2025-06-13: Employee Onboarding

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  • Log: 2025-06-13
  • Cast: Akane Shinjo, Minerva Ashton, Lilium Valerie
  • Where: Heaven's Base, Area 10 (Iceland), Britannian Union of Solar Energy and the New Continent
  • OOC - IC Date: June 13th, Universal Century 0100 (2025)
  • Summary: The allegedly-deceased Akane Shinjo regains consciousness... in the clutches of the Gaia Sabers! Hopefully her captors are nothing but truthful and honest with her. (C/W for emotional manipulation and extremely cruel lies)


<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane groans, still lying there, eyes closed. She remembers moving to check on that science criminal operation's most likely staging location for their action near the border, and then...

Did they get her? How long was she unconscious?

Is she compromised? She has to entertain the possibility, given the cards she knows are on the table.

She takes a few moments to run through some basic questions in her head, and the answers are to her satisfaction, crosschecking them with specific memories; only then does she open her eyes.

"Nnh..." She at least tries to rub at her head. If she's restrained that may be tricky, of course.

She takes stock of the room she's presently in, trying to make sense of her surroundings. It's sterile, but not miserably sterile. ... A military installation, then.

... well, this is the world she chose, she supposes. It's not all kaiju studies and helping victims.

<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.

"Wakey wakey~!"

The first thing Akane hears is a chipper voice - a woman's? Standing in front of her is a woman (maybe mid-30s?) with bleached white hair, round glasses, and a white labcoat. She holds a datapad, tapping at it absent-mindedly. Akane's sitting in a padded metal chair - like one you might find at a dentist's - but she doesn't appear to be restrained.

"Hello, Ms. Shinjo- or, I'm sorry, it's Mrs. now, isn't it? It's good to see you awake! You've been out for quite a while. My apologies if you feel disoriented, the rank and file can be a bit rougher than I'd like."

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

The second thing Akane hears, perhaps more confusingly, is a soft voice singing. Maybe she heard it before she woke up and didn't realise. Who can say? Probably not Akane.

A woman with a black ponytail tied high is sitting on a desk on the other side of the room, facing away from her. She's wearing a patient's gown of some sort--evidently she's supposed to be here for similar reasons to Akane... but she seems to be passing the time by singing. In... Gablish? Zentran..?

"...I-sa-ya, haaaah I-sa-ya... I-si-ma, hoooooh... co-zi..."

...Familiar, perhaps. But also a little too quiet to really make out, more likely than not.

More pressingly, another woman (a decade or so older, maybe) with dark hair, a grey labcoat with what look like Gaia Sabers ranks pinned to it uncaringly, and dark hair stands off to the side of the weird chair, taking notes on a more traditional clipboard. She remains silent for now, and there's nobody else in the room... but the woman facing away is still singing...

"...I-sa-ya, haaaah I-sa-ya... Tra-si-ma, haaaah... co-zi..."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Realizing she's oriented rather more 'up' than she expected is itself a surprise, and a little bit of a worrying one; she tends to think of this as a 'procedure chair' and accordingly it's more than a little fear-inducing. But her answers do match up with her expected answers, which means nothing's happened yet.

"... Still Ms. for the next two months. And at that point it'll be Mrs. Takarada," Akane answers, trying to get her head in the game. ... She's still a little groggy.

A few more seconds of processing. ... Things look too expensive for an organization that was operating out of a day spa at one point. Gaia Sabers territory, then. "Who... are you?" she asks, hazily. Her gaze turns to the woman facing away from her, in the patient's gown, singing softly -- and then back to Minerva, who seems to be taking point with her. "What do you want with me? And..." Her gaze tracks to the woman with the ponytail again. "... And who's she?"

<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.

"Ah, my apologies - and my congratulations as well! Well, aside from. . ." Minerva trails off. Best not to tell her how long she'll be here for just yet.

"I'm Dr. Minerva Ashton. It's a pleasure to meet such a famous lady!" Minerva smiles from behind her glasses at Akane.

"I'll get the easier question out of the way first, I suppose. That's Lilium - one of my patients. Don't worry about her for now."

"To answer your main question, you're here because we need your help, let's say, with a project of ours. You're a very talented young woman, Ms. Shinjo, and we require those talents for our operations. Think of it as a. . . work exchange program."

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

Lilium swings her legs off the side of the desk she's sat on. She's listening in on the conversation, but still hasn't turned to face Akane yet.

Akane is... famous? She'd never heard of her... But maybe she was a regional Britannian celebrity or something? They'd found her in part of Britannia...

She does turn about when her name is called, though, giving a little wave and a smile that looks... weirdly forced? Like she was pulling it for a photo..?

The other labcoated woman places her hand over her face, sighing heavily. She shakes her head for a moment, before looking up from her clipboard. "Yes, yes... as my colleague is saying, we believe you have... abilities that it would be in our best interests for you to make use of. I'm sure you know what we're referring to." She doesn't, personally... this is much further into Minerva's various fields than her more narrow expertise. "-Ah. I'm Doctor Rebecca Frankford, by the way."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"... Nice to meet you," Akane says. She's inclined to play nice, at least for now. Certainly her bargaining posture is terrible.

Lilium... Akane pauses. "Wait. Like, the idol who's been --" Akane did know that she was a person of interest, but that was as far as it went for her thus far; if there's more that 3G knows about Lilium, it's on someone in Blue's desk and never reached hers. She turns to Lilium, giving her a small wave back -- but noting the plasticness in Lilium's own smile. She can only half-trace the sausage being made thus far, but she doesn't like the smell.

Asserting that Akane's famous, though. That means only one thing -- Minerva's been looking into Omnisphere research. ... Or kaiju, one supposes, but in her context one's as good as the other.

"Ashton. Frankford," Akane murmurs to herself. She's always been mixed at remembering names. "So, this is just about pumping me for kaiju, huh..." She wants to say she doesn't or can't do that anymore, but she knows that Britannia knows that she's Galactron's operator after Huffman Island so that's probably not the play. "Well, at the very least I can't really do that if you recondition me, so it looks like I'm at least dodging a couple bullets..."

She cants her head, looking at Minerva with at least the appearance of guilelessness. "So if I do this, when do you let me out?" she asks, pleasantly.

<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.

Minerva stays silent as Akane puts the pieces together on Lilium, only smiling softly. She watches the gears turn in her head. She's smart. That's good.

"Yes, your proficiency in kaiju creation is a very valuable asset!" She chooses not to comment on the 'reconditioning' part.

"Oh, as soon as we're done, honestly. It's a job we can't do without you!" She does not give an exact time.

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

Frankford narrows her eyes slightly. Akane is... that's not honest pleasantry. Doctor Ashton seems to have things under control, though... but Arcfeldt had made sure her and Lilium were here too for a reason. "Yes, you and the rest of your... entourage who we picked up on our side of the border", she lies. "We'll let all of you go as soon as things are... settled.

Lilium's face, meanwhile, shifts into a slight frown.

She feels... uncomfortable? Is it something I did, do you think?

Wouldn't you feel uncomfortable if you woke up in a room like this with no idea how you got there?

Lilium shakes her head to no one in particular, her smile returning.

No? That's normal? It happens all the time...

Somewhere in Lilium's field of vision, a figure nobody except her can see buries its face in its hands.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane takes a few moments to consider -- and then the other end of the trap springs. Entourage? "Huh?" Akane looks to Frankford with an expression of genuine shock on her face. "... That's --" Okay, she thinks. Roll it back a bit. Who were they going to send if things went sour enough that they needed 3G combat support?

Rikka. Alouette. She thinks she remembers seeing Knight, but she knows that unless he has to watch where he's stepping there's no way they could have gotten him, which... is something.

"R-right. Okay. How much... settling are you looking for? What are you actually trying to accomplish here?" A beat passes. "When do I get to see them?"

She knows better than to expect that. They were only held together last time because it wouuld have jeopardized the Box to do otherwise... That's not a great start.

<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.

As the 'reality' of Akane's situation starts to set in, Minerva checks her datapad again. She raises an eyebrow. Some of the forces have moved in to apprehend a Gundam in Side 4. Worth keeping an eye on the results.

"For the time being, you won't be seeing them. They need to go through. . . processing first. Standard procedure, of course," Minerva tells Akane.

Akane notices a large amount of papers on the wall. From what little she can see, they seem to be. . . personnel reports. For Cyber-Newtypes.

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

Dr. Frankford nods her head, tapping one finger on the back of her clipboard to count the seconds. Nine... eight... Seven...

Lilium tilts her head, staring at her curiously for a moment, but Frankford brushes it off. "Yes, standard procedure." She glances back down at her clipboard, making sure the papers are arranged just right. Six... five... four...

Three... two... one... she opens her mouth, starting a sentence she knows she won't finish. "We've also got... work exchanges lined up for some of them... nothing--"

Right on time, her phone starts ringing. She fumbles with it for a few moments--nothing too obvious--before answering, raising it to her head.

"Doctor Frankford speaking, who--Ah. Ms. Arcfeldt."

She turns away from Akane, making sure that she looks like she's trying not to be overheard. She tries to make sure Akane can pick up the important details of her side of the conversation, though.

"...Yes, she just came around a few minutes ago in fact..."

Lilium swings her legs innocently, staring up a the ceiling. She wasn't supposed to have a checkup today... why was she here, again...?

"-No, I don't think moving ahead with that proposal is necessary at this time--you're already carrying out pre-op? Without me or Doctor Ashton present..?"

Frankford's clipboard, incidentally, was lying somewhere Akane might be able to read it. There were all kinds of interesting things there... Like the paper on front, marked as Boosted Songstress specifications. It seems to be a set of two anatomy diagrams... the leftmost one seems to be Lilium, but the rightmost is marked as 'unit 02'. Both have almost every section of their anatomy labelled with illegible scribbles.

"We don't need a second Boosted Songstress unit--we don't have the supplies for one anyway, at most she'd be an amplifier for..."

Another paper sticking out from the clipboard is labelled as 'BOOSTED SONGSTRESS 02 COSTUME PROPOSAL: Type-250, 'Dreamy Divas' spec. Most of it is under the rest of the stack, but the design's head can be seen poking out... the drawing is of a woman with a ponytail, but aren't those Rikka's bangs..?

"...Could serve as a control unit for the Queen of Monsters? You know we need a better codename for her than that--that's besides the point..."

A convincingly exasperated sigh. "--Look. I keep telling you, we don't have the P-Frame on hand right now either way. Even if you networked her into Angel IV, she wouldn't be effective. Just... keep her in the tank for now. We'll see if we can get any more in before we have to release them."

She hangs up her phone, slipping it into her pocket. Rebecca Frankford was a good liar--even when she was just reading from a script. She'd had a lot of practice; considering her bedside manner.

"...Right, then... Sorry about that. Where were we, Ms. Shinjo..?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane's stomach lurches as she hears the word 'processing.' Her eyes dart around a little. ... It's just like before. Her unvarnished and unaltered emotional states are necessary to the enterprise; they are, after all, what gives rise to kaiju.

Everyone else's are fungible.

They could let them all go, compromised except for her. That's not out of the realm of possibility. And if it came down to it... Akane's not sure she'd be able to navigate that one. She starts doing the math in her head again. Her best play is to leverage her own compliance for everyone else's sake.

Her gaze tracks across those papers as Dr. Frankford talks. -- Pre-op? A booster? Akane cranes her head just slightly, figuring she can get away with it.

The talk gets worse. And worse. And fast. And Akane can see those bangs -- she's drawn them (... on Cecilia, which is technically slightly off her model but shh) more than once.

The tank? Booster? Akane's heard that sort of talk before. It's always -- every time, they're talking about how Rikka is someone else's accessory. No one cares about her, just -- just the way they can hang her off their new favorite.

She's addressed again. Akane's eyes snap up. "We were talking about how if you make another phone call right now to get whatever that was not to happen, and tell me what that 'before we have to release them' target is, I'll do whatever you want." Her gaze turns down, as it does when she's cornered.

"Is this okay?" she asks God, softly.

She has no answer for her own question, except to trust in her friends' courage --

-- because she can't trust in her own.

<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.

Frankford is excellent at her job, and Akane acquiesces immediately - faster than Minerva thought she would, even. They'd have to work on that in the future - against opposing parties, naturally.

"I'm glad to hear you're ready to cooperate with us! This will be a mutually beneficial relationship. You'll be providing us with your unique skillset, and outside of that, I'd like to take you on as an. . . assistant, of sorts," Minerva says. Her smile has remained unfaltering throughout the entire conversation. Right now, she gives the impression of a hunting animal about to devour its prey.

"It's more than okay. You're in good hands."

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

Rebecca doesn't like being this good at her job. She usually only lied like this to hide uncomfortable truths from patients--and doing that didn't give her quite so large a pit in her stomach. Ashton seemingly not having any such qualms doesn't help how she feels, either--but work is work.

"...So you heard that." She says, feigning surprise... passably. "So long as you can produce meaningful results in a timely manner, the Policy Council won't force our hands. They can't make that happen right now--and ideally by the time they could proceed with the Boosted Songstress Conversion, you'll have proven your ability to cooperate."

Lilium perks up slightly as the name of her program is mentioned--but something compels her not to comment on it. Instead, she simply adds "Oh, yeah! You're in, like, suuuuper good hands..." She smiles that plastic smile again...

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

The entire time Frankford and Minerva are talking to her, Akane's looking at Lilium. Pieces are slipping into place bit by bit -- about who this idol is, why the Policy Council are so interested in her performance -- and she does not like the smell.

Assistant, though. That's good, she thinks, a little distantly. It'll give her some latitude to work and gather information in between -- whatever they want from her. Unique skillset does indeed suggest kaiju. She is not especially fond of that -- but she thinks she has some plans for how to run the clock and throw 3G some softballs, at least, on that front. She's got to play the hand she's dealt, even if it's bad.

(Akane's pair of 10s is actually a fine hand, but she's always been easy to bluff.)

"All right. What do you need from me first?" Akane asks Ashton, figuring that the best way she has to move here is to start at least feigning cooperation as fast as she can.

<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.

Minerva gives Lilium a little absent-minded wave when she speaks up. "Well, for tonight? Nothing right now! We'll get you to your quarters, you can meet your roommate, and you can get some shut-eye. You've got a big first day tomorrow~!"

Two people in bodysuits with orange visors enter the room and motion to escort Akane out. They say nothing, and their visors make them unreadable.

"I do look forward to working with you, Ms. Shinjo"

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

Lilium smiles, waving back. Her gaze tracks Minerva's other assistants--was Akane going to have to dress like that too?--as they escort the woman some part of her vaguely feels she's heard alluded to in conversation before out.

Frankford, on the other hand, picks up her phone once again. "-Two? You're being assigned a roommate--get yourself presentable, don't tell her anything you shouldn't, you know all this..." She sighs once again, waiting until Akane has been lead a decent ways down the hallway. "...and pass Arcfeldt a message for me while you're still on your own. It's worked--the subject is on-side for now. We'll need her to produce more materials to keep her persuaded, but she should have the free time..."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Nothing for now. That's... okay. That's fine. Akane does feel tired, even though she also feels like she's been unconscious forever. She stands, looking between the bodysuit-clad individuals; she makes her peace with the moment.

It's amazing how fast something becomes 'normal,' when it comes down to it.

She gives one last wave back to Lilium, making her way out. "I'll do my best," Akane says, doing the best she can to suppress her anxiety.

It doesn't work very well. Even in her gut, she can feel that Rikka's somewhere far away from her and in distress -- and when it comes to Rikka, her gut's rarely been wrong.