2024-05-31: Turning Sheep Into Goats
- Log: 2024-05-31
- Cast: Akane Shinjo, Leila Misakiyama
- Where: Nouvelle Tokyo
- OOC - IC Date: UC0099 05 31
- Summary: A Tarabaman Inferna stageplay happens, with a returning fan and a prospective fan sitting side by side to watch the flames of justice score itself on the stage. Neither one really cares about the hero, though.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Tarabaman Inferna, to everyone's consternation, is not getting a movie. It is, however, getting an unusually expansive run of stage shows!
Akane Shinjo is going this one alone; it conflicts, unfortunately, with... either a class project or a 3G upper management meeting, Akane can't remember which. That's okay -- she doesn't need to do everything with her partner, and she's always going to be a bit more of a swamp creature than Rikka anyway. So here she is, ready to have a second fun night in a row.
(She's so glad that midterms have just passed.)
She has pretty decent seats, at least; she booked this one as soon as they opened ticketing. Inferna was honestly kind of mid by her standards, but each stage show has gotten successively a little weirder; while she's only seen post-show impressions on To-witter, she's at the stage where she really wants to see what they're cooking.
In one hand, she has her phone (not broken!) and is ready to take some notes. Utsumi (who caught the previous one and texted her a lot of details) would kill her if she didn't take good notes.
<Pose Tracker> Leila Misakiyama has posed.
Leila Misakiyama is the sort of girl who doesn't turn down a free ticket nowadays; Sure, it was offered in minor jest during practice, one of those "hey so my brother gave me this thing and I don't really wanna goooooo so anyone wanna take it" sort of situations that crop up every so often. The surprise was her taking it without hesitation even after being told it was...the middle of something? Middle of the series, some strange thing, she didn't really know anything.
Granted, a minute bit of research did pique her interest. This culminated in being in attendance alone, politely chugging her next Tarabaman-collab drink down before tossing it away at the venue's entrance. Middle of the row seats, little trouble at maneuvering in through the crowds...The small blessings of not being known making itself apparent, bristling as that was.
That being said. "Excuse me. 16C?" The flash of the ticket stub on her hand. She's 16D, a fact that, once confirmed, had her taking a seat beside. "I saw some staff dude run towards the bathroom, so it should start soon."
Leila, in comparison to the note-taker nearby (notetaking? For a stageplay? ...Just what did she get herself into.) brought nothing but herself into the fray, just kicking back for a leisurely spat of enjoyment. Even if those eyes were already scanning the stage, taking mental notes...
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Oh good, I was kinda worried. I don't have the greatest sense of time," Akane answers Leila, with a slightly strained smile on her face. She still has her drink, and it's even still fairly cold despite the fact that they're entering a warm Japanese summer.
"This is my first one of these in a while," Akane adds, leaning forward but also just a bit toward Leila. It's a conscious effort to let herself get slightly physically closer to strangers without freaking out -- something that's been an uphill battle for her. "I did them sometimes when I was little, but I've been kinda busy."
Leila, to put it gently, does not have the look of someone who is a big Taraba head; this is not the sort of fashion profile she expects at these shows. (Then again, that could just be her being out of touch.) "What about you? Have you been to one of these before?"
The lights dim slightly. Looks like it's go time. Akane wonders if they'll start with a cast Q&A or get straight to the stage show portion this time.
<Pose Tracker> Leila Misakiyama has posed.
The cold was mildly bothersome, the assumption of 'anything i wear in the theatre would eventually cook me alive' keeping her legs bare. So far: The correct assumption, considering the crowd trickling in. Word beginning to spread about how this show was doing something, even if nothing had truly swung the hammer down to reveal itself. "They're still not late, so no free refunds." Alas. That would've been a good story.
"In a while?" Oh, so this gal didn't know much about it, either. The slow shift into her personal bubble did force the lightest shift in her feet to brace herself; As much as she was used to being in close-quarters with people, a sudden intrusion within a minute was never going to fully ally a person's instincts. "I've never been to one myself. Only thing I really know about 'em is...The one with the Beetlehead that shows up every so often in commercials." Staghorn Beetle Man! ...More Man than beetle.
Leila, to put it bluntly, did not have the look of someone who was deep in the swamp. Eyes of light curiosity flicking around the stage, away from the entrances and usual places people looked to see a cast member, a kaiju suit, or the arm/leg of the titular Tarabaman. No, her gaze was more broad, staring at the populace. "I vaguely remember a few episodes, but I watched other things..."
Still, as the light dims, she watches on with the rapt gaze of someone deciding to toss themselves into the whirlpool. Cast member? Hand? Leg? Some crab motif?
"...The hell?" A minor mutter of surprise as the cast Q&A began, people walking out, the various cast members of Tarabaman Inferna heading on stage. "Why's one got canned crab?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane picks up that Leila isn't really digging having someone this close to her personal bubble -- and indeed, Akane herself is not a big fan of it, either, so she quickly backs off.
"Yeah. A friend of mine caught one of the Inferna ones, but the last time there was one I was kind of curious about..." Akane pauses. What did she do instead? -- Oh, right. "That was a couple years ago now? And I wanted to see the Truthseeker Serena stage show that same week, and didn't really have the time..." That's a fond memory, and she's very glad she erred on that side.
"Oh, Staghorn Beetle Man! He's kind of a classic -- you see him a lot but he's usually, like, a cameo or a marketing gimmick... they've been doing this since my grandfather was a teenager. Maybe longer if you don't start with just Taraba stuff... there were kaiju before that, and pro wrestling was pretty out-there back then, too." Bringing her hand to her mouth and giggling a little, she adds, "Anyway, yeah."
The mutter of surprise at the canned crab gets another bit of enthusiasm. "Oh, that's the actor for Inferna's host. He's really gone all in on making it his thing -- Taraba, like tarabagani, king crab. He started teasing that he landed the role with posting canned crab on social media before they announced."
A few production-trivia questions go back and forth. Stuff about how they made Nouvelle Tokyo -- already similar structurally to Martian cities, with the hexagonal floats -- look more 'Mars-like' in post production... some things about suit design... Akane seems raptly interested in this part.
<Pose Tracker> Leila Misakiyama has posed.
The small bit of close-quarters pricklininess slowly abates after the minute distancing. Enough to lightly prick if Akane ever dared lean in too close, but much less subdued than in those first few moments.
"Truthseeker Serena?" ...Nope, no ringing bells here. "Never heard of it." Confession: She has. Mildly. Vaguely. Not enough to talk about it in any capacity other than 'oh, its that weird show'. A small frown as the sound of a strange show piques the curiosity. What was she, some gal who fell outta the sphere and drifted back in?
'Drifted back in', something so disavowed with the explanation. "Pro Wrestling Kaiju? Him?" ...Granted, he had a build to do so. "No wonder he's a cameo key-jingler, I can't imagine keeping the rights. Should just retire him if he's just a cameo machine." Seriously, who keeps using someone for that long!?
"..." Narrowing eyes while looking at that can. "...He's supposed to be using King Crab stuff? What, he's got a sponsorship for it?" A minute chuckle to herself. What a riot. "That can's the cheapest one at the grocery store. See the rim? That's the value brand."
Leaving it at that, the veneer of decorum allows her to listen. Basing a show on their own city, the minute click of the tongue as they explicitly mention how much they took from this place. Similar in structure, cast members pointing out specific streets and stations for major moments, down to one going on a minor spiel about 'The importance of Urban City feeling'. And yet, she can't help but mutter as the cast members turned animated, people who's middle-of-the-road show was their life work for a year. Some of them invested, others doing it for the paycheck.
"What, so they copied us? Better than just a total copy again."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane makes a mental note that Leila isn't super equipped to talk about Serena, and crosses that off the topic list. It makes sense -- she's about four years younger, so she probably would have been a little too young for Serena to land for her...
"Oh, uh -- I meant in general with this style of stuff, not specifically Staghorn Beetle Man," Akane says, though it's clear she's a little nervous about saying it. "But they did do a cross-promotion with Shin Japan back then... I think a lot of modern audiences think Staghorn is kinda hokey." 'A lot,' implying Akane is not among them.
At the slightly cynical sponsorship bit, Akane giggles a little and shakes her head. "No, like... it's not a sponsorship deal, it's more like an injoke. You don't need to go for big money when you're just doing a bit," Akane says, with a shake of her head.
At the talk of copying, Akane cants her head slightly. "Copy, huh... I dunno about that. It's more like -- you do what works, when it comes to setting up a city, right? Like, there's big parts of Nouvelle Tokyo with the same zoning as Tokyo, and I guess there's stuff on Mars that's set up the same way as Nouvelle Tokyo. I guess that is copying, but like... that doesn't mean it's not its own thing, right?"
She shrugs a bit, going back to listening. As the Q&A segment closes, she adds, "I thought Inferna was only okay, but it's neat to see this big passion from some of these guys, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Leila Misakiyama has posed.
"Pro Wrestling to Kaiju, Kaiju to Tarabaman, Tarabaman to..." To this stage play they're currently sitting in front of. A strange journey, though the connections can be made. Somewhat. "I don't blame them at all." An exhalation. "Who'd want to see grandpa's favorite character be paraded around the place? I can't stand even seeing last season's cameos taking a whole episode, and they keep doing that here?"
An injoke. Well, it makes sense. Cynical sense; The notion of how some of those crab cans have had "TARABAMN KING CRAB COLLAB" labels for their cheaper items... "S'not making me want more crab. Cannibalistic, isn't it?" Watch Crab Hero! Eat the crab. The way Leila enunciates it, its laced with pessimism about 'the bit'.
The same bit being paraded around on stage: Oh yes, he ate crab for good luck everytime he was on a film day to henshin. Crab. Crab. Crab. The very word 'Taraba' was mildly prickling: She couldn't deny the passion, but the aura of...something that she couldn't place, lightly ticking her off.
"Mmmh, I guess..." A shift in her seat, crossing arms in the minute attempt to keep herself warm. Someone underestimated the power of Industrial Air Conditioning. "But that's taking and doing things with it. Or inspired. Just taking it wholesale and doing nothing is..."
...Her eyes glance upwards for a few moments. No real aim in particular, merely knowing that a copy of the city she grew up in is there, among the cosmos. "Some people just copy wholesale."
Dropping the subject at hand, the cast members filtering out. One last gag about the main actor eating crab before head ing, a few moments of a break before the actual show. "Yeah..." She stays oddly quiet, allowing the silence to weigh down on them for a few. "...They're the lucky ones, aren't they. I wonder how many failed to get on that stage."
The lights dim once more. A minor key reprisal of Inferna's Opening. Stagelights flooding the area, illuminating the set: A clear copy of Nouvelle Tokyo, adjusted for the 'grand' scale of human-sized kaiju and the Taraba.
On one side: Tarabaman Inferna.
On the other: Staghorn Beetle Man, with the insignia of Dynomite emblazoned on a small pin near the chest.
"'Inferna! Your eternal fire will come to an end!'"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane isn't so far from age 15-16ish to have forgotten what it was to be a cynical teenager. (She's still a teenager. Just less cynical.) "I dunno. I think the history is kinda neat! Like -- if you like a kaiju, there's like ten versions of it unless it's a new suit, and a new suit is kind of its own cool thing..."
She, too, is getting a little cold -- she's never been a big fan of that. She's less interested in the hero stuff than the kaiju, so the crab talk kind of rolls off her. She can feel that shift in the mood coming off of Leila just a bit, though -- the nerves of someone who's had to become sensitive to even small changes of the mood of the room.
The mention of 'some people just copy wholesale,' too, gets a big raised eyebrow. "I get it," she says, unknowingly. "But you have to start somewhere, right?"
Her expression gets serious, though, at the mention that the people on stage are the lucky ones. "... I actually know the answer to that one," she says. "There's usually about a dozen people who audition for a given Taraba main role... but that's only at the very end of it. Have you ever heard of COREL Super Boy?" It's an annual male model/actor contest in COREL, a women's entertainment magazine. "That gets like thousands of submissions, then they narrow that down to ten, then to three big winners in different categories... about half of Taraba leads, plus the Donshine guy, are top three placers from that. So like -- the field's already pretty thin when you're auditioning, because someone else did the hard work of getting the top guys."
When the stage show starts, Akane raises an eyebrow. Staghorn Beetle Man in a main role... that virtually never happens. She leans forward, genuinely fascinated.
Inferna -- the giant hero, not his host -- isn't much for words, yet here, he says a more complete sentence than he did even in the last three episodes of the series. "'No water... can douse this flame!'" he cries, and strikes a pose before starting to fight properly.
"Are they just, like, abandoning the gimmick..." Akane mumbles to herself, clearly -- not annoyed, but at least a little put out.
<Pose Tracker> Leila Misakiyama has posed.
Unfortunately: Leila is a cynical teenager. Double unfortunately: She has her reasons. "So using the same kaiju, over and over and over again..." The minor discomfort of knowing that you're set there. To be used in perpetuity. The cynic in her has taken root. "And they're meant to be there forever?"
Leila does watch the hero talk through and through, watching them move offstage. Lucky ones. Lucky. The ones at the front.
"I wonder what the people who made things think when...something copies them with money in mind." There's little personal issue for those doing it out of passion; But really, with all the minor spinoffs and ripoffs popping up online... "...Who made Staghorn Beetle Man, then?" Maybe, overthinking, just a tad.
Or maybe its just her wanting to know the origins of things.
"COREL..." The magazine with the bolded cover and the actor/model of the month on the front, articles about women's care, news of the world, and the occasional fiery opinion column about this and that in the world, all in a bent of aiming to be treated as equals. A very firebrand magazine at times, except when the annual Super Boy contest comes about. "Thousands, to ten, to three..." ...All based off of one contest, on one magazine, on a panel of judges, to direct the flow of Tarabaman Leads. "Getting the top guys who bothered to send their submissions in, you mean. I hope none of the judges were tempermental." It still doesn't sit right. That feeling.
That gnawing pit of the stomach at learning that a full half of those leads got up there by a single magazine's whims.
Staghorn Beetle Man stays still, obeying the natural arc of his preceding appearances. The semi-transparent suit clear in the spotlight, moving in jerky, wide motions. The conveyance of a suit actor stuffed inside and only barely understanding the motions, moving to fight.
To struggle. Fighting back and forth, music and proper stage explosions popping in. Back and forth, back and forth...
And Inferna only turns wordier. "And this! Is the fire of my beating soul!" A rare occurence for Inferna to even add descriptive adjectives. Inferna's host remains silent.
"...Gimmick? What's his, a Phoenix?" The noises of the stageplay are, thankfully, loud enough to mask this question.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane nods. "In some cases, yeah, pretty much forever," she affirms. "Some of the originals have had, like, more than 20 different forms over time. Different backstories, too..."
Money and passion -- the two constantly in a tug-of-war. (Or are they? Certainly people have made money from their passions.) Akane sits with the question of 'who made Staghorn Beetle Man,' too, though she doesn't come to an answer. The big breakout was actually in his third appearance, even if the first is more memorialized. Who truly 'created' that?
She isn't sure what to say to Leila's growing cynicism. How can she? She's barely past it herself -- she probably would have been on the other side of this conversation five years ago, fresh after the Axis Shock.
If Akane had heard the question, she'd have the answer -- Inferna can only talk to fish, because he crashed in the Sea of Okhotsk for 50,000 years. But she misses the question, and thus, has no answer.
As the din of the stageplay dies down, Akane returns to the topic of COREL instead. "I don't think there's any way around that... it sucks, but you're always kind of stuck with that one." She shrugs, saying, "If you don't make it, you just gotta move on and do something else? I don't really know what the guys who wash out of Super Boy do, but like..." Here, she gestures vaguely.
At this point she's talked to Leila enough to feel like it's weird to not know her name, so --
"... Hey, what's your name?" she asks, at a lull in the stageplay.
<Pose Tracker> Leila Misakiyama has posed.
"...I wonder if any one of them had a single life all throughout." More of a thought experiment, one quickly jettisoned to the side. Too depressing.
She doesn't have much more thought on Staghorn Beetle Man as the stageplay progresses. It's a back and forth, Inferna occasionally quipping, trying to interject levity in a scene where there should be only gravitas. Where once there would be nothing, there was...dialogue to fill the dramatic tension. Even Leila perked her ear up as the intended choruses and crescendos of the piped in music were overshadowed by words.
"If you don't make it? Then, you weren't destined for it, some might say." ...It pricks and writhes in her mind, her mood taking a sudden turn for the cynical. Who was going to win in the end? "Just like the one who made the first Beetle Man. Forgotten because you didn't get there. Who cares about them, and the ones who don't ever see that COREL is a thing...?" The cynic admnisters an exhalation of frustration.
"...Mine? Leila. Yours?"
The stageplay is reaching its final lull, both Staghorn Beetle Man and Inferna jostling in the middle, ascending towards the climax of their final stands...
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane finds herself... not entirely unsatisfied with this. The Tarabas have never really been her draw point for Tarabaman, anyway -- the kaiju are the stars of the show, and Staghorn Beetle Man getting to be cool is a pretty rare treat. Like, yeah, there's some eyeroll-worthy parts here, but...
... it's fun. In the end, she's having a good time, even with the kind of moody conversation. It hits her criteria, even if it's probably a miss for a specific kind of fan.
'Not destined for it' gives Akane a little bit of pause. Is that a thing? It's been harder and harder to be certain one way or another. Akane's sense of faith has always been a little weird -- and having been described as a god on multiple occasions has only made it weirder. The simplest thing would be to believe it's all random, but...
"I guess that's true," is all she can manage, ultimately.
"... Akane," Akane answers, as Inferna -- of course -- pulls out a last second victory. She runs a hand through her dark hair absently. "Good to meet you."
<Pose Tracker> Leila Misakiyama has posed.
Leila can't say that this has been...Bad. It's certainly...What's the word for it. Understandable? The idea that this was what was 'cooking' is not entirely satisfactory to her. Sure, there was an old Kaiju, there was Inferna talking, but she can't say she saw...totally, what drew people in.
But it was fun in its own way. Things to take, things to think about, things to dig under the surface of it all and as ones says: Copy and iterate on it.
"If it is true, then the only thing anyone can do is kill the god who made such a thing. I don't want to live in a world where only certain people are...cosigned to being the sludge on which others move up on." The words carry a hint of restrained anger, closing her eyes for a few moments. Calm down. You're here to watch a show.
"...Or not even thought of." The worst type of knowledge: The truth of not even having the thought of their existence cross their minds.
Another breath. If nothing else, Staghorn Beetle Man's defiant victory pose was the exact same as always before he 'blew' up. A typical ending to a typical story that had an additional wrinkle...
...Inferna looked up at the stage lights. Pointing right at the sky. "My fire...lives!" Cue the celebratory theme.
"Nice to meet you too...Ah, he won. Good for him." ...The thought of what happened to the buildings, the dessecated remains strewn about and forgotten around Inferna, left unsaid.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
That's... a topic that hits Akane square-on in the chest. She's definitely been guilty of that herself; she can't say for sure how she feels about it, and she definitely doesn't like the idea of some people just being sludge. Then again -- is there anything wrong with being the person who missed the opportunity? Who upset a judge?
... she certainly can't tell herself that there's something wrong with that, without undoing a lot of her progress.
"It does kinda suck to imagine no one thinking of you, though... like, that's pretty lonely." That much she can get. But how much love is enough for one person? And how many pieces of yourself might you carve off chasing it...?
"So what's next for you after this?" Akane asks, after a little thought. "You don't seem like you're gonna be the kind of person hitting up the merch area outside the venue or anything..."
It's still so cold, Akane notices. She doesn't have a spare hoodie or anything, so all she can do is sigh a little and rub at her biceps a bit, trying to warm them up with the friction. "I might, though," she adds. "But Inferna had such crappy bad guy toys, so I dunno..."
<Pose Tracker> Leila Misakiyama has posed.
"Exactly." A severe undercurrent of frustration laced around the word, narrowed eyes as she watches Inferna leaves the stage. "It doesn't sit right with me. All that talk about reaching out and aliens connecting with humans when humans can't even connect with everyone..." A shake of her head. Don't dwell too much on it. Not here. "It's too cruel."
Another exhale.
"There's a merch area?" An innocent question of someone so absolutely blind to the major veins of Side-Content Stage Shows. "Ah, I didn't really eat anything before coming, so I was thinking of checking out the general area for a bit. I came down from Fuji-" Fujiyokidai. "- so I think Gloggel and see about some ramen or maybe...chicken sounds nice, actually." Trailing off in her own mutters about food, fishing out her phone for a few quick taps.
It's so, so cold. "Mmh, but if they're so crappy, can't you just buy a ripoff's?" Surely, someone, somewhere copied it and made it...better. "Fat load of good his heat's doing here, but I don't see much value in buying it if you're doubting."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane hears 'too cruel' and for an instant, something sounds familiar. There's a little worry for this girl in her heart, now -- but what, exactly, is she supposed to do about it? It's weird to reach out to someone after you ended up sitting next to each other at a stage play, right?
... fortunately, she has a bit of an in. Food talk is easy. "Oh -- if you're looking for ramen, I kinda think you're better off getting closer to home first. I used to live in Fuji too -- you ever been to Chojin? It's really good. If you're looking for something here, though..." She chews on that a bit. "Maybe try Ryuuguujo? It's like... three blocks from here, by the game center. It's a little pricey, but the last time I had it it was pretty good."
And after a little more thought...
"It's not like I've tried their whole menu, so after you try something, why don't you tell me how you liked it? You have VERTEX, right? You can add me. After they changed how usernames work I'm a-underscore-seijin." It's a little nervewracking to give her VERTEX out on first meeting, but... sometimes you have to do those nervewracking things.
<Pose Tracker> Leila Misakiyama has posed.
Even as she declares that things are 'too cruel', there isn't resignation in her demeanor about it. Not of something down and out, meant to be left there in self-loathing. Her eyes remain on where Inferna left for a bit more as the general crowd began to file up and away...Before sighing out. "They'll understand soon enough, I hope."
"Chojin? Mhm, it's not too bad after a karaoke sesh. I'm more partial to Ichiran; Heavy broth's my style." Still, Ryuuguujo? There's a moment to check up on it, thanking the blessing of the internet while pulling the page up. "Not too pricey...Yeah, I can treat myself for this." Maybe it was just that she was hungry that contributed to her mood...
"Eh? Yeah, I got one." Another few taps, searching through... "The change's so dumb. Why'd they have to get rid of the friend code stuff? QR codes exist for a reason." Tap. Tap tap tap tap. Ping. "There, sent a message." It's a sticker: Alien Aumerei waving.
Her username: leileileitmotif. There's no hesitation in accepting outreach, even as the cynic in her wonders about such a path. Worth it? Just toss yourself in, better than being mandated for nothing.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane pulls out her own phone and makes sure that the buzz she just felt on it is in fact Leila; when she sees the message from leileileitmotif, she nods, saying, "Cool." Her display name, despite the change, is a_shinjo. That implies a possible full name for our 'Akane.'
"I should probably get going before too long, and I bet you're pretty hungry, too. Talking to you was pretty nice, though," Akane says, with a nod, as she stands up. "See you around, Leila-san." She doesn't know her surname, but she doesn't want to be especially overfamiliar with the younger girl yet. She can tell she's got some stuff going on -- best not to start prying right away.
Stretching out a little, she rolls her shoulders and tries to work out a few of the kinks you end up with after a lot of sitting in a seat like that. ... She's still got the rest of her night ahead of her, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Leila Misakiyama has posed.
<poem> A doublecheck on the name: It rings hollow, only the fact that her name is fully known. Oh well, something enjoyable to prod about later. Amazing what people can show so offhandedly!
"Mhm, good luck on that merch line if you're gunning for it." Surely, there's gotta be something good on that line...Maybe. She doesn't know! A slow roll of her shoulders as she lays back, waiting for the crowd to disappate a bit more. No one's hurrying her along, the pinkette adjusting herself every so often. Ah, her butt's fallen asleep a bit. Touchy.
"Good luck, Akane-san~" If nothing else, making a new friend was worth the minute trouble.
Still, there's the night before her, the day after, the day after, the day after that...Friends keep secrets from one another, so Leila concluded weeks ago.