2023-05-27: Playing Games
- Log: 2023-05-27- Playing Games
- Cast: Dr. Murasame, Martha Vist Carbine (both as played by Leina Ashta), Akane Shinjo
- Where: Vist Foundation Atmospheric Supercarrier "Garuda"
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-05-27
- Summary: Aumerei and Dr. Murasame talk about next steps; Akane uses a trick known to many a child from a home where communication comes at a premium: go parent shopping. She cuts a deal, and thinks she came out ahead...
<Pose Tracker> Aumerei has posed.
Aumerei's gut is still whirling. Her recent revelation about Alexis feels, to put it simply, horrible. So this is why they think being in this spot is still a win for them, she thinks to herself. ... that's fine, though.
She's not alone. So she can hold on longer. She has to be a stronger person than Alexis.
With that in mind, she resolves to move forward -- no matter what.
She needs space to move. The Garuda's security is thin -- but seems to have abruptly tightened for its thinness. ... She needs the security to be thinner, then. Force another reassessment of who goes where.
She needs to get word to someone that things aren't all right. She needs a place to return home to. And... she needs to give Banagher the best chance she can give him to catch Leina.
The first step to that is thinning out the security, regardless, which means --
She arrives in Dr. Murasame's office, her expression turning into that disengaged smile she often wears. "So! I'd say our first live fire test of Treasure Chest worked really well. Honestly she's more under control than your subject," she fires off, without even waiting for a 'hello.' "I wanna talk next subjects."
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
"It's customary to knock, first." He says more brusquely than usual, as he finishes reading over the hard reports by security of the recent infiltration, and the reports from his assistant on the data sticks.
He's still not happy about that. Corpse disposal is still underway for their 'overdose' victim. Tox reports still being run, and the like. He'd like to fully understand #258-1A's methods in case she shows back up in his life.
Closing the reports in front of him, he folds his hands on his desk, and looks Akane square in the eye with his glasses, "You're trying to provoke me. It isn't going to work. You've read her file, and understand that Puru-1's state is far more complicated than that of 'Treasure Chest.'"
He then notes, "That does offer me an intriguing thought, given our methods of conditioning and control. Perhaps we ought to perform tests on her own synergy with the phenomena within the RX-0 Unit-02’s Psycoframe." He says this all without any visible change of expression.
"Now that she has memories that will allow the two to interface, I hypothesize that she'd offer twenty percent of Puru-1's current efficacy in battle."
Leaning forward subtly, his glasses glint every so subtly.
"Would you care to set a friendly wager on how well your control over her will keep, inside its cockpit?"
<Pose Tracker> Aumerei has posed.
Aumerei can't quite keep herself from making a face at that. Murasame already knows she sees Rikka's current state as 'trash condition,' despite being able to talk about it under the parameters. Of course she doesn't want to make it worse.
"Well, like, first order of business, I'm just saying. My subject didn't have an unforeseen psycommu leak to her brother. Clean up your own room before you get after me about mine." She's sounding... more than a little sulky -- and indeed, she pulls out her phone.
"Anyway, your idea is fine," she says. She already knows Rikka's strong enough to get past anything that doesn't slot into her existing values; she survived whatever that second test was, after all. "But I need her first."
A moment passes. "I'm going to get Marusan. Might as well get you the whole list of subjects you're looking for, right? Like -- people talk. I give it another day tops before she hears about me and Treasure Chest. The window on me fulfilling my end of the bargain is closing. So here's the deal? Let's make it really straightforward."
"I'm going to text Marusan to meet up with me and Treasure Chest in Banadiya for lunch. She'll come." Akane shoves her other hand in her pocket. "You take as much time as you need to set up that 'friendly wager' while we're out. I need an eight person security detail in case Gridman's buddies -- the guys in suits? -- show up. There's four of them, so I figure two-v-one will work."
Wryly, she adds, "It's insurance we'll come back, too. I'm not dumb. Anyway, after we give Marusan and Alouette a little onboarding time, I'm game for that."
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
"A Psycommu leak. Is that your 'expert' theory on what happened there?" Murasame's tone isn't quite accusatory in the moment, it is more a question perhaps, to see if something did happen, Akane might just hang herself. "Note before you answer that her own brother was deceived before during extensive contact at close proximity."
Doctor Murasame gives Akane a prolonged look, "A Psycommu leak." He mutters, disdainfully.
Akane says she needs her first, "If this is a request to requisition rope and handcuffs for your dalliances with our test subject, it is denied." He tells her outright, before actually listening to her request, and now he's glaring at her.
"You'll do no such thing right now. We'll retrieve her by other means once Mrs. Carbine has finished sealing the box."
There's a prolonged pause, "Ramo Marusa is affiliated with the Yumi Foundation. And I don't doubt that Doctor Deikun has already informed her of current events. Contacting her would only result in an ambush being set up to retrieve the two of you. 'Eight person Security Detail'. The very idea..."
"Thanks to your little 'show', undoubtedly they've deduced a list of potential targets for acquisition. I won't rely on the idea that they are just as careless as you have been with information."
Still, he hasn't raised his voice, it's almost paternalistic, just this idea that he is forbidding her, as a 'father' might.
"The answer, is no."
<Pose Tracker> Aumerei has posed.
Akane turns a little pink at the first accusation. "Well it isn't now," she fires back.
"You called her a 'conduit for the Banshee's will,' but she was way more animated than when I saw her with 3G," Aumerei counters. "You also loaded her up with a lot more psychoframe, and on top of that, two other psychoframe units in her squad. That's before I get into how much bigger a battlefield this was."
Her eyes narrow a little. "HADES leakage is a possibility, too. I didn't crack half on the psycommu aperture because Puru-1 was throwing such a big tantrum, but it happened when Treasure Chest grabbed the Double Zeta. If it went from Puru-1 to Treasure Chest to Judau through the HADES, that'd check out." Another pause, as she seems to think her way through something.
"Oh, come on," she mutters. "Check her brainwave readings. Again, I was planning around this? I know how important they are to each other, it's why I threw Treasure Chest at the Double Zeta. But check out her aggression. Instead of spiking when I threw out my kill command, it drops."
"Leina didn't want to see Judau get hurt, and he picked that up."
Having offered her hypothesis, she moves back to the other topic. "Hmmm. I do get it. I do get it." Still... She flicks her finger across her phone screen absently.
She seizes on something, though. "After Martha seals the box? You're not serious. After Martha seals the box she's going to feed you to 3G. She already offered to give Puru-1, Treasure Chest, and me back to the Shuffle Alliance, but what's gonna stop NERV from folding in on her? The Federal Assembly, with its big leadership shakeup, that she just inconvenienced by plopping this thing on top of their offices?"
No one here has any loyalty to anyone else, she reminds herself. Alexis is only here for her. Murasame is only here for himself. Martha is only here for herself. Alberto... is too mired in his family's karma to do anything else.
"You have one chance to secure a Repli-Compoid test subject with the full resources of the Vist Foundation and it's in this tiny window between what just happened and Sayla finishing up with Char and remembering she has to tell the Yumi Foundation about this crap." It's all very matter-of-fact. Blase, even.
"Besides. I like Alouette a lot. Like, 'I was gonna suck face with her the last time I had her under' like." She does seem to have an addiction to getting involved with her test subjects, huh. "Even if Puru-1's a writeoff I'm not gonna ditch her."
"Besides," and here Aumerei can't quite keep 'Akane' from leaking in. "... if we screw Martha and ditch, I'm gonna be kinda lonely."
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
"Good." Is Doctor Murasame's simple response to her blushing fluster. Still, Akane offers her own theories on why that happened, and he does pause to actually consider it.
"The NT-D within a full Psycoframe unit is poorly understood, as no long term studies have yet to be conducted. Puru-1 is breaking new ground, so to speak. Her, paramour, the Key to the Box, is the only other individual with which those studies could have been performed, and he was not under our control at the time."
He then gives Akane a long look, "There is also the element of the Xeno-Connect, modular element which if you've read the technical specifications was based on the prior generation n_i_t_r_o system. I understand why it would appear as if she 'lost control', but the fact of the matter is that her control is within acceptable parameters given the novelty of this equipment."
Without missing a beat, he continues "She completed her mission, and her combat efficacy reached new records. Her growing resistance to the NT-D is a matter of concern, but it has minimal effect on her conditioning."
He does arch an eyebrow, "I do understand why our junior assistant might be alarmed. Obviously you have minimal experience dealing with the unpredictable nature of this field. Small wonder you lost control of every single subject of your prior experiment when you deployed that Kaiju."
Still, Akane does offer something troubling, the contradictory nature of the kill command and her aggression dropping, "Hmm. You say that, but she had little problem killing that Cyber-Newtype she regarded as a little sister." A thin smile, "One Callisto Diana, or should I call her by her real designation... Puru Two?"
He lets that hang for a moment.
"Further testing may be required. It is just as likely that the Psycoframe phenomena was acting as Elpeo Puru would have in life. You do realize she broke free of her rudimentary conditioning under Glemy Toto during a battle with one Judau Ashta? And yet Puru-1's holds strong."
When Akane mentions how Martha is going to feed him to 3G, there's not even the smallest amount of surprise on his features.
"Ah. You actually believe that Mrs. Carbine was being sincere? An understandable misconception. The truth is that Puru-1 has been acting as saboteur for some time, on her orders."
His expression tugs with faint mirth, on the corners of his lips, "She has greater leverage, and more trump cards than you think. And even if all of them were found and... 'disarmed' so to speak..."
Now his smile is more broad,
"Tell me Aumerei, how many 'off the books' weapons of Mass Destruction do you think the Federation has? Do you truly think a weapon like GENESIS threatened them in any meaningful way?"
A beat.
"What do you suppose a woman like her will actually do, if they persist in this folly of trying to hold her to account?"
After letting that settle in, he draws himself back up, offering instead something else.
“Now then, as your request has been denied, let us concentrate on testing you can perform on site. Would you like to... how did you describe it, 'suck face' with our Puru-1? Let us call it an integrity test so to speak, as to the strength of her conditioning. I daresay there is nothing she wouldn't do when commanded if it holds intact.."
<Pose Tracker> Aumerei has posed.
"The novelty of the experiment -- that's the problem," Akane points out. "There are too many variables in play here." The mention of killing another subject -- a 'Puru Two' -- makes her heart sink a little, though.
A pause, before she ultimately assents, "... yeah. More testing is required. Either way, though, this is where we're at now."
Murasame walks her through the hopelessness of the situation -- the myriad options at Martha's disposal thanks to Puru-1. She has to think about that. "Well, that would get the Photon Power Labs and the Kobayashis out of consideration," she has to agree. "Orbit Base you'd have to have fooled the mass sensor, and that's not easy, but not impossible." She chews on that a little. "Window's kind of tight though."
Still... she can play this game, too. "Hmmm. Burn a guy who's already done all of his hard work or fire a superweapon?" She has to think about that for only a second, but... she remembers throwing her brother out on the street for his failures. "She's going to burn you, my guy. You are not worth playing an ace over."
He floats onsite testing, and Aumerei... does have to think about it. "Hmmm. She is hot?" she has to concede. "Hair's kind of short for my tastes, though, and honestly her regimen kinda ruined her butt. There is a reason I insisted on food for Treasure Chest that's mostly just a tub of fat you dip stuff in." She frowns, though. "Still, if you want to run that kind of test we're back at Marusan again. Ako's butt is kind of bony too. She'd be into that."
Her expression lights up. "You know, the methods where I can do a great job are different -- but Alexis is right there. He already dropped CK-11 on Nouvelle Tokyo for Martha, I'm sure he'd be willing to give me CK-12 again. Think of what I could do with CK-12 and you guys's gear, and no Gridman in sight."
Aumerei walks over to the intercom; a thin fog begins to surround her hand, and a black tendril erupts from the wall, encircling her hand. She looks back at Murasame.
"Hmm. Hello? This thing is on, right? I'm getting Martha's room? Hi, it's Aumerei. I'm offering to get you guys another pilot after last night's mess and Dr. Murasame's stonewalling me." A beat. "He also seems to think retaining his services is worth at least setting off another Cyclops and ruining Emperor Charles's good investment in NERV, so there's that."
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
"You're correct, but we won't be needing her in a combat capacity much longer." Doctor Murasame says nothing about what capacity she'll be in after that, whether it is released or otherwise.
He tries not to show any sign of triumph as it sinks into Akane that Callisto Diana is dead. There's an uncertainty factor, a small window where she could have ejected, but did she?
Either way, it's believable, and Akane has no way to confirm it right now.
Still Akane walks through all the steps on sabotage that could have potentially taken place, again his smile doesn't change, but ultimately he doesn't say anything.
"Just for me? Hardly. But these types which you consorted with-" He gives her a long staredown at this, "-Mrs. Vist Carbine understands that for many of them, no amount of concessions will be enough. Thus, she would prefer not to deal at all, and get ahead of the problem, so to speak."
As Akane goes through her tastes, there is a deep sigh from the man, as if he were indulging the whims of a teenager, but it is hypocrisy.
There is a reason why all of the female lab assistants here wear glasses and have short brown hair.
He is about to respond, when she walks over to an intercom and presses it. He is not the type of man to act rashly, so he doesn't try to stop her. Physical force has never been his way.
Even he can't stop feeling a spike of anxiety in this moment though.
Akane brings her request forth, and...
"Why if it isn't Akane Shinjo, our Aumerei, the Goddess of Tsutsujidai. I was delighted by your performance at our last combat mission." She clucks her tongue repeatedly at her, "My, are you whistleblowing on top researcher within his own office? Delightfully bold. I don't remember issuing any further requests for personnel. In fact, I don't understand the need for further acquisitions at all at this time."
It does hang in the air, "One Cyclops, and a feud with Charles, hmmm? What kind of games are the two of you playing down there to suggest such things? Perhaps the two of us should discuss this further, later in my office. Let's say... seven? Dress smart, a labcoat would be gauche."
She cuts it off, Doctor Murasame says not a word.
"That was ill done." He tells her after taking a moment to recompose, "A childish play." Still, he is a touch ruffled, and he can't keep it entirely off his face. If he gives in however, it means she'll keep doing this. He's certain he can deescalate Martha from whatever Akane tells her. She certainly knows how his manipulations work.
"Your request is denied unless Alexis agrees to pick her up himself... and that is final."
<Pose Tracker> Aumerei has posed.
"That's true! Probably." She makes a note of 'in a combat capacity.' She hopes it means 'because she'll be released,' but at the same time... well, there are options. It's difficult to know what cards Murasame is or isn't willing to play.
"I'll make my argument later," Akane replies to Martha, when the lack of need for further acquisitions comes up. And when she says they ought to discuss this later, in her office...
"Sure thing!" She sounds absolutely delighted by that. "I'll have to borrow some slacks and a jacket. I did bring the shirt, at least!" Fortunately, there are plenty of dead Vist personnel whose rooms she can raid, and she's not particularly worried about being morbid.
For a girl who likes to sit in graveyards at sunset in summer, that might even be a draw.
Walking over to the door, Aumerei says, "Yeah, but now that's your problem. And I wouldn't count on that. Who knows what'll happen at a meeting with a higher report than you!" She's very confident as she trots over to the door. "I'm going to go clean up. You wouldn't happen to know which dead personnel were under five feet tall, would you? Save me a lot of trouble~"
Whether she gets an answer or not, she walks out. "See you at seven~"
One way or another, she does find a suit that fits. She's had to make a few concessions; she'd prefer to match Rikka in a three-piece, but she's stuck with no vest.
She is of course very punctual.
"So," she starts, expression flat. "Where should we start? The Cyclops thing? Why I think we need Ramo Marusa on this ship now and not later? Dr. Murasame being just a little too eager to see me play tonsil hockey with Puru-1."
A beat.
"I can put my glasses on her if it'd help," she adds, pleasantly.
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
~*Dr. Murasame will remember that.*~
"None of them, as I recall." Is the only answer that Akane gets. At this point, it is best not to give her more ammunition.
...---...
"Akane Shinjo. What a delight that we finally meet. Can I offer you a drink? Sake perhaps?" Of course, Martha is Britannian, Neo-Colony stock, so there is always that touch of racism built in, even if it's not malicious just in perhaps, the stereotype of someone from the OCU.
Still she listens as Akane talks business, she moves over to the drink cabinet and pours herself a whiskey, taking a sip, as she pivots, one hip resting against the nearby counter, a hand atop it.
She weighs what she has to say and...
"Akane. May I call you Akane? Honestly I'm more interested in you than hearing about the games that old weasel plays. Surely he can't think he's outplaying me." She takes a sip from her drink, "At Anaheim, we're used to dealing with theft of proprietary material. Do you think we'd tolerate such blatant headhunting, from right under our noses?"
She actually laughs once, "Please." And she trails her finger across the wood, smiling at her, "Honestly, I'd rather deal with a vivacious young woman like yourself than talk about the man's 'type' and his affairs with the office staff."
Leaning again, this time perpendicular to her, "I appreciate someone who can reject the logic of such men." And with a smile, she asks, "How would you like to come work for me directly?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Hmmm..." Akane decides to let that one skate. "Actually, I'm not much of a drinker. Vending machine chuhai kind of ruined the experience. Do you have any tomato juice? Honestly, anything that isn't carbonated is fine, though."
She nods to Martha, agreeing, "Akane's fine. I don't mind being 'Aumerei' in front of him, but," a vague gesture with a hand, "playing along is kind of annoying. All things being equal I'd prefer if it was 'Akane and Rikka,' you know?"
She takes stock of the room for a few moments. It's a little much, but not in a way she entirely minds. She's spent a lot of time at Villa Mass, after all.
Then she makes an offer. Akane nods. "I like you more than I like him, too, Mrs. Vist-Carbine." She takes a step forward, and then receives... an offer.
"I'm interested, but I have a few conditions? One is that I get to go pick up a friend of mine, with Rikka. Dr. Murasame's over-paranoid and thinks I'll ditch if I get the chance, but the window's bigger than he thinks it is, and..." ... should she give Martha this one?
... she kind of has to. "I get kinda lonely doing this stuff. I nearly dragged her into this stuff when it was the Aura of Dawn, this is small time stuff in comparison."
A beat passes. Her fingers drum against a table. "Between that and if you could pull me and Rikka out of lab rat status, I'd be pretty open to a deal!" A beat. "... Alouette's probably too much to ask for, huh."
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
"Hmm, I think I had someone around for the OAC Ambassador... the man did enjoy his Bloody Marys." It takes some shuffling around, but eventually Akane is poured a drink of chilled tomato juice. "I understand. After all you were a Goddess! It must feel so degrading to be have something you enjoy twisted into something so objectifying."
She hands her the glass.
"I could use an ex-Goddess in my employ." She tells her with just this, flash of a smile, which holds so many implications, and perhaps none of them good ones.
Akane says she's interested, "Wonderful!" She interjects, but then listens to her conditions, "Hm hm hm. Well, can you blame the man for thinking that when you yourself are disliking your status as 'labrat'. Honestly? I'd ditch myself if I were in your position."
A sip of her drink, she tips the glass back and forth in mid-air after a time, "I'll allow your first condition. Strict time limits, and a reasonable security detail." She stops the movement of the glass.
"As for your second, I'm going to have to ask you to endure it a little longer." She flashes a smile her way, "Just until the box is sealed for good. If you'd like to hurry that along, I can give you unlimited access to our 'Key' in his cell."
A fingertip traces the counter, "And then an internship, as our newest Junior Executive at Anaheim. I can offer you real power Akane. The kind of power that can actually influence this world. 3G is just such a waste of your talents."
There's this flash of recognition in her eyes, "You understand right? They're just so, short sighted in the way they think. They'll never offer you the kind of world you're truly looking for, only the same one."
There’s a momentary abstraction within her eyes.
"Over, and over again."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane doesn't mind waiting a little while. When she gets tomato juice -- something she's genuinely wanted since she got onto the ship -- she seems surprisingly level. She takes a long sip. "Oooh, it's good," she remarks. "This isn't my favorite, but it's an easy number two."
"There are... interesting opportunities here," Akane points out, at the mention that Martha would ditch in her position. "Plus, you know, Alexis would probably pick me right back up and dump me back here!" She waves it off, saying, "Weak option spread. You know how it is."
The first condition makes Akane's eyes widen a little. "Thank you, ma'am. I won't let you down. I know I'm kinda going into business for myself with that, but..." Her lips purse a bit. "Whatever else is true, like -- Marusan isn't actually my first choice on this one? If I were picking and choosing someone to split the load of this garbage with Rikka, it'd probably be Yonezawa-kun." ... all things being equal, she would feed 'a boy who looks at her kind of funny' to Murasame before 'one of her better friends.'
"Deal," Akane agrees. "I'd also like access to him and Alouette in Assessment Room C. I'm worried about Dr. Murasame trying some kind of side hustle with him, so being able to negotiate with him where he can't hear it will make things a little easier. As for Alouette..." Hmm. Well, she's already mentioned this. "... well, she's with 3G, right? I think she's a screamer~."
It's the final piece of the puzzle, though, that...
... authority. Real authority in the real world. The authority to turn the cruelty Martha Vist Carbine wants to visit on this world into something beautiful.
Does 'power' translate into 'hope'?
Akane thinks about it very, very hard.
She knows the answer in her heart, though. She's had absolute authority before. This is a different sort -- a much more tempting sort, but...
... even a goddess couldn't keep the world from being so cruel. A human, on the other hand -- an imperfect human, with a kaiju's heart and the growing will to love...
"... Yeah, I can take that deal," she agrees, inclining her head. Light glints off her cracked glasses.
Something doesn't have to be 'true' to change the world.
It doesn't even have to be 'honest.'
"Eight in a shuttle, and the Mu Gundam for Rikka and me. Lock the weapons to a shuttle signal, I know better than to ask for free fire from this negotiating position," she says, on the security detail. "We need the numbers advantage if Gridman's guys in suits have been stalking us here. Normally that'd be more like 20, but..." Her own expression flattens a little, as she says, "If Rikka is part of the security perimeter, they'll lose their nerve."
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
"Ha. I'll have to strive for Number One in the future."
She never accepts anything less. "Would he now?" She smiles at Akane, "Alexis seems disinclined towards that level of direct intervention. Otherwise, would we have needed to wait that long to 'acquire' the two of you, hmmm?"
And indeed that at least implies something about how they picked up Puru-1.
"Hm hm hm. My, feeding a boy to the wolves before one of your better 'girl' friends." A dark chuckle, "Yes I think you and I will get along just fine."
She asks for something more and, "Certainly, standard security protocols. I'll give you Puru-1 as well for that." Or rather, give Murasame it sounds. While she favors Akane, it would be inconvenient if he were to suddenly turn up dead.
"You have to understand us taking extra precautions." Step, step towards her, a hand to the bottom of Akane's chin, "What with the ex-REA agent, Yuliana Kafim finding her way aboard, during the battle."
She looks Akane in the eyes, there is a small tilt of her head, as if she were regarding her deep within them, "She was here to free all of you, you know. Took Dr. Murasame hostage within his own office, but he was able to 'persuade' her to leave."
She whispers quietly, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that now, would you? If you arranged it, I would tell you, between you and me, 'Well done' but to pick more reliable individuals in the future."
Her hand slips away from Akane's chin, and she steps away from her. "Deal, but it won't just be the weapons. It will be keyed to the reactor, including auxiliary life support. Laser comm link at all times, from multiple angles."
She looks over her shoulder, smiling as a single eye darts across Akane's face, "See? A fruitful negotiation. I'm a woman who can make certain you get what you need, always."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
At the mention of Alexis being disinclined toward that kind of direct intervention, Akane blinks once -- twice -- thrice. "That's actually a really good point. I'm guessing you only told me that now because I probably could have gotten more out of you if I thought that one through."
Rubbing at the back of her head, she concedes, "I guess I've got a lot to learn, huh."
Being praised by Martha for that level of ruthlessness shakes Akane out of that line of thought. ... later, she'll probably bring that one up in therapy. Now she feels gross for having the thought.
Blink, at the mention of Yuliana Kafim. That hand at her chin does get her to flinch, though her answer starts at, "S-sorry to disappoint you, ma'am."
After a little thought, though -- does she know anything about it? "I'd actually check if that was Alexis. I know they talk, and he has been pretty absent since Dakar, huh..." Something gnaws at her. There's something that she isn't aware of about this interaction -- something urgent.
... she needs to focus on Martha right now, though.
There's a little relief at the hand moving back away, and Akane thinks through the terms. "That's fine, but you're going to need some tolerance for if it drops due to Minovsky interference. I dunno if you noticed, but after Dakar it's dense enough that the second we get out of the range of the Garuda's repeater, even laser is gonna be a little spotty."
A momentary pause as she works through a signals puzzle in her head. "Then again, as long as the kill switch is affirmative and the weapons don't unlock without constant signal, that's still fine. The worst we could do at that point is slap the shuttle to death, and it'd at least kill our life support and main reactor first..." A beat passes, and she adds, "The life of a God is definitely worth more than your whole security team's, so I'll be good!"
... this, at least, is honest. Akane has passed every practical exam she's had as a 3G operator. It sounds like she's negotiating in good faith.
"Thank you for your time, ma'am," she says, sipping at her tomato juice again. "And -- is there anyone I could trade for a jacket that fits a little better? This is from Degiff's room because I didn't want to ask anyone who was still alive, but it's still clearly for someone who's at least 160 centimeters tall." She's not quite swimming in her jacket, but she might be taking a bath in it.
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
"Sharp." Is her compliment to Akane on saying that, she does know when she's being flattered in part, but she doesn't mind flattery from someone she is actively courting for her company. As Akane flinches, and tells her sorry to disappoint, however...
"Ah a shame. That would have been a far more interesting outcome. Perhaps it truly is as Doctor Murasame says, that her obsession with Puru-1 is akin to a favorite threadbare doll."
A distinct pause, "Alexis hmmm?" Martha seems to consider the matter, but voice no more aloud, likely however, she discards the possibility knowing Akane's history, and something of his capabilities.
There's a chuckle, "Akane, Akane, Akane. Who do you think you're working for now? I own Anaheim. I'm well aware of how to conduct mobile suit operations, making allowances for Minovsky interference is child's play. Please." She gives her a lopsided smile, "Besides, with normal suits on, you'd surely survive to retrieval."
Which seems to translate to, 'I won't have a hair trigger, but I won't hesitate either if I feel I'm being played.'
"Of course, I'd be hurt to discover that you took advantage of my good will, when I thought we had an understanding! Which is why of course, you won't."
She smiles at her, "I'll have one of my executive assistants arrange something suitable." She raises her glass, "Here's to a prosperous relationship between the two of us going forward."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Might be," Akane offers. She doesn't know Yuliana well enough to say for sure. ... something about bringing up Yuliana and Leina in the same context nags at her. Is this new complication in the situation -- her fault, for what she said to Mrs. Kafim when they met?
... she doesn't like that.
"I mean, if we're gonna pass as 'here for a friendly chat' long enough to snag her," Akane points out, "we're probably not gonna be wearing normal suits." A moment. "Good point, though."
At the mention of an outfit upgrade, she smiles. "Here's to a prosperous relationship," she agrees, taking a drink. "I'm going to go tell Dr. Murasame that Rikka and I will be on the move soon. Unless you had anything else, ma'am?"