2022-12-03: Hero and Gladiator
- Cast: Koji Kabuto, Qivi
- Where: Fujinomiya City - New Lab Park
- Date: U.C. 0096 12 03
- Summary: In the wake of her rescue from sleepy Tsutsujidai, Qivi gets in touch with the person she never expected reaching out to her, and a new friendship is forged from the crucible of a battle shared.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Fujinomiya City is the heart of the OCU's Scientific Frontier and it shows. Reconstructed to a new paradigm following the war with Doctor Hell, the tremendous budget accorded to the Photon Power Research Institute is fed back into the city's infrastructure to create a power grid, train-focused transportation network and architectural style designed to be resilient to kikaiju-scale attack, with streets wide enough to allow the Ichinana Corps to move about uncontested and multiple green spaces - after all, the miracle that earned this city its reputation is based on light, it's only natural to design a city that exonerates the beauty and power of the sun.
Dominating the city centre is a massive pyramidal structure suspended over the centre by four splayed tubes containing a high-speed elevator network, topped with the iconic pointed 'antennae' of the Old Photon Power Lab. The 'New' Lab oversees energy distribution to all of Free Japan and its ongoing research into the properties of Japanium and related materials and energies.
The New Lab itself is constructed over a massive circular park divided into quarters by footpaths leading to the access elevators to the facility; and it's on a bench in the eastern quarter that Koji Kabuto is sitting, enjoying the bright, wintry day as he awaits a meeting.
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
This isn't the part of the OCU that Qivi spends a whole lot of time. Not just Fujinomiya City, either (though this is the first time she's been) but the New Lab. Generally, she doesn't have any particular reason to go somewhere like this. She didn't even finish high school; what could she possibly do at a lab?
Well, meet Koji Kabuto, apparently.
Qivi figured her usual outfit probably wouldn't fit in. She *already* feels a bit like she doesn't fit in. So when she actually walks through the eastern quarter's footpaths, she's dressed a bit better than usual; a niceish pair of black slacks, an actual buttoned green blouse, and her hair is...
Well, okay. It *was* combed at one point. It is almost back to being its normal mess of a mane, though. Nothing restrains that hair that thick, or at least that *much* hair, for very long.
"Uh, hey," she says, as she approaches. Not quietly. Qivi doesn't really do quiet so well. A moment's awkwardness, then a grin. "Thanks for meeting me, because I figured you'd be busy doing... whatever gets done here."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Miss Qivi." Koji stands to greet her, opting for a handshake rather than a bow. His own hair is, as always, similarly a disaster to maintain, to the point that he pretty clearly stopped trying somewhere back in 0083. "I always make a point to stay in touch with anyone I've fought alongside, new or old." He smiles, warmly. "Even if work keeps me pretty busy."
He motions for her to join him on the bench as he sits back down. "So, how've you been holding up? Must be weird re-acclimitasing to Earth Standard gravity, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Qivi's expression shifts slightly at 'Miss Qivi', because she can count how many times she's been called that on one hand and she'd probably have fingers left over. "Just Qivi's fine," she says. "One, it's already a nickname, so it sounds a little weird, and two, anyone who helps save my life gets to call me Qivi no matter what."
She seats herself next to Koji, settling down easily. "Not really. I actually like it on the ground. That was my first time on a colony - not counting the Orbital Ring, anyway, but they have full gravity there. And getting there... I don't really like flying in microgravity either, if I can help it. Not that it makes me sick or anything, it's just not my favourite sensation. The PLANT was more comfortable than *that*... but there's nothing wrong with good old solid ground either." She stomps one foot against it for emphasis.
"What about you? I mean, I don't know how long you were up there. But some people were for a while, I know that."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
He grins a little as Qivi looks a little shell-shocked from his form of address. "Fair enough! Qivi it is, then."
"Yeah, I only started going up to space after I graduated in '89, as an advisor to Londo Bell. Still kind of getting used to it, but I've been up more frequently than before this year. Still learning how to fight without being able to leverage Mazinger Z's weight to its best advantage."
When Qivi asks how he was coping, Koji shrugs. "I'd been spending some time trying to build up a survey of that PLANT's topography and development, since there's pretty much nothing of note outside of Tsutsujidai. 3G were taking point on the investigation of the sudden migration there, so I was handling scientific surveillance and reinforcement if they needed help. Just luck that I was in a position to get on-site when the signal went out."
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Qivi laughs. "As massive as that thing is you can just land on them," she says, and she's not entirely joking; Mazinger Z may not be really *gigantic* by the standards of modern warfare, but it's dense, and Qivi pilots a wanzer anyway so it looks especially big to her. Plowing right through another suit feet-first seems pretty feasible to her.
She looks more serious afterwards. "Yeah, that makes sense. It's hard to leave once you're in it - I mean, there's a fog, and nobody really goes out in it. I put Sarangay out at the very edge of town and I don't think anyone ran into it. But I *know* there's a lot of empty space out there. 3G, huh? I knew they were around, but I didn't know you were helping them."
Qivi dithers for a few seconds, then: "Well, lucky you were, if it was just luck. I wanted to thank you for that. I mean, I was up there and I wasn't doing anything. I came out because of Goldymarg but I wasn't... I didn't exactly help all that much for half of it. Wasn't the way I normally work. And you - not just you, but you were a big one - came out, spoke to me, and said exactly what I apparently needed to hear."
"So thanks."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Back in the day, Guy and I actually fought side-by-side a couple times. There was one time where the Photon Power Lab learned Baron Ashura had commandeered a pre-UC railway cannon to bombard us from way outside our ability to respond to its attacks effectively, so we went in on-foot to blow it up, but then the wreckage got turned into a Zonder Robo - EI-16 - after Hell sent Brighton J2 to defend it." Koji chuckles. "That fight was a mess, but we've stayed close since then - a good thing too, since the problems of Tsutsujidai bled out into the city several months ago with an attack on my little brother Shiro."
He smiles warmly. "You don't need to thank me, I just saw someone struggling and reached out to her. Frankly I'm surprised it's my words that resonated with you, I'm not normally..." He waves his hand. "That socially adept."
He pauses in thought before asking a critical question: "Do you want to talk about what happened to get you there? I understand if not, it sounds like some personal stuff was involved for the other people who moved there, but... if you want to, I'm willing to listen."
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
"What, one of those really old ones? Do those even have shells made for them - who am I kidding, he could make his own." Qivi shakes her head. "You're a bit older than me, and I never lived anywhere where those attacks were... common. Not that kind, anyway."
Qivi laughs. "What, you think I'm any good at it either? I just kind of say shit; sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. This time it worked. And like, I'm not saying you were the ONLY person I heard from. But it was at the right time." She raises one hand, giving Koji a (friendly) thump across the shoulders, unless he dodges. It's not an attempt to show off her strength. She's just like that.
Does she want to talk about it? "Not really," Qivi says, honestly, "but I'm gonna have to sometime. There was a dream. We spoke. I didn't remember it afterwards - not until the kaiju was gone - and a lot of it isn't your business, but I guess I got convinced that I wasn't doing any good down here. I mean, I'm strong, right? I fight things. Both in the arena and out of it. But fighting doesn't fix as much as I thought it would, and half the time I don't know who I'm supposed to be hitting anyway, so... I kinda gave up for a while, I guess, about doing anything useful. That's mostly what you reminded me of. I promised to *try*, dammit."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji takes the friendly thump with the grace of someone else who uses that kind of physicality among friends, grinning at Qivi. "Yeah, the mid-80s were real busy, and I feel like a lot of the specific incidents would have been lost on most people who weren't directly caught up in them in comparison to the big ones.
Qivi explains what happened and Koji's face softens from the cocky grin. "... I know what you mean," he says, "about not knowing who you're supposed to be fighting, and it not seeming to make much difference. You probably know I retired in '89 to go into research work, right? That was because we all figured my role as a fighter was done - and Sayaka thought I deserved a life of peace, with Tetsuya on contract with NERV and Shiro stepping into an official military role."
He sighs. "Turns out that if you're standing on the sidelines watching the state of the Earth, trying to make things better peacefully, you just get frustrated anyway, but for different reasons - the stubbornness of the other blocs adopting Photon Power despite its obvious benefits, the invasion, the war with ZAFT... There's a lot wrong with the Federation that just working on benevolent technology can't solve, so I decided that Mazinger Z - and I - were still needed to fight."
He grins. "Plus, I can't deny I enjoy the rush of combat, either."
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
"Plus, in the mid-80s, I was, like, ten, so it's not like I read the news. If I didn't see it, it didn't happen," Qivi says, not really *intending* to make Koji feel old and only realizing she might after she says it.
(She's not actually that much younger than him. She turns 21 this month. But it's *just enough* younger.)
She looks at Koji, surprise written all over her face. "But you're a hero! You figured it out at one point, right? But I mean, I guess after that, it makes sense. Those aren't the only problems with the Federation though. I went to Alordesh, after their civil war, too. And all this other shit, all the corruption and bullshit - "
Qivi realizes she is raising her voice (not that she is ever especially quiet) and intentionally throttles it down, blowing out a frustrated huff. "Yeah. You're right. I'm glad you're back at it. It's still hard, though. I still gotta figure that stuff out. It's a bit different from being in an arena, where it's just you, and maybe a team, and then the other side, everybody labeled up nice and neat."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Well yeah, with Hell and the Zonders it was easy, right? Megalomaniacal assholes making giant robot horrors to cause as much havoc as possible; nice big targets that nobody will complain about you smashing. Fighting other humans like that, military or not... I was never really comfortable with that, and politically things got... fraught after we lost Musashi." He's referring of course to the detonation of Getter Robo in New Yark. "Something something 'unlicensed mobile unit operation by untrained vigilantes'." He rolls his eyes. "So we pulled back, and focused on the scientific merit of Photon Power so we at least could still provide for the Earth Sphere."
"It is still hard to know what you should be doing, I guess, but I reckon we're a lot alike, so... Maybe just following your heart is enough." He shrugs. "Whatever the politics might be, you've got a strong instinct for right and wrong and a need to do something about the latter - otherwise you wouldn't have stepped up to fight Goldymarg with us. Plus, I have people I can count on, friends and family, who're more talented in the political arena and can figure out where my skillset is best applied if it's ambiguous."
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Qivi actually laughs again, a single amused bark. "Yeah, nobody's going to ever object if you deck Dr. Hell, or the Zonders, or Brocken, or a lot of kaiju. The rest, you have to think about a little more." She does remember New Yark - who wouldn't? Even though she wasn't a local. Her expression gets a little darker.
It passes. "Well, with Goldymarg, I was thinking... maybe I don't know a lot, but if Triple Zero doesn't get stopped, the rest of the world's not going to matter much. I heard about it from Renais." She doesn't call it a 'briefing' only because that would lead to asking 'wait, you have briefings?' and she doesn't know how much Koji knows about the Shuffle Alliance; better he think that she's just well-connected.
"But yeah, I'd like to do something. It's just sometimes hard to figure out what. But mostly I just wanted to thank you. And, uh, if you need my help with anything..." Not that she can figure out what Koji Kabuto might need *her* for, but you never know. "Though I'll have you know, I'm still an unlicensed mobile suit operation - actually a wanzer, I don't know how to pilot a mobile suit - that does vigilante work, so if that's a problem..."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Yeah. For all the problems with this world... I'd rather have and live in it than not. Not to mention that to have the Gutsy Galaxy Guard suffering from that is just... it's not right, after everything they did for us. For all they talk about the inherent rightness of Cosmic Law, it's wrong to impose that assertion on them in such a way that they can't not pursue it."
He grins at Qivi as she volunteers her help. "Screw the politics, having more muscle on hand is never a bad thing. I'll let Sayaka know we can count on you, too, in case I can't get in touch with you." He looks westward, towards the border with Britannia. "I have a feeling we're gonna need all the help we can get sooner rather than later. Also, maybe there's something we can do to help you in turn? In case you want to retire from wanzer battling or anything."
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Qivi lets out an annoyed grunt. "I can't fix them, of course. But I can at least help stop them while someone else does the actual fixing. I know there are people who can do a better job than me at that."
"I'm pretty easy to find," Qivi says, which is half true; she is easy to find in certain circles, less so in most others. But she also has a card - nothing as fancy as a real business card, though it's got her name on it, and even a logo. Koji's seen the logo; it was on her wanzer, too.
She shakes her head. "I don't think I'm entirely ready to retire. I still make appearances in Rupidis, and Fortune City." The biggest civilian cities on the Britannian and OCU sides of Huffman Island, respectively. "But I've already stepped it down to special appearances, so I can do some other things. If I say 'the vigilante stuff', you'll get the idea. And maybe I'll switch gears eventually, and I'll keep it in mind."
She catches Koji looking west, and figures it out immediately. "And about that, too. I've done work for the Black Knights before, but they wanted to pull some shit I wasn't up for. But something's gotta be done about the Brittanian military grabbing everything they can get someday." Not that Qivi knows how to really stop them and it's definitely not a one-person project.
Qivi pushes herself to her feet, giving Koji another one of those slightly crooked grins. "I should probably stop stealing your time. But thanks for the chat, huh? I always try to make up my debts."