2019-04-02: Forbidden Al-Bhed Machina 'Kotatsu'

From Dream Chasers
Jump to navigation Jump to search
  • Log: Forbidden Al-Bhed Machina 'Kotatsu'
  • Cast: Kamui, Acacia Saitani
  • Where: Mi'ihen Highroad
  • Date: 2nd April 2019
  • Summary: Kamui returns to her favorite forbidden machina, the kotatsu, with Acacia.


<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

Kamui bobbled out to stand outside at the flagpole of the Travel Agency and talked to Marivel, but eventually there's only one person that she has to come back to every time!

  • bobble bobble bobble*

"Master... I'm back, mui," Kamui cheerfully exclaims as she holds up a small, veritable mountainous pile of oranges for the kotatsu, because that's basically the more powerful version of the Pillow Fort.

The Pillow Fort will one day upgrade to the Kotatsu...

"Look, they gifted us oranges for our hard work. Isn't that good? Didn't I do good?" Kamui angles for headpats already.

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

It would be wrong to say that Acacia is on guard when it comes to Kamui. It's basically impossible to be - even before you account for the protective impulse that the redhead has picked up along the way, her assistant's sheer and genuine joy at new experiences is enough to soften the reporter's occasionally harsh exterior and leave her chuckling quietly to herself.

"You did good," she parrots back, having kicked off her boots to huddle under the warm blankets attached to the table. Just because a place is hot during the day doesn't mean it can't get cool at night, and a significant part of her is starting to sorely miss the forbidden machina concept of the little air heater she'd stash under her own kotatsu.

(In total violation of the safety leaflet that came with it, of course.)

But as the Reploid sneaks in with her, she lets her face fall back into a frown for a moment, staring mutedly at her fingers as they tap out an idle rhythm on her notepad.

The /circumstances/ around Kamui, those she can sure as hell be on guard about. Should she be treating her assistant so much like a human?-- well, the idea of not doing so leaves an unpleasant knot in her stomach, so there's that. At the same time it feels almost too macabre to watch the girl next to her-- 'die', and then be relatively right as rain the moment she finds her way back to safety. She might be a bit of a dodgy reporter from time to time, but she's not the sort to want to use people like tools.

At least... she really, really hopes not.

She's broken out of her thoughts as Kamui pops up next to her, and before she even knows what she's doing she's places her hand amongst the smaller girl's hair to give her a pat. "... but I'm gonna turn into an orange if I try to eat even half of those," she snorts.

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

"I did good... hehe, Master praised me," Kamui beams in an utterly, genuine and earnest fashion as she leans forward and absolutely puts that headpat magnet towards Acacia's hand and basks in the glorious feeling.

pet pet pet

"That's an urban myth, perpetuated by the dastardly Armengard," Kamui points out. "Humans don't turn orange because they eat a lot of carrots, or into carrots if they eat a lot of oranges."

... ... why Kamui seems so, so deviously hung up about Armengard may be a mystery even this reporter cannot solve.

But there is a nugget of truth to Acacia's guardedness. Despite the girl's earnest, innocent nature, there is an undeniable danger about her. The X-Buster is undeniably a powerful, ancient weapon. The techniques in which she can execute are bar none that of a machine built for battle.

But at the same time--

pop

"Hwaaa... it's nice to let go of your head once in a while," Kamui whines as she puts her head on top of the kotatsu and lets her body slack head-less.

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

And, of course, /there/ is the other reason to remain on guard. Somehow, in a bizarre confluence of events, she's found herself stuck here in Spira. If some of the other Drifters are to be believed they're on a whole new planet, one they've apparently been to before, and one which is significantly less technological than Filgaia. She hasn't had the greatest of chances to look around yet, not even sure where to begin in safety, but she's at least got the idea that you just Don't Talk About Machines here--

--so at the familiar sound of the 'pop' she sits up straight in her seat, throwing an uncertain glance towards the door as she ensures that it's closed. Already, she can tell that her time in Spira might be kind of fraught and stressful, spent hurrying after Kamui and Marivel as they somehow run circles around her.

Sagging again in her seat, she lets out a sigh. "Careful where you do that," she lectures for a moment, her brow furrowed as she taps the arm of Kamui's body. "It's fine here, but you nearly gave that one priest a heart attack. It was all I could do to convince him he'd had an attack of the vapours." She can't resist taking a glance at the process, though, her curiosity riding high as she studies the exposed connectors with a rueful chuckle. "Think I know a lot of people who could do with letting go of their head, though."

"... just promise me you're not gonna assault Boot Hill sometime to take her on," she adds, trying to be airy about it as she wonders whether that would actually happen. "If we're going to beat her, it'll be with sales. Not that I don't disagree with you on the dastardly bit at this point."

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

Kamui... doesn't appear to have completely minded at all to have been transported to another planet. When asked about it, her completely predictable answer is: "If it's with Master, I can go wherever!"

Kamui's Head bobbles for a moment as Acacia lectures her, and she hops forward to go, "Okaaay," as she just straight up bites into an orange. She dithers for a moment.

"... biither...."

Kamui's Body panics and tries to grab the orange from her head but whiffs, because her Body is now blind, and smacks her Head down to Acacia's lap instead. "Mui..."

She lights up to go, "Oh! That was a brilliant move, Master! The good old Gas Explosion explanation!" as she chides her about Armengard, and she sinks for a moment to shake her head (which is much harder when you're just a head and not a body).

"Kamui will defeat Armengard by exposing her lies on paper. That is the medium upon which our eternal battle lies on...!"

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

As much as she tries to take things in stride, sometimes Acacia simply can't keep up with events around Kamui. In this case, it seems like she genuinely wasn't expecting the body part of Kamui to be able to move without the head's say so - so there's a sudden and rather strangled noise as the other girl's arms suddenly flail, and she stiffens in brief but outright fear and shock as her mind has to take several seconds to catch up.

"E-easy-- easy," she mumbles, not sure if she's telling herself that or the disemheadded body next to her instead; placing her hands on the Reploid's shoulders, she lightly coaxes the arms back down, and maneuvers the lean of the body against her own in hopes it might offer a bit of comfort.

Letting out a sigh, she uses Kamui's praise as a chance to sneak the rest of the orange away from her, digging a thumb into it to begin peeling the rest of the skin away. "Right, but it's not like I can come up with stories like that every day," she grumbles to herself. "We need to be at least a little careful about this stuff, at least until we can figure out how we can get back. Or /if/ we can get back," she adds, wincing as the elephant in the room makes itself known.

The elephant in her room, at least. Kamui doesn't really have any elephants. Maybe a shoopuf.

Sneaking a glance downwards, Acacia frowns to herself again as she studies the head in her lap. This is definitely not where she expected to be a month ago, but... well, it's not like she can do much about it right this second, she supposes. "Here," she says instead as she offers an unpeeled slice of orange. "Open wide. Sweeter this way."

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

Kamui's Body confusedly stops flailing, before giving Acacia a Big Shal-level thumbs up and then flopping back again into comfort after Acacia coaxes it back down to give a rest next to her.

"There will be a way back," states Kamui after a bit. "The worlds... are more interconnected than people realise..."

Well, that's not at all mysterious and cryptic like she knows more than she's letting on, which means it's time for her to completely melt as Acacia starts feeding her slices of orange, gnawing on it in a very munchy kind of a manner.

"Melts in my mouth... strong citrus notes but with a sweet finish... aah..."

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

The huff that the reporter gives in response - both to the body settling down and to Kamui's enigmatic words - is a little bit uncharitable of her, and she knows it. It's not the Reploid's fault that all of this has happened. She's not sure if it's anyone's fault, per se, though given the timing of it all it seems fair to suggest that Odessa must be to blame, even if some of its members seem entirely unaware of any kind of grand plan.

Still... learning that there's a whole other world out there isn't something she can wrap her head around in a few measly days. Not to mention it's a point of professional pride, as well: the biggest scoop she's ever heard of, and not only is she stuck in a place where she can't get to a traditional printing press without it being called a heresy, but it turns out that it's old news for every Drifter and dignitary out there anyway.

"... yeah. I'm getting that feeling myself," she mumbles sourly, making a mental note to have a word with Marivel later. Not that she intends to rely on the Crimson Noble too hard for assistance, but she is more or less the closest thing ARMS has to a commanding officer out here - and obviously knew much better than Acacia did where to start plumbing for information. There's catchup to be done, she thinks with a determined frown.

For the time being, though, she hums and slips a segment of it into her mouth. "Yeah? ... mm, you're right," she adds after a thoughtful chew. "Guess I'm so used to apples when it comes to fruit. Try a banana yet? Now that's something you don't see much on Filgaia anymore."

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

Paradoxic in behaviour, Kamui's probably spent more time and energy blaming people for stealing her oranges or not giving her ice cream or headpats than she has spent time and energy thinking about the struggles of Odessa and ARMS, as well as their subsequent trip to Spira.

"I am confident Master can do this," Kamui does add with closed eyes afterwords, which might be more poignant if she wasn't just a head right now. "Kamui will help..."

A pause.

"And from the scoop of Spira stories, we'll get so much money to pay Master's rent!" She beams, not at all aware that she just brought up a fresh wound of Acacia's -- the rent isn't going to freeze just because they're offshore... or offworld, in this case!

She does perk up, though. "Banana...?" A pause, as she sniffs just a little bit. "That sounds..."

A pause.

"Bananice."

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

At least Acacia really can't complain about Kamui's approach to life in general. If anything, it's kind of a relief to see the girl so content. Some part of her just-- seems to want to ensure that the Reploid can live however she wants. Perhaps, she wonders with a light smirk, that means she's actually a good person inside. It certainly beats having her dissolve into blue particles while the reporter feels quietly guilty, so there's that.

"... thanks," she adds as she settles her hand back onto Kamui's head with a chuckle, not exactly sure how to feel when she realizes: "It's not exactly often I hear stuff like that, now that I think about it." In the end, she supposes, that's fair enough - she does have a tendency to stomp around her home grounds, after all, and it's only when she's thrust into bizarre situations like this one that she starts to feel a little lost.

Or, she now finds, when worrying about what might be going on back home while she's stuck here. She set up a standing order, right? She did, right? ARMs gave her a pretty generous stipend when she joined, so... well, if she's lucky, she won't end up fishing her furniture out of the gutter. "You bet," she huffs past the worry. "Just make sure you get a lot of photos, or else no-one's gonna believe us. We'll end up like those Sunday newspapers that always talk about alien ships sighted over the coastal cliffs."

Boy, just wait 'til she learns about Solaris.

Another puff at the girl's pun, but-- well, she is a journalist. It kind of comes with the territory. "We'll see if we can find one tomorrow, but I want to see if I can talk my way into a church library. Think I need to get to know the names of people and things around here."

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

Almost certainly at some point, Kamui has probably fed the following line to Acacia:

"Live true to your emotions. That is the true muining of life."

It's not clear whether she's parroting off someone cause it kind of sounds like she's quoting, but she seems to rather embrace the philosophy, for better or worse. Everything and anything that interests her, she gravitates towards. When something displeases her, she does something about it. Like flamewar against Armengard.

"I'm getting a lot of combat shots...!" Kamui baems and smiles even bigger and more comfortably so. "We'll break the big story about the legendary world across the sea of stars... hehe..."

Kamui's Body reaches over to pop her head back on, because perhaps there's a time limit for that kind of thing, or perhaps she just wants a different perspective once in a while.

"Master, I don't think we need a library. Rin's Travel Agency has a real convenient travel guide, from Besaid to Mt. Gagazet..."

A pause.

"Oh, but it's 149 gil with an extra 499 for premium articles... mui..."

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

Certainly, Acacia raised an eyebrow at the venerable line when she was first told it. She surely will again. But... she's still prepared to meet it with a quiet smile, pleased to see the girl swan about even if she's regularly led to exasperation off the back of it.

"Combat shots... but we need to get the big landmarks, too," she adds as her brain starts to swing back towards the business of making news; she leans across, not only so that Kamui has space to reattach her head, but also so that she can grab her pad to begin scribbling a list of bullet points.

"Anything really big - big enough that no-one can accuse us of making it up," she tries, and then furrows her brow as she tries to think of how to better explain it. "Any place you'd really, really like to stand on top of. The temples are a good start, maybe some shots of Luca. Forests and beaches and tropical islands, too. Stuff that you just don't see around Filgaia that much anymore."

Kamui laments about the price of Rin's travelogues, and for a moment the redhead taps the end of her pencil against her teeth as she mulls that over. "That's what you do when you've got a monopoly... but you know, you're right. He's the closest thing to a paper around here. Maybe I should have a word with him, see if he'll accept some freelance submissions. If I can twist his arm and find out what he uses to print..."

She trails off, a satisfied grin settling slowly over her face. Acacia, you're looking a little monopolizing yourself...!

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

Kamui seems to not really make any mind to Acacia starting to have evil plans of how to muscle her way into the monopoly of the Travel Spheres, seeming rather luxurious in her simple comfort of oranges and kotatsus. "Hehe..."

She pauses for a moment as she pumps her hands again and says, "I'll take pictures of landmarks too, and write about them. And Fiends too, we can have a Fiend Folio and square away readership from the Drifter market!"

There's a quiet pause as she says, "I'm glad Master came back to me. I don't want to be away from Master again!"

Still with that other /other/ elephant in the room, the fact that she's never called her Acacia even once. It might be creepy. It might be disconcerting. And the way some things don't seem to line up about her memories...

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

That line makes Acacia look up from her pad of paper, a very uncertain and rather guilty frown briefly set on her face. Kamui's memory as it is, the reporter isn't sure how much she should push things when it comes to insisting on her name - she certainly mentions it a lot in the hopes that the other girl will pick up on it, because being called 'Master' is not something she can easily get used to...

... but she's seen the way that Kamui can hitch and stutter when she tries to recall things, and it immediately brings to mind the old radio set she used to have, where you needed to hold the antenna /just so/ or risk it breaking on her. It's not a very pleasant image to apply to Kamui, and it kind of makes her shy away from anything more forceful.

"A-ca-ci-a," she huffs a little fondly as she pokes the other girl lightly in the forehead. "And, don't worry. I'm not going anywhere. Well, I guess I just went to a whole other planet, but I made sure to bring you along for the ride, right?"

Besides, little scraps and hints like that-- maybe it's the best way to pick up little details about Kamui's past. Nudging someone's subconscious is a hell of a lot different to the usual way she has to research a story, but if it's what needs doing...

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

Maybe once upon a time, Kamui has an antennae on her head that needs to be held up just so or she'd go 'bzzt' and start channeling from the Telepath Towers about the incoming Hyulkonton invasion.

"Haaa-i," comes the response, "Master." It's genuinely uncertain whether or not it just comes in one ear and goes out the other or if she's listening or not listening, but it certainly hasn't stuck.