2024-12-16: A Discreet Spot
- Log: 2024-12-16- A Discreet Spot
- Cast: Milly Ashford, Toikou Yottsuri
- Where: A Cafe Near Asticassia
- Date: January 01, 2025
- Summary: Toikou Yottsuri takes her first step into the ideologically-motivated criminal world that Milly Ashford is dragging her into.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
It's been a long time since Milly felt like... doing... much of anything. More than anything, she's felt embarrassed -- felt like she needs to just go through the motions until something changes. ... For better or for worse, though, something has changed -- she's reconnected with someone she encountered a while ago!
... and, well, now she's taken her under her wing a little bit. And for the moment, in turn, that means taking her off campus to a small cafe with a distinctly rustic aesthetic -- extremely an affectation in a place like this...
... but that's why Milly likes it.
"Order whatever you want," she enthuses to her student-turned-coconspirator. "I have a usual here." It's a simple coffee and biscotti combo -- but she has ordered it twice a week since she started TAing.
<Pose Tracker> Toikou Yottsuri has posed.
It's been a long time since Toikou felt like she wanted something. It wasn't exactly a... familiar feeling to her, somehow--she was aware this was probably bad, but hadn't particularly cared to think about it before. Up until now, at any rate... She hadn't expected Miss Prez to remember her, though.
It was... nice that she did, though. Although she wasn't sure why she'd been brought to a cafe that looked like... well, she wasn't entirely sure how to describe this aesthetic yet. She didn't hate it, though...
"Oh. I'll have... uh..." she mumbles in the general direction of her tutor, staring down at the table to look for some kind of menu. A part of her just wanted to order some water, but that felt... well, wrong...
Just normal coffee would be fine, right..? People normally had things with it, she remembered... Like... bread. Or... "...Some kind of muffin and a coffee. Maybe."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Milly nods, saying, "Blueberry muffin it is! That's a classic." Evidently, 'maybe,' to her, means 'finish the request for me.' It wouldn't be the first time -- Nina was like that in high school, certainly. (They really ought to check in with each other again... it's been some time.)
She smiles, waiting patiently for coffee and breakfast food. She leans against the counter, drumming her fingers against it. "Thanks for agreeing to come out with me! I'm sure you have a lot of questions about the things we've been alluding to." Here, her lips curl up a little. "I think it might have upset a few people if we'd discussed all that on campus, but here is nice!"
... and, of course, there's a reason that a certain organization has had a disproportionate number of its student members have meet-ups here, but that's neither here nor there. (But it is here.)
Coffee arrives. It's instant, unfortunately -- but the muffins and biscotti are made fresh daily! "How are classes going, though? I'd be remiss if I didn't ask as a TA."
<Pose Tracker> Toikou Yottsuri has posed.
Toikou tilts her head slightly to the side, the movement of her eyes hidden behind her thick glasses. "It is? That's good. I think." She wasn't sure how to feel about her order being finished for her... it made this a lot easier, though, so she doesn't really mind...
Her face remains effectively blank, her hands folded in her lap. She shifts about slightly in her seat. "Oh, I... uh... thanks for inviting me." Toikou's face forms a very slight frown as the conversation shifts slightly. "Well... a few... maybe. But if you think it's better to talk about it here..."
This is a nice cafe, she thinks. She has no real frame of reference for it, but... well, it's not like anything back where she's from... She thinks.
Similarly, she doesn't really understand the distinction between real and instant coffee--but she can definitely tell that the food is well-made. "Oh, they're going.. well, I think. I'm not sure of my grading right now, but I don't seem to be doing badly. That's good, I think."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Once their orders arrive and they get settled in, Milly looks to Toikou, still all slightly-too-assured smiles. "I'm always glad to give an excuse for this type of thing. Secondary and post-secondary studies are nice, but social development's important too." She stretches out a bit.
"I've been... asked, to lower the temperature of a few things on campus," Milly says, not really wanting to elaborate further. It's better for all parties if that particular element remains a little shrouded in mystery for now. "But this is a good place to come whenever you want to talk, if you need things to stay quiet." Here, she gives a pleased little glance back to the clerk.
Then it's attention-forward again. ... The impulse to play advisor is always strong, even though they're not that far apart in years. "If you're having trouble accessing your grades through the portal, e-Services should be able to help... but if it's a teacher issue, well, there's no helping that."
... Part of the reason she picked here is to be able to be candid, though. "... What are you looking for out of this? What do you want to do to change the world?" she asks, casual about it. She knows there are some... complications, there, for someone from that colony.
<Pose Tracker> Toikou Yottsuri has posed.
Taking a slight sip of instant coffee, Toikou nods her head along. This makes sense, she thinks. Social development was... uh... Well, it should be important. "Right... I suppose that's true..." she says, blushing slightly. Was she... embarrassed about her level of socialisation?
"Oh... right. I guess if they've told you not to talk about it, there's no helping it." Toikou replies, having no knowledge of any context and (seemingly correctly) guessing that it was better for those involved that way. "I'll keep that in mind. That's useful. Thank you" She looks to the clerk slightly herself--despite her gaze being rather hard to track due to the glasses, she's still rather obvious.
She's still looking about when Milly turns forwards to advise her. It prompts a slight-almost imperceptible-jump in her seat, and a frantic return to forwards attention from her. "Oh, I'm sure I can see them, I just... keep forgetting to check. My teachers... I don't think they're issues, right now?" She ponders this for a few moments, before shaking her head. No, she was fine on that front.
The sudden, casual shift to other matters is also fairly jarring, but she rolls with it. "Oh. Well..." Toikou stares down at her lap, going rather quiet for a while. "I... well. I know the history I was taught isn't the proper one. But the real one is so..." She thinks back to the past few years. Kaiju. Disasters. The revelation that the wars had never really ended. The revelation that she wasn't strictly... 'real' in the conventional sense, at least not before. In more ways than just the life of a shut-in. But... she'd been helped along her way. "...it's. Violent. I... want it to stop being that way. If I'm going to exist... as a real person in this world, at least more than I've started to already, then..."
She looks back up, the light reflecting off of her glasses. "...Even if it's just by a little, I want to use what influence I have to make it better, too."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Scooting forward a bit in her seat, Milly says, "It's good to have somewhere to talk about sensitive topics." She finds herself entirely too amused by the slight jump Toikou does -- her expression remains one of playful amusement even as Toikou affirms that her grades are probably accessible. It's hard not to be a little mean about it...
... but she'll be good. "Well, if you run into any trouble, let me know!" she enthuses, before starting in on her biscotti. She seems satisfied; she does love fresh baked goods.
She lets Toikou speak. "... I can understand that. I don't even know if it has much to do with whether you're 'real' or not..." That smile starts to turn melancholy as she muses, "I think for our generation, this might just be what 'growing up' looks like."
Pushing her hair back and trying to focus on the present moment even as her thoughts draw her into her past, she says, "You have a few advantages on that front I don't, at least. And if you want to break the things making it worse... well. I enjoy that kind of thing, too~."
<Pose Tracker> Toikou Yottsuri has posed.
Her composure mostly regained, Toikou reaches down to pick up her muffin. She peels its wrapping off from the sides, tilting her head slightly at the amused look. "That makes sense. I can imagine it's helpful. I think."
She almost picks up on Milly restraining herself from something... but doesn't think anything of it. "I'll do that. Thank you, Miss Prez. Am I supposed to be calling you Miss Prez? I forget." She starts to chew on her muffin.
"I... think that makes sense. Although I'd have thought it's more... surely most generations in this world--the world, I should say--grew up like that, now?" Toikou thinks for a moment, staring at her half-eaten muffin.
Thinking about her own past, she turns her gaze back to Milly. A muffin is set back down on the table--very aesthetically pleasingly half-eaten, the sort of thing the camera would linger on for a moment during a conversation--and brushes aside some of her bangs that had started to fall over one side of her face. "I don't know about advantages. You're... better-connected than I am--connected at all, really--and I'm not sure I'd... well.. take to breaking things all that well... but. If it's something we'd have to do, I suppose I.. uhm.. could." She replies, trying to hide a faint blush that was forming for reasons she didn't quite understand. Also embarassing...
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
The question that comes from Toikou... that gives Milly pause. She likes 'Miss Prez.' It's been a couple years, and that feels so strange now... indeed, before too long it'll be three years since she was Ashford Academy's student council president.
It prompts a remarkably nostalgic sigh from her, and she ultimately lands on, "... I kind of like it." She seems embarrassed -- as if knowing indulging too much in the past reflects poorly on her, but... high school was a nice time.
Milly watches that uncertainty. "Connections aren't that hard to make," she muses aloud. "Besides -- you've got a little more freedom to make those sorts of choices." Milly keeps cornering herself, if only by accident.
Milly's manicured nails tap along her biscotti, and she takes another sip of coffee. "I don't think anything changes without a few things breaking," she adds.
... She thinks back to a day not so long ago. For a moment, her gaze turns down; her nails dig into that dry biscuit. She breathes out, slowly. "... I've been thinking of adding a few piloting electives to my own schedule after winter break... would you care to join me?" Turn toward the practicals and it'll get easier, she tells herself.
<Pose Tracker> Toikou Yottsuri has posed.
Toikou notices the slight pause, but says nothing. She takes another little sip of instant coffee instead... This wasn't so bad, really. Maybe she should come here more often. She does need to get out more...
The remarkably nostalgic sigh is noted--if not fully understood--but Toikou doesn't quite grasp the embarrassment in Milly's Voice. She was Miss Prez when Toikou first met her, so... "If you say so, Miss Prez." Toikou manages another smile, slightly wider this time.
Having returned to eating her muffin, she nods along to Milly's idle musings. "I... suppose you just need practice forming them..." she mumbles between bites, "Although I don't know about... well, there's nothing impeding me from that freedom, If... there is for you, Miss Prez..." Toikou accidentally drives Milly a little further into that corner. "...And. I suppose you do have to break something before you can put it back together again. You just need to think about how to break it the right way first, probably."
Toikou cants her head slightly to one side yet again as Milly seems... tenser, for a moment, but brushes it off as she starts to talk again. She takes another slightly larger sip of her coffee. "Oh... well.. if it's with you, Miss Prez... That might be good to work on. I'll come along."
Miss Prez knows her way around these things, she thinks. Sticking with her is probably for the best.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
It's clear to Milly that Toikou is starting to unclench, bit by bit; this doesn't surprise her over-much. She's known a fair few people with this sort of issue, by this point. "... Things have always been a little complex for me. I don't think that sort of thing makes good coffee conversation, but... well, Britannian women have some expectations attached."
Tsutsujidaians have more than a little reason to be naive, and Milly envies the naivete involved. "But you're right! That's why I started GUTS in the first place -- and even if you're not at a GUTS school now, you can still put together that GUTS spirit! If you put yourself out there, you can find your people!"
Breaking something the right way to put it back together again, too, seems to agree with Milly's sensibility. "Figuring out what the right way looks like is pretty hard, though..." Thinking back, she concludes, "but sometimes breaking it the wrong way just kind of works out!"
Happier thoughts. Eyes forward rather than back. She drinks her coffee. "I think it'd be good! It's something I've been meaning to work on... and I think it's a useful skill for just about anyone. You might meet some different kinds of people if you try a piloting class or two, too."
<Pose Tracker> Toikou Yottsuri has posed.
Toikou nods along once again, figuring out how to relax herself... a little more. Slowly. "Oh. I suppose I can... Well, no. I can't understand that, but I can... see it." She visibly deliberates over each word, trying to put the statement forwards as neutrally as possible. She doesn't want to upset Miss Prez...
"Put myself out there..." Toikou muses idly to herself, trying to force herself to not turn pale at the thought. The glasses make hiding this a little easier, but she's still probably easy enough to read--still, she does have to do it... "I... I'd need to. Figure out how to do that, but... I'm sure there are people I could find..." She says, with a little more confidence than she'd just had. She'd come this far, hadn't she?
"Well... sometimes it could just work out, I suppose, but... No, if it needs to be broken no matter what, it's still better to do it wrong even if it doesn't, right?" Toikou says, unintentionally radicalising herself just a bit more. Even with the pieces broke wrong, you could still put it back together better if you knew what you were doing, right?
Finished with her muffin, she wipes her mouth with a napkin carefully. "That's also good... I'd be glad to come along on that, then. I could... use some more skills, especially with the school being the way it is..." She nods her head, taking another sip of coffee. She could be useful, this way. At least, she hopes so.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
The fact that Toikou is making an effort seems to meet with Milly's approval, or at least doesn't get her to think over-much about the bullet she dodged by leaping into a ditch. She's still reassessing how she feels about... well, everything that got her to her present situation.
But that's not something she can figure out with Toikou right there. Besides -- right now she's looking at Toikou. "If you're struggling, I can help with that? Asticassia is..." Here, she pauses. How to explain this to someone who's still getting their head around everything? "... I understand that it's not what you're used to culturally. But there are a few other OCU students here, and a lot of them are probably as lost as you are. You can start there! And if you need anything, I still consider GUTS alumni my responsibility."
She chews at her biscotti for a while, letting Toikou ruminate on breaking things. Part of what held her in place for so long was fear of breaking something -- and staying still broke things, too. Maybe Toikou's right on that.
Her painted lips quirking up as Toikou agrees she could use more skills, Milly says, "I don't think the duel system teaches people great lessons? But if you're at Asticassia, you're kind of stuck with it, so you should at least be able to handle it."
Her head tilts a little to one side, almost appraisingly. Yes, this ought to work out. "And if we find other uses for those skills, that's not a bad thing at all~."
<Pose Tracker> Toikou Yottsuri has posed.
"It's... a pretty different culture, yes. In a lot of ways--I suppose people from the OCU are much closer. It's as good a place to start--and that's... uhm, appreciate, Miss Prez..." Toikou manages another slight smile, fiddling with her glasses for a moment. Milly helping her would be... nice, actually. Helpful. Good.
She does, in fact, think over the idea of breaking things while Milly chews away at her biscotti. Sometimes there are things that really do have to give--what happened in Tsutsujidai (or at least the parts she actually saw) should have taught her that much, at least. Starting out intending to do that from the start... it might make it easier.
She sighs faintly, nodding her head. "That's true, probably... but we are stuck with it... and it's good to not have to find someone to stand in for you. Or to be able to stand in for people." She smiles slightly, again. "Helping people is good, I think."
She shrinks back slightly as she's appraised, nodding a few times. Useful is good. And Miss Prez has always seemed like someone it'd be good for the world to be useful to. "Uhm... yes. That's true. Definitely. That's not bad."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
'Closer' is something Milly's brain hangs on. She knows Tsutsujidai's circumstances are strange -- but maybe it's the Britannian in her that sees Tsutsujidai as fundamentally an OCU territory before anything else about it that might be 'weird.' She wonders for a few moments if Toikou is eligible for state education funding...
... that's definitely far afield from their present discussion, though. That can be a fun mental note, though, and something to send some papers along about later. Talking about dueling is easier. "I'm a strictly average pilot, but," here there's a twinkle in her eye as she notes, "if you ever want someone to help you cheat, let me know~."
Milly has come to understand this truth: winners cheat.
At least at Asticassia. But probably most other places, too.
"Things that don't change go extinct," Milly muses. "So I suppose we'll have to start changing too. And maybe changing the things around us, too..." Toikou seems like a good ally, Milly thinks to herself. ... They'll probably learn a lot from each other~.
<Pose Tracker> Toikou Yottsuri has posed.
People in the OCU's Japan and the... other territories in the region have a pretty different cultural experience to a Tsutsujidai resident, Toikou thinks. Maybe not everyone from the ward is quite as hung up over finding out there were a good almost two decades of extra conflict in the world's history they hadn't been aware of as she is... but far as she's concerned, it's a pretty big different.
Dueling is definitely easier to think about, though. "I haven't... really gotten any experience with piloting at the moment." she says, before tilting her head to the side slightly. "...learning to cheat would be... well, at least for here, it'd be useful. Outside of here... it depends on what I'd be doing with the skills."
Cheating in Asticassia isn't really cheating, Toikou thinks. It's part of what you're meant to do.
And outside of Asticassia... well, it's... dubiously moral, but it's not cheating if you're not playing a game... still, as far as she knows that's not something she has to worry about for a while. Probably.
"Change keeps us going... and helping the things around us to change helps them keep going too." Toikou says, mostly to herself. And right now, the best way to change herself seems to be to stay on this path... after all, she's got a lot to learn--and maybe a few things to teach, too. Hopefully, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"... Well, we can talk about that later? I won't say no to extra hands for some of this. I don't mind showing you what it's like out here, either." Milly is a little sad to have to acquaint Toikou here with the darker side of the Universal Century. The things she knows about Tsutsujidai, and its reported alternate history...
... well, she can understand that type of escapism if you can't just hide in Ashford Academy.
No more self-reflection, though. That's not helpful right now. And Toikou clearly needs the help.
Since they've clearly arrived at an agreement, Milly gives her a nod, agreeing, "I think you get it." Maybe later she can tell her about some of the things that got her to this point... after they prove they're a good fit for each other, of course.
In the meanwhile, Milly signals for another of her usuals. She can indulge for once.