2023-03-21: Sign of Infinity
- Cast: Judau Ashta, Koji Kabuto, Roux Louka
- Where: Fujinomiya City - Infinity Research Site
- Date: U.C. 0097 03 21
- Summary: Koji and Roux introduce Judau to Infinity. Judau takes this revelation pretty much how they expected.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
It's been relatively quiet on the Fuji front despite the Photon Power Lab continuing to shelter the Unicorn. Between the renewed threat of the Oath Over Omega, the machinations of the Vist Foundation and Alexis Kerib, the assault by Atrytone, and the ever-present sword of damocles that is the Britannian Occupation, all three of the city's major facilities under the banner of the Photon Power Research Institute are on full alert, a bustle and purpose about their staff that hasn't been seen in ten years - not since the war with Doctor Hell.
In a way, it's strangely nostalgic; on the other hand, it's a sad reminder that the world has only become worse since those days. On a hypothetical third hand it's a reminder that there are those willing to resist the darkness no matter how much it mounts up against them.
Today we're concerned with the third facility: The incomplete power plant built into the side of Mount Fuji itself, intended to one day be the primary management centre for Photon Power distributed to all of the OCU as opposed to just Free Japan; also designated, within the Research Institute, the 'Anomaly Research Site' - secluded behind a NERV checkpoint, not an OCU one?
Koji's waiting past the aforementioned checkpoint, waiting for Roux and Judau. As they approach, he favours his old friends with a warm smile. "Thanks for coming, guys. You two doing okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Roux Louka returned from space after another battle - the pursuit and conflict against the Phenex, and the unfortunate revelation of whatever, whomever, remains of Elpeo Puru. "Puru-1." The resentments there, the anger, the rage. It was overwhelming, and perhaps only the presence of another bizarre ability protected Roux.
The journey back was long, and it concluded with the discovery of yet another dyad of unholy outcomes. Sayla Mass -- abducted! Char Aznable -- back! And *you'll never guess what the two of them have in common.*
So how is Roux Louka?
"Are you kidding?"
She's doin' fine!
(Earlier, after the journey in space.)
("heh-- it sucks that we always end up like this, doesn't it? We should -- we should do it more often when things are happier.")
("Yeah... I think it... it really was her. I don't have an explanation, but this was something that that Vist b-- I'm not going to swear. But it was her, or as close as makes no difference. ... I tried to get her out, but-- she wouldn't, let me--")
("Listen, though. There's something that Koji found... no, that's not quite right. Look, I trust this house but I don't feel right just explaining it aloud. You wouldn't believe me, anyway. We'll head over there. Do you know what "tabe houdai" is?")
Roux's hair is in a side ponytail. She has somewhat dramatic polycolor eyeliner on but is otherwise in leggings and a waist-wrap that loops over the shoulders, ancient-Greek-style, while also being a faintly temperature-sensitive shade of deep magenta. She bought this in Shangri-la. (There is also a warm jacket, but that was left upstairs.)
"This is ridiculous," Roux huffs. "It's like the season writers are trying to save a cancelled drama! I don't know, Koji, but it's all flying straight to shit and I'm hoping that it's not going to get any further. It has to stop sometime, right? Don't make a face at me! I can read your vibes, you know. But I wanted all the cards on the table."
"Everything's coming together in weird ways and I have this unfortunate feeling that there's some kind of connection," Roux continues as she walks past the NERV checkpoint, giving a NERV goon a side-eye but no further aggravation as she gets scanned and her totally legitimate ID card swiped.
On the other side of the portal, Roux lingers.
Both to look at Judau Ashta with a curiously vulnerable look...
... and to take custody if he ends up in a fight with what Roux is assuming are approved paramilitary guards that Koji does not object to.
<Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.
EARLIER!
Everything is awful!
NOW!
Everything is still awful!
But, you know. The awfulness is in a state of flux!
It's hard to feel good about that considering the track record of things going from awful to 'more awfuler,' but, Judau Ashta's learned one important thing from the First Neo Zeon War:
You take your breathers where you can, because you never know when exactly things are going to hop right into that More Awfuler phase.
It's why even in this situation, visiting Photon Power Lab isn't so bad. It's familiar and, even if it's the source of a more recent, painful memory of his encounter with the Banshee and its pilot ("It's her, but... I dunno; it's weird," had been Judau's summary of his feelings on 'Puru-1' in his talks with Roux), he's known enough good times with Koji and the rest that it outweighs the bad.
It's why, despite it all, Judau is bearing an unbeatably friendly smile as he approaches alongside Roux, bedecked in that signature red jacket, a white shirt and dark jeans; arms stretched up over the top of his head, his smile becomes a grin as he lifts one hand to offer Koji an approaching wave. He's about to answer --
When Roux just goes into it, with gusto. Judau, mouth open, pauses; waits for her to finish, staring sidelong at her; and then he looks back at Koji, shrugs, and thumbs in her direction.
"Uh, yeah. What she said." What can he say, she summarized it perfectly.
"Everything's kinda shitty right now, y'know? It's good to see this place is still standin'."
Standing, but accessorized with FEDERAL PRESENCE decor. Judau blinks, taking stock of the checkpoint as Roux moves her way through it. He squints; he squints big. "Sup." he says, in that flat, casually hostile way someone gets when they feel the urge to be contradictory coming on. But then Roux gives him that Look, and --
"C'mon, c'mon, hurry it up!" is about all Judau has to say to the NERV officials as he passes by, a paragon of patience (??) as he is scanned and swiped and comes out totally legitimate, because Judau spares no expense in totally legitimate IDs.
He's not EXACTLY out of earshot when he asks, "Yo Koji, what's up with the all the creepy feds?"
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Ordinarily," Koji answers Judau's loud question, "We would be handling security for a facility like this ourselves, but... Well. When you see what we found, you'll get why we asked NERV for backup. I might trust the organisation about as far as I can throw 'em, but it's better to have the Weird Shit Specialists clued in than not."
He leads the two to the cargo elevator down to the plant's Japanium mine. "We got raided a short while ago by a team of Arm Slave pilots led by Atrytone - Roux might have told you about her? She wanted to get at some of our stockpile, but she found it, so we're bringing our allies in on it."
The elevator shudders and rumbles, descending deep into the mountain. "This discovery has... changed how we work with Photon Power, our understanding of Super Alloy metallurgy and other physical material sciences involved in Mazin construction. We've jumped ahead decades just analysing it - although it'll still take years to actually be able to build machines to produce and sculpt our own."
He glances at Judau with a grin. "I'll try to avoid getting too technical."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"Even after everything," Roux echoes Judau. "Including a GOVERNMENT ATTACK! Were you guys here for that?" Roux asks the NERV goons, who do not pay attention to spacenoid harlots on the clock, because NERV has great long-term insurance benefits, and none of them are going to throw that away.
Roux moves into the elevator. She gets out her phone, perhaps to click it off, though she toys with it afterwards as the elevator descends. "Atrytone seemed surprised too," Roux continues, grimly. "I thought she was some kind of a good person at heart, but maybe she's just insane in a different way from the others."
"Because she fought some of the Hell remnants," Roux says to Koji, "then she was working with them now, or something? Or maybe this is independent attacking of your place?? It's screwed up."
She trails off, afterwards.
("Maybe you should put that on your JunkdIn profile," Roux says - sounding somewhat humble as the elevator descends. "Weird Shit Specialist.")
<Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.
FEATURED FLASHBACK TO LIKE TWENTY SECONDS AGO,
wherein Judau Ashta gives Roux Louka a killer high five for her totally sweet burn on the NERV goons who don't pay them any nevermind.
"Gottem!"
AND SO WE RETURN TO NOW,
like, not even twenty seconds later if we're being real here, as Judau steps onto that cargo elevator and his expression slowly shifts from that easygoing grin he somehow manages even when surrounded by a maelstrom of terrible things on the horizon, to... something else.
He's still listening as Roux and Koji explain recent events related to someone named Atrytone as the grin gradually melts like mud slowly washed away by beads of rain; his nose crinkles gently as he looks downward during their descent.
"... I mean, yeah," he mumbles in response to Roux. "It's always screwy. People making alliances for their own benefit an' then stabbin' 'em in the back when it's convenient. It's a bunch of stupid self-interest..." But his words are a distant thing.
Something feels different, about this space. He's not sure how to put it. Not bad, not good. Like the faintest distortion in the air, like an off current before a storm.
He blinks, once, as Koji's words drag him back towards reality.
"Har har," says Judau, who demonstrates his mastery of the technical by flashing Koji what is technically referred to as "the middle finger." Affectionately. Because. ... even he can admit that getting overly technical means he's not going to absorb literally any of it.
He pauses here, though, as he feels something else. Something he can more quantifiably label, as he looks sidelong and -squints- at Roux in a very Sus way.
The feeling of Someone Being Up to Some Shenaniganny Nonsense.
He stares at her for a few seconds of descent before his curiosity - and that strange sensation - get the better of him.
"So what're you sayin'? You found some kinda... super Japanium, or somethin'?" Is that what feels so unusual--?
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
'So what're you sayin'? You found some kinda... Super Japanium, or somethin'?'
"Bigger," Koji answers as the elevator comes to a stop and the doors swing open - and Judau and Roux (the latter of whom, at least, has seen it before), are greeted with that incredible sight. At first it seems so large that it might just be carved stone, but there's the gleam of metal and crystalline glass in the shape of eyes - it's the face of a Mazin of incredible scale, a head as tall as Z itself is. "Quite literally."
Koji waves at the behemoth, fully excavated and surrounded by scaffolding. "We discovered it in January '96, and have been trying to figure out what the fuck ever since. Its current designation is 'Mazinger Infinity', because of the potential just analysing it has revealed in our technology."
He should be used to this by now, but... every time he sees it, he's filled with this sense of equal dread and awe that never seems to dwindle.
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"Even if you wanted to be selfish," Roux says, somewhat wanly, "you're better at it with other people. But the long term..."
Well, hasn't it been on Roux's mind, an awful lot?
But she seems to be managing something else. Roux gives Judau a slightly 'what, what?' look as the elevator reaches the bottom, and she walks forwards, 'idly' carrying the phone in her hand while being somewhat off to Judau's left and holding it with careful casualness.
She takes in a sharp breath at the Sight of the thing again. It's not NEW any more, but it's still.. .
Everything else.
<Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.
Pressure.
It's undeniable and difficult to ignore the deeper they get. But it's not like anything he's ever felt before -- there's usually some kind of human intent behind the sensations he feels. But this is...
The doors hssss open to Judau Ashta, already staring wide-eyed in the direction of...
... what... is it?
It looks like it's carved out of the mountain itself. It looks almost natural. But the way the light catches it betrays something that is man-made, too.
The sight of it dwarfs Judau for a few seconds. It's not a physical thing - though also yes it's absolutely a physical thing because look how FUCKING HUGE IT IS - but it's just... a feeling. A feeling of being cosmically tiny for a few precious moments in the face of something much much --
"Bigger."
Judau repeats lamely, and Roux's SECRET AGENDA is forgotten at the sight of that thing as Judau Ashta hangs still for a whole six seconds and then--
"WHAT D'YOU MEAN 'BIGGER' THIS THING IS LIKE YOU COULD FIT A DOZEN WHOLE OTHER MAZINGERS IN IT"
And so this is Judau's reaction: blurting out wide-eyed surprise as he pivots to GESTICULATE WILDLY at the BIG SIGHT of the MAZINGER FACE that's equal to at least a hundred Judaus on its own! He needs these comparisons! They're the only thing that works!
"What the hell is this thing! It's like -- those -- second phase boss fights where the stupid boss is so big it can't fit on the goddamn stage!!"
look -- he's been playing a lot of games at PPL while keeping Banagher and everyone company
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Judau speaks for all of us. Koji can only nod grimly as the Shangri-La junker, entirely justifiably, flips his shit.
"An excellent question! We have no idea what it is or how it got here. Seismic stability scans of the mining area revealed no sign of a structure this massive under the mountain, and we've never found Mycenaean ruins down here before, either."
"It is a lot like that, huh? God knows how it's supposed to move, the square-cube law should be ripping it apart from the inside out, no amount of ancient super-engineering can withstand that imposition of physics and there's no Minovsky Engine aboard."
He shakes his head. "Like I said, we've been investing most of our resources in trying to answer the ton of questions this thing has dropped in our laps."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Six seconds pass --
and Roux covers her mouth with one hand, turning her face aside -- is she overwrought by the pressure? Has her resolve cracked? Is Infinity making some kind of attack on her even as Judau speaks at length about his fury at just how thicck this big, enormous, titan Mazinger could be?
When Koji starts speaking, Roux straightens up and hits "stop" on the video recording function of the smart phone, turning her head to give Judau the most eloquently evil little-cupid-bow smile that she has managed ever since they came back to the general neighborhood of Earth. She raises a hand to veil her mouth, palm outwards like a Britannian, although her attempt at a laugh comes out as more of "huwaahahahahah" rather than a proper Ojo Sama special.
A deep breath, an exhalation, and she pockets the phone before saying, "Well it couldn't have been here before, right? He explained that to me, like, it WASN'T here, then it was. It wasn't like stealth or anything either!"
Back to Koji, and she says, "Couldn't it be supermetal? I thought Super Alloy could hold up on just about anything. Maybe the engine was removed, or blew up, or something...?"
Roux is guessing wildly because the terror is in fact creeping back now that she has PRANKED HER BOYFRIEND
<Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.
Koji Kabuto invokes the square cube law.
"I mean yeah, duh," agrees Judau Ashta, who just assumes this means you can't fit a cube inside of a square because one is in an entirely different dimension.
This intermission between the former junk trader's freakout lasts a few reasonable seconds of bold assumptions about physical laws before Judau goes back to pointing. Hard.
"How're you even gonna get this thing outta here?!"
In the back of his mind, Judau is probably picturing the mountain top popping open like a cylinder and Infinity rising up on an orbital elevator-scale fireman's pole.
This line of thinking is perhaps tragically never voiced because Judau is busy running off towards the edge of the scaffolding, with intent to hop his feet onto one of the railing bars, put his hands overtop, and leeeeean as close as he can to the intimidatingly impossible monolith of a Mazinger that is giving him existential-grade feelings.
Sometimes we must be reminded of Judau's reckless lack of self-preservation, and this is one of those moments.
Luckily, he's not trying to actually poke it, yet. Probably because he's distracted by the SINISTER SENSATION coming from Roux. He half-turns on the railing, shooting her a deeply suspicious glare at that laugh. That hand-mouth-veil. That EVIL SMILE.
"--You did something weird again, didn't you?!" he accuses, rightfully. "You always do that messed up laugh when you do somethin' weird--"
He has a Bad Feeling about that -- but for now (for now) it takes a back seat as they both muse as to the nature of this... mammothing thing... that just suddenly appeared.
"So it's doing things that a machine shouldn't be able to do," he murmurs. He stares at it for a while, wondering. "Kinda like the Bio-Sensor on the Zetas, huh?" But this kind of scale... it's like if the Double Zeta became cosmic-sized.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Well, if we can figure out how it got here, we might be able to send it back the same way," Koji says with a shrug. "The problem is, we have no idea how that happened, so we can't even get started on reverse-engineering whatever the method was. I have a few theories about using Photon Power to do it, but we'd need to get the local grid reactors running at maximum output just to test them. For now, all we can do is learn everything we can about it and protect it from anyone who'd want to misuse it."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"It isn't weird! It's feminine! Oh my god," Roux says, already in semi-hot pursuit of Judau so he doesn't fall into a void and break his neck or something.
"And you'll FIND OUT what happened when the TIME IS RIGHT," says Roux, who glances - no wifi down here (unless...?) so she just pockets the phone instead.
"Hm... and doing that's probably going to send up a big red flag that you're doing something," Roux answers to Koji, murmuring. As she steps up behind Judau. "And that would mean it would be the perfect time for them to do something. Whoever 'them' might be, Atrytone or Bionet or whoever--"
She puts a hand on the small of Judau's back. Counterbalancing.
"... maybe it's a source of hope," Roux then says, looking back upwards. "Mazinger Z was always one of our strongest allies, right? And I mean, it looks like Mazinger's big..."
"Fath..."
"It's like the god Mazinger Z would have worshipped on Mazing Mazing colony," Roux concludes, scratching the back of her head.
"... Maybe it came here because," Roux begins to say, but the thought doesn't quite finish.
(Later, it will finish in her head: 'to get rid of it?')
<Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.
"Like hell I will! I'm gonna find out before! Or later!"
So vows Judau with great belligerence,
content to shove it in Roux's face just by not learning when the time is right regardless of the how.
At the very least, Judau has more than enough sense of balance to not go toppling over the railing into a Sith Emperor-style ending; it comes from a lifetime of doing ill-advised things like "jumping off one Mobile Suit onto another Mobile Suit while in motion" and also to an equal extent, having Roux to provide silent counterbalance. The young spacenoid leans forward, looking up and at the gigantic face of Infinity, so close and so large now he can barely even parse it as a face from this vantage so much as something monolithic, like an ancient statue. He listens to Koji and Roux even as he looks on at that strange relic of a machine, brows knitting inward and fingers squeezing railing.
"... I think whatever it is depends on who's got it," he murmurs like an afterthought to Roux's observation. What is it Koji says, about gods and devils?
The feeling around this thing is so hard to place. Judau couldn't even begin to explain it. But he knows one thing:
"We gotta make sure it stays outta their hands." Hell's remnants. BioNet. Atrytone. Whoever.
He looks back at Koji, leaning his side against the rail. If nothing else--
"I have no idea what the hell this thing is supposed to be, but if you need backup, I'll help make sure it stays outta those asshole's hands. You wanna test it, you need people to look after it while you do, or whatever -- we got your back, Koji." --he knows a thing or two about Mecha Theft and Mecha Theft Prevention.
--
"Wait, there's a Mazing Mazing colony?? Shit, you think it's from there?!"
...
He's... he's reliable, even despite this.