2023-02-18: Remains
- Log: 2023-02-18- Remains
- Cast: Shozo, Alexis Kerib
- Where: Tsutsujidai?
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-02-18
- Summary: Shozo asks Alexis an important question; Alexis answers the only way he can.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo carefully closes the door behind him, and sets the lock so that Borr or the others couldn't interrupt. Slowly, he arranges the furniture into one suitable for a meeting, leaving the biggest chair open for his coming guest. He even goes so far as to put out a small plate of the rice crackers he'd obtained in Japan. When he feels everything is ready, he sits down in his own chair and puts his hands in his lap quietly.
"Mr. Alexis, I know you can hear me. Please, come here." His voice was soft, but it echoes through arcane channels.
It cannot be ignored.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis will always orient on a sincere cry for his help. He's been trying to find new ways to change the situation he's found himself in... and Shozo might well be one of the paths out of his present situation.
(Not the only path. He's already found some lovely new partners to work with.)
Alexis insinuates himself back into the narrative, and... happens to be in Shozo's line of sight when he reappears, rather than appearing from some unobserved slice of the set dressing. He looks down toward the young man before him, teal panels dancing with teal light.
"What did you need, Shozo-kun?" Alexis asks, unfailingly polite despite being a little off-kilter at having appeared fully at-issue rather than moving in exactly his usual way.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo, trying to be polite in response, points to the large seat.
"Please sit, Mr. Alexis," he said quietly, his voice even. "I'd like to talk to you, if that's alright. There's food there, but I don't know if you eat." Shozo clasped his fingers together, looking directly into Alexis' face, unblinking with his strange eyes.
"I've been told many things about you by many people since we've met. I'm still learning a lot about the world, so I thought I'd like to speak to you before I made any... conclusions." He's clearly trying to speak like an adult, but there's a strange note to his tone that makes it seem less adorably precocious.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
The last time Alexis had been asked to eat, Juggler... more or less bullied him into observing the ritual, in a way that left him feeling strained. Here, with Shozo, he feels no such desire.
"I do not! Thank you for the offer, though," Alexis says, remaining unfailingly polite as he settles in. (Occupying his whole body has never been much to his comfort, either -- but this much, he's perfectly content to do.)
"Really? I suppose people do like to talk," he muses, once he's sitting. "Feel free to ask questions, of course." He studies the young Shozo very closely.
SCENESYS: Ranka Lee has posted scene #283, 'Legend of Zero: B-Movie Killer Animal Rampage Part V', at 19:00 EST on 03/06.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo nodded, leaning back in his chair a bit.
"I understand. Mr. Alexis, I'll be, um... frank?" Shozo's cool demeanor stumbles a bit as he loses a word for a moment, but he snaps back into it after a moment.
"A lot of people think you are a very bad person. You did some very bad things to a lot of people, and helped other people do very bad things. I don't... really understand good and bad yet, not as much as I'd like to, but I want to know why you do these things. And..." Shozo shifts in his chair to lean on his hand.
"Why you're so sad."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
The first part of Shozo's question would be easy to answer, if not for the second. "Oh," is what he offers at first, and he tries to think of something to say. This... makes Shozo a little dangerous -- and requires some care in the handling.
It wouldn't do to leave the boy with the wrong impression, after all.
"It's a little simplistic to look at these things in terms of what is good or bad, isn't it? It's the natural impulse of a child to say such things." He doesn't challenge. (He rarely challenges.)
His head tilts slowly to the side, and then he explains: "If you consider peace the natural order, isn't the ideal world empty? Certainly there are universal forces that would say as much." It's unusually candid, but it demands big chunks of the honest answer of him:
"The world is more interesting with some degree of darkness in it." It's a half-truth. "If the world were on a trajectory that bored you, wouldn't you be sad?"
BBSYS: Post 717, 'WHY NOT: Knights of the Round!' has been published to Character Pitches by Cornelia li Britannia.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo stares into Alexis's eyes, and remains silent for a moment.
"...Mr. Alexis, what does peace have to do with anything?"
The air goes silent, as if the space beyond the room has vanished. Shozo stands up, approaching Alexis quietly, still unblinking.
"I never talked about peace. I never said the word. I asked why you do what you do." He reaches out, but stops himself before touching Alexis -- it appears that he has become aware, or at least conscientious, of the Hyper Majin's aversion to touch.
"I asked why you're so sad."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis supposes he's talking to a child, and thus, needs to make the correction directly. "The current state of the world is rather boring," he says, simply. As far as his own introspective capabilities go, this is the limit of his answer.
So he loops back to the other question. "A world that stagnates isn't interesting. So many in this world have given up on their dreams, and I find that terribly uninteresting, and by extension, sad."
He does not acknowledge the hand reaching out, and is pleased that it does not approach closer.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo lets his hand return to his side, letting Alexis speak, but the look on his face becomes somewhat perplexed.
"That's... childish." What a strange thing for a child to say.
"Mr. Alexis, if you felt the world was stagnant, wouldn't that be a reason for you to do things actively? To meet and work with people?" He put his hands on his hips, frowning. "If I'm bored, I go and find something to do. But you're... scared of people. Scared of contact." He sits back down.
"If not scared, you certainly don't like it. Why is that?"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Hm! I suppose so," Alexis says, taking that one on the chin. He doesn't mind being called childish; perhaps there's even something positive about it. The follow-up question is equally interesting -- but just as much in how it misses the mark as how it's incisive.
"I actually have begun reaching out. My world hardly begins and ends with Akane-kun, you know." There's an angle by which this is even true. "You aren't wrong, regardless. I really ought to begin more earnestly making my hand felt in the world."
The teal panels come to a stop in a rictus grin -- then start dancing again as Alexis speaks. "Thank you for the nudge. I could stand to find a new project!" He laughs, and it certainly seems good natured.
SCENESYS: Banagher Links has posted scene #284, 'Gratuitous Intervention ', at 19:00 ET on 02/26.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo frowns.
"Mmmm... Mr. Alexis, you're very good at talking, but you don't actually say much." His frown deepens at Alexis's promise to "find a new project."
"I haven't met, um, Akane yet. But... the way Gridman and the others talked about her, you helped use the hurt she was feeling to make her hurt more. I asked before why you were so sad... but I think I said it wrong. I'm sorry, I'm still not the best at talking. I wanted to ask, um... What hurt you, to make it so that you want to make other people hurt more?"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis makes note of a few things about how Shozo tackles interesting questions.
'What hurt you,' though, is an insight Alexis doesn't expect Shozo to have. "I think you and I have misunderstood each other," Alexis offers, simply. "What is true of your experience -- or theirs -- may not be true of mine. You make many assumptions about what can be shared and understood, and what is unshareable. To be alive as an individual --" something he can be certain Shozo is still coming to grips with -- "is to develop things about yourself that simply cannot be shared."
He doesn't quite understand how much that answer gives away about him.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
There is a look in Shozo's eyes not often directed at Alexis Kerib: sympathy.
"...I'm sorry if the question makes you... uncomfortable," he says carefully. "What can I do -- what can be done -- to help make your hurt less... painful? Overwhelming? Something to make you want to bring out the pain in others less?" He's holding the hem of his jacket as he looks up at the Hyper Majin, unambiguous concern in his alien eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
The question puts Alexis on the spot. There is so much he could do to alleviate his own pain if he reached out.
... but the emptiness is familiar and Shozo is not.
So he says, simply, "Continue as you are and I'm sure you'll come up with something only you can do. Let your instincts guide you and I know you'll have an excellent path forward."
He draws up to stand again, saying, "This has been a lovely conversation. You're developing marvelously..." ... It's hard for him to leave, though. His reflexive thought is simply that it's being observed, but...
... wait, that wouldn't fully accord with his entry, would it?
Hm.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo shakes his head quickly.
"...Mr. Alexis, I already have something I can do. I don't want to do it because... I don't think I'm supposed to." He stands up, and behind him, Alexis can see an endless sky of shifting red.
He's not in Tsutsujidai anymore.
"Max told me that I can't make someone heal... but that's not true."
"The lights in the room flicker and die, leaving the two in relative darkness, the red sky not shining inside. All that is illuminated, save for Alexis's own glowing visage, is a pair of glowing red crosses, getting closer.
"I can make you better. I can take your pain from you. Your suffering. Your fears. All of it, I can pull from you..."
When had the crosses started to loom above Alexis, shining red light down on him?
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
... Ah. Of course, Alexis realizes, now. He would have the capacity to do that.
"You aren't the only one with such a capacity, you know," Alexis replies. He doesn't overtly betray his emotions as his hand emerges from his cloak, holding a vicious spear. "Indeed, it would hardly be the first time I faced such vicissitudes in my history! For you, however, I suspect this would be the sort of new experience you would rather avoid."
"... but," he eventually finishes, "I see no reason either of us need to resort to such things. If you truly believe a bond with others would be so curative -- I could, I suppose, begin with you!" There's his good-humored tone again. "Don't hesitate to call on me as you explore the world, hm? Perhaps you'll find something in it that will be stimulating for both of us."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
As the lights flicker back on, Alexis does not see any sort of looming threat above him -- instead, Shozo is looking up at him from below, tears in his eyes. Who could have believed one of those could cry?
"I don't want to do that to you, Mr. Alexis..." he said, looking heartbroken. "I don't want you to be scared and hurt anymore. But if I take those things from you, it would be... something I can't take back, I think..." He trudges back to the chair and sits down, sniffling, before looking back up at the Hyper Majin.
"Do you want to hurt forever?"
It is an honest question, but from someone -- someTHING like him, it is also an offer.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis's gaze turns back down. ... Interesting. This one is so different from the rest of them -- a singular existence, in the same way as Alexis himself. Very strange to countenance.
The question Shozo asks is difficult -- or perhaps more pointedly, the things it implies are difficult. They demand things from him in a way that is rare -- the closest anyone has come is Kaworu, and in some ways, he's easier to divert.
What Alexis ultimately settles on, then, is:
"I choose to remain as I am."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo looked down sadly.
"...It would be nice to imagine, though. Wouldn't it?"
The sky out the window shudders back to the midnight blue of the Tsutsujidai evening.
"I don't really have the right to pass judgment on you or anything... But at some point, Gridman and the others are going to fight you, and it's going to be for keeps. I just want everyone to have a happy ending if that happens. Him and his friends, and you as well." Shozo balls up his fists and looks up at Alexis again. "I think that if you refuse to ever change, all that will happen is you... breaking, when you could bend."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"I see," Alexis says. For a little while, that is all he says, as he remains comfortably ensconced in this little slice of space -- as it returns to Tsutsujidai, he notices, with a glance out the window.
"It does offer a certain nostalgia," Alexis muses, as he starts to move to leave. "It certainly marks you as an innocent, in a way I would hardly expect of someone of your provenance."
Still, Shozo is what he is. Alexis is eager to see the inevitability slam shut on this. "... I did mean what I said, you know. Don't hesitate to call upon me in the future, should you need help." Should he not be further interrupted, he does move to leave, in that way that is uniquely his.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo makes no move to stop Alexis from leaving -- whatever this was, Shozo certainly seems sincere about wanting to help Alexis.
When the Hyper Majin has left, Shozo walks over to the phone and fumbles to call Borr.
"B-Borr? Can you come home?" he sniffles into the phone. "I think I messed up..."