2022-06-05: Shogi

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<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

7 JUNE 0096, MORNING:

Alexis Kerib stands on the steps of the practice building, impassive as always.

'Maybe you two aren't ready for each other yet.'
'Perhaps you're right. I really need to stop being so selfish.'
'This is... kinda where selfish, unfair people go, I think.'

'It's a really good callback!'
'Thank you for letting me have a place here.'
'It's... a lot.'

A single noise -- not even a word -- escapes him.

"Hmm."


Tsutsujidai High School does not have a chess club; the game has never been Japan's most popular member of the chaturanga game family, after all. What it *does* have is a shogi club -- though, curiously, the best player at the school has no interest in the club. (... or *time*, for that matter.)

The school day passes without incident. At the end of the day, though...


'Yes, excuse me! I'm Akane Shinjo and Kaworu Nagisa's caretaker -- could you do me a favor? He's been somewhat intransigent about returning my calls --'


The PA system drones: Kaworu Nagisa to the shogi club room, please. Kaworu Nagisa to the shogi club room, please.

Assuming Kaworu actually comes when called, Alexis is sitting there waiting for him, comfortably situated at a board. It's already been set up; Alexis has laid out the board to give Kaworu -- the superior player -- a worse position; Alexis gives himself a full selection of pieces, while Kaworu has been deprived of the Tower and both his Gold Generals.

"You'll have to forgive me," Alexis says. "I thought I'd make the game interesting! It's been some time, you know."

Seated. One hand raised like the hand in a shogi program -- index and middle finger pointed forward, ring and pinky curled, thumb comfortably forward and a bit to the side.

It really has been a long time. 

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        At the time that a call comes over the PA system for Kaworu, he's in the Dance Club room talking to its members about potentially playing piano for them. He pauses as he looks up at the speakers; then he lowers his gaze to stare stonily at, seemingly, the wall.
        
        Then he gives the Dance Club manager an apologetic smile, bows his head, and says his goodbyes before strolling out of the room.
        
        His smile is gone again by the time he opens the door to the shogi clubroom and steps inside. Once again, his expression is stony as he regards Alexis, then the shogi board where several pieces on his side are already gone, then Alexis and his raised arm again. He steps inside and shuts the door behind him, the noise light and discreet.
        
        "I don't," he replies blandly, meaning I don't have to forgive you, even as he seats himself opposite the Hyper Devil and crosses his legs with effortless grace. It's true, though, that it's been some time. Even he'd been thinking that it was time to have another talk with Alexis--a significant reason as to why he's going along with this.
        
        He hadn't really wanted to talk to him *now*. But it only follows that Alexis would wait for the time least convenient to him. There's no point in asking why this or why now, either; Kaworu had known from the start that coming here to suffer meant opening himself up to Alexis's mockery. He's glad that he did for the moments that he shared with Akane, but... now he must pay the price.
        
        (As he has always paid throughout universes and timelines, to have this continuity of consciousness regardless of the changes in each parallel world--but that's another story.)
        
        "You have quite the high opinion of my abilities," he adds then, without needing to indicate the board set-up. "Or is this your way of trying to mock me?"

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

The Dance Club seemed *quite* disappointed; two members enthuse, "Come back tomorrow!" "... Come back in an *hour*." Listen: Kaworu Nagisa is instantly intriguing.

Meanwhile, back in the present:

"Hmmm? Oh -- the missing pieces! I thought the unusual handicap would be an interesting test for both of us." Alexis laughs. He does not offer further information on why he's set up the board in this *particular* way; maybe he just wants Kaworu to be reminded of his hopelessness. "Well -- regardless of how the board is set up, let's play, hm? People often pay lavishly to play shogi with high schoolers, you know, and I think allowing you in this space is payment enough."

He remains characteristically jovial as he starts the game. He seems to intend on an early bishop trade -- he's *aggressive*.

(He's also not very good.)

"So! I understand you and your charge are struggling, at the moment," he prompts, casually. "I can't say I'm surprised." With mock injury, he asks, "Surely you don't then mean to steal *mine* instead." 

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        Sadly, Kaworu can't promise to come back that early. But it does bring him broad smile to be so wanted. ...or maybe that's just how the denizens of Tsutsujidai are set up?
        
        That smile is of course nonexistent for Alexis. Given that the dark alien thrives on misery, maybe it too is playing into his desires, but Kaworu really just has no smile to give him. Not even after Ruri pointed out just how pathetic Alexis might really be.
        
        "I see," Kaworu states instead as Alexis laughingly non-explains and invites him to play, taking up Black and leaving White to him. "You do have a lot of bloated thoughts."
        
        He waits with grave patience as Alexis makes his opener. Without looking at the board--he already looked at it when he entered the room, after all--he slides his fourth-column pawn to the fourth row.
        
        "Can one really steal what another intends to discard anyway?" Kaworu replies. It's somewhat of a facetious question, really only meant to highlight what Akane actually is to Alexis by his own admission. He doesn't remark on any struggles; it wasn't a question, and even if it were he doesn't care to discuss it with Alexis, and even if he did he probably heard the entire conversation he had with Akane earlier anyway. "Not to mention, you have someone else in your sights for after you've bored yourself with your own tedium." 

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Kaworu's answer to Alexis gets an *uproarious* laugh. This might be the funniest thing Alexis has heard in ages.

"We both know the answer to that question!" Alexis says, and he sounds like he might genuinely be having fun here. "Unless you've started losing more information from turn to turn than I thought." No matter how worthless something is, you can always steal it.

"Oh -- do you mean the ZAFT pilot? Or the other creature of the stars?" Alexis asks, giving information freely because -- well, perhaps he feels some genuine fondness for Kaworu. Or perhaps he just loves the chance to exposit. "Is it truly so awful to be ready for the inevitable?" he asks, playing into Kaworu's opener fairly blindly.

"Her heart is wavering, you know. She may seem as though she's improving, but the truth is that she's struggling more now than she was when you met her; it isn't that I'm *bored*, Kaworu! No, far from it."

He leans forward slightly, as the game continues. "I suppose I'm more concerned with you, at the moment. You've spent a lot of time on her -- and on her most magnificent creation. You move quite indelicately, you know, for all the show you make of etherealness." 

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        Alexis really does have a knack for getting under his skin, Kaworu reflects. The question might have been facetious, but he doesn't need to laugh *that* hard at it. He doesn't bother to respond to his follow-up statements. Both of them, too, are not questions.
        
        ZAFT pilot vs. creature of the stars *is* a question, though, and whether Alexis is fond of Kaworu or just the sound of his own voice, the ancient youth chooses to answer, "I was referring to the latter, though the former counts too. How many distractions *do* you need to keep yourself occupied?"
        
        Is it truly so awful to be ready for the inevitable, though? Kaworu responds not with words but by continuing his opening gambit, luring Alexis and his thoughtless aggression deeper into a trap.
        
        Nor does he speak when Alexis speaks of Akane's heart wavering--but when Alexis points that particular dagger at *him*, something in Kaworu's eyes flickers. 'You move quite indelicately,' he says... His gaze flicks away as that point digs into the insecurities his recent failure tore bare and lets the blood within. Is he really helping them? Is he helping anyone? Is he *capable* of helping anyone? Or, like Shinji, does he only make their hearts more tender and vulnerable to an agonizing strike he didn't even intend to make?
        
        "..." Like that, once more, he falls silent. To Alexis, this might seem like a show of weakness--an opportunity to twist the dagger even more.

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

"How many pearls were there at the bottom of the ocean, before humanity harvested them?" Alexis counters. "The world's suffering is as vast as the world itself, and my life will extend without limit." He turns that around, asking: "Haven't you gotten bored of plumbing the depths of the same story every time? Surely if there were a nuance to it that would lead you to deeper understanding, you would have found it by now."

"You've been at this far longer than I have, after all. And so active! Just a handful of times spent simply observing."

Alexis falls into Kaworu's trap, and promptly loses a piece. Fortunately, he still has plenty, even if this *is* a step toward parity between them. He straightens up slightly, and does, to his credit, start to move forward with a tiny bit more care.

"Tell me," Alexis half-commands, as he begins to form a Fortress position rather than aggressing. "Why are you so eager to struggle on his behalf, to fumble forward? Would it not be easier for you to be a place for him to retreat, rather than forging forward on his behalf? Why, I'd never met Akane-kun before, yet a handful of conversations were all it took for her to view me as a giver of safe haven."

Teal panels continue to blink as pieces start to go into defensive postures. "You did say they were much alike, you know. It'd be easy for you to have him, if you would move as I do." 

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        '...and my life will extend without limit.'
        
        For a moment, Kaworu lifts his chin, his unsmiling mien raised to meet his paneled leer. There's something there that Alexis might not like:
        
        Pity.
        
        But if he doesn't like it, he gets revenge quickly; when Alexis turns it on Kaworu, his expression cools like granite into something as hard and impassive. ...yet then it clears, leaving behind Kaworu's usual easy acceptance.
        
        "I haven't," he replies. "There are many things that never change, no matter how many times I repeat. Yet at the same time, there's always something new. Something always manages to surprise me." That doesn't mean it brings him any joy, necessarily; many of those surprises have been nasty ones. But this isn't about that.
        
        The trap is sprung; Alexis loses a piece. He reacts in one of the ways Kaworu anticipated and begins building up a defense with a bit more care than before. In response, Kaworu continues to play him with cool contempt.
        
        Even so, Alexis still wields that dagger with deft and dire ease. He *had* observed that Akane and Shinji were alike. Alexis may be right; if Kaworu were to poison Shinji's heart, he probably could cut away his other connections and have him all to himself. It probably would be easy.
        
        It would be easy, but...
        
        "...
        
        "Because I love him," Kaworu says quietly. It's a raw wound that will never fully heal--a beloved treasure that lights the dark--and he leaves it plain and open for Alexis to see in its pure sincerity. There's no need to keep it a secret; it's a fact they both know well. In the same way, there's no point in hiding his pain when Alexis had been spying on it only hours before. That's why... "I just want him to be happy." 

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Alexis doesn't laugh as forcefully this time. He continues his deliberate defensive build-up, locking his king -- his jeweled general -- into a formation both protective and imprisoning.

... He does laugh, though. Make no mistake. This one is really more of a chuckle.

"... I suppose this is why I like you," Alexis offers, his tone casual, even playful. "You never really change. I wonder if it's endemic to movements like ours -- then again, Akane hasn't begun to move like that, and she doesn't change either... nor does Anti, I suppose."

Does he not understand that Anti is a creature designed to change from the ground up? Or does he just price in only that fixed directive? (After all: if Anti can only change if Akane orders it, and *Akane* can't change...)

"That feeling is dangerous," Alexis says, ready to aggress again now that he's fully protected himself. ... He hasn't actually improved, save in his ability to make fortresses. He is still *exactly* as impulsive as before -- and now with fewer pieces to move poorly, with so many tied up in defense.

"Surely you know how it ends for one like you to love, after all this time. You will part; the small void within you will meet a larger one, and they'll..." He gestures airily with a hand -- a rare moment of meaningful, unnecessary physicality from him.

"... You-know-what each other," he eventually finishes, his tone just a little too entertained. 

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        "Do you?" Kaworu says, tilting his head up. It's genuine curiosity, though he doesn't know if he can actually trust the answer. Before he came to understand how the nature of the one before him had twisted, he would have accepted it without hesitation. Now... Is that really the truth? Or is he trying to needle him again? Though Kaworu will concede that he doesn't change. (Doesn't see how much he's already changed over endless repeats.)
        
        But then Alexis claims that Akane doesn't change, and neither does Anti, and Kaworu laughs quietly. "'Her heart is wavering; the truth is that she's struggling more now.' I wonder who said that just a few moments ago?"
        
        The movement of his pieces, in return, is patient and precise. Alexis may build up his defenses, but it matters little if both they and his attacks are sloppy and thoughtless. Kaworu baits him into another trap, then advances forward.
        
        "Is that what you think?" He laughs a little again, but there is real fondness in it now--not for Alexis, but for someone else. "It's true things have gone awry this time, and that's frustrated me. But one day, Shinji and I will meet again. I will remember, and he will forget, and we will start everything anew. There's a reassuring beauty in that. Those precious first moments... Whether they go well or go poorly, for good or for ill, I'm privileged to experience them over and over without end. That alone reassures me. No parting we experience will ever truly tear our bond asunder."
        
        "You, though..."
        
        He sets down his piece with a decisive *clak*. Ruri had said that she felt as though Alexis was lonely, that his loneliness drove and informed him. If that's even only a little true, then...
        
        "You will surely never see Luluco again."
        
        Kaworu stares Alexis down unblinking, as if in challenge. 

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.


Alexis doesn't answer the question of whether he changes. It would be tantamount to concession, and shogi is a game almost never decided by mutual agreement.

This isn't a timed game. When Alexis realizes that he's fully given up his initial advantage to Kaworu, his pieces now theoretically outnumbered if one were to count the things Kaworu is stealing from him, bit by bit... well. It's infrequent that Alexis feels anything of substance -- but frustration? That's common, and easy, and building.

Kaworu makes a decisive play. Alexis is placed in check for the first time. Now, this isn't inescapable; Alexis can simply take the piece. The game can continue. The world will roll on; Alexis will still be, on the whole, well-defended. Kaworu will still have the slight positional disadvantage inherent to repeated trap play, even if Alexis has blown a lot of material playing into traps.

And yet, he does spend a lot of time looking at the board, statue-still.

When he does move, it is indeed to allow the game to continue; if he doesn't acknowledge the move, after all, that's the end of the game. And yet: it exposes yet more pieces, and puts a crack in the formation of his fortress.

"This is a universe that gives rise to infinite universes within itself," Alexis replies, tone calm. "It needs no starter force, no spark plug." The game continues. Alexis remains incapable of introspection, incapable of learning.

"Do you really consider each Shinji the same, though? The forces that drive them change. You have never seen the first Shinji Ikari that graced your shore again, either," comes Alexis's ultimate answer. "Only a fool would treat a copy as if it was the same as the original." 

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        It's fine that he doesn't answer. Kaworu never expected him to stand down gracefully from the start. If Alexis were that kind of man, they wouldn't be in this position now. Likewise, as Kaworu turns around the disadvantage he'd been handed at the beginning to scrape away at Alexis until now he's the one who's short--he can sense a different kind of frustration from him, now.
        
        Alexis stares at the board. Kaworu waits. Kaworu is a master at waiting. When Alexis chooses to continue to fight, he nods slightly, as if that were expected; then he calmly, mercilessly gets to work on driving a chisel in the crack his opponent's defenses now present.
        
        "It's true that the Shinji Ikari in this universe is not precisely the same as the Shinji Ikari I first met. As you say, the variations within this universe give rise to variations in his past, in his personality, in the way he responds to life's challenges. But that by no means makes him a copy. Only a fool would consider multiple works by the same masterpiece 'copies' simply because they repeat the same essential form."
        
        The game continues. The game has always continued. Kaworu may have been at a disadvantage earlier, but now he aims for the throat. Alexis may be right in some sense. Even so, Kaworu rebuts, "Each Shinji Ikari is exquisite--a unique individual, perhaps changing in his minutiae, yet retaining a fundamental core. I cherish each and every single one, no matter what our relationship may be."
        
        Alexis will probably not appreciate that this is actually helping Kaworu come to terms with his pain. 

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Alexis definitely doesn't understand that this is helping Kaworu, rather than hurting him; it'd frustrate him even more if he knew.

A less articulate individual would probably just tell Kaworu, blithely, to cope and seethe. Unfortunately, Alexis isn't Akane!

Instead, he himself has to do a little bit of that. He doesn't quite have the words to lash out at this particular framing, nor the guts; all he can really do is continue to play the game out. The downside of falling for a trap once you've created a fortress, of course, is that your king (or, in Black's case, your jeweled general) is constrained not by your opponent but your own pieces, and unwinding that is as complex of a task as building the fortress in the first place.

Alexis crumbles under the pressure, of course. He is acknowledged, and the first step to defeating a creature like him is to acknowledge it in full.

"... Well," Alexis says, putting aside the questions raised by their pasts and focusing on their present game. "You did learn, at least, how to play. I suppose I'm a little curious who taught you the game -- but that can wait."

It's at this point that Alexis says, calmly, "... The conversations you've been having lately -- the bonds you've formed with Renais, with Anti..."

His flat gaze levels at Kaworu.

"When it comes to our agreement, I think those will mark the end." 

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        Indeed, before Akane told Kaworu outright that he was welcome to stay in Tsutsujidai for as long as he liked, she was doing more harm than good. It had been that act of acceptance that had turned it around, that had kept him from feeling as though he wasn't welcome anywhere, either in this world or the other.
        
        The game continues, and in continuing, comes to a decisive conclusion. Kaworu stands (sits) triumphant, having gathered himself together to see things through to the end, while Alexis ultimately falls apart. Once it's over, they both remain seated. Kaworu folds his hands over his knees and waits for his opponent to speak.
        
        The talk of the game, he doesn't respond to. He simply doesn't see this the same way that Alexis does, and to him, there's no point in trying to explain as much. Alexis is too invested in his narrative to see that there are others.
        
        The rest of it, though... The mention of Renais, of Anti, the implication of Akane... Kaworu's eyes narrow. That flat gaze levels on him as he conveys his threat. He meets it--
        
        --and smiles.
        
        "Move to hurt him, and it will mark *your* end," he replies pleasantly, with all the considerable confidence of the First Angel.
        
        He lets that ring in the air like chronic tintinnitus. Death of course means nothing to Alexis Kerib--but to Kaworu Nagisa, death and life are of equal value. He understands well that an ending may be entirely different from either. So that stare back communicates.
        
        Alexis may have had him in check, but Kaworu is a much stronger player. Their game just now made that abundantly clear to them both.
        
        Then, slipping his hands in his pockets, he gracefully unfolds his legs and stands. "This truly has been an enlightening bout. I must thank you for it, Alexis," he continues, still pleasantly, still smiling that inassailable smile of his. "But if you'll excuse me, and even if you won't, I have better things to do. Good-bye."
        
        Without waiting for a response, he turns and strolls for the exit. The Dance Club is waiting for him. 

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

The expression on Alexis's face --

-- remains exactly as it ever is, of course. "It seems I need to sharpen my game a bit! You did perform quite well -- next time I'll give you more of a handicap," Alexis replies -- calm, pleasant.

He does his best not to rise to Kaworu's bait -- and yet, he can't quite help himself. "Of course. ... Just be aware the sunset won't give way to a moonlit night," he replies, doing his best to look as pleasant and magnanimous as ever.

The instant Kaworu leaves, Alexis upends the board in disgust. With Kaworu gone, he sees no reason to be here -- he, too, is gone.

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