2022-07-27: Redefine
- Log: 2022-07-27- Redefine
- Cast: Riika Sheder, Akane Shinjo
- Where: Tsutsujidai
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-07-27
- Summary: After a tectonic shift in Tsutsujidai, Riika Sheder checks in -- and asks a few pointed questions of the city's mistress.
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
Riika Sheder was not precisely invited to Tsutsujidai. Kind of the opposite, actually.
This has not stopped her from showing up several times. Originally her investigation was unofficial. She wanted to make sure nobody could step out from Tsutsujidai into vacuum (or, more relevant for ZAFT, bring a Federation unit through).
But then it *showed up* in the PLANTs, and everything became a lot more urgent.
Riika has been back more than once since then. She had a surprisingly professional meeting with Asuka in which nobody shot each other, and she has come again. She can even introduce herself as a PLANT citizen now and she just looks like a regular foreigner instead of a space foreigner. She hasn't told anybody here that ZAFT is more than a militia these days, though.
Her plan today was to show up and check the news. Not today's news, but historical news. She figures Tsutsujidai has a library, but that means she needs to find it; to find it she needs a map; the only map she knows about is at the train station.
There is an old GINN parked a ways out of city limits, hidden from mainline Tsutsujidai by the natural rise and fall of the terrain at the bottom of a PLANT hourglass. She walked the rest of the way in; she's a Coordinator and a military officer, a few miles at a light jog isn't going to be a problem. Riika herself is back at the train station so she can find that map. She is wearing something like what she usually shows up in Tsutsujidai in: black leggings, dark skirt, short-sleeved blouse (today's is green). She has left the little ZAFT pin on, halfway between a Z with a line through the middle and a really stylized PLANT-style hourglass colony.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
In some ways, it's become harder for people to get to Tsutsujidai; the PLANTs are not always the most convenient location in the world, with the things going on. For Riika, though, that actually makes things easier, and now: she's here!
There's no real way for people to stop all the intruders, after all, at this point -- and what's more, it actually damages the thin shreds of normalcy for there not to be people handling docking and departing. All that to say: easy for Riika to get here, and easy for her to work her way around to the library.
It's about midway through her path to the library that Riika is greeted by an old...
... well, someone she knows, at any rate. It's coincidence, but now that we see the size of Tsutsujidai more readily with less fog it's becoming obvious that these coincidences are inevitable because the actual lived space is so gosh darn small. She's heading out of a Starbows with her usual ridiculous iced coffee sludge.
It's easy to spot that she's dressed differently; she's wearing a sleeveless purple corset dress and, over that, a slightly heavy looking labcoat with the faintest lilac tinge to it. Her blue blocker glasses -- usually reserved for her room -- are now an always-on accessory, as are a pair of kitten heels in the same off-white as her coat.
A long sip, and then: "Oh. You again."
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
Even with Tsutsujidai slowly drifting away from the main Junius cluster, it's still a lot closer to the PLANTs than anywhere else - and that means it's also within the ZAFT patrol radius. Riika should know - she's part of those patrols.
Especially now. Given... well, everything.
Riika knew to expect coincidences, both because Tsutsujidai seems to create them regularly and because it's tiny. It's the size of a big neighborhood, not a whole PLANT half. Honestly, it's a surprise that it didn't happen more often in the past.
"Me again," Riika agrees, and only then looks at Akane. She is slightly taken aback by the change in style; it's pretty significant. She didn't think Akane cared enough to make that kind of effort. But if it's not closed up anymore... if it was Alexis' attempt to let her hide...
Riika doesn't have all the answers, but she has enough things pointing at the answers to get at least partway there.
"I suppose it's not a surprise that the PLANTs would like to make sure nobody is attacking a PLANT," Riika says, "even if there are the kaiju here. It isn't as if they're everywhere." She pauses a moment, and then says, "I like the coat."
What? She does.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane's not particularly forthcoming about her circumstances -- in large part because she has no Earthly idea what is happening in her space from moment to moment. All she has that she feels confident in is the way to fully withdraw Tsutsujidai and close it up again.
"Thanks! I spent a lot of time trying to figure out this outfit," she answers. "Soooooooo... are you here on business? I see the pin so I guess it could go either way, from the way you're talking." The idea that the PLANTs would default to defending Tsutsujidai is an interesting thing, and one Akane isn't sure what to make of. (It validates some of her priors but challenges others.)
She actually has a few more questions of her own -- not the least of which are whether that was Riika who showed up in the Coordinator-spec mobile suit a week and change ago -- but those can wait. After all, school's out; she has nothing but time.
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
Even Riika does not know if they would default to defending Tsutsujidai - but they certainly haven't attacked it, and they've given her no orders to find a way to do that. She does know that they have decided that they absolutely cannot allow the *Federation* to put a base on it, but beyond that... are they going to protect it? Or are they going to let it drift away?
For all she knows, they're planning a facility on the other side of the hourglass. It's what she'd do.
"A little," Riika says. "I always wear the pin while I'm here, though. Anyone who asks about it is probably Federation, or you." Nobody in Tsutsujidai (well, except Akane) seemed to think anything of it, but when she met Londo Bell up here... they cared.
This is more awkward than she expected. Riika did want to talk to Akane, but she's not sure she wanted to talk to Akane like this, and she's not sure - now that she's here - that she's comfortable asking the way she had wanted to when she was the most upset in the heat of the moment. Riika is no longer sure *what* to think of Akane. She feels for her, but...
"What about you? Did you become a scientist?" she asks, gesturing at the outfit.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
'Federation, or you.' That's an interesting construction -- and one Akane puts aside for now, because the feelings it raises in her aren't particularly easy to grapple with.
"Hm -- oh, this? I mean, I'm mostly just doing what I always do," Akane says, with a confident smile. "It's just more obvious now, so I figured, why not make it obvious?" Reaching up, she pushes her glasses up slightly; they glint in the light, highlighting the cracks all the more. "I've pretty much always been doing this the way guys like BioNet or Dr. Hell do, so..."
Actually admitting that she's the one behind Tsutsujidai's kaiju problems is technically a step up, even if it was easy to surmise up to this point -- especially for Riika, who got a taste of that herself. "What kind of business are you here on, though?" The question comes out a little sharper than she means.
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
Akane already had basically admitted it to Riika before - well, she'd admitted she made kaiju, she hadn't admitted that she'd made THESE kaiju. Riika had just assumed that part.
She looks more serious for a moment, electing to step a little closer so she can keep things down. "That's not funny," she says. "Nobody should be trying to be like Dr. Hell." She's still a little uncertain about BioNet - but that's the organization Asuka told her about, isn't it? Her lips purse. That's definitely not good.
"Did you give this place to them?" she asks, because she can't quite bring herself to ask the way she really wants to. It sounds impossible. She doesn't immediately answer Akane's question either, but: "I'm not here to hurt anyone. You don't have to worry about me attacking the place."
Another pause. "Your glasses are broken," she says, surprised. "Can you even see like that?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Oh, here it comes -- the point at which Riika makes it even clearer which side she's really on here. No wonder Alexis found her impossible to work with, Akane thinks to herself. "If you don't do it with some style, it's just pathetic," Akane says, with a shrug. She doesn't have a direct answer for what Riika's said, though -- in part because...
... well...
... it'd be confronting to answer. "Huh? No, this is mine," she answers, more pointedly, instead. "Just because it's out here now doesn't mean my city is up for sale. I don't mind if they come through here but that's the rule and as long as everyone sticks to that I think things'll be just fine." There's a bit of a curious effect there -- her tone flattens out a bit, and her sentences run steadily deeper into each other.
The practical question startles her back out of it, though. "Huh? I mean -- yeah? It's just a few cracks. Besides -- it's kind of a look, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
"...because they're broken?" is Riika's response. If her glasses had cracks like that, she wouldn't be able to see; she has no context for looking through regular lenses.
But Akane explains her position. "Oh, I thought you'd be interested in not breaking the world any more than it already is, style or not," Riika says, and then immediately regrets phrasing it that way; her cheeks flush slightly, but it's too late to take it back. It was cruel and she regrets it. The only thing she can do is keep going.
"Look," Riika says, trying to not raise her voice. "I don't know why you're doing what you're doing. With Alexis. It's dangerous and we both know that, so don't tell me it isn't; he's getting something from you, and we both know THAT, so don't tell me he isn't. I'd like to help you. I know you hated Junius Seven - well, so did I. It's why I'm not just a mechanic... or a model builder, I guess. I don't know what else he might have told you, or done for you, and you know what? It's not my business, so I won't ask."
"But with - " She gestures at the PLANT, up at the visible conic sides. "It's a problem, now. I don't want it to be one, but it is. So I need to find out what's going on, and if it's going to ... do anything else. And how to stop it from doing that. You want to be left alone? Great, but I don't think that's an option right now!"
Euphemia_li_Britannia teleports in.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Yeah, exactly," Akane says, and that's all she has to say about her cracked lens, evidently. She continues along from that -- though that's really more because Riika steps right in something. She brings her coffee-drink to her lips, shutting her eyes and taking a long drink. Her lips -- and teeth -- worry at the straw as she does it. It's an uncomfortable silence, at least for her -- which Riika continues breaking.
She's finished before too long, though, and she withdraws her lips from the now-mauled straw and looks Riika dead in the eyes. Her tone has gotten even colder. "I don't want to break the world any more than it already is. I want to move my city back where it belongs and the only way to do that is to kill a Vessel of Light so that's just what's going to happen."
Her usually wide eyes narrow a bit, and her lips shift a bit... but it's hard to tell if she's frustrated or disgusted, and if so, at whom. "This is just how it's going to be. If you want to help you can help me beat Gridman, or an Ultraman, or a Betterman, or an Evoluder, or..."
... that list is getting long, she notices.
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
A Vessel of Light? Riika doesn't know the term, but Akane is happy (or at least willing) to explain a little more. Ultraman, Betterman, Evoluder; she doesn't know a lot about any of them but she knows a little about some. And Gridman, of course.
"And you think that's going to fix it? Just - killing a random one of those? Not whoever brought it here, but just *anyone* who fits the bill?" Riika starts to get a little agitated herself. "I don't know why you think that's going to help, but - "
No, she can see why Akane might think that. If Alexis, who's 'taking care' of Akane, told her. If *that's* what he wants from her. Because Akane said she depended on him, didn't she? So if she didn't know, and she asked him, and *that's* why she thinks it will help her pull away -
It only takes Riika a moment to work through this thought, and the only sign of it is a blink, suddenly. "...I don't know why you asked me," is what she finishes with. "I don't even know what half of those are."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Why wouldn't it? They're not human and they usually can break into psychic ruptures." The latter term sits a little awkwardly on Akane's lips -- someone else's words. "Gridman's probably candidate number one, and the safest bet, but I'm pretty sure one or two of the others would work out just fine!" She at least does a good job of dragging herself back into sounding enthused, to superficial observation -- but there's something sideways about it.
"I asked you because you're allegedly trying to make sure this doesn't get worse. You wanted something you can take action, on so that's the thing you can do that fixes it! Then I'm out of your hair forever!" She's certainly good at being matter-of-fact about it.
Akane's not unobservant; she's definitely noticed that sudden blink. "... Buuuuuuuut I get the feeling you're just gonna get cold feet again, which is really just proving why I've picked the best shot I have in terms of allies." Heroes make common cause with heroes, and Akane...
... well, that's the box she definitely doesn't fit into.
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
Riika is not a Newtype, but you don't need to be a Newtype to be able to read people. And Akane is not, perhaps, as subtle as she thinks about her emotions. There's less enthusiasm here than... well, not than Riika was hoping; she should hope Akane wasn't enthusiastic about killing people! But than one might expect, if she was going to get her heart's desire by doing it.
Does she dare press for more information? "Well, tell me what they are, maybe," Riika says, though she has no interest in killing anyone for Akane. It isn't as if she knows any of these Vessels of Light. She's *seen* them, but that doesn't mean she *knows* them. But even so.
Riika really does want to help Akane get away from Alexis. But this would help nobody. Akane is right: she's not going to help her. "I think you're right, though," Riika says, sounding a little more down. "I don't think it will help. But don't think those people are your allies either. They just want to use you."
The same as Alexis.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"It's pretty simple. Something that cares about human pain and tries to fix it, but isn't human," Akane answers, as far as 'Vessels of Light' goes. "Once you get your head around the category it's pretty easy to figure out whether something qualifies or not."
... maybe not as easy as Akane's pretending it is -- she's been ambushed by the logic, now and then. But it's not hard, and it certainly paints a clear picture. She might as well have said 'angels,' though that has a decidedly different connotation among those who fight kaiju. (Granted, not one Riika might catch -- but again, neither here nor there.)
"If they want to use me and I want to use them, I think that's pretty fair!" Akane points out, at that last point. ... maybe it's the kind of relationship she thinks she deserves, now -- or at least the only one she can get.
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
By some standards (not Riika's own), Riika herself counts. That's a pretty broad category. But it sounds particularly...
"You don't think it's good to care about human pain? Even if you're not one?" Riika shakes her head, just slightly. "I'm sorry. I'm not going to help you kill someone. Definitely not someone like that."
She looks at Akane, then. "You deserve better than that, and I'm sorry that's all you're getting." Riika says. "If you ever want to talk - just talk, and not necessarily about this - you can text me. But in the meantime, I'm going to be going."
She's still going to the library, granted.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"I don't think the situation is going to change based on how I feel about it," Akane answers -- and really, it's an answer to all of that at once. Riika does make an offer, though, and Akane... has to consider it. In the end, though --
"... See you later," is all Akane musters. She wonders how Riika's managing to square this with any other work against the Federation she does -- but that's not really her problem.
... Her problem, right now, is /mostly trying to sip coffee through an absolutely mauled straw. She makes her way away. 'You deserve better,' huh...