2022-07-16: Midnight
- Log: Midnight
- Cast: Anti, Elisa Kafim
- Where: Alleyway, Tsutsujidai
- Date: 2022-07-16
- Summary: Elisa Kafim is the one to find Anti. He's in no position to flee. She offers him a deal -- access to Death Knight, in exchange for his blood. Unwilling to give up, he accepts.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
The day passes. Night falls. Anti does not move.
Somewhere, a clock strikes midnight -- the witching hour -- which means he'll have been here close to twenty-four of them. He isn't listening for ticking clocks or time. He's not even waiting, not really. He's just...
He exists; he is in pain. He makes no sound but the grumbling of his belly.
He exists, on the precipice of human, a shapeshifting monster who changed his heart just the same. A human heart in a kaiju, to pump blood through his veins, to feed the DG Cells colonising his arms and his legs. It would be marvellous if it weren't so eventually... fatal.
Anti lies shellshock-still, as the clock keeps ticking.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick...
Tock.
The witching hour comes, and with it, a witch. Her heels tap tap tap on the concrete and asphalt, as night looms forward and Anti lies in pain. Click, click, click...
"My," she says. "So... you said you needed to think," she says, and then extends her hand. In it is...
A sandwich. Green tomato, lettuce, bacon, dill relish, on brown bread. There may be condiments. It has the smell of food. It is also very green, naturally.
"How is that working out for you so far, Anti?"
Elisa smiles, and if he looks up, she is dressed in her signature color, in flowing cloth and fabric.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Click, click, click...
Distantly, Anti is aware someone is approaching. His eyes remain forward, unfocused, unmoored. It's only when he hears her voice -- HER voice -- that he realises he's in danger. He shoves a silvery hand to the ground, his shoulder tipping forward, to try and push himself up;
his arm trembles;
he collapses back down.
Anti draws in a breath run ragged over his lips, and looks up from the ground, just as haggard in expression. Green heels, green dress... green eyes... green sandwich, held between nails painted green.
"Nnngh," he murmur-mutter-groans, and tries once more to rise -- to flee. This isn't the first time he's heard words as pleasant as hers. His eye, or what is left in the emptiness, still pounds with the memory of that last lesson which Alexis Kerib taught him.
But... this isn't the first time, and even when it happened, he was barely able to coordinate himself enough to flee. He ran into many, many obstacles on his desperate path away. He collapsed here, and hasn't risen since. Can't rise, evidently, given the way his weight sinks back down.
His eyes drop back to the sandwich, despite himself.
... he is hungry.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
He's definitely in danger. Elisa could do great harm to Anti, given the wish, given his injured state. Could he resist, if she chose? And yet...
Elisa waits. She waits as he tries to rise, and looks at his lack of eye, at the lessons he must have been taught here. He has collapsed...
"Let's make a deal," the witch says pleasantly. "I feed you, and in return, you stay and talk to me for a while. We might make further deals when we're done with that. We might not."
"But I'm very interested in what is happening, and I'd like to talk to you. And you..."
"Well. I'd say you need a friend, but we aren't friends, now are we, Anti?"
"But I'm willing to offer you things for a fair price. And today that price is conversation."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti feels -- what was the word that kaiju girl used? Horrible. He feels horrible, helpless to do much but listen to those pleasant words. So soon after what Alexis Kerib did... even if Anti hates him, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't affected.
Alexis was their... what was the word that clothing girl used? Guardian. He... was supposed to help them. Even if Anti didn't trust him, he still listened to him. He was relying on Alexis, for too long, too deep inside his gnarled web.
And he hears the similarities. He knows how bad a deal this is. He knows that Elisa would as soon take his other eye than help him.
Maybe she knows, just the same, given she says they aren't friends. At least... she's not claiming they're friends.
He thinks about it; he's thinking about it. He can't keep going like this, crushed by horror and by hunger. Even if he fixed one of those problems, he probably couldn't run fast enough to evade Elisa, given how interested she's said she is. And if he just ignored her...
Well. Anti saw how Elisa's green consumed Akane's kaiju and made them her own. He was quite eloquent about his understanding.
Even now he can bleed, he's still a kaiju, isn't he?
Isn't he?
"nnnnh," Anti groans, and swallows, throat dried from his jaw hanging agape so long. His one good eye squeezes shut, briefly -- his teeth clenching together in the gesture. Slowly, with difficulty, he nods.
"... fine."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is pleasant. Elisa likes Anti. These things do not make him safe. He knows this... and she is aware that he knows it. A curious departure from his previous ways, but not unexpected, given what she's seen. It might make him more interesting indeed.
It certainly doesn't hurt her anything to help him. Does it? ...Well, maybe a little, if Alexis took issue. But she doesn't really need him here, does she?
"Good!" Elisa reports once Anti has said 'fine', and smiles. "The sandwich is just a sandwich. I didn't conjure it or infuse it with power; I made it, with my hands. So, in case you were concerned. You remember that I prefer honesty with you, yes?"
She extends the hand with the sandwich again. "I want to know how you feel. What you think. How you feel about the situation, about Alexis... about Akane. I want to know all about your mental state at the moment. And talking about it might help you sort through your own feelings."
"Whether it does or not, those are the things I want to know. I want to know... if it's over, for you. If you feel defeated. Done."
"Or can you stand? Will you perish like a dog, or will you rise, a kaiju?"
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti doesn't particularly relish being interesting, from where Elisa is standing.
... even so, he takes the sandwich, with its relish. His fingers tremble; he can't quite manage yanking it back into his space, though surely he'd prefer to, given the ghost of the movements.
What he feels, what he thinks... he hears her, certainly, but he's busy ripping into that sandwich for the moment. His teeth flash, as he tears in through the green lettuce, the green tomato, through the bacon and the bread and the relish. A scrap of that condiment remains on his cheek, even after he shoves the last pieces of the sandwich into his ravenous maw.
In his current condition, eating with his hands, he may well just be spreading his DG Cells even further through his body. Then again, an open wound is a much easier source of infection, isn't it?
He pauses, for a moment, afterwards. Experimentally, he lays his palm to the ground again -- this time, he manages to push himself into a sitting position, slouched back against the bare concrete wall of the cheap housing back here.
"..." Anti says, at first, looking down at his curled hand. He answers her last question, first. "... Alexis Kerib crushed me. There's no way I can reach Akane Shinjo now." He takes a breath, rising high in his chest, before he deflates all at once.
"I... feel. I have feelings. It hurts." Oh, don't think Anti is the type for grand metaphor -- it LITERALLY hurts. It's visible, in the way his fingers twitch, in those momentary agonised jerks. Dull, he goes on: "I'm... numb. I tried not to feel it. Akane Shinjo has so many feelings... I only ever needed one. So it feels... far away. I know I put everything into that last attack... I've lost everything now. If Alexis Kerib is willing to attack me like that... he's definitely convinced Akane Shinjo I'm worthless."
Anti thinks it's strange that the rain would hit his cheeks, when he's under the awning like this. It's strange that there's no rainfall behind Elisa. It's strange that it hurts so much.
It must be the rain. It's always been the rain.
"Everyone wanted to help me... I didn't let them. I was afraid... or arrogant... I don't know." And it's strange, that an autointelligence kaiju would just not know -- but then, feelings are another matter entirely. A matter of the heart. He still needs to accept he has one. "When I accepted Alexis Kerib's help, he only ever hurt us. I knew he would. I listened anyway. I really am stupid," he condemns himself, a shred of despair lancing through his deadened words.
He draws in a breath, a ghost of a sniffle. He swallows. "Akane Shinjo... wanted me to exist. Maybe she needed me to exist. I --" Anti grimaces, as his fingers tighten, in his upturned palms. "I want to save her! Even if I exist to be hurt by her, that just shows how much she's hurting! She's in pain, and all I could do is fight...!" His anguish bubbles over, and fades just as quickly, as he slumps against the wall. "... and now... I can't even fight. I can't fight Alexis Kerib... I tried. I didn't have a chance..."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
It's fine. He eats the sandwich. Perhaps eating with his hands is a problem... But she doesn't seem particularly worried about his well-being, either. Just his feelings--and those as an observer, a watcher... a doctor, perhaps. She waits until he finishes, and then the way he pushes himself into a seated position. She stands before him, looking down, and notices--Hmmm.
It hurts, he says, and she files this away as a point of data. She notices; he means it. But he is numb. And that.... Hmmmm.
He's making an assumption there, definitely. She considers whether she will call attention to it.
His tears do not move her. But his feelings...
"I see," she says after a little while, notices his sniffle, hears him speak of Akane at all. He wants to save her, and...
"So," the witch says. "You have chosen another path. Yes... that is very interesting."
She pauses. "You're assuming he's made Akane think you're worthless. That may or may not be true; I don't know; I told him I wouldn't interfere with her, and so I have not. ...But I did not mention you."
She smiles, and it is a showing of her white teeth through ruby lips. It is a predator's expression.
"You still can, you know." A pause. "...You are not bereft of options, not bereft of... allies. You cannot fight as you are, no. But I helped you once..."
"I would do so again. I am... sympathetic, perhaps, to cast-off, broken things. Broken things like this world of ours..."
"So, Anti. Do you want to fight? Will you save her after all? Or will you give up, and allow Alexis Kerib to decide your fate?"
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti is used to predators standing over him. He can operate in this position.
But Elisa didn't promise not to interfere with Anti -- and this, he reflects, distantly, only really puts him in more danger. Getting the attention of -- interest from -- a witch on top of a devil is worse, not better, for his survival.
(Imminent, long-term, take your pick. Anti estimates the forecast is bad either way.)
He bares his teeth in response to hers, but his grimace doesn't pretend to smile. More honest, perhaps. Even so, even knowing what he knows, he... listens.
What choice does he have? They had a deal.
Anti hates that she calls the world broken, and he'll acknowledge Alexis Kerib for one thing: if Akane Shinjo never speaks to Doctor Kafim, it will be too soon. He's sure it's a poison which would kill her as soon as she swallowed.
But...
"I..."
Anti hesitates.
"I want to fight," he says, stomach twisting. "I want to save her. I won't... give up like this."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Oh, Elisa has no intention of interfering with Anti's survival... provided that he can use the tools she gives him to get out of this particular predicament. No, he's much more 'interesting' to her alive. ...Though that doesn't handle the matter of long-term being in question...
She doesn't need a smile from him. She does not need such hollow pleasantries. That is the secret, after all. One of many. So he listens...
"I thought so," Elisa says as Anti's stomach twists, and he says he wants to save her. She wonders--will he survive this? Will he do what needs to be done? Will 'they'?
...Wouldn't it be marvelous if they did?
"Then I shall help you," she says. "But I will require a price, as always. I will not have you simply 'owing' me a nebulous debt that may never be paid."
"I cannot offer you nothing," she says, with a small smile quirking at the edges of her lips. "Nor can you me. Instead what I shall have is..." She reaches into her jacket pocket, and pulls a small, oblong box; a phlebotomy kit.
"A sample of your blood. That is my price. Satisfy that, and you will have your machine once again."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti tenses, when Elisa declares she'll help him. He keeps saying he's not the one who needs help; here, perhaps, he'd simply say he didn't need help.
(He doesn't want Elisa helping anyone he's occupied with.)
But... she describes an exchange, instead. He doesn't recognise the phlebotomy kit; he recognises that she wants something from him, and is willing to give him something in exchange.
He still doesn't like it, but the shift in his expression... at least suggests he's not discounting it, out of hand.
Even so, Anti hesitates. He looks up to those terrible green eyes, with all the shades of sunset written on his. (Colour-coded, so everyone knows just who he belongs to.) Despite his usual intensity, he blinks, first.
"Death Knight..." Anti starts, the words trailing to nothing. "Alexis Kerib used it to -- infect me," he halts over the word, a little, as he lifts his hand to show the metal scales there. "It wasn't dangerous to me, before, but... I copied too much. Now everyone says I'm in danger... I'm dangerous. I can't touch anyone." And he didn't, in that battle. He had Diriver handle the melee combat for him. He was, after all, a logical impossibility -- a kaiju, a creature of the earth, infected with DG Cells.
What's holding him back isn't complicated. "If I pilot it again... the Second would be upset."
Well, he might die, too.
That's not what he brings up.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"This is a small device I will use to extract some of your blood," she explains, to make her deal clear. "Which you have, which is most fascinating! It will not harm you, though I will recommend you eat a bit more, perhaps have some juice. I don't need much."
But she smiles again, when he hesitates and looks up to her. He is not the only color-coded individual.
"Yes," she says, "That was very unkind of him, wasn't it? He presented it as a chance to do something, I'm sure, but left you to pay the price. ....You're right, you know. It is very dangerous, to yourself and to others. You may well die." She doesn't seem concerned to be this close, for some reason, despite saying this. "But if you want to fight... then that is your option. If I give you my power, you will surely die. You have no way of acquiring some other mobile suit that I know of, absent overpowering me and stealing mine, if you found you could."
"...If you'd prefer," she says, "I can alter the deal. I can give you a chance to run far away, wherever you like. But I don't think that's what you want."
"No," she says, as she crouches down, moving to one knee and opens the kit; she pulls from it a band, which she will put over his arm in a moment--but she first gestures for him to give his arm to her. "I won't be harmed by touching you," she says. "But that's why I'm not willing to hide you, either; having you around would infect my operatives, perhaps even someone I care for. No. I will help you to your machine, or away, or not at all."
A pause. "...Is upsetting this Second worth the chance to save her? To fight back? That's what you have to decide. We all pay prices, for every action we take, for every choice we make. You must simply determine what, in any given situation, you are willing to pay."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti frowns, when Elisa points out he has blood. "... I shouldn't have it anyway." Whether he needs it, now he has it, is another question entirely.
Looking up at the witch, Anti does, briefly, entertain the thought of overpowering her and taking her weapons for his own.
Briefly.
He deflates from that consideration, letting out a breath. He looks to her gesturing hand, but does not, immediately, move his. Elisa mentions she has someone she cares for, and for a moment there's hot anger in his eyes -- a clear assumption about just what this woman, so like Alexis, means by care.
Instantly, he hates her just a little bit more than he did. Anti wonders how many Akanes exist, in the world, that all these predators can find such easy prey.
But -- she pauses -- she asks... and Anti's frown fades to that same haggard weariness, because it's not entirely wrong.
"I... have a chance?" Anti asks, claws for any shred of hope, despite himself. "I still have a chance...?"
Now, and not a moment sooner, he offers his arm to Elisa.
"I'll do it."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Blood is a terrible inconvenience," Elisa agrees sympathetically. She cannot read his mind; she does not have that power. But she doesn't have to, to see that particular thought in his eyes, and she smiles wider when he thinks about chancing it. That, too, would be very interesting.
But she doesn't push him to do it. Instead she waits, and he spots that anger, and her expression turns all the more interested. Still pleasant, but with a spark of fascination in her eyes.
Ahhhh, though--there--he claws for that shred of hope. And Elisa nods. "Indeed."
But will they do what is necessary for this chance...? Will he?
Elisa has no idea! It's a ton of fun.
"Very well. Then just a moment," she says, and moves to wrap the band about his arm first, "This will feel very tight, and there will be a pinch."
But the witch is good at what she does.