2022-12-22: Cooperation
- Log: Cooperation
- Cast: Anti, Jana Cektru
- Where: South Floodgate, Tsutsujidai
- Date: 2022-12-22
- Summary: Anti meets Jana, and speaks to her about Tsutsujidai. Even though they're not really human, they're still going to help them.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
The city is crumbling, but no one's letting it fall without a fight. All that repair... it's still going on.
The hospital is full.
Anti could stay with Yuta -- Gridman -- as he lies still. But there is too much laughter, in that place, the relief of humans connecting with each other and realising things they never knew.
Nidaime followed him here, but he'll not task her with this, either. She has so many things to concern herself with, in this world she watched rise, now to see its falling.
Her, and Rikka... they're here. He knows, in a heart beating blood through his veins. (He has veins, and not just pressurised air, keeping his chassis full.)
And Akane...
He crosses his arms, standing atop the flood gate, looking out at the water as it flows in towards the city.
"They're here for you, too," he tells himself, tells the air blowing towards her, contents under pressure.
"Can you hear them, Akane Shinjo?"
Tsutsujidai isn't quiet any more.
"The noise of your creations."
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
Jana, too, has been helping to reinforce Tsutsujidai, as best she has been able. There is more, yet, to do; she is researching materials that they can use to improve and repair buildings, for instance. She is helping to arrange schedules. And perhaps they can continue with 'school'...
But here and now, Jana Cektru is out exploring, looking for a quiet place... and also looking for signs of her quarry. She has wandered seemingly aimlessly, and has gravitated here, to this place--where she looks up, from lower than Anti's position.
"...It's you," the black-haired woman states, considering Anti for a moment. "The young kaiju so intent upon helping Miss Shinjo..."
"I am glad that you are still here."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti does not go to 'school'.
(He tried, once. Briefly.)
He looks down, and hears Jana, though she stands below the floodgate and he is up here. You could call it a kaiju's hearing, except...
He's not a kaiju any more, is he?
"Yes." He says, a complete sentence. "I'm here."
Anti could jump down, certainly.
He climbs the ladder, instead.
Notice it.
Once he's on the same level as Jana, he's the one who has to look up -- at 4'3", he's small at this scale, anyway. The form he's copied ('Gridknight', according to Calibur) is smaller than his kaiju self, but...
Still much, MUCH larger than this.
"... who the hell are you?" He issues her, finally, just as he'd asked Utsumi.
They've never actually got to talking, have they..?
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
Is he no longer a kaiju? Jana recalls him as one; if he is not, it will be up to him to tell her so. But indeed 'Yes' is a complete sentence, and Anti even uses the ladder... That's nice.
Jana nods at the question, not fazed by the blunt nature of it. After all, she has seen him many a time, but the reverse...
"I am Dr. Jana Cektru," the woman answers. "I have been involved in this place, as a teacher at the school, as a researcher of its nature, and as a combatant against some of the kaiju. I am also hopeful that I can reach Miss Shinjo and help her from the position that she is in."
"I have reached out to your mind, before, but we have never met in person. I tried to encourage you, when you were fighting for Miss Shinjo. To tell you that we, too, wish for her well-being."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti transformed into Gridknight during the fight with Nanashi B which saw Tsutsujidai separated from the universe, so he'd hardly consider it a secret.
He also doesn't think to clarify.
His eye -- there's only the one uncovered, red as the burning sunset -- narrows, when Jana explains just who the hell she is.
"So you're that woman," he concludes, and his words are rough and rude. He doesn't look particularly hostile, though.
His arm crosses his body, to grip at his opposite elbow. The site where one might draw blood. He is thinking of doctors, yes, with pressured thoughts.
"The nature of Tsutsujidai is clay," Anti answers her.
"And connection."
He is silent, fingers curling against his sleeve, for long moments. "Akane Shinjo can't see," he says. Clarifies, stern: "It's too painful to see. So she is alone, while everyone comes to her. Alexis Kerib makes sure of that."
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
"Yes." She considers, noticing the way he grips his elbow. He has likely had bad experiences. So many in this Earth Sphere have, with researchers. But she does not make a point of reading his thoughts specifically; she instead listens.
"Yes," she says, "I have found much the same. This world, as far as I can tell, is Miss Shinjo's 'heart'. ...It is my hope that by caring for her 'heart', we may be able to reach her."
Then she considers. She noticed his discomfort, but is unsure immediately how to address it. She decides to say, "At the moment I am researching improved materials for reinforcing buildings here in Tsutsujidai, in the absence of the 'Venora.'" She thinks she got their name right.
But Akane cannot see... Because it is painful. Jana nods, sadly. "This Alexis Kerib is the one who's taken her humanity, isn't he?"
She considers. "But you know her better than any of us do, I think. I will follow your lead, if you have a plan."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
He's a kaiju who gained a heart, after all. Even if he's no longer a kaiju, Anti is still of interest to a good many researchers, out there.
"This world... began as Alexis Kerib's heart," Anti shakes his head, looking out towards the city, as he ventures his theory. "Akane Shinjo puts her heart into the things she creates. But she wasn't the one who made this place for herself."
He frowns.
"... but Alexis Kerib is empty. He takes Akane Shinjo and fills himself with her pain. So, this world was filled with Akane Shinjo, too. They grew from her. They became like her, and then they became different. I did, too."
He looks back to Jana, sidelong, with that burning sunset gaze. "My eyes were made from hers. But she can't handle the way I look at her, now."
He's not talking about that eye.
"Even so, Akane Shinjo is not a kaiju. Even if I'm not a human... it's not that simple."
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
Anti is certainly of interest to Jana--but not at the cost of his personhood, of his freedom. That sets her apart from many researchers in the Earth Sphere, but there is little simple, effective means of communicating it.
Still, Jana listens, and she puts a lot of weight into his theories. She considers it; what it began as, what it became...
"I see," Jana says, thoughtfully. "I have noticed this of its people; whatever they once were, they are as surely individuals with their own hopes and dreams as any human from outside this place."
Jana looks back into Anti's eyes, unflinching, unbothered. There is something old in her own, something otherworldly, and calm. "...Because you see her, I think. Because you see her more clearly than most."
She is not a kaiju...
"Yes. She convinced me, once, that she was. But I no longer believe that."
She weighs something, and then, "...I'm not human either," she explains. "But I have thrown in my lot with the humans here. I will help them... or I, too, will fall."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti -- the analysis monster of Tsutsujidai, an auto-intelligence kaiju created to adapt and learn -- sees many things, certainly.
Akane was the very first.
The people of this place were shaped; by Akane, and then by everyone else.
"We're family," he explains.
Whether he means it as an explanation to how he sees her so clearly, or how she'd think of herself as a kaiju, he leaves unstated.
"... someone once told me how they fought alongside humans, even though they were a monster. I can, too. It's polite to pay your debts." Who ever said Jana was a monster? Well, perhaps it's not so strange Anti would classify things, that way.
"They need help. Since Gridman can't fight, I'll do it." And he doesn't even talk about crushing him! "I'll expect you there, too."
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
They're family... Yes. That makes sense. Either interpretation works. As do some others.
A monster fighting alongside humans... "I see. Yes, it is. That's very important." Jana doesn't contest being a monster; she doesn't think of herself as such, but if it makes it easier for Anti to conceptualize, then that's fine with her. She is not particularly picky about how people think of her. And their need of help--
"Yes, they will," Jana agrees. "I will be there. Both behind the scenes and on the line."