2023-02-10: Don't Be Something My Shield Endures, You Understand
- Cast: Asciel Colette, Shozo
- Where: OCU Japan - Fujinomiya
- Date: U.C. 0097 02 10
- Summary: Just before planning an attack on the Photon Research Institute - Asciel bumps into a nascent little calamity.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Mount Fuji. A wondrous and picturesque sight that invoked the passion of artists and poets for generations.
...what's become of it now is an affront the the world, isn't it?
Halfway eaten by the mine and power generating facility, unsightly iron crawls up one face, slurping on its deposits of japanium, the light that fuels all of Japan.
...despite all logic.
Since the place has become the center of a seemingly infinite source of energy, Mount Fuji has of course gotten off limits to the public, and the closest you can really get is in the surrounding urban landscape. To that end - and because Ai's not living too far away for her to stay with her a while - Asciel's meandering around the streets of Fujinomiya! She's hardly a covert sight, being tall and brightly-hued and marching along at an irresponsibly fast pace...but when asked, she quickly dismisses questions saying she's filming a TV show, and that's why she has cameras in her pack!
(The cameras are to spy on institute employees and to monitor the area for added Amalgam assets to better coordinate, of course.)
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
As the streets converge, and following a sound like shattering glass from a side street, Shozo walks out onto the road, stepping parallel to the brightly-haired, camera-toting lady. His legs seem a bit too small to keep pace with Asciel's strides, but nevertheless he seems to somehow remain beside the woman, taking particularly big steppies without complaint.
In his tiny hands is a bag full of wrapped boxes, labeled "RIKSENT -- DUTY-FREE" on them, and his head turns back and forth on a swivel, face nevertheless persistently out of Asciel's sightline. Maybe it's a height thing!
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
...Asciel maybe isn't as 'all here' as she ought to be. After all, this very body is just a 'terminal' of hers, so to speak - she's 'really' operating out of a huddled up Arm Slave parked in a forest three miles to the northeast, so if she seems oblivious and spacy to this kind of arrival for a while, that's why! She has a ~mission~ to focus on.
...also, she is tall and Shozo is short, so that's probably a factor in uh, letting this following go on for a while.
But eventually she does make a little twist and bend to peer around a corner that has Shozo come into view, and now she's very all here! Jumping in place once, landing in the middle of a crosswalk, and pivoting on one heel, eyes glowing vividly and rapidly refocusing to ID Shozo.
"Haaaaaagh-! ...Aaaaalright there, just because I'm an adored celebrity doesn't mean you can just follow me around, ahahahah! ...Hmmm. Do tell me what's in the boxes, if you'd be so kind!"
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
The boy certainly doesn't come up on- Sweet Gauron's Ghost, what's wrong with his EYES? The cross-shaped pupils stare into Asciel's own for a moment, before he lifts the bag, and grins widely.
"I got souvenirs for Borr n' the others," he chirps, before blinking, and looking back up at Asciel. "Who are you, by the way?" How rude of this child to not know who she is. "Your eyes are glowing." How similarly rude of him to comment on her eyes when his own are so weird.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Asciel does leer at the. Strangeness emanating from Shozo's gaze for a while - - -
Yeah, what is wrong with them...
Oh, maybe some humans just look like that.
Asciel relaxes her slightly combative posture, a hand at her forehead. "Hah. I can't go getting full of nerves just cause children are weird. Hmph hmph."
That hand then quickly sweeps her hair showily, terminating in a merry little V-sign over one eye. "Huhuhu. The first and most important inquiry to ask! I'm none other than the radiant Virtual Sage, Asciel Colette!~ In person! ...Honestly, I assumed someone following me would maybe be a fan of mine, but that's probably too ambitious, since there's only a 0.0046% chance any given person is a subscriber, and I thiiiiiink my viewership isn't the best in Japan, hehe. I am a shimmering star of guidance on the horizon - a lighthouse of wisdom ever-expanding and ever-advising. My calling is answering even the most tangled of questions and difficult of dilemmas - all with a smile you can count on!~"
Finishing off that little self-hyping speech with a wink that actively emits a holographic little star off about a foot, Asciel puts a finger to her lips. "But I'm kiiiiind of - on a vacation! So to speak. So don't go raising a fuss about my being here!" - directly countering what she's usually telling people! The cover is amorphous. "Someone important to me lives near here - and a holiday of love is coming up! Though in Japan, the tradition on Valentine's day is for love-struck maidens to offer their gift of chocolate to the object of their affections - and the following month, for a gift to be returned, so reaaaaally, I should be waiting until then! Hmhmhm. I didn't even think of that."
Her eyes suddenly flash yet again. "Oh!!! That's what your box is for. I'm sure whoever Borr is, they'll adore receiving such a lovely gift for the holiday. Hehehe, love blossoming even amongst children, it's a biiiiit of a cliche sight but also soooooorta cute even if it's, like, kiiiiinda missing a lot of what's important. Really, kids are just sorta play-acting at what love might be shaped like when you think about it. But you probably don't need to do that thinking at this point in life~"
She's - a bit loud, and also a bit 'still standing in the middle of a crosswalk', so Asciel only remembers to move out of the way when a slowly approaching car honks at her. (She's closer, in that moment, to perhaps fighting that car, given her stance, buuuut that'd be in poor taste, so she just steps to the other side.)
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo just stares up at Asciel for a moment, completely silent until the moment Asciel would actually have the thought to leave -- purely coincidentally, of course. He looks down at his pocket, pulling down the Battlenizer.
"Yeah, she's a robot too. I don't think she's a copy of anyone." He nods at the little box, before stowing it back in his pocket and looking back up as though he was finally processing the next part of her statement.
"Um... I don't... know what Valentine's Day is? Borr and the others are letting me stay with them, and this is for gratitude?"
As the car approaches, Shozo just gently... hops into the air, sailing clean over the machine as it passes and touching down weightlessly, seemingly completely unaware of the people that are now staring at him -- and by proxy, Asciel. Of course, Asciel's verbose responses are likely also at least partially responsible for that attention. Not as much as the floating child, assuredly not.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Okay normal human children definitely can't just jump that much. Asciel's reasonably sure of that - and takes one step backwards - then two steps forward when Shozo lands, the back of her hand covering her lips.
Pluuuus - the odd sight of the Battlenizer, an unfamiliar device-? Granted, it looks a little bit, slightly, 'like a toy' but on the other hand it looks like it could be-
"Right, so I'm gonna have to determine something really important here, because these days, I know something really, really awful is common. Yeah. Yeah, you match a loooooot of the ticks of something I juuuuust can't stand."
Another step closer, hand moving to her cheek, eyes leery. "...Alright, you should tell me what outfit employs or enslaves you reeeeaally quickly, because boy, do I get really really steamed about the militaries of this world making children do unthinkable things to go to war. Hehe, is that little device there something you were told to never let go of? ...yeah, the box is probably the cover story they outfitted you with too.~"
The assumptions are wildly flying off the table! The pressure from Asciel's stance gets a little more fierce, a little too close to Shozo's personal bubble. "Thankfully, you can tell your dear big sister Asciel aaaaanything in the world. Like if something's hurting you, or using you, or leaving you in the dark. And I'm gonna take care of it right quick, got it? I'm strong enough that I could totally crush whatever will come looking after you, and maybe even sort out a hideout for you. Why, just down the road, there's a-"
>Conflict of interest: Preeeeeeetty sure Operation Bunker 209A is held by - yeah, that's Dorin Elcart's mercenary supply shed and he'd tooooootally sell this kid off to the highest bidder. Ah, fuck.
"Well, never you mind that. Tell me all about that little box you just hid, and it'll be a secret between the two of us, mhm!~"
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Thankfully(?) Shozo doesn't seem to have a very good grasp of personal bubbles anyway, as he leans in just as close, so much so that the two almost touch noses. He seems to be comfortable, though!
"Militaries...? Um..." He pulls out the little box again. "Mister, does anyone tell me what to do? I don't think so, right? Alexis didn't say much, and kinda just ran away, right? Kaworu took me to meet Borr n' the others, but he asked nice... OK!" He looks back up at Asciel and grins widely, holding the little box, itself positively RADIATING exotic energies, right up to Asciel.
"This is my Battlenizer! Mister sleeps in here because he's too big otherwise!" he chirps, beaming at Asciel, before looking off in... her direction.
"Like how your real body is too big to just walk around, right? Mister is bigger, though..." Those inhuman eyes never blink, but the smile never dims, and there doesn't actually seem to be any malice in it, does there?
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
This isn't going according to plan! At all!
>Shit - this kid definitely somehow has intercepted my communications- ...has he?! He wouldn't just say that if he were tracking me down...no, but that device is clearly a communicator of some sort. ...there's no obvious signals coming from it near as I can tell. ...wait, no there's a lot of weird-ass signals. Damn it, this better not be a snag in my plan here.
"Alrighty! Well, this is fishy as all heck. So! Promise me you're not gonna cry for too long, since you're clearly holding onto something you reeeeaally shouldn't. Kids like you shouldn't be listening to mysterious voices coming outta strange devices, after all! So~"
---just like that, she's reaching out to try and pluck the Battlenizer from Shozo's hands.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo politely lets Asciel take the Battlenizer, smiling.
"Please give it back after!" he says politely. "Or, um... well." He opens his hands, and the Battlenizer is suddenly back in his grip, and out of Asciel's. Weeeeird. He hands it back to Asciel a moment later, before leaning in.
"I'm sorry, was I not supposed to know about your real body? There's just, um... the tether, y'know." He makes a gesture around the nebulous space behind Asciel's head -- or at least, reaches for it. Short.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
>...wait he's really just letting me have that-
Asciel shakes her head and grips - nothing? She's certain she felt it impact her gloves, but it's back in Shozo's hands again. "...Hm. Impressive sleight of hand, I do have to say-" Lips pursing, she turns over the Battlenizer in her hands - having a difficult time assessing what, exactly, she's looking at - bringing it close up to one eye. Recording, recording. Turning it and turning it.
She then, experimentally, speaks up. "Alrighty! Whoever's listening through this thing, do introduce yourself! I'm very understanding, and maybe you could be useful to me~" ...Another experimental button press. "Helloooooo~?"
At the notion of a 'tether', Asciel clicks her tongue - and that very tether changes shape and tension as she tries to obfuscate its channels...but there's always going to be some sort of link, inherently. "...Ahhh. Weird modified eyes, then! That's a little unfair! People shouldn't be able to see the filaments of reason that link things from afar. ...nnn. ...no, that's not how it'd look, anything observing communication waves would see it as a sphere of pulses or something. Unless you can see in in this data-composite way that tracks shared sources and interpolates them as singular lines, which means you have an ear on both me and my-"
A little groan from Asciel, finally exiting Shozo's immediate space, still gently flipping the Battlenizer between two slightly oversized fingers. "...Honestly, I expected you to fight a little more. If you're conditioned to activity like this, then you'd probably fight back, but what kind of innocent kid has crazy observation powers and can damn near fly..."
>Alright, I'm gonna have to keep an active observation tab on this kid, cause something's real off...
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo opens his hand again, and once again the Battlenizer returns to his fingers -- no light nor sound, just... back. He looks a bit guilty, crossing his hands apologetically.
"I'm sorry I can't just bring Mister out to meet you, but, um... you said you didn't want people following you around and I feel like you don't want much more attention..." He rubs his thumb over the surface of the boxy device. "Also, Mister says you were tickling him with the button presses." What a conscientious young man. WEIRDLY conscientious.
"Um, I can fly if you like! It just... Well, attention..." Still, a moment later his feet just... lift a few inches off the ground.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
And there the ball finally drops! Asciel can't really say 'wow what a slightly weird child' anymore because at this point Actual Wizardry is happening.
But then- doesn't that clarify so, so very much?
>Reclassified. This child is now an <Anomaly> and a <Violation of Nature>. Threat priority still uncertain - assess at a later date. Elimination is allowed.
If anything, Asciel relaxes at the sight of an airborne Shozo. The uncertainty has gone away. Her hands grip tightly, just to confirm she really did just have this thing swiped at a distance - and her hand cups her chin carefully. "Ahhh. I get it. I can safely file away where you belong, got it! Wisdom so naturally comes to me if I simply reach for it."
The pensive look on her face turns into a low, warm smile. "If anything, I have to thank you! After all, I often seek out things that don't belong. Things that prove they don't follow reason. And every time, the answer, happily, s the same!"
The smile brightens. Her eyes brighten. "You and this 'Mister' will certainly not be following me, no - I'll get very disappointed with you if you do. You just sit tight and, I suppose, get that package delivered to your friend, yes~ It's been reassuring to meet you - you've only made what I'm doing here a lot more reinforced!
>...if 'miracles' aren't replicable, then they do not belong. They will be purged, and replaced with a more usable system. That is how it shall be for the terrible void - that's how it shall be for the hopeful light of Axis. And that's how it shall be for Photon Energy, a light that shall not be.
>There's only one light that can be sustained. All others draw from uncertainty, incalculability - and that which cannot be measured cannot make a foundation.
>...Yep! That's the way it ought to be. <3
With that, she's marching her way off on a dime, merrily singing to herself all the way.
"Rejoice~ It's now my
"Choice~ I block your
"Voice~ and hiss that
"Noise~ until you
"...dalalalalalala~" ...it's a work in progress of a song!
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo gets a slightly troubled look on his face as Asciel's demeanor changes, and he notices.
"Mmm... Miss, is that line of thinking going to make you happy in the long term? I hope so..."
He pouts a bit, waving goodbye to her, before walking to the spot he had actually come for -- the world-famous Photon Rice Crackers that he'd read about in the magazines at Rikka's shop! Pulling the 500-yen out of the little coin purse he'd been given, he hands it to the shopkeep and takes the baggie of delicious rice crackers, putting it in his bag before waving to the shopkeep and walking away, reality shattering in front of him as he traveled into the hellish space once again. Off to his next destination.