2022-02-24: Edification
- Log: 2022-02-24: Edification
- Cast: Renais Cardiff, Alexis Kerib
- Where: Tsutsujidai City Streets
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-02-24
- Summary: Alexis is kind enough to answer essentially any question Renais cares to ask.
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais stands at the foot of a building, hands in her pockets, staring up at the mid-rise's blue-sky windows. She's nearly motionless.
In the general sense, she's here to destroy. That's her purpose; it always has been, though not as broadly as it is currently. This building, in fact, was on the receiving end of a Mazin Magnum the day before. A gas line somewhere in the building sparked, and it exploded spectacularly.
And yet.
And yet, here it is now, perfectly intact, the windows shining with a freshly-cleaned gloss.
She knew this would happen, of course. She'd seen the fog envelop Tsutsujidai, a blanket under which this little world was restored each night. But it's different, somehow, seeing one's own work undone. Uncanny. Wrong, in a way that makes a deep part of her brain itch.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Obscuring much of one's vision with a building is a great situation for Alexis; it's a view that isolates you -- a view that leaves so much space invisible to you. Alexis simply decides to be there, in the adjoining alley, and is, as if the geometry of the world was a suggestion.
When he appears, it's about eight feet behind and to one side of Renais -- and he almost immediately casts his tremendous shadow over her. He does it purposefully, positioning himself such that the sun beats down directly on him, casting something long and ominous. It'll be interesting to see how Renais reacts to --
"Surveying the work, Herald of Dawn?" Alexis asks, in the same moment his shadow reaches Renais. ... Perhaps he's *looking* to startle her.
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais feels goosebumps as Alexis' body obscures the sun near her, hackles just slightly raised; she doesn't look. At first, she dismisses it. Overactive fight-or-flight instinct reacting to a wispy afternoon cloud slipping in front of the sun.
Alexis speaks.
Three rapid reports ring out as the last syllable leaves his mask, accompanied by the jingle of brass casings. Renais stands battle-ready, a heavy, large-caliber pistol in her righthand. A wisp of smoke curls out of the barrel.
Her instinct--her immediate response--was violence. In the blink of an eye, she'd pulled the weapon out of her coat, and pulled the trigger three times, quick enough to sound more like sluggish burst-fire than a semi-automatic. All before she had time to realize what her target *is*.
Renais' eyes are cold in that moment, betraying nothing but killing intent.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
The first shot hits center of mass. Alexis lets out a grunt best described as mildly annoyed; he then ducks low, sliding into Renais's space. By the second pull of the trigger, he's low enough that the shot hits his armored shoulder; one teal panel winks out.
It's at this point that a sword comes out of Alexis's cloak. When the third report issues forth, Alexis has, at the same moment, swung his blade up to strike firmly into the pistol, deflecting the shot up into the building that looms there -- potentially with enough force to divorce Renais from her pistol, though her grip is rather firmer than the ones he's used to dealing with.
"Ah -- how impolite," he chides. He looks down at the hole in his cloak; it slowly begins to knit. No doubt the hole beneath it is, too. "I really have no intention of hurting you! It'd make Akane so unhappy if I did -- she cares for you, you know, even as you utterly fail to live up to her expectations."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais' grip isn't quite enough to keep hold of the pistol, which ends up clattering to a stop on the sidewalk behind her. She leaps back, hand diving into her coat and retrieving a long, chunky-looking pistol as Alexis speaks.
"Shit," she mutters, relaxing her stance--though her eyes still regard Alexis warily, tersely adding, "... you all right?" It's almost rhetorical, really; she's watching his cloak knit back together as she says it.
"*Don't* sneak up on me," she chides. "We're both lucky I didn't hit anything vital, then. As for what happened a few days ago, that was..." She pauses, and thinks back. "... Anti's kind of a dumbass."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Ah, my my," Alexis says, as Renais draws a *second* pistol. "The Dawn's work would be done in an instant with a hundred of you." He considers just how far to twist the screw --
-- and decides to stop there, for now. He needs the relationship between himself, Renais, and Akane to remain civil... for now, anyway. "I assure you, though, I'm fine." As a Hyper Agent -- or Hyper Devil, though what, truly, is the distinction? -- Alexis's body is inviolate. To become vulnerable, he would have to tie his feelings up with another's -- and that is a decision he simply refuses to make.
"Ah -- what happened a few days ago? Beautiful, regardless of the result." The answer to 'what happened a few days ago,' offered, sits. "All that hatred -- and it nurtures and builds on itself! A brilliant creation from a brilliant creator -- a middle schooler carved down until only anger festers inside of it."
Wait -- who's he talking about, again?
"What brings you back, then? Considering how to apologize to Akane for your failure, or something else...?"
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Mh. "One of me is too many," remarks Renais, "But here I stand anyway." Putting aside that BioNet has built entire generations of cyborgs built off the lessons learned from rebuilding her. She glares at Alexis, briefly.
"I told you before. This place is peaceful for me. I was thinking about how to apologize, but--"
There's a double-take. She glares at him longer, as he describes... well, she assumes Anti. She takes a few steps closer to Alexis, sea-green darkening just slightly as he describes something she finds hauntingly familiar. "And just what do you mean by that, Kerib?"
Her left hand flexes at her side. "What *is* Anti?"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Anti is a kaiju -- though don't let the blades and beams fool you. When Akane first showed him to me, I couldn't see him as anything but a human. She had to explain the entire creative process to me. If her foes could adapt and deploy all these new tricks, her kaiju would need to be able to do the same." Alexis sees no reason to hide this element of the story; it's easier if Renais simply knows.
"He's only been alive about a month, yet he learns so quickly -- and he's so eager~." There's just a bit more enthusiasm in Alexis's voice, despite the fact that, all truths told, he's mostly here to see how Renais reacts to him at this stage of the game.
"He serves as Akane's weapon leveled against the world," Alexis finishes. "A creature that knows only loyalty, no matter how upset she gets, no matter how much she demands of him or even hurts him. I was actually looking for *him*, you know... we had a conversation last night after Akane threw her phone in his face, and I was hoping to follow up." A beat. "But I'd been hoping to talk to you, too, so this is fine too."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
"Mm. I've seen kaiju use more, and worse," replies Renais. It was a surprise seeing him copy one of her weapons, though, to be sure. "But I guess that explains where he got those swords... clever, I guess."
She's put... slightly more at ease, for a moment. Somehow, she's quite a bit less bothered, with the confirmation that Anti was built this way from the ground up--that he's a monster given a human form, not a human carved down into a monster.
She's not sure she completely believes him, of course. But it fits with what Anti told her already. Discounting the possibility of a thorough brainwashing, though... she figures that it's probably safe to assume, for now.
The follow-up gives her some pause. "Hurts him?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. "She threw her phone in his face?" Her brow twitches and furrows, slightly, betraying more emotion than she'd like. "What happened wasn't just his fault," she mutters.
"--anyway. I've been wanting to talk with you, too. About a few things."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Oh yes. She was extremely upset," Alexis says, sounding like a concerned parent. "I think she needs a little time to cool off before I talk to *her* about it." Alexis weighs the option of telling her the truth, here -- that Akane has always ultimately wanted to see Renais fail. He could dress it up just enough to hurt both of them.
... but he'd rather not force a confrontation with a Herald of Dawn. Even one he's confident he could personally overpower is a little...
She wants to hear from him, though -- and he thinks it's better if he indulges it than doesn't. As long as Renais doesn't want this place against her, she'll listen to him -- and that's *such* an opportunity. "Speak, then, Herald of Dawn, and you will have answers." He hovers to her side, a bit -- closer, to avoid drawing as much attention on the sidewalk.
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais steps over to grab her lost pistol, depositing it in her coat. The other, however, stays in hand. She makes a mental note to talk with Akane about this. Surely there's a misunderstanding somewhere, here.
"All right," she says, leaning up against the wall, one leg crossed over the other. One golden boot bounces slightly. "I'll start with this. Who are you, and how do you know about us? About the Oath Over Omega?"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"I've been perfectly truthful about who I am! You may call me Alexis Kerib," Alexis says, practiced, refined. "But I sense you want the other question more than that one. Keep an eye out for others, won't you? I think it's best for both of us if no one manages to hear this conversation in full."
Alexis translates past Renais to her side just a bit, though he does not lean against the wall. He remains perfectly upright, his movements fully obscured. "How I know about you... about the Oath Over Omega... that is a very long story indeed, but I can shorten it to its fine points."
The flames at the back of Alexis's head lower and part just slightly. They don't disappear -- but the threat they imply diminishes. "You know, of course, of the circular, cyclical nature of these things, don't you? Cosmic law demands it? Universes are born. They live. They die." It's inherent to Triple Zero -- he says this like he's talking about seasons changing.
"You also no doubt know that these cycles are... incomplete. 'Before' and 'after' muddle, don't they? The past borrows from the future, and the future from the past. Cosmic law says such things are forbidden, of course -- but this applies only to the material world! Other parts are not so linear."
The panel on Alexis's shoulder finally lights back up, where it was previously destroyed. "Hyper Agents live on one of those less cyclical, more flexible parts -- and so, I have had the unique... displeasure, of watching the cycle's beginning and ending." Exempt from it by nature of his very being. Immortal. Whether that's his natural role in the cycle or a perversion... he keeps to himself, for now. No sense in painting a target on his back.
"Indeed, I observed it from quite close up, once!" he offers, instead of drilling down on that. "Now, of course, we were impermeable and inviolate to one another! I lack a physical form, so our interchange was -- incomplete. Nevertheless, it gave me a chance to... consider cosmic law in full."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
"A Hyper Agent." She nods. So he's the same sort of being as Gridman and Sigma. And Takeshi? She's not really... clear on that part. But he'll appreciate the information, she's sure.
'Before' and 'after'. Things smeared across the universes, things which shouldn't have been. The Zonders--and, arguably, the rest of the Trinary Solar System's legacy, now. It's ironic that she's given life by something so wrong.
She doesn't know how much he knows, so she opts not explain more than necessary, for now.
She stiffens slightly as he continues. That itch in the back of her brain, again, the sense of something *perverse*. Forbidden. Her mind goes back toward Takeshi, briefly. The things he said... it sounded like he wasn't *sure* if the Hyper Agents' world was part of the cycle. But, to her... beyond that sense of perversity, all intelligence deserves the same judgment. Their time will come.
"Well, it sounds like you didn't get a full picture," she adds on. "So. You're a Hyper Agent. Same sort of being as Gridman over there, then... Why is he here?" She pauses. "For that matter, why are *you*? What is the *purpose* of this place? What I am trying to say, really, is--what do you get out of this?" She asks like a practiced cynic, someone who believes that kindness is rarely given in good faith.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Sometimes, Alexis just places facts next to each other for the sake of it.
"Yes! Not all of us are like Gridman -- some can fight, some cannot. There are actually a few of us here. Most of the others seem content to play with Akane's cast-offs... they avoid bothering her, so it's permissible." The question of Gridman's presence, though... "*I* am here to maintain this place. I think Akane deserves peace -- and the chance to fashion her heart into a shape that pleases her." He pauses. How much can he tell Renais? She's not a being like him. She's not even a being like Kaworu -- and more, she's attached to Akane in particular. The full truth...
"... Gridman is here because he would find the shape of heart she'd choose -- displeasing. Entering this space wounded him, though; he's since forgotten this. Convenient for her, don't you think?" That final question, though. What he gets out of this.
That's hard. "... Don't you derive pleasure from care-taking, Herald? As much as the duties of those of us outside the usual flow of things weigh on us -- don't you enjoy doing things for Akane, too? I suppose if you feel the need to ask, I'm left to wonder what *you* get out of your own relationship with the girl."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais hmms, fingers idly rubbing together through the fabric of her outer coat. "Have you considered that these others aren't as innocuous as you think? I've been wondering why we're all here to start with. Why we can get in. You sure they aren't..." She pauses, searching for a word. "Subverting this space? Surely, regardless of what poked these holes--perhaps Gridman--something is keeping them from closing, right? I can't imagine they're so hard to close on their own." There's a ghost of a smile on her lips for a moment as she says that.
"I do. But creating and maintaining a pocket of reality seems like something of an ask, even for the most devoted of parents. I find it hard to believe that you've done all of this simply out of the goodness of your heart, Monsieur Kerib."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
If there's movement in Alexis, behind the mask -- if her question prompts thought -- it's not for Renais to know. There is, however, considerable silence from a man normally so predisposed to filling conversational voids.
"... Vessels of Light," Alexis eventually answers. "They come when the world cries for help. Not every Hyper Agent is a Vessel of Light -- but Gridman is, and he has brought with him others. 'Ultraman.' 'Betterman.'" Renais assumes much of Alexis's power... though of course, she assumes correctly. Turning the walled garden into an impenetrable dome would not be beyond him.
"Akane and I could repair the holes, were they left alone -- but as things are, the patch will always be weaker. Vessels of Light illuminate obscure things -- so long as these beings move through the barrier, over and over, the situation will remain as it is." Alexis pauses for a while, *almost* allowing Renais to ask a question --
-- and then says, instead, "Destroying such a Vessel, though... maybe two, maybe three... that would no doubt be enough to hold things together more permanently. To hide something, you must first douse the light that highlights its cracks." Those teal panels on his face light up in a smile. It crinkles -- just a bit -- at its edges. "A Vessel of Light dwelling in a human's heart, or taking a human form... those things would be the light of miracles, would they not? It would seem that a permanent repair would require... at least provisional compliance with cosmic law."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Betterman? Her brows arc up just a bit at that, and she regards him with annoyance as he interrupts her attempt to ask for more details. She can see the similarity between Gridman and the two 'Ultramen' she's met so far--but...
"That's what the old man called that kaiju. The, uh... he said it was a transformed Somnium." She'd laughed when she found out that the name 'Betterman' was Shigeru Akamatsu's fault. She'd never been very close with her half-brother, but she knew he was a dork.
"Betterman? So, it's a Vessel of Light, as well, then. I don't think I'd have guessed, from the... everything about it." Hm. "And the Betterman seems to be... rather *aggressively* against us, regardless." And the rest seem to be among the more vocal preachers in battle against her... annoyances at best, obstacles and threats at worst.
"There are *many* miracles in this world, Monsieur Kerib," she adds to the last. "But... perhaps these ones are a shared interest for us. Our goals do seem to align here, don't they?"
But one thing does linger, stuck in her craw. Ren stands straight, and moves in front of Alexis, facing him. "You didn't answer me, there. Are you really going to tell me that you are doing all of this out of the goodness of your heart?" She leans in, standing on tiptoe to confront him a bit more 'face-to-face', more aggressively. "That you have no stakes in this game, save for her happiness?" A moment's pause, and her heels touch the ground again. Her shoulders ease back, and she cants her head slightly. "Well. Perhaps an escape from *us*. But if that were all you wanted, you'd simply return to the realm you came from, supposedly 'apart' from order of things."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Consider the world, if you will, in terms of pain," Alexis says, knowing that that's an easy leap for Renais. "A Vessel of Light is a creature that *by its nature* responds to that pain, moves toward it, addresses it. The form couldn't matter less." His own form remains impassive, flat as always. That quirk of brief humanity-or-something-like-it disappears back into the mask.
Renais presses the question that Alexis was hoping to use to spin her around. He offers, first, a surprised 'hooh?' as Renais gets on tip-toe, but does not seize control of the conversation from her. Once she finally finishes, though... he does answer. He can't squirm out.
"... If I told you it was a hobby, you'd laugh in my face, wouldn't you?" A pause just a hair too long to suggest he's going to follow up -- and then he does, anyway. "Places can have lesser and greater value... during the last cycle, there was someone I worked under who enjoyed certain types of cultivation~. Making things into valuable and pleasing shapes, for no reason other than to see the process from beginning to end! And there's *hardly* joy in cultivating a thing without someone to see it..."
Alexis hunches a bit, and glances off. "I suppose a model-builder's heart is something I share with Akane-kun!"
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
"..."
It strikes Ren has a bit selfish, on the face of it--helping others like one might shape a bonsai tree, to create something more 'pleasing' rather than for the sake of helping them. But it satisfies the cynic in her, and... well, it's a lot better than the alternative. A few red and yellow flags disappear.
"No, I won't laugh," she replies after a few moments. "It's... odd. But I can't blame you, I suppose. Can't imagine immortality is the sort of thing that makes its own fun, after all..."
"And I suppose the result's still net good, ultimately, though a person isn't a bonsai."
It's ironic, you see, because at the same moment that Renais is thinking 'at least he's helping Akane', Alexis Kerib is almost certainly thinking about how to sharpen this conversation into a knife he can use to carve away at Akane.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis nods. The teal panels on his face light up again. "Is that all you had to ask, then, Herald of Dawn?" He scootches away just a bit -- then translates away a little more. "Akane is such a fussy thing -- there's much I need to check on. She's already working on her next masterpiece... I believe she's getting the tools and supplies as we speak. We all need creative outlets for those things we can't express."
Wryly, he appends, "Even you, Herald! Try to have a little fun with it, before you and this place are each other's only remaining foes. I'm sure Akane would *love* to take in the lessons you impart."