2022-07-11 - A Thorn In The Mind ~HILLTOP~
- Cast: Renais Cardiff, Guy Shishioh
- Where: A hilltop outside Paris.
- Date: U.C. 0096 07 11
- Summary: Guy and Renais catch up with each other about how things have been since Renais set out on her own. Things turn to the plight of their friends.
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
It's a balmy midsummer day in Paris. A smattering of dry-brushed clouds are all that mar the blue of the firmament. It's a perfect day to do things outdoors. Walking, shopping, recreating...
It's also a perfect day to be overheard.
And for a pair that's been as deep down the classified-information hole as Renais and Guy are, it's perhaps understandable that discussing any sort of business should be done away from prying eyes and ears... so Renais has led her cousin to a little hill outside Paris, to a bench under a shaded tree, its dedication plate so old as to be nearly unreadable.
"This should do," the cyborg nods, clutching a gently-steaming cup of coffee in her hand as she takes a seat. "We haven't really... talked since I returned, have we?"
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
One of those little skills you let rust away, when you spend most of your time in a space station: The possibility that there's enemies watching.
...is what Guy thought, before two of them came to him in the night. He's still smarting from that, a bit, even if the support of his friends has him mostly on the mend.
As always, maybe it says the most about the state of Guy's personal life that his idea of casualwear is to change his duty-time jacket for a more casual golden one, leaving the 3G Green uniform jumpsuit beneath it. Guy takes in a deep breath at the top of the hill - maybe not a grand mountain, but his keen Superhuman Evoluder senses tell him much even from slight changes in sensation. He has, of course, permitted Renais to advise him on coffee, because all the people he knows with opinions on that are... ...elsewhere, right now.
"Not really," he agrees, moving to take his own seat. "I wasn't sure how much space you'd want, and then one thing led to another..." He waves with his free hand, vaguely indicating the motion of time. "Have you been doing alright?"
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
"I have been... improving," Renais nods, taking a sip of coffee. She's quiet for a long moment, debating what to say next. "... I'm sorry for everything," she concludes at last, looking down at the grass. "I know I shouldn't be. But... it doesn't feel like it was someone else. Like I was possessed. I think back, and... I did those things. I chose to."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Guy nods as well. There's...a lot to unpack here, and he kind of led with the hardest possible question, so he lets her have her time.
"I understand," Guy says, turning to give her his warm smile. "It's a lot more than just saying it wasn't your fault. I do know a bit about that." His free hand rises up, right to his neck, rubbing where Palparepa's damnable Chemical Bolts were stuck in him. That and this are different, but...well, we relate with what we have. "But nobody here blames you, OK?"
>'We won't get pardons, you know.'
He scratches at that spot on his neck and then sips his coffee. "...I," he says, more firmly, feeling it important to put himself into the statement, "don't blame you."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais sighs, and nods. "... I wish it were that easy for myself." She looks up. Five years. She still has trouble wrapping her head around it; they were gone half a decade, and very nearly came home to a ruined Earth. She doesn't betray that introspection yet, instead asking, "Have you heard anything more about the others? I, ah... quit from Chasseur, so I don't have a line to GGG anymore."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
It's a strange thing, isn't it? The thought that the world nearly ended without them...Guy hasn't betrayed much of his own thoughts on the matter.
"I know," he says. "I'm...sorry. I only wish I could've done something sooner."
He looks away, more because apologizing to each other repeatedly won't give either of them any relief. But also, because the next question she asks gives him reason to look off to the sky.
"I heard about that. I was surprised, somehow I had you pegged as someone who'd want to go back to work." Like he did. Like Liger would. And Leo. And Shigeru--you know maybe this is part of the Shishioh Family Complex, actually. He glances to the side to judge her features, murmuring, "But actually, I guess we only knew each other through work, huh?" A chuckle. "Guess it's not the best way to see everything. I should give you my direct contact, huh?"
That...is evasiveness, a bit. He breathes deeply, the smell of coffee and cut grass filling him.
"J came," he says, finally.
"Took an ES Window into Orbit Base. We think it was a plan Taiga cooked up, because he was mostly there to chaperone Mikoto." He gives a hollow chuckle. "So we know they're in good enough shape to go straight for the throat, I guess."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais takes a long drink and purses her lips. "I... don't want to be..." There's an overlong silence. "... what it preyed on. What it twisted for itself." She doesn't elaborate from there.
At the news about J and Mikoto... she curses quietly, closing her eyes. "Of course he did. I'm sure they had to talk him out of trying to fight you. Assurances on assurances..." There's the faintest hint of a smile.
She turns serious once more. "What do you think they meant to accomplish with that?" she asks. "Besides showing you that they strike whenever they want, wherever they want... why..." Why Mikoto? A simple emotional gut-punch like that doesn't seem like Taiga's style, not without a clear purpose...
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Guy thinks he gets her meaning, though. That anger that came spilling from Renais under the influence of Triple Zero...that had to be there to start with. At least the ingredients for it did. "...trying to be the best version of yourself. That's always the goal," he agrees, and nods.
As for J and Mikoto, his face gains a certain wry, stiff smile, a deeply conflicted look. "Doctor Yang had me look over the footage afterward. It was kind of funny, watching J bored out of his mind while Mikoto and I had a small reunion."
He looks to Renais. "What Yang was showing me was that Taiga had made Mikoto carry a knife," he says, simply. "I didn't even notice. Didn't even hear it when she dropped it. ...it was a message. About how weak I am against the people I care about. About how far they could be willing to go. That even Mikoto...can be convinced to do a lot of things she wouldn't, before."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais' stoic expression turns to a deep frown. "... this is an existential fight for them. Everything is aimed toward that one end."
There's another long silence. "...but I don't think she would have used it. She was crying when I couldn't bring you back that night, and I don't doubt she'd be crying if they had to kill you. She... I don't think she could do it herself, no matter what Taiga wants you to think."
"It's a bluff. A message, maybe, but... a bluff. He wants you off-balance. Doubting yourself. They're going to use every trick up their sleeve..." She looks at Guy, brows dropped, deadly serious. "You need to be prepared for that. You can't afford to be weak."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
"She dropped it," Guy says. "And ran right to me. A few moments together...You're right. I don't think she ever could." Exposing just a bit of the doubt they succeeded in driving into him.
And the fact that Taiga has reminded Guy, however much Guy may not be thinking about it, that the Ruin Apostles have the thing he wants most....and just how much he wants it.
But Renais has the clearer head here, and he nods along to it, contemplating the horizon and her words. "They really are," he says. "That was the other thing she was saying. That they'd never be forgiven." A rueful smile. "'Could you stand by, if we were ordered to be executed?'" he says it out loud, the thought that has clearly been bouncing around his head like shrapnel in his veins.
He slumps backward. "Well. I guess that one hit me square," he admits. "I know...you're exactly right. The entire purpose was to throw me off. I think, even more than that...to show that they have the ability to throw me off."
He brings his coffee to his lips. "I'm so used to being the one using the dirty tricks," he laughs. Though 3G's idea of dirty tricks usually involved the fabric of timespace and a set of pliers.
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais chuckles once, mirthlessly. She rolls that question around in her head a moment. "Guy. If there had been a Zonder poised to destroy the planet and all life on it... but the only way to disable it in time, the *only way*, meant the host died... could you do it?"
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
"I almost did," Guy says, eyes cutting to Renais briefly. "In the early days. Before we really understood what we were dealing with, before either we or Mamoru knew how important the other was. My cybernetics flooded me with adrenaline to keep me going after an early Hell and Heaven. Even after we knew there was a person in that core." He shakes his head. "I don't really remember that day, to be honest."
...
"I don't know," he says. "I think I'd run out the clock trusting the Order Room team to come up with a miracle."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
"And that strategy might have worked seven years ago," comes Renais' reply. "But the people who came up with those miracles for you are the ones we're fighting now. They have the minds, and they have G-Stones of their own."
"What I'm saying is... if they get their hands on the Crusher, I guarantee they will have everyone you love in the line of fire. Hesitation could mean the entire planet is reduced to light... you need to be prepared to strike a killing blow, if it comes down to it."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Something bubbles up in him, a strange, conflicting emotion, and he finds that at the end of it, as he processes it all...he's laughing.
"I think Ikumi would have my hide if I told him something like that!" he says, a big smile finding its way to his face. "For disappointing Mamoru, if nothing else."
He sips his coffee, his emotions slowly revealing themselves to him. "Sorry," he says. "I know you're right, that this is the most serious it's ever been. They know where the Crusher is and can absolutely use it. But..." He looks to Renais. "They haven't just been sitting by. There's a new 3G, and they've been working just as hard for just as long or even longer than we ever were."
"I think...I'm going to keep trusting in them." He nods to himself. "Just like I never lost faith in you."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais chuckles a little. "... one thing you can't forget, Guy... the people we're fighting. The real people, the ones that are still in there... they wouldn't want you to hesitate."
She thinks back to the Trinary Solar System... when J fought Pia Decem PIT, with Kaidou strapped to the enemy battleship's core. What he said then...
"I know J wouldn't forgive me if I hesitated," she murmurs, looking somber. "So I won't."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
"Yeah. So I can't let myself get distracted by the things standing in my way." Guy grins again, that big heroic splash across his face, a man who looks like he's planning to wrestle the heavens and win.
"We'll bring them home. No matter what they have to say about it. J, too. It'll be rough. They're going to make it the ugliest fight they can, because they know it's how you fight the power of the G-Stone. And if it looks like it's coming to the worst..."
He raises his cup, toasting to the Orbit Base above.
"I'll get my friends all the time they need to make a miracle."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais closes her eyes and shakes her head. It's like he didn't listen at all. But...
That sort of bullheadedness is another thing that runs in the family. She casts her eyes toward the sky, following Guy's gaze though she can't see the distant station, and lifts her cup as well.
She nods once, making a noise of assent. "To miracles."