2023-11-09: Where Are You Standing?
- Log: Where Are You Standing?
- Cast: Knight, Qivi
- Where: The Division Train, near Jupiter
- Date: 2023-11-09
- Summary: Two outsiders (OR ARE THEY) talk about cooking at scale and growing up. And hatch a plan to bloody the Red Dragon Syndicate's nose in the future, which will surely go well.
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
Knight has been more active, the past few days, in the Division Train. Haunting the halls, always asking this question with unblinking eye contact...
"Have you eaten."
This is occasionally a more complicated question than at other times. For instance: with the larger members of their party. And lo, does Knight end up wheeling a massive covered box out to the hangars -- it's on wheels, at least, so he doesn't have to strain too much dragging it out.
Wheel, wheel, wheel. It's not obvious what it is from his scale. It's just too big for that. But if one were to look down on it from, say, ten metres or so high...
... it would be very plainly...
... a bento box.
Knight gets to the hangars, and shields his eyes as he looks up and up and up to find the Meltrandi in residence.
He waves, to get her attention.
He puts his hands around his mouth, as if to shout --
-- and then says, at a perfectly normal if stern volume: "Have you eaten."
OH NO DID HE BOTHER THE KITCHENS UNTIL THEY SPECIFICALLY MADE A MELTRANDI-SIZED LUNCH.
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Qivi is not very hard to find, honestly. There's only one full-sized Meltrandi on board and so finding out where she is at least guarantees you won't get the wrong one.
Right now she is in the hangars. Qivi is no engineer, but she's a decent enough mechanic; she can do at least some of the repairs on Minokawa, and she's a lot more convenient at moving parts around than any crane and gantry system, provided she can lift it. And, well, she works out. She can lift a fair bit.
Honestly, this probably *counts* as a workout, because when Knight rolls his big box and tray in she's attaching part of Minokawa's 'backpack' armour, something that involves lifting big pieces of metal a bit higher than her head. She's already got it in place, and is just making sure that the secondary limb with the giant blade has free movement underneath it, tilting and rolling the joint (hands away from the sharp bit).
She is not expecting a visitor, and it takes a couple moments for her attention to be got, but she looks down, at Knight and his gift. And since she *is* a bit over ten meters tall (she's tall, for a Meltrandi), well... to her it's obvious.
Her face brightens. "Hey, Knight! Where did you get that?" she asks, surprised. Even her voice is big, though she lowers it to avoid booming all over the place. She crouches down, setting down the oversized tool she was holding. "Seriously, did you make it? I haven't been cooking a whole lot..."
That's not a yes, but it's not a no.
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
"I had help," Knight assures her. He did not try cooking everything on his own. He knows it's a practiced skill, and he hasn't practiced enough yet. "But the kitchens weren't used to it. So I thought you hadn't eaten today." There's a lot more implied to people not being used to cooking this scale of food than Qivi not eating today, but, well, give him this much: he's probably not wrong about this specific bit.
"The oven was too small, so I had to cook batches and put them together. But I figured it out." And by 'figured it out', Knight largely means that the meals he's prepared are things which are easy to lump together: a big ol' bowl of scrambled eggs, reconstituted from dried ingredients but with no less effort (he made all those himself), some casserole in another EXTREMELY oversized bowl, a third bowl filled with rice flavoured with (probably an entire bottle of) soy sauce, and...
... he has toasted five loaves of bread and used syrup to stick them together into one extremely LARGE slice of toasted bread. It might be a little delicate. He did his best.
"Leina Ashta says it's not good to only eat CalorieMate bars," Knight adds, deathly serious. "So you have to eat normal food, too." Oh, no. Knight figured out what she must be eating at this scale. And Knight has had a talking-to about only eating nutrient bars already.
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Honestly, Qivi is somewhere between impressed and touched at Knight doing all of this for her. Even if it's all simple things to make in quantity - well, there's nothing wrong with that, it's probably the most sensible way to do it if she thought about it for even a moment.
"Leina's right," Qivi says. "I've got a few other things too, but - well, there's something *like* a bar, except it's kind of... It's thicker than a liquid but it's not really solid. Paste. The Zentradi apparently ate only it before they came to Earth, so you can get away with it, but..."
"I do kind of miss it. Thanks a lot. I don't think anyone's ever done that for me before." There's not quite sparkling. It's close. Qivi has the world's worst poker face.
Qivi stops crouching - mostly so she can sit, cross-legged, on the floor. It still leaves her a little high up from Knight's perspective, but she too is doing her best, and she does lean forward a little bit to lower her head. (It also means she can use the wheeled trolley as an impromptu if slightly unsteady table.)
She'd been meaning to get ahold of Knight anyway, so this is convenient for her. She's never quite sure where he goes, and it's a little hard for Qivi to poke around in the less large sections of the train right now; she'd have to micronize, and while she *can*, it leaves her less ready for combat and it involves getting in the tube for a few hours. Which is doable, but less than her favourite.
So Qivi asks, "So what have you been up to? I haven't seen you since - well. Mars." Well, the meeting with Spike. "How's the big guy doing?" She means Anosillus, this time. "I didn't expect HIM out here either. - Here, you want a bit of this? I'm not going to miss some of the eggs or casserole." What's a decent snack for Knight isn't going to be all that much for Qivi, after all. "Least I can do for you bringing it out to me!"
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
"I think it sounds good," Knight says, "but variety is important." Knight would think nutri-paste sounds like a blast. Sousuke has poisoned this young man.
He thinks for a moment, and decides: "Then it's good I did. It's always a good time to start." If no one's ever done it before, that just means now someone can do it a second time.
(That someone might still be him. He was very brave, marching into the kitchens and declaring this would be done. He had a vision! The sort of chefs GGG keeps in their employ surely appreciate that kind of spirit.)
Helpfully, on seeing Qivi's intentions to use the trolley as a table, Knight kicks down the brakes on the wheels. It won't keep it totally steady, but it will at least become much steadier. Once that's taken care of, he finds a seat on a nearby set of platform stairs, and climbing up those to sit himself up top lets him get -- most of the way to a conversational eye level, anyway. This is the power all cats hold: elevation.
(He does tend to hide away in places, and this, too, is a lesson the cats taught him.)
"Resting," he explains, simply. "Maybe too much. But Dr. Cektru made me realise what I was doing wrong. And Rikka Takarada and Akane Shinjo showed me what to do right. So now I'm doing this." Making sure people... eat? Making sure people eat. "You've always been helping us," he adds, "so I wanted to help you, too." Making people eat... is helpful.
"Anosillus the First returned to Earth," he explains, a few beats later. "He couldn't stay on Mars. He'd attract attention. He likes to pretend to be a hill." Is that how the giant kaiju avoids getting into scraps with every young buck who wants to go kaiju hunting?!
He reaches over to snag a big ol' singular piece of casserole meat when it's offered, which, in his hands, is absolutely a complete snack for someone his size. It's clear that he would have had to roast these hunks of meat in the oven in batches, because they definitely didn't all fit at once. And he does not mind at all just holding it in his hands and --
CHOMP. He just lays into it with his teeth. Chompchompchomp. If there's casserole sauce on his face, just ignore it and it will eventually go away.
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
"I mean, if you want some I can go get it after," Qivi says. "A bit, anyway. I don't think you need a whole tube, probably, unless you're stashing it for a while. And I bet Nidaime doesn't eat it." Qivi thinks of her as 'Nidaime' because her Japanese is not always very good (it's a bit better these days, from practice), and at first she didn't realize she was calling herself 'the Second' - she thought it was a name. So she's still in the habit of using it like one, when she's talking in English. "How's she doing, too?"
Brakes help. Qivi was trying to figure out if she could reach under and flip them herself, but Knight saves her the trouble.
Thanks, Knight!
Qivi is a little more careful, if only because she feels wrong making a mess, and also because she does her own laundry. (And she doesn't have as much of that as she should. She really needs to hit up the mall once they get back.) She starts to offer Knight something - a napkin, a plate, SOMETHING - but eventually just accepts that he's going to eat that way and leaves him to it.
It is, she admits, a lot more convenient to talk to him when he's up on the stairs. She doesn't have to hunch over, and can sit in a more normal fashion. Which she does. She looks accustomed to it - and she is; even when she isn't macronized she is not adverse to sitting on the floor.
"I don't blame him. I'm surprised he was out here at all. Honestly, I'm kinda surprised you are, too. I thought you'd stick with Tsutsujidai, even if there's fewer problems there these days." Fewer doesn't mean none, after all.
But if he thought he was doing something wrong... She tilts her head slightly while carefully retrieving a forkful of eggs. (She *does* own a scaled fork - more than one, actually - so the kitchen can provide.) "Rest's important too," she says, instead of prying right off the bat.
Of course then she goes and asks anyway. "Though you're already a big help, aren't you? I've seen you out there, and then there's stuff like - " Qivi gestures at the bento. "Which is one hell of a nice surprise! I don't know what you're doing wrong, but you're doing a lot of other things right."
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
"She could," Knight says. "The Second can eat anything." He sounds quite proud of that. But just because she can, doesn't mean she should. He's quiet, for a moment, before he decides: "She's handling it well. She knows how to rest better than I do." Nidaime would know to check if Qivi's eaten something.
After all, she once taught Knight about vending machines, when he was smaller than he is now.
(And the brakes are probably a little hard to operate with fingers at Qivi's scale, but Knight's foot is perfectly sized for them.)
Nomphnomphnomphnomph. Knight may have learned table manners, but he's still not averse to just tearing something apart with his bare hands. Luckily, he finishes up soon enough...
... and wipes his cheeks with a hand, in a manner almost exactly like a cat, so as to then lick his palms clean.
Did he literally learn that from watching -- of course he literally learned that from watching a cat.
"The First came because the Second was in trouble," Knight explains, between this very important task. "The Syndicate played music which gripped her. But her mother is different, so she was able to resist... her cries called the First out to protect her, and he couldn't resist the music they played." Knight frowns. "I wasn't able to fight. I couldn't leave her in that condition. So I'm in your debt."
He finishes cleaning up, and adds: "We owe the world a debt, too. So I'll protect humanity. It's important to pay your debts." Which is, apparently, why he's here.
And yes, he did remember to bring a fork along. The kitchen had a Qivi-sized fork! It was very convenient, even if he had to hoist it up into the lunchbox with strange strength. "It's difficult for me to fight right now," he says. "Most people wouldn't have survived being stabbed through like I was. And my heart's uneasy." Which is separate to it being stabbed, apparently. "But this is the sort of thing Rikka Takarada did for me, when I was in trouble. It was helpful. Since it's not raining out here, I'll just make sure everyone's eating."
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
"I mean, I can eat damn near anything too, but that doesn't mean I want to." Qivi has a slightly less expansive definition of 'anything' than Knight and the Second are likely to, granted, but she's not exactly picky. "Glad she's doing okay. Felt bad about seeing her involved - I knew her when she was little, you know?"
A pause, then she admits, "Well, not super well. But she came by the place I was based in for a while. I had the music on so it was hard to get her out, but I didn't mind the visit."
And, well, the music... "Those assholes!" Qivi can't help herself - she snaps, louder than she'd meant. "I can forgive them wanting a fight, sure. But pulling people who aren't involved into it is a real dirty trick, and making them fight for you is even worse."
"You're not in my debt. Or, at least, I'm not gonna collect. If you think you owe me, consider it even for this." She taps the fork against the casserole dish. "Or you can, I dunno, give me a hand with something sometime. But as far as I'm concerned we're even."
Qivi considers Knight for a long moment. "You know, I'm not human either. I mean, obviously," says the woman who's currently about thirty-five feet tall, with pointed ears poking out from her messy hair. "I used to pretend, but I stopped. Actually, it was Akane - some things she said made me think about it."
"Sometimes I wonder about some stuff. Protecting the world, or the people in it - whether I'm really the best person to do it. But I wouldn't give it up or anything. I'm glad you don't either. Uneasy heart or not - and there's no shame in stepping away from it for a while, either! Sometimes, if that's what your heart says, that's what you gotta do."
"Or, at least, that's what I think," Qivi finishes, a little lamely. "I'm glad you're doing better, though. I mean, physically, if nothing else. You do look good for being stabbed through." Qivi has been stabbed before, but never all the way through - and that was enough for her, thanks.
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
Knight hums through his lips, grim-faced, and he clearly agrees with Qivi's assessment on the Syndicate. "They planned it," he posits, darkly. "I won't forgive them for that." He is something of a protective boyfriend, insomuch as the words 'boy' and 'girl' mean anything to kaiju. Someone targeting Nidaime forever earns a target on their own backs, all aimed and framed by Knight himself.
But Qivi says he doesn't owe her, and Knight nods, stern. "All right. I'll help you." Beat. "But you can't have my hands. I don't know if they grow back when I'm like this."
she wasn't literally asking for your hands, knight.
He's thoughtful, though, as he listens to what she has to say next. "Thank you," he says, at length. "I worked hard on it." Looking better?! Apparently, that is something you can work on. "As for the world, I don't think there's one best person for it. The world is big. It's even bigger than a planet." People live on Mars, too, after all. "If it's like that, one person can't do it. A lot of people can. You're tough, so it's good you're fighting for everyone. If they're strong, I'll work with anyone to get it done." He kicks his feet, over the edge of the platform, deliberately. "To protect them," he adds, having reminded himself of the Second.
"But you belong in this world," he supposes, thoughtfully, "even though you're not human. The Zentradi made peace... it's normal for you to be here. That's what I think, anyway. It's a big world... even irregular beings like the Second and I can live here. Actually, now Gridman's gone, I'm the one that's left..." Knight grasps at his arm. "I copied his Acceptor, but I didn't leave. I guess I come from a lot of places, now." He's not... entirely a Hyper Agent, is he?
Well, certainly not. His one visible eye is blue, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Qivi doesn't need to be anybody's girlfriend to be indignant on Knight and Nidaime's behalf. "We can go after them next time we're on Mars," Qivi says, "unless they try to pull something somewhere else. I don't know where they got something like that and I don't care, they deserve someone coming down on them - "
She realizes she's raising her voice again and huffs. Fortunately, she is also good at silencing herself with a mouthful; she keeps getting distracted by food anyway, because she does appreciate what Knight has done for her here.
Halfway through a mouthful, she starts to laugh, nearly coughs, swallows, and tries again. "Not your actual hands! Sorry. I mean, mine don't come off at all, I definitely don't think about that. Is that what you worked hard on? Your hands? I mean, you look *real* different than the first time we met, but I guess I do too." But more seriously: "Yeah, I know that it takes more hands than just one. I'm just - I dunno. I'm not real clever, I think. I just do what I think needs to be done. Sometimes it's easy to tell, sometimes it's not. At least *this* is easy." She waves her hand, presumably at Jupiter.
But then Qivi looks at Knight, thoughtfully. "It's a big world. There's room for a lot of people. I think you belong here too, even if you're not from it the same way as me. You're still *from* it. It made you what you are today, right?" For someone so insistent that she's not the smartest, Qivi is often fairly insightful in a way that doesn't match her opinion of herself.
"And - yeah. It must be hard, without Gridman. Well, I'm no Gridman but I'll do what I can, and so will a lot of other people." Qivi thumps her chest with one fist. "Least I can do! We're all better working together, right?"
That, she means with all her heart.
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
"I hear you," Knight nods, sternly, again. They're definitely going to cause trouble for the Syndicate, later.
He looks down at his hands. "Oh. I see. I misunderstood." He was being literal, again. Nidaime does tell him he does that a lot. "Yes. But also the rest of me. It was damaged, so I fixed it." Beat. "I changed before then. Realising some things about the world, I grew up. Apparently I did it quicker than normal, but it's supposed to look something like this." He's approximately human, in a lot of ways, but there's still an awful lot of guesswork. Apparently, Knight growing up metaphorically also meant growing up literally.
Like a beanstalk!
"I guess I am from here, in some ways." In other ways, of course, he's from Tsutsujidai -- but Knight's copied from an awful lot of places, over the course of his life. "Maybe. I'll think about it." He thought of himself as an outsider, but if Qivi's saying he's not so different...
... well, he at least has to evaluate that.
"You're Qivi," Knight says, instead. "And I'm glad for that. Yeah... we're stronger this way." He nods, firmly, again, and then looks around at the machinery. "... do you need help in here?"
He's small, at this scale, but he's strong! He's probably very good at getting in and dealing with fiddly little details.
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
"It hits some people faster than others," Qivi says. "I was pretty quick too, or at least I got as tall as I was going to get in a hurry... but maybe not that quick." She means when she's human-sized, of course, where Qivi is not especially tall or short; five foot four, maybe. Just because she's tall for a Meltrandi when macronized does not mean she's tall for a human when not, apparently.
"Took a while for my brain to catch up, though, I think. You seem to have managed that faster."
Maybe Knight is an outsider, in some ways, but so is Qivi, or at least she feels like one. In other ways, she doesn't, and isn't - and maybe he'll find the way he's not an outsider too, or that's what she feels, even if she doesn't put it quite into words. Sometimes you don't need to say anything - and some things are better unsaid. He's going to think about it, after all.
Does she need help? "I'm actually almost done, but if you want to, there's a few things I could use a hand with. Though, don't feel you gotta, it's mostly boring work left. Little adjustments." Which, well, he *is* going to be better at some of that than she is, right now.
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
"It's my body that caught up," Knight agrees. "But I don't mind being like this, either." He has a suit. It echoes the very first clothes he chose for himself... but with more of his personal flair.
And he'll certainly think about the nature of the outsider.
"I don't mind," he confirms, as he grasps the railing with a hand and stands again. "Boring work is important. It keeps people safe." He knows about safety checks!
He might quiet down while he's working, but he's a cat; he's existing comfortably in Qivi's space, and this, too, is cat friendship.