2025-01-19: Heads-Up Meeting
- Log: 2025-01-19- Heads-Up Meeting
- Cast: Akane Shinjo, Guy Shishioh
- Where: Tsutsujidai Colony - Wadatsumi
- Date: 0100-01-19
- Summary: In between various tasks on her trip to Tsutsujidai, Akane decides to see Guy and catch up about their lives now that they have a break in their schedules outside of work.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The Wadatsumi still stands as a 3G... semi-base? Monitoring installation? The important thing is that it's there and still active and with Cosmo Babylonia's presence lingering there's a great reason to use it. Between that and remote coursework, Akane and Rikka aren't exclusively on vacation out here even though a significant chunk of their time will be spent on more vacationy activities.
Akane, for her part, is busy handling a relatively routine data review. The hood of her lightly-modified 3G uniform is up, and she's locked in...
... or at least she was until about 30 seconds ago. Now she has hit the 'cooked' stage of effort; she's been juggling closing on a house, multiple holidays, and... certain upcoming events.
Events which she really ought to tell the Chief about. Accordingly, she's fired off an email delegating some of this to Taki and asked if Guy could meet up with her -- in one of the conference rooms. She's not especially picky about which, especially after she clarifies that this is probably more social call than report.
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Guy Shishioh has, in fact, not remained whole-ass on vacation while the world burned. Although Hinoki is still pulling at the threads of his new Semi-Evoluder biology - she's preoccupied with attending to GGG Green's work with the remaining Bettermen - it's evident at this point he's not going to explode or suddenly loudly power down, so he's got a clean enough bill of health to work. That was a while ago, of course.
As it happens, today he's also been at Wadatsumi, overseeing Some Chief Business that will presumably be the Key to Victory at some point. So it's easy enough for him to carve out some time and show up at one of the inner-facing conference rooms. So much of the ship has been stripped and reassembled at this point - it really is more of a proper building, by now, proper anchored to the colony and everything - so the tables are even on the ground. Guy arrives with his usual flare and the Chief's vest, half-consciously straightening the garment as he enters. "Akane?" he calls in by way of greeting. "Something on your mind?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Guy," Akane greets, with a smile. ... It's a sign of great comfort that she's able to address someone first name yobisute without feeling weird about it by this point -- and indeed that's a pretty hard-won success on her part. "We haven't had a chance to talk face to face in a bit! I guess it's kinda been busy for both of us... how are you doing lately?"
She gives him time to answer, of course; she doesn't just want to steamroll him with life milestones. "We finally closed on the house this week... Mama -- uh, Takarada-san -- helped us get set up before we flew out here." She takes a deep breath, fluffs out her hair a bit -- she really needs to cut it down again a little, she's never sure whether she wants to wear it like she did in Tsutsujidai or a bit longer and neater; right now she's toward the latter end -- and goes for it.
"If you've got a few free hours on Tuesday, some of us are going out for lunch and some arcade stuff at GROUND the ONE." A beat. "When we get home, I'm gonna propose to Rikka."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Guy gives her that handsome grin of his, friendly and kind. "Holding in so far," he says, with a hapless shrug. "After the fall of the Burning Tombstone, it's not like I could rest on my laurels." He laughs lightly, despite having introduced a heavy topic: "Well, Mikoto says I have to stop talking like I've gotta personally pick everyone up by the scruff." ... His gaze does harden briefly. "Galeon's still regenerating, though. We really did a number on him."
Still, Akane's news is happier, and he smiles pleased while he takes a seat. "That a fact! Good! Come all that way just to choose home...I know how it is."
Then, she makes her move, and Guy's eyes widen in surprise before he cracks into a wide grin. "Oh! It's finally that time, is it?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"... Yeah, we really did," Akane muses. "I'm glad he's putting himself back together, though." The rest of them are all transforming -- all in repair -- too, aren't they? Maybe the secret is that you never stop, that everyone's always 'regenerating' from something.
"Yeah! We ended up like... four doors down from Keita and Hinoki? Some of the SDC front-office employees are on the other side of the street, too. I don't know if we'll still be living there when we're 50 or if we'll end up selling at some point, but..." Rubbing at the back of her neck, she says, "For now, at least, it looks like Nouvelle Tokyo's home again."
Guy's momentary surprise gets a giggle out of Akane. "Yeah! Uh -- if you want I can show you... hold on..."
Akane fumbles in her vest for a few moments, eventually finding a small box, which she sets on the table. Opening it, she reveals a ring -- made of silver-white metal with a frankly-massive shield-cut purple diamond and ruby-red side stones, with the words 'I want to know you more' engraved on the inside in Japanese.
"So this is teeeechnically a copy of the one I hand-made... legally I think either 3G or the SDC has part ownership of the copyright on this specific design because I asked to use the fabrication lab... I reeeeally didn't want to work the gold-platinum alloy by hand and the stone would be almost impossible to find in a natural setting, but..."
A blush creeps into her cheeks. "I wanted something totally unique for her."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Indeed, if Guy needs him, perhaps even now Galeon would struggle to life. Guy trusts in his partner more than anyone to stand up when the chips are down. He takes it as good enough sign that he hasn't needed to make that request of him yet. But maybe it's just as momentous a statement that the girls who caused such a mess just a few years ago are on their way to happy milestones like this.
Despite it all, the world's still spinning, mom, dad...everything's still OK.
He gives a sly grin. "Well, you'll always have a place here, of course," he adds, with a wink. "But seems like Nouvelle's been a good home to a lot of people. It was good to me, too, so, I'm sure it'll make a good home."
The fumbling gets her a little grin and he watches with interest. "You're fine," he laughs, at Akane's flustered explanation of ownership. "Shigeru uses that thing to throw something together every other day, at this point, I'm pretty sure."
He examines it for a moment, then looks up to Akane with a grin. "It's awesome. They deserve only the best, don't they?"
He leans back to give her space back, saying, "She'll love it."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"... Yeah. I guess I will," Akane admits, a little sheepish about it. It's... a different place from the one she thought she had, but increasingly she finds she likes this one better. It really is something irreplaceable.
"They really do," Akane agrees, nodding to Guy. "The metal is the same alloy we use in the Algernon Watchmen for wear resistance? You could drag this thing around the planet and it'd be a little scuffed at most." Hence the need for the fabrication lab, of course; strictly speaking Akane could have done any number of other things -- cutting is a distinct type of force -- but it'd still probably suck. "I made a matching one with different stone colors, too!" For herself, presumably.
"It's... weird," Akane suddenly reflects. "When I was in high school, I didn't really imagine myself as, like..." She gestures vaguely, finally remembering to close up the box and take it back. "It's weird to be, like -- by the end of the year unless something goes really wrong I'm gonna be a married woman in her 20s, whose friends are... mostly married people in their 20s." She thinks Hinoki might be 30 by then but that'd be a little graceless to append even by her standards.
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
"Sounds just about unbreakable. Nice," Guy says, spotting the symbolism at once. "Guess I'll have to step up my own game, huh?"
Akane's obvious excitement allows Guy to comfortably mirror the energy, watching and listening. When her thoughts turn inward, he settles in with a small grin. "Life comes at you suddenly around then," he agrees. "Well...though I guess I can't say my own experience was all that normal." He can't even blame EI-01 for his school life, Guy was just a weirdo. But Mikoto was there with him through it all. His smile grows softer, thinking of her.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Hehehe, well... I don't wanna do this full time," Akane admits, "but if you want, I wouldn't mind making another ring." There's something about the process that's meditative for Akane, at this point -- it's a different type of art from the art that's become more touch-and-go for her since her... experience.
Akane sees that smile -- and the softness is a little bit like blood in the water for someone who loves to tease as much as Akane does. "Sooooo... do you two have any plans to get closer soon~?" ... The operator pool -- which Akane still considers herself part of, even if she's promoted out of it in her day-to-day work -- does gossip about their senpai and the Chief. Getting a chance at an answer straight from the source while his guard's a little down...~
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Guy hems at that, crossing his arms to think. "Hm. I might have to think about that one." Mostly because GOD he's even falling behind Koji, here. "But something custom from an important friend would be great, I think."
Guy keeps letting his guard down around Akane like she can somehow be relied on to not bite his ankles, and only when she visibly activates does he realize what he's done. "Ahhh," he says, drawling it out in all the uncertainty that's needed. "Back at the start of all this, we'd said we would wait until the fighting was over. When we thought this would all end with Pasdar." He shakes his head a little. "But we just keep finding people who need help. Things we can do. Maybe we do need to move on with it soon."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
She's a terror. You've gotta watch that one. "... Yeah, that makes sense." Part of her had had that fantasy too -- waiting for the political climate to cool down. Waiting for Nouvelle Tokyo's science crime rate to dip at least out of world top five. Waiting until she knows where Gridman deposited Alexis exactly.
"Can't wait forever, though. Seems like there's always going to be something going on, you know?" Something about that is almost... reassuring, in some sense. That it's never going to be perfect makes it worth doing now. "Besides -- 3G's the biggest it's ever been these days, I think! If you're looking for a time when the least pressure's on you... yeah, you've pretty much got it, Chief."
Her hand comes up to her lips to hide another giggle. "Plus I think Green's got the lightest duty of any branch, so you're definitely in a better position than some of the rest of us."