2022-09-04: Bland
- Log: 2022-09-04- Bland
- Cast: Koji Kabuto, Akane Shinjo
- Where: Photon Power Labs
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-09-04
- Summary: Koji Kabuto spends a late night working on Mazinger Z. Akane Shinjo continues to break in her new trick by making her way to the Photon Power Labs.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
It's long past the time when a reasonable sort should have gone to bed, but Koji and Sayaka were up all night talking shop about upgrades and rejoining the fight, and the pilot of Mazinger Z is buoyed up with a kind of energy he hasn't felt in a long time (though the coffee probably didn't help), so he's down in the Old Lab's hangar, making yet more tweaks. This time he's working on the propulsion systems of Z's right arm, reoptimising the thrusters for better flight control and remote aiming.
He's humming a certain tune that might have been written by Boss under his breath as he swaps wires out in one of the fingertip thrusters of the right hand, wearing an old, oilstained white tee and jeans. "Sora ni, sobieru..."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Mid-song, hm? As good a time to intrude as any.
A young lady rises out of the slot for Mazinger's pilder, looking down at him as she lifts herself up and over; eventually, she takes a seat comfortably on the upper ridge of the mouth grille. "I'd ask if I was interrupting something, but I know I am. Hey there, Mr. Hero~."
Her fingers come up, gently pushing her cracked glasses up. "So! This'll be the first time we've met. You'll know me better by my work, I think!" She kicks up a leg, letting herself recline into the angle formed by Z's nose. "Hm. Not very comfy, is it?"
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
It's not the first time an unfamiliar voice has echoed out in the old hangar - Nidaime popped by to visit, that one time. Fortunately, this time Koji isn't deep in the innards of the arm so there's nothing to bang his head on.
He turns towards Z and looks all the way up to the head. "Well, normally people aren't supposed to sit on Z's face." He twirls his screwdriver idly in one hand, taking in Akane's whole presentation. One bushy eyebrow arches as he puts together the particulars of her outfit. "Neat cosplay, but I don't recognise the character. Lot of work to go through to come see me specifically, though - You must be miss Shinjo."
He leans against the great iron fingers next to him. "I have to say I certainly wasn't expecting to meet you like this - I'm afraid I don't have anything set up for guests."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"That's fine," Akane says, tone perfectly pleasant. "I picked this outfit out myself, actually! I had to have the dress made... mmm... semi-custom?" She wobbles a hand, saying, "It took a little longer than I'd like."
Still comfortably seated, Akane looks down toward Koji, tone pleasant as ever. "As for having things set up for guests... hm, do you have anything to drink~?" There's a moment where she considers dropping all the way down to take a peek at what Koji's doing; this body isn't supposed to hurt, after all.
... Not yet, she decides. "You're right, though. Akane Shinjo. My kaiju really did a number on your whole little family, huh." ... she actually hates most of the design changes, from what she saw -- but she can present a unified front with Alexis to everyone else, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"I don't know that I'd call 'eating six Breast Fires at point blank range' 'doing a number on us'," Koji says bluntly, walking over to a mini-fridge and pulling out two cans of iced coffee. "Shiro got a little banged up, but he bounced back. If you asked him, he'd probably say it was good practice. As kaiju attacks go, especially sneak attacks? Almost no collateral or casualties."
He turns back around, sighting up the twenty-six-or-so metres to Z's face before deciding to take the maintenance lift up instead. "We're still running theories about why, though. If you're taking credit for it, maybe you could shed some light on that?" He seems... oddly calm about an apparent supervillain teleporting into his sanctuary.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"The difference between a little banged up and dead is a few inches in a situation like that!" Akane replies, a little coolly; she has no actual comeback for her kaiju's resounding loss, but she doesn't seem to be sweating it, either. As Koji starts to come up to her, she stretches out as best as her lofty perch will allow.
"Actually, I was kinda curious about that too. You know how it is -- when you're juggling a lot of balls, you can't help it if one or two of them falls on someone and crushes them!" She... doesn't know? She says it's her kaiju, but she doesn't seem to have the slightest idea about the attack's actual strategic goals.
"I didn't really come here to discuss why, though! I'm mostly here to remind you that my city's off limits and we're not going to have a problem if you stay away." Koji's just another human. No sense in getting him entangled in this!
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
The look Koji gives Akane as she's cheerfully blase about the line between life and death in a giant robot fight might as well scream 'well obviously' to the heavens. "Shiro trained hard, he's a good pilot."
As the maintenance lift reaches its peak, he swings it over to Z's head and hops into the Pilder socket, passing a can over to Akane with casual ease as he moves to inspect one of the docking locks for the control vehicle. "Hmm." He operates the manual control for the latch. "Responsiveness is down a little. Hey, since you're here, you mind holding this screwdriver while I get this panel open?"
As he gets to work, he thinks aloud. "From what that fight was like... I would have to say it felt almost like whoever was puppeteering that kaiju wanted to make a point to me, wanted to make me watch my little brother die. Which raises a fascinating question to me."
He looks up at Akane. "If you don't want to have a problem with me, why would you take credit for an attack like that?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Accepting the can of iced coffee, Akane cracks it open and takes a quick drink. "Hmmm... a little bitter for me. I don't mind canned stuff, but..." Akane secretly has a child's palate and that's putting it gently. When Koji gets her involved with maintenance, even in a sideways way, Akane... reflexively just goes with it; before she fully thinks about it, she accepts the screwdriver, too.
It gives her something to lazily twirl while she talks, at least. "Huh! Interesting. I guess fighting kikaiju and other stuff for so long makes you pretty good at reading intent off of people..." Akane reflects, looking up to the top of the hangar.
"Anyway, like: it is my kaiju, so obviously I'm going to take credit for it. But I'm mostly interested in killing a Vessel of Light. You're just some guy." She drums her fingers against the can of coffee. "Don't you think you're responsible for the things you create, though? If not, I'd say you're kind of an irresponsible guy, Doc~tor Ka~bu~to."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Maybe a little bit reckless," Koji admits, "but people are responsible for their own actions, not the actions of others. Should Tem Ray take credit for everything his son did in the One Year War, just because he designed the Project V mobile suits? If somebody steals a gun and shoots a man, that's not the fault of the gunsmith. So it sounds to me like you feel responsible for these monsters affecting the world, regardless of who was really using them."
He pulls a wrench out of his pocket, leans in and tightens something inside the docking port. "Maybe even a little guilty. Which is exactly what they would want. If somebody stole Mazinger Z, used it to cause a lot of trouble, and then blamed me for the mess, it's not my fault, but I'd be really mad at them."
"Just like I'm pretty mad at whoever thought making a high-schooler agree to take the fall for an assassination attempt was a good idea."
"A question deserves a question, though." He double-checks his work, pulls the manual control again, and nods in satisfaction. "If there was a problem, if someone was crying out for help, and you knew they were in pain and you could do something about it... Wouldn't you help?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Taking another drink of canned coffee, Akane says, "The relationship I have with Alexis isn't like that," though it takes her a little longer to work her way around to a detailed follow-up. "He wants me to have somewhere safe." It gnaws at her, but she can put it aside for now.
That's... actually a difficult question -- something Akane very much did not expect from Koji Kabuto, a man who she only really understands as 'cool hero who grew up into cool scientist.' She was expecting someone a little more hot-blooded, not...
Akane looks down at her knees for a few moments. "Hmmm... you're giving someone you just met, whose kaiju attacked your family, a lot of credit!" she starts, before winding around to the question. "I think it's kinda irrelevant. Kaiju aren't really 'for' that kind of thing. Not exactly a helping kinda vibe. Even when I knew Renais was hurting, I was more interested in getting her fixed so she could stay out of my place than because I cared or something."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Making enemies for them is a weird way to try and keep someone 'safe'... Unless 'alone' is being mistaken for the same thing." At this point, Koji aims for eye contact.
"It's not at all. That's something I had to learn the hard way."
As Akane blows off his question, Koji smirks a little. "I wasn't expecting an answer - but I do know somebody who's hurting, who doesn't know how to reach out for help, and maybe I have the power to do something. Everyone deserves the protection of the Castle of Iron."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Making enemies for Renais worked great for me!" Akane enthuses, taking another long drink of canned coffee. "And great for her, too." ... well, other than the spiteful spear into her side, but hey -- can't be picky about purification methods.
Akane's eyes meet Koji's; she looks singularly checked out, and only moreso as he speaks.
Someone who's hurting, though... "Huh? Did you meet Yuta or Rikka or something already?" Akane asks, brow furrowing a little bit. "I guess that means you're kind of embroiled either way." Koji's specific formulation of the situation just... doesn't connect, in her brain.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Hmm. She really is just going through the motions. There's no enjoyment of the role, no cackling, no gleeful sadism. This is not a Brocken or an Ashura, here to gloat or mock.
This is just a girl.
Koji smiles sadly. "Let's go with 'or something', and just say I can't look away now that I know that pain exists. Even so: We aren't enemies, Akane Shinjo, no matter how hard you're trying to play the part."
He finishes his drink, leaning back against the rim of the Pilder socket's protective plating. "I've said my piece. You probably don't get it right now, but you will. If you want, you can get a sofubi of one of Hell's works or somethin' from the gift shop at the Mazin Museum. Gotta appreciate a fellow creative's work, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Oh. ... well, I'll give you time to figure that one out," Akane says, a little blandly. The answer gets under her skin -- but she doesn't want to show that kind of weakness to Koji Kabuto. After all -- heroes are great at slipping into the cracks in a heart.
"Mm... Kikaiju are a little bland," Akane replies, as she looks down all twenty-six-odd meters of Mazinger Z. "At the end of the day, that's just a mobile suit with a cheap AI in it. A real kaiju's a different kinda thing entirely."
Akane finishes mentally routing her path down -- and does it; she hops, as if she were just heading down the school steps with a little too much enthusiasm, down Mazinger Z, neatly recovering from each successive landing -- at distances that would break bones on most humans. When she reaches the foot, she steps into Koji's blind spot --
-- and doesn't make an obvious emergence.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji whistles, impressed, as Akane drops from dangerous heights without any sign of damage. "It's a good thing Hell's dead," he says half to himself as she vanishes from his sight, "He'd swear a blood oath of vengeance if he heard anyone say something like that."
The veteran pilot pulls out his phone. "Kerib's really done a number on you, huh, Akane?" He should check in with the others involved.