2023-07-24: DecuFes '97: Gun-Pla Dream
- Cast: Gemini Sunrise, Sayaka Yumi, LiSA, Cascade Vermillion
- Where: Fujinomiya City
- Date: U.C. 0097 07 24
- Summary: Deculture Festival '97 is kicking off this year with... a one-day Gundam model-building camp, sponsored by the PPL in conjunction with Jindai High School! Everyone through the GUTS school system is invited to a convention hall in Fujinomiya City to join in on cutting, assembling, and painting a Gundam model kit of their choosing--and there's plenty to choose from. It's all for fun... unless someone decides to make it a competition!?
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
FUJINOMIYA CITY, CONVENTION HALL:
Jindai High had been selected to kick off DecuFes 0097 with something that LiSA herself is not very familiar with. So for the past several days/weeks, she's been reading up on Gunpla and even putting some kits together herself. They're not the particularly fancy kits or anything, but one of them is of the original Mazinger, since... well, the event is sponsored by the Photon Power Labs.
At the entrance to the hall, There is a small check-in table, manned by none other than Jun Hono, a young toddler resting in a sling against her chest. Baby Gai is not quite a baby anymore, but he's still a bit too little to not be watched. Plus, he's a Hono-Tsurugi. At the table, you're kindly greeted and asked to sign in - just a name and high school affiliation. There's also sticky name badges for use, just in case - LiSA is not very familiar with people yet, and even Jun and little Gai have one on!
From the check-in table, there's a bit of a set path. The very first stop is the largest, with numerous Gunpla kits to grab, if you didn't bring one of your own. Whether Power Labs kits of the Ichinanas, Mazinger, or the Venus and Aphrodite, there are also options of the Gundams seen in the various Gundam Fights, or other popular units. Once a kit is picked, the next couple of tables have put together kits of supplies for the building - nippers, hobby knives, files and sandpaper, various types of paint and markers, and of course, the top coat to protect the kit.
After all of that has been gathered, the main area is set up with several tables with folding chairs, with large, designated 'building' areas, to keep pieces and parts from getting mixed up. Mingling is encouraged with the layout, with space to go from table to table. One space has already been taken, near in the middle with the parts for an Aphrodite A neatly stacked together. LiSA is not currently AT that space, instead she's sort of waving at everyone coming in.
Of interest, the back side of the hall is closed off with rolling curtains...
<Pose Tracker> Gemini Sunrise has posed.
Gemini had really never done this Gunpla nonsense before, but she figured what the hey, it's DecuFes! And she had one kit in mind! She had seen it in a few store windows around the colony a while back and had spent the entirety of yesterday trawling around every hobby shop in Neo-America trying to find one. She reckoned it musta been super popular, because she couldn't find it anywhere! But a little bit of perserverance and a bit too much of her pay from the theater's last show, and she found herself the proud owner of...
"Da da-da daaaa! The limited edition Shuffle Signature Collection High Grade 1/144 scale Gundam Maxter plastic model kit!"
The front of the box featured the legendary Neo-American Gundam in a dynamic touchdown pose, with a photo of the colony's own Chibodee Crockett on the side and emblazoned with his signature. Mind you, it wasn't actually signed by Chibodee, it was just the design. She reckoned that's where the name Shuffle Signature Collection came from. And as she shuffled into the convention center, she also reckoned she could have probably just asked Chibodee if he had one, but...she didn't wanna bother him! Even as a comrade!
After she checks in, she stares down the table of tools. She...she didn't know there was equipment! A few seconds of overload pass, then she just takes one of everything, to be safe. Box and tools in hand, she takes a space in the middle, opening up the box and taking a good look at the runners, oohing and aahing a bit.
<Pose Tracker> Cascade Vermilion has posed.
Cascade Vermilion decided to attend this particular DecuFes event for a couple reasons, none of which had to do with gunpla and every one of which had to do with who was running the event.
And yet now that she's here she feels uncomfortable about it. What if they notice her? What if they *identify* her? Of all the people in GUTS, 'sponsored by the Photon Power Labs' is about number one.
But, that very fact makes it something she needs to go to, to keep an eye on things. And so...
Cascade is here. She had no idea what to expect and so just kind of walked in and looked around, her gaze locking on Jun Hono for just a little too long. Maybe she wanted to see the baby? But she doesn't say anything about that, she just signs in (Cascade Vermilion, Ashford Academy, you know the drill) and, with a slightly stiff smile, moves on in.
Then she spends a long few minutes looking at the gunpla. To the point that someone has to ask her to pick one and keep moving and not block the path, in fact, which is how Cascade ends up with a model that she does not particularly want and would never have picked for herself.
And so Cascade approaches the table with... a Venus A box held in her hands. She looks slightly confused more than anything else.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Being raised by the astute Professor Gennosuke Yumi, Sayaka was a homeschooled girl. At the time, she was kind of jealous of her friends, and Koji, not having that regular high school experience. So when LiSA requested that she be able to attend high school, of course she wasn't going to say no, thinking it'd be good for her to meet other kids her age.
It also meant that Sayaka was happy to collaborate with Jindai High in funding a Gunpla model-kit building event. They have to push those Mazinger Z figures somehow!
Once the students gather in the convention hall, Sayaka greets them all with a few simple words. "Welcome, students of GUTS to Fujinomiya! Thank you for coming. I'm Director Sayaka Yumi, from the Photon Power Labs - the sponsor for today's event. I /could/ bore you all with a long speech about the work we do, but that wouldn't be any fun. Our units for one don't need any introduction~" She chimes.
She's holding a Diana A model kit herself. She could pick up an Aphrodite A one, but her very original partner in battle was destroyed, she decided not to have her rebuilt, and well... it wouldn't feel right to her. She should see about getting them to produce an Aphrodite Areia.
"With that out of the way, I hope you'll all have fun!" She concludes. Approaching LiSA, specifically, she adds... "I'll try to stay out of your hair. At least /I/ know how not to embarrass a young lady." And she leaves her to it - it's nice seeing her socialize with her peers.
After that, she takes a seat at the check-in table next to Jun, chatting it up with her old friend. "Well, we finally kissed. That's something, right?" Sayaka sounds a little too proud of herself. "But geez..." She looks at little Gai. "He's already growing up. Just wait... it won't be long before he's terrorizing the house." She pats Gai's head.
She /does/ see how that redhead girl spends just a little too long staring at Jun, though... but she doesn't comment on it. Not long after, she's sitting at a table with Venus A. "Haha... I think you got a fan." She says to Jun, but it's just loud enough for Cascade to hear.
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
Admidst Gemini's declaration and Cascade's unusual staring of Jun, more students do come in. It's not a whole lot, but then again, Gunpla isn't like, One Of The Big Draws. Although, LiSA briefly muses, of what it would look like if they had an idol on a stage dressed as a Gundam or something. That's a thing, right?
Sayaka gives her little speech, and the look she gives her mother at the quiet follow-up is grateful and appreciative. She is, however, surprised that neither Koji and Tetsuya are here, but her gaze does fall to the covered area in the back.
She has her suspicions.
"Oh, that's the one from the one Gundam Fight, right? Neo-America's machine..." Lisa sounds approving of the pick. "I've got Miss Sayaka's Aphrodite A! I tried to build a Mazinger before today, since I never had before!" She's very dexterous, though, so that's cheating, LiSA. Then her gaze draws over to other friend, confused friend. "Oh, the Venus... you like Miss Jun, huh?" LiSA says, taking the staring the completely wrong way, as well as the follow-up pick of her machine.
"I'm Lisa, it's nice to meet you!"
<Pose Tracker> Gemini Sunrise has posed.
"The Maxter is the pride of Neo-America! Couldn't be anything else!" Gemini has now taken all of the runners out of the plastic, placing them back in the box for mid-build storage and looking through the instructions. Ah, good. Pictures.
"I'm Gemini! I go to Jindai here!"
<Pose Tracker> Cascade Vermilion has posed.
Cascade also affixes her nametag, seeing as it is the Thing To Do. She just puts 'Cascade' though, along with a much smaller 'Ashford' underneath it. No, it's not her surname.
Then Sayaka gives a speech. Cascade watches *that* with surprising intentness, too. She seems just a little on edge today. Maybe she didn't sleep well; she has that kind of expression, her resting face less neutral than usual.
'I think you got a fan.'
Cascade manages to avoid wincing at that; nothing more than a shifting of her eyes. She's back to the neutral expression, by intent rather than simply letting it happen. "Actually I just picked at random," Cascade says, as politely as she can. "I was taking too long in line, so..."
She tries a smile, and it seems reasonable enough, though now her interest is taken in LiSA. She wasn't expecting to see *her* here, but the surprise definitely stays off he
r face, aside from a slight widening when she first sees the other student. She doesn't say anything about it, but... "I'm Cascade Vermilion. I attend Ashford." That to both Gemini and LiSA.
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
"Oooh, Jindai too? I haven't been attending long, so I hadn't ran into you yet - it's a very interesting school, isn't it?"
Jindai being interesting is a understatement...
Cascade seems a bit put-off, and then explains that she had just been taking too long, and LiSA nods understandably at this situation. "Ahhh, that's fair. You don't have to keep that kit, if you want to go back through, though, you know." She says, with all the care of a teenager going 'ugh, mom, it's just how it is.' "Or you can build it! Up to you. We have a surprise as people finish, though..."
<Pose Tracker> Gemini Sunrise has posed.
Gemini has begun snipping parts out of her runners, not quite used to using nippers and leaving pretty big nubs as she tries to be cautious. "Ya prolly ain't seen me much cuz I spend most of my time outside school on th' Orbital Ring. But I reckon ya mighta heard of me in the leadup to th' festival. Or at least th' Akai Jindai!" Gemini gives a smug little smile, remembering last year's Millylimpics.
<Pose Tracker> Cascade Vermilion has posed.
...
"I'll work on it," Cascade says, opening the box. She clearly does not know what she's doing but equally clearly is very used to working from directions; the first thing she does is pick up said directions, beginning to read intently.
She looks over the edge of it at LiSA a couple times - not usually Gemini though she can hear her fine. "I didn't know Jindai had any kind of course sharing with the Orbital Ring," Cascade says, as she reads. Well, looks at the pictures. There's some reading too but it goes quickly. "But I suppose that makes sense. I met Alouette Pommier there for fencing practice, and I know she spends time elsewhere."
Instructions at least partially read, Cascade pulls out runners and starts sorting through them, putting everything she wants just so.
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
"Ah... maybe? I really, really haven't been at Jindai long ... so you may have gotten mentioned and I didn't catch it." LiSA admits, sheepishly. "But I'll keep an eye out for you at school! It's nice to meet everyone as I can."
Cascade goes FULL FOCUS mode and actually reads the instructions. Not saying the other people don't, but LiSA's is only set on the current section she's working on. "It's kind of interesting to see how it all comes together, isn't it?" She notes, but is watching everyone for a moment. She does get up after a minute or two and heads back to the curtains, moving them easily to reveal Gunpla Battle STATIONS!
"No need to, but if you want to put your passion to the test, then fight, fight on! For your Gunpla! For your effort! For fun!!!"
<Pose Tracker> Gemini Sunrise has posed.
"All these little parts..." Gemini begins pushing her parts together, occasionally pinching her fingertips in the seams with a yelp. She tried her best to sand down the nubs, but there's still a little bit of white. But LiSA was right about one thing, she was really enjoying seeing it come together. This was just a bunch of doodads on a thingamabob a bit ago, but now it's two legs! "A girl could get ta like this!"
<Pose Tracker> Cascade Vermilion has posed.
Cascade is very fond of instructions. Instructions are how she is sure she's Doing It Right.
And so, as a result, she is following the instructions to the letter (or whatever). If she just does what she's told, she can't be wrong! She is pretty handy with tools, once she figures out which ones she needs where; she's pretty good at that.
She has to admit there's something relaxing about it. It just works. Things fit together, slot into place; other things get attached or stuck on. Cascade would be happy with just assembling, though she still feels a little weird about working on Venus A; maybe she *should* have gotten a Gundam... "I agree," she says to Gemini.
About this time, though, someone else enters.
'Someone else' is a girl who looks a little younger than Cascade, maybe fifteen or sixteen; black hair, just as long and straight but in two tails. She's a little shorter, built more slenderly, and walks right in like she owns the place. She does not sign in, and looks a little scornful at Sayaka and Jun, who have the sign-in spot. (She also does not take a gunpla model.)
"What are you doing?" the black-haired girl asks Cascade. "Is that *Venus A*? Is that really what you think is a good use of your time? Why would you ever want to spend your time putting together little dolls like that? They don't serve any purpose."
"Nobody asked you," Cascade says, without bothering to look up. Her voice is even more flat than before. "I enjoy putting things together. What are you even *doing* here? I thought you didn't care about anything I was doing."
"I don't!" says the black-haired girl. "I heard the Photon Power League was running the event." She looks at LiSA with particularly green eyes, considering. "Who's this? Two, introduce me."
"My name is Cascade and you know it," Cascade says, irritation slipping into her voice. This time she actually looks up. "This is Tarni, my younger sister. She's the third child; I'm the second." 'Tarni' is staring at various people, though her attention focuses on LiSA and Gemini when she's 'introduced' and Jun and Sayaka before that. She has a particularly piercing gaze with very green eyes.
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
Those are very green eyes, and they catch LiSA's attention, who stares back with her baby blues.
"I'm Lisa! Miss Jun and little Gai are at the front table, with miss Sayaka! They..." Lisa thinks of her phrasing. "Adopted me! Well, Miss Sayaka and Koji did." Is it accurate? Probably the closest it's going to be. "This is Gemini, she and I both attend Jindai high. We're building Gunplas! "
"The Labs are helping host, this is the opening event for the DecuFes this year." She adds on. "I'm building the Aphrodite A, and Gemini has the Gundam Maxter."
<Pose Tracker> Gemini Sunrise has posed.
"H-Howdy!" Gemini nervously waves, wondering what she's stumbled into and quickly returning to her build, having finished the chest.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
A new visitor! Sayaka, with a smile on her face, takes her hands off the Diana A runner, and starts to get ready to get the new girl situated. Unfortunately she receives nothing but a scornful stare. "...Huh. Wonder what that's all about," She asides to Jun. Mercifully, she does not use 'kids these days' or any other similar expression.
She's the other girl's sister, huh? Sayaka's an only child, but between calling her a number and dismissing her hobbies... it doesn't exactly seem the picture of a healthy family dynamic. It's not quite enough to spark any suspicion out of Sayaka, yet, but...
/Is/ what LiSA's saying accurate? It's close enough. "Yes. Koji and I are Lisa's legal guardians." Sayaka confirms. "Not that we're exactly married or anything, but..." She's not getting into her love life to a high schooler. "Ahem. Anyways. Aside from being a sponsor, that's also why I'm here."
Her own piercing gaze meets Tarni in turn, though. "This is a free event for all students. You're welcome to participate as much as anyone else. But if you're going to refuse to do so, and disrespect your peers while you're at it, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." She crosses her arms.
<Pose Tracker> Cascade Vermilion has posed.
Cascade also has blue eyes; she doesn't share much colouration with Tarni except, perhaps, skin tone. But they still look like sisters. There's enough similarities in the face and hair, even though Cascade is a redhead and Tarni isn't.
"Oh, you're adopted by the legendary Koji Kabuto! And Sayaka Yumi, of course!" Tarni shoots Cascade a triumphant look; Cascade ignores it. "What's that like? Do you get to drive the robots?" For the moment, Tarni sounds like what she looks like: a fifteen-year-old who's a little excited. "If it was me, I'd have to take them out for a ride..." She really doesn't have any interest in the gunpla.
Cascade does something she never expected to need to do: she apologizes to Literally Sayaka Yumi. "Please excuse Tarni. She's very sheltered," Cascade says, which is the excuse she herself used at Ashford for her entire time there. "And loud," she adds, which isn't. "And she's not a student; she is homeschooled, as I used to be. So she shouldn't be here at all."
Tarni pretends she didn't hear this, because she is still trying to pump LiSA for information. "Do you get to work there between classes?"
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
"A homeschool student is still a student, even if not officially a part of GUTS..." Thanks, LiSA.
A frown at the question. "No, I don't work at the labs. I want to give my classes full attention, that and my clubs." What clubs, LiSA? Tell us your mysterious picks. "They're very nice to me. I help watch little Gai sometimes!" No longer Baby Gai, he's now a ...
... little guy.
Sayaka comes over and LiSA is appreciative of the Mom Effect. "I don't get to do anything with the robots, though, I don't have like, my own Mazinger or anything like that."
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Tarni quickly going from kind of mean-spirited to Cascade to a genuinely excited teenage girl, is also just as surprising to Sayaka. "Ah, so /that/'s why you're here. You're interested in the Labs and the Mazins." Sayaka nods. "Have you ever been to the Mazinger museum? It's pretty close by, and that /might/ be the closest up you ever get to see the robots."
As for Cascade's apology... "It's no trouble. I was mostly worried for /you/." Sayaka admits. "As long as she's willing to follow the rules GUTS posted, she's welcome to stay, though."
LiSA tells Tarni some half-truths, she's not employed by the lab and doesn't pilot the robots. "Thankfully our situation isn't so dire anymore that we need to have a 16 year old piloting the Mazinger Z." Even if that might be the dream of teenagers like Tarni. "It wouldn't really be responsible for us to put her in the cockpit of a Super Robot before she's even graduated high school."
Lisa talks about clubs, instead, and watching little Gai. "Oh? What kind of clubs?" Sayaka asks. As a homeschooler herself, she never got to join any until college, so naturally she's interested.
<Pose Tracker> Cascade Vermilion has posed.
"I see," Tarni says. "I'd take one out anyway, if I could. It would be a lot more fun than a small robot." She shifts the box Cascade is working out of with a finger. "Oh, I'm interested in them! I've been to the museum." That with a smile that looks a little less pleasant than Cascade's. "Twice."
Cascade clicks another major piece into place, obviously irritated, before Tarni addresses *her*, instead: "Oh! I actually came to get you. You've got to call home before it's too late. You didn't call last week and our parents want to talk to you." Pause. "About exams," she adds, bane of students this time of year.
Cascade seems to take this as a serious problem. "In that case I suppose I should," she says, rising. She glances over at the others. She's still not really eager to get Sayaka of all people to pay too much attention to her, and she wants to know more about LiSA, but: "...thank you for the gunpla. I'll be back to finish it, but right now, I'm going to call ...home."
She starts to walk away. Tarni shoots one look back, picks up Cascade's forgotten box of parts, and heads off with her. The two don't speak to each other until they're out of sight.
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
"It was nice meeting you both!" Lisa waves at Cascade and Tarni with a smile. "Have fun finishing your build! I'd like to see a picture if I run into you at any of the other events." Cascade and Lisa going to amusement parks. On a yacht. /*feeding cats*/ Truly, friends beyond the stars.
The underlying threat is that she'll be watching for you, Cascade. Always watching...
"Thank you." She murmurs to Sayaka, then a bit louder, and with no shame: "Oh, I've gone to several clubs at this point! I can't pick!" Of course she can't.
"Thank you all for coming!" She does call out to the group at large, before plopping back down in her seat, the poor Aphrodite A sitting there all pieces and parts.