2022-05-23: Pain
- Log: Pain
- Cast: Anti, Alexis Kerib
- Where: Tsutsujidai
- Date: 2022-05-23 (0096)
- Summary: Anti tries to talk to Akane. Alexis opens the door, instead. Anti learns about what the Vessels of Light are -- and resolves to escalate.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
A few weeks ago, Anti had a bath. He hasn't had another one since.
Almost a week ago, Anti brought some new clothes. He hasn't changed since.
Sayla intervened.
Rikka cared.
Asuka introduced.
Ako recontextualised.
Riku empathised.
but first
Nidaime cried out.
He hasn't sought her, since the concert. He told Sayla they should stay away from them, but Anti hasn't found the Second to tell her himself. He... doesn't want to disappoint her.
(He is considering her feelings. And not just her--)
In a wine-dark purple uniform dress shirt, long sleeves and slacks, Anti stands in front of Akane's door. A bow-tie is slung loosely around his neck, more bow than tie in the moment. The sun's gone down, but its oppression remains -- unbearable heat of the day now radiating up off of the concrete, capturing the warmth in an eternal loop.
She was sick, Ako said.
Anti... has to do something.
He has to do something, but he just can't make himself approach that door.
... he wasn't invited.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Akane is somewhere else, unfortunately, buying a photonovel for a boy and inviting him out for a cup of disgusting sugar sludge.
(He can have coffee. She will have the iced sludge.)
Fortunately, someone is here to answer the door, having freshly left saying hello to an acquaintance and promptly moved himself straight back 'home.' At first, he'd thought to check on Akane -- the poor thing had her first day back at school in quite some time, you know! -- but finds...
"... Ah! I could hardly recognize you." He looks Anti over carefully as he approaches, translating in from an unusual angle as he always does. (Where had he been before...? Anywhere at all? Hard to say.)
"Trying your best to carry off Akane's little lie about the two of you? It doesn't really suit a kaiju." Akane tells Alexis much -- though whether she told him that is anyone's guess. (He has other ways of coming by information, after all.)
"Still, I suppose I can play along," he concedes, 'graciously.' "Didn't Akane-kun give you some homework...? How is that proceeding?"
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti frowns, when Alexis starts talking. It's a little hard to tell, around the scowl which always lives on his face. A little extra darkening of his eyes, where his brow shadows them. A little tug of his lips further down. A little duck of his chin.
Akane's... lie, about the two of them.
Of course it must be; he's a kaiju.
Everything about what Alexis says makes him unhappy, but that's quite, quite normal.
He is silent -- staring at Alexis, keeping him in view. That he does not respect their capacity to disappear in the edges is, perhaps, the first sign of his defiance.
You know. Aside from the suit.
When Alexis asks him a question, though, Anti responds: "I haven't found him yet." Low as gravel, his voice is without much volume, but the intensity roiling underneath it is undeniable.
There is a pause, deliberate -- camera on him, all to capture the way his gaze finally glances aside. He doesn't move his head in the motion.
He orients back to Alexis.
"... but I found another Ultraman. I'll fight him. I have to tell Akane Shinjo." There's a tension running underneath the words, the riptide of concepts not quite voiced, the pressure of failure.
Of making it up to her.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Despite being the type to write so much in the margins, Alexis doesn't always pick up on what's written there in turn. Or maybe it's that Anti's gaze forces him to exist a little more as a character and a little less as a slice of narrative convenience...?
Either way: He misses much of what Anti lays down.
"I see. Well -- do try your best," he says, on the matter of finding Gridman. He breezes along -- to the other Ultraman.
"Another Vessel of Light, hmm? Excellent. I'm sure you can dispose of him with all due haste," Alexis affirms. Needing to tell Akane, though, that he's found another Ultraman... "Is it truly so pressing, though? She's already given you much -- and told you to figure the rest out yourself, yes? I don't think she's in a position to offer you much in the way of guidance right now... she's busy at school, I believe."
His tone is almost wry as he notes, "If you survive those ordeals and find it impossible to defeat Gridman, I may be able to provide some assistance..."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
"I..." wanted Akane Shinjo to tell me not to kill him. It's a wish which dies in Anti's throat and his eyes, all buried by that bold pronoun.
At least Akane is in school again, he thinks.
His frown renews its glowering intensity, as Anti snaps, immediate, after Alexis's offer: "I'll crush him!" It's a particularly territorial expression of hate. "I can do what I'm supposed to do!"
It is echo of her; he remembers. (He cannot forget.)
"I'll find where they're hiding," he insists, feels the need to go further, standing here. "I'll drive them all out!"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis watches Anti. His hate remains so pure; it is profoundly charming, in its way, that it is like this. And as it does, it grows; that sentiment becomes as real as any other.
Alexis continues to wonder if he can exploit this -- not just if, but to what extent.
"See that you do," Alexis affirms to Anti, all enthusiasm now that Anti has affirmed that -- despite his change in wardrobe -- nothing has fundamentally changed.
Alexis does so enjoy a static world with static entities, after all.
"Speaking of which," he continues, pleasantly, "I'm curious. What is your understanding of what a Vessel of Light is?" He doesn't actually know if Akane has ever paid that particular bit of the glossary forward.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Despite all the people who have reached out to Anti, has nothing really changed..?
Alexis is pleasant; Anti's guard doesn't drop. He is tense as he was from the moment Alexis caused the door to open.
"... they're our enemies," he answers, after a moment to drag through his memory. He has achieved this much from context. "They cause the psychic ruptures exposing Tsutsujidai, so defeating them is our top priority."
A copy of a copy of a vendetta, the places where each concept has been traced over is plain to see.
There's something about the Vessels no one taught him, though, in so many words.
"But they don't attack until we do."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
That much, at least... hm. Alexis considers whether to let Anti labor under such limited knowledge, or let him in on the shape of the category...? He weighs. Certainly, this would help him move toward Yuta Hibiki faster; certainly, this would enable him to engineer his own fights much more cleanly.
And yet... equipping Anti with understanding is singularly dangerous. Anti is singularly dangerous -- a kaiju designed to learn and grow and recover, past its first outing; a spark of something built and rebuilt and transformed after Alexis first took those feelings from Akane and passed them through himself and --
... hm. No, Alexis doesn't quite 'get it' yet; Anti confuses him, but he cannot quite put a name to that confusion, so he gives just a little too much. "Ah, of course -- a kaiju's vision would be based on how something moves," he muses. "A Vessel of Light is something other than a human that responds to the pain of humans. When humanity is in danger... well! Vessels of Light do not always arrive -- how quickly our universe would burn itself out, if every pained cry called forth 'Ultraman'!" He lingers on that a moment...
... but finishes, as if he was simply pausing for dramatic effect, "... But it certainly encourages them."
This, of course -- easy to follow.
Kaiju attacks... Gridman appears.
Pain... Vessel.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
He's not quite empty, any more, hollow like the terrible monsters who came before him. Whether Alexis can see this --
-- whether ANTI can see this --
-- is an open question.
He does listen to Alexis's description with a deep frown, though. Something other than a human, who responds to the pain of humans...
It's unsettling. Because they're the bad guys, surely.
"So if humanity were in danger... the Vessels of Light would appear," he draws the line of best fit, gravel-gruff. "That's how to draw them out."
He pauses, here; he thinks of the concert.
Unsettling. He feels regret. This is unsettling, too.
Regardless, Anti says, looking up to that visor he calls Alexis's eyes: "I understand."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Ah! Anti's learned how to take hostages, Alexis thinks. Exactly the lesson he was hoping for from him -- nothing more and nothing less.
Because they're the bad guys.
Surely.
"That's exactly right!" Alexis affirms, pleasantly. "Cause chaos, bring ruin -- Vessels of Light arrive, as they so often do. If they don't, or they're late -- it means you simply ought to increase the danger! Humans will escalate out of fear or concern before they truly have an enemy -- hence the wreckage outside, you know. Vessels of Light carry a certain..."
Alexis's teal panels blink off for a moment as he thinks.
"... respect," he eventually finishes, "for the exercise of power."
Curiosity gets the better of him. "Are you formulating a plan, Anti-kun...? I'd be delighted to hear it, if so!"
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti does seem good at playing the evil villain, but he's not too happy about that.
He scowls, all intense, all boiling embers, as Alexis speaks so pleasantly. Alexis, Anti thinks, is too comfortable taking delight in this -- when Akane is a human.
Put a pin in that thought, for later.
He thinks of the way Riku wanted to be his friend, though, even knowing what he was. It's a matter of escalation...?
The wreckage outside... Anti's eyes narrow, at that. If Akane is feeling as bad as she is, should he really burden her with recreating the world again?
Maybe he can take care of it.
"I'll attack them again," he decides, he thinks on his feet. "Out there." He pauses, looking towards the train station -- thinks of something all too red. The pilot of Unit-02 is the same girl who taught him about self-respect.
If he attacks Nouvelle Tokyo... he'll fight Asuka, again.
"But not that way," he settles on, explaining none of the connections drawing his gaze aside.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Anti comes around to the conclusion Alexis was hoping for. "Ah yes -- perfect." Akane just loved the last time Anti attacked 'out there,' after all; no doubt the second time will be just as effective in getting her to return to form.
As Anti's gaze moves to one side, Alexis at last moves slowly back to the other side of Akane's gate. "Should you have need of additional power, you need but ask," Alexis offers Anti. In this arena, Alexis is happy to give Anti plenty of rope and schematics for anything he cares to fashion it into.
Alexis remains all too eager to see who Anti embroils in this sad little drama! After all, he himself has been steadily bringing new players into roles new and old. "I'm sure Akane will be happy with your success," he notes, knowing full well what he's really saying.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
"I understand," Anti confirms, again, when Alexis offers his devil's bargain a second time. He doesn't need it, he's sure.
Anti is strong enough to defeat the Vessels of Light. Akane can count on him. He won't fail again.
After all, happiness with his success implies displeasure with his failure. That's Akane. But how would Alexis act, if he failed him?
Anti would rather not take his help if he can help it... even if he knows it will be difficult for him to enact a plan like this on his own.
... all of his options are bad.
Anti... really wanted to talk to Akane, today. Even if she yelled at him; even if she threw her phone again. He thought... if he could just talk to her, she'd have a better solution. She's a human, so she can see things he apparently can't, as a kaiju.
But Akane is busy. Akane is at school, after skipping for so long.
He feels guilt, even though he was told he ought to get an apology.
"I'll crush them," Anti growls, hands in his pockets as he turns and walks away. The camera cuts around the fence --
-- and he's re-instanced himself, navy blue instead of wine-dark purple, a scarf instead of a bow, all boiling flames about its edges.
He doesn't feel good.