2025-07-05: Mother's Warmth
- Log: 2025-07-05- Mother's Warmth
- Cast: Shiiko Sugai, Akane Shinjo
- Where: Heaven's Base - Cafeteria
- OOC - IC Date: 0100-07-05
- Summary: Shiiko Sugai checks in on the VIP prisoner, looking for answers about what happened on a recent operation.
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
After the chaos in Area 6, Shiiko Sugai wanted nothing more than to dock in Orb and see her family again. Unfortunately, she was overruled in this decision and was sent to Heaven's Base instead. Her Formidable needed repairs from the scrap with the Minerva, she needed a new GN-X, and she'll get replenished with more pilots too. More disposable bodies.
There was something else that concerned her at Heaven's Base. Answers, for those willing to dig into the mud and snow for. Shiiko certainly isn't an expert in kaiju matters, that's typically left to NERV or GGG. The field specialists. But if the Sabers are figuring out how to utilize...summon? kaijus, it becomes the commander's problem. Especially if it affects her work, the people under her command. If there's one thing Shiiko hates about the Sabers, it's how secretive everyone is, even with allies. She's never been good at politicking. Leave that to her husband. She's a straight shooter. As she walks into HQ, she's determined to at least gain a single lead.
It didn't take very long. Thank goodness for that, at least. She was able to call in a favour and a friend was able to point the commander in the right direction, to a strange new face. For all the Sabers secrecy, even in the heart, rumours still run rampant. Shiiko settles herself in the cafeteria with a coffee mug with her, sitting down near the lower ranks. It's strange for an officer like her to do this, but she sees it as keeping a pulse on morale. Today however, she's keeping an eye out for a certain brunette, who ought to be getting a Britannian slice around lunch time.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The daily routine has gotten... almost pleasant, at this point. Only almost, though. It's been a while since the last time Akane went through extraction; Akane is trying not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but part of her wonders if this isn't because there's something much, much worse coming.
Sometimes, she's eaten alone, but on Heaven's Base there's about a five minute moving window to get into and out of the cafeteria if you're looking for that. This part never quite gets normal for her; she's eating with a large group of people she considers, if not 'the enemy,' at least 'potential problems,' day in and day out.
... At least the pizza's good -- that perfect sweet spot of nostalgically mediocre that becomes excellent. She picks up her slice, taking a breath as she sees Shiiko settle in.
She pushes her lilac hair back slightly. That woman has a different energy from a lot of the people in the room, she reflects -- you don't see a lot of older women who aren't instantly recognizable as some sort of knowledge worker around here.
... Akane, with her slightly ethereal lilac gradient hair and her very civilian blouse and skirt, probably sticks out like a sore thumb.
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
Shiiko scans the crowd as people pass her by, when she sees a young woman in civilian clothing and lilac hair, standing out from the crowd. If she was a betting woman, that's who she wants to speak with. She launches up, and utilizing her painfully cringe mother energy...
"Akane-chan~! Won't you come sit with me?" She asks with a wave, as if she's greeting an old friend of her son's. Heads surely turn however briefly, but it doesn't bother her. "A sweet young woman like you, ought to help me out here. My son's birthday is coming up, and I need help picking out a gift. I just don't understand what young people are into these days..." She tuts, as she wraps an arm underneath her chest, to hold the elbow of her other arm. Her hand nuzzling into her cheek.
Shiiko is currently dressed in her typical officer's uniform by the way, rank denoting "Commander". Additionally, she has a folder on the table in front of her, paired with her coffee mug.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
It turns out: this works on Akane. She spent a solid seven years without-and-craving any kind of maternal affection, and only in the last few months has really started connecting with her mother in any real way. Her head tilts up immediately, and she tracks over to that wave --
-- and, despite herself, heads over. "Uh -- I don't think we've met?" Akane asks, a little bewildered. ... This does force her to entertain the possibility that her memory is getting worse; it wouldn't surprise her. Extraction has been a rough process, and her sleep quality has tanked besides... and the lilac hair (and all that comes with it) is hard to maintain at this point.
Akane does indeed sit with Shiiko, coming over with her Pizza Hut(tm) pizza. "But, uh, let's see... how old is your son, roughly? 'cuz like, I'm going to have way different answers for a six year old than a sixteen year old." ... It does feel good to be asked what The Youth(tm) like, though. 20 isn't quite old enough to start really missing your lost youth, but it has started to creep in.
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
"No, we haven't. Shiiko, it's good to meet you." Shiiko offers a hand before she sits back down. She's latched on, now it's time to take this woman for a spin.
"Of course! Well, my little boy is turning about 7 this year." Lie. "We had to move from Area 11, after that attack, so I want to cheer him up." Lie. "He also has family in Area 6, that was hit pretty hard." Lie. "But after we settled back in Pendragon, we saw some Kaiju movies and it's been just all he'll talk about." This one is actually true, but the timeline is way off. It's been over a decade now since Shuuichi's kaiju phase. "Strange isn't it, the way people will latch onto things like that? What do you think, Akane-chan?"
Despite rattling off two lies and a half truth, Shiiko's poker face is extremely good. Rambling about her son comes naturally to her, just as defending her family does. If this backfires, the more lies she tells about her family will make it more difficult to find them.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane shakes it; her handshake is... not great. It's a struggle for her to do this at the best of times -- which is something this decidedly is not.
... The least she can do is be polite. She listens to Shiiko, nodding to her as she mentions that her child has gotten into kaiju. "Ehehehe... that's definitely kind of a weird interest for a boy or a girl," she says, rubbing at the back of her head. ... She is known as the Queen of Monsters at this point, though -- so she might as well piece through it. "I used to pretty much only be into kaiju stuff! My go-to for something like that would be sofubi -- uh, soft vinyl toys? They're pretty cheap and they're everywhere, at least in Japan."
She looks off into the distance, saying, "... there's a new season of Tarabaman running right now, too, plus the movie coming out. I... really wanted to watch the new season with my fiancee..."
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
At least Shiiko's is nice and firm.
Hm. That track didn't seem to work as well as she was hoping. Though, admittedly it is nice to speak with someone who knows Japan as Japan. "Oh, is it? I suppose it is rather niche. But you know boys these days, just into destruction." Shiiko hums. "Well, it'd certainly be difficult to go to Japan right now for me. Never mind that for now. What about Kaijus became all dominating for you?"
"..." Shiiko isn't sure what to say here, her smile ever present. "Isn't streaming all the rage nowadays?" She says half heartedly, hoping to pop a hopeful idea in Akane's head so they can focus on Kaiju's-and her perjuring herself.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"I guess at the time it's... they get to make the moment all about them. They get to want things and at least, like, make it an issue." ... Under normal circumstances, she might stop herself there... But she's so exhausted, and Shiiko's motherly aura is a great way to get her to open up about this exact topic. "My parents weren't around a lot when I got into Tarabaman stuff... the idea of being able to make something a big deal on the spot was pretty exciting for me."
And once that door is open, a lot more doors start open. "That's why I started making them, too -- or at least why it sounded fun. When I asked Alexis to help, he had the whole kaiju thing ready to go." The Gaia Sabers already know her background at that level of abstraction -- why not keep going? After another bite of pizza, Akane continues, "I guess I didn't have control over it then, really, but... here I have even less. They just keep, like... not quite shocking me until goop comes out so they can use my kaiju, but..." ... it's not far off the mark.
Happier topics. Streaming. "... I mean, they're not gonna let me contact her. They were talking about basically ripping all her guts out so they could turn her into another idol. I'm not even sure if she's conscious right now -- last I heard they had her and Alouette in some kind of liquid tank..."
... The Gaia Sabers don't have Rikka Takarada or Alouette Pommier in custody, but Akane sure seems to be under that impression...
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
"Mhm?" Shiiko nods. She then hesitates for a moment, considering whether she should give something more. "It's always tough not having your parents around. I'm away so often, and I always worry about my son." She pauses. "It's rough for a parent to be away from their child as well." She says, hoping that a bit of motherly honesty will help grease the wheels.
It isn't entirely unfounded thankfully. Shiiko doesn't feel great about interrupting here, but she's running on less intel than she'd really like. "Alexis? Kaiju thing?" She asks as Akane takes a bite of her food, hoping to keep her interruptions to a minimum. Then, her heart soars. She hardly understands the talk about 'goop', but if it's her kaiju...
The safety of Akane's friends are not Shiiko's paygrade (nor is she aware), but she's loath to undermine her comrade's efforts. "The Sabers always keep their promises, and repay their debts. Focus. Why are you here?" She keeps a smile on her face as she speaks softly. "If you're a prisoner here, what is your role, if you're able to roam in your gilded cage?" Then, her most pressing question. "Do you have the ability to make Kaijus in reality, Akane?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Yeah... I guess I can see where it'd be hard the other way around, too. I'm like ninety percent sure my mom didn't want to have me." She doesn't say it like it's a sob story -- just a fact that she throws out there cold. "Before this, it was kinda getting better, though..."
... Oh, she just gave so much information to someone who wasn't actually briefed on this. Akane has to weigh this, now -- proceed with that, or pull away? Her brow furrows -- and then she decides to just go with it. "Oh -- you didn't know why I was here?" she asks, blinking. "I used to be involved with Alexis Kerib, who's like... a weird ghost guy, basically? He let me make a whole city -- uh, Tsutsujidai, though I guess I'm supposed to be calling it 'the anomalous PLANT' here..."
... Maybe Shiiko will lose her taste for this line of work if Akane opens the whole box. "They have me working maintenance on the Boosted Songstress project, and sometimes they take me to a room and strap me to a chair and, uh..." ... How to even explain this phenomenon? "... Basically they shock me in a way that also brings all my bad memories to the front and then somehow that makes some goop that they then throw into a thing that makes Kaiju Capsules of the kaiju I used to make."
... That's a lot all at once. "And -- I mean, kinda. I used to, though when I was doing it I needed these pearl things to make them? Alexis gave me those..."
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
"I was surprised when I found out I was having my son, too." Her smile turns into something a bit more genuine. "I wasn't ready to give up my military career yet, and I wasn't married to my husband at the time. I won't lie, it was tough. But I love my boy with all of my heart." She sighs a little. "I'm not home often enough as well. It's put strain on our relationship as well. It's not easy, but I will always love him."
Woman who is the loop meets woman out of the loop. Similarly, Shiiko weighs how honest she should be. It seems they're both feeling honest. "I'm a field commander. I was in Area 6 when a Kaiju appeared on my squad." She leans forward, with a morose, tiny giggle. "Your Kaiju resulted in several of my pilots dying. More, to the Terminal intervention." She'll decline to mention the GGG presence there.
She wonders, privately, if that's how they make Cyber-Newtypes too. "Oh? Well, that explains where the kaijus came from. Certainly, is a shame that command declined to mention that to me. Just, as it is that I couldn't have gotten this information less...directly." Shiiko offers an apologetic smile. It's the cost of doing business. "Well, I can't say that I understand the process, but thank you for your candor."
She hums a bit, covering her mouth for a moment as she absorbs everything. "They're extracting Kaijus from you, to use as wreaking balls now... Well, it's certainly better than pursuing Newtypes, I suppose. At least there's visible results." That doesn't mean she likes it. "If they have a steady stream of this, we can expect more. Say, how connected are these Kaijus to you? If you, say worst comes to worst, stop producing these Kaijus, the already exisiting pearls. Would they run out eventually, or can you use them again and again?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
... yeah, this is sounding quite familiar. It evokes some mixed emotions in Akane -- being able to see someone with a similar background to her mother's, without the baggage of actually being her mother. "My mom and dad weren't, either. They hooked up because of Operation British..."
... it's really hard not to feel the echo here. She finds her expression softening; it's almost reflexive. That, in turn, makes hearing that Shiiko's lost men to the kaiju attacks the Gaia Sabers are now performing sting a little more. "... well, if it makes you feel any better," Akane says, "they're apparently not getting any new results from me at this point. Last time I got out, they were talking about whether it was even worth it to keep trying anymore... I wish they'd stop, too. I can't really stop it when they do it like this, though. It'd be one thing if they actually needed me to do it on purpose like I used to have to..."
Akane takes another bite of her pizza, mood starting to drop. "The ones they're using right now are copies of ones I made when I was still making them. I don't know what they're doing to get from goop to kaiju... it's a whole different process. You'll have to ask whoever's in charge of it." The pearls... that's something Akane never thought to really dig into, while she was with Alexis.
"I think they're single use only? Like a Zonder Metal. Once it's absorbed as much feeling as it needs to make a kaiju, that's it, it's a kaiju now." ... It gives her cause to wonder how kaiju like hers reproduce, but she doesn't probe that very much.
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
Shiiko nods, understanding. "It was after that war when I met my husband. You do strange things when you feel like the world is about to end." She grimaces a bit. "Or when you feel that your world has ended." That war really did a number on her. On everyone who lived through it.
Perhaps, in another life, they could be allies, if not a mother and a daughter she never had. "Mm. It does help, actually." She's still not happy, but she's went from ruining her superiors plans to having a bit more sympathy. "Well, slower progress is better for those in the field, I suppose. And for your sake, I hope they're done with it." It must be tough, being forced to perform a task you don't even know if you can manage anymore. "So it's emotions that drive the ability..."
If she had to guess, Shiiko probably had an idea of who would be in charge, or at least who could be her access point. The details don't really concern her though. "Mm. I see. Limited, single use. Might be ceasing operation soon. Well." Her smile drops. "Thank you for your help, Akane. I have one last question for you." She hates this. But, it's a small amount of pity. "Now, your situation is up in the air. I hardly know what my comrades have planned for you. But, if you'd like to take your fate into your own hands... I can offer that to you. An out. Quick and painless." She says. "...As a Saber, I'd be risking my hide. But as a mother, I couldn't see my son suffer here."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane looks guilty as she hears Shiiko talk about how you do strange things when you feel like your world's about to end, or is ending. Maybe... her mom was just trying to keep from falling apart. Everyone alive today is someone who survived the One Year War -- or a child of someone who survived it. By this point, a few might even be grandchildren of someone who survived it.
Akane nods, saying, "Don't get too excited. They could Zonder Metal me up or something. Just because they're not getting anything out of that device and don't have any kaiju seeds that I know about doesn't mean they're not gonna find some way to make more monsters." They always do, she murmurs, quietly.
Akane takes a bite of her pizza -- and then Shiiko floats one final offer. Final, emphasized.
"... Sorry," she says, softly. "You're married, so you'll get it. When it's quiet enough, I can... feel Rikka. She's scared and alone and I can't make that worse." With a grim little laugh, she adds, "And unlike the last time I thought I'd solve it by dying, she's not in a position to tear off running to find me."
Her eyes shut, and she savors another bite of pizza. "... I'm not someone who needs protecting anymore," she finishes, after swallowing.
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
Shiiko notices the guilty look and shakes her head. "I'm not your mother, but I know what it's like having a...strained relationship with your child. That love never goes away, even when it's tough. Especially when it's tough."
She nods. "The more difficult it is, the better for those in the field." She says. Shiiko can't stop every monster they create, just try to slow them down at best. She's probably one of their monsters too.
Shiiko doesn't hesitate with a nod. Marrying for love isn't something she did, but in this case at least, she gets it. Then, she does something she really shouldn't do. She grabs a notebook, writes something down and passes it to Akane. "Honey, we all need a little protecting. Here's the information for my office. I'm usually away, so it'll be empty. You won't get into anything you shouldn't, but...Need a place where you won't be found? Go there." It's really, the only other option she can offer.
Shiiko sighs and picks up her coffee. It's cold. "Once you're done eating, you should go." A beat. "Oh, and I lied earlier. My son is 18, he'll be attending college soon." She shuts her eyes. Her pity will be the death of her some day.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane wonders if that's true of her own mother, too. It's hard to imagine -- they went so long without talking, and then even when they did there was always that miserable, oppressive sense of expectation.
... Maybe she needs more love to believe in right now, though. She decides she won't fight the belief, for now.
Shiiko gives her another surprise, a few moments later. This one... is much more welcome. Her eyes widen, and she says, "... I'll definitely keep that in mind." She wonders just how true 'she won't get into anything she shouldn't' really is -- she's pretty crafty... but she's not exactly expecting an intelligence coup out of it, either. This just seems to be the help of a kind captain who doesn't like the consequences of what her bosses are doing, and maybe that's enough.
With one last bite of pizza, Akane says, "... Yeah. They might want me to help with the Boosted Songstress soon, anyway. I'm only allowed to be unavailable so long, even for stuff like food..."
She stands up, giving Shiiko a nod. "... He probably needs you now more than ever," Akane says, encouragingly(?), before starting to make her way back out of the cafeteria.