2023-02-27: Leina's Promise
- Log: 2023-02-27- Leina's Promise
- Cast: Akane Shinjo, Leina Ashta
- Where: AEU Spain - Villa Mass
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-02-27
- Summary: After Dr. Kabuto departs, Akane puts herself back together a bit. Leina checks in on her to make sure she's holding up okay after all that.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
After a talk with Dr. Kabuto and a shower, Akane feels... significantly more human. She is dressed now, too -- nothing special, just a Tarabaman Eclatant T-shirt she fished out of a thrift store locally (insane luck!) and shorts, but even that's definitely more decent than being ambushed in her underwear.
Lying on the bed, she absently looks up at the ceiling. She makes note of something, then rolls over onto her side and retrieves more delicious pastry.
... Back to To-witter and absently VERTEXing Alouette. It's going to be a lazy day -- even if she's feeling a little better now, she does need to take the day to not think about... much of anything. She can study for her intensive ops tests tomorrow, actually.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Dr. Kabuto's visit came with a surprise visit from Shiro which was a lovely surprise, even if it woke her up on, she doesn't even know how many hours of sleep she got.
There was this sort of fuzziness in her brain that came with 'not nearly enough' and so she cleaned up, took a shower, splashed way too much water on her face and felt significantly more human again.
Given that she'd cried some during the topics of conversation, she takes the time to do her makeup. Just subtle enough touches to make her look significantly more human and less zombie. As a theater kid, she's really really good at this.
Thoughts go to Alexis again, she'd told Shiro about some of it. It was past time to... have enough conversation.
[VERTEX] theater_girl_wp: liked your latest posts on tss
[VERTEX] theater_girl_wp: mind if i swing by ur room for a face to face talk?
[VERTEX] theater_girl_wp: no pressure to do this now
She's at least, asking. Though she did feel certain things across the house when Koji was here visiting... interesting, he must have cheered her up.
"He's good at that." Leina says to herself, as she pins a chara barrette of a chibi-Cecilia in her hair.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
[VERTEX] aumerei_seijin: the comic is inspired though i have no idea if 21-26 are gonna bear it out
[VERTEX] aumerei_seijin: they better though >:(
[VERTEX] aumerei_seijin: anyway yeah come in. don't bother knocking, I actually kinda hate that sound
Akane stretches back out, then takes a few seconds to make sure she's presentable. Fluffing out her lilac hair, she lets it fall back into that flat style it's always in. ... huh, it's growing out -- it seems like time has started to progress even for the 'fake' Akane. What a weird feeling...
... she really is going to have to drag herself into the gym again, she realizes. That's gonna suck, too...
She keeps sending messages while Leina's on approach.
[VERTEX] aumerei_seijin: oh btw I slept like garbage so
[VERTEX] aumerei_seijin: ... be aware, haha
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
[VERTEX] theater_girl_wp: i dont think we'll be disappointed
[VERTEX] theater_girl_wp: np and hard same shiro woke me up mid nap and now i cant fall back asleep
She doesn't knock, she just opens the door, and smiles at her, "Hey Akane."
She's wearing an oversized Sheryl Nome shirt, and some kind of denim shorts which are mostly covered by the shirt, a pair of house sandals, and the Chibi-Cecilia barrette.
"So since Koji was here, I guess you've heard the news."
Leina rubs her opposite arm, she definitely seems upset by her body language, but trying to keep it a little under wraps. "Banagher and Audrey were texting me all about it, late."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Yeah. I actually heard from Gridman and Hana first, but I'm only now getting my head around the whole thing," Akane answers, looking up toward Leina. She rolls onto her back again, saying, "Dr. Kabuto was at least nice enough to bring some pastries." Glancing down at the box, she asks, "Want some? Help yourself." She might have her own, she realizes, but...
That's fine. "I'm... not doing great, but I'm managing," Akane admits. "I'm pretty sure all Alexis wanted there was to remind me he exists and keep Shiro from forming up with Dr. Kabuto. It seems weird to me that he's not the one setting the agenda for once... I'm so used to thinking of him as the guy with the plan. This seems kinda understated for him."
Glancing up and down again, she adds, "Nice barrette. ... you know, she reminds me a lot of Rikka in a bunch of weird ways... it's kinda cool."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Oh God. Yes. Koji makes the best pastries. He actually helped me make Sayla's birthday cake."
Leina moves over to the bedside, and sits down nearby while still giving her some space, taking a pastry, she's not particularly dainty with it, but she tries not to make a mess either.
For a time she listens, looking at her from the side. "Yeah me neither." She confides eventually, "What Banagher told me about what Vist was doing it... hits real close to home."
Leina says, as she thinks of the code name 'Puru-1' and Elpeo in that same breath, she takes a breath, "Alexis kinda told me he finds the world intolerably boring and someone suggested he get involved more. Maybe that's why he's doing things just to, stir the pot, mix things up. I was kinda... shocked first thing he does is send a Kaiju out near my ex-boyfriend again. Last time he did it, it was because he wanted everyone to think it was you. To upset 'heroes' and draw them to Tsutsujidai, to make you feel more cornered."
She says with a slight gesticulation of the pastry, before she takes a bite, chew chew swallow, "This time he wasn't using the tentacle mist one to try and assassinate Shiro so its almost like, he wanted it to be beaten?" She shakes her head, "If he is working with Vist, it sounds more like a diversion tactic than anything."
She smiles at her sheepishly, "Yeah thanks, I kinda identify with her for a lot of similar reasons to... well, how you feel Rikka and her have a lot in common. Maybe its meant to be inspirational?" She taps the pastry to her chin, "Like you know, those times when you wake up in the morning look in the mirror and force yourself to keep going no matter how hard things get, to not give up on anything or anyone. That kinda thing."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Vist. So that's the name of the other half of this equation that's more specific than G-Hound. Akane swipes around on her phone a bit; it looks fairly nonchalant, but she's actually taking notes. She has a tendency to diagram this sort of thing. It's not the first time she's been presented with one of her kaiju attacking something without her say-so.
"That's what I was thinking too," Akane says. "I didn't even make CK-01 for stand-up fights really? Like, that wasn't on the table at that point. That was before Gridman showed up, even, let alone any of the rest of you guys!" She finally forces herself to sit up.
"It's got a lot of big, glaring weaknesses, like -- no protection on the neck, weak armor, long startup time on all the stuff it can do... I know he has access to all of my stuff and then some, so the only reason he'd use that one would be if he wanted to lose." She seems certain on this point, at least. Something nags at her, though. "Wait. Vist like... the guys who brokered the sale of the only intact Tarabaman Kai suit from the PLANTs to a private collector?"
Akane stares blankly for several seconds. "I know that has to be real because at this point I think it's too dumb not to be," she concludes. "Anyway... they're probably the ones setting the agenda here because Alexis would think having everyone at everyone else's throat would be funny. I think they're trying to keep the OCU from being bothered enough to get guns out, if I have to guess."
Leina gives her take on Cecilia, and Akane nods enthusiastically. "That makes total sense.. but at the same time I don't really see that side of you. Maybe when I get to know you a little better it'll click?"
Circle, swipe. "He implied pretty hard someone I know had already betrayed me," she reflects. "I get that he just wants to keep me from connecting to you guys, but it still sucks, you know? Especially this close to my first operator training intensive..."
"What did Banagher tell you about what Vist was doing, anyway?" Akane asks, after a little thought. The more she knows about this the better, even if it's only to keep herself and Sayla safe. Besides, she can help Dr. Kabuto better that way.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina follows along up until the intact Tarabaman Kai suit from the PLANTs to a private collector, "... I uh, probably? They're art dealers. But what's known a bit less is that Martha Vist Carbine is married to the CEO of Anaheim, and has fifty one percent stake in the company. She also has connections to basically every major politician in the Federation as a result."
Leina nods on Alexis running the show, considers what to tell Akane about Vist, because well, Akane is in danger simply by being in her orbit. Vist knows about her, and knows about her connection to both of their targets.
"They'd been pretty quiet before, in fact most of the people they sent seemed pretty incompetent, but there's been a dangerous shift recently. They're..."
Leina's eyes close in a slow blink, "... after my boyfriend and girlfriend. You need to know, if you're going to be around me, because they have me watched pretty frequently. One time they came to my school and sorta, detained me and violated my civil rights?" Before she takes on a bitter tone, "Not that that's an especially uncommon thing for the outspoken Spacenoid girl on Earth."
There's a small laugh, and Leina cards a hand through the side of her hair, touching the barrette, "Yeah, maybe once you know me a little better you'll see it." There's a smile, then... her eyes fall. "He did the same with me about..." She looks away from Akane, "... Sayla, he implied that like, she's been telling me some what'd he say? 'Extinction Level' lies as long as I've known her? I'm trying to, laugh it off, I mean, come on-!"
There's a small nervous laugh and Akane might get the feeling that it's REAL HARD for her to laugh it off, "Sayla and me share everything! There's not a thing she doesn't know about me, or me about her."
She's still not looking Akane's way, as she asks what Vist is doing? "... Remember that girl I told you about that, I wish I had a second chance to..."
She stops, starts again, voice a little clipped, "... she was a Cyber-Newtype, and she was, Glemy Toto's weapon. I'm not sure if you're familiar with, who he is. Most people aren't as the Federation downplayed that war so heavily. He created a Newtype Corps, clones of her that he used in a rebellion against Haman Karn."
Her chin lifts up, and she looks distant, abstracted, "Her name was Elpeo Puru, and she died, in Dublin. All the others were called, Puru-2 to Puru-12."
Her thumbnails grip into her shirt just to try and keep her arms from trembling, "Vist has fielded a Prototype mobile suit to try and get Banagher and Audrey, several times now. He told me last night that, they called the pilot... Puru-1. That she has... her feelings. I-" Leina closes her eyes again, a deep breath, "There was never a Puru-1."
Lifting an arm that, is shaking a little now that its not being braced against herself, she puts it up and over her face, then shifts it down to her mouth, as she whispers, muffled, "God. What did they do?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane sits in it for a little while. Leina is really telling her that the art dealer conspiracy hit squad attacked a bunch of people she knows. ... sure, that's... that's fine. She can live in a world where that's a normal thing to be told is going on.
Akane puts two and two together on the last bunch of things Leina's said to her, after she mentions Vist regularly watches her because of Audrey and Banagher. "Oh, is that why you were late texting over Valentine's?" she asks; she recalls Leina's mediocre excuse about interference. "Honestly that kinda makes more sense..." Akane continues lazily swiping across her phone. Circle, slash, tap tap tap. Circle, slash, tap tap tap.
Then Leina mentions Alexis telling Leina about extinction-level lies and secrets and looks like she's about to have a meltdown. The fear reaction is stark -- she has to lean forward and bring her legs in a bit. "... Alexis sucks," is all she has to say about that, because if she says anything else, she's going to have to make some painful choices that aren't hers to make.
There is something to latch onto -- and within a few moments, she manages to pry herself out of the panic for the sake of addressing it. Leina's sharing something serious -- and personal -- from her past, and now her present. "Glemy Toto... uhhh, kinda. I'm pretty sure that's a guy," comes Akane's vague answer.
She takes a long breath in and holds it, as Leina talks. "The way you're talking it sounds like they slammed a ghost into a mobile suit, but that feels... weird," Akane thinks aloud. "They could have made or found another clone, but going back to 1 is kinda janky for that..."
Alexis always did orient on sentiment. But... "What -- kind of feelings did they say the pilot had?" she asks, wondering if Alexis had been touching things that far back. "Kinda noticing that he did the same thing to you as me, though. 'cuz he tried to make me feel like someone close to me was gonna betray me, and then dropped CK-01, which..."
Akane licks her lips, then chews on the lower one for a moment. "... I used that to kill my class's volleyball team. I've been thinking a lot about that lately, too, how..." With a shake of her head and a breath out, she says, "So like, at the start of the year, Tonkawa sucked? She was kind of a mean girl. I always found her a little annoying. She was starting to get kinda better... and then her screwing around in the classroom got Yuta's lunch wrecked. He was just muddling through it with amnesia, so I got him a special dog and she smooshed it. And I just... couldn't handle the idea of her backsliding into sucking again, so I..."
She pulls her knees in a little tighter. "Ugh. I have to tell Dr. Kabuto I know why 01 and not 11, now. It's a joke on both of us. It's that simple."
Still... why run the same play twice, on her and Leina? Just to wreck their relationship...?
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
It is in fact, a normal thing that is going on. More evidence that the world sucks. And Leina nods at Akane, "Yeah sorry, I really do hate lying about anything basically I was..." Leina pauses in consideration, "... on Side 3, for something I can't really talk about, and one of their vans was there. I usually just give them the slip, but this time they got out and tried to grab me?"
Leina eyes Akane pleadingly, "Please don't tell Sayla she'll freak and then assign me a bodyguard or something. But anyhow, I tazed one then ran and laid low for a few days, even kept my phone off just in case they'd somehow broke security and were tracking me with it."
Speaking of Sayla, Leina just looks too upset to just accurately parse Akane in this moment, she maybe catches a whiff of something, but in the end attributes it to Alexis, "He does. God."
No. No she can't tell her, she can't tell her that Alexis was lonely and that was a part of it, she's too new in her recovery.
Leina chuckles brokenly as Akane says 'I'm pretty sure that's a guy,' before she shakes her head, "Definitely not a ghost." Leina says quietly, "She visits me sometimes, in my dreams." She eyes her, as if feeling it might be difficult to believe, "It's a Newtype thing."
Still, she nods at the idea that 1 is janky, she'd been thinking the same that the numbering is all wrong, "Uh. They said it felt like hers? But like all negative? She was... a kid, and like she definitely could be vicious, jealous, and possessive."
Akane might remember the 'strangled Leina with a pipe bit, "But there was this, reckless innocence and joy to her too." She smiles faintly, despite how upset she was not long before, maybe talking about it helps, but she then eyes her curiously. She's quiet, as Akane talks about how she killed her volleyball team, but she doesn't look horrified or anything.
In that moment, Leina actually puts a hand on Akane's back, and starts rubbing it there in a small circle, "I get why you feel guilty, I'm not going to tell you you shouldn't, just, don't let it eat you up moving forward. Okay?"
She smiles, continuing the small movement, "Just keep going, and one day, I hope you'll be able to forgive yourself, even if its many years from now."
It may be hypocrisy, but its hypocrisy for the sake of someone else. And that, is something she can always do. "If it really is Alexis' cruel joke, then - the best thing we can do is keep him from ruining things for both of us."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane takes note of a few things. ... back to it. This is now a big-world problem, which means -- as a 3G operator -- it's her problem. Swipe, circle, swipe, circle, swipe. She'll keep this together until it starts making sense.
Leina asks her to keep a secret from Sayla and she's conflicted... but now she's keeping secrets, so what's one more? "I won't tell," she says, flat.
"No, uh, I get that. I dream about Tonkawa and the volleyball team, uh... a lot. And they're way more vivid than any other dreams I ever have," Akane answers; it... gets a little easier, having said it. She considers telling Leina what she told Gridman -- but no. Whatever's going on there... that can wait. Even Gridman only thinks it 'means something.' ... wait for Liger.
"Well... this isn't the same thing, but... I know how Alexis used to take negative feelings out of me and put them into these... seeds he gave me. That's how we made the kaiju." She looks up, wondering aloud, "I don't think Alexis knows how to work anything to do with mobile weapons, though? He can't even use the brakes on a car, ahaha... I'm just noticing stuff."
The touch at her back surprises her, and gets her out of her rhythm a bit. She feels like she was on the cusp of something -- something about how you'd extract feelings, something about the way hers were -- but it gets muddled, and ultimately she can't quite put it together in a way that she'd find satisfying.
"Yeah," she says, and it's a little weak. "That stuff was all horrible... all I can really do is keep going and try to be better than the person he wanted me to be..."
Hanging her head, she mumbles, "'s really hard though."
So much about this situation nags at her. Why all these negative emotions? Why this... sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach? Why now? Why this?
... maybe she'll never figure it out, but that doesn't mean she can stop trying.
"I'm going to look into this," she says. "I'll see if I can get footage of the PPL attack from 3G or Dr. Kabuto or something. This is starting to add up in a kinda weird way, but I don't wanna freak you out if I'm wrong."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Thank you." Leina says, as she lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding, just, relieved.
And then she blinks, as Akane tells her about getting dreams about the people she killed, "I wonder..." Leina mumbles quietly, as she thinks about her instinct on Akane's psychic sensitivity.
Where do Repli-Compoids go?
Leina just slowly turns and looks at Akane, paling a few shades, "He can do that? Oh my God." Looking genuinely disturbed, she wonders, "What kind of limits does he have with that, I wonder. How would he get those feelings from HER?"
Leina puts a hand on her mouth, "No way. Just... he, he knew everything about me it felt like. Everything. He even taunted about how I'd been on Center Stage in Neo-Zeon. Almost noone knows about that! Could he have... been there?"
Take a deep breath. The thought of Alexis working with Glemy Toto the way he's now apparently working with the Vist Foundation?
Take a deep breath Leina. Then another. Akane needs you.
Once started, the rubbing motion continues in the same even motion, "It is. It's something you have to wake up, and decide for yourself every day. And some days are harder than others." Leina smiles weakly her way, "But you've got good people who will be there for you, to remind you every day why its worth making that decision."
Leina gives her a curious look, "I don't know how I can get any more freaked out than I am already." She chuckles and gives this, small shake of her head, "But I'll take your word on that."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Well... I don't know how long they'd keep? Like... whenever he did it with me he'd always do it more or less day-of, other than when I wanted to hold something in reserve," Akane thinks aloud as Leina wonders about whether Alexis was there. "I think to do that he'd need something fresher?"
Akane leans into the rubbing. It is very soothing. She wants to sort through this -- but she does also, desperately, want reassurance, even if sometimes it bounces off her. "He could've been there, I guess," she murmurs. "You're really good at that. You have a really steady pace," comes a diverting remark, instead, about the feeling of having her back rubbed. ... maybe about the encouragement to wake up every day and choose to be better than the person she could have been.
In the end, the urge to be consoled -- to share the moment -- wins out over chasing leads. She lets her phone slide back out of her hands, and leans just slightly into Leina, feeling that backrub. Her breathing gradually slows, coming to match Leina's own deep breaths.
"If we're gonna be living together," Akane murmurs, "I guess I need to trust people to do that stuff." The panic from earlier starts to subside. "Can I ask you to come remind me? Say... if I don't leave my room by 11 in the morning and you're in the house."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina listens to Akane, looking pensive, but in the end, nodding as she trusts her instincts on being the Alexis expert. Just because she dredged a few things out on Alexis' motivations doesn't mean she knows everything about him.
"That's... comforting." She acknowledges, before she nods on the idea he could have been there, "If he's working with Vist... it wouldn't surprise me that he was in Neo Zeon back then, or even Zeon in the One Year War..."
Her smile broadens a bit, as she confides on the gesture, "Lots of practice." As Akane leans against her, she allows it, her opposite hand brushing aside some of the hair that gets in her eyes from the position.
"Absolutely. If you need more than that even... you can make a list."
Leina tells her gently, then as if predicting a potential protest from what she knows of Akane's mindset so far, "I know I know, you don't want to take advantage of me by asking for too much, but you're early in your recovery. It's only natural that you'll need a little more help. And over time, we just take things away from the list when you need less help and fewer reminders- okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane's so tired. She's always so tired lately -- she's less anxious as a blur of lilac hair and shitposts, as always, but that has a cost that it didn't used to in Tsutsujidai. She's not even worried about the hair, though it is nice to be fussed over.
"Yeah," Akane agrees, nodding, letting herself be tired. Alexis never let her be tired, in Tsutsujidai -- 'a real human,' after all, 'doesn't need sleep.' "You're really reliable... everyone who lives here is. But I feel like you get it in a way everyone else here doesn't... except maybe Sayla, I guess."
They'll get through this, she tells herself. Together. She doesn't have to do it alone anymore. "... check up on me if I go a week without posting any new art on my To-witter and don't say why," she asks, letting her eyes shut. "And ask me if there's stuff I want to do with Rikka that I haven't asked her about yet."
There's a bit more humor in it as she adds, "And I'm gonna need you to seriously ride my butt about it if I wear the same thing three days in a row. Jeez, I need to get more new clothes... there's lots of people who wanna take me shopping."
This feels a little too needy, but... "... and I want this kinda backrub again too, sometimes, if it's really bad," she mumbles, cheeks puffing out. This kind of casual touch is something that she never managed with Ako and Ramo.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Despite Leina's best efforts to cover it up, she seems tired too, she's been a mess ever since Tsutsujidai vanished, and while the tension's let up, she still hasn't been sleeping her best. She's just too like Sayla in the sense of being too active, taking much on herself.
Right now though, Akane is tired, and that's what she focuses upon, as she continues that same rhythm of the backrub. While the position might change subtly, the rhythm never dones.
"I guess I've always wanted to be someone I considered reliable, ever since Mom left." Because some part of her blames herself for her leaving, she doesn't say.
But it's also just to reassure Akane that she does get it. That for all of their differences, she does understand some important things, "It's just always felt, good to me, to be that person for someone else."
In this moment of solidarity, when Akane puts the first item on the list, there's a smile, "Given how much I like and Re:To-weet, bet I would anyway, but it's good to have a set timeline."
As she puts more items on the list, the smile broadens more, "Absolutely, and let's take you shopping soon. Cute options are incentive, after all when it comes to fashion."
On the last one, Leina subtly just leans her head just lightly against Akane's without actually applying too much pressure, as if to just offer another subtle form of touch, "I'll always be there for you, whenever it gets that bad and you need one, promise." She murmurs softly, because she gets it.
Glemy took touch away from her, by making it so much negative, possessive. Sayla gave it back to her, only for her to discover just how starved for it she was. The two show affection in so many ways through touch.
"It got real bad for Sayla after Axis." Leina confides to her, its not something she ever talks about with anyone really but, with Akane she does - because she knows.
It doesn't matter that she got it the way she did, she knows. That's what matters, "Real bad. I promise, if it ever gets like that for you, I'll do everything in my power to help you get through it."
She wishes she could promise that nothing would ever put Akane there while she's around, but after feeling so helpless during the Axis Shock, feeling Amuro and Char extinguish Sayla's happiness in real time.
She knows there are just some things that if she made such a promise, the world would turn her into a liar.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Yeah... It's kind of like that for me too. If anything those feelings are kinda clearer now," breathes the former God of Tsutsujidai, so relieved to just be another girl in the moment. It's fine for her to stay still for a bit; even if she feels like she needs to always be moving, always be trying to heal. Sometimes you just need to let your brain rest.
It was that bad earlier, wasn't it? Like... she couldn't even make herself get dressed to see Dr. Kabuto. She really needs to let this be fine. "I'll try to get better about posting about when I'm on hiatus," she adds. "I know prom week is going to be a total disaster..."
Hair touches hair, and for a moment Akane feels a little lost -- she's never really had this type of closeness with someone who wasn't Rikka before. Is she doing it wrong? Was she supposed to...
... no, it's just Leina affirming what she says a moment later -- that she'll be there for her, whenever she needs her, just like this. That she'll be someone Akane can put her trust in.
She doesn't even startle at the mention of Axis and Sayla again this time. ... besides, it's not really about Sayla and Alexis. It's about that warm feeling she has right now.
"That sounds really nice," Akane agrees. There are a lot of things she could do. She could call Knight and ask if he could bring up something to drink to go with all those pastries; she could pick up her phone again and try to sort through all this intelligence; she could call to check up on Sayla...
"Thanks," she says.
Left to her own devices, she'll probably stay right here as long as Leina's willing to sit there with her.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
It's funny, for however much Akane was called a God, Leina just never felt it, not once. Even when she was registering as Kaiju, she just was too much of a teenage girl, she saw her just, vibing.
She can't even imagine the conception of Akane the God, it might as well be transposed to 'Akane the Manipulated Child' in her mind.
"Oh yeah? That's really nice, when things just, come into clarity like that."
Her grin is a bit too wide when it comes to Prom, "Sure but, come on, I'm going to Prom too, you think I won't be helping you manage all that prep and anxiety about it? I am /invested/ in you and Rikka having a great night."
Leina Ashta has the shipper brainrot, it is known.
Akane's right, it's not really about Sayla and Alexis, its just the affirmation of being there for her, no matter what.
"Don't mention it."
The hand continues rubbing, and the two continue leaning against each other. Given how tired they both are, not impossible that they eventually just fall asleep this way...