2022-09-13: Purpose
- Log: 2022-09-13- Purpose
- Cast: Asuka Shikinami Langley, Akane Shinjo
- Where: Tsutsujidai - Restaurant
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-09-13
- Summary: Asuka confronts Akane as she looks out over her creation.
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
It didn't take long questioning around the school to figure out spots where Akane hangs. Not when she couldn't help herself but have a party bragging about one of her Kaiju 'models' right before an attack. Maybe Asuka doesn't know how Kaiju users do what they do, but she can read between the lines enough to realize the connection.
As a result, a middle schooler walks into a restaurant on a high rise in the mid-afternoon...
Nothing unusual about that.
... except she's wearing her plug suit. The red bodysuit might draw a few stares, maybe even a few comments about kids and their cosplay. She has a bag shouldered over her arm though, which does perhaps adds to her image as a 'cosplayer'.
Narrowing her eyes as she spies her quarry, just sitting there drinking tomato juice, she approaches her from one of her blindspots. As a palm thumps down on the table, hard enough to rattle everything on it without spilling it. As she brings herself down eye level, leaning over her.
"Bet you think you're hot shit, don't you? Playing God. Creating things."
Asuka says angrily, though her voice is only a bit low. "Giving them purpose. Then just, flipping the table right in front of all of them."
If Akane looks away, she tries to keep shifting the position of her head to force her to look her in the eye, "What's the matter, Akane - did you get tired of all that unconditional adoration? Was it so boring, so fake, that you just had to mix things up?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The plugsuit gets a raised eyebrow from the table's occupant -- and then, as its wearer slams a palm on the table, a scowl. "Do you mind? You're making a scene," she says, masking the way her nerves fray with muted -- but very heated -- frustration.
Akane, of course, doesn't look any less ridiculous; she's still committed to corset dresses and labcoats, kitten heels and cracked glasses. "But if you want to talk, fine. Why don't you take a seat?" She meets Asuka's gaze easily -- with just a hint of boredom.
"Hmmm. Tired of it? Why would you think that? You get that I'm trying to put this place back the way it was before Gridman showed up, right?" she asks, genuinely sounding curious. "I just think broken things should fix themselves."
If Asuka wants her to be the bad guy in this narrative, that's fine with her. "Things should just listen to their creators and play the roles they're supposed to! And if you don't, you can always get a new one, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
"Heh. As if I care about that anymore. We're not in your fantasyland, we're in the real world now."
However, seeing that Akane isn't backing down, and is playing up the role of the supervillain - that suits her fine. She grabs the back of a separate chair, scoots it up without lifting it, letting the wooden legs grind. Then seats herself backwards, arms resting over the chair back.
She doesn't answer right away on why she thinks that... because the line about broken things should fix themselves...
-=-=-
She's been alive for a day, along with five hundred and eleven identical girls. Somehow, they've known from the first moment of awareness that they're to work towards becoming Evangelion pilots. Even if they don't know how.
So they take direction, right now it's lining up for a preliminary evaluation.
02 278 waits her turn, doll like, expressionless and affect flat.
02 009 is up, it'll be hours before its her turn. The scientist at the front has a pen and a clipboard, when suddenly 02 009 reaches for the pen. The scientist in the NERV uniform chides her.
She wrenches it from him, sending him to the floor and there is blood. So much blood-
Not his.
One of the girls who was standing in line is being stabbed repeatedly in the neck. She doesn't fight back, she doesn't resist even as her legs buckle beneath her and her senses start to darken.
Not a single girl lined up moves, as the orderlies restrain the first - and drags the body of the second away, leaving a long streak of crimson across the otherwise sterile floor.
Two broken things already. There will be so many more, before the end of the month.
-=-=-
"If that's the way it were. You giving orders. Them listening to you. You disposing of them if they don't. There'd be no problem. That's just the way things work."
Asuka says as she glares daggers at her with those piercing blue eyes, uncaring how bored Akane looks, "But you and I both know that's not how it is? You didn't tell them a single thing. You didn't give them direction. You wound them up, set them on the path to live a normal life, then let them go - ignorant of the purpose you set."
She lofts a single thin red eyebrow at her, "If you weren't tired of it, then why'd you tell Rikka?" She says bluntly, "From what I hear, the two of you were good friends. Now you've eliminated the possibility of things going back to how they were. So personally? I think you're full of it. But hey - I'll give you a chance to prove me wrong, to improve upon your design."
Her voice drips with venom, ichor as she tells her, "Go ahead. Make another Rikka right now. One that knows from the get go she's meant only to love you."
Pause.
"I'll wait."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The screech of chair across floor makes Akane wince a little bit on reflex. She doesn't mind some degree of noise, but there's still a certain... why draw attention to yourself in such a manner? ... then again, the annoyance is the point, no doubt -- Asuka's trying to be upsetting, no doubt.
The silence passes. It's hard for Akane to miss... well. Her intuition is different from many others -- but there's something to Asuka here, occupying this space, this close to Akane... something that's -- too difficult for Akane herself to touch, frankly.
'That's just the way things work.'
It draws something about what a miserable person Akane is into sharp relief -- though it's not as though she can do anything about it, either. Just one of many countless reminders over the last several months of the cruelty she's capable of inflicting on the world.
It really would be best for everyone if they would just let her clean her mess up and go. The only people she'd be able to hurt in such a space...
... would have to really deserve it.
"Well yeah," Akane replies, with a dismissive wave. "Most of them don't have a purpose. And I don't make or destroy things -- my kaiju do! I just make sure they're set up the way they're supposed to be."
'Make another Rikka right now. One that knows from the get go she's meant only to love you.'
"I'm not doing tricks for you. Even if I'm a God, why should I listen to some hostile middle schooler who sucks?" Her lips turn up, glossy pink and oh-so-ready to strike.
"Besides. ... Rikka's special. She's different from the rest of them."
Akane knows she's walking into Asuka's trap. ... but stealing even Rikka's place in Akane's world from her? Even if that's a place that Akane's been trying to push her out of -- it feels wrong.
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Asuka thinks it's just fine that most of them don't have a purpose. She thinks it's pointless to create something just to be background filler for a fantasy world, but so long as Akane never pulls the rug out from under them. She has no problem with that.
Something in Asuka's expression darkens immediately when she says it's about doing tricks, and Asuka's voice becomes low and dangerous.
"You think I came up here to demand you do TRICKS for me?"
She all but hisses through her teeth genuinely angry, "I came all this way to demand you be honest between creator, and the created. You want to give them no purpose and just fill your city thinking they're normal people? Whatever. I could care less. But if you're going to give them one? Put your money where your goddamn mouth is... and make sure they know it from the get go! That's your responsibility."
Her anger though seems to go from hot to cold in a second, "Sounds like you've given up on her. After all, the way things stand you're either gonna need to kill her, or shut her out - right? Fine. Don't make Rikka then. You'll need more friends though won't you? Don't make someone with the purpose of loving you. Make someone else - who's just here to be your friend, your companion. Like a pet. Come on. You're a God aren't you? Shouldn't be hard for you to do this the right way - even just once."
Pause.
"You do that, I'll take myself off the investigation of your space. It's been voluntary from the start. You'll never see me again unless I get drawn back here against my will. But if I'm going to do that? I need to know you're going to do things properly, first."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Hmmm."
Akane's gaze tracks up to a light fixture on the ceiling as Asuka yells at her. Now that she's had that initial half-flinch, it's easy to push all the other emotions aside and let them drown.
'Kill her, or shut her out.' ... yeah, that is how this is going to go, isn't it? She's been so insistent about pushing her out so she doesn't have to... ... solve things any other way.
"Who's to say I haven't," Akane answers, after Asuka's anger shifts from hot to cold. "I'm honestly surprised how stupid you are," she muses, reaching for her cup of tomato juice. Slowly, she repositions herself to face Shikinami, thinking aloud. "You want to see me make something that knows what it's meant for from the start, right? Just to show you I can have an honest relationship?"
She takes a long sip. The answer has already formed in her head; she just wants Asuka to have to wait for it. Let her twist in the wind for a few seconds here and there.
"Already done that. An intelligent thing I created that already knows its purpose and what that means for me, and for our relationship?" Here, she lets out a giggle -- an actual, genuine-sounding one, at that, though one that's leaves the question of who's being laughed at a little bit open.
(It's probably Asuka.)
"That's just Anti! You already met him!" She sets down her tomato juice and claps a couple times, smiling. "Wow! If that's all you wanted you could have just thought about things for a few minutes and been satisfied! Then again it sounds like thinking's kinda not your strong suit."
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Akane as she says 'Who's to say I haven't?' and the equivalent of 'What are you, stupid?' to her causes Asuka to just stare at her. However, for once, she doesn't interrupt. She lets her say her piece, because no matter how Asuka acts, this is important to her. The idea of what Akane is doing here offends her to the core.
Akane sips her juice, and giggles, and Asuka just continues staring with that same intensity, like she's incapable of deescalating at this moment. She's seen Akane from early on, saw how dejected she looked at someone realizing that she's not the nice girl persona she put on.
Maybe she thinks Akane is lying about certain things, arguing in bad faith, but she doesn't think this is entirely an act either.
As she says 'Anti' though, and says that thinking's kinda not your strong suit, "What are you, stupid?" Asuka says back almost immediately, "Anti is a Kaiju. You didn't make him in the same way as the Repli-Compoids. You carved him out of clay. You didn't do the same for-"
Asuka waves a hand over the skyline, "-a whole city of how many thousands of people are here, one by one. If you expect me to believe that? Then you're a grade A moron."
She lowers her hand back down to the chair, "I've seen terrorists in the middle of Nouvelle Tokyo create Kaiju without even needing to do that much. Kaiju? Kaiju aren't the same thing. Besides, we already know you're not even responsible for bringing those to life." As she twists that knife right in, "That's your 'friend' Alexis. You'd be useless without him, when it comes to your Kaiju."
Pause.
"Quit stalling. I've been talking about your Repli-Compoids from the start. If you need to call Alexis here because you can't do it yourself, then go ahead. It'll get one more Eva off your back when it comes to killing a Vessel of Light. You have nothing to lose here, and everything to gain. And you'd realize that if thinking were your strong suit."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
All Akane gives Asuka at first is another, "Hmm," as she walks through her own logic. "You're right! I didn't make however many thousands of people one by one by one. But it wouldn't actually be any different. I made Anti with an eye toward him being the same as any other person in my city!"
With a vague wave of the hand, she says, "You're kind of right to quibble, I guess? But you're also kind of missing the point. Even if I did do it exactly the way you said, I'd basically just be doing the Anti thing again." Her eyes roll a bit. "Doing the same thing twice is REALLY stale!"
... Says the girl who's deployed Mecha-Ghoulghilas -- itself just Ghoulghilas with bolted-on bits -- twice, now, and plans to again, of course.
... the question is harder than Akane makes it sound, though. Intellectually, she feels like she should be able to do this -- to answer this -- just fine. Asuka's right -- the cost-benefit analysis here favors her to a dizzying extent. But...
... if she were so perfect at creating people, she wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.
"Anyway, nah. I'm not gonna indulge you on this one. Besides -- you drive the red one, right? I'm pretty sure I can embarrass you on the battlefield."
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Asuka's tone turns dry, obviously unimpressed by this logic, "Yeah and I'm sure Rikka can turn into a giant Kaiju whenever she wants. It's definitely an analogous situation to compare a Repli-Compoid and a Kaiju."
Before she lofts an eyebrow again, "Haven't I destroyed the same Kaiju of yours like - five times now? The Dinosaur looking one, with a gelatinous space in its head for its floating eyes, silver plating, and circuitry running up its limbs? Pink core that can fire a laser? Your ideas aren't just stale by now, they're petrified."
Asuka glowers at her as she says she can embarrass her on the battlefield, "Can you though? I bet you've got a big head just because you messed up Guy. But I'm guessing he's almost already recovered - because you have never once managed to do the job properly. It's not just a matter of one powerful combatant. It's a lot of them, working together. That's your problem."
It's interesting that she can meet an insult to her pride in this way now, which perhaps shows how far she's come since the first time she entered Tsutsujidai.
"Which means having one less of them - only benefits you."
Asuka tilts her head to the side regarding her perhaps more shrewdly than most people give Asuka credit for... the thing is though. Asuka knows all about pride, and why people wall up behind it. It's basically all she did for the longest of times, and still does it. "But you know this. Which means you can't actually pull off what I'm asking right? Not anymore. Maybe you could when you came here, but now? The extent of your 'godhood' is creating Kaiju - and only with help. You could have tried to meet my criteria just by making some stupid yappy puppy appear on your lap. After all, that'd be creating something meant only to be your companion. Surely that wouldn't be too hard for you, too complex? But nah."
There's a small shake of her head, "Pretty pitiful really. Everyone out there wants me to believe you're some stupid sad manipulated girl who doesn't even realize how she's being taken advantage of. I didn't buy that, because I've seen how rotten you can be at your core. So here I was giving you the chance to prove that you're the real deal - that you're some ruthless god who can create things like Rikka on a whim - and discard them just as easily - and you disappoint me."
Asuka slowly stands up from her chair, but she doesn't make a motion to leave yet, "Guess they were right about you. You have no idea what you're doing."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
... that's a bold read, Akane thinks as she's called out for having a big head because she messed up Guy. ... it's not far from the truth, either. She does have plays to make, though, off of it. "Not just Guy!" she says, tone teasing -- but with just a hair more desperation than she means. "Alouette Pommier, too. Really, I'm kind of surprised she got on the battlefield. You know I met her as a buddy first, when we were dealing with Renais? I didn't think she'd come back with the mobile unit."
Her lips pout outward slightly, and she taps just beneath them. "I went to check up on her on Orbit Base, and man, you should have seen her! She was soooooooo miserable. Then again, I bet the Deculture Festival would have sucked the whole time for her, so I kinda did her a favor."
Asuka implies that everyone who sees her as sad and pathetic is right, and Akane wonders for just a moment how to get out from under that feeling --
-- oh, of course.
"I'm surprised you'd think that. I actually asked Anti to kill you after you showed up at school," she says, as Asuka finishes standing up. "Fortunately for you, he's hung up on only killing Gridman! But man, if he didn't...~"
She has no idea how much she's actually just given away. She can't even make kaiju that follow her every whim.
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Asuka honestly just rolls her eyes as she mentions Alouette Pommier, "Yeah and the fact that you could visit her basically amounts to the same thing."
However, she then reveals that she told Anti to kill her, and the grip on her bag just tightens, but she realizes something...
"Did you know I met him out of his Kaiju form before I ever met you? Bet you didn't. He was running around trying to challenge 'Tarabaman' having no idea he was a fictional character - and that you'd sent him for merchandise."
Asuka suddenly leans down into her personal space, back on eye level, "And the first thing I did was grab him and demand he find some self-respect. Not to just obey the whims of someone treating him like garbage for no good reason. I met you not too long after - and I'm betting you ordered him to kill me right after that?"
Pause.
"Am I wrong?" Asuka just clucks her tongue, "Tck. Pathetic. Some God you are, if the advice of some random girl he met contributed to him finding the backbone to say 'No' to your direct orders to kill me."
She doesn't smile, but she certainly looks smug, "Honestly, at this point, pretty sure he's smarter than you are, Bakami."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
That much is... true. If she truly had such killer instinct, she would've sent Alouette home in a box. ... She could have, too, probably. It would've been pretty easy to kill her and get away with it when she visited her on Orbit Base, too, even if Mecha-Ghoulghilas hadn't managed it.
"Huh. Guess that explains some things. Maybe he felt like he owed you something for the lesson and that's why he told me he wouldn't," Akane muses. As for the last point...
"Oh, we're down to name-calling, huh? I don't mind. This one's a little more honest than Cram School," comes Akane's reply. One might expect her to raise her voice -- get angry. Flinch from the intrusion in her personal space. No, she remains just as bland and pleasant about it as ever.
"Anyway, I think we've gotten everything we're going to get out of this conversation. Maybe I'll see you on the battlefield sooner or later. I'm going to be a little choosier about location next time!" Raising her hand to her mouth, she giggles and says, "Good luck!"
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
"Yeah at least neither of us have to pretend you actually care about exams anymore." Asuka says with no small amount of sarcasm.
Before... Asuka gives her this unimpressed look, "How many fights have you lost even with the homefield advantage? Go ahead, be as choosy as you like."
Asuka adjusts her bag again as she turns around, looking at Akane out of her periphery, "It won't make any difference. Though hey, maybe if you go ask Alexis nicely, he'll combine two of your bad ideas into a half competent one. The one he sent at Tokyo-3? Much better than any I've seen from you."
Then again she wasn't there for Mecha Ghoulgilas...
Asuka starts to walk away, "Later Bakami. Try not to screw up any more of your creations half as much as you did Rikka. Because at this point? Pretty sure you've missed your chance at making a second batch."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane settles more fully back into her seat. In some ways, this isn't that different from their first interaction -- Asuka pressing her, Akane giving nothing back as best she can. ... but still.
"I'm getting closer every time!" Akane calls sweetly after Asuka. She doesn't acknowledge the rest.
... She screwed up Rikka, though, huh. That...
... once Asuka's gone, Akane orders another tomato juice.