2025-07-08: Glass Shards and Coffee Stains
- Log: Glass Shards and Coffee Stains
- Cast: Akane Shinjo, Minerva Ashton
- Where: Heaven's Base, Cafeteria
- Date: July 08, 2025
- Summary: Minerva and Akane have a casual conversation over cafeteria pizza about career choices. Reflection on the past occurs, and is generally bad for both of them. TW for general traumatic recollection.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Extraction has been getting worse. There's no two ways about that. Akane's spent more time hiding in Shiiko's graciously-offered office, too, though she has of course been dutiful and compliant about all 'equipment maintenance' she's been asked to participate in. All of it has just become... routine.
She hates it -- hates herself for it -- but what else can she do? As long as the possibility of Unit 2 dangles ahead of her, let alone anything they've been doing to Alouette and not thought to tell her, she has to. The fact that she can see the wires -- still knows that her standing there holding a wire is a job that could be done by any grunt they pull out of the cafeteria -- doesn't prevent the way it hurts to know that she's doing that.
Still: as long as you're alive, you gotta eat. Akane has managed to sync up to the lowest-traffic hours of the cafeteria by this point, despite the fact that that requires her to stay awake at hours she normally would prefer not to.
Cafeteria pizza again.
<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.
The days have flown by surprisingly quickly, and among them, Minerva and Akane have had small snippets together. Sometimes work-related, sometimes it's the counting, and some days...
Some days are like today. Minerva sits down with a slice of Pizza Hut (TM) and a mug of coffee opposite Akane at the table.
"Afternoon, dear," the scientist says, her mug rippling a little bit as she sets it down. There are bags under Minerva's eyes, but she seems in good spirits as always.
The two stare at each other awkwardly for a bit - Minerva doesn't really know how to interact with another person beyond this. She takes a bite of her pizza.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The counting bounces around in Akane's head whenever she has downtime. She truly doesn't understand what it could possibly mean, and that part scares her. Is she counting up to some specific number, at which point something will happen? Is it a neurological tic like the association of Algernon with the number 26? Those are common among people in Minerva's line of work.
"Good afternoon, Doctor," Akane says, a little tonelessly. It's a pleasant flatness that would have been familiar to Alexis or the people who knew her in Tsutsujidai -- a flatness that doesn't sound right coming out of her mouth now. ... Or wouldn't to people who knew her better, anyway.
... Akane's not exactly a social butterfly either -- but she does feel obligated to try, since... well, this is her captor, and more than that, there's -- some elements of Minerva that drive Akane to make some kind of connection.
"... So what got you into this line of work?" Akane asks, snagging her Pizza Hut(tm) pizza and taking a bite.
<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.
Minerva is a bit taken aback for a second when Akane asks her that particular question - only for a fraction of a second, and it barely registers on her face, but. . .
"Oh! Uh. It's been so long since I've really thought about that..." Minerva seems contemplative for a second, as she stirs her coffee absent-mindedly. Akane ... ostensibly, she's a member of a rival organization that's here as a prisoner, but Minerva has felt something between them. She doesn't really know the feeling - it's been so long that she's forgotten how to really identify it, but something about Akane makes her want to be honest.
"Well, for as long as I can remember I've always wanted to work in science. My family always did support it, they really wanted great things from me. After college, I was hired as a Royal Scientist, and it just felt right!" Minerva has awkward pauses in between a few of her words.
"Science is wonderful. It's beautiful. It's the reason I live," she tells Akane.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane continues to eat her pizza. She's been eating a little more. The anxiety about being poisoned or drugged has been replaced with the twin impulses of 'I want to eat a lot on the Gaia Sabers' dime out of spite' and 'I want to keep my figure nice for my hot fiancee.'
She listens, taking a long drink of her yogurt drink. "There are a lot of ways you can work in science," Akane says, nonchalantly. She doesn't want to press it more than that... but maybe she does want to see if Minerva is the sort of person who falters at someone questioning the premise.
Another bite of her pizza. "Was being a Royal Scientist fun? Tell me about some of the stuff you're most proud of." On the one hand, she knows Minerva might clam up if she gets too close to things that are classified; on the other hand, she's legitimately curious. Akane is someone who has never quite been able to give up her curiosity, even when things go catastrophically wrong.
<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.
Minerva takes another sip of her coffee, sighing a bit as she does.
"There are! But... well, it's been hard finding places that don't have so many silly qualms. 'Dr. Ashton, that man is going to be paralyzed for life! Dr. Ashton, the blast radius on this makes it unuseable!' It's ridiculous! I've been quite happy here, though. Much less of that," Minerva says, her quotes in a mocking high pitch. She seems completely nonchalant about her admission to international jury-tier horrors as she takes another bite of pizza.
"Oh, lots! Plenty of like-minded individuals. Not that hack Lloyd though. I am rather proud of the work I did on the Float System! Before I was let go, we were about to roll it out for mass-production. Very fine piece of equipment."
"I don't think I can talk about many of my other projects, though. You understand, I'm sure. Professional confidentiality," she says. Minerva actually seems enthused enough to ask a question back this time.
"How about you? I know the details on-file, but what made you decide upon this as a career path? You're a bright, talented young lady. Why 3G?" Minerva asks Akane.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
For Akane -- someone who was rescued in large part by an organization that really gives a staggering number of shits about both the healing of hearts and the mitigation of collateral damage, and then embraced warmly enough by it to dedicate the first steps of her career to it -- hearing Minerva talk is alien... and yet.
'I'm thinking today I'll kill my homeroom teacher!'
... she knows part of her revulsion is that if nobody came, she wouldn't be much different. It's extra-alienating to hear an adult talking like that, though; even Akane, now that she has an adult's capacity to look back on a child's life, recognizes that she was being lied to about the nature of her circumstances in ways that made it easy to act like that. She can offer her past self that compassion.
She can't offer that same compassion to Minerva. She keeps eating, but she chews more slowly and sits up subtly straighter.
"Oh, yeah. I can't either. Other than my engagement ring, I mean." Akane tries to wear the mask, lilac hair curtaining her eyes. The question comes back around to her, though...
"... at first it was because I didn't want to see what happened to me happen to other people," Akane says, playing with a lock of hair. "But now that I found what I really like doing, it's..." She gestures with a slice of pizza. "Art, psychology, intelligence -- the more you learn, the better you get at all three of them, right? They're all neat challenges."
<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.
Minerva seems to chew on that a little - as she chews on her pizza. She nods at Akane, a sort of faraway look coming into her eyes for a small moment.
"It's good to be happy with what you do. Still. . ."
"Learning... You've learned a lot, huh? Did you get your degree?" Minerva asks.
She finishes her pizza and casually sits back, one arm over the edge of her chair.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane takes a deep breath in through her nose, then exhales, at the question. "... I'm missing class right now. Most of mine are fully asynchronous so as long as I'm back by September I can probably catch up without anyone noticing, but getting any credit for Neuropsychology is going to take some arguing..."
She looks off into the distance. "This is my third year out of four. I also passed the 3G Mobile Corps and Intelligence entrance exams, barely." With a small smile, she notes, "I'm actually the youngest to pass the Intelligence entrance exam! ... Not Mobile Corps, though." Alouette holds that distinction.
Taking a drink of her yogurt drink again, she says, "I was really enjoying Neuropsych, too... then again, if Rikka's here, at least we'll get to retake it together." It feels delusional to say, at this point, but she has to cling to the possibility.
<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.
Minerva very pointedly dodges the elephant in the room of the "if I make it back to college alive" and instead chooses to respond to Akane's accomplishment.
"That's very impressive! At your age, having a position like that is beyond admirable."
"I really enjoyed my neuropsych classes. Hmmm... " Minerva thinks to herself.
"University is valuable. It's what made me who I am today. I think we'll be able to have you resume your studies before too long," she says. She doesn't specify - the idea of a different school is on the table now.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"I can tell," Akane says dryly, as Minerva mentions enjoying her neuropsych classes. She's seen the sausage get made there and doesn't much like thinking about it any more than she has to.
Unfortunately, she has few options for things to think about and a lot of times where she has to think about it!
"... I'd kinda like that," Akane admits. She's aware that this is a carrot being offered with several implicit caveats. "But... I want to go with my fiancee." There's a bit of an awkward pause as she chews on that, too.
"... If you don't return us by August 21," she asks, softly, "Can we, like... get married here, at least?" It's embarrassing to care when there's this much at stake... but Akane really doesn't want to have that come and go to no consequence.
<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.
"I-"
Minerva falters. She looks down at her pizza. This is not a question she's used to being asked.
"I'll see what I can do."
"I don't... know anything, but I'll see what I can do."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"... Thanks," Akane says, quietly. She's not expecting much, if she's really honest. Even with a lot of good experiences with institutions, Akane's always been institution-skeptical -- and as the OCU and NUNE have gone their separate ways, it's something that has largely been attached to NUNE in her head.
An awkward silence settles over the two of them for a while. Akane eats her pizza, staring down into it.
She swallows hard, and a feeling comes to rest in her gut.
"... do you, uh, watch Tarabaman? Or Donshine? ... Truthseeker Serena?" She really wants a lighter topic sooner than later, at this point.
<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.
Minerva sips her coffee in silence, getting down to the dregs when Akane asks her about TV.
"Oh, those kinds of shows? No, although I really used to. Right about when I was your age, actually! It's behind me now, though." Minerva gives Akane a small smile.
"Did you hear about the movie premiere? Lilium's going to be in it. I'm so proud of her," Minerva asks, a warmer expression coming back onto her face.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane looks at Minerva with a thoughtful expression as she says she lost interest in that type of thing when she was around Akane's age. This could mean nothing, of course -- lots of people give up on childhood hobbies as they become adults. Even so...
"I did hear about that," Akane says. "I've been following news on First Generation since it was announced... The soundtrack is good, I guess." She doesn't want to linger there, though. Her feelings on First Generation get more complicated by the minute.
"... What was going on when you gave it up? Just too busy?" Akane asks. ... part of her knows she's poking at a potentially difficult question, but sometimes you just see something and want to poke at it. ... besides, she wouldn't feel that bad if she made Minerva a little unhappy.
<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.
"Well... one day it just kind of... stopped being interesting," Minerva responds, leaning on the table instead of her previously relaxed position.
"Now that I think about it, it might have been right around when Angela..." Minerva trails off. The sentence is left unfinished.
"Did I ever tell you where I went to college?" she asks, answering before Akane can respond. "The Macross Galaxy. Lots of brilliant people there! Place that made me the woman I am today." Minerva smiles again. The light doesn't seem to reach her eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane catches that. 'Angela,' huh. That's a name she hasn't heard before -- and she can tell she's hit a jagged edge of Minerva's feelings. Part of her feels like she should let it go; part of her really wants to just start directly poking into it, because it feels like if nothing else she might understand Minerva better.
Or make her feel bad about some element of the present or another, which is really just as good. She needs to start making it a bit of a chore to keep up the facade so she can start, in turn, figuring out how to frustrate the situation without making it obvious she's doing that.
"That must have been kind of crazy..." Akane starts. "Did you meet Angela there?" A beat passes before she asks, "And, uh -- are you, like... were you a thing?" It's best if she doesn't assume.
<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.
Minerva starts at Akane's question.
"I- uh-" she stutters uncharacteristically, as something around her heart seems to clench.
"Yes, I met her on the Galaxy. We weren't a thing, though," she says, her voice sounding strained.
"We were classmates. We studied together. We were roommates," Minerva says, her shoulders slumping a bit as Akane pokes a place that hasn't been poked in at least a decade.
"Angela was... in deep debt. She had taken out loans for her research, and they never paid off."
"Are you familiar with the Human Plus program? It was a Galaxy project where indebted individuals put themselves up as collateral - in case of their bankruptcy, they underwent cyberization," Minerva explains, a faraway look entering her eyes.
"The technology was incredible - Galaxy knows how to make a cyborg, that's for sure," she continues, a bit of that religious fervor entering her voice once again. "Our teacher worked in the program, and when Angela couldn't pay off her debt. . . he asked me to help with her surgery."
"It was a learning experience," Minerva finishes, flatly. There's nothing but brown stains left at the bottom of her mug.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
... Akane listens. Angela, Minerva's last friend, her roommate, the apparent shining star of her apparently-quite-happy college years on Galaxy.
"Human Plus? ... Kind of? I didn't actually know they were doing it on Galaxy," Akane answers. She's seen bits and pieces about it in reports from Blue, but that's as far as it goes. She's not quite talented enough to help with untangling that sort of thing.
... Minerva keeps talking, and Akane keeps listening. But half of the time, she's somewhere else entirely -- somewhen else entirely.
///////
"That's what I wanted. Just... a nice dream. For everyone, not just my city." The words jumble up as she tries to speak; she takes a breath and tries again. "You were born already as my friend," Akane chokes out. "Everyone in my city was. Not just you. And I thought -- if everyone understood that, and you and Hibiki and Utsumi could just go back to the way you were, and --"
"I still... really want to be your friend, Akane. I want that so much. But I can't go back to the way I was." She replies. "It is a nice dream... but it's just a dream."
'''''''
"This is all a dream." Yuta says, tonelessly. "Here's your watch back."
"Wouldn't you rather dream forever?" she asks, looking like she's about to choke up -- but she's long forgotten how to cry.
She extends her hand below the watch, but can't quite bring herself to snatch it back.
... after a moment, she retrieves the necklace from earlier.
"This isn't mine," she says. "... A lot of things in this dream aren't."
Akane's voice sounds so fragile. Yuta has to work up his courage to be able to look at her, and when he does... He quickly lowers his face again. It's too painful. The girl he's given up everything to try and save, why does he have to hurt her so much?
Maybe he would like to keep dreaming. It's such a heavy burden. It was fun, dating Akane. Going places together, laughing... Yuta bites his lip.
"Dreams are... things you wake up from." He chokes out the words, his own voice heavy with unshed tears.
'''''''
Akane has always been -- grateful, to whatever part of her lost her nerve when she had the Gridman Alliance at her mercy within Bujack. Grateful to Gridman for being their line back away from making a senseless mistake, and giving them the strength to deny her attempt to free them from the irreplaceable unfreedom they'd found.
Looking at Minerva makes that gratitude much, much more acute.
"... What ended up happening to her?" Akane shoves the last couple bites of pizza away from herself. She doesn't have much of an appetite now.
<Pose Tracker> Minerva Ashton has posed.
"The last I saw of her, she was going to be a Galaxy cybergrunt," Minerva says, and then. . .
"Our intelligence reports the Battle Galaxy was completely destroyed by the Frontier Fleet over the Vajra homeworld," she tells Akane, voice flat.
"And that's all she wrote~!" Minerva switches back to her usual chipper tone so fast it might give Akane whiplash.
"I'm glad you enjoy your career path, Akane. You've got so much potential, and I'd really hate to see it go to waste." Minerva stands up with her tray, and turns back before leaving.
"Oh, right, the boss wanted me to say - you've got more Extraction at 4 today. I hope it goes well. Ta-ta~!"
With that, Dr. Minerva Ashton strolls away, seemingly without a care in the world, whistling a song to herself.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane just stares after Minerva. She can't even begin to find the words here; what could she possibly say? It's all just... miserably sad, really. She probably got into science with the absolute best of intentions, and now she's...
... this.
Akane eventually manages a, "Sure," before standing up and leaving.