2025-06-24: But Nobody Came

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  • Log: 2025-06-25
  • Cast: Lilium Valerie's escort flight leader, 'Cherub,-2', Akane Shinjo
  • Where: Enhanced Human Quarters, Underneath Heaven's Base, Former Location of Downtown Reykjavik, Area 10 (Iceland), Britannian Union of Solar Energy and the New Continent
  • OOC - IC Date: Somewhere between June Thirteenth and Twenty-Fourth, Universal Century 0100 (2025)
  • Summary: Akane finally gets to meet her roommate. Unfortunately, things between them don't exactly start off on the best note.


<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

Heaven's Base, once again. More specifically, the the underground barracks for 'Officers' who only theoretically hold a rank, so to speak. Akane has been directed to her new quarters--an empty bunk in a two-subject dormitory.

On her way, she sees many sights--A room full of young adults in strange glass cradles, each arranged in a set of three. Medical beds being pushed too and fro, up and down the corridors with varying levels of urgency. Windows into vast open caves, massive drydocks, and various operating theatres. Hall after hall of habitation blocks, not a single door marked with the subject's real name.

Eventually she passes up a set of stairs, and takes two left turns and a right, before finding herself face to face with room 54-Delta; labelled as 'MAJ. ------ ------- (7.77 C-flight #2)'

No sound escapes from the room, but she's been told her roommate ought to be in.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

So this... is her new home. Akane doesn't much like what she sees -- least of all the dehumanizing way that the habitation blocks are set up. She does her best to keep an eye out for things she'll be able to act on once she gets out of here, a finger coming up into her dark hair for a few moments. Being able to cling to that is just about the last thing keeping her sane, keeping her capable of facing the world and the things going on as herself, and... honestly, that's still a struggle.

She pauses. She could just key in, of course -- it is her room at this point, and she's allowed -- but part of her still wants to be polite, even if she has no grand fondness for her situation or any of the people involved with it.

She knocks. It's the polite thing to do.

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

A few moments pass, and Akane is acknowledged with a faint grunt--then after few moments more, "...Coming..."

The door slides open, and a silver-haired woman in her late 20s is leaning against one side of the frame. She's remarkably tall, and is dressed like she only just got up. A set of aged dog tags and a well-polished silver locket hang around her neck, while her untied hair falls down across her right eye and a decent distance down her back.

"Oh, it's you. Come in, then..."

The woman pushes off from the doorframe, turning around and heading back in without waiting for a response. "Your bed's the one on the right--I've mostly cleared it off, but there's probably still some of my things over there..." A hand is waved dismissively.

Akane's new shared room is... mostly clean. Uniforms of all sorts hang in the closet, several magazines are neatly stacked in a corner, the little en-suite bathroom is well maintained, a few posters hung perfectly on-center line the walls, some kind of improvised shrine has been set up on one of the tables... all sorts of things.

Akane's roommate, for her part, has sat back down upon her own bed, across the room from Akane's. The door slides shut.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane nods to the woman, taking a moment before she steps in; her hands remain folded neatly in front of her as she steps in. Apparently she's already been introduced by someone else -- or at the very least, Cherub-2 has already been briefed.

She gives a cursory look around, eyes lingering on the improvised shrine briefly before tracking to the magazines. Print magazines... Akane's no stranger to these, of course, but it's interesting to see someone else who puts paper pulp to good(?) use.

Akane moves over to the bed, taking a seat. "It sounds like we're going to be roommates for a while," Akane says, flopping backward in short order. "I guess since we're not formally at war, it looks bad if you guys have me as an actual prisoner."

It's still a little bewildering to have this much free reign. She doesn't feel like a prisoner -- and while she's aware enough that there is probably a reason for that that has a lot to do with prisonerhood, it's still weird. "So what's your deal?" A beat. "... Do you watch Tarabaman?"

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

The Shrine, on closer inspection, is /extremely/ improvised... yet also immaculately care for. In the center is a frame containing a faded photograph of a dark blue-haired girl, most likely no older than 14, with hazel eyes, dressed in what looks to be a... Titans uniform? The sort with the ornate chest decorations, with an Ensign's rank tabs. Out the window behind her, what looks like Eath in the /far/ distance. In the top left corner is printed '0087/JPTRS', although it's a little hard to see with the black ribbons wound diagonally across both of the top corners. The table around it is decorated with various artifacts... An unloaded pistol. A chunk of nondescript metal. A singed pair of dog tags matching the ones around Cherub-2's own neck. Some kind of crucifix, though the way it's been laid out implies less /religious/ significance than relation to the subject of the work.

The Silver-haired woman's eyes narrow slightly as she notices Akane's gaze linger on it.. but she says nothing, and simply exhales when Akane looks away.

The Magazines, conversely, are... seemingly mostly Celebrity Gossip? Galaxy Sports and the like. Largely issues touching on a certain Lilium Valerie, of course... but plenty of Lacus Clyne cover features as well. Mostly ones from since her rebrand with the new hairpin? On closer inspection, one is lying half-open on the side of the pile; showing what looks like a page spread each of Valerie and Clyne pointedly placed next to each other.

Cherub-2 leans back against her wall, folding her arms behind her head. "It certainly seems so..." She nods, thumbing her locket unconsciously. "...I can't say I've had one in a while." A moment's pause. "...Most of the cells are laid out for, ah... active projects as well. the Doctor thought this would be more apt..." She doesn't elaborate on which.

If she objects to the level of freedom Akane is being shown, she's doing a good job of hiding it... though it's clear she has very little experience talking to people without... several shared experiences, shall we say. "My... deal?" She stares blankly. "...Classified. And I've been explicitly ordered not to tell you." she says, while nonchalantly rooting through a stack of pill bottles of a size that leaves... very few possibilities.

"And Tarabaman? Only test screenings for that new one they're making with Her Ladyship Valerie in it." There's... a slight sarcasm in her voice at 'her ladyship', but it doesn't feel mocking as such.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

... Akane knows what that kind of shrine means, and she doesn't press the issue. She isn't going to poke at that wound -- at least not yet. ... She does note it, though, and she has a few best guesses of what happened there.

She cants her head slightly seeing the magazine topics, and then realizes all at once that this is for work rather than an interest; she can connect the dots to Lilium. That kills her interest in the magazines right quick, and gets her to more completely reorient on Cherub-2.

"That kinda makes sense," Akane agrees, at the mention that the cells would be set up for... decidedly more active projects than getting Akane to feel complicit in Gaia Sabers violence. "Guess we're stuck with each other for now. At least until I flip or they have you shoot me in the head while I'm asleep!"

She laughs, as if it's a joke.

She pauses, letting Cherub-2 root around through her pills. "Do you not like the Boosted Songstress project?" she asks, with clear and real curiosity. "I can't say I'm crazy about it."

... she needs to find something to do in here. Maybe it is going to be reading those magazines, but she doesn't anticipate that taking very long.

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

Cherub-2, conversely, does not laugh.

"I'd prefer not to. You have no idea how hard it is to wash--" She coughs promptly, cutting herself off halfway through a sentence. Akane can probably infer the rest, anyway.

She takes several pills--two from one bottle, one from another--and swallows them. "It's not so much... that." A shake of her head.

"It's a job. A job's a job. Work's work, and I've done worse... Besides, if she does what she's meant--" Another cough. She's really not used to talking to people with less clearance than her, evidently, and is desperately searching for a change of--ah.

"...I'm Cherub Flight's lead, by the way. Number Two. We don't have a number one. Don't ask why, please." An awkward hand is extended towards Akane, trying to recenter the conversation around some oddly-timed formalities. She's really bad at this, in spite of her formal demeanor...

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

The fact that Cherub-2 doesn't find Akane's horrible sense of humor funny is also noted. This is going to be a difficult roommate arrangement.

The dry-swallowing, however, is a nice point of commonality! Akane, too, dry-swallows pills. Sitting back up as they continue to talk, Akane makes note of where she cuts herself off; that may be useful later, even if she's not sure how.

For now, though, she'll play the ball where it lies. Extending a hand in turn, Akane shakes Cherub-2's; she furrows her brow a bit. (Her handshake has... improved, somewhat, in her current position, but it's still not a very strong handshake. All things being equal, she prefers the nice, comfortable 45 degree bow most of the time. Who would ever touch people.)

"Why doesn't Cherub Flight have a number one?" Akane asks -- and the instant she does, she starts giggling. Her sense of humor continues to be extremely stupid. "... Well, uh, let's try to get along. I'm used to living alone or with my fiancee..."

She sighs. Rikka and Alouette are probably captive here too... That pulls the wind right out of her sails. "... I want to see her," she says, lamely. "It wouldn't be as bad if I was rooming with her... but I guess they wouldn't let us, given what happened on the Garuda..." A beat passes. "... Do you know about that stuff?"

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

Akane is... not so much irritating to her, but Cherub-2 isn't going to have an easy time of this either.

The pill bottles are sealed and placed back down, and after finishing the handshake she shifts to root around in her wardrobe.

#2's handshake is, seemingly, worse than Akane's. She recoils slightly, despite having initiated it. Another thing she's not used to...

When Akane asks after being specifically asked not to, she freezes dead in her tracks. She's still for a moment, before turning to glare at Akane... and after shifting through several vague facial expressions, failing to articulate a sentence, eventually jerks a thumb over her shoulder towards the makeshift shrine. She doesn't elaborate. "...Likewise. No fiancee, though. I haven't had a roommate in about a decade."

She draws an officer's sabre out of the closet, as well as a bottle of polish and a simple rag. "I'm sure you do." She shrugs noncommitally at the Garuda mention, carefully polishing the blade. "You subverted control of an asset, compromising the operation. Nobody noticed until it was too late. It was impressive work, apparently, but I wasn't briefed on the specifics. Infiltration isn't my forte."

She pauses midway through her work. "Right. I suppose we should probably establish some... understanding for this. That's how these things usually are, yes?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

... Once Akane gets the answer she asked for, she rapidly stops laughing. She looks to one side, then says, "... Sorry. That was... I took too far." She swallows, and takes a few moments to reorient herself. It's a great time to start polishing.

Choosing her words carefully, mysteriously, has become a higher priority. She chews on her lower lip, trying to figure out what to say to Cherub-2; for a few seconds, she's just silent. "... The asset was my fiancee. The 'subverting' was on their end." She can understand why that would get lost in translation in an organization that inherits its perspective on the matter from the Vist Foundation, but that doesn't make the way it's worded not bother her.

When she's prompted for some sort of understanding, Akane lets out a slightly exasperated sigh. "Not like I'm in a position to dictate terms here," she says, with a small, resigned sigh. "I figure I can at least not touch anything that looks important. Anything else?"

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

It's silent for a time. A drop falls from the tap in the dorm's bathroom--clearly audible to both women. Another drop passes after a moment, before Cherub-2 turns back to her work. "Mhm."

She doesn't look up from it as Akane elaborates. "...I figured it was something like that. Nobody gets out alone..." She trails off, shaking her head. Her ceremonial blade is bright enough to reflect her near-lightless eyes now.

Finally, Cherub-2 looks up to Akane again. "...Right, that'll do. And also, don't use my sham--"

She blinks, her gaze settling on Akane's head Specifically, the roots of her hair. Her eyes narrow... "Actually... You'll probably need to use my shampoo pretty soon. I guess I can budget for more of it..."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

The awkwardness passes, at least. "... They were also working on my best friend," Akane adds, quietly. "It's... probably why they have me working with the Boosted Songstress instead of something more, uh, hands-on." She looks down.

... She has to stay strong. She has to keep playing the role requested of her until she finds a way out or someone makes one. If she doesn't -- something worse will happen.

"... Yeah, deal." There's a pause, as she adds, "... If you guys have the stuff that was on me still, there's a 3000 yen prepaid card in there. It's yours if one of your bosses didn't already spend it."

A beat passes. She looks down at her hand. "... If you guys have my engagement ring I want it back," she adds, a little lamely. "I think it came off when one of your guys grabbed me. I didn't have the chance to go back for it before someone caught up with me..."

The ceiling calls Akane's eyes toward it, and she dutifully answers, flopping back down again. "... maybe it's still over there, though. Or that Gustav Karl landed on it..."

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

Another drop falls. Cherub-2 nods, though it's hard to pick up on. "...Right. That'd make sense..." She says, her voice still flat in tone. "Can't say I have much experience on that side of the process... and I can't imagine you're allowed to talk about what they're having you do, either." The sabre is sheathed, and placed in the closet next to multiple heavily-ornate dress uniforms.

...Akane's playing strong, it feels like. She thinks she has an out--and if she's gotten out before, maybe she really does. That must be nice.

"...It's probably been appropriated for the program budget--basically anything that comes through here is. Technically I actually get the full Major's pay, but most of it goes into funding... whatever it is they're doing to her." She sighs, lying down on her own pillow. "...Augusta Accounting, they call it."

Her locket is popped open, and she stares into the picture within it. Akane still had someone waiting for her. "...Engagement ring. I'll see what I can do. What's it look like." For a moment she considers divulging something she shouldn't... but she snaps her locket shut. There'd be no point, this far in.

"Might have. Worth a look, though..." She continues, her head turned to look towards Akane. "If you've still got people who know who you are... that's worth holding onto as long as you can. You won't get that back once it's gone."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Probably not," Akane agrees, slightly blandly. She takes a few moments just to breathe, looking off at nothing in particular, letting her head loll from looking up to looking to the side.

"If they're doing that kind of stuff, the Gaia Sabers are harder-up than I thought. Might be worth checking either way, but jeez." This is not what she imagined the Gaia Sabers were like; the level of strength they broadcast externally had led to some very different conclusions about the way they do accounting. The idea that some -- not all, but some -- of this is paper is almost reassuring.

... the chance to talk about the engagement ring gets her more oriented. "I made it myself," she enthuses, and for an instant she's back to being the girl who's found happiness in her life. "So it's a gold-platinum alloy -- so like, just a tinge of gold in mostly white metal? There's three stones. The center stone is orange, and then the side ones are blue... it's kind of an over-busy design and I know that, but it's -- so it's a pair with the one I made for my fiancee? All the colors are stuff you can see in our eyes, in certain light or because there's like, a little light-scattering effect in..."

She catches herself. "... that's way more than you need to know, I guess," she says, cutting herself off.

Cherub-2's last comment surprises her, though. "... You know, you can meet new people," she says, softly.

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

"Apparently it's mostly just that if they didn't launder whatever money comes from above and appropriate other funds whenever possible, there'd be a noticeable black ho--" A loud cough. "...You didn't hear that. Not from me, not from anyone. That's not safe for you to know." She's communicated too much, probably--but nobody needs to know that Akane might know just how big of a drain on NUNE's coffers The Project really is. There's a reason the Gaia Sabers are seeking economical solutions like 'Pumping Akane Shinjo for Monsters', after all.

Akane's tangent draws a... curious gaze from her. She hasn't seen that kind of expression in a long time... which if she was better at self-reflection would probably be setting off some alarm bells. She rolls over, grabbing a notebook and pen from a table by her bunk. "I see... I don't know if I can ID an alloy by eye, but the colours"--AEU English pronunciation? Was she using that before, or did she just slip into it?--"are useful to know..." Something inside her hurts. She tries to ignore it.

"Most likely, but any detail can help with these... sorts of things..."

Akane's reply... is something she tries to avoid thinking about. Unsuccessfully. Her eyes screwed shut, she replies in turn, "...There aren't really... people here. Just other soldiers." She's been putting it off... but she really does wonder if Akane's ever really killed anyone before. Herself. It's not the kind of question you can just ask, she knows that much.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane snickers a little. "Trust me, I'm part of the OCU's biggest only-semi-justifiable money sink," she says, almost teasingly. ... She does commit that to memory, though. Lilium is a much more expensive cultural project than she seems, and that tells her a lot about how much is riding on whatever she's supposed to be accomplishing.

"Oh! My center stone is emerald cut," Akane adds, if colors aren't going to help Cherub-2 that much. "Like, rectangular? That's the one area where the rings don't match... hers is shield cut. She has a lot of shield cut accessories, actually... she has since high school." The little 'M' badge that Akane, now that she thinks of it, has never actually thought to ask what it's for... her tie clip, too. The little things you don't notice until you have a minute to process instead of seeing new things...

She looks at Cherub-2 as she adds that there aren't people here, just other soldiers. "... Soldiers are people too, but if you can't meet any non-soldiers and haven't for a long time, maybe you should ask yourself how hard the walls of the box are and why." She knows all about living in closed loops, of course.

Letting out a small sigh and shaking her head, she adds, "... anyway, I guess I should shut up," she finally says, lamely.

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

Another narrowing of eyes... but it seems like Akane understands this much, at least. Hopefully she keeps her mouth shut--She doesn't want to deal with the consequences of it. "Your previous employers... have their uses, I'm sure. The OCU wouldn't pay for them otherwise."

More notes taken. Quick sketches of shapes, names of colors... More information. She's serious about this, surprisingly--She doesn't know for sure they don't have the ring.

Cherub-2 stares back at Akane for a long, long time. She doesn't get this, seemingly. But how could she? She got out. She wasn't even in that long. Akane had her fiancee with her--she'd known enough to be able to consider that sort of thing. Akane had never been a teenage girl huddled around a little radio in a cargo hold listening to a man give a speech about how the AEUG was going to save everyone. Akane had never seen the same people she'd been praying for rescue from slaughter the person she cared about most in the world because she'd been forced to go out to fight them. She'd never had to kill those people. As far as she knows (The file on Akane she'd been given skimped on... several details), Akane never built the box holding her from the blood on her own hands. Akane had--Akane had never--She should--

Cherub-2's head is suddenly wracked by a spike of pain--normal, but she'd been off-guard. She rolls over to fumble with her pills again, popping out a headache tablet and some Other Medications. The kind with censor bars on the ingredients. Whatever thoughts she might have had of giving Akane a piece of her mind are lost... which is probably good. She's certain she would've spilled some information she absolutely should not.

"...Yeah, maybe." She never replies to her previous question out loud. Another drop falls from the tap.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane looks at Cherub-2, noticing that she's being stared at. She doesn't quite stare back; she looks at Cherub-2 for a little while, but realizes that the silence is getting awkward and shifts on the bed.

... Then she sees it -- the obvious headache, the spike of pain, the scrambling for medications. She finds herself at a loss for words, albeit with some new information rapidly starting to coalesce.

... Don't get attached, she reminds herself. There's only so much you can catch at once, and the first thing you need to catch is yourself. She lets Cherub-2 fumble for her medications in relative silence. Only once Cherub-2 speaks does Akane do so again. "... All right. Lemme know if you want anything from me." ... After a few seconds' pause, she adds, "And, uh, do you have any game systems? It's fine if it's not networked," obviously it's incredibly dangerous to give Akane a networked device for several reasons, "I just kinda want a distraction."

There are only so many times you can circle the same thought before it becomes compulsive.

<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.

The pain in Cherub-2's head subsides somewhat, and she collapses face first against her pillow with a faint sigh.

"I'll do that. I'll mostly be telling you what the Doctors want, though--or Ms. Arcfeldt, if you're particularly unlucky." She sits up slightly, a more sincere look in her eyes. Akane deserves this much, at least, naivete aside. "-Do not get involved with her any more than you have to. Just... don't. She's worse than the surgeons..." She lets that hang for a few seconds, before she says, "And... there's a common area a few halls down for the team. Your key will probably get you in--there's an old console that runs Climax Coliseum and... basically nothing else. Nobody's managed to get their hands on any other games..."

She sighs again, pulling the covers over herself. Today had been a long day... and tomorrow would be too, and the day after that. Doesn't mean she wouldn't keep going, though. Everyone learns that in time.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

The mention of Arcfeldt being worse than the surgeons gets a slightly wide-eyed expression from Akane -- and a note in her head for later. "... All right. I'll keep that stuff in mind," she agrees. The mention of Climax Coliseum, though -- that gets Akane to smile a bit instead. "... Oooo, that I can play." She's even kind of good at it! Good by casual standards, at least.

... That said, she doesn't have any interest in doing that right this second. She tugs the sheets up over herself, and tries to wind down her brain long enough to get to sleep.

... It doesn't come easily.