2022-12-19: The Attention Span of a Fly and the Intellect of a Stone
- Log: 2022-12-19- The Attention Span of a Fly and the Intellect of a Stone
- Cast: Alouette Pommier, Alexis Kerib, Guy Shishioh, Renais Cardiff
- Where: Tsutsujidai - Branch Order Room
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-12-19
- Summary: Alexis comes to gloat. He, at least, is having plenty of fun.
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
Ever since 3G posted their recruitment fliers to Tsutsujidai's community boards, people have been flocking in-and-out from 3G's cluster of ships. Scientists from inside and outside Tsutsujidai placing their hopes in contributing to the Guard's latest greatest undertaking.
On the inside, the crew is huddled inside the relatively small Branch Order Room, officially beginning work on the new Galeoria Pliers.
Alouette and Seuo Ushiyama are presently seated together, comparing notes on the software and hardware implications.
"Well, I don't think the coding will be a problem," Alouette mentions off-hand. "Although we'll need far more hands if we're to get this project done by next year's Christmas." She waves off that concern with her singular glove, though. "But with the amount of people who signed up, maybe that won't be such a problem." She smiles, making a few adjustments on her terminal as she speaks.
Even if they don't have minds like Leo and Liger Shishioh, or Dr. Takanohashi, or the Three Doctors on their side, 3G has always been about gathering together everyone's courage, right? Alouette didn't program GaoFighGar on her own, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
It would be nice if this initiative went unbothered, right? 3G has been working very hard -- but between them and the Gridman Alliance, the cries for help have been loud indeed. Posters and flyers about this and that, and where to go to help make this and that happen... well. It's only a matter of time before that draws someone's attention.
Alexis is in the Branch Order Room. Regardless of where he was before: he is now here.
"Ah -- pardon," he says, sliding through the frame, closer to Alouette. "This wouldn't happen to be the current home of the Evoluder and his friends, would it? I'd like to inquire about the efforts to make a dimensional warp device. Don't worry -- I have no intention of escalating to violence."
... that's probably enough of the pleasantries, though. Everyone knows what page everyone is on -- which does raise the question of why Alexis is actually here.
Fortunately: he's chatty.
"I must say, I admire the spirit! And your plan may even work, as far as getting you home is concerned. But tell me -- do you honestly believe you'll be taking Akane-kun with you?" He doesn't laugh at his own joke -- but it's hard to miss that he feels it is, in fact, a joke.
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Usshi #4, as Akamatsu calls him, chortles. "The Carpenters can handle manufacture of just about anything that's three dimensional, s'long as we don't need some crazy special material." He grimaces. "Or run out of the ones we got. ...anyway, can't even worry about that until we get the theory down, yeah?"
'Ah -- Pardon'
Sueo immediately makes a face like he ate an entire STACK of bugs. "oh hey that's cool it's this guy what's up man," he squeaks.
Fortunately, the door opens.
"Got some new numbers from the backup lab," Guy says, looking up from a tablet to the occupant of the room.
Ah.
"Alexis Kerib," he says, and is immediately on full guard. "Come to give us a hand?"
Phenomenally unlikely, but a man can dream.
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais Cardiff stands in the doorway behind Guy, clad in 3G colors; she's on alert moments before Guy, with Kerib's silhouette enough to put her brain into threat mode.
Her hand dives into her jacket, and just behind her cousin, she pulls out a distressingly large-bore revolver, pointed over Guy's shoulder, directly at Alexis.
"Get out," she orders him simply, coldly, finger on the trigger.
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
Alouette's always been one to think a little too far ahead in, while Usshi tends to be entirely present-focused, so the two complement each other pretty well in their work, as demonstrated by this exchange in particular.
"Mmm, that's exactly what I was worried about." She nods, in reference to the need for a specific material, or overworking the Carpenters. A lot could go terribly wrong, all of which Alouette compiled into her projection. "I think you're correct though, Usshi. Fundamentals first, right?"
But that pleasant exchange is entirely broken by the sudden appearance of none other than Alexis Kerib. It's her first time really seeing the seijin face to face, and ugh, so close too...! Alouette visibly hates this, facing Alexis with a glare.
"You must be Alexis Kerib," She observes, coldly. And her glare only intensifies when he brings up Akane. Much as she'd love to ask him many questions, she can't expect a real answer from him. Ruri taught her enough, besides.
"I'm sure you're here to dissaude us from exactly that," she answers his well-masked joke.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Hm? Oh, no, I have my own route out -- at least for myself, should this prove tedious," Alexis answers Guy, the teal panels on his face blinking off and on as he speaks as always. With just a bit of asymmetry in their distribution, he refuses to elaborate by-way-of-elaboration: "A believing heart is my magic."
With those pleasantries out of the way, he tilts his head just slightly to look at Renais. "Hm? Oh, surely you'll permit me to stay a few minutes and speak, kitten." He luxuriates in each syllable -- ko~ne~ko~cha~n. "Surely there's little I could do to you in the seat of your power."
Alouette asks the most direct question, and Alexis is delighted. "Oh, the impertinence of youth." (Another Coordinator in this particular role in Alexis's little drama... that does entertain, a bit.) "To leave, I imagine she'd have to feel whole without this place. Tell me, Alouette-kun -- do you often pour water into a bucket without ascertaining whether the bottom has been removed?" A beat. "Ignoring the year-long exercise in futility that this has been, of course."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Usshi is not addressed and he's happier for it. He does, however, see that gun come out and scramble for something in his pocket, then ram some earplugs into his head. Not today, Decibel Satan!
Guy's eyes cut to the side as a gun moves into view over his shoulder. He stands firm at its presence, his posture unfolding into a stronger stance. This is HIS first time seeing Alexis up close and personal too, come to think of it - but his presence in GaoFighGar gave him a certain sense of the man, and his Evoluder senses give him others. Just something detestable about this alien being's merest essence...
Guy doesn't entirely realize he's clicked directly into the Zonder playbook, maybe to his detriment. "We'll show her she doesn't have to carry the world, Alexis," he says, defiant. "She can let herself be carried, too!"
But the gears turn in his head. Pouring water into a bucket? Eyes narrow, slowly. "What do you mean?"
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
She wasn't planning to fire, at first, but.
'ko~ne~ko~cha~n.'
The last syllable is hardly out of Alexis' mask when an ear-splitting report rings out, leaving everyone's ears ringing briefly (Guy's especially) and Alexis, presumably, none the worse for the wear.
She pushes past Guy, staring at Alexis as she approaches, eyes blazing, heart pounding as she tries to think of anything except the memories he's dredged up. "I swear to God, I will rip you limb from FUCKING limb!" she spits, taking a swing at his mask with her gloved metal arm.
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
Alouette's direct question is rewarded with a round of mockery and a rather vague metaphor for an answer. She parses it as whatever support they try to give Akane, it only goes through and the bucket remains empty. "...I see. And I wonder who removed the bottom in the first place?" An answer she figures he'll gloat about - but she's interested to see just how much he's given up the pretense.
A beat, and a gunshot. Although it might be more accurate to say Alexis fired first with the emotional violence. Loud as it is, Alouette doesn't flinch through the ringing. But when she goes for the punch...
"Renais, no! Get away from him!" Alouette calls. After what he said, Renais could punch him all she wants and Alouette wouldn't mind. What she's worried about is the inevitable counter-violence that Alexis will surely gleefully deploy.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Ah -- I've already told Yuta Hibiki and Rikka Takarada, but perhaps I communicated it inexpertly," Alexis starts -- and then Renais fires, beginning to move toward him. The bullet enters the cloak, and it tatters for a moment.
It's already knitted back together by the time Renais closes with Alexis. "Mm. Impertinent," he says, grabbing Renais by the arm and pulling with enough force to dislocate it. Oh, to be sure, this is short work to fix for a cyborg -- but in the moment, it's plenty. He tosses her about seven feet aside -- over toward Sueo.
Once again, he looks to Alouette and Guy. "Trying to believe I'm the villain in this to the last, hm?" he asks of Alouette, as he gets around to answering both her and Guy. "She asked for my help, and I certainly told her what it entailed -- to make a world from a slice of your heart. Why, she was so perfectionistic about it she made multiple attempts." He slides away from Renais, happy to keep explaining. "Then again, the parts of her that made this world were so atrophied by living in yours that she's told me nothing seemed to have changed. So while I'm sure this makes me easier to blame, you should really consider whether the world you live in is a place that will ever make her feel whole, in light of such things."
Alexis's arm finally retreats back inside his cloak, as if it had never had to leave it to deal with Renais. "There is little that makes her exceptional," he adds. "Your world, with its six billion human lives... there are millions of Akane Shinjos, and I'm sure that in stars beyond this one and realities yet undefined, there will yet be billions more."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
It says a lot about Guy's stance toward Alexis that he did not do a damn thing about Renais pulling a gun on him. ...well, that and by all reports, shooting at him won't do much regardless. The gun going off makes even Guy's head jerk, but his Evoluder durability has him recovered in seconds rather than deafened for days.
Still, when Renais charges past him, Guy does reach out. "Renais, no!" he calls, echoing Alouette's caution.
They're both soon shown right with Alouette disabling Renais handily, and Guy dashes several steps toward her. But he senses the battle space, which is what it now is. He shouldn't be so close to Renais.
Just in case something prompts Alexis to eliminate all four of them at once.
But he does set his jaw, and declare: "Equip Ready."
Slots on the bridge swing down, a light buzzing - nearly imperceptible to any ears but perhaps Renais' cyborg hearing - sings of a readiness to fire Guy's ID Armor directly at him with but a word. Not quite escalating to the point of violence himself. But he's thinking about it.
Sueo, however, does kick open a drawer next to him, pulling out a small first-aid kit. Hardly the tool for what's been done here, but he kneels down next to his injured crewmate to see what he can do. "Jeeze that guy's fast," he mutters. "Heck, uh..."
He's an engineer, so he might be the most suited to the task, really.
Guy, for his part, glares. "Humanity has a long history of stories about devils who think they're giving you what you want. They're not usually the good guys." What...is the point he's making. It's not that he can get here. It's not even that he doesn't have to fear them. What is he doing here?
"You might be right," Guy says. "There's millions of girls like Akane out there screaming out for help that won't come. I can't save them all. I don't want that kind of power."
He steps forward, eyes blazing. "I've decided I am saving this one. Do you have a point?" A year of wasted time, Alexis called it. It was true that Akane just didn't seem to be hearing them...
Gears churning. The parts of her that made this world. Make a world from a slice of your heart. Tsutsujidai, a reflection of Akane. But...what if it's not reflection, but rather...
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais cries out as her shoulder is wrenched out of its socket, the pain briefly overcoming her senses--and by the time she can reorient, she's skidding across the floor, her gun clattering well out of reach.
She sits up with Sueo's help, shoulder clutched in her other hand. Her teeth grit as she glares at Alexis. "Yeah. The world's awful, and it got worse while we were gone. But... ngh, what was it you told me? Said it was like pruning... a bonsai?" You're goddamn right I'm gonna blame you."
Aside, to Sueo, she quietly says, "Think you can help me re-set it?"
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
Alouette looks, concernedly, as her prediction comes true and Renais is sent crashing away in retaliation. Electing not to make any sudden movements in such a dangerous position, she leaves the mechanical first aid to Sueo, ultimately. She also momentarily curses her inability to fight back in any meaningful way.
And then Alexis begins expositing. About the careful and precise process in which a world is carved from one's own heart, and how there are millions of Akane Shinjos out there.
"I already know all of that," Alouette interjects. "Miss Shinjo offered me my own world, too. If things went a little differently, I probably would have accepted it just the same." She twists one of her curls around in reflex. "So I think I have the right to say those terms of yours weren't fair in the slightest."
"Not when all you've really done is cut at the layers without addressing the root." It's less of a snappy comeback, and more of an admission of her own similar deal of pain that Akane inflicted in turn, but her gaze remains no less sharp in Alexis's direction.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis doesn't miss 'Equip Ready.' He doesn't do anything about it, but he does notice.
"Ah -- I was sure I'd given you the pieces, but certainly I can provide the summation as well," Alexis answers. "I think your friends are both starting to put the pieces together, anyway. Certainly I won't be giving you more than a few hours' worth of assistance... Tsutsujidai is a world made of clippings, and not the first."
He translates back away from the Evoluder, allowing himself to really take in the full of the room. "Akane Shinjo never could have accepted the love you tried to show her -- perhaps she never could have, but certainly not after forging world upon world for herself. Nothing can fill that void of boredom..."
Inclining his head toward Alouette and Renais, he does add, "Though I'm sure she would have found both of you marvelous distractions, had you accepted her kindness. Certainly I do, or I would have approached the Evoluder alone!"
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Sueo grimaces but nods, placing hands carefully. He's no doctor, but he took the first aid courses, at least. And as one of the heads of GGG's Engineering unit, he's familiar with the structure of Renais' mechanical body. "Must've been some hit," he says, lightly, preparing.
Things begin to click into place. A world made of clippings. Pieces of a heart.
His hands tense and his fingers begin to ball. "You've been carving layers off her heart," he says. "Hollowing her out. Giving her the tools, the encouragement, and the twisted words she needed..."
There's a peculiar set to his jaw, a twist in his gut, a curl to his lips.
"So that's how you see it," he says, eyes square on Alexis. "We've been wasting our time for a year? Helping her means nothing?"
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais just gives Sueo a look, preferring not to give Alexis the satisfaction of an answer. There's a moment of wincing and careful positioning, and after Sueo's been given a moment to brace himself, the two push against each other. There's a very uncomfortable-sounding, vaguely metallic pop followed by a ragged yell of pain, and several curses in French.
"Kerib... you're an idiot," she says matter-of-factly, rolling her shoulder with a wince. "An idiot and a parasite. Do you really expect us to believe you went hands-off after this world was finished? I know your kind, and I know she didn't get here alone."
Her eyes burn a little brighter, again, though she doesn't get up. "Every step of the way, you were there, whispering sweet lies in her ear, making her believe you had her best interests at heart. And all the while, you were simply carving away at her psyche, carving away at her *soul*, like she's some fucking hobby tree!"
"Shinjo may be beyond saving, but the impossible's never stopped a Brave from trying. And this is about more than just her... this city's woken up. We're going to save it."
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
Alexis provides Alouette with hollow confirmation - as Renais puts it, that he's a parasite that feeds on Akane's misery and emptiness, to satiate his own. That she and Renais are mere distractions, not just for Akane Shinjo, but for him as well.
Her sharp glance wavers for a moment, before she shakes her head, almost disappointedly. "It's true that it probably would be a waste of time to someone selfish and petulant as you are, wouldn't it, Alexis Kerib?"
"But Renais is right - giving up on her and this city would be an even greater waste." And they'll do everything they can to help the waking repli-compoids that Akane crafted from her own loneliness.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis settles his gaze on Guy. "Yes. Your world is full of people who wish to be emptier than they are. You fought so hard for them not to be -- and it was fruitless then, and remains such. Negative thought gives rise to monsters. The mechanism changes, now and then."
When Renais resolves to try anyway, even if Shinjo is beyond saving -- Alexis offers her a brief, surprised, 'Hooh?' before moving back away a little further. "At her request," he adds, though he doesn't deny any of the allegations. "Just as with you. You do recall my intervention on your behalf, of course. Granted, even the Evoluder requested that -- and I was happy to take the piece of you I did."
It's Alouette who manages to slip a knife in under Alexis's defenses. There's just a little more tension in his voice for her as he says, "I would expect you to be able to appreciate a game with these sorts of stakes."
Leveling his gaze at Guy one last time, he asks, "So, Evoluder -- do you have a plan for how to face both God and Devil at once?"
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Don't let him get to you don't let him get to you this is his GAME don't let him get to you
But the knives pile up. Palparepa could attack his core, too, but this...yes. He fought so hard. Became first something he didn't want to be, and then something he didn't understand. But sometimes it really does seem like the world just wants to be destroyed.
His teeth gritting. Renais has seen this look on his face before, and it's always before--
'Take the piece of you I did'
'Do you have a plan for how to face both God and Devil at once?'
For just a second, what he sees is a precisely-shaven man with precisely-cut hair with a precisely-schooled expression. His stomach twists.
'Carving away at her soul.'
"YEAH," he screams in answer. "EQUIP!"
The next four and one half seconds seem to take forty-five, as the readied launchers fill the air with whirling metal that encircles Guy and claps onto place in under a second. He's already off the ground as the twin-horned crown of his ID Suit fizzles into being out of motes of light, already got his hand on the back of the GaoBrace, and--
"WILL KNIFE!"
He's bulleting toward Alexis at a speed that sends papers scattering, defies the eyes. A scream of boiling blood with his face twisted in a blind frenzy. A knife that can cut anything, if the owner's will is behind it.
A will that desires nothing but to cut.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Guy lunges for Alexis with singular intent, and Alexis's arm comes out again -- whirling, a spear exiting his cloak. He slides both hands onto it, setting it against a charge.
... in the last moment, he stops -- turns -- shifts. The weapon is gone as quickly as it had appeared, and Alexis finds himself with a vicious gash through his whole body. It takes just a while longer to knit than the gunshot he suffered earlier, too.
... there is a limit to how smug, how callous, how entertained Alexis can be. Whatever he realized in that moment sees him retreat -- walking for just a moment, before seeming to turn into a burst of burning energy -- that routes out of the Branch Order Room, out of sight, and then vanishes.
Is it simply the fear of human will -- of the inner god of possibility -- that drives Alexis to retreat, here...? Or something more?
He certainly isn't answering.
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais frowns. 'Negative thought gives rise to monsters.'
She doesn't have the chance to pull on that thread. He taunts her. He taunts Alouette.... he taunts Guy.
Her eyes go wide, pupils narrowed. She does know that face... and suddenly, she feels the same sort of fear Alouette did when she went after Alexis. She's ready for him to try, and fail, dashed against the wall...
It's over in a flash, and Alexis is gone. Wounded?
"Mon Dieu... Guy... how did you...?"
He was... disoriented? Upset? Hurt? It's hard to tell...
She chuckles. "Once again, the King of Braves is the one who strikes true."
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
Yes, once upon a time, something like this would have been seen as some sort of game to Alouette. And maybe that type of stimulation was what motivated her to investigate Tsutsujidai in the first place. Although if he thinks she would remain disinterested enough to see this like a game, perhaps that old BioNet file needs some updating.
Before she can actually take advantage of that palpable tension in his tone, she sees - she hears the anger and courage both manifest into Guy's Will Knife. "G-Guy!" She shouts, but there's no stopping the King of Braves like this.
When Alexis equips his own spear, then, her eyes widen. And then they calm, when Guy makes a clean hit and forces Alexis out of sight.
"...He's gone. I hope he doesn't come back.." Alouette sighs, as the tension dies down. "Is everyone all right?" She asks. She wasn't one of the ones who tried to combat Alexis Kerib on foot. But after a conversation like that, she definitely needs a break.
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
For six heartbeats, Guy is staring at his death.
Alexis gets that spear up in a flash, faster than Guy ever expected he could produce such a weapon. He knows it. It drove deep into Renais and moved a cosmic poison and also buckets of her blood. Perhaps it is, in some way, what has been wittling away at Akane for over a year, carving off pieces of the girl until only something that could not see the love she is surrounded by remained. What would it remove from him?
But Alexis chooses not to find out either, and in so doing allows himself to be carved deeply by the Will Knife. Guy whips aorund to hit the far end of the Branch Order Room with a skid of space-age soles on gleaming decking plate. By the time he's got his eyes back up, Alexis is completely gone. He takes a breath, slowly standing up. He slots the Will Knife back in its place. "...I wonder about that," he says to Renais. If Alexis had committed to that spear attack... "It could've been bad," Guy says, not quite speaking the whole thought. Why'd Alexis back off?
Shakes his head. "But at the very least I think I annoyed him enough to lose interest," he says, and moves to check on Alouette and Renais and Usshi.
Sueo has pulled out his earplugs and looks a bit exhausted, on account of how he has spent five minutes experiencing Every Human Emotion. "'m good!" he says, a bit hazy. "Just...gimme a few until I can't hear my heart anymore please."
Guy chuckles lightly, and nods to all three. "Think we're in the clear, now, at least. I'm alright." Mad as hell, but alright. He turns a glare in the direction of the door Alexis exited. He did exit. Did Guy get him deeper than he thought? "Wonder what brought him out here..."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
"I'll live," Renais answers Alouette, giving Sueo an appreciative nod as she stands. Ow. "Merci. I'll have to go down to maintenance, probably see if they'll let me have some of the good painkillers, but..." She rolls her shoulder.
"Whatever you did with that knife, Shishioh, you shook him. I don't think I've ever seen him move like that, and the slash took some time to disappear..."
"Maybe he wanted to shake us. Demoralize, or at least taunt." She leans back against the bulkhead, which actually got a bit dented from her impact. "And see how far along we were while he was at it."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Usshi hops back to his desk. "I'll let 'em know you're coming," he says, taps a few keys, and makes for the door.
Guy watches him go with a low laugh. "Solid guy. Guess all those Zonders spooked some strength into him." Then he nods, slowly taking in Renais' reassurances. "Yeah. I think I hit him deeper than usual, at least." He pats the GaoBrace and the Will Knife within it. "Sharpness derived from the power of the will," he muses. "Guess if anything was going to cut him, it'd be that."
Hm. "Can't say he failed there," he admits of Renais' supposition. But...
He straightens, and reaches out a hand to help her up. "But if he thinks that'll make us give up on Shinjo, he's dead wrong."