2022-09-16: Light and Void and Ramen
- Cast: Koji Kabuto, Yuliana Dispersal
- Where: Fujinomiya City - Boss Ramen
- Date: U.C. 0096 09 16
- Summary: Captain Dispersal drops by Fujinomiya City to get Koji dancing to her tune and ends up feeling nostalgic for the good old days of the Mycenaean Wars. Such is the power of Boss Ramen.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Fujinomiya City! A beacon of light for the future of the Earth Sphere, pioneering the miracle of Photon Power! A city redeveloped very much with the security needs of a nation plagued by giant monsters of a natural, cosmic, or mechanical nature in mind - wide streets, reinforced buildings, and a complex underground bunker and tunnel system for the residents to evacuate into when things get messy. It's not quite Tokyo-3's fully-buriable armoured skyscrapers, but in its own way the "Shin Fuji Science City" is as good at resisting a (ki)kaiju attack as the NERV-owned city.
For all its high-tech scientific pursuits, however, it is a city open to everyone, including the rugged, earnest charms of the working-class everyman, which brings us to a humble little ramen shop that wouldn't stand out overmuch, unless you knew the name 'Boss' from the historic battles against Doctor Hell and the Mycenaeans.
The big man and his goons (affectionate) Nuke and Mucha are, as always, hard at work feeding the people of the city, and they're joined today by an old friend enjoying the house special at the counter. Koji Kabuto is in quiet conversation with Boss at the moment while Nuke and Mucha attend to customers.
"And you and Sayaka are sure going back into the fight is what you want?" Boss seems a little concerned. Koji nods. "I don't think any of us can just sit back and pretend everything's going to be fine as long as we stay in the boxes the Federation wants us in, Boss. We need to start fighting for the future we want again."
Boss grunts. "Ain't that the truth. Well, you know the three of us are behind you every step of the way, Koji. If you need us to get Borot out for a brawl again, just say the word. In the meantime, we'll keep doing what we do best - keepin' a smile on the people's faces!"
Koji grins. "You're the boss, Boss."
"Damn straight!" They both laugh for a moment before the big man gets back to handling the clientele.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Back in the days of the Mycenae Empire, Private Dispersal was little more than a mechanic with too much arrogance who broke ranks to do something about the horrors encroaching on humanity. The fact that she was surprisingly /successful/ at keeping people safe was the difference between being punished for her initiative and rewarded for it, because...
Well. You know.
She was a hothead who could barely be counted on to put her seatbelt on, back then, which might explain why she's hiding half her face with her teal hair these days. In a dark suit, a light yellow shawl tucked about her neck, she doesn't much /look/ like military -- which is entirely the point. The now-Captain Yuliana Dispersal is a plains clothes sort of operative. It's easier that way.
But if she has business in Fujinomiya City, why -- there's no reason why she shouldn't go stop in for lunch afterwards. It's not related, you understand. Why she'd go a little further out of her way... oh, maybe she's just trying to duck her team for a while.
When Yuliana ducks into the ramen shop, she reaches up, to tuck her aviator sunglasses atop her head -- it's a matter of politeness. "Hello!" She greets the counter, cheerfully, with a smile. (And if she wasn't entirely cheerful, who could tell? There's that empathic dead zone around her, as always, obscuring the truth of her heart.) "I don't suppose /I/ could trouble you for one of those specials, Boss?"
A glance to her side, and she nods: "Dr. Kabuto," Yuliana greets him, entirely pleasantly.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Boss turns at the sound of a familiar voice, especially as Koji greets Yuliana with a professional "Captain Dispersal."
"Why, if it isn't Yuliana! I haven't seen you around these parts in, what, eight years?" The big man strides forward to wrap his old comrade in a big hug.
He gets within her occlusion zone and there's the tiniest flinch in his face, but he shakes it off with an ease that suggests a long-standing familiarity with the experience and keeps coming.
Koji, watching, can't help but smile. "That's Boss for you, everyone's friend," he murmurs fondly.
"Oi, Nuke! Mucha! One more house special, an old friend's come by!" Boss calls back to the kitchen.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Close to that, I think," Yuliana agrees, easily -- she doesn't suppose it would be easy to respond to someone like this any /other/ way. When Boss draws close, she sights that flinch -- with an edge of suspicion which she swallows behind her smile.
No, surely not.
(It's so easy to dismiss her hunter's acuity, with someone she met before she developed her talents. It's not always easy to detect lower levels of Awakening, at the best of times, and she's not seen him for /some/ years.)
She embraces him just the same, with strong arms and a pat on the back -- and a little stiffness, in the manner of someone who rarely finds herself /being hugged,/ but she doesn't raise any complaints. "It's good to see you still well," she says, and means it.
"Boss was quite the role model for me when I was a nobody mechanic sneaking out with whatever machine was at hand," Yuliana explains, to Koji, as she reclaims enough space to take a seat of her own. "Leaving aside the make-do philosophy of battlefield repairs," she was /definitely/ mad enough to get out of her robot and fix its wiring in the middle of a fight, "Borot was kind enough to look out for a little wanzer in battles like that." Wanzers /do/ tend to be remarkably small little machines, at scale.
She laughs, fingers splayed across her lips. "Believe it or not, back then, I really had /no/ idea what I was doing. I only knew the control system so I could move things around the yard! Mind you, I couldn't just continue sitting on my hands when the Mycenae Empire was doing all that, so there was really no choice but to try."
Her hand shifts, two fingers pressing to her exposed temple, as she sighs.
"Oh, look at what you've done," Yuliana reprimands Boss, lightly. "You've got me all /nostalgic./"
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
'Believe it or not, back then, I really had no idea what I was doing.'
"Seems like a lot of folks end up on the battlefield that way," Koji chuckles. "I had to learn the hard way, myself." He looks off into the middle distance in that strange nostalgic way that people can get for terrible formative experiences.
"So you two fought the Mycenaeans while I was studying? Small world." Koji, of course, famously suspended his studies to rejoin the fight and help Tetsuya Tsurugi close out the war. Ships passing in the night... "It's good to know that there were others who saw they needed stopping, though I'm sure your bosses weren't happy with you going over their heads."
Boss chuckles. "Little Yuli was a terror back then! Getting stuck right in without any thought as to how she was gonna get out! Borot taking the share of beatings it did meant we had a lot of time to talk while putting our 'bots back together, even though pilotin' a wanzer's a very different beast!" Borot, for instance, has a steering wheel. You make do with what you can scrounge out of a junkyard.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
The steering wheel is /deeply/ weird, but Yuliana can't really criticise Borot, given the mix-and-match nature of wanzer upkeep. Did you know you can slap the legs of a Tiandong 3 onto the body of a Prov PAW2 if you hate hovering? True story.
(Most people go the other way around, but Yuliana has always appreciated the tradition of actual leg parts.)
"Oh, come now! I'm a terror /these/ days, too," she laughs, to Boss, behind curled fingers. "Though I daresay I do far more damage before I'm done in the here and now." She pauses, and adds, a shade sheepishly: "Though I suppose I spend about as much time putting my wanzer back together afterwards, all told. The 'Annihilation' of my current ride does do a remarkable job of describing its typical state at the end of a mission." She carefully avoids specifying what happens to her enemies at the end of one of those.
Instead, she sighs, and adds: "Unfortunately, the hangar company isn't nearly as vivacious these days." That's because her current company is terrified of her, but never mind that.
Yuliana gestures, with an open palm, to Koji. "Oh, I certainly got dressed-down when I finally went back to base," she concedes, lightly enough. "Given I left without orders, without even being a /pilot,/ and it wasn't like I could repair /all/ the damages to the machine I took... luckily, I was able to convince my superiors it was a good opportunity, so I more or /less/ landed on my feet. Though... it wasn't long after that they found another use for me," she adds, a little more distant, gaze tracking to the end of the counter. "It's unfortunate I wasn't able to help escort the Empire out in the end, but that is the nature of the military, I'm afraid." There's a rueful edge to her voice; she /did/ care about stopping them.
But they learned the hard way, huh.
"Not that it hasn't worked out for me," Yuliana shrugs a shoulder, tone still quite casual. "I'm a Captain these days, you know. On my current trajectory, it wouldn't be entirely surprising if I made Colonel before I hit fifty. Heh..." a small grin, all made of teeth, "then I'd be in a position to move people towards the problem, I suppose." It's as much a way to say that the REA prefers not to get involved as any personal ambition.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"That would be a pretty meteoric rise, but it would also stick you behind a desk forever. The worst part of being an Official Hero is the paperwork, after all." Something Koji has only briefly had to deal with as a combatant; he's much more familiar with the bureaucracy of industry, nowadays, but the dread of paperwork is a universal language.
Koji sips from his glass of water as Mucha brings Yuliana's ramen over. "So, what brings you to Fuji city, Captain?" The ramen smells really good.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Ugh, tell me about it," Yuliana grouses, on the matter of paperwork, hand pressing to the side of her head as she leans her elbow on the countertop. "Ever since I was given my own squad, it's been /nothing/ but requisitions and allocation requests... and making sure they all go through, which is its own headache." Socialism! It means everyone gets their fair share, so long as they can grease the right wheels.
Which is probably fine and normal and good.
She smiles to Mucha -- "thanks," she asides, as she takes her ramen -- but she turns her attention back to Koji's question soon enough. "Nothing nefarious, if you're concerned," she assures him, as she snaps her chopsticks. "I just had occasion to visit someone in the area -- we arranged an order of bundled conductors to go through to India a little while back, and I had to do some more negotiating now our engineers have come back with additional demands."
She gestures, with her sticks, before she wraps up some noodles in her grasp instead. "Unfortunately, India is still rather hard-hit by the present unpleasantness, and sometimes one must go afield to get the parts required to where they need to go. It would be nice if our factories could handle the demand, but as a matter of immediacy..." She trails off, and as it happens, it's mostly so she can shove her noodles in her mouth.
Chomp, chomp. "This is /really/ good," she remarks, having not had occasion to visit for some time.
Chomp. "Anyway," Yuliana finishes, once she's swallowed that bite too, "it's entirely civilian infrastructure. The Major wanted to get consistent power back to Sithouli, given the current priority calls they have to make." Sithouli is largely a manufacturing area; make of that what you will.
"Letda --" Yuliana pulls herself up, here, with a visible pause and sideways tilt of her head, because that's Indonesian slang. Helpfully, she translates: "Rather, my Second Lieutenant comes from the area, so you can imagine my squad has some personal investment in trying to catch up some of the... tardiness of India's reconstruction." It's awfully convenient how she can blame her investment on someone /else./
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Despite his reservations about Yuliana, Koji can't help but smile as Boss Ramen works its magic. "It is, isn't it? If you'd told me ten years ago that Boss, Nuke and Mucha would make the best ramen in the OCU, and maybe the best in the entire Earth Sphere, I wouldn't have believed you." Maybe it's the Photon Power at work, since the restaurant is off the grid, running solely off Borot's reactor, but it's also a factor of the entire atmosphere of the establishment - those who watch can see all three of the men moving about the building, making sure everyone is enjoying their time there or at least content.
"Ah. Civilian power infrastructure. That certainly comfortably explains why you're here, it's something of our specialty."
The way Yuliana seems to find somebody else to assign responsibility for why she's doing anything, as though she's truly emotionally unattached to her actions... Koji's not a skilled enough socialiser to figure she's lying, but that kind of personality is truly foreign to him, as somebody who puts his heart and soul into everything he does. The poor man is, fundamentally, an honest soul.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"It's certainly something," Yuliana agrees, with a smile. "When I heard about this hole in the wall, I had to see it for myself... if only to see whether they'd made it through. But, imagine this!" She proceeds to eat some more of the ramen, which is, in fact, unironically good.
Chomp, CHOMP, and she returns her attention to Koji again. "Quite so," she says, amicably enough. "And while our annual plans are largely internal, it /is/ more prudent, at times, to seek outside suppliers. Things get tied up, top-down priorities change... you know," she tilts her head, with a light shade of regret. "So I have come! I do these sorts of negotiations sometimes as well, after all."
(Why Yuliana, specifically, would be sent to negotiate, is an interesting question which she will answer... never.)
Nibble, nibble, chomp. "It will be better when the housing of that region can be distributed without reservations again. It's quite unfortunate when people are left to live in disaster because their homes are too... regional to prioritise." A little narrowing of her visible eye, some vague distaste which she doesn't quite verbalise.
Yuliana takes another helping of ramen between her chopsticks, lifts it to her mouth, and -- proceeds to end up chomping on some of her bangs as well as the noodles. "Pfeh!" She exclaims, her other ring-bearing hand reaching up to brush her hair and the humanising moment back. (There's that scar the bangs are hiding, down her left eye.) A little grimace, and: "Pardon."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji has far more than his own share of scars (and head trauma) as a result of his reckless teenage piloting, so Yuliana's mark of valour is hardly something he's going to react badly to. Quite the contrary, in fact, it makes the otherwise iron facade of Yuliana seem frankly human, much like her accidental hair-eating did. Which, upon reflection, is probably why she hides the scar, even though it makes her look quite dashing.
However - "Oh! Congratulations." He's spotted the engagement ring. "That happened pretty recently, I guess, since you weren't wearing that ring the last time we spoke."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Well, there's certainly /a/ reason she keeps her scar hidden.
Her hair falls back over her face, though, as her fingers curl in response to that exclamation. She's surprised for a moment -- before her expression softens with entirely genuine affection, and she splays the fingers of her hand out for better examination.
(The ring is rich gold, with twin diamonds flanking an emerald; whoever her affianced is, they're clearly well-off enough to afford some serious jewellery.)
"Why, thank you," Yuliana smiles, warmth in her voice, just the same. "Yes -- just a few months ago. On my birthday, in fact!" Which isn't the sort of detail she'd normally volunteer, but Yuliana is feeling /terribly/ nostalgic after finding herself here, so she's notably more chatty than she might be normally. She laughs, sonorous, and remarks: "Quite the present, wouldn't you say?"
She seems to think it's positive, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Quite the birthday present indeed," Koji says thoughtfully. "Makes the anniversary convenient to remember, too." For a moment, he considers Sayaka's birthday, then puts that thought aside for further analysis later because something about it doesn't feel right. "Must have come as quite a surprise, too."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Very convenient," Yuliana agrees, only to tilt her head at his final comment and prompt: "Mm..?" She takes another bite of her ramen to mask the way she's wondering whether it /was/ a surprise or not.
Tink, her chopsticks rest delicately on the edge of the ramen bowl, as Yuliana looks out over the counter for a moment. "We were certainly already devoted to each other, but... I was quite surprised she recognised the tradition, I suppose," she settles on, reflective.
"I'd long dismissed the expectation," she chuckles, smiling to Koji. "It's a little childish, to my people, but... well, my parents have always wanted me to have children /properly,/ and let's just say that was always going to be unlikely." They're lesbians, Harold. "But I am very happy to be able to call myself a married woman, finally. Quite soon..."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Family expectations." Koji makes a sympathetic exhalation, shaking his head. "Well, I suppose my father and grandfather would be proud of where I am now." Not that he wants to emulate them wholly, upon reflection. "Do you ever visit your family?" This is something of a personal question from civilian to soldier, but the mood is right for it. "Oh, and have you set a date yet?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Not yet," Yuliana says, easily, regardless of the current state of their wedding plans. She sighs, lightly, tapping her chopsticks on the edge of her ramen bowl. "As for being dutiful..."
There's an edge of pain in her envy-green eyes -- or at least the one visible -- for a moment, before she blinks it away. "It's complicated," she settles on, finally. "They have certain beliefs about the world which may not entirely... agree with my life."
With a tight smile, she says, entirely too casual: "Blue Cosmos voters... you know."
/You know./
"But I'm quite pleased your patriarchs would approve of your present existence," she assures Koji, with a light nod.
She gathers up some beef into her chopsticks, and supposes, "I'll certainly seek their approval before the marriage though, of course. It would be entirely too disrespectful to elope!" Authoritarianism, it seems, begins in the home.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Ah. Yes, I understand." So many different flavours of asshole in the Earth Sphere, it's sometimes hard to keep track.
He pushes forwards. "Grandfather used to run the Photon Power Lab, you know. Then he went and revealed the discovery of Japanium to the world and retired in pretty much the same breath. Kind of dramatic, if you ask me." This from a Mazin pilot renowned mostly for getting knocked around in fights until he found an edge to capitalise on and seize victory - the epitome of a dramatic turnaround.
"Then again, father faked his death, turned himself into a cyborg, and devoted himself to fighting the Mycenaeans, so I suppose drama is in our blood."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Quite the drama! Hmm, not that conversion can't be a fine way to continue engaging with the world," she remarks, lightly, clipping some seaweed between her chopsticks. Chomp! She elaborates, once her mouth is free again: "Lettu -- sorry, my First Lieutenant -- wouldn't be half the sniper she is without her fabricated eyes. If not for," she stops herself after she starts talking, smiles for a moment, goes on, "well, I might have had my own cybernetics myself, if life had gone differently for me."
She edits Athrusa out of her sentence so effortlessly.
"And you're a faithful follower of the theatre yourself, as I understand," Yuliana points out, amused, once she's nibbled her next bite. "Though you seem to be living a quiet enough life /these/ days..." Republic diplomacy is in /Yuliana's/ blood, which might explain the gentle leading question.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"In fairness I think the total body conversion was how he faked his death - that is, it was how he survived." The lives of the Kabutos have ever been strange, it seems.
Yuliana gently nudges him about his career, and Koji recognises the nudge - but it seems harmless enough to engage with it. "Well, things in that arena may soon change. After all, it's not every day an inexplicable dragon tears its way into the world out of thin air - it's the kind of thing that begets attention from those of us experienced in fighting giant monsters, makes us ask the question 'should I be staying retired, right now?'"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"It /is/ quite handy for that," Yuliana agrees, without sharing just how she knows the life-preserving benefits of cyborgification.
(She can preserve Wen's secrets that much.)
But her visible teal eyebrow raises, when Koji mentions the new input to the arena. "Ah, yes, an inexplicable dragon..." Yuliana pauses, glancing down at her ramen, as if she's evaluating whether she ought to speak her mind. A little frown, crossing over her face.
Finally, she comes to a decision, and looks up to ask him: "Do you know anything in particular about it?" With a note of hesitation -- her other hand lifting to brush her fingers through her bangs, hiding her face for a moment -- she adds: "I... was targeted by something like that, you see," with a shred of vulnerability, as if she hates to reveal her /own/ weakness.
"No matter how many times I was asked," her voice lowers, with a dismal note, "I couldn't explain it. I'm... quite embarrassed that some of the children I was trying to help ended up having to help me, you understand. It's unbecoming of an officer..."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"I don't - it's not really like anything I've seen before." Maybe the Emperor of Darkness, but that was Tetsuya's battle, not his - he lacks the firsthand expertise to say anything for sure.
"That was just one contributor to the question, anyway. Kaiju attacks increasing in frequency... The recent hijacking of that radio station in Australia by Count Brocken of all people? Things are changing, and the Black Castle of Iron needs to stand guard again."
He frowns as Yuliana mentions her helplessness. "I wasn't aware you were on the scene there. It must have been... difficult, to be powerless there."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
He has no idea, but the heroes of the world are being incited to act by so /many/ of these things happening at once. Credit to Yuliana: the troubled expression on her face doesn't flicker, as she files all that away.
"They... tell me I was dancing," she explains, a touch haltingly, a shade more vague. "I don't remember clearly... I'd be in one place, then suddenly another... perhaps I said things. I don't know."
Her fingers lower, to press against her wrist. "If you learn anything... could you tell me? Sorry, I... I really hate to ask, but... it may be I'm in danger." Her eyes blink shut, briefly. "And my superior's solution is to threaten to keep me under lock and key, so you can understand how I'm quite motivated to solve this /before/ he feels compelled to see to my safety."
She looks deeply unsettled -- being vulnerable like this.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"I don't exactly have a lot of pull in that area... But I'll see what I can do." Yuliana's admission of the particular nature of her distress is peculiar enough that it attracts more than just concern from Koji, but also curiosity. Obviously Yuliana has no idea why she was acting that way, but that 'why' is pertinent enough to catch the Scientist in him. Things like that do not just 'happen'.
Things don't just appear out of nowhere without a purpose to them, even if that purpose is inscrutable.
Under Mount Fuji, bathed in spotlights, surrounded by men in labcoats poring over material analyses and emissions readouts...
... "Mazinger Infinity" stands, gargantuan and inscrutable.
Waiting.
Back in Boss Ramen, Koji finishes his meal and puts down cash on the counter. "In the meantime, I should be getting back to work. Enjoy the rest of your meal, Captain." He nods to her, before putting his suit jacket back on and heading back out into the city, towards the labs that are his home and livelihood.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Thanks," Yuliana says -- a little mumbled, a lot embarrassed, entirely out of her comfort zone and taking what's clearly a /personal/ risk. "I... I appreciate it."
(She did /just/ say the Republic preferred to handle things internally, after all.)
She finishes her ramen quietly, though she does smile to Koji, when he gets up to leave. "Take care, Dr. Kabuto," she farewells him in turn -- and takes a little longer to finish her own meal, before she puts down /more/ than enough gilla to cover it and heads out.
When Wen Yuan finds her again, she's smiling.
"There's a great ramen place nearby," she explains herself, and leaves her cheer at that.