things connected? Next, the concert ended up turning Akane off of dancing in front of others... suggesting that those guys really did do something to her. And a classmate who was one of the backstage winners at Macross City... meaning she went along with this to make her happy?
This makes one possibility much larger in Sheryl's mind: Akane is indeed fronting being a villain so she can make herself not a victim. She doesn't know all of the situation, so she could be wrong, but Sheryl doesn't think she is. All the same, that doesn't make Akane's insults at Brera (and, to a lesser extent, Ranka) any less intolerable, so as she walks off, Sheryl tosses her head and 'hmphs.'
"You really are pitiful," she says coldly. She slips her shades back on and looks over them back at her bodyguard. "Come on, Brera. Let's get out of here."
After that exchange, she figures Akane might just send a kaiju after her for real if she sticks around.
<Pose Tracker> Brera Sterne has posed.
The complexity of Akane's situation is difficult enough to fathom without the flickers of emotion this conversation threatens to cause. Brera does not yet realize that's a tactic in itself, and one that someone who has control over such a domain might be experienced in observing and utilizing herself. He doesn't even realize he's been had in the small moments he's shown any vulnerabilities here.
Vulnerabilities, to him, are such different things. Vitals. Physical weak points. The way you make something stop moving, not the way you make it cry.
Akane walks off, and he knows they are not safe just because her presence has left. He cannot be sure her presence has left. He is in immediate agreement with Sheryl they need to go, but as they do, he turns his gaze directly, intently to her.
"Do not do that again," Brera says, firm, but the anger already gone from his voice. He fumbles to grasp it, failing. "My purpose is to see to your safety."
Confusion bleeds into his eyes as he gives his reason why. It's a true statement, but it's... incomplete.
Now is not a convenient time to think. Now it's time to go.