2023-05-07: Nagging Worries
- Log: 2023-05-07- Nagging Worries
- Cast: Akane Shinjo, Guy Shishioh
- Where: Orbit Base - Cafeteria
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-05-07
- Summary: Guy and Akane talk about the issues that still face 3G.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
It's once again time for one of Akane's operator in-person intensives -- or more accurately, it was two hours ago. (This one was... theoretically uneventful, though it's revealed that Akane worries a little too much about things that aren't her job; on the other hand, her depth of knowledge is getting impressive.)
She has a second round coming tomorrow, with all that entails; since there's really not a lot going on for her tomorrow, she's decided to make a trip to the cafeteria and get something to eat. She'll be staying the night, after all.
She's about halfway through a plate of curry at the moment; one finger taps impatiently at the table as she tries to dislodge some thought or another from her brain. Whatever it is, though, it's not coming, so she pops open her phone and turns to the ultimate way to vent that kind of energy:
To-witter.
At least now she's doing something with the tapping.
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Tippity tippy tap tap 4d8 psychic damage comin' right up.
A shadow falls ove her, tall and dark and it's Guy, it's just Guy holding a cafeteria tray. "Mind if I sit?" he prompts, and since the answer is presumably yes, sets himself in the chair opposite.
He's got the tonkatsu lunch with the rice ball option. Must be a busy day.
"Seems like something's got you occupied," Guy offers, snapping his chopsticks. "Test still bothering you?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The presence of a taller shadow still gets Akane to twitch and straighten up. She looks up, the tapping ceasing, and... fortunately, it's Guy. "Oh," she says, shaking her head a little bit. "Sure," she says, absently pushing at the fish set meal with a chopstick. "Take a seat."
He opens the door to the possibility of expressing herself, and Akane has to consider that for a few seconds. What she settles for is, "Not exactly? It's more like -- jeez there's a lot going on, hahaha..." Scratching at the back of her head, she says, "Unless something really wild is happening, that thing I mentioned working with Kamuy on isn't a 3G internal problem anymore. We've managed to clear everyone. The station mass logs for Orbit Base are pretty helpful for that."
Hopefully, Akane thinks, this'll be the last she has to bother Guy with it... "Past that, I guess..." Hm. What to even say. "... I feel kinda weird about how well I keep doing during exams? Like -- it feels fake after how bad I had it when we were chasing the Phenex..."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Guy nods. If it's her and Kamuy, that's good enough. "Make sure one of you briefs Chief Akamatsu at some point, OK?" Who even is the head of GGG Blue Intelligence at this point... "Yeah,that was a stroke of genius. Think that was Entouji who first thought of that?"
Ah, but now for the other problem. He gets into his cutlet while she thinks. Hm, feels like she's doing too well... Mnm. Nom. "That's just a sign you've been putting you're all into it, isn't it?" Guy says. "It's normal to improve when you're trying hard."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Ehe, maybe you're right," Akane replies, scooting forward a little. "And yeah -- now that we have that squared away I can tell him what's up. ... honestly, now that it's not gonna have you looking over your shoulder I can tell you what's up, too."
Akane pushes some fish around her plate absently. "With pretty much all of 3G eliminated... someone in my old class or at Sayla's house is involved with the Banshee somehow. They might even be the pilot." Her lips purse as she says, "Could be nothing, but Alexis usually doesn't lie when he dangles this kinda stuff? He just leaves stuff out. It's a short list and pretty much everyone's had an okay alibi for at least one time that thing's shown up, which means I need to start expecting good ones."
Sulkily, she concedes: "This sucks."
... talking about her progress is easier than her frustrations. "Mobile Corps is pretty anxious as desk work goes, too, like... a lot of the time it's nothing? And then when it's not it's reeeeeeeeally not... haha. Being GaoFighGar was kinda easier!"
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Guy hums, and listens while she slowly decompresses some thoughts about all this. Hmmm... "That whole mess, huh," he murmurs, stroking his chin. "Alright. At this point, you probably know more about everything going on than I do, so...just let me know if I can help, alright?"
He does get a conciliatory smile when she sulks about it. "Just keep your head together and things'll turn out OK. It isn't just you anymore, OK? Remember that."
He does chuckle at the talk of her progress. "Mobile Desk never does anything until it's suddenly doing everything, yes," he says. "Wish Mikoto was here, she'd love to train you."
He manages not to visibly look like he just stabbed himself, saying that, instead adding, "Fusion's it's own kind of rough. Both will have you dead asleep at the end, though."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
On the Banshee, Akane has to consider a bit. "Well... it might be the kind of problem you solve with Hell and Heaven or God and Devil," she answers, truthfully. "For when you absolutely need the cockpit block out of something, right?" Her knee bounces a little under the table, and admits, "... Kinda scared the next one'll go worse and not better."
Speaking of problems you solve with Two Powers Into One: Akane offers Guy a very strained-looking smile back at the mention of Mikoto. "Haha, yeah... I have the feeling we'd get along if we could both have our heads on straight," she says, as if there haven't been numerous obstacles between them and that. "Something to look forward to, I guess?" ... It's still hard to conceive of good futures, but Akane's trying her best.
... she has no idea how to get Guy away from this topic, but -- maybe she doesn't need to? It isn't just her. "... How about on your end? Feels like we haven't talked in a minute."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
"Pretty much what it's for," Guy notes. "Maybe it's time to dust off those DoubleMarg designs, I'd feel better with you using something that doesn't require quite as much finesse as," he grimaces faintly, "God and Devil does. But I'm not sure how confident I am in trusting the G Tool to a standard AI. Also Goldy might get mad." Remember that time Goldy showed up at Tsutsujidai and people had to dogpile him to stop him from photonizing half the town? That was a bad day.
Guy, maybe just because the tonkatsu is good, is able to keep a smile on. "Yeah. Soon enough, I hope." Soon enough. Inasmuch as...they just sort of have to hope--
"Not much, I guess," Guy says, with a shrug. "Right now, most of our efforts are on completing the move of Tsutsujidai, securing the G Pliers...Working on alternatives to the Wadatsumi within our defensive preparations...lot of theory stuff on our side, for now." He grimaces. "But it's all urgent, since if the Ruin Apostles figure out what we needed Wadatsumi for..." Ugh. "Plus, the Red Comet's still active, too."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Hmmm... well..." Akane thinks on that. "Yeah, I see what you mean. It seems like everything has to go right and your head has to be in the right place for that." Akane finally actually takes another bite of food instead of just shoving it around pointlessly, thinking about Goldymarg. "Hrm. Tools, huh..." A light bulb goes off.
Akane swipes up on her phone, then side to side a few times. "... yeah, there really is a whole bunch going on. Char's a pretty big escalation... it seems like whenever you guys make headway on that stuff, the Aura of Dawn shows us it's got another..."
Akane realizes, a split second before she does it, that she's stumbling into a pun on accident instead of on purpose, and loses it; her other hand digs into her leg as she forces out, DESPERATELY trying to keep herself capable of saying words, "A-ace up its sleeve --"
Sometimes, life sneaks up on you and throws you an easy one. For a moment, at least, Akane feels a little better. There's a critical level of Getting Yourself where it gets really hard to feel that bad.
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
"That is, admittedly, how basically everything here works," Guy says, with a laugh. He presents the back of his left hand, flickering the G-Stone emblem to make clear the point.
He sees she's thinking, and lets her, settling into his meal for a few moments. He nods; yes, Char sure is an escalation, and it's not one from the Apostles. It's Triple Zero itself.
Then she starts giggling before her joke, and he sips his drink in anticipation.
It does not earn the spit take, but he chuckles anyway, smiling just to see her having fun, even with a moment like this. ...there's no non-downer way to follow up, though, so he just lets the moment linger.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
... Honestly, it's almost better that Akane doesn't get him bad; it's important to be a little cringe every now and again. "... Ppphhhew," Akane breathes. "Okay, you're not the low-effort clunker type... between Akamatsu and Alouette I was kinda hoping, but I guess not everyone's gonna get really got by the same things."
The moment does linger -- but she eventually gets back to it. She remembers to start swiping along her phone, sketching something out. "I have... the basic idea of a solution to the AI problem, though, uh, it might suck. I need some time to refine this. It's not super off-base from the way I'm handling all the knives in the cooking Haro Rikka and I are making, just, you know."
Her smile turns a little grimace-y and she concedes, "Higher stakes than carrots."
Breathing out through her nose, she says, "Oh, uh -- Hana already handled the paperwork for it so you might already know this, but... Rikka and I are going on a road trip for a couple weeks-ish? So no runthroughs, no tests, no medical exams." A pause. "... I don't know if you've got it as bad as Gridman does, but I think you could probably use one too."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Guy smirks. "Shishioh men are tough," he quips, and noms a strip of cutlet.
She's not showing him so he doesn't crane his neck to peek, especially since he'd pretty much have to entirely mount the table in this case. "Yeah?" he prompts. "Any idea's good! Remember to tag Tamara or Usshi if you're stuck, they love working on this. And it'd be good to have more Tool solutions to issues like this around. The G Tool's..." ...He motions, vaguely, with his chopsticks. "A lot."
He nods at the subject change: "Saw that. Sounds like fun! I'll probably spend the time at the Wadatsumi. ...really gotta come up with a name, if that's just going to be an installation now, huh..." Hm.
Having put yet another task on his pile, he blinks over at Akane encouraging him to take a break. "Sounds nice, but..." ...Hm. "...not sure it does, actually. Might go crazy just bumming around on Earth. What am I gonna do, bother the Amamis?" He laughs. "Everyone I know is up here, or..."
His eyes trail toward the window before he drags them back. "If I need a break, I'll just go sit with Galeon for a while. Usually perks me up."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
... He's probably seen a lot more of the world than she has, Akane reflects; of course a vacation isn't going to have the same degree of novelty. He's way older! (... okay, not that way older.)
Akane finishes off the last of her fish. "I mean, we could build an actual installation, right? ... Though that's kinda time and resources we're pretty strapped for right now..." It's a lot to think about -- and frankly, beyond both her remit and her pay grade.
So instead, she thinks a little more about Guy. "... Hrrmm, yeah..." That's all she can really manage. Maybe she shouldn't be trying to over-therapize Guy, anyway, given... well, the situation is complicated top to bottom.
"Maybe I'll join you for one of those a little later. For now I'm actually gonna see if I can squeeze in some bloodwork while I'm here -- I need it before I go on vacation." She gathers her tray, saying, "... Glad for the chance to talk to you, Guy-san." Straightening out her skirt and vest a little bit after standing, she goes to bus her tray and head out.