2023-09-09: Lunch Menu

• Log: 2023-09-09- Lunch Menu
• Cast: Renais Cardiff, Akane Shinjo
• Where: AEU France - Cafe
• OOC - IC Date: 0097-09-09
• Summary: Renais and Akane catch up a little over lunch.

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<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

It's finally over, isn't it? The mess she got herself tangled up in while she was out of her right mind, fighting for a girl being manipulated by a Hyper Devil...

Hard to believe it turned out so well, in the end. Renais Cardiff looks up at the crescent moon, hanging low in the sky. She looks off to one side, roughly where Tsutsujidai should sit, safely anchored to reality thanks to 3G and so many others.

One of whom is absent now.

She chuckles softly at the thought of Gridman filling out paperwork in crayon, fishing her phone out of her pocket as her feet bring her to the restaurant she'd arranged to meet at. She opens up VERTEX and pops off a couple of messages to a certain 'aumerei_seijin'.

> just got here
> need me to get a table?

She steps inside the cafe and glances around to see if she's been beaten here.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane desperately needs this; after thoroughly wrecking her mood by trying to get a win in the worst way possible, she really could use an outing.

Renais is greeted with Akane's display name having changed back to a_shinjo, but at the very least, she does get the message -- and responds!

> yeah i'm running a bit late
> thank you!

About five minutes after Renais arrives, Akane does; she's in her Montserrat uniform -- a white blouse and blue skirt with a blue ribbon tie -- rather than her 3G one. She finds Renais in short order, sitting down with her. She looks a little tired. "Hey," she says, giving her a nod. "How's work treating you?" It seems like a decent starter topic.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais is looking over a menu when Akane arrives, and looks up with a small smile as she does. She's dressed casually, her typical hoodie and a black pleated skirt over her dark violet cooling suit. "Hi," she replies.

"Well enough, I think," she replies, "I spent some time looking over our satellites' readings after Gridman left. Hell of a thing to learn from completely new data like that... expecting things to get busy soon, though." The increasingly unstable political situation is ripe for the kind of crime 3G fights, after all...

She shakes her head and sighs. "And what about you? How has Monsterrat been?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"I should look that over. It'd probably go over my head, but I'm kinda curious anyway," Akane answers Renais, glancing up and off thoughtfully. Her expression stays pensive for a few moments, but she ultimately lets it go.

"Montserrat's been okay. I try not to go remote too often, even though at this point they're pretty understanding. I think it's good for me. We had a trash pickup day today. ... Kinda nice for clearing my head, but my mood still sucks." She frowns, explaining, "Yesterday I went to talk to Dr. Murasame. ... kinda a mistake."

She trails off there, letting out a small sigh.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais chuckles a little. "There's an analysis written up if you need it. I did," she admits, grinning lightly. She nods, "I'm a bit worried about needing to attend remotely... I'd really rather not, if I can help it, but with work..." She purses her lips.

And she tenses as Akane drops that name. She frowns, keeping her opinion of it to herself for now. She leans forward. "What happened?" she asks quietly.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Scooting in a little, Akane thinks about that a bit. "They're pretty understanding? Plus, like..." Akane pauses, taking a second to figure out what she's saying. In the end, whatever she's looking for in her head doesn't materialize, and she says, "Well -- anyway, yeah, in your case you're probably gonna need to do at least some stuff remote."

Taking a few seconds to center herself, Akane says, "... We mostly just ended up kinda shouting at each other. I let him get under my skin pretty bad." She looks down, an awkward silence taking over. After a few moments, she breaks it by asking, "It's fine to be the person I am now, right? Like... I don't think I can use GaoFighGar anymore."

Then she has to order food, though, so she can't linger too long.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais shakes her head as Akane insists they're understanding, "It's not that. It's..." She talked about this with Yuta, too, but... she can be more honest here. "... I never got to be a high schooler. And just sitting in front of a terminal watching a lecture..." She sighs. "Well, I'll have to compromise, I guess."

There's a gentle nod, as she explains how Murasame got under her skin. And the question... she nods again. "You are. You're fine just as you are now," she affirms. "It doesn't matter. The person that you are, right now, is enough." She sets her menu aside. "... but don't talk to him again. Certainly not unsupervised. Someone like that has the knowledge to hurt you, and won't hesitate to use it."

She quiets as their waiter comes. She orders a coffee and a pastry. Once they're alone again, she continues. "... But I understand why you did. I probably would have done the same thing. I'm just glad you're okay."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"... Yeah. Sometimes you can't get that kinda thing back all the way," Akane says, letting out a small sigh. She wants to be reassuring here, but... it's hard for her to say anything to that. "Yeah. It's never gonna be just the way you want it."

Akane nods to Renais, agreeing, "Yeah -- I'm... not doing that again. I just... wish he would have admitted he lost. That I beat him. That he's never going to do anything like that again, and..." She lets out a long sigh, shaking her head.

"Thanks," she mumbles, before another long, awkward silence begins. She's not sure how to break this one, though.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais nods. "I... you're right," she sighs. "And... well, I think he knew that. If the positions were reversed, would you have given that satisfaction? Even if you knew you were beaten..." Well, she certainly wouldn't have, anyway.

The silence drags on uncomfortably. Eventually, she speaks up. "I met Yuta. He's... definitely struggling with the shadow he's under." She purses her lips. "Not to mention the other issues." She smiles a little. "I got him to the Yumi Foundation office, though... they should at least get him started."

Their food and drinks come in short order, and she continues, "I like him, though. He's... well, he thinks he's boring, but I think that's just because he's comparing himself to Gridman. He's hardly had the chance to really get started."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Yeah, hard pass," Akane says with a slightly dull laugh.

She activates a little, though, at talk of Yuta. Complimentary water arrives, and she takes a sip. It takes her a little to work up to saying anything, though. "Yeah. I went and saw him, too. I'm glad you got him to check in with the Yumi Foundation office... I couldn't quite get him to do it, and I didn't really wanna force him."

She breathes in, then out. It's okay. A little while later, actual food arrives; she eats. It does a lot to break the pattern. "I think he's on track for some really great stuff, if he lets it happen." ... That's a big if, though. "He's gonna need a lot of help, though..."

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais nods. "Well... it might have helped that I work with the Foundation. I walked up there with him and put in a good word." She takes a sip of her water, and gives a small sigh. "It feels like he's kind of... stuck in his rut. I'm hoping his case worker can help, but... well, it's going to take friends, too. I'm not sure what's going on at school for him right now, but the way he was when we met..."

She shakes her head. "I don't think he's going to come out of that shell without help. I can tell there's something special in there, though..." Something occurs to her. "-Have you ever used a gun before, Akane?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"... Yeah, I wouldn't have even known where to begin with that one," Akane concedes, with a grimace-smile. "I hope now that class started things get easier for him. Maybe it'll help to be around other teenagers?" She can hope, but at the same time, she knows that...

... well, actually, that's kind of a mixed bag for her. Unpredictable. That's not particularly fun to think about either. Akane lazily scoots her food around her plate, rather than eating -- and then Renais asks a question.

"Huh? No," she admits. "Even on the Garuda, I took the stun baton and not the gun." She definitely doesn't regret that decision. "Why, what's up?" The question is so abrupt -- and so odd -- that she's legitimately curious.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais moves on to her coffee, taking a forkful of her pastry. "Well... I was just thinking. Yuta likes airsoft, so I was thinking that I might look into setting up a shooting range meetup of some sort with him and a few of the others, maybe including you?"

Her eyebrows arch propositionally, then return to normal. "It might be fun, not to mention educational, given the sort of things we all tend to get up to. Yuta aside, there..."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

A shooting range meetup... that does intrigue Akane. "Hmm -- I am kinda curious," Akane says. "I actually was kinda considering it, though I dunno if it'd work out for what I was thinking of... but for Hibiki it's probably perfect. I can see about making that, at least." There are parts of it she's not crazy about -- she knows they're going to be crazy loud, and she's always had trouble with inconsistently-timed loud noises that don't originate from kaiju.

... but it being the perfect outing for her specifically really isn't the point, is it? "Sure. Let me know when you get it set up, okay?"

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais smiles. "I'm glad you like the idea, and I'm even happier to hear you want to come along. I'll be sure and let you know." She hrms quietly. "What about Rikka?"

Utsumi might be interested, and so might Rikka's friends... and she'll have to think about who else would be a good fit. "-Oh, speaking of which, how have things been with you two lately? I haven't heard much from her recently, except when we said goodbye to Gridman."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Hmmm... well, I can ask her," Akane answers, after a little thought. "We can definitely try making this a thing." Her thoughts wander for a few moments, but she ultimately gets her head back in to the game.

"Things have been going really well! Long-distance and coordinating stuff is hard, and it's only getting harder as we have more stuff going on, but... ahahaha, I wouldn't trade it for anything." She smiles at that, saying, "We went to a stage show a few days ago. I had a really good time... oh, uh, we did cosplay."

Akane slides her phone across the table after a few seconds; on it is a picture of Rikka dipping Akane with a confident, almost-predatory expression, and Akane looking up at her with a stunned, deer-in-the-headlights sort of look. (Akane's in a dress shirt, slacks, and a blazer; Rikka is wearing a bodysuit with translucent panels and a long coat over it. She's wearing a skin-tone body stocking underneath that bodysuit... but it's kind of hard to tell at this resolution.)

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais' smile turns into a beam, "That's wonderful. I'm sure it's a struggle, but I'm glad it's worth it. -oh, cosplay!"

She peeks down at the phone, and her face goes quite red. Her own expression seems to match Akane's from the photo. "Oh wow. You both look... incredible. And Rikka..." She giggles a little. "She's more daring than I thought...! That's quite an expression on her face..."

And quite an outfit.

"Hum... you know, I could do cosplay, now," she realizes. "I never even considered it when I was stuck with the coat, but..." She rubs her chin. "Hmm. Oh, what was the stage play for? I don't recognize the costumes."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Ahaha, yeah. I think she was putting it on a bit, but..." An awkward, dreamy laugh escapes her when she admits, "I wasn't." The effect is pretty good, honestly, too. The question, though --

"Truthseeker Serena," Akane enthuses. "Three and a half hours of stage play in one day was a little much, but like, it was really good. It's, uh -- detective conspiracy fiction? You might like it a lot, actually." Given half the cast is cyborgs with various relationships to an evil organization...

After a little more thought, she says, "I do a lot of art for it these days. Less kaiju stuff. ... I wanna try doing kaiju stuff again, but..." Here, she gestures vaguely with a hand.
Alma Stirner teleports in.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais nods sympathetically to the admission that she hasn't gone back to kaiju. "Well, I'm glad you're still creating. You're very talented, you know."

She definitely perked up at the brief explanation of Truthseeker Serena. "Oh, that sounds interesting, actually." She pulls out her own phone and writes that down for later. She takes a sip of coffee, and smiles. "I'll have to look into it."

And speaking of fiction... she looks thoughtful for a moment. "Mn. Maybe I should think about opening that M-Color Q box set..." she murmurs. The memories are difficult, still, but... the prospect of sharing it with others someone makes it rather more attractive.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

The compliment about creating gets a smile and a little giggle, but not much more engagement than that. It's still... a little bit of a fraught topic, and yesterday wasn't easy.

Taraba talk still excites Akane, though, despite everything. The instant she mentions that box set, Akane says, "I'm game! I liked Q... Rikka did too. We could get a decent sized group together for that, too. Maybe if the range falls through that can be a backup option." No sense in putting Renais fully on the spot.

Akane eats for a little while. After a bit, she adds, "I have all of Kaiju Colosseum, too." That was a feat that took some genuine heavy lifting.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais perks up more, smiling as Akane lights up. "Oh, she did? Ah, that's excellent. Black and white, though, right?" She smiles. "Honestly... I don't know how it holds up compared to my memories, but I remember it looking gorgeous, back when I watched it... hum, I wonder if Yuta will like it, though. We'll see." She takes a sip of coffee, taking the last bite of her pastry.

Her eyebrows raise at the mention of Kaiju Colosseum. "Whoa. I'm afraid to ask how much that cost you. Especially for the '87 series. I swear they short-printed it on purpose..."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"I think if he's going to get something out of any Taraba, it's Q," Akane offers, thoughtfully, after a little while. "And yeah, the low-res cut. Still, like -- it's good, right?" She scoots forward a bit, and then nods. "Oh yeah. I even have the two episodes they lost! Bad recordings, but they're there. I had to hunt pretty hard..."

She stretches out a bit, finally finding her conversational footing again. "I'm glad we've got the chance to catch up. It's really been a while, huh..."