2023-06-04: Giant Steps
- Log: 2023-06-04- Giant Steps
- Cast: Akane Shinjo, Qivi
- Where: Tsutsujidai - Junk Shop "Aya"
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-06-04
- Summary: While Akane's minding the junk shop, another former employee comes by to check up on its denizens. Qivi and Akane have a brief chat about their own history as well as recent events. They have a good conversation, but Akane's still a little bit hesitant on some things.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Put bluntly: sometimes, Akane has no idea what to do to help Rikka. Sometimes the issues that surface while she's under for treatment are just fully beyond her pay grade as her girlfriend.
Fortunately, there's a solution to this: ... let her spend more time with her mom and her friends, who have very different angles of approach and aren't also grappling with multiple traumatic experiences in the last six months. (... well, okay, actually, the last six or so months have been a really broad blast of trauma, but --)
Right now, she's leaning on the counter, having finished prep on some basic ingredients common for diner food. Her brown hair is tied back in a short, messy ponytail.
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
When Qivi first heard about the captures, but was flat-out told to not run out and start picking a fight to try to rescue them, she did what Qivi did best:
Run out without an effective plan and waste her energy just trying to do SOMETHING useful.
And that meant she flew around to check a lot of the more isolated locations where the Federation might be hiding Murasame Labs. Or Murasame might be hiding Murasame Labs, but at this point, she assumes someone in the Federation has to know about it.
Well, though she did find some other things of interest (astoundingly) she did not, in fact, find any laboratories at all. And then she got the update from Sayla and her flight plans all changed.
Qivi needed to stop somewhere to pick up some more supplies anyway, because tooling around in a scrapheap of a cargo shuttle is not very efficient. It's the van of space, not a big truck. She detoured to Tsutsujidai.
Her shuttle safely parked, Qivi went out for a walk. She was a pretty unusual sight here right now, but a lot of people had seen her before during Tsutsujidai's isolation, so it wasn't too bad.
A thump sounds from outside Aya. And then a voice: "Hey, is anyone in there? Sorry, I can't come in right now."
This is because Qivi is crouching just in front of the door. She is wearing a new-model Meltran-style suit, closer to 'bodysuit' than a full-on normal suit but still with obvious reinforcements at the major joints. She looks a little sheepish about clogging the sidewalk.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Uh -- yyyyeah! Welcome, customer!" Akane starts, when she hears someone outside; she considers what the appropriate thing to do with a customer who 'can't enter' is and decides, ultimately, on going outside to say hello. Straightening her apron (it's plaid!) out a little bit, she steps out and --
Blink, blink. "Oh -- hi, Qivi," Akane stammers out, a little startled. It's not that she doesn't know Meltrandi can do that, obviously, but it's a little jarring to see a macronized Meltran in a bodysuit right there. After a few seconds, she tries again, admitting, "I didn't recognize you from inside. How've you been?" She doesn't actually know how much Qivi knows or doesn't know, and doesn't want to just raw-launch everything going on, so she starts at a fairly conservative pace.
"I'm keeping an eye on the shop for Takarada-san." She would volunteer more than that, but she doesn't think it's quite Qivi's business what Rikka or Orie are doing -- at least, not yet. "I know you work here sometimes -- are you, uh, scheduled?"
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Qivi has only shown up macronized in Tsutsujidai at a time when Akane was mostly indisposed, so it makes sense that she hasn't seen Qivi like this before. And, of course, she wasn't wearing this outfit then, but a rigged-together set of clothes hastily sewn together.
Her expression shifts to a sudden grin when she sees Akane as some of the tension leaves her. "Oh, finally! You're up - yeah, I'm fine, I heard you guys weren't." This probably means 'yes, I know what was going on'. "How's she doing? How're you doing? What about the others? I was - "
Qivi cuts herself off. "Look, out front probably isn't the best place to talk. I know the junk pile part of Aya pretty well and I know I'll fit; want to switch over there? I can just hop over." Fences are not really much of an obstacle when you're thirty feet tall or so, and given they've found MS pieces in that scrap, she can find a place to stand, sit, or crouch.
A pause. "What? Oh, no, I'm not scheduled. My schedule's kind of fucked up right now anyway. But if you need a hand I have some time."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"It's been kinda touch and go," Akane admits, letting out a small sigh. "Yeah, let's go back to the junk pile, we can talk more there."
The junk pile is a little more stacked than usual. A lot has been added. It's a few moments before Akane finds a place to sit; she hasn't been to Aya many times and needs some time to navigate it. "Man, this is a ton of stuff," she reflects, looking over at a covered-up part of the pile that's definitely new since Qivi was last here.
"Anyway, uh -- right. Where... was I," she starts, going back through Qivi's questions. "Things are kinda touch and go? Some days are fine, and some days are... really not fine. She's -- herself, but I've never seen her this bad off..." She breathes out, admitting, "I'm holding it together okayish. It's a lot easier when I'm behind the counter or with her, you know?" A vague gesture with a hand. She doesn't want to talk too much about Rikka's business. "Anyway, I don't, like -- I don't need you to drop everything and start working on something, but I bet Takarada-san would appreciate the help."
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Qivi makes her way around - she's been here before and she's supposed to be here now, so it's not like she's tresspassing. She ends up sitting on the ground rather than something that may or may not take her weight, but she can lean back against...
Well, okay, it's really lumpy and not actually very comfortable. Maybe she'll just sit without leaning.
"Yeah, I get it." Qivi's always been bad at restraining her emotions, and it comes through here. "When I got the news I was so fuckin' pissed. None of you deserve anything like this! I just wanted to run off and do SOMETHING."
A pause. "So, uh, I did. Didn't come to anything, though, but that's why I'm here like this. I came as soon as I heard. So if there's anything I can do, great. I kind of scrammed out on all the other stuff I was doing this week. I just, uh... I can't fit in the store, so I can't cover the inside right now. The little shuttle I came on can't fit one of the micronization systems, and I dunno if Tsutsujidai has one of its own - we took the one I found out and put it on the ship. The Wadatsumi. But I can sort through all this stuff, it'd probably go even faster than usual."
She lets a breath out, ruffling one of the side bangs of her incredibly unruly hair. "Look," she says. "I know we haven't always got along before. But I want to help. If there's anything I can do. I left a message with 'Samurai Calibur' too."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
'None of you deserve anything like this' is a relief to hear, for Akane. There's a way in which her shoulders let out a little tension when she hears it. "If you could sort out the junk pile a little that'd be a huge load off of all three of us. We had to move stuff around to, uh..." How does she say this... "There's a new addition but not the kind that you actually want to get sold off, you know? So everything's kinda everwyere to hide it in there. If you wanna leave the pile behind you alone but get everything else in some kinda order, that'd help a lot."
She can talk a little, she decides, about the experience she had. "Thanks," she says first, before moving on to the other part of it. "I dunno how much got out to you guys? I -- wasn't brainwashed or anything like that. Dr. Sai did a basic workup on me before she got started with Rikka."
She considers how to say this delicately. "... they did make me watch the whole time, though. And manage the psycommu aperture on the machine they put Rikka in." That makes her visibly recoil a bit. "I dunno how much got around to you, so..."
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
"What is it? I'll make sure it's out of sight," Qivi promises, because that at least she can absolutely do. "Robot?" She doesn't ask for details beyond that.
'I don't know how much got out to you guys...'
"Well, at first it was just, you know. That they'd taken you, and not just you. But Dr. Mass told us to..." Qivi slows, awkward now that she's actually saying it to Akane. "She wanted us to wait. I said fuck that, I'm real bad at waiting. Kinda lost my temper in a discussion, though not with her, or at least not about that..."
Qivi looks aside for a moment. "I heard you guys were back. And that's it. She's not telling us shit about anything lately, or if she is she's telling us not to do anything loud. So I wanted to check for myself to see how you all were. And make sure nobody was coming after you again - all of you, I mean, not just you you. Don't know if you want a guard or anything, but I figured if I was out this way, and working, it'd be enough."
"Sounds kinda stupid when I say it out loud, given you guys are probably being watched by EVERYONE now. But what was I gonna do, sit on my ass?"
She looks back at Akane. "So no, I didn't know about being brainwashed or not. I know they got some people. But - fuck! This is what got me mad at the Federation in the first place, one of the things at least. A place where this shit can happen and nobody's doing a damn thing about it... You shouldn't've been made to do anything like that. Making you watch and participate... fucking sadists."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Robot," Akane agrees. She doesn't really want to explain more than that, though the conversation she's about to have will very likely expose more of those details as it progresses. "Mostly just get everything else squared away?"
When Akane hears that Sayla said to wait, Akane thinks about that for a little while. "... Yeah, you're gonna hate this but I think she made the right call... they were treating Leina like their hostage. Even getting Knight involved led to him getting shot in the stomach..." He's healing, but she's still feeling pretty bad about it. "Anyway, uh -- well... I think we might be okay? But there's definitely gonna be some long-term stuff to deal with." Sighing, she concedes, "Mrs. Vist-Carbine might want the runback. I'm... trying to figure out how she'd get it, but it's pretty bleak. And if they get the Box, there's not gonna be a ton to do about it." Would Martha kill some 250,000 Repli-Compoids out of spite for Akane?
... part of her doubts it, but part of her can't let go of the possibility. "A guard might help -- honestly, even coming by every now and then and sorting stuff might help." As they loop back around to the final part of it, though... 'Fucking sadists.'
"Yeah," Akane agrees, limply. "Dr. Murasame liked to say the cruelty wasn't the point, but I think that was mostly just for the sake of his ego. That or Alexis brings out the worst in him, I dunno."
Gridman teleports in.
Gridman leaves for Tsutsujidai [---].
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
"I KNOW she made the right call on that, and it still pisses me off," Qivi admits. "I'm just not very patient. I know it's a problem. I'm worried about Leina too."
Qivi picks up a chunk of scrap metal - she thinks it's part of a support strut - and spins it in her fingers, mostly because she doesn't sit still well either. "Well if she tries something, I'll be ready. I'll see if I can scrounge up a micronization tube around here so I can help out more inside, but I'll handle this first." She leans back, head tapping against the pile of stuff that she's not quite leaning on.
"So consider me employed. It's the quiet time of year for arena battling, anyway." Because one of the big tournaments ended last month.
'The cruelty wasn't the point'... "Yeah, it was. Whatever he says, if he's acting like THAT. Look, like I said... I know we got off on the wrong foot." Understatement. "But if you wanna talk about it with someone who's not gonna judge, I'm around."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Ahahaha... no, yeah, same. To be honest, I kinda feel like I could have done more, but... you know what they say about chasing too many rabbits or whatever." Akane glances down at a piece of junk. This one, at least, has a price tag; she accordingly doesn't throw it, as tempting as it is to do just that.
Nodding, she says, "Thanks. Come by in a few hours and tell Takarada-san too, okay? That way she can plan around you a little better." A beat, before she adds, "Or, you know, just hang out and keep working. I guess that works too, hahha..."
Eventually, though, they get back to the main topic. "... yeah, and like, that's kinda the thing. The methodology wasn't super far off from what I did to you guys. What I tried to do to her and then went, 'nah, that's way too screwed up.'" Her expression turns distant, abstract; she stares off to the side and past Qivi. "They were -- basically trying to jam feelings from some weird psycommu ghost into Leina and Rikka." More distantly, "Apparently that's a thing you can do."
She's had to recount this a few times, but never quite in this way. The other times it's been so clinical. "Jeez. I know we're, like -- settled, mostly, but... sorry. I really left you without any choices. I hate people who do stuff like that."
More distant. "I want to do the stuff Dr. Sai and Swan do -- but, like... now I almost feel like..." She trails off. "... Nah, I kinda feel like you're not the right person to shop this one to. I'll figure it out."
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
"Chase enough rabbits and maybe you'll catch one?" It's really, really hard to tell whether Qivi has never heard that expression before, or knows it and is intentionally mangling it. She looks earnest either way.
Qivi shrugs. "I don't need to go anywhere for a while," she says, which is her way of saying 'I'll stay and work'.
Making a face, Qivi says, "I don't know much about psycommu. I took the tests, once, to see if I could move funnels. I couldn't manage anything, and that's as far as I got. But ghosts..."
Akane apologizes. Qivi reaches, leaning well forward, which is a *lot* more worrying when she's macronized, and pokes Akane on the forehead with one really big finger. "Enough. You already apologized to me! I'm not gonna say that what you did was good because it wasn't. But you figured it out. And I came back here and THAT was my choice."
"Plus," Qivi admits, "It helped me through some stuff, later. Not that I'm saying that I expect he did any damn thing to help you. But you did, even if you didn't know that's what you were doing. Yeah, it was wrong, but I don't hold a grudge. What HE'S doing, though..." Qivi scowls again. "And the way he's doing it. Fuck 'em."
Akane pulls back. Qivi doesn't push it. "All right," she says, instead. "I mean, hell, it took me ages to figure out how I wanted to do things, too. I'm still not sure I'm doing it right, and you're younger than me. You'll figure it out."
SCENESYS: Sousuke Sagara has posted scene #337, 'Into the Blue: Rallying Party', at 19:00 ET on 06/17.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane gets poked, and flinches; she almost falls over, but doesn't quite. "... Yeah, I guess so," she affirms, though the smile she gives Qivi is a little bit obviously forced. "It's gonna take me a little bit to get my head around everything. I'm still kinda processing the last couple years."
Some days it feels like she's never going to be done processing -- like there's always going to be some new thing that she needs to get her head around about how things keep going.
... again -- too heavy. So she loops back around to lightening her load a bit. "I... could have killed him," she says, quietly. "Everyone would have been happy to hear it, too. I think with how much they were trying to turn Rikka into a violent person, though... it would've made things worse for her. Even though he sucks." Her head hangs a bit. "I don't regret it. I just... keep wondering if I made the right call. Eugh. I dunno how much being mad at him I can handle thinking about."
There's something on the tip of her tongue, again -- but this time, she doesn't even voice that she's not voicing it; there's just a brief tilt of her head and then a sudden stop.
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
"I think that's kinda the standard for everyone," Qivi says. "I mean, not that yours is less important than anyone else's... but everyone's gotta work through shit. You're not the only one that's made some mistakes. I joined a terrorist organization for a while."
She leaves it at that, because by some standards, she is still in a terrorist organization.
Qivi can tell that this is hard for Akane, but in some ways she is pretty sure it is good for her to get it off her chest as long as she's comfortable doing it. But eventually, she is not comfortable with it.
"I probably would have hit him," Qivi says, confident in the fact that when she hits people, they stay hit. "And I won't lie; it sounds like he has it coming. But I wouldn't say you should have. If it made it worse for her."
A pause, as Qivi considers what she wants to say next. She's picking up on the discomfort. "Look," she says, "I don't wanna drag you out here all night. So, I mean, thanks for chatting. It's great to see you around again." And she means that! It is not just politeness - Qivi was worried for what she thinks of as the Tsutsujidai crew. "And if there's anything I can do to help, I'm gonna hang around for a while... might contact Koji or Guy or something so they know what's up."
"But I should probably start cleaning up this pile, huh? Unless you have something else."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Ahahaha... it seems like everyone I know kinda has something going on like that," Akane murmurs, with a small shake of her head. "And actually -- I did hit him. Twice, with a stun baton! And that much I feel pretty okay about. But killing him... that's kinda a different thing."
She is delighted to have Qivi's offramp here though. "Yeah, I should probably get back inside before too long. Nice to see you too," comes Akane's answer. "Good idea, though -- we're gonna have a ton of work to do around here. It's... a lot to think about."
And a lot of work means -- "Yeah, good call." Standing up and stretching back out, she says, "I'm gonna be around this place for an okay while, so if you hang around we're gonna keep seeing each other." She does her best not to make that sound like 'get lost,' as she heads back into the shop proper.