2022-12-22: "I Am Her Enemy"
- Log: "I Am Her Enemy"
- Cast: Ennil El, Alexis Kerib
- Where: Tsutsujidai, North Floodgate
- OOC - IC Date: 12-22-0096
- Summary: Alexis Kerib stumbles on Ennil El. They have very different ideas of kindness, very different ideas of Akane Shinjo, and very different ideas of the role a kaiju is meant to play.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
At the far end of Tsutsujidai, seated on a bench...
Ennil El sits alone with her thoughts, softly rattling the marble in a bottle of peach ramune. Occasionally, she reaches down to softly flick her damp tie. Weeks of rain aren't an unheard of phenomenon - though if Tsutsujidai was truly pretending to be a PLANT, they would be - but in combination with the other ways the city has begun to crumble, there's an obvious otherworldly edge.
With Yuta revived and Junk restored, the NGJHS are a lot freer to divide their duties. Ennil has still been finding ways to get involved, but that period of intense need has passed...
Which is good, right?
It means she can take walks like this. The heroes will take care of things. She might even be a distraction to them - if Alouette puts the pieces together, the Braves would be obligated to think about her, instead of Akane... at least for a while.
From here she can see the barren expanse of unfinished set dressing ahead of her. It's not that Tsutsujidai ceases to exist, looking out past this floodgate.
It's just that there's nowhere left to go.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
The far edge of Tsutsujidai has always been a favorite haunt of Alexis's; he's quite fond of the limits of the human heart. To see someone else here, though, and --
Ah.
"Is the place to your liking, Herald of Dawn?" he asks, appearing in Ennil's blind spot. The way Alexis perceives the world has always been different, after all; even if she shows no signs visible to the human eye...
He translates through Tsutsujidai's empty spaces, coming to rest at Ennil's side. "Yet again, one of you comes to this place seeking solace. It does seem like you're a little late for such things, though?" The slight lift in his voice certainly suggests concern.
Alexis often suggests things.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Something tenses in Ennil's shoulders. She reaches up to clear her hair from her eyes, trying to get a clearer glance, but she hears him first. And starts.
But not when he first speaks. It's the way he finishes his question. She hisses into the muggy darkness, "You don't..."
Don't call me that.
But she can't finish the sentence. She wants to be one of Yuta's friends. She wants to be part of the NGJHS. She wants to be Ennil El.
But he calls her Herald of Dawn. And she flinches. She's breathing softly, and the motion of the ramune bottle becomes smooth and circular - the soft hum of the marble sliding across the bottom - the whole time Alexis is making his approach; so that when he asks his second question, she can answer,
"Too late? Well, I'm not dead yet."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis watches Ennil's reaction. Ah, this seems perfect. She really is a... particular sort of person. Alexis muses about what he might do to her, should she survive her present state.
Still -- best not to count his chickens before they hatch. He may yet need to remove himself from this place entirely, soon.
"I don't think this seems like much of a place of solace anymore," he notes, gesturing out to the damaged city. The Carpenters yet work, but nevertheless...
"I must say, though, that for a Herald of Dawn, you seem rather... unmotivated. I suppose that suggests something about the nature of your complete self..." He can tell she doesn't like it, and, well.
He really is that petty. Or perhaps he's just annoyed at the mess he almost had to clean up with Akane's recent kaiju.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Ennil tilts her head up at her visitor.
Or is she his visitor? Neither of them totally belong to this place.
"What is this," she asks, flatly. "You don't seem like a guy who needs friends."
He waves out to the damaged city, and she turns that way easily enough. Tsutsujidai is hurting, but... Ennil El is also watching it heal. "The city is falling apart, true. But - it's full of people now. Both of us know what that means."
A place full of life, of bonds, of desire... is a city of miracles. Two can play at that game.
Still, it's a statement that can't help but turn back on her. Ennil only knows one way to fight.
"You think? I think maybe you're just too used to those hero types."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
It says much, that Alexis would bother to gesture; maybe it's a sign of just how much the presence of a Ruin Apostle unseats him from his usual contentment.
When Ennil mentions that Alexis doesn't seem like someone who needs friends, he can't quite contain his surprise; he gives her a brief, 'hoh?' before the more complete answer. "Some things are inevitable, I suppose."
He turns his gaze down toward Ennil somewhat more directly, at her final supposition. "Perhaps so. Certainly the Gutsy Galaxy Guard cuts a more stimulating figure," he thinks aloud. "I happen to think the world is more interesting with heroes in it, though... at least, now and again."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"I'm warming up to them," Ennil admits, when Alexis brings up the Gutsy Galaxy Guard. "Maybe I'll invite a couple of them to tea."
It's a bad joke. She couldn't possibly.
But she's thinking about it.
She decides to cut to the chase. "If we're going to have this conversation, I'm Ennil El. You're Alexis Kerib."
Which both of us knew, perfectly well.
"You see how I'm dressed. You probably know who I'm spending my time with - you might even know I was talking to Akane before all this happened. So why aren't you asking about anything that matters?"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Oh, I'm aware of who you are," comes Alexis's reply, confident and content in that. "Akane mentioned you -- among others -- during her foray into... understanding." He's perfectly content to use her metaphor for it -- after all, it's him who twisted it into coming out the way it did.
"I don't need to ask about those things. Things are on a particular path, now, and I certainly see no reason to avert that path. Akane-kun has made quite the large number of enemies -- she's really driven herself into a corner, hasn't she...?"
There's a faint shift in his tone as he adds, "She counts you among them, you know. She was truly miserable when she found that the Heralds of Dawn had no intention of letting her even make it out to graduation. You and Mikoto Utsugi did irreparable damage to her."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Of course she does... I am her enemy." Ennil looks up at that strange face. That expression - not unreadable, but calculated. "I failed her once, and now I'm helping Gridman. I knew it would upset her. She's the type of girl who always gets upset when she doesn't get what she wants. And she doesn't want to be saved."
Alexis has a lot to say. And Ennil can't help but get angry. This guy... Akane was counting on him. Her chest tightens, and she bites at her bottom lip for a moment.
"...You told her killing would make things better. But she wasn't meant to succeed. Though you wouldn't have cared if Yuta did die that way..."
Her teeth screw tight against each other. There's a bitter taste in her mouth.
"You just wanted her to blame herself. You only cared that she saw herself holding the knife. She hasn't eaten in two years and... you couldn't spare a single speck of kindness."
Her hands are shaking. The rain splashing away from her skin carries radiance with it. The tears do, too.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"You were her enemy even when you were trying to help her. If she'd known that the plan was to anesthetize the Earth Sphere with her kaiju, she would have never accepted your help." A tense moment passes between them, as Ennil gets angrier. "Now, I could absolutely have cleaned up that mess if it had been a nearer thing! Even so, though."
Ennil levels an accusation -- and an interesting one. "And it worked, did it not? Her violence against the maintenance kaiju and against Yuta Hibiki has certainly closed this place off. I would say for her this has been a coup."
And yet, all she does is sulk.
The latter accusation -- as Ennil starts to cry for someone else -- is more interesting, though, ultimately. Alexis watches Ennil. The teal panels of his face seem to deform oh-so-slightly, though that may just be rain-slickness distorting them. The flames behind his head dance.
"I simply encourage her to exist in the world in the way she insists will make her happy. What 'kindness' are you asking...?"
He considers her carefully, sliding just the smallest bit closer. "Besides -- eating is one of the world's cruelties. I'm surprised you still bother, suffused with the Aura of Dawn; so long as her heart connects to a kaiju, she is free never to eat or sweat or feel pain. So why would she bother doing such things?"
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
She can't stop shaking. The rain is soaking through her suit, horribly sticky and warm --
And she's so cold.
"It's killing her," she finally chokes out. "You want everyone to hate her! She's scared of everyone and you're sitting here saying you don't need to do anything to change it!"
Her fist impacts the bench, and it twists a little, though her knuckles take the worst of it, splitting into raw wounds that slowly knit themselves back together.
"Every time someone tries to show her any kindness, you find a way to hide a knife in it!"
Again. The pain echoes into her wrist.
Again.
"And I did it too! You're damn right I did! Because all I cared about was giving her whatever she wanted!"
AGAIN. The Aura of Dawn is inhumanly fast - but the twisted metal frame is still stained, ever so lightly.
"You took her away from everything... that would help her understand how another person is feeling, and surrounded her with people who would never ask her for anything! You just made her feel more alone!"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"If you think this is my doing -- well, to be sure, I'm surprised. Are you not from the same world?" Alexis remains still. He often does. "There are millions of people like her. She hasn't changed in the time since I met her -- not one bit."
Ennil's anger spills over, and, well. Alexis has never been one to stop people from hurting themselves. "I haven't made her feel anything. Certainly she isn't bound to a particular feeling the way you are, Ennil El." ... at least he's using her name, this time?
Her anger is delicious, though. "I do look forward to seeing what you do with your time in this world -- what remains of it. You've made yourself a very interesting person -- chasing a miracle you know must be destroyed."
He looks down at the stain on the bench. Hm.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Alexis deflects blame so easily. And Ennil swallows it the way she always has. There are millions of Akanes in the world. That's true. Hadn't Ennil longed for this place for just that reason?
The outside world kept asking her to survive pain. She'd begged for a world full of fog instead, so she wouldn't have to carry on alone.
Millions of girls just like Akane.
But she cares about this one.
It makes her blood boil. That effortless grin.
She isn't carrying on alone any more.
"...monsters always lose." Her knees come up to her chest. She cradles that bruised hand in her other. "You don't get to break the rules."
She barely knows what she's talking about. She still hasn't gotten to watch Tarabaman with Akane. But Alexis... yeah, he cares about putting on the show.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Hoh?" 'Monsters always lose' -- an interesting construction. And like Akane, in its way. "I assure you -- I'm not a kaiju." He says it as if the notion was laughable. "If anything, between the two of us you might better hold that particular label!"
He translates away from Ennil, now. "So please -- struggle for her sake, if you wish. I'm sure it'll make for quite the excellent diversion."
He continues his movement away -- at a nice, leisurely clip. "I can do much with what's available, now."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
As always, the wound closes but the pain lingers. She'll have to ask Max for some ice when she gets back.
Ennil narrows her eyes as Alexis begins his movement away. But she doesn't move. She allows herself to be still, turning her eyes back to that empty expanse.
It's only when he's left her line of sight, and she his, that she smiles, thinly. Because no matter how scared Akane is right now... as long as they can show her there's a reason not to give up on herself, she'll find someone who won't give up on her. Losing doesn't have to mean dying. Getting what you want isn't getting what you need. Ennil herself is like a kaiju?
"Don't you think I know that, dummy?"