2022-06-02: A Pilot I Don't Recognize
- Log: 2022-06-02: A Pilot I Don't Recognize
- Cast: Puru Two, Akane Shinjo's friend Ako Furuma
- Where: Tsutsujidai - Train Station
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-06-01
- Summary: "Callisto Diana" checks out on the train and wakes up somewhere unfamiliar. Someone helps her get her bearings.
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
Though the age may change, the subway stations remain crowded at peak hour. This is a universal constant. It's a fact of life for those who live in the suburban centres in Japan, and everyone largely knows how to deal with it. Part of the social contract for your average citizen.
Callisto Diana feels remarkably fragmented today. The glue holding this persona together is still setting, so to speak, after a few days of highly emotional turmoil. So she's not operating at full speed. "Excuse me," she starts, trying to get the attention of a subway-station attendant. But he's already off and helping someone else. The girl sighs, irate, and looks at the payment card in her hand. At her phone, blinking at her: you're running late. You're supposed to link up with NERV and do this exercise. Bad. Bad bad bad.
"Whatever." she scowls, moving through the throng of people and into the turnstile. Swiping her card and disappearing into what she's fairly sure is the Yamanote line.
It's not the Yamanote line.
The train is packed. There is no room to sit, and so, the girl with the red hair grunts and squirms her way to a standing space with a handheld clasp. The air in the train is already thick, stuffy, the climate outside barely helping.
There's an initial lurch. Packed like bullets in a tin, the train's occupants jostle and sway, before reaching a steady equilibrium. The train's announcements are muffled and hard to hear, and the girl hopes she's on the right train. She swears she'll pay closer attention next time.
The train enters a tunnel. Phone signals get bad, and then blink out. The next announcement isn't just muffled, it's unintelligible. The words swim, like trying to read from a book in the midst of a dream. The girl's eyelids grow heavy with such speed that it doesn't even catch her by surprise. Wow, she really must be suffering from fatigue as of late.
***
The chirp of insects is what rouses Callisto from her torpor. She groans and startles awake on an empty train, flopped across a row of seats with her arms folded across her chest. The train announces it will be leaving soon, and she immediately bolts for the door, trips over the tactile surfacing on the station, and swivels unsteadily before landing on her butt.
It is the most graceless she has looked, perhaps, ever.
"The heck." she grumbles with a voice still thick from sleep. Her tongue feels heavy, swollen. Where did she just take a ride to?
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane is somewhere else, picking up the search for the Tarabaman X4 video game in retro game shops. This is not about her.
(Then again, everything in Tsutsujidai is about her -- and yet, nothing is, by the same token. In the end, for all the things that might distinguish her from the world around her, she is simply another human life.)
Callisto has plenty of time to get situated outside of the train -- though that 'situation' may be more of a 'sit,' and that 'sit' may hurt a bit. At first, no one reaches out to the pilot as she tries to get oriented. People bustle along; a few give her a second glance here and there.
Akane Shinjo's world is one in which a single person falling in the urban jungle makes no sound, after all.
After a moment, though...
Walking over with a slightly surprised look on her face comes a bottle blonde (with a hint of a natural blue-black tone underneath) with an outstretched hand. Her jacket would probably be, to the average person, the loudest thing about her -- a purple base with a barrage of disorienting color spread across it.
The loudest thing about her to someone like Puru Two, however, is undoubtedly -- well, her, as a thing unto herself. She's not quite loud in the way that Judau Ashta or Maximilian Jenius were loud; she's not even loud in the way someone like Lynn Minmei was loud. But here, in the curious mental quiet, she manages to be two things:
* a person who feels real;
* an outstretched hand for a fallen pilot.
"Are you okay?" she asks, giving Callisto the once-over. Over-tired, not really with it, but the illusion of together in the clothes... maybe a government worker, the girl thinks. "Did you have a seizure or something?" She didn't catch the tripping, it seems.
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
And sit, she does. For a time. Time to get her thoughts in order, time to look for street signs. Time to look for train schedules, landmarks, things like that. All these things Earthlings take for granted... when you've spent almost your entire life in space, it's still hard to get a grasp on.
Time for Puru Two's senses to fade back in. Make sure that mask is secure, you know what I mean? The fuzziness tugging at the edge of her mind seems to slip, and the regular bustle of a train station reaches her ears as if the world has finished loading in. You have now entered: Tsutsujidai. Level range 1-90.
The redhead moves to pick herself up, but a splash of colour gives her pause. Someone's approached her, wearing a palette error as a jacket. It's so striking, you can't help but think this thing would retail for four figures. And we don't mean in yen.
We should also stop to point out that Callisto is wearing a completely normal white blouse and jeans, carrying a bag with her Londo Bell uniform in it.
> 'Did you have a seizure or something?'
Good question.
Callisto blinks a few more times and lifts her gaze to this stranger. It's easy to focus on them--even on the face, because they feel more ... present, than the surroundings. "I'm okay, I'm okay." she laughs in that slightly self-depreciating way. "My foot caught the edge of the platform and I went down. Did I make a scene?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Uh?" The young lady glances around, saying, "No, not really. I just thought you might not be okay." She does her best to help Callisto up, once she's sure the young woman before her is someone it's okay to help. She feels a little uncomfortable about the whole interaction, but no one else seems to be stopping...
"Is this your first time in town?" She looks a little lost, Ako decides. That much is fine; she can help with that. It wouldn't be the first time, lately, that she's had an interesting encounter with someone looking a little bit out of place at the train station. Her gaze turns, briefly, to the bag; that has her a little curious too, but she's not going to pry.
It takes her a little time to think of what to say; small talk has never been her best suit. Then again, Callisto doesn't seem to be totally offput by her delinquent look, so... "... You should make sure you didn't sprain it or something," she adds, eventually. Practicals are a little easier than small talk.
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
Callisto is being pretty cautious, gingerly putting weight back on the foot that gave way. She squints. "... it's a little tender." she admits, sighing with a hang of the head. Clearly this was not on her itinerary.
That the girl, Ako, finds herself bad at small talk doesn't seem to upset this newcomer. That someone stopped to make sure she was fine, at all, is already a plus. So there's no air of disquiet or discomfort that our lost pilot gives off, save for whatever background grouch she feels at her general predicament of being lost and sore. Physically uncomfortable, not mentally.
Callisto slings the bag to her shoulder. It's not that big or heavy, anyway. "I, uh... I'll be honest. I have no idea where I am. Where is this?" she hasn't scored any luck with her visual search, so it's time to just swallow her pride and ask. "I fell asleep at... was it Shinagawa station? Ugh, I can't remember..." she wrinkles her nose. Mostly at looking so foolish and clueless.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Well... we can get you a place to sit, I guess," comes the young lady's first offer. "I'm saving up for a present for someone, so I can't get you anything to drink or anything, but if you want me to hit the vending machines for you or something I can do that." She can be a pair of feet for a fellow lost teenager for a half hour or so; it's clear she doesn't *need* it, but there's a lot of things we don't need but can still help us, one supposes.
"Maybe Sakuragaoka?" Ako offers. "Or... no, if you were that out of it you probably caught more sleep than that. Sorry, I don't know a lot about the train lines. I mostly just stay around here."
She takes a second, then waves it off. "Oh -- I'm Ako Furuma. This is Tsutsujidai... you know, Nouvelle Tokyo. One of the middle wards."
... That's not a real ward, but on the other hand, there may be some *other* scuttlebutt about this 'part of the city' going around the Ra Mari.
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
Luckily, Puru Two's years of trying to LARP a normal child's life have at least done wonders for helping her recognize the common social contract that binds troubled kids in this wretched world together. You don't need a pen-and-ink copy to know when a good offer comes your way, and how you should reciprocate. Especially when you feel like butt. Total butt.
But she's Callisto now. For now, anyway. A big girl who is ostensibly functional and self-made!
"Ako." she repeats the name. Her accent is definitely not from around here. It's kind of... I mean, 'fucked up' isn't an accent, but it describes the strange melange of Eastern-European and Asiatic twists inherent to her Axis Zeon tongue. A slight tinge on every syllable, even if her Japanese is perfect. Anyway, she's repeating that name as a greeting of sorts. Committing it. Evident in the nod and the eye contact.
"I'm Callisto. Uh... I'm parched, so, you want a drink? I've got change."
It's a good icebreaker, after all.
---
The crack of a metal can opening precedes the leeching of coffee-scented sugar into the air. Some things are too good to change with time. Vending machines near benches being one of them.
"So this place is called... Tsutsujidai, right. Some of my coworkers got lost here too, I think?" Callisto admits, looking more casual now that her blood sugar is back to regular (read: high) levels. "But I swear--it wasn't on the map where I got on the train. Do you guys get a lot of..."
There's a pause. A side-glance away. "... a lot of strangers like me? I'm totally lost how I got here. It's weird!"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
A Zeon accent, on a professional... hm. Ako has to think about that one for a bit. She's vaguely aware that some people moved between Earth and space after the war, right around when she was born; it's kind of distant from her lived experience, though. Still, it makes some sense to her that a foreigner would be a little lost -- especially a spacenoid.
"... Sure, if you're offering," she says, with a nod.
Ako settles in on the bench. It's a pretty mild day for Tsutsujidai, which means it's merely 'normal hot' for Japanese summer and not absolute, misery-inducing scorcher temperature. She pops open a bottle of Blue Hawaii Ramune, for her own part. Taking a long drink, she murmurs, "Hmm... I think I like melon a little better, but not bad." ... If you can, always try something new on someone else's dime.
"Yeah, that happens a lot lately. I feel like there must be some mixup a couple of stations back from here... I feel like there's definitely been an uptick in people getting lost and ending up here." Brow furrowing a bit, Ako thinks on that. "It's not that I can always pick them out or anything, but... you know how you can spot the way a little kid who's lost looks at a shelf in a store and how a little kid who's on an errand looks at the same shelf?"
She rests her elbows on her thighs a bit, looking out toward the station. "Who do you work with, anyway? I've seen a couple of pilots get lost around here, plus a couple of middle schoolers, and then a few..." She pauses, trying to figure out how to say this. "... There's a way celebrities dress when they don't want to be seen, a bit. Sunglasses, clothes that totally change your figure but still kind of stylish?" She wobbles the hand not holding the Ramune. "Some of them, it's kind of like that."
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
Looking at her can of Toss Coffee (Rainbow Mountain Brew), Callisto muses. "The selection's so much better here." and leans back with a sigh. The stuffy breeze is a step warmer than she's used to, being a controlled-climate baby. Earth and its many wobbly days are a pain in the ass.
But her brow also ticks upwards. Her new acquaintance here confirms that, actually, a few more strangers are showing up as of late. "Huh..." she non-answers for a moment while thinking. "Yeah, maybe someone screwed up a train line or something." and an awkward smile creases her face. Awkward for her, maybe, because she has to admit fault. But not actually unsightly or cringey. "I'm from offworld, so I don't know Japan very well. Just the major cities and stations..."
When it comes to the topic of who she works for: "Y--yeah," the stammer is more momentary surprise than any shyness or attempts to hide information. "I'm a pilot with the military too..." and that half-smirk, half-smile returns as a thought crosses her mind. "Not much of a celebrity, sorry. My autograph isn't worth a dime. You've got my gratitude for helping me calm down, though. If that helps."
A beat.
"... probably not a coincidence, huh..." it's more murmured to herself than anything.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Is it?" Ako asks, at the mention of the selection. It's a little weird to imagine vending machines where you could only get Bepis or something, which is what that immediately brings to mind; she doesn't linger on it, though. She takes a long drink, looking out at the people shuffling through their days a little bit.
"Someone mentioned when they came through that there was an attack on some other train station down the line... this would have been in February or something?" Ako asks. "I wonder how long it takes to fix something like that. Maybe they've been routing trains some other way..." ... but that has nothing to do with me, Ako reflects. It's a little over her head, anyway.
"You're welcome," she says, at the mention of gratitude. "You're a pilot, though...? You don't look like what I'd imagine there. It's a little weird you'd cut through here, though... we don't have a mobile weapon garrison or anything. I know you're lost, but..."
Ako's eyes track off into the distance. Callisto can see that there's a kaiju close to where she's looking off toward -- mountainlike, inert.
She doesn't seem to notice. "... I wish the sky were a little brighter today. You'd think it'd be a little cooler, for it to be cloudy like this..." If she has thoughts on whether it's a coincidence, she doesn't express them.
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
The pilot in question here is only a year out of highschool and not particularly broad-shouldered or tall, so she really doesn't look much older than Ako here. If at all. It helps keep things from feeling weird. Like a lost college student or something, except self-admittedly military.
Said pilot also cranes her head ever so slightly. When she squints, her gaze travels somewhere else. A thousand miles away, diving into her memories. Sorting. Filtering. Now loading. "Back in February, the train stations..." she murmurs along with Ako's recollection.
The voice of a phantom lurks in her memories. Faceless at first, a cloudy blur in the shape of a head. "Oh--I was... there. I remember. There was a fight, and someone was trying to smash up the trains -specifically- in their Mobile Suit. It seemed like overkill..." Callisto also recalls all of this, soft-spoken. As if studying up on the matter as she recalls it. What was it that stranger said...?
The phantom in her memory briefly takes shape. Metallic. Squat. Death Army.
>> OUR HOME'S TOO LOUD NOW! YOU KEEP BARGING IN! SO, WITH YOUR WEAPONS --
Callisto's gaze focuses again sharply, pupils return to normal size. Back in the present now. She doesn't connect the dots immediately, but she's now aware that the dots are there. To be connected. She'd feel rude if she left Ako hanging, so she doesn't: "... nah. Whenever I'm on Earth and it's cloudy, it's always hot and muggy... I don't know how you guys deal."
More importantly, she's also aware of an inhuman, massive shape in the middle-distance. Kaiju. Towering. Monstrous. And... still? She startles for a moment, but only a moment. The absolute lack of motion helps.
"Sorry--what's... that?" Callisto motions towards one with her now-empty can. It's the mountainous Kaiju in the distance. This girl is not that well-read on her monsters. More of a facist robots kind of girl. "That thing all the way over there?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"That's... huh. We've never had something like that happen here..." Ako doesn't sound too *interested*, but she does sound a little alarmed. "I hope everyone was safe. It's kind of scary to imagine... the closest I've ever come to something like that was ... there was a controlled burn during spring break, and it got a little uncontrolled for a minute. Everyone made sure things were fine, but we had to cut the day trip short... it wasn't great."
It's then that Callisto turns her attention... not far from where Ako's looking, really? And yet -- Ako doesn't see anything. She squints a little bit, asking, "... Huh? There's a couple birds off that way..."
She pulls out her phone, evidently keying on the totally wrong thing and completely missing the 70 meter tall kaiju. Opening her camera app, she tries to zoom in a bit. "I don't know..." Still, she does realize her vision was drawn off that way... and she doesn't think she was birdwatching.
... it's weird. She tries to put it out of her mind. "This is kind of weird to say," she says, diverting from that instead, "but you don't look like what I'd think of when I'd think of a pilot at all. You're... a third-year?"
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
For such a grumpy guts in canon, Callisto manages to keep a decent smile on her face for most of the conversation. Even if it's a little weird, distant, she's engaged. This is nice. The sense that it can't be helped, she's lost, so she might as well leave her phone off and just soak it in. It's ... it's not bad. Not something she'd usually do, but this seems to be an auspicious year for change.
"Maybe I'm seeing things. Hot day and all..." she offers after Ako makes a good attempt to zoom in on the kaiju with her phone. But this isn't a spectacularly-told lie, either. The pilot stops to blink and shield her eyes briefly, then looks out again. There is still a giant monster on the horizon... seemingly serene, too. That this other girl can't see it is terrifically weird. Callie has no reason to believe she's lying.
What... the hell does it -mean-?
The topic swap seems welcome, because there's an eerie vibe to that angle. The redhead stops only to brush her bangs free of her gaze. "... mmm. Yeah." she agrees with the assessment of her being in third-year. This is a lie, too, but this one is less egregious. And as such, it rolls off the tongue far, far easier. Simply put, it feels close enough to the truth because graduation was still not that long ago.
"I got a start when I was really young. It's messed up, but, I guess that's life sometimes."
That's putting it lightly, but hell... is she wrong?
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Callie's ultimate assessment gets a nod. "Yeah, that happens. You're still a little out of it, and it's... not as bad as it could be, but it's still pretty hot." Ako breezes along. She's not the type to obsess -- at least, not over something like this.
What surprises her is the idea that her new friend got started piloting so young. *That's* something she couldn't have guessed; there's not even really any... conflicts, to get started so young *in*. ... Are there? "That's... kind of strange," is all she says. She doesn't press, doesn't act like it's a lie, just... it startles her, a bit. It makes her wonder how much about the world she doesn't know.
"... I can show you around town for the next little while if you want me to help you get your bearings," comes an offer after finishing off her bottle of Ramune, "but after that I need to get going. Someone from class wants to pick out a spot for another day trip with me, and I want to do it face to face."
It'd be hard to miss the slight flush to her cheeks as she says it.
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
Callisturu Two stands up and stretches briefly, before depositing her empty can in the recycle bin. Luckily, sensibilities regarding vending machines and nearby disposal are now universal. That's the real victory of the culture war. Whether she can actually detect any sense of Ako's unease or just hear it in her voice is a meaningless question, she'd act the same on it either way: not everyone is embroiled in the sweltering net of conflict that occasionally belches up to ensnare the Earth Sphere's many innocents. And that's something worth protecting.
Or reassuring, in this case. "Ah--don't worry too much about it. I was born really far away, things are probably different here."
Are they? Really? She wants to hope they are. They have to be different somewhere.
(You've changed,) thinks Puru Two.
"Hey. If you want to show me around... that'd be nice. I don't get a chance to explore much." it's a little indulgent, but Callisto owes herself this much. Maybe she owes this girl that much. This colourful anchor in a city of pastel hues. "I bet you know some good spots. I'll owe you one now."
(It's not a bad thing.)
The camera pans to Callisto, who makes a comical squinting upon sighting Ako's blush. She glances at the corners of the screen, increasingly cartoony in proportions, as lilies bloom behind the yankee-blonde.
God damn it, not AGAIN--