2022-11-02: Two Doctors Walk Into A Café
- Cast: Kamille Bidan, Koji Kabuto
- Where: Side 1 - Londenion
- Date: U.C. 0096 11 02
- Summary: They really should have noticed it sooner.
<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.
It has been a stressful month or two, one full of twists and turns, the secrets of the Ra Mari revealed (to some) and the return of Amuro Ray.
And that's if one's full-time job isn't a physician working long days.
It's been enough that Kamille Bidan has finally, forcefully squeezed in time to meet up with his old friend Koji while both are at Londenian, a place of /complicated/ encounters for the Newtype of late that he hopes not to repeat. At least Koji is straightforward, usually.
He's invited Koji to meet up with him for a late night coffee before he takes on an overnight shift, at a small, reliable-looking diner. It's old-fashioned, built to look nostalgic, warm and cozy.
More importantly, it's open 24 hours.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
The escalation of matters both Earthside and above has put more work on Koji's shoulders, and even a man like him, who rises to meet a challenge with a grin on his face, does actually need to stop occasionally and take a break.
Obviously, then, Kamille's invitation to meet on Londenion comes as something of a relief to him, allowing him to set aside his plans and the theories percolating in his mind for a short amount of time and meet an old friend.
Dressed down in a white tee and khaki slacks worn over his red and gold-piped guard suit, Koji waves in greeting as he walks up to Kamille's table. "Doctor Bidan. It's been far too long." He offers Kamille a handshake, though he'll crack up a few seconds in, beaming and pulling his old friend into a hug. "How are you doing? How's Fa? How's... well, everything?"
<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.
"Doctor Kabuto."
Kamille stands to meet Koji and accepts his handshake, and slips into the laugh and hug right on time. Koji is contagious like that.
He's still grinning after, gesturing for Koji to have a seat there with him in the booth. It's a quiet one in the corner, perfect for long talking.
"Fa's almost as busy as I am, and she's not even involved in Londo Bell business right now. Turns out you never run out of work when you're mending broken bones and administering flu vaccines. I'm, everything is..."
He gestures. "Everything. It's everything. How about you? How are things going with you and Sayaka?"
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji takes a seat, smiling easily in the presence of his old friend. "Yeah, Sayaka and I aren't in that line of work, but we're at the forefront of Photon Power research and application and that requires constant attention, especially with the new things we discover every day."
"Everything sure is 'everything', huh?" He chuckles wryly. "Starting to run up against that sensation myself. Sayaka and I are real busy, but we're doing okay." So... much the same as the last ten years, huh.
"D'you know what happens to be good at this place?" He pulls up the menu on the booth's digital interface.
<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.
"Honestly, I usually just get toast and eggs before a long shift because I want something easy on the stomach. Kind of hard to mess that up." Kamille shrugs. This is his way of saying 'I have no idea.'
He rests his elbows on the table and leans his chin on his folded hands. "I'm glad you're doing okay. I, uh. Hmm. I've somehow acquired a couple of Newtype acolytes who see me as some kind of mentor and that's terrifying? How did that even happen?" He chuckles, a little harshly.
"They're nice and polite, too. Nothing like us at all."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"I guess that's kind of what happens when we're getting old enough that there's a meaningful gap between us and the kids who are just now coming into the age where we were when we were getting thrust into our own messes, and they've got their own messes to deal with. They're gonna cross our paths just by chance, I guess, and seeing someone who's survived similar situations to them is important to them."
He chuckles. "The politeness is weird, huh? It's like, I don't know, get mad! Yell! Stand up for yourself! ... Then again, I feel like one of the kids that's moved into my orbit is afraid of losing control in that way and that's what the politeness is for. He's an escaped BioNet project, so..." He lets that speak for itself, grimacing, but moving on. "So I guess it's some of the pilots in Londo Bell you've taken under your wing?"
<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.
Kamille groans. "Oh, don't say old! I know we're old but don't say it!" He buries his face in his hands for a second, though he's still smiling. And then the smile fades a little when Koji mentions BioNet experiments. He looks up and he blinks. "You wouldn't happen to mean Liam, would you?" he asks, speaking in a low voice just in case. /Just in case./
"Not...not all of them are Londo Bell?" he admits, glancing to the side. "Exactly? But I want what's best for them, and that includes them choosing their own path. They're not with Sleeves or ZAFT or anything," he adds hastily. "I just kind of...I don't want to be the kind of adult who uses kids caught up in this crap for their own agenda. Enough of /those/ out there still."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji shrugs. "If my experimentation with Photon Power discovers a way to halt the facts of the incontrivertible advance of time, then... I'll tell absolutely no-one and bury that truth." He chuckles. "We're supposed to grow up at some point, after all, right?"
"Yeah, Liam, that's him. Good kid. I kinda feel a little out of my depth talking to him sometimes, but, thankfully, I can always point him at Tetsuya for the parts I flounder over. You've met him too?"
He leaves the topic of the Newtypes flocking to Kamille for the moment, picking out an order of cheese on toast and a latte on the menu.
<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.
"He is a good kid," Kamille agrees. "It's interesting seeing someone look up to you as an authority when he's like a head taller. I ran into him over at NERV."
His eyes narrow. "I hate that they're still doing that to kids, Koji," he adds with a sudden, sharp intensity. "I hate what this world does to them. Ugh, you've heard me rant about this before." With that he orders toast, eggs, and coffee. Predictably.
"Anyway, I'm sure you're doing great as an adult in his life. You're so positive, you know? And I know full well we're both grown-up. I just have those hang-ups about like-not wanting to end up like..." He trails off, gestures.
And the unspoken name brings up another one.
"Also. I met Full Frontal. Spoke with him."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Yeah. I hate it too. If I could find every BioNet facility in the Earth Sphere I'd make sure they all got special attention from Mazinger Z." He glowers wrathfully. "The problem of course is the political refuge they take. Kinda hard to do that when Britannia will get on the OCU's case about landing Z on some of their 'legitimate' warehouses."
That, and it's not just BioNet doing this to kids, but that's a political complication in its own right. "I do my best to keep moving forward, yeah. A lot of people in the world need that kind of support, I just... try to keep my friends upright." He smiles faintly.
Then Kamille mentions Full Frontal. "You met the leader of the Sleeves in person?" He blinks. "... Damn."
<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.
"You're great at that," Kamille insists. "I'm glad they-we-have you. Believe me, if you ever did decide to land Mazinger on a BioNet base I'd be right behind you with the Mark II, but in the meantime I think the best thing we can do for them is just give them a good force in their lives to counteract everything else. You know, like Guy was for us."
And speaking of mentors.
"It was like he was seeking me out. No, not me. But he found me." He taps the side of his head. "I thought all that talk about him being the second coming of Char was garbage propaganda. Had to be, right? And now...he felt similar. But the voice was different, the body, the everything. I think I know, logically, that can't be him. I don't even want it to be him! I want him to be done with it all. Free of everything, not even caught up in the Oath Over Omega like poor Amuro." He bites his thumb as his coffee arrives.
"On the other hand, it would be just like him to come back like that. And it was like...he knew me. From /back then/."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Yeah, you're right. Pay the good luck we got in the people around us then forward now." He nods firmly. "That kind of kindness is still something sorely needed, after all."
Kamille describes his (confrontation?) experience with Full Frontal, and Koji's frown deepens. "Similar, but not alike, with a number of physical differences, but... Yeah, it would be just like him to haunt us all like that." He rolls his eyes. "So, what's your intuition? Is it him, is it not him? Or... I dunno. Someone in-between?"
<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.
Kamille sips his coffee, halfheartedly breaks the yolk of his eggs onto his toast, and sighs.
"My intuition gets all scrambled when emotions are involved. They're all tied together. I certainly found myself talking to him like he was the real thing. On the other hand, I did declare aloud that if Char came back after Amuro, I'd punch him to the ground. And I didn't take a swing at Frontal." He laughs a short, bitter chuckle. "For whatever that's worth. I probably should have either way. Do you think it's possible it could be him and not-him? After all, they both vanished in a miracle. You know, what they call a miracle, anyway."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji sighs, leaning back in the booth. "It's... If I hadn't spent as much time around you and Amuro as I had, I would have said it was impossible, but..." He gestures vaguely Earthward. "What happened three years ago was 'impossible' too. Photon Power is 'impossible'. The boundaries of science being pushed by the study of Newtypes and psychic phenomena are barely explored, and very difficult to pursue given how hard Quantum Brainwave studies are pushed down on. There's got to be someone who has a better grasp on it than either of us, but..." Unspoken: Who on Earth or in space would that even be?
"My conclusion: Uh. He could be, I guess. Not very scientific." He chuckles.
<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.
"Guy coming back the same age as he left was impossible, right? I'm sure someone back in the day would have said humanity and the Zentraedi living side-by-side was 'impossible.' Of course," Kamille adds, "those are all positive 'miracles.' I guess I like the 'maybe, maybe not' answer. Either way, it lets me get mad at him and myself for letting him into my head like that. Figuratively." In other words, not too much Newtype Weirdness as far as Kamille could tell.
"He didn't seem to know what had happened to Amuro either, just that he'd returned. And I didn't warn him."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Well... Relativistic travel, you know? The flow of time gets weird the closer to the speed of light you get, and from what Guy described of how he got back in the first place to me... It's as close a match as I can think of."
"'Course, everything about 3G is pushing the boundaries of science at all times." He chuckles. "Weird alien tech, after all!" It's a fond expression, though. "If anyone were gonna work with it, I'm glad it's them."
"... That last one isn't particularly noteworthy, probably. The Sleeves didn't get wiped out at Torrington, right? Intelligence probably got back to him."
<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.
"Yeah, most likely," Kamille nods. "I...ugh, I'm tired of thinking about him."
This is 100 percent something Koji used to hear Kamille say about Quattro, back in the day.
"Thanks for letting me unload about that, anyway. I feel better now that I've talked to /someone/ about it. He's not Char and I kick his ass next time I see him for lying, or he's Char and I kick his ass next time for being Char. There, done deal."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Save a few swings for me." He nods firmly. "You don't deserve that kind of shit coming back. Brocken rearing his head again is bad enough."
Not that it wasn't fun to go up against the Count again after all this time.
"So. Other than a surprise meeting with the leader of the Sleeves, finding out Amuro's back under the thrall of the Oath Over Omega... You holding up okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.
"Ugh, Brocken. He's on the list too," Kamille declares, as if he even has to.
"I, uh. I think so? That fight where Amuro showed up did a number on my psyche, but I recovered faster than I thought I would. At least with Amuro we know there's a chance we can help him, since they did so for at least one former Conqueror King. What about you? I know you always seem like you bounce back from things right away, but everything's ramping up for everyone, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Yeah, we know there's a way to help Amuro. The hard part is gonna be making sure he can't get away from us delivering it." He nods.
"There's a couple things bothering me. Tsutsujidai, mostly, but... They're mostly problems to be solved. I'm good at that." Mostly he solved problems by Rocket Punching them, back in the day, but still. "Or, I guess, I discovered getting my degree that I like having puzzles to poke at."
"So, I'm doing okay. This was good to do, though, a nice chance to take a break from things and come at them fresh." He smiles warmly. "We should make a habit of it, when we can."
<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.
"Amuro's strong-willed, but so is /literally everyone in GGG,/ and at least one of them was 'purified.'" Kamille lets himself smile again, finally. "We won't give up on him, no matter how stubborn he gets."
He nods at recognition of Tsutsujidai; seems he's poking his nose in a lot of places lately. "Seems to me you just like finding new kinds of challenges to face. I'm glad, though. Getting doctorates didn't make us boring." He laughs, this time a lot more genuine.
"Yeah, we should! I have my shift soon, so thanks for the good talk; it unloads some stress before 12 hours of medbay. You take care, okay? And Fa said to say hello to Sayaka for her!"
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji laughs along with Kamille. "I think if I ever got called 'boring' I'd die of embarrassment, y'know? What a horrible fate to have." He shudders melodramatically, still grinning.
"Sayaka and Jun say hi right back, of course. We'll have to arrange a proper meetup one of these days, too." He moves to finish up his meal. "Hey, this isn't half bad. Not a patch on Boss Ramen, of course, but, then, what is?"