2023-08-03: Always Meet Your Heroes
- Log: Always Meet Your Heroes
- Cast: Koji Kabuto, Naoko Suzuki
- Where: Medbay, Old Photon Power Lab
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-08-03
- Summary: After a Bad Time fighting Crucible to rescue Liam, Naoko awakens in unfamiliar surroundings. But when Koji Kabuto himself is the one coming to check on her condition, there can be only one conclusion: it was all worth it.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
It's been a few days since the battle in Vladivostok against BioNet's 'Crucible' operation, which the Photon Power Research Institute committed forces to in order to rescue a friend of theirs, who is now safe in 3G's French office and recuperating.
However, not every pilot who went into battle on Liam's behalf got out of the fight conscious, and some emergency retrievals had to be made after the fact. at which point the damaged vehicles were relocated to Japan and Fujinomiya City in order to centralise their recovery and return to their homes. The injured are shuffled to the Old Photon Power Lab's medical facilities, while their machines are brought down to the hangar for repair.
All this is to say that: The pilot who calls herself Nova Stellar will awaken in a reasonably well-apportioned room, comfortable but not personalised - but at least not feeling sterile like a hospital room. There's a table that can be swung over the bed if she doesn't feel up to getting up, and the furnishings of the room - the blankets and the carpet - are a tasteful sea-blue.
On the table: A plate of cookies?
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
What started as an impulsive solo venture only meant to be an attempt to gather intel turned into a whole lot more than Naoko, a.k.a. Nova Stellar, bargained for. Everything was off the table and all reason was lost once she stumbled upon an opportunity to directly assist the Mazinger Team, ranked at the very top of her favorite heroes. Even then, she initially figured she would contribute in the search and naively believed she wouldn't need to do any fighting. But as soon as fighting was necessary, of course she jumped right in. Even when she could already tell she'd mentally overtaxed herself, she couldn't just leave when Desmond showed up in his huge Wanzer.
It's Episode We Lost Count of 'Nova Stellar Overdid It', in other words. And thus we find ourselves here, in a room meant for convalescence, with a teenage girl not physically injured and stable vital signs, just taking a few days to wake up. Once she does, though...
The purple-haired girl's eyes fly open, realizing within a second that she isn't anywhere she recognizes. She immediately sits up, throwing the covers off herself, then bringing her hands up to her braids. Thank god, her hairclips are there. She could have sensed that, but at times like this, she needs the extra assurance of feeling their presence physically. She calms considerably afterwards, when she hears the familiar voices in her mind.
>"Nova! Are you okay?!"<
>"Morning, sleepyhead. Took you long enough."<
"How long...?" she wonders out loud, though the response she would get to that is predictable.
>"Still incapable of telling time, but long enough for it to be annoying."<
It's only then that she notices the cookies. And thus, they are doomed. The combination of hunger and a sweet tooth will guarantee that the contents of this plate will not last very long at all. She'll worry about where she is later after that, she is following the proper order of importance.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
As Nova devours the plate of cookies - freshly baked double-chocolate-chip! - there is a knock at the door. "Miss... Stellar?"
Wait, that voice - muffled by a doorway rather than crackly over a radio - is that...? Well, whoever the owner of the voice is, they're waiting outside the door for permission to enter.
Once given that permission, Koji Kabuto steps inside the room, dressed down in a white longsleeve and jeans, looking relieved when he notices the 'grim fate' of the plate of cookies. "Ah. I see those noble soldiers fulfilled their duty." He chuckles. "Which means you're probably feeling okay!"
He bows. "We should be properly introduced, I guess. I'm Doctor Koji Kabuto of the Photon Power Research Institute." He smiles. "Thank you for helping us with the rescue operation."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Cookies to die for! Or, fall unconscious for, at least. Makes it hard to think it was not all worth it.
A knock on the door couldn't possibly stop this cookie massacre. That voice, however, can. The next intended victim slips through Nova's fingers, meeting an ignoble fate as it shatters on the floor. The girl is too taken aback to worry about that, though.
"K-Koji?! ......-san?!"
That was super awkward, she thought to add the suffix way later than would've been appropriate. She's the sort that usually goes straight for the suffix-less first name basis, and she did do that before with Koji in the heat of the moment. But now that she's thinking straight... this is The Koji Kabuto she's talking to, that doesn't feel okay to just do. Assuming this is indeed happening and she isn't dreaming this whole thing, the jury is still out on that.
"Um... come in...?" This also feels weird to say, in a room she's yet to learn the location of, that definitely doesn't belong to her. It's plain enough to see once Koji enters - this girl is feeling incredibly uncomfortable, pulling the covers up to herself as if it would offer some manner of protection. Not afraid, but very much intimidated by the unbelievable situation she finds herself in. A far cry from how confident she sounded while in her machine. Evidently she's far less sure of herself in person. Even if that may have appeared differently that one time at HaroCon, when she led the chant to have Mazin-Haro Z do a Harocket Punch, if Koji can pin her as the same person from back then. That was different, she was in a crowd and not directly talking to him. She wouldn't have dared. So about this seeming like a dream...
The joke helps to break the ice, even if it takes her a moment of looking back and forth between Koji and the cookie plate to get it. Once she does, she finally adds her own awkward chuckle. "O-oh, I see. Yes, thank you, I um, I needed that."
And then he bows. Koji Kabuto, is bowing to her. So this can't be a dream after all, even her dreams don't get that crazy. It's enough to get her brain to skip past the awkwardness and into more frank territory. "Well... well yeah, of course you are." Followed immediately by a bow of her head. "Sorry, sorry, I mean, nice to meet you! I'm Nova Stellar, Miracle Worker!" ...Why does that feel strange to say, it never felt that way before. "...But, my real name is Naoko Suzuki. Thank you for taking care of me." Koji has no way of knowing, but she hasn't told anyone her real name this readily all year. It's only a matter of time before that spreads around, at this point. And if you can't trust Koji Kabuto, who can you trust?
Searching for more to say, she quickly lands on the most directly obvious things. "I hope things went okay, after... all that. What about the Sukeban - my Arm Slave?" An anomaly in itself. There aren't that many third-generation Arm Slaves out there, and this one appears to be a unique model. It looked a little weird on the outside, but the cockpit looks even weirder, the standard controls disconnected and no obvious other way to pilot it. Plenty of evidence that there's more to this girl than the Ra Mari II pilot she's known to be.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji can't resist a chuckle at the 'of course you are'. "The whole 'proper presentation' thing really doesn't suit me, huh? You should see the way I get glared at by other people when I hand over my business card."
'Koji-san' is perhaps a little too forward for polite Japanese company, but well. We've just discussed how Koji is a bad fit for that, so: "Naoko-san, then." He grins. "It turned out alright. Crucible's operatives got away, but we recovered Liam, four Metal Cyborgs BioNet had already engineered, and a bunch of kids abducted from Khanka who hadn't been moved to any BioNet facilities yet. 3G are handling Liam and the other cyborgs' rehabilitation, and I guess they'll work with the local authorities to make sure the kids end up somewhere good for them."
He blinks for a moment, like he's wondering something, then shakes it off: "So, all things considered: A pretty clean operation. Some paperwork on the Londo Bell side of things, but..." he shrugs. "We did good, and that matters."
"We recovered your Arm Slave, too." He nods. "Getting you out of that thing was... fascinating. Not exactly a conventional control setup for a machine like that!"
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko doesn't feel like she can really judge what does or doesn't suit Koji. But she can certainly judge those other people. "Sounds like people are jealous." She nods in approval. "Good, they should be." She wouldn't dare to openly tell Koji to his face the extent of the positive light she sees him in, but the context clues are obvious enough.
It took enough effort for her to add the -san at all, but when Koji does it, she's quick to dismiss it with a wave of her hand. "Oh, please, just Naoko, I'm used to it. Or, well, more used to Nova, these days." More to herself, she adds in a lowered voice, "I have to get used to people using my real name all over again." Reasons for that, of course, but nothing she feels she needs to get into at the moment.
She visibly relaxes once she learns that Liam was recovered okay. She'd have blamed herself forever for not doing a better job if things ended badly. It's embarrassing enough as it is that things went down the way they did. "...I'm glad to hear that. Sorry for giving you more work to do... you must be really busy. I won't take up more of your time than necessary, as long as I and Sukeban can move, we'll get out of your way soon."
She grimaces, catching herself in the old habit of considering herself a burden on people. Maybe she can still correct herself a little. "That is, I'm happy I could be of some help to you - to the Photon Power Research Institute! I admit I didn't really know what I was getting into, but... no point in having a robot if you can't use it to fight evil, right?" The smile is only a little forced, the sentiment is completely genuine at least.
The smile grows considerably brighter when the topic turns to her Arm Slave. "Really, it's fascinating? I mean, of course it's fascinating - I built it, it's my greatest miracle!" And very proud of it, clearly. It's only afterwards when she fully processes what was said. "...Ah, yes, about that--"
>"Stop."<
Assuming that Koji hasn't developed a psychic ability, there's no way he could hear that word. In which case Naoko suddenly going rigid and wide-eyed comes a little bit out of nowhere, as she was made to reconsider how much she should say about her machine. She fiddles with her right braid sporting the black butterfly hairclip, switching gears in the conversation. "Sorry, but I can't go into detail about that. After all, if everyone knew how my miracles worked, they wouldn't be miracles anymore."
With a more subdued smile, she adds, "Don't worry if you had trouble fixing it though, I can handle it, that's fun for me. In fact, if there's anything I can look at while I'm here--" This time she stops herself, with an exaggerated cough. "...Well, I mean, I'm sure you don't want me to know about your miracles either, that's only fair."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji chuckles. "I guess they should." He nods, then. "Alright, Naoko or Nova it is. I guess the cross-cultural nature of workin' with the Three Ships Alliance would mean you're more used to it."
"Don't worry about it, retrieval and repair is part of the job. Even Z needed work after that dogfight with the Crucible's leader. You're welcome to stay as long as you like, the Old Lab doesn't get much use and you could always go on a tour up at the city proper. ... Not knowing what you were getting into, huh? That sounds familiar." A little, self-effacing grin follows that sentence.
Naoko almost starts gossiping about her machine - Koji recognises the signs of that - then pulls herself up short, and the veteran pilot arches a brow. "A secret, huh? What level of secret - personal stakes, professional stakes, or world-threatening stakes?" He gives a broader grin. "We're pretty used to handling secrets ourselves, yeah, but most of our work with Photon Power is publically available, so if you have any questions..." It's a tactical off-ramp, perhaps to indulge that kindred engineer spirit he sees in the young woman.
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko tilts her head when Koji mentions her new cross-cultural environment, then shakes it with a smile. "Nah. If anything, they had to get used to me, I've been insisting on being on a first name basis with everybody since I was eight. Guess I'm a bit a of rebel." It may sound like a joke, but some of the things she got up to... well, there's probably a reason why she named her Arm Slave the way she did.
She also wasn't kidding when she said repair work was fun for her, she actually looks disappointed when she learns it was already done. And what she wouldn't give to work on the Castle of Iron in any capacity... not that it would be strictly wise for anyone involved to let her touch anything important, any number of things could happen, not all of them helpful. The mention of a tour, though... "Maybe I should while I'm here, I've always wanted to see this place! I didn't get to go places much before--"
She looks down, wondering if that's something she should talk about. Although, given the topic of her machine came up, that does offer somewhat of a connection. In the end, she decides to start the sentence over. "Actually, the thing is, I have reason to believe people are after the Sukeban. I'm not sure why, but. That's why I ran away from Akaigawa, where I lived." A small town in Hokkaido mostly known for farming and a ski resort, not exactly a place where anything significant would be likely to happen. Naoko shrugs. "So, I dunno, maybe it's actually world-threatening stakes? Sure, let's go with that." Clearly just a flippant remark, added to by the grin, she doesn't actually believe that. But it's honest in that she really isn't sure how significant the secret is, and when it comes down to it, isn't too concerned about that. Keeping the secret has its own significance - so, personal stakes is the most accurate.
Then Koji speaks the magic word, and her eyes light up. "Questions? Oh, I have so many questions. So many. Public info never has enough numbers, not enough formulas! I want to know about conversion efficiency calculations, reactivity temperature coefficients, and how to improve my Rocket Punch!"
One of those things was not like the others, but they are all equally important. Obviously.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji listens, taking Naoko's explanation very seriously. "Yeah... I'm familiar with special technology being... pursued by enemies. I'm sorry you had to run away from your home." He's glad she has one on the Ra Mari, though.
Then he listens to her questions, and laughs. "WELL. If you want to look at some of our documentation, I can maybe make that happen. As for the Rocket Punch... You want to see the hangar?"
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko only nods a bit at Koji's sympathy, not really appearing to think that any is needed. She's adapted to her new circumstances much better than she would have thought, before, and sees little reason not to look on the bright side until worries arrive directly on her doorstep. Which isn't to say she's not planning to take action, but that too is for later worry.
There may have been some question remaining about Naoko's condition, given that she didn't seem about to get out of bed any time soon. Koji says 'you want to see the hangar' and she doesn't even know how quickly she leaps out and back onto her feet. Which almost goes poorly, as it's been a few days since the last time she stood on her own feet, but it doesn't go beyond a brief stumble before she finds her balance. She is quick to pretend nothing happened.
"Do I? If I knew where it was I would be there already!" A bit of an exaggeration, maybe. Though once they do get there, it may be a bit of a challenge to get her to move on from anything. She is absolutely going to want to see everything in excruciating detail. One doesn't get opportunities like this every day!