2024-09-05: Brothers
- Log: Brothers
- Cast: Koji Kabuto, Shari Loom
- Where: Photon Power League, Fujinomiya City, OCU
- OOC - IC Date: September 5, 0099
- Summary: Shari Loom comes to Dr. Kabuto with some troubles, and some news about her future presence. His experience helps her make some important decisions.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Doctor Kabuto? He's down in the development labs. Something about a personal project."
While the OCU showed few physical scars from the fall of Junius Seven, the emotional scars have burrowed in deep... but even with the need to grieve, and recover from yet another colony drop, the OCU still requires power, and so the Photon Power Labs staff are slowly returning to work.
Some, however, have additional duties to perform.
Koji is working with one of the holographic displays in the material development labs. Currently, he seems to be trying to sculpt a 3D blueprint of a robot's leg. The shape is very clearly reminiscent of Mazinger Z's legs, but the knee and calf are more elegantly curved - though no less bulky.
After a little while, Koji sits down in a chair looking at the rotating blueprint, hands folded in front of his face as he considers the design - and that's where Shari will find him.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Thanks."
Shari Loom could reasonably have just stayed home, and called in with her news. She could've avoided going places at all; nobody would've blamed her. ...But frankly, she'd feel like a fraud acting like she has a lot of grief for herself and her parents.
They didn't want her anyway. Why should she be so broken up about it?
Shari steps into the lab and looks at the shape; Mazinger Z... Bulky but elegant. Hmm.
"Hard at work, huh? ...Cool design."
Pause. "You have a minute to talk?" Shari asks. "It's kinda personal, though I guess it's a little work-related too..."
She's dressed in more black than usual--usually it's mostly black with some color to spice it up, plus her dark makeup, but this is the full mourning garb, so to speak. She seems a little subdued.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji snaps out of his gloomy reverie, looking up towards Shari. "Thanks. It's going to take a while before it's ready, but I'm trying to go for more, uh, deflective designs on the limbs. We're still having trouble with iterating on improvements to Super Alloy New Z, though, and with the theoretical reactor output I want, the stress tolerance and resonance frequencies still leave a lot to be desired."
He looks at Shari now, not past her, and sits up straighter, minimizing his blueprint down to a part of a vague silhouette. "... Yeah, I've got time." He reaches over to hook his foot around the mast of another chair, dragging it over close to him for Shari to sit in. "... You're not okay, huh?"
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"That makes sense," Shari says. "I can show you some notes I've got--the unit I finished designing is really armored, so it might give you ideas. ...My Spinatio 'Knight'." Shari has been working on that for a long time; apparently she finally finished it.
"Though it's not as reactor-heavy as your design, I think."
A pause. He looks at her, and she waits for him to notice... Ah, yeah. Shari moves over to take a seat. "I'm fine," she says, "I just have a lot on my mind."
Pause. "Mostly... Uh..."
She stops, and starts again, "...I'm gonna need to work from home more. I won't have as much time to actually commute here. I know that's a little of a security risk, but... Not much I can do about it, unless I move here instead. Which I guess I could. I need a new apartment anyway."
She's meandering, and she knows it. Shari stops,a nd then, "I mean--"
"...Junius Seven hit my parents' house," she explains. "I didn't really get along with them, but, uh..."
"Um, do you have any advice on... taking care of teenagers? It's... It's my brother. He doesn't have anywhere else to go, so..."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"I'd love to take a look," Koji says with a smile. "You finally finished that up, huh?"
Shari explains - haltingly, and Koji closes his eyes and lets out a deep breath.
"... I see." He turns off the projector. "Your brother, huh? Well... By the time Shiro was a teenager, I wasn't the only one responsible for looking after him - Yumi-san and Morimori and Sewasshi had basically filled in the role of family for both of us - but I do know something of what you're going through."
"When the accident took mom and dad away from us, and grandpa put us up in his estate, I kinda knew it was my responsibility to make sure Shiro grew up right. We had a housekeeper to help, but... there's a difference between family and someone paid to look after you, you know? And grandpa sneaking off to build Mazinger Z meant he was basically never around."
He grins, half-heartedly. "I won't lie to you - I was a dumbass kid myself at the time, it drove me crazy. It wasn't until we basically fell into the Photon Power Lab's lap that things started getting easier, after I learned to trust Sayaka and the others. You're older than I was at the time, but let me guess: You and your brother don't get along either, huh?"
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Yep!" Shari answers, a little more brightly. That fades as she says, "...With kaiju attacks and things like Junius Seven... I feel like it might be time to use it, too. To be my own 'Knight'."
Koji... gets it. "Right," Shari says of the difference. Koji was responsible... Shari feels the same way.
"It's... like that," Shari says with a wince. "We're basically strangers. After my parents had him, they finally had their 'son'. The weirdo girl who heard voices in her head wasn't their only shot, anymore. So i ended up in boarding schools, and he didn't."
"So... I dunno. I always resented him. But if I don't take him in, he goes to foster care. I can't just... abandon him. It's not his fault."
"He's about fourteen. I don't think I'll have to watch him constantly or anything, but I can't just move him in and let him rot. He's used to servants doing everything for him."
She pauses. "...I never said, because I don't really care, but... in Britannia we're nobles. So..."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Yeah, I get it." Koji nods at - well, at where the hologram used to be. "Same thought process here."
Shari elaborates further, and...
"Nobles? Oh, man." He winces. "That's gonna be a big adjustment, for both of you. Have you talked to him about any of this yet?"
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Same thought process... Shari nods. "Yeah. It's like that. I admire you guys, you know? It makes me think... I can do something, too."
Then she gives a lopsided sort of smile. "Yep. It never got me that far directly--I mean, I know that's why I got into all these good schools and stuff, but it's not like I was being waited on or whatever."
"He was, though. ...Havne't had a chance. Communications are really spotty out there right now; I won't get to talk to him until he's on the plane on the way over."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"... Okay." Koji nods. "So you've probably thought about this already, but... brace for things to suck. It's gonna take you both time to adjust to the new situation, and you'll both probably be yelling at each other a lot."
"On that note... I'll talk to Sayaka, and we'll set you up with some paid leave so you can actually have time to get settled. Is there anything else you think you'll need?"
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Yeah," Shari says. "I don't expect it to be pleasant. I dunno exactly what it'll all look like, but in Britannia anyway I'm the adult, so..." She gestures, vaguely. "Yelling, huh? ...Well, can't be worse than the yelling I've already dealt with I guess." She doesn't sound thrilled, though.
"OK. Thanks. I..." She shrugs. "I dunno. Maybe some help apartment hunting. I'm gonna need a new place. He can't sleep on the couch."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Yeah. There's a few good places in the city, but I can do some looking around for how things are in the Tokyos - or anywhere else you might prefer."
He considers, then fixes Shari with a serious look. "I want to be clear about something, Shari - whatever support your and your brother need, I'll do whatever I can to help. It's what Yumi-san did for Shiro and me, after all, so..."
He reaches behind his head to rub the back of his neck. "Wow, I sounded really sappy there."
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Ok, cool, I'll... figure it out with Gerardo," she says. She's a little worried about that, too. "Where to go, I mean. Probably either there or around here, though. I might put school on hold... I don't really need it. I'm already an expert."
In engineering, that is.
But a serious look, and--
Shari smiles faintly. It's a little wan, but it's there. '...Thanks," she says. "I'll keep that in mind. I might need the help."
"...A little sappy now and then is OK. I won't tell anybody."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Getting a smile, even a wan one, from Shari brings a smile to Koji's face in turn. "Deal. This secret goes to our graves." He puts one hand over his heart, melodramatically.
"... Have they already had the memorial service?" He needs to turn back to the whole reason this is even a subject they need to talk about, now.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Haha, got it." Shari can accept those terms.
She's got a few skulls on her outfit, anyway.
"...No," Shari answers. "I wasn't going to ask, but Mr. Killman told me. --He's our lawyer. They don't have time yet, with all the work digging things out. The only reason we even know they're dead is that people like us get the priority on search." Shari grimaces. "...I wasn't going to go, but..."
Maybe she should.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"... Saying goodbye is important," Koji says, in that familiar tone of voice that says he learned this truth the hard way. "... Even if your relationship wasn't good."
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Saying goodbye, huh..."
"I didn't even know they knew I was alive," she admits. "I haven't talked to them since before... Well, you know." The massacre. Where Shari went 'missing'. "But I guess you're right. You know about this stuff, huh?"
"It'll let me see him before he gets here, anyway. Obviously he's going."
"..."
"...At least I've got the wardrobe already, right?" It's a weak attempt at a joke. But Shari makes it anyway.