2023-01-16: The Courage to Reach Out ~BONDS~
- Cast: Alouette Pommier, Guy Shishioh
- Where: Tsutsujidai - Division Ship Wadatsumi
- Date: U.C. 0097 01 16
- Summary: Sharing a moment together in the Branch Order Room. Alouette briefs Guy on a plan she's involved with... and Guy reinforces to her the true meaning of having courage.
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
Having been stuck in Tsutsujidai for a good while, the Wadatsumi and the other ships have fallen into a sort of routine. Aside from the work on the Galeoria Pliers, there's also the much more mundane: collecting and distributing rations, making sure the necessary tasks are carried out, things like that.
Off from her rescue team duties, Alouette is taking care of the more logistic tasks today, and she and the Chief share the Order Room for the first time in quite a while. On the side, she's taking care of an important task: calibrating the Program Rings to do... stage lighting?
It's not exactly lively as it normal would be without much of the interesting characters that make the Order Room what it is, but neither is it dead-silent, and Alouette feels a lot more comfortable making conversation.
"Guy," she starts, as her fingers click against her keyboard. "You know, there's something exciting I've been wanting to tell you." She continues with a smile.
"I don't think we're really making it public or anything like that, but Rikka, Kaworu, and I are putting on a concert. For Akane." There's a hint of pride in her voice. "Ah... but I'm just doing the lights." A few more keystrokes. "See?" Sbe turns her monitor Guy's way, to show what probably just looks like a long string of code. But it's tied to Guardienne Aviaire's Program Ring system.
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
The Wadatsumi has a solid crew, and the Kanayago being around too means there's definitely well north of a hundred GGG Staff within Tsutsujidai's PLANT. Guy's in charge of all of them, for now. He's barely left the Wadatsumi in weeks. Still, he's keeping his smile up. Maybe some of that's bravado, that heroic responsibility he holds himself to to keep people the around him pepped up. But, even with all the data at his disposal, he believes in it truly, that spirit that will keep them alive.
All of which is to say Guy's at the captain's chair-slash-Chief position of the Wadatsumi Branch Order Room. He's got his G-Stone left hand on the command console, processing data with Evolual pace.
That stops, though, when Alouette speaks up, and he blinks a little as his brain switches gears. "Oh? I noticed you had a new project going on."
He stands up, hands in his coat pockets as he ambles over. His face splits in a grin at what he hears. "Oh? What a good idea! Something to reach out to her...Tsutsujidai's pretty small, too, so with a mobile stage...yeah, I like it!"
He takes a look at what she shows him. "Figuring it out as you go?" he asks, a certain pride in his grin. He figures she doesn't have much experience in the AV tech field, anyway. He has to squint, and...yeah he's not that kind of machine hybrid, he doesn't fully understand it at a glance, but... "Finally put the color controls in, huh?" he sees that!
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
To Guy's credit, his indomitable spirit has been helping Alouette get through the days. But she also does worry he's taking on far too much work at once, Chief or no. Which is why Alouette doesn't feel so bad about dragging him away from it with her conversations.
"Mhm,I think Rikka has been working on this for a while. She even got THE Sheryl Nome to write a song for it." SURELY Guy knows Sheryl Nome, right? He's been out of the solar system for years, sure, but everyone knows Sheryl Nome!
"I was worried I wouldn't be able to reach her ever again." Alouette frowns. "When I think it's more important now than ever." That's probably why Rikka asked her to help, come to think of it.
"Rikka is... she's really brave. Putting her entire heart into her song, doing whatever it takes to reach Akane... even if it takes collaborating with the most famous musician in the world." She grins. "She's full of surprises... you'd probably like her, too."
"Pretty much. It's what I do best, after all." She grins right back with her own pride. "I let Rikka choose whichever colours would fit best." She nods. "The Sheryl Nome performance has a lot more moving parts, and everything will practically need to be done on the fly." Classic Sheryl Nome. "As for Rikka's... she decided on a beautiful snowy blue and sunset red."
She turns away from the computer monitor to face Guy again. "You know... wouldn't a concert for Akane be the perfect opportunity to bring the 'hearts' in Tsutusjidai together?" She considers. "If we time the Galeoria Pliers to the concert, then..."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
That's why he does it, of course. But those close to him do get insight to just how much he picks up in the course of making sure everyone else can lift. After all: He's the Superhuman Evoluder, right?
Still, he's brightened up much by some novel conversation. "Wow," Guy says. "That's theeeee..." He scratches his head. "She's the idol, yeah?" ....so no, maybe he doesn't know her. In Guy's defense, Sheryl Nome was not a name five years ago and Guy has had VERY little bandwidth for music since returning. Still, he's got a smile splashed across his face. "Really incredible! Braves know all about the power of a song," he says, and nods firmly. Mic...soon, buddy.
And, indeed: "Given everything, I know you parted from Akane on pretty bad terms," he says, thoughtfully. "At least, awkward. But the fact you want to reach out to her is really important. Hold on to that. That want to see her again will see you through."
He nods along to the details. It's the job of the Chief to identify what he needs to think about, he's finding, and he feels satisfied with Alouette's summary adequate. He's smiling proudly through it all. "Ah, incorporating movement data from Sheryl, too? I see. That'd make it a lot trickier," he agrees, and nods, and trusts that Alouette has it fully in hand.
Her next thought, though...he tips his head, cupping his chin. "Huh. You know, that might work. Might have to work with the team on what our window looks like, but it's a good idea. How long is the sequence?"
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
"You could say the idol. Universal Bunny, Sagittarius 9PM, What 'Bout My Star, any of those ring a bell?" Alouette tries. "Her songs are preeetty much everywhere nowadays, although there's definitely a reason for it. Her confidence, her energy, the way she takes inspiration from past artists, while making it her own..." Oh no, she's sounding like a teenager! But she also respects Sheryl Nome for more than shallow reasons. Her offering to help Rikka just made her even more likeable in her mind.
She gives Guy a look when he mentions the power of Braves and song, and then smiles. "I remember Mic. A bit too high energy for me back then... but we'd probably get along now. I'm looking forward to it, at least." She hopes it's soon, too. She never did hear anything after Namiko showed her that photo of him...
"It was bad terms." She nods, intensely. "I can't hate her for what she did, though. It was awful, but... it came from a place of hurt for her, too." Hurt in many of the same ways she was, but also some different. "I want to get the chance to know each other more honestly, next time. And for that, I can't stop reaching out." And as much as Alouette questions if it's really fair, if she's really capable of forgiveness, Guy's words reassure her that she's making the right decision.
"We wanted to have Rikka chase after the Sheryl hologram before finding the courage to sing on her own." Alouette explains, as she taps out another line of code. "You're right that it will be tricky but Kaworu is offering to help me on this part. Not only can he keep up with my programming, he's a lot more musically minded. So he's been a great help." The actual movement of the holograms, was in fact, Kaworu's work.
"We're planning on two songs. The first being a new single from Sheryl, and the second being Diamond Crevasse, by Rikka by herself." She looks lost in thought for a moment. "That means the timing might be tight, especially without a communication method between the two of us. And I won't be able to help with the Galeoria Pliers either if I'm busy with the concert. But..." That sly grin returns. "I think we're all more than capable of making it work anyways. And if we do, it'll be a show to never forget."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
"Ehhh," Guy says, slowly, and chuckles. "Probably heard them?" But the excitement and energy Alouette shows him makes him think of the withdrawn girl he protected those years ago, who didn't even want a cookie if it threw off her caloric balances. So he's grinning the whole time anyway. "Guess I've had my head in the ground a bit too long, huh? She must be incredible if she's got your attention, Alouette."
Bad terms. Guy nods, and gently sets a hand on her shoulder, a thin, wistful smile on his face. "It's OK to be stung," he says, gently. "Courage isn't lacking fear, it's finding the strength and resolve to act despite it. In the same way, I don't think I can fault anyone who wants to smack the girl one. But...like you said. She's in a lot of pain, herself. Finding it in ourselves to reach out still, and giving our all to making it happen, is the kind of miracle the G-Stone will always help you achieve."
He moves a step back to give her her space back, and watches the screen as Alouette explains herself. He'd need to use his Evolual speed to really grasp the relationship between what she's typing and what she's saying - it might not even be connected, given the ways her mind works. But he flicks his eyes over it anyway, listening. "Hm. I can imagine the message. It's a good one. Alright, that's....six minutes? Give or take. Up to eight. And the effect should last longer. We can work with that."
He nods, firmly, ratcheting up that smile to a confident look, eyes turning toward the driving Tsutsujidai storm. "GGG has had to hit way tighter windows than that. We might have to just assume you'll give us the signal. Just in case we don't get to pick our moment, it's better if we plan for your group to be lead."
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
"Ahaha... it's okay if you haven't." Alouette laughs at Guy's own confusion, appreciating that wide grin he has on his face. "I'm mostly just teasing." That's something she's getting better at, too!
And then her gaze turns more serious as Guy places his hand on her shoulder for comfort. She lets them sag and loosen a little. "Right... you're right. It hurt a lot, but I'm mostly glad I wasn't alone. That I had people to come back to." Even if she did things she shouldn't have.
"She's probably alone right now, in the pouring rain." Alouette says quietly. "Because she keeps pushing everyone who reaches out away, cutting away any bond with that knife of hers..."
As she keeps talking down that path, she feels a cold, unpleasant chill. So she moves on. "That's the idea behind this little operation of ours, I think. If she won't listen, we'll just have to make her listen... to our song." She ends on that note, with a smile.
"That's the kind of miracle the G-Stone is for too, right? Connections." Guardienne Aviaire might not have one, but she hopes it will let her express her courage on that musical battlefield.
Usually, when Alouette talks and types at the same time, it's only really incidentally related. But to her, the relationship between telling a story and writing code just feels right. "Perfect. It might even end up being longer, with all the stage transitions."
"Right, it might be better to assume we won't pick our moment, anyways. We still don't know what Alexis is planning on after all." She replies, a little gravely. "But the fact we're working together on this gives us an extra card up our sleeve, right?" So the concert will have the lead. "I'll let Rikka and Kaworu know, but I'll take care of the coordination part. So she can focus on rehearsing." She smiles softly.
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
He's smiling wide at her teasing, though. The Alouette Guy knew long ago would barely interfaced with the concept. And there was a certain stiffness between them when he returned that prevented it. It's a nice feeling, to have that openness, even if it was hard won. And on that same topic, he nods. "I promised you. I trust you, Alouette. Whatever happens, I'll make sure you have somewhere to call home."
Akane... ...he's not quite ready to make that kind of offer about Akane. But he nods seriously at Alouette's contemplation. "You're right," he agrees. The G-Stone can turn that courage and resolve into a miracle that will breach any barrier. Believe in that connection, and the G-Stone will show you the way."
Back on topic with the operation itself, Guy has stepped over to another console, and actually is using his Evolual powers now, passing data back over to his main screen for later. "You're right. In all likelihood we're racing an unseen clock. Alexis' little visit the other day, I think that means we're on the right track. But it also means he's aware of us. The Pliers should be ready soon, so for now, we just have to hope we beat him to the punch."
And then, as serious as it is, he smiles with confidence. "With you, Rikka, and Kaworu working on it, I hardly have to think at all. I know you'll give Akane a number her entire world will never forget."