2024-01-29: Welcome Back

• Log: 2024-01-29: Welcome Back
• Cast: Rikka Takarada, Akane Shinjo
• Where: Nouvelle Tokyo - 1LDK Apartment
• OOC - IC Date: 0098-05-03
• Summary: Rikka arrives at the apartment after picking up the last of her things from Tsutsujidai and saying goodbye to her mom. She and Akane eat dinner and talk practicals, though it drifts between that, flirting, and a little bit of serious talk.

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<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Rikka has been gone for most of the day. There were a few, last things for her to take care of back in Tsutsujidai, and it's kept her out. But finally...

"I'm home!" Rikka calls, stepping through the door to her and Akane's apartment. She has a cardboard box in her arms, and balanced carefully on top of that is a small, sealed to-go box with Junk Shop Aya's logo on it. Orie couldn't let her leave just like that, after all. Carefully, Rikka closes the door behind her with her back foot, and takes a moment to look over their place.

An apartment to call their own... Searching for one and negotiating rent wasn't exactly glamorous - it never is - but looking it over like this... Rikka's happy. It's small and a little cramped in places and she's still getting used to living away from her mother... but, she wouldn't give this up for anything.

Rikka makes her way to the sitting room table, setting the box down carefully.

"That's the last of my stuff..." She says, taking a moment to collapse into the sofa and just lean back for a moment with an exhale. The last of her stuff that she's bringing with her, anyway - given the size of her place she couldn't take everything, but she's brought what's important to her.

Of course, what's most important to her is already here.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Fortunately, Akane has the home front locked down. She's doing a little unpacking of her own, having finally gotten to a comfortable balance of what's stored and what's with her. Orbit Base, Sayla's house, a storage unit... Akane's managed to accumulate stuff in a lot of places, and getting it to a point where she's not taking up all the space in the apartment has been a bit of a chore.

... and is ongoing! Right now she's fussing with decorations. She never did get everything just the way she likes it with her planned display -- in large part because there's just not enough wall to do that and have a TV set up in any comfortable way.

"Welcome home," Akane replies to Rikka from the sitting room, letting her make her way in. "Hrrmm... yeah, five is too many. I thought the layout I planned would let them be pretty cozy without looking overloaded, but this just isn't working." She takes the 3D-printed mounts off the wall -- other than one -- and says, "I'll just have to settle."

Akane moves over to the short, Japanese-style sitting room table, flopping down on her usual cushion. "Oh, he~ey... is that dinner for two?" Akane enthuses, playfully, as she notices the to-go box. "If it's just for you that's fine, but I do like eating what your mom made."

She resists the urge to underline the bit, but there's a way her lips quirk up a bit that makes it obvious she has no poker face to speak of.

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

'Welcome home'. It feels good to hear that. Rikka looks toward the sound of Akane's voice, where she's working on decorations. Five is too many, huh... Rikka considers it, looking over Akane's project curiously.

"...Yeah, I see what you mean. I guess it's easy to make plans, but sometimes reality gets in the way..." She considers. Some of the things she had planned for didn't quite work out either - sometimes, they just have to adapt.

Akane joins her, flopping down on her cushion.

"It is!" Rikka confirms - and then briefly doubletakes as Akane continues. Did she just- Rikka catches the look on Akane's face, which tells her all she needs to know. Of course she did. Rikka smirks, raising an eyebrow. It takes all her effort not to laugh so that she can actually respond. "You always do seem pretty eager for it. I sure can't complain."

Rikka leans over, undoing the binding on the to-go box. Inside is a toast combo for two... and, a small cake to split.

"She went a little overboard..." Rikka says with a fond sigh, before looking back toward Akane. "Could you get the plates? Oh - and drinks. You sound pretty thirsty."

There's a light teasing to her tone that suggests she knows exactly what she's doing, too.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane giggles. On the one hand, she misses when she could fluster Rikka trivially -- but on the other hand, this is good too... it's nice to see Rikka self-assured.

"Ooooh, I still love the combo," she enthuses. "I still... mostly remember how to make it, too," she adds. It's been a while since she had the chance to... maybe next week she'll take a few cracks at recapturing that. ... Actually, she ought to do paella some time next week, too...

... it's pretty good to be teased, too, actually. Akane turns a little pink at the mention of being thirsty, and says, "Uh -- drinks! Right. Right," standing up just a little too fast. Half-stepping to the side and putting her hand on a shelf as her blood pressure normalizes, she adds, "I don't think that's too overboard, though. I'm trying to get a little extra weight on... I don't think I'll have a ton of appetite this summer, and that stuff's important for recovery... I'm pretty glad to see cake."

... That one, she doesn't seem to have been trying to do on purpose.

Akane heads into the kitchen, fussing with the plates for a little bit. When she returns, it's with two standard plates and two small ones; she's fussy enough to want to keep the possibility of the cake touching anything else off the table.

Settling back in, she says, "This is a way different neighborhood of Nouvelle Tokyo than I'm used to... I thought it'd be like, 'I know everything already,' but it's actually pretty different." She giggles, saying, "We should hit up some bookstores or something when we don't have class. It's gonna be swamped for a bit, but maybe in a couple weeks?"

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Akane giggles, and Rikka laughs along with her.

"It's really good. I think it's probably one of our biggest hitters." Rikka agrees with a nod. She still thinks of it as 'ours', even if she no longer works at Aya. That's unlikely to change. "You do? That's good... I love it when you make it, too."

Akane turns pink and stands up abruptly and Rikka smirks, satisfied at hitting the mark. She raises an eyebrow again, though - but this time it doesn't seem intentional, so she's fine letting her slide for now.

"Oh, really? This works out great, then. Maybe I should start making a point of treating you~." Rikka replies with a smile, and then 'hm's consideringly at the thought of recovery, a thoughtful look on her face. "We'll probably want to plan out some things to do for that in advance so you can still get what you need... You probably won't be in much of a planning mood if we wait for after."

She's fine putting a pin in that for now, though - it's something they can go over later.

Akane returns and Rikka shifts, moving to sit next to her. She moves the box of her things aside and grabs the to-go box, carefully sorting out their portions and their cake.

She smiles, as Akane comments on how different it is.

"Then I guess we'll be learning the layout together. I kind of like the sound of that, actually..." She replies with a small laugh of her own - and then, she nods. "That sounds fun. Definitely! Waiting's good, anyway... That'll give us more time to settle in."

They'll have a lot to adjust to, after all.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane realizes the drinks are still in the pockets of the pajama pants she's wearing when she gets back; she pulls out a bottle of Calpis for Rikka and a box of apple juice for herself. Fussing with the straw, she says, "I still think I don't have it quite right... that might just be an ingredients thing, though? Like, I can't exactly get the same brands for everything, since some of that stuff's wholesale..."

Rikka teases a little more -- Akane definitely doesn't mind that -- and then settles in on practicals. "Oh yeah, you're right. I need to do a little research on the kinds of meds they put you on after that, too... we don't want to load up on meat or something and then find out I need to cut down my iron intake."

She sighs contentedly. ... it's nice to trust in others. It hasn't been easy, but these sorts of things would have been all but impossible to navigate alone.

"Anything you wanna look into? We should definitely find some nice places to eat, but... it's not just going to be us buying light novels and having coffee dates." A second passes, as Akane sips at her drink. "I wanna go somewhere I'd never go on my own."

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Rikka accepts the bottle with a grateful nod, taking a sip as she thinks over Akane's concerns.

"Maybe..." She considers. "The same thing can taste completely different based on where you get it from. We might need to experiment a little..."

She nods, then.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. We should arm ourselves with as much knowledge as she can." She agrees. It's better to be prepared, even if they end up not needing to worry as much as they thought.

She smiles at Akane's contented sigh - then thinks, as she asks her what she wants to look into, tapping a finger against the side of her bottle.

"That's a good question..." She considers. "We should see what our entertainment options are. A theater... karaoke, too. And..."

Rikka thinks for a moment.

"...I think I'd really like to find a nice park."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Ehehehe... yeah. I've been studying up, but I didn't think about med interactions at all until just now," Akane admits, rubbing at the back of her head. "It's kinda wild what comes up when you just start talking through it..."

She starts in on the combo in earnest. Even having to hold up through transit back down doesn't seem to have done much to it -- it's still more or less what she remembers, and it's still really, really good. (It is a little soggier than she'd like, given it's had to travel so much, but that's still fine.) "Oooh, yeah. I know there's a game center pretty close by? Like, this is actually a pretty walkable neighborhood even by Japanese standards. They really knew what they were doing when they laid out Nouvelle Tokyo."

A park, though... that might be tricky. Akane thinks about it for a bit. "We'll have to get looking. Are you okay with having to bus there if it's nicer, or do you want somewhere we can just walk to?" she asks.

She looks thoughtful as she adds, "That reminds me that I kinda want to find somewhere to swim, too... I'm not a very good swimmer, but I kinda wanna get better at it. The university pool is not enough on this front, either."

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

"It only just occurred to me, too." Rikka says - and then laughs. "Yeah, it is... That's the good thing about talking it out with someone else though, I guess."

Akane digs so, so Rikka starts on hers, too. It really is still good. She's glad - she was a little worried about how well it'd hold up... but taking the risk worked out.

"A game center... That's pretty good." Rikka replies with a considering nod. "Yeah... I guess they've had a lot of time to learn."

As for the park...

"Ideally we'd be able to walk to it? But I know that can be a tall order in a city like this, so I don't mind taking the bus, either." She replies. "...Bus trips have their own positives, anyway."

...Like getting to lean on each other on their way home after a long day out.

Akane, meanwhile, wants to find somewhere to swim. Rikka brightens at the thought.

"Oh, that's a great idea. It would be nice to have somewhere good to swim... I can help teach you, too." She replies.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Yeah! It's kinda amazing how compact it is without feeling cramped," Akane enthuses. It really is amazing how different her lens on the city is now compared to when she first moved here near the end of middle school...

She can tell what Rikka's thinking about the bus rides, and she says, "... I guess it'll work out either way," nodding. "I'll definitely keep an eye out for somewhere nice closer to home, though."

Rikka offers to teach Akane, and Akane nods. "I'm not totally hopeless in the water, but my form is... well, I've always been slow so I know it's bad?" She laughs, saying, "If you're up for teaching I'm definitely not gonna say no to seeing you in the water~."

She picks at her toast combo a little more; she's enthusiastic about getting to the cake, but you gotta eat the real food first. "How's your mom holding up? ... For that matter, how's Aya holding up? Has she found any part timers or anything to help out?"

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

"Yeah." Rikka agrees with a nod and a smile. "That's a rough balance to get right... I could see this place easily having turned out so... closed in as to be suffocating, but I don't get that feeling here."

Rikka nods, then.

"I think it will. ...Yeah, sounds good." She replies.

She thinks over Akane's swimming situation - and then laughs along with her.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a personal interest, myself." She admits with a grin. They'll both get to benefit. "Great~. Sounds like a plan."

Akane asks about her mom, and about Aya - and it takes Rikka a little longer to answer that as she thinks it over.

"Well... I think she's holding up as well as she could be. She's really happy for us, but I can tell it's going to be a little rough on her, at first." Rikka admits - then smiles, just a bit wryly. "We both cried - a lot. It was ugly. I was afraid of what the other people on the shuttle back home were gonna think."

As for Aya...

"I think it'll be fine. She's always been the real backbone of Aya, and she'll have more time to manage it." She says, and then smirks. "...She said she was considering finding someone young and cute to help her out, but I'm pretty sure she was just joking."

Only 'pretty sure', though.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"I mean... it did kinda feel that way at first, but I was like 14 and going through it basically totally alone," Akane admits. "The neighborhood was a little different, too, though... it was like, right as things were starting to get really bad between the Earth and PLANT, and the crime rate in Nouvelle Tokyo was going up, too... I guess it's not a surprise that it feels different."

Is the difference in the neighborhoods, in her, or in who she's facing the world with? ... It's hard to say, so in the end, she decides not to try to parse it out, turning her attention more earnestly to Rikka.

"I'm really glad she'll be okay. She's a great mom," Akane enthuses. "That's true, though... raising a kid does seem like it'd take up some time. When you were working there, I never really thought about that one going both ways..." Looking up toward the ceiling for a bit, she says, "I think she'll do fine, whether she drags someone cute in or not..."

She glances off toward the window. (The curtains are open, and the sun is just setting.)

"... What a beautiful sunset," she says, momentarily taken by it; she loses her train of thought a bit. The flirting back and forth is fun, obviously, but sometimes you see the world and you're just struck by it...

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

"Mm... Yeah. I guess the environment counts for a lot..." Rikka replies with a sympathetic nod. Anything would seem suffocating, intimidating, when you're alone in a world as dark as that.

Rikka finds herself glad Akane can look at Nouvelle Tokyo so positively, now, even after everything she's been through.

"...Yeah. She really is." Rikka agrees with a fond smile. "It's something I never really appreciated, either... Between handling the store and raising me and my brother, this is probably the first time in a while she'll be able to really dedicate time to herself."

She nods, then.

"...Yeah. I think so, too." She says.

Akane glances toward the window, taken in by the sunset, and Rikka watches her.

"...Yeah..." She agrees - but she's not looking at the window. Still - she doesn't let that linger, instead taking the opportunity to scoot closer to her and join her in watching the sunset.

It really is a beautiful sight - and it's theirs to share together.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane finishes off her half of the double toast combo as Rikka talks about her mom. "I should check in with her some time... I'm really grateful for the stuff I learned while I was part-timing." ... That seems to make something click in her head. "Oh right! We need to get chinese cabbage, dried shiitake and bonito next time we do groceries. Now that there's no escape from my clutches," she says, grinning, "you need to try every version of my soup within like two weeks of each other and see what you like best."

Scooting forward on her cushion, she snags her half of the cake. ... she's very excited to have cake.

"Sooooo... all these plans for the future, but what should we do tonight? Do you want some help sorting out that box, or is that stuff too personal?" As close as they are, she gets that sometimes you do need to have some stuff to yourself.

"This cake is so good," she murmurs, under her breath.

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

"I think she'd appreciate that. I know she likes hearing from you." Rikka replies with a nod. Something clicks - and Rikka nods as Akane begins to list off ingredients. "Chinese cabbage, dried shiitake, and bonito. Got it."

She chuckles as Akane grins.

"Oh no~, I get to try your soup, whatever will I dooo..." She jokes, playing along. "That sounds great. I'm pretty eager to try them out."

But that's the future, and for tonight...

"It's nothing too personal - just the last of my CDs and books. ...And probably a few other things, too." Rikka explains. "I sure wouldn't say no to some company - and another pair of hands."

And with that, Rikka tries some of the cake, herself.

"Oh wow, it really is." She agrees.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Perfect," Akane says. "I'm looking forward to seeing that stuff... it's always kinda fun to go through someone's media pile." That it's even better when it's someone you're close to goes unsaid; it doesn't need to be.

Akane taps her fork against the plate a little as she thinks about everything. "You -- oh! I was thinking about bed tonight and then a couple other things and, we need to remember to get white vinegar too." ... Akane has a couple of coffee stains to get out of a futon.

It doesn't take long for her to finish her cake; Japanese diner cake is not precisely large. "Okay -- so... once you're finished up, I'll handle the dishes before anything gets too gross, and clean up all that," a gesture to Akane's aborted transformation item display project, "then we can start in on the box, okay? You can go ahead and start in on your stuff if you want to, you don't have to wait up for me..."

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

"Right?" Rikka agrees with a chuckle. It'll definitely be more entertaining than doing it by herself, too... and, she's kind of curious to hear what Akane thinks.

Something occurs to Akane and Rikka looks her way. White vinegar...?

"Sure, I'll add that to the list." Rikka replies with a nod.

Akane finishes up - and Rikka does too, not long after.

"Sure, thank you~." Rikka replies - and then nods. "Sounds good - I'll go ahead and get a head start."

She can handle the boring parts herself, and save the more exciting stuff for when Akane's finished up and ready to join in. Either way, it'll make the work go a lot faster.