2022-11-01: Stranger
- Cast: Namiko, Rikka Takarada
- Where: Tsutsujidai High School, Classroom 2-E
- Date: U.C. 0096 11 01
- Summary: Namiko shows up to class looking like she lost a fight with a BB gun.
She did!
<Pose Tracker> Namiko has posed.
As usual, Namiko and Hass showed up together for classes. Unlike usual, it was pretty close to the wire.
Also unlike usual, Namiko had a couple bruises on her arms she had not entirely successfully attempted to cover over with makeup, and is walking just a bit tenderly.
FURTHER unlike usual, when lunch is called, Hass...just slams face-first into the desk and falls asleep. Namiko, meanwhile, rather than immediately doodle on her face, makes her way directly over to Rikka and proceeds to drape directly over her back without a care in the world. "Rikkaaaaa," she whines. "I got all banged up~"
<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.
Rikka's pretty observant - when Namiko and Hass come in later than than usual, she notices. And when one of her friends comes in with bruises, she notices that too. She's not going to make a big deal about it right away, though.
Lunch time rolls around, though, and she feels a familiar weight on her back as Namiko drapes over her in typical fashion. It's nice, though.
"Namikooo." Rikka echoes back, her tone plain. "Yeah, I noticed that... What happened? Does it still hurt?"
Not that she can do much for a bruise, but she might still have something for it in her bag.
<Pose Tracker> Namiko has posed.
"Ehehehe," Namiko says. Rikka's back isn't her favorite flopping spot but it's up there. She loops lightly bruised arms around Rikka's neck in a light hug and moans, "Oh it aaaches!" in high drama.
Then she stands, hooking a foot around a desk to drag it over and set first her bento then her butt down. "I met a mysterious stranger and had a whirlwind romance," she giggles, her mischievous kitty grin in full force. "Then we both looked at the airsoft place at the same time and had a terrible idea."
...that'll be where the bruises come in, then.
<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.
"Ah, so you're suffering." Rikka comments, trying very hard not to crack a grin. "...I've got some ointment in the kit in my bag if you think you'll need it."
Namiko drags a desk over then and takes a seat before regaling her with her tale. Rikka listens with interst.
"...Iii think I see where this is going." Rikka comments. Yup - it sure explains a lot... "Sounds like you had a full day. A 'mysterious stranger' though, huh..."
She considers that for a moment. Was it anyone she knows...?
"...So how'd it go?" She asks, curious.
<Pose Tracker> Namiko has posed.
Namiko chortles, and grins, and then cracks, giggling even further before admitting, "Actually yes please some of this really hurts!"
"Well, you were off with the shop, I think? And Hass..." She looks over at where Hass is now actively snoring, "...has some streaming gauntlet or whatever, so she's busy. So I went out to this mall out on the edge of town, right? I heard they had a store that imports foreign teas and stuff from outside. I'm still giving those a go, I'll let you know if any of them are good."
"And then, this...guy? Comes along! I mean. I guess he's a guy."
She pulls out her phone, flipping through pictures. "You know those robots they brought in from the Macross fleets that just drive around advertising sodas and stuff? Sort of like that, except, uh, the size of a house? And, not doing that at all. But he seemed pretty chill? A little simple, I guess."
She giggles. "And he SUCKED at airsoft, because he's huge, obviously." She presents the phone, with a picture of a much more obviously banged up Namiko grinning widely on the thrill of adrenaline, one hand up in a peace sign and the other extending to where it's holding the camera, and behind her, is a robot that mostly looks like one of those toy speakers you might buy a child, except, enormous.
It's unlikely, honestly, that Rikka has ever seen Mic Sounders the Thirteenth in his Cosmo Robo form. She'd have had to go quite deep on the rosters of GGG Green to see that.
But she'll certainly know the meaning of that orange-on-other-oranges radiance lightly shedding off of him. Like even in the Tsutsujidai gloom, he were lit by the rising sun...
The dawn-colored light of a robot infused by the Oath Over Omega.
<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.
Rikka, finally, allows herself to grin as Namiko breaks into laughter.
"Sure, just a second." Rikka says, hauling up her bag from where she had set it down and begins rummaging through it.
"Oh, so that's why she's out like a light. I remember she said she'd be busy, now that you mention it." Rikka comments with a brief glance over toward the sleeping Hass, pulling out the first aid kit she keeps in her backpack. She pops it open, looking for the ointment. Mention if imported teas catches her interest, though. "Ohh, yeah. Definitely let me know!"
She finds what she's looking for, then and scoots her chair over a bit closer to Namiko's, both so she can help her apply the ointment and to get a better look at the picture once she shows it off.
"Yeah, I know the ones you're talking about." Rikka confirms with a nod. Chill, and a little simple... That doesn't sound like any of the ones she knows - not that she knows many. She chuckles at Namiko's comment then looks at the phone... she tries to keep herself even, but it's obvious for someone who's familiar with her the way she freezes up when she takes a look at the picture - really takes a look.
She's never seen Mic Sounders the Thirteenth before, it's true - she'd call his form cute and friendly, if it weren't for faint orange glow she's become all too familiar with.
...What is she even supposed to do? Say, 'Hey, Namiko, I think your new friend might want to end all life'? That'd go over well. She doesn't want her to panic, either...
"He... looks nice. Did you get his name...?" Rikka asks, trying to sound like she's just curious. "...He didn't say anything strange, did he?"
<Pose Tracker> Namiko has posed.
Never that shy, what Namiko actually directs Rikka to is on her side. She glances around a little, just in case Utsumi's going to make noise come out of his face, and then tugs her shirt out of her skirt enough to expose a bruise on the side of her belly. "Kinda stings," she admits, but the smile says she had fun getting it.
"I'm all alone!" Namiko fake-whines, wobbling back and forth and being a generally annoying patient. "I'll need extra hug provisions or I shan't survive the winter!" ... "But yeah should only be, like, a week?" she adds, becoming stiller and more serious. She looks to Hass with a more tender quirk to her smile than usual. "I thought the whole thing was kind of a gag for her, but she's really putting the work in, huh?"
Really, you'd think Namiko would've kicked in the door and shouted 'RIKKA!!! ROBOTS!!!!' Perhaps this too is the work of the maintenance kaiju. Whatever is being done to her perceptions in the long term, though, in the short term, she sure knows her best friend. "Hm? Something wrong? I didn't see any bruises on my face..."
"Oh, it's Mic. Mic Sounders the Thirteenth! I was thinking, like, brand mascot, at first, but then he wanted to go play? Like actually go play. They have those Super AIs down planetside, right? Maybe they're working on one here? That leg of town is pretty dead a lot of the time." She giggles. "A sleepy town! A secret research base! Ah! It's classic!"
... wait rikka had a question. "Strange? ...I mean the whole thing was pretty strange, he's ten meters tall." She gives Rikka that sassy grin of hers. "But nothing that like, stood out extra, I think?"
<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.
Rikka, fortunately, isn't particularly shy either... well, as long it doesn't involve people she has a crush on, but Namiko is in the Best Friend category, so everything's fine.
"That's how you know it's working." Rikka replies... but, it is nice to see Namiko happy like that. ...It isn't easy, though, when Namiko is making it difficult for her - she has to be careful not to press on the bruised spot too hard.
"Well, that is a shame. I guess I'll have to see what I can do..." She says... though, when Namiko goes more serious, Rikka does too. "...Yeah. It seems like she really enjoys it. I'm glad for her. I'm kinda jealous she has something she's so passionate about, honestly."
She pauses, though, as Namiko takes note that somethings wrong.
"Oh, uh, n-no, no, it's just..." Rikka says, raising her hands. "You know... not every day you see a talking robot in Tsutsujidai, right? Crazy, huh?"
She laughs awkwardly, in that usual awkward way she does when she has to come up with a quick, lame excuse.
Namiko gives her a name, though - Mic Sounders the Thirteenth... Rikka nods.
"He just wanted to play...? Maybe you're right. I guess it probably involves a lot of... learning how to interact with people." She says. She relaxes visibly, though, when Namiko answers her question. "...Okay, good."
...Maybe he's like Renais? Despite her role, she didn't seem to want to cause unnecessary harm... and even when they fought, she had chosen places where there already wouldn't be any people.
<Pose Tracker> Namiko has posed.
Namiko is, of course, always wiggly. It is one of her charm points. She says.
She's not quite brazen enough to leave her shirt rolled up in the classroom for long, so once Rikka's got it on, she gingerly lowers it back down and does a not particularly great job of tucking it back into her skirt. She flinches briefly as it lights up a couple different of her bruises. "Thanks, Rikka," she says, and that one's accompanied by her most sincere, megawatt smile. "I really wouldn't know what to do without the two of you, you know? Except apparently go for a walk with robot strangers. That apparently works!"
Ah. But there is the laugh, and Namiko leans in, giving her her most suspicious squinty eye. "Hass is the one who buys that laugh, you," she says.
...and then rolls her lips right back into a giddy, happy smile. "It is crazy though, right!? I went along with it just for the novelty, mainly! Like, since when does something wild like *this* happen, right? This isn't Tokyo, we don't get kaiju or Bionet or whatever."
Amazing how all three of those examples are wrong, huh?
"I guess he had some kinda time limit, though? He mentioned he goes back somewhere to charge...Man, I wonder how it works! Who makes a robot you have to charge, that's whacko! Maybe it's like, his temporary body! And then his true form is super cool but can only work for three minutes!"
<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.
"Hey, no problem." Rikka replies, returning Namiko's smile with one of her own. "Hey, we count on you too, you know?"
...More than either of them can ever know, in Rikka's case - without Hass and Namiko's grounding presence in her life, she's not sure how she would've gotten through everything without being completely overwhelmed...
She laughs, though, as Namiko continues.
"Apparently!" She replies. But, yup, there it is. Busted... but, beyond calling her out on it, Namiko doesn't press her on it - yet - and so Rikka is quietly thankful.
"Right? At least you both got some fun out of it..."And then she drifts into another conversational minefield, and this time Rikka has to actually try. "...Yeah, I'm glad things are peaceful here..."
...At least, for right now.
Namiko mentions a time limit, though. Rikka, of course, knows nothing about anyone with another form that has a time limit, that'd be silly. She chuckles at her comment.
"Yeah, that is a little strange? Though I guess if you have to recharge mobile suits, it wouldn't be any different for a robot that can talk..." Rikka considers, and smirks. "But yeah, maybe! ...Though he kind of seems more like the 'goofy side-kick' type, from what you've told me...?"
...She kind of hopes that if he does have a super cool true form, she doesn't have to see it until she can actually appreciate it...
<Pose Tracker> Namiko has posed.
They trust her. To tell them, when she's ready. If they need to know. They just also reserve the right to tease her mercilessly about the blank spaces until then.
"Hmm...goofy sidekick robots...." Namiko tips her head, but comes up blank. "Eh, they're probably out there somewhere."
Medicated properly, she pops the lid on her bento and whips out the chopsticks, flipping them nimbly into position. "We've got it real good," she agrees. "It's the summer of youth! We've got a bunch of new friends and a great big year comin' up. We'll figure it out the three of us, yeah?"
She grins that cheeksplitting grin of hers,and then digs in.