2022-11-09: Across Worlds ~WALL~

• Cast: Alouette Pommier, Guy Shishioh
• Where: A Cafe in Tsutsujiai
• Date: U.C. 0096 11 09
• Summary: Her previous conversation with Akane still on her mind, Alouette accepts a cafe invitation from Guy. The distance between worlds feels so much smaller.

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<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

After yesterday's.. difficult conversation with Akane after the Tarabaman binge, Alouette still feels kind of weird, even if Akane mostly managed to scrape together damage control by the end of things.

Although today, she made it to school, she was noticeably more quiet in the actual class discussions, because a singular question was stuck on her mind. "What would my own world even look like?" Here she is, being granted her own godlike powers from another god, and she can't think of a good way to use it.. some "genius" she is, right?

Despite the wrangling in her mind, she simply can't turn down a cafe shop visit from Guy. Caffeine would probably do her wonders, and some advice from Guy, actually sounds genuinely helpful, even if she doesn't think the solution to this question lies on Orbit Base.

Whether to mention Mic Sounders' sighting to Guy, is another question. If the higher-ups at NERV find out, Alouette does not want Tsutsujidai to become a battlefield, especially if the Ruin Apostles aren't here to cause any harm. On the other hand, if Mikoto is here too, well.. Guy deserves to know. But Alouette did not see Mikoto... she wants to see Mikoto too.

At the designated cafe, a smaller one that feels just a bit homely, Alouette arrives about five minutes early. She orders a plain black coffee, and she waits a few minutes for her invitee.

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

Last time, Guy attempted to approach Alouette in an unassuming way, losing the GGG uniform to dress as one might if they lived a life in Tsutsujidai's mundanity.

Not this time. When he appears, one can already sense that the King of Braves has come. He stands straight and tall and smiling, dressed in the green and white of his GGG jumpsuit, with the little GGG Green emblem on its turtleneck of a high collar. Over it, he's wearing the full black coat of his station as Chief, something he previously never wore off Orbit Base. Right hand is gloved in the thick GGG gloves, but his left has an armored glove on it, the back exposed to let out the G-Stone Circuit's light. Also on that hand is a device Alouette knows, but the purpose is inscrutable now - it's the GaoBrace. Guy's never had reason to wear it as long as she's known him, because it was mostly equipment for him as a cyborg. It should have a G-Stone slot, which she'll be able to see has been capped off; and a slot for his Will Knife, which does seem to be present; and the lion head that mount over his wrist should be able to project a signal to summon Galeon.

Except Galeon isn't in this universe. So wearing it would seem pointless.

But he's smiling even bigger than he has even before Alouette left. Like he found something he was missing.

He doesn't stop to order. His G-Stone circuit chimes, signaling he has quietly snuck it into their systems and paid remotely. Just a little bit of cheating.

He steps up to the table, sweeps himself into a seat, and produces...an insulated meal bag. "Glad you could make it! Miiight not be its best, but I was just planetside, so..."

He slips it open. It's...! GGG's favorite lunch, the Hatsuno Diner Tropical Burger!!!

It's two, actually, since one is for him. This is a small jab. He wonders how far back into the little girl who barely wanted to talk about food that wasn't a Joyless Nutrient Cube she's fallen.

He leaves it open for her, settling into a seat himself. "So how's everything been?" he prompts.

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

Seeing Guy now, is a very different experience compared to before, when she got to see him just about every day. But just as the feeling is different, so too is his appearance. She stares at him with almost the same look of awe her childhood self did when they were first acquainted. The hero who she looked up to so much.. and his lion companion that she never got to meet, and she assumes probably never will.

Still, that smile returns to the muted, almost somber-looking one she had last time she saw Guy. Alouette knows that no matter what she feels, the circumstances have changed. She no longer needs saving, and Guy no longer needs to play a hero for her. That's how it should be.

"Yes, thank you for visiting!" She responds, tone more upbeat than her look would suggest. He brought a Hatsuno Diner Tropical Burger for her... that makes her briefly wonder how Hana's doing right now. "And thank you for this, too," she accepts the burger. A few weeks ago, she might have hesitated on it. So although she prefers to take slow, calculated bites, perhaps this is a sign that she is beginning to improve.

"Well, Akane and I binged Tarabaman last night. I really liked it, actually. And, um... I'm glad she was willing to share something she loves like that with me." Of course, there's something else that she wasn't quite able to vocalize in there - the question she had on her mind all day. She knows Guy will probably catch that hesitation, he's very smart himself, but she moves along past it anyways.

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

He takes it that way; a positive sign. A sign that things can move, even under the watchful gaze of Akane's binding kaiju. It's so, so gratifying to see. He is, of course, MUCH less tame about his bites, but he doesn't wolf it down in a single hound-dog chomp, either. Guy likes to enjoy his food. For quite a while he had to keep how much he ate to a minimum, due to the frankly rather unpleasant way his Cyborg body handled it. It's been a long time since then, but...he's tried to keep in the habit of enjoying things.

His drink arrives. It is Some Kind Of Latte Object. Basically everything you can order in Tsutsujidai is dire, a fact Guy didn't know until Renais served him her own. I's why he keeps getting it. Another quiet promise to himself that better days will come.

"Oh yeah?" he asks. He wants it to be causal but the relationships circling Akane are the most interesting thing on this entire colony, and the way his attention curves is not particularly subtle. But he does smile. "You know, I'm glad. Shinjo and I...I mean, you know, we don't get along super well, but...I'm glad she can feel comfortable with you, Alouette. And I'm glad you feel the same. She needs people who care in her life, I think."

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

Alouette's coffee is... it's fine. It's coffee, it's drinkable, and it has caffeine. The Tropical Burger is all the more better in comparison then, and it gives her a good taste of the outside world. A burger, no matter how good, isn't enough to make her change her mind and go back, of course, but it serves as a reminder.

What Guy says about her and Akane... it makes it a lot easier for Alouette to get into what's really been bothering her today. Alouette was deeply glad that Akane saw a friend in her, and she doesn't want to let go of that. After everything she already sacrificed, she can't just lose Akane too.

"I think you're right about that," she agrees in regards to Akane needing people who care. "Last night, she asked me something strange. If I maybe wanted my own world, one like Tsutsujidai. She said it was in her power to do that, but..." What Alouette initially says might suggest that time is running out, and that she could easily make the decision to all but vanish, like tomorrow.

"I decided against it," she concludes. "I'm happy living here, with her. And besides. I can't think of what my own world would look like... I don't want to." She shakes her head. She left so she could be an ordinary teen, godhood wasn't at all what she had in mind.

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

He's not expecting her to suddenly have a change of heart and beg to come home over the delicious home-cooked taste of a Hatsuno burger. Oh, he wants it, but he doesn't expect it.

But that leadup...Guy's tried to play his interactions with Alouette cool. He's tried to look at ease, comfortable...like even if he's not his happiest, he's not going to drag Alouette down.

There's just a moment of a flash of true alarm when Alouette drags out that thought, his face freezing, his eyes shrinking.

He also visibly deflates when she concludes, a breath rushing out of him, and he chuckles. "So that's on the plate, huh? Wow, scared me there." He doesn't go for another bite, settling back in his seat to really just look at her for a moment.

"Might've taken us a bit to talk again, if you did go for it," he says. "It's an odd thing to think about, isn't it? A world just for you...I don't think I could even start. There's too many people I care about."

Just to move, he lightly rotates his coffee. "Too many people I don't want to be without," he muses, and he nearly visibly thinks about Mikoto for a moment.

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

Alouette absolutely notices the visible fear upon Guy's face when she mentions the idea of having her own world. And unlike Akane, who scrambled to "make things better" after she noticed that same look on Alouette's last night, she can't really do anything but lock up for a moment.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," she genuinely apologizes, after Guy regains his bearings. "I mostly brought it up because I'm not sure how to feel about it," she admits. Of course, she made up her mind against having "her own Tsutsujidai", but she's not exactly sure what was going through Akane's mind when she asked something like that, out of the blue.

"That's part of the reason," she nods, when Guy goes into his own feelings about the matter. "I already made a very abrupt decision not that long ago, and I was glad that it went so well." She frowns lightly and fidgets with her cup. "But I don't think I could make a decision that extreme." She sets the cup back down, it's nearly empty. "It would be very lonely."

"I don't think Akane meant any harm when she asked. It seemed like she felt.. bad? After I couldn't answer her." Alouette remembers how Akane kept leaning herself closer and closer. It seemed like it was supposed to be Akane's way of apologizing, but was that truly fair?

"I think the problem was ultimately how.. alone the idea made me feel. I thought Akane and I fully understood each other, but I couldn't understand her at all in that moment." And even if Akane tried her damndest to correct that feeling of loneliness in Alouette, part of it still lingers in her.

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

"It's fine," Guy says. He's rallied, by now, though maybe fidgeting a hair more with that cup. He breathes the coffee scent. ....not great, honestly. Sure is coffee in here. "Part of knowing a decisive girl like you is coming along for the ride." He keeps that smile on her. "And it's not like it'd be forever even so. You're a really amazing young woman, Alouette. Don't even think I'd let something as weak as the World Wall stop me from seeing how much more amazing you can become." He scales it all the way up to that grin of his, just a little sly, just a little dashing.

Hah. Went so well. She didn't watch him worry holes in the decking. Or in Mamoru's patience, for that matter. Still, he wants her to feel that. That he's not doing this to pressure her to come back. Because he wants her to leave this place knowing that when she does make a decision like that, someday, Guy will respect it. And also follow her to the ends of time and space to keep in touch, if that's what it takes.

He doesn't reply, right away, to Alouette's speculation, because he's not entirely sure how Alouette's altered thoughts orient on Akane at this point. But eventually, he has to voice something. "I think...she thinks that's a kindness. She made this place for herself, after all. But..." He motions to Alouette's followup, nodding. "I think...sorry, I guess this is a little more like profiling than anything else. But the sense I get is that Akane doesn't...I'm not sure it's that she doesn't want anyone else around. But it might be that she thinks that loneliness is normal, somehow."

He chuckles. "It's why I'm hanging around telling people to keep in touch with her. Sometimes doing what's best for someone means doing something they'd tell you not to do, ya know?" That sneaky grin of his again.

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

"Even the World Wall, huh?" She laughs, matching Guy's very own grin. Seeing Guy's conviction, his sheer belief in her... there's a strong, flickering spark. It's a very nice feeling, knowing Guy won't give up on her no matter how far away she might be.

Before Guy made his return from the Trinary Solar System, Alouette hoped that she grew up into someone that Guy could be proud of. But when Guy speaks, she senses that it's something even stronger than pride. It's an emotion that she can't quite place, but it makes her feel at peace, perhaps in a more genuine way than Bujack's forced version of it. "...Thank you, Guy." For watching over her, believing her, and allowing her to chart her own way home.

A kindness in loneliness... it reminds her a lot of something. "I think that might be why she likes kaiju so much," Alouette considers. "She told me that kaiju are just supposed to get whatever it is they want and die, that they fundamentally can't exist with people." She looks back down at her cup, and nearly-finished burger. "If she thinks of herself like a kaiju or a monster then..." Akane is so very cruel towards herself, Alouette realizes. "I think it's all the more reason I need to make sure she isn't so lonely."

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

She laughs back, and Guy leans forward, not entirely consciously putting his hand down, the GaoBrace's lion face angling toward her. "You know how hard I fight for what I want," he says, still grinning. "Never doubt that I'd do the impossible for you."

He settles back, then, his own smile ratcheting down to a more tender one. "You're welcome, Alouette," is his reply. Is it silly, to be this attached? To a girl he spent a mere few months de-facto raising, and then a few more not entirely connecting with? No. No, never. Allowing himself to give that love freely and confidently is also the courage of the King of Braves.

He eats, again, while Alouette considers. Even tender moments call for feeding, sometimes!

He nods to her assessment quietly, letting her work through it. This is insight he doesn't have. ...but it tracks to what he does know, and illuminates a lot. "Sounds to me like that there might be what she was thinking with her offer, too. If she thinks herself a kaiju, and they can't coexist with people..." He waves his hand a little, knowing Alouette is more than smart enough to get there.

"She can barely stand to look at me. But I don't want all this to end in tragedy, Alouette. It's you as her friend who can show her that she's not just a monster who gets turned into light."

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

Alouette's sharp, and that GaoBrace has been at the back of her mind for much of the visit. Of course, she doesn't quite connect the dots that a Somnium brought Galeon forward in time of all things, but she knows Guy doesn't tend to bring old tools like that out of mothballs for nothing. The impossible, huh... "I'm looking forward to seeing what miracle you manage next." She takes a few moments to watch the bright glow of the G-Stone through the back of the glove set on the table.

Guy also agrees with Alouette's assessment about Akane, and it gives her a certain impression. "If I'm the one standing between you and her, this is something only I can-" She stops there. The thought seemed to fully form in her mind and dissipate just as quickly, as it struggles against a strongly-developed belief. "In any case, I know it won't end like that." Because at her core, she still believes in Akane her friend, over Akane the monster.