2024-07-14: What Can We Really Do On A Day Off?
- Cast: Chise Asukagawa, Yume Minami
- Where: Nouvelle Tokyo - Shopping Mall Cygnus
- Date: U.C. 0099 07 14
- Summary: Chise and Yume try not to let boredom consume them at the mall.
<Pose Tracker> Chise Asukagawa has posed.
Chise Asukagawa sits at the wooden table of the indoor mall food court, propping her head up on her hands and listlessly chewing on the straw of her soda. It's not that it's bad company, it's just...
"I can't believe Cap'n Gauma told them to drive to Osaka," Chise says, with a sort of dull wonder. "Like, Yomo I get, if that's how Dynasoldier and Dynadiver link, but what's the deal with having Big Guy go with 'em," she siiiiighs, levering herself up and putting her hands on her chair to stretch out her back. "Koyomi's probably miserable, cramped in that cockpit for that long..."
She feels something pop and seems to call it sufficient, slumping back into her seat. She cracks her eyes at her conversation partner. "Idunno, anything you wanna hit around here?"
<Pose Tracker> Wing Combine Force has posed.
Yume Minami is, herself, achieving new heights of Flopped Forward, her entire upper body resting on the table, prodding at her phone while keeping a boba tea cradled between her arms. Her lips rarely leave the oversized straw, and really she's just scrolling aimlessly across feeds.
"I know what Gauma's thinking, probably," Yume admits, mouthed over her straw. "Probably too old-fashioned for...well, anyone, if you ask me, but..."
Those somewhat narrow green eyes flit over towards Chise. "It's a 'guys night out' kind of thing, right...?"
Sigh, sigh sigh. "...Gauma's the only one who'd think of that sort of thing. Yomogi's friends with both guys and girls. Koyomi's friends with...uh..." Yume doesn't really want to say the obvious, but she concedes, "Well, you. He tried to use the excuse with me that I'm already plenty good at handling Dynawing...but isn't combining into Dynazenon important to learn? I mean..." Yume's hands twirl at her hair. Slurp. Slurp. "...Don't tell me he's thinking that just because it could probably go together without Dynawing, that I'm just second fiddle..."
...She seems pessimistic more than anything about not being invited. Finally, the boba runs out, not that it stops Yume from making noisy sips trying to suck up every last drop. "...Movie theater, maybe? Do they even have one of those around here still...?"
<Pose Tracker> Chise Asukagawa has posed.
"Ohhhh...the world of adults..." Chise says, in faux-revelation. She breaks into a giggle at her own joke, the smile slashing across her face into a grin. "That sounds like him. He'd be into that kinda bonding. Guess they'd have to smuggle Yomo in, tho." She's assuming this is like what she watched in those not-for-thirteen-year-olds Yakuza movies. With the dancing!
Chise beams a little when Yume points out Koyomi is in fact, despite all odds, probably friends with her. She's not sure he agrees but you know, family is fine, that works. "Does it not figure itself out...?" Chise asks, tipping her head. "It went smoothly that first time so I just figured it kinda does the big combines for itself. Though that control panel is a heck of a thing to look at. Like, labels? Anywhere?"
She kicks her feet a little, letting the conversation lull. "Nah," she says, eyes casting upward. "I don't think he's that kinda guy. But maybe those Kaiju Eugenecist guys are getting to him enough he needed to do somethin' for himself? Seems like that was pretty personal beef."
"Movie theater, huh....Yeah, there's gotta be something decent out right now..." Chise says. She completes her animations and ends up with her head resting on the opposite hand. "I mean, we're here, could go shopping? There's a couple cute places here, I think." ...be cautious of Chise's definition of cute, though.
<Pose Tracker> Wing Combine Force has posed.
Spinning the bottom of her boba cup across the table, Yume looks upwards at Chise's musings on what the other three are up to. After all, she doesn't really have movies like that on the mind - she's more thinking about more typical manga and dramas about boys hanging out and getting up to mischief.
...Making Chise's insinuation feel rather different in Yume's head.
"You really think so too...? ...I can see how they'd have difficulty getting Yomogi in on that...huh."
As it so happens, Yume has Dynawing on hand - it's how she got here, after all! (It doesn't cost gas, and she doesn't have to pay for parking...it's very convenient, so why not use it?) "...Well, it's really straightforward to fly, and Dynazenon seems to be what it 'wants' to be, as long as I don't think too hard." Yume fiddles with the foldable wings on the toy, wondering idly to herself if she'd mess something up by twisting these the wrong way. It's not made of cheap plastic, no matter how much she can't help but think it must just be a weird model kit.
"I really hope Gauma's not just in this to get even. ...Like...he doesn't tell us anything, but he never fails to tell us when there's a kaiju, so surely he knows that they're an issue, right...?" Finally sitting back upright - this is something Yume feels an urge to take more seriously, after all. ...Only up to a point, though, since speculating on Gauma's motives is pointless right around now. "...Yeah, I have some spending money, since I don't need to take the train these days. I'm not exactly the best at picking out something 'cute', but we'll figure it out." Maybe she's underselling herself, but Yume's not exactly high fashion today - just wearing fairly modest cargo shorts and a purple t-shirt with some company brand she doesn't know.
<Pose Tracker> Chise Asukagawa has posed.
Chise's soda makes the slurrrrp sound of an empty drink. She jabs her straw into the ice a few times. "Huhhh," the red-into-black haired girl says, watching Yume play with the 'toy' of Dynawing. "...so strange to think that's the whole thing, ya know..." she says, voicing some below-conscious thought.
But, the elephant in the room speaks, and Chise hemmmms about it. "Yeah...like...that angry guy, Onija or whatever, seemed like he'd really just fight him." Kill him...despite him having looked straight at her as he was boiling with such threats, is that a thing you do to people, in Chise's world? It's still hard to think of. But that intense menace was all too real. Her eyes flick down. "Idunno. I don't think Captain's a bad guy, or anything. But I think this is more personal than any of us thought, too."
The moment hangs for a moment. She jabs her ice a couple times, stewing in it. But Yume's right; they can't get anywhere on that with the man of the hour off doing whatever it is he's doing. So, as Yume agrees, she brightens a bit. "Sounds good, then," she says, though she doesn't bolt upright, either. Pointing her eyes upward for a few moments at lazily spinning fans. "Getting hot," she says, thoughtfully. "Good time to pick up some new stuff."
<Pose Tracker> Wing Combine Force has posed.
Not a moment after Yume's done tossing her tea-cup into the garbage, she's rising up to make a choice from the vending machine. (A cold green tea will do.) A crack of the cap, a hearty swallow, closing right back up. "It's been a long summer so far, hasn't it...mn, it's a bit tough to find clothes. Usually I feel more comfortable with a few layers."
From her purse, Yume withdraws that ankh puzzle, idly toying with it between her fingers as she meanders off from the table - just enough to wordlessly signal that she'll go wherever Chise had in mind to shop. "...Yeah. That guy was a real blowhard, wasn't he? Honestly..." Her hand grips the puzzle a little tighter. ...If she really wanted, even this thing could...
Her head shakes, hair tousling over her shoulders messily. She doesn't even realize at first that she's holding both Dynawing and those two ankhs...once she does, though, back into the bag Dynawing goes. "...Say, Chise. Does that scare you? Being around the kind of thing that could endanger your life?"
<Pose Tracker> Chise Asukagawa has posed.
Chise levers herself up with Yume heading off, similarly cleaning up after and then rearming herself. With plans made she satisfies herself with a single box of Pocky.
Inquisitive eyes watch Yume as they start to walk and talk, piercing blue watching her face as she thinks. Eventually she sighs, stretching her back out and linking her fingers behind her head, a customary posture for her. "I mean..." she says, slowly, nimbly slipping between other social groups in the hall. "There's robot fights and kaiju *somewhere* nearby kinda all the time...I guess if I think about it, it's scary, but.."
She remembers only a few days ago, when one of the Evangelions slammed down between her and the Bullton, impossibly limber, impossibly huge, impossibly light. "...I guess it's a different kind of thing with that guy. He had eyes I could look in, you know...?"
She lets that thought trail off as she turns to peer into a store they're walking past, with rows of slender tops and short leathery skirts, much like she's wearing now. "...ehh," she says, and steps past. "Could do with a new choker, though..."
<Pose Tracker> Wing Combine Force has posed.
"Yeah...I agree with you there, I think." Yume muses, stopping to take another sip of her tea. "...I mean...hm. There's something about fighting with a robot, or a kaiju, or whatever...it's more like a natural disaster a lot of the time. ...Unless you mean the stuff you tend to see in the news..."
Yume stops to think for a minute, glancing down at Dynawing in her pack as she thinks on things like the Britannian occupation...the rise and fall of Neo Zeon, and all sorts of other conflicts that have taken place in space lately.
"...Maybe it's not that different there. But when it's a guy yelling that he's gonna murder you...it's a little unnerving."
Their destination lay in sight, and Yume stops to gaze past the window - her own reflection glossily getting in the way of her and the clothes she...really can't ever imagine herself wearing.
Her finger trails along her own neck, and she mutters out, "Wouldn't a choker get uncomfortable, and kinda sweaty...? Not sure I get it..."
<Pose Tracker> Chise Asukagawa has posed.
"It's hard to think about anything like that as anything but a natural disaster, I think," Chise agrees. "Stuff happens. Did you see, even Sheryl got hurt the other day! Those concerts are pretty secure."
Chise hardly thinks about military violence. Chise wasn't alive when Area 11 was taken. "But a guy with an attitude and a look like he'll use it? That's..." ...she shifts, uneasy. "Yeah."
That clears up soon enough, though. Chise giggles, freeing a hand to finger the ring at her neck connecting her choker to her top. "It does when ya start. You just kinda get used to it?" she says. "Huhh..."
She darts ahead a few paces, to another store with a slightly less Mostly Black attire, and slips in. "This seems good! Summer's too hot for all this black."
<Pose Tracker> Wing Combine Force has posed.
"Yeah...that concert situation was all over To-witter this morning," Yume remarks, taking a picture of a particularly ostentatiously leather mannequin before they depart for a more sensible store.
...And immediately sends it to Mei, with a caption, "Would either of us ever wear something like this?" and a little laughing emoji (even though her real expression's a little flat).
"Kind of crazy that she didn't evacuate...? It sounded like all that Vajra stuff happened, but she kept...singing? I wonder why. I don't really know a lot about her besides that her music's popular. ...Are you a fan?"
This next place, Yume's a little more inclined to step into. It's still a little 'cute' for her tastes, but...Yume at least fusses with a pale cream cardigan, placing it over herself in front of a mirror. "...right. Summer clothes. ...I like this, but I don't wanna buy something I won't wear for months...got any suggestions? I'm not really big into fashion...really, I don't go shopping with people that often."
<Pose Tracker> Chise Asukagawa has posed.
Chise doesn't peek at the texting. Even she has invasiveness standards!! "Not really?" she says, slowly. "Some of it's fine. She did so much stuff she had to have a few things hit." Hmmm. She considers just a Totally Normal Tee Shirt for a few seconds, looking it over from a few angles. "Eh," she says, putting it back and trotting on. "But I know she'd speak about how important her singing was to her, and stuff, and..." ...she trails off, thoughts slowly stopping as she ends up at a rack with a row of button-down dress shirts, much too big for her. "Uh, y-ya know, I guess that's just her!" she says, deflecting the entire train of thought directly into the garbage.
She zips over to what look like just regular summery shirts, white with some of a few choices of logos, but they have cloth hoods as well. "Ooo, I like this one," she says, holding one up in her size.
She blinks at Yume's question, then scans around a little. "You've kinda got the whole girl next door thing going..." Chise says, thoughtlessly tugging on one of her pigtails. "Something in pink or white, probably...? But not like TOO cutesy..."
<Pose Tracker> Wing Combine Force has posed.
Yume takes Chise's advice to heart, and goes rummaging around a rack of...the clothes that are on discount- until she finds it. The perfect answer to Chise's fashion senses:
it's just a pink and white striped tank top. It's not like...particularly flattering for her, on its own. "Something like this, Chise...? Hmmmm...I'm not sure. Maybe..."
"Well, I guess that's one reason I might not ever really get Sheryl Nome, huh? All that elaborate idol fashion...seems like sort of a pain. Can't say I get it myself..." A collection of t-shirts just as baggy and un-noticeable as her current getup starts to build in Yume's arms. There's something a little aimless in her eyes even trying to pick them out...not just 'aren't clothes something you just wear' in her demeanor, but...thinking of Sheryl Nome putting so much out there...risking life and limb because being an idol is her 'something only she can do'...
"Say, Chise. ...mm. I'm probably gonna go home after this. ...Had fun, just. A lot on my mind suddenly..."
<Pose Tracker> Chise Asukagawa has posed.
Chise brightens up. "Yeah!" she says, nodding eagerly. "I think that'd work for you!"
"Yeah," Chise says, conversationally. "Those big shows are amazing tech, but it's kind of a lot sometimes? Like, the whole total holographic stadium thing is like..." She makes a face and doesn't bother to actually show it to Yume, instead letting the silence speak. "I'm more the...few guys on stage...and you stay in your chair rather than going to a magical fairy land of clockwork...type of show?" Hm. "I mean, I guess? Not like I ever actually went...Not like I could ever get the Big Guy to take me..."
What about her parents? Loudly unmentioned.
She blinks up as Yume...taps out. "Yeah?" she says, and deflates somewhat behind Yume's back, her face falling.
She sucks in a breath and forces it into a smile. "Uh, yeah, that's cool! Not a problem or anything, I'll figure myself out. Thanks for staying for a while."