2022-11-12: Reflection

• Log: Reflection
• Cast: Eight York, Ranka Lee, Anti
• Where: Frontier Colony
• Date: 2022-11-12
• Summary: Eight, Ranka, and Anti reflect on their battle against Mic Sounders and the threat of Oath Over Omega. Eight learns that kaiju come in all shapes and sizes.

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<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.

The mall is just in absolutely terrible shape. The display VF that Eight used is beaten to hell. The mall is strewn with ruined giant teacups. There is rubble. There are hardly any people left. And Eight York...

Is still here! Lavhi lumbers away, still Macronized, to go find the Micronization chamber assuming it still works; it's faster for him to walk there than to wait for Eight, and Eight can take care of things here. Right this moment she's taken a seat on a rock and is putting back on her shoes, since she sure didn't wear her heels to pilot the VF. And cats could easily come to see her if they happened to exist, as everything else winds down, since she was just talking to Mr. Giant Protector.

She seems in a remarkably good mood despite all this having happened.

<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.

Ranka has all but withered into the floor after Spike noted that he was now outside of the mall, and thus could smoke. Fortunate that Anti had her back right?

"Phew." She says with an exhalation, still coming down from the emotional rollercoaster of the adrenaline rush, "That got really dangerous for a while."

However, she seems pretty happy about the outcome too? Someone who was trying to end the world, or at least this place, didn't manage. And him liking her music, he couldn't really be a bad person. It's something making him.

There's a smile from her knelt down position on the floor, "Thanks for protecting me again, Anti. I never would have made it here without you." Before her eyes turn to Eight, and she says with a sense of wonder, "I didn't realize you were a VF pilot too."

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        "... I see," Anti says, when Ranka slumps to the ground after their escape from the damaged mall. "You need to rest. Fine."

        When Anti got outside, he sheathed his katana inside himself -- glance at him one moment and he's making ready to put it away, and in the next blink, when his arm is obscured by his body, it's just gone -- which means that he's much less sharp and threatening, in the wake of Mic's retreat.

        Well, by a certain measure. Certainly his words are still gravel-gruff, clipped and terse and not quite reassuring. He's never been the one suited to reassurance. It's not why he was made.

        (Even so, when someone cried out for help, he heard and answered. Just like --)

        He pushes the thought from his head, and folds his arms, with a curt nod to Ranka. "It's all right." That eye -- one eye, sunset-coloured, because half his face is covered by an eyepatch -- looks to Eight, when Ranka addresses her, and his scowl isn't precisely friendly.

        He also looks, to wit, quite young. Fourteen, perhaps. Too young to carry a sword, certainly. (Too young to jump from a plane and survive.)

        "So that was a VF," he concludes, finally, as if he didn't know.

<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.

"I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a VF pilot," Eight says, "But I managed to make it go! They train us in a lot of different flight controls to prepare us for handling a battleship." She smiles at Ranka anyway, and then looks over to Anti. ...She decides to keep her seat for the moment; she's still dressed more for a date than a battle, but it's fine.

"Yep," Eight answers him. "A pretty old model, too. It was kind of fun to try it, though..." She rubs her foot as she sets it down from putting her shoe back on, "Don't recommend flying those things barefoot, let me tell you."

"I saw you guys over there. It looks like we have you two to thank for things going that well. So, thanks!"

A beat, and then to Anti, "I'm Eight. What's your name?"

<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.

Ranka nods mutely at Anti for a bit, it's one thing to perform. She was doing it before the attack even started. It's another thing to perform with stakes like 'Oh hey, everything around you might continue to explode - you might explode too.'

"It was alright!" She beams at him, as if to say 'Because you were here.' as she nods quickly towards Eight, "Well, if you ever want more practice, I'm sure my brother would be willing to help with training after what you did here today. He might be the best Variable Fighter pilot alive on active duty." As her eyes wander to the side and she mutters to herself, "Even if he shouldn't be."

He wasn't supposed to be piloting, he promised. And he never stopped.

With a wave of her palm, she laughs, "Oh it wasn't much, all I did really was distract him. He was a pretty obvious music lover."

Then she lapses into silence, letting introductions happen. It'll be fine, it's not like Anti is gonna tell Eight he's a Kaiju right?

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        Anti, in his navy uniform all decorated with flames, looks like a student from a school no one recognises. A little too strange, but not so far away from normal. Neighbour to it, perhaps.

        He stays standing. It doesn't bother him. He is tireless. ... at this size, anyway.

        "Good." Anti says, when Ranka smiles.

        But Eight talks about flying the machine, and Anti frowns. "You're the one who took your shoes off," he observes, and the criticism is cool. He thinks she's made a mistake, taking her shoes off when she needs shoes to fly. He sees no problem with the daggers of her heels, observing them.

        (He wonders why Ranka Lee's brother shouldn't be the best, but he doesn't ask.)

        "You should thank her." Anti insists, on the heels of Ranka's laughter, far more intense. "If it wasn't for Ranka Lee's song, you wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to wound him like that. Enemies taken by Oath Over Omega can only be beaten back by power like yours... and even that much is difficult." He still remembers how much it took, for Renais to leave him on the battlefield.

        "It's because her song reached him that you're still alive."

        No -- Anti isn't laughing. Anti isn't particularly friendly at all.

        But he seems defensive of Ranka, even so.

        He glowers, for a quiet moment, fingers tightening in the crook of his elbows. His scowl deepens. Tick... tick... tick.

        "Anti."

        His name, presumably.

<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.

"Oh yeah?" Eight asks of Ranka's brother. "Cool. Maybe I will! It's good to be up on this kind of thing..." Truthfully, she doubts if she or the 'best variable fighter alive on active duty' have time for a few lessons, but it's a nice thing to say, and she really is thinking of getting in more practice.

But she looks to Anti who observes about her shoes. "That's true," Eight says, and laughs a little. She doesn't really mind. But Anti gets... intense, in short order. Oath Over Omega...

"Hmmm," Eight says, looking him over thoughtfully. "Well," she says, "It's nice to meet you, Anti."

Fourteen. Grim, severe. A 'warrior' as Lavhi called him. ...Yep. He's one of those.

"And you're right!" she says. "I should. Especially without my ship, I barely managed to keep in the fight this time. Like I said, I'm not much of a pilot; my expertise is handling a crew." So she turns to Ranka and says, "Thank you, Ranka. Your music really helped!" She insists on saying as much, even.

<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.

Ranka beams at Eight, and squishes her phone, which sends over a number for a line to the SMS to whatever device she has.

Her dismissive posture of her contributions is interrupted by Anti saying she should be thanked, and she gives him a look of almost bovine incomprehension. He did say that before, but she didn't really get it. "A power like mine? I mean..."

Do Newtypes have song powers? Did she connect with the robot!? It didn't feel like she did, not like those times she did with Sheryl. And Sheryl isn't even a Newtype.

Ranka rubs the back of her head, giving him a nervous look, "... that makes sense, I guess. I don't really get it? I'm not really sure what powers I even have. But if it helped that much, I'm glad."

As Eight thanks her, she blushes a bit pink, looking back and forth from her to Anti before saying... "Y-You're welcome." Before her hair leaps up, "Wait they're not going to start, coming here because I have some 'power' right? ... I wouldn't want that!

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        Anti grunts, when Eight supposes it's nice to meet him. He's -- well, he's one something, certainly.

        "Handling a crew." Anti echoes Eight, eyes narrowing. "Like commanding a kaiju." And maybe what he is isn't quite a soldier, in the military sense, if that's his point of comparison.

        He turns to Ranka. "Music has power." Power is one way to express the spirits which live inside sound, certainly. "Music, itself." Anti thinks he's being very clear, with his gruff and stoic words. "You have talent in song, but it isn't you." He pauses, and looks to her, searching. A strange feeling... "I don't think it's you."

        Anti frowns. "It's strange he came here. I saw Oath Over Omega... in Tsutsujidai. I mean to go there. But this is Frontier... I don't know why he came here."

<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.

Eight also has a communications device! It's probably a phone. Let's not worry about it.

But Anti mentions a kaiju, and Eight tilts her head, thoughtfully. "I wouldn't have thought to make the comparison," she admits. "A crew has to have every member working together--every member wanting the same thing, bent towards a singular purpose. I've never commanded a kaiju, but that would seem to be between you and the kaiju, wouldn't it? It doesn't seem like the same as a group."

But music and... power. Hmm. "He's right," Eight says. "Our history proves that. And so does this fight."

She smiles at Ranka, and then--"Yeah, I don't know what makes Oath Over Omega target people, but I don't see any reason to believe he was targeting you in particular--he didn't even seem to notice you until you started singing. So don't worry too much, OK?"

<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.

Ranka gives Anti a nervous look as he likens handling a crew to commanding a Kaiju. "I mean, that makes sense, I wouldn't know what commanding a Kaiju is like." A sideways glance at Eight, who seems to be taking it well.

Music has power? Okay, that's comforting. That's an idea she grew up on, so long as it's that kind of power rather than magic powers. "... Oh thank goodness. Yeah... that makes sense."

There's a sigh of audible relief, before she looks Eight's way, "It was more being worried that he'd be... interested now? Especially if he's a fan." Ranka scratches her chin, "I don't know what I would do if he showed up for one of my advertising gigs asking for my autograph."

Why did he come here though? And Ranka looks towards Anti, "Music is important to the Macross Colonies... so if he was trying to end everything, he'd think that ending this place with music is the best way?" Ranka sighs, "That's so twisted, but it's the only thing that makes sense to me."

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        Even Anti has a phone, though they're connected to human lives.

        "We have a singular purpose." Anti explains, all banked embers, quiet tones under pressure. "If the creator didn't design the right one, there can be problems between the kaiju and commander. That's not usually a problem... since kaiju fight until they die, so there's not much time to change your mind."

        A pause,

        "Usually."

        The corner of his lip scrunches, briefly.

        He nods, to Ranka. "If he appears again, ask for help. You don't have to fight him." The thought nibbles at the back of his mind, again; he ignores it.

        He frowns, and his head turns aside. His motions are deliberate; he does not move when he does not mean to move.

        He learned from Alexis Kerib, after all.

        "He was apologetic. But he's fighting to impress someone he can't disappoint. The one we heard through his speakers, the one who said he wouldn't be alone next time. ... he enjoyed performing. That's why he came here. That's what I think."

<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.

"Hmm." Eight listens thoughtfully to Anti's explanation. She has only ever been on the other side of fighting kaiju, so this is something she wouldn't know... though it's not just an academic curiosity. By understanding what is important to Anti, she can understand Anti better, and that's important if he's another like her.

...But maybe not quite like her.

"I see. ...But as Captain, one of my jobs is to try to keep the people under my command alive. So I'm not sure it's the same."

Eight glances back to Ranka and gives her what she hopes is a reassuring smile. But...

"Right. Leave the fighting to those of us who have agreed to do it." But interested... "It's possible he might be interested in you, but I don't think that'll be enough to overcome his objectives. He..." 'Someone he can't disappoint. Eight frowns thoughtfully. "From what I was told," Eight says, "The 'inevitable' has its 'heroes', too. You can't approach it as a 'villain' with the 'hope of prevention'. But I'm not entirely sure what that means, and I don't trust the person who told me as far as I could throw him."

"I think there's a nugget of truth in it, though--we can't approach Oath Over Omega as just an enemy to be defeated. We have to figure out another way to stop it."

Pause. "Huh. You know," Eight says, "While I'm thinking of it, you said 'we'," she says. "Of kaiju."

<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.

Anti says a lot, and even if Eight didn't catch that we, there's something she can't fail to address, as she slowly rises to her feet.

"... You talk as if you were the wrong one. But you're a good guy Anti. If you had a bad purpose, maybe it wasn't a bad thing that you were the wrong one for them." Ranka adds, "I like who you are."

Ranka slowly nods at Anti, "If he appears again I'll..." Ranka actually cants her head to the side and looks at Anti in this moment. It's suddenly unclear. She didn't run from Anti. "... I'll figure something out. Whether it's calling for someone or..."

Pause.

"I'll figure something out."

Ranka gives Eight a curious look. The heroesvillains dichotomy makes her head hurt a little. That they'd be seen as villains for just trying to live their lives. 'We have to figure out another way to stop it', "... Like... with music?"

Ranka scratches the back of her head, "Well, despite what he was doing, it sounded like - he wouldn't be a bad person if not for this. So I'd really like them to be helped if possible..."

After a moment she looks towards Anti, "You mentioned someone... who was 'convinced' before?"

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        Keeping them alive..? Well, Eight is human, Anti supposes. That's the difference.

        He looks back to Ranka, and blinks, once. "No," he insists, fingers tightening around his arms again. "I'll definitely crush Gridman. I just need to learn how."

        His fingers relax, though his arms remain folded.

        "But... I see." He nods, stern. "All right. I accept that you like me even now. I'll value that assessment."

        Anti, you know you can just say you're glad she likes you, right? Right? Oh, right, of course you don't know that.

        "All right," he says, again, a moment later, when Ranka insists she'll figure something out. He does not repeat that she has help available. She heard him the first time, which means it's important to her to be able to say she'll figure it out herself.

        He closes his eye, briefly, as he considers Eight's own thoughts on Oath Over Omega. "It cannot be killed. It has to be fixed. That's why I can't help you."

        Anti takes a breath, and fixes Eight with that sunset gaze.

        "Because I'm a kaiju, and what I do is destroy."

        He looks perfectly human -- but in a way, perhaps, it might not be impossible to believe him when he says it. Because the feelings he has (and he does have them, with at least some reception) are strange things, still difficult to trace psychically, though he doesn't seem to be lying about being concerned for Ranka's safety.

        He can speak the language of the heart, but it's not his native tongue. Perhaps the word is accented.

        "... Renais Cardiff," he says, after a pause, looking to Ranka again. "She was taken by Oath Over Omega. There was something wrong with her brain. She was a good person, but she would have destroyed the world. Akane Shinjo had a plan to help her... I disrupted it." A beat, "I didn't mean to."

        He grunts, shaking his head, once. "But in the end, she was purified, anyway."

<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.

Crush Gridman...

Eight looks between Anti and Ranka and a picture begins to form itself. Anti accepts that Ranka likes him; Ranka is going to figure something out. "If I'm around," Eight says, "Count on me." That's where she'll leave it. But 'figuring out another way'...

"Right. Music helped. There are other things that might help." She looks to Anti again, and nods. "Right. But you..."

Ah. He is a kaiju. That's what he says, and it makes a few things make more sense; it is possible to believe him. And what he does is...

So that's his 'purpose'? To crush Gridman? And...

"I heard about her," Eight says. She is not so sure about Akane having a plan to do good things, but, "Sounds like it worked out, then. And if one can be helped, there's more we can do."

"We just have to work together, and build on one another's work. Together, we can do more than we could do apart. I believe that."

"...No matter what 'that man' says."

<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.

"... But... Gridman helped save us... I don't get it." Ranka lets out a sigh, however her hair jumps up on both sides as he basically says he's glad she likes her. Wait, does Anti? Ranka looks at that face, Anti, she gets no hint? "I'm happy that you... value it? I just, I don't feel like all you do is destroy. You saved me twice after all. And if my music really did help, doesn't that mean you helped save this place too?"

She does smile at Eight on counting on her, "Alright! I will!" Anti describes Renais, and Ranka listens to him.

"A good person that'd destroy the world." Ranka echoes, and some part of her droops, Anti disrupted a plan to help her, even if he didn't mean to. "Well, I'm glad she's alright but... how does that... work? Purifying?"

Eight draws her attention, and blink blinks her eyes, "The same one who told you about... how they view themselves as heroes and those trying to stop them as villains? Who... is he?"

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        "It's why I was made," Anti explains, to Ranka. (Anti -- Anti what, precisely?) "Destroying Gridman is my purpose. Akane Shinjo may not want me any more, but that doesn't mean I'll give up. Even if I can't become myself any more..."

        There's something he doesn't say, in that explanation, which he's expressed on Mic's behalf instead. Fighting to express someone he can't disappoint -- well, if Anti stops disappointing Akane, perhaps she'll forgive him.

        He frowns, glancing away. "... I wanted to help you. This place doesn't matter to me, but I didn't want you to be hurt. You're a kind person." His lips press together; he takes a breath, through his nose. "If you say that means I helped, I'll accept it."

        Anti tilts his gaze up, to the sky of Frontier.

        "I don't know how Purification works. I'm a kaiju. But I suppose if you work together, you'll figure something out."

        'That man'...

        Anti, deliberately, has no comment on that. Under his eyepatch, his eyelid flinches, but he won't go so far as to assume out loud.

<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.

...Anti what? That's a good question! Made to oppose someone... and his purpose. He can't 'become himself', but--

Well, she's not going to argue his purpose. That's a losing proposition. But neither does she particularly support his purpose; she likes Gridman. She does look to Ranka, when she doesn't get it, but--

"You did help," Eight says. "It's good to have a handle on your reasons for doing it. I agree--Ranka's a kind person. It's easy to like her."

Eight doesn't know how purification works, either, admittedly. She kind of gives a vague shrug to Ranka on it. But when she asks that question... "Yes," Eight answers. "A man who appeared on the bridge of my ship one day to tell me about Oath Over Omega. 'Alexis Kerib.'"

She pauses. "I don't think he likes me much. But..."

Then, she stops short, sharp, as if in pain. "What--"

"Callie," she breathes. "No, you can't!"

Eight is seated, and that's the main reason she doesn't fall over. The sheer alarm in Eight's eyes is hard to explain, but what she just sensed--

"I have to go," Eight says suddenly.

<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.

"But..." Ranka says lamely, before drawing herself back up, blushing as both Eight and Anti call her a kind person, and Eight adds easy to like her. "... you also told me that Kaiju don't help people. And now you do. It feels like... some things can change."

She smiles his way, "So who knows what might change tomorrow, as you keep moving forward."

He doesn't know how it works, and slowly she nods, "Alright. Maybe there's a way to find out..." Eight says Alexis Kerib, and Ranka looks at her in alarm, "That's the guy who's been harassing Ruri! Everyone says he's been trying to manipulate her."

She just feels this intensifying sense of dread there.

And then Eight cries out in pain, and Ranka feels these, second hand emotions from her, just from this distance.

And without missing a beat, looks Eight in the eyes with a sense of resolve and says...

"Go to her."

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        "My reasons for doing it..." Anti echoes, with a light frown. "Right." His frown grows more troubled, as he looks from Eight to Ranka, head tilting down. "... yeah." Change...

        Somehow, he's still frightened of that, even though it's happening regardless. He looks up, and confirms: "I'll keep moving."

        He recognises the name, of course. He's not surprised to hear it -- given what Eight was saying, he suspected she was speaking of Alexis from the start -- but it's clear, in his eye, that he knows Alexis Kerib. His one eye, the other still covered, still wounded by...

        "Alexis Kerib manipulates vulnerable people," Anti says, to Ranka, simply.

        He might have said more, but that soldier stops, sharp, and breathes horror. Anti shifts, turning fully to Eight -- his arms unfold, and one hand lifts, halfway, towards her.

        (Moving towards people in pain, again.)

        But he lowers his hand, and steps back, with a severe nod. "Go." He releases Eight, just the same, and puts that hand on Ranka's shoulder, instead.