2023-07-25: Enemy is Another Big! - Preiddeu Annwyn
- Cast: C.C., Emilia Eschonbach, Kallen Kozuki, Kaworu Nagisa, Sayoko Shinozaki, Roger Smith
- Where: Paradigm City
- Date: U.C. 0097 07 25
- Summary: The Black Book of Carmarthen, Act 5 - The Spoils of Annwyn. Paradigm City's truth collides with its lie.
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
The tallest tower in Paradigm's central dome overlooks the glittering, immaculate kingdom within - and its vast windows let its 'king' gaze upon it all. 'Patricia Lovejoy', the mischievous woman known to some as 'Angel', stands dutifully at the side of Paradigm's CEO, Alex Rosewater, a broad and stocky bulwark of a man, hands steepled together.
"It's a simple job, you see. Our former employee, Michael Seebach, refuses to accept his severance pay, and procedures are procedures." He holds up a check for an amount whose zeroes stretch out into infinity - in the somewhat dream-like haze that lingers in Paradigm City, it's the concept of money as an absolute.
This isn't 'just' severance pay, is it? It is a command. An insistence on returning to the fold of rigid order. You will be forgiven for attempting to burn down this garden of paradise, so long as you submit to returning to a cog within its machinations.
"Of course, you'll all get a cut - don't mistake my willingness to 'negotiate' with the Britannians as submission in turn - that's why I've brought you here, the Black Knights, who they describe as some enemy or another. Really, your tactics with that scoundrel, Jason Beck, only serve to show how useful you are to me, since it's not like he can offer you more money than I can."
How useful the money of the Paradigm Corporation is outside of Paradigm, of course, is up for debate. It may even cease to exist outside of this little metropolis's bubble.
-----------------------
The address given is the site of a masquerade ball. As soon as the elevator hits its apex, decadence and indulgence are the rule of the day. Feasting, overflowing, drinking, hedonism. Glass clattering against glass and shattering to raucuous applause. The richest men and women in all of Paradigm grinning ear to ear with black and white masks across their eyes - comically tiny, as though they only are worn to convince oneself to be absolved of responsibility.
...And at the door...
"Well met, and welcome to our gathering," a stilted and measured, yet youthful-sounding voice emits from down low. Clad in a red and black checkered robe, light blonde hair cascading down his back...it's unmistakeably the strage 'informant' Schwarzwald's been working with, to those who spied him back in the underground. V.V., to the handful still who'd know that name. "Please, as per the formalities of this gathering - it's healthy to entertain your environment just a little." He's handing out a matching mask to everyone who enters...though...
...considering the state of seeming drunken lunacy everyone is held in at this party - maybe it's not a good idea?!
<Pose Tracker> Sayoko Shinozaki has posed.
Amongst the hustle and bustle of the party's wealthy attendees move those who are invisible despite being in plain sight. Those whose masks and outfits, formal and fancy enough to fit in to this environment but which represent a class status no where near the rest, separate them from their betters. The men and women and other who are the true unsung heroes of the high society party scene. The server staff.
One such server walks up to the group, hand holding a tray out towards the group of new arrivals after the welcome from the mysterious V.V. The server asks, "Refreshments?"
The voice is familiar!
As is the maid headband atop this woman's head.
What better way for a maid to scout out a location ahead of time than to do what she does best?
Roger Smith teleports in.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Kaworu regards Alex Rosewater with a polite lack of comprehension when he explains about Michael Seebach and this severance pay. Hands tucked in his administrator suit, he regards the check and its absurd number of zeroes. It's a simple job, to the point where it isn't about the check, but what that check represents. Kaworu understands this intellectually. What he doesn't understand is the need for certain Lilim to do this sort of thing in the first place.
He looks back up, but now over at Angel. She seems to be on the fringes of this whole affair.
Which is all well and good. He is, too.
----
Roger Smith provides a much-needed service in Paradigm, the amnesiatic city. Kaworu has been assisting him in this matter a bit as a fellow member of NERV. However, he's not really interested in playing along with the debauched scene at the masquerade ball. He gazes within at the guests, screaming with laughter and rolling in their drink and other things as masks serve as the pithiest censor bars for their true identities. Then he gazes down at the 'child' at the door, offering masks to newcomers, citing its health benefits.
"Is it?" he wonders to V.V., eschewing his name for now. "I'll pass. I don't intend to linger here."
The server who offers him a drink is met with a friendlier smile. "No thank you. I won't be here long," he tells Sayoko even so.
<Pose Tracker> Roger Smith has posed.
"Michael Seebach... so, you believe that man is still alive. I'll take the job, but you can keep your money."
It's a pointless act of defiance. In this city, what Alex Rosewater wants, he gets. The corporation is both church and state.
And yet, Alex Rosewater is not this city's God. It's important to remind him of that. The small frustrations of living as a mortal man - Can a man like this bear them with grace, or will they boil their way over the neck of that tailored suit?
You have to use your pent-up energy to fight through the harshness of reality. That's Roger Smith's Rule No. 2.
---
There's a moment of distaste on Roger's face as he enters the scene - though it vanishes easily enough behind the hand stripping away his sunglasses, and firmly adjusting his tie. He peers down at the young man offering the masks, taking one and turning it in his hand... though it doesn't venture anywhere near his face. It's just a curiosity, for now, but of course -- it's also a gift from the enemy.
"This is quite the party for a dead man. After all, these days, he's no longer Michael Seebach, but Schwarzwald, isn't that right? Nonetheless, it's Michael Seebach I'm here to see today."
His other hand slips into his coat pocket - a threatening gesture for some, but the Negotiator doesn't carry any weapons. The most dangerous thing on his person is a very fancy wristwatch.
"The Paradigm Group would like to make his resignation formal... and ensure he receives his severance pay, you see."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Once again, Emilia Eschonbach finds herself somewhere she thinks she shouldn't be, standing alongside the others at this 'negotiation'.
She stays quiet, but her eyes widen underneath her visor as the check is shown. Someone could do whatever they wanted with that much money- why refuse it?
Her eyes glance to Kaworu, standing next to the imposing man in black. Her identity is hidden by hood, mask and visor. But Kaworu's smart, she knows this. Could he recognize her. Would he say anything if he did? ...would he warn Ranka that she's hanging out with a terrorist?
These distracting thoughts ensure the weight of the implications don't manage to land on Emilia's thoughts. It's a baffling situation. Why all this, just to give someone a check?
Still, the decision is made, and once they start, Emilia mutters something to her compatriots. "...I didn't th-think we were here to be. Hired muscle. I th-th-thought we were here to l-learn something." She sounds... frustrated. And more than a little petty.
----
Attending a party like this had not been something Emilia had expected to do. Acquiring an appropriate dress had been easy- even if it was a rental. It was a sleeveless black on black affair, with a twin layered skirt. She had long black gloves, with a gold bracelet around her left wrist. Her lavender hair- easily her most distinctive feature- was done up in a high bun, and a black, top-hat like fascinator sat atop her head- and a simple black mask covers her upper face and eyes.
"I d-d-don't... Wh-why are we d-d-d-doing this?" She whispers to the woman whose arm she enters on. This place felt... off. Dangerous. A party for rich people to cut loose. The boy at the door offers her a mask, and she accepts it nervously even if she has her own already. She doesn't want to cause a scene.
She stuck close to Kallen, scanning the room. They had an idea of the man they were looking for...
But the way she tries to make out faces under the masks seems different to that.
As if looking for some face she might recognize from the city that once stood here.
<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
The work given to them is, on its face, seemingly honest. But in this city, nothing is ever quite so straightforward. Kallen Kozuki has spent a great deal of time in the past weeks, mingling amongst the regular lives of Paradigm City. As had been offered in suggestion, learning about the people. Earning their trust. Discovering their opinions on the various names and faces. This of course, includes their thoughts on This Man.
Still, there was little choice in the end, in agreeing to this deal. To the job itself, if not all the specifics. Whatever she may have gathered about Rosewater himself, there's no denying that Seebach, or rather, Schwarzwald, is a problem. As is his association with the enigmatic and dangerous V.V. That those two are their objective, has in fact put her on high guard. Given the information, scant though it might be, that she was so kindly given. For this part of the work, accepting this job, she had come clad in a properly pressed and fresh suit, as is only proper for making a professional impression.
---
Contrast then, to the refined crimson dress she has obtained and changed into, sometime between then and her arrival at the 'party'. Her hair has been fully tamed, yet shifted from a 'professional' style, to one more befitting 'elegance'. Elbow length gloves to match the dress. A pair of high-end heels. A silver bracelet on her right wrist.
It's a strange thing, the uses she has found for the societal outing lessons drilled into her for so many years. Exactly how to carry herself, to present as a woman of wealth and class. To many, it would no doubt present them with an existential crisis. Or wonder if Kallen perhaps has been switched for a body double.
But of course, she has not come alone. Tonight, she has her gorgeous best friend at her arm. Between the two of them, one could imagine not a single eye anywhere else, were this a normal party.
But it is FAR from a normal ball. As that... false child's presence, so cleanly displays. Still, she politely takes a mask as offered, without wearing it. She's well aware at this time. Any 'gift' from that person would be laced with a poison. Perhaps not so literally, but a hazard all the same. Besides, she's wearing a mask already. The mask known as Stadtfeld. "Kind thanks to you." She's content to let Roger do the lion's share of the talking for the moment. As she observes their surroundings. The crowd of masked people, drowning in their anonymity. Lost to the idea of consequence-free indulgence...
A glance to the girl at her side, who truly is stunning. "We're learning about another facet of this city. Of its people." She leans in, a hand touching Emilia's cheek to sell the illusion they're presenting. "And you couldn't be safer, than here at my side." Technically not true, but perhaps reassuring all the same?
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
It isn't exactly hard to find Michael Seebach - that is, Schwarzwald. Near one of the massive bay windows, a massive, hulking jester laughs and giggles festively - where one would expect to see his neck and hands, only bandages cloak his form.
"Aahahahah...so! That man is so hungry to imprison me, to imprison the TRUTH in his gazette made of lies, that he'd send whatever dogs he can scrounge together? Not merely the strays that roam this city's streets, but youuu...!" Schwarzwald looms over Roger enough to blot out the pale green dome-light filtering through the windows - before he gets his bandaged mitts on the severance check, his grin only widening the longer and longer it goes.
"Desperation! Futility! The pathetic command of a man who would turn the world over to enslave another, not knowing how easy mankind is made slaves to their own desires! Ahahaha...just look around you! All of them, gorging themselves on the wine of excess, shackles to their own power and wealth, unknowing of how little meaning it all has..."
"Everything they represent can just burn to ashes!!!"
In one fluid motion, Schwarzwald flicks out his gleaming metal lighter - and sets Rosewater's check aflame, cackling to himself as the fire courses from end to end, becoming naught but black cinders in his hands.
...and at the same time...
Scream after scream echoes from the partymembers. Their masks all catch ablaze in concurrence with that rejection - and they clutch at their own eyes in desperation, clawing and gouging to try and remove the masks - but to no avail indeed. Lust and gluttony spoil immediately in the face of pain, and in their wild, blinded scrambling for help...
Many of the partygoers hurl out the windows of the penthouse, plummeting like smoldering comets to the streets.
As if it couldn't get any more chaotic...
A massive bandaged hand rises from below, right in front of one of the shattered windows behind Schwarzwald. Laughing maniacally to himself, he hurls into its grip - which closes tightly, as the colossal figure rises higher and higher. It looks like no less than an enormous mummy, blue eyes gleaming beadily from deep in its wrappings - and just as he did back in the underground, this titan's seemingly ordinary cloth bands extend and encoil into the ruined penthouse like serpents.
All the while, V.V. stands idly by, his mask roaring with flame with no reaction on his part, seeming almost bored - lightly amused, at most. "...Finding it favorable, then, Schwarzwald? Prove to me that you have the potential of the Dominus. Don't let me have wasted my time giving you the answers you seek."
Kaiju Navi teleports in.
KTS: Kaiju Navi has deployed in Big Duo.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
When Roger accepts one of those masks, Kaworu gives him a sideways glance. However, since he doesn't put it on, Kaworu doesn't say anything about it. Curiosity is all fine and good, and he doesn't intend to interfere with any of the partygoers' revelry, but he can't say he cares for the atmosphere of this soiree.
"Why is there a party?" he wonders to Roger, sotto voce. "This seems quite unlike any funerary rites I know of, nor does it match the personality of the man we met in the underground. Is this a local tradition?"
He doesn't pay too much mind, at least openly, to the Black Knights who've come with them to the get-together. Emilia may worry that Kaworu will recognize her, but if he has, he's only offered her a smile and nothing more. Kallen is no doubt less worried after that conversation they had in the city some time ago, since she would know he isn't bothered by their secrets.
Likewise, when they soon encounter Schwarzwald by the window, Kaworu looks at him politely with hands still in his suit pockets. He doesn't react when the bandaged pierrot sets that infinity check aflame; money means nothing to Kaworu. A second before the masks ignite, however, his eyes go wide, and tension lines his silhouette.
"Don't!" he urges him--but it's too late. The masks go ablaze, and laughter melts into screams as the partygoers try to no avail to remove their masks. He turns sharply to the others as Schwarzwald makes his cackling exit onto a similarly bandaged, massive hand. "I'll take care of the civilians. You all deal with him," he says, brooking no argument.
He'll hurry then to take up a tablecloth with a swift flick of a wrist and use it to suffocate the flames of those who still remain on the floor, one by one--for as long as they remain.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
He, perhaps notably, doesn't even bother going to V.V.'s side, despite him also being aflame. If that happens at all, it'll be after everyone else who remains has been taken care of.
<Pose Tracker> Roger Smith has posed.
"That man... has a real disdain for those who enjoy the luxury of Paradigm's domes. In that regard, I suppose we're not so different. Putting on an extravagant show like this is exactly the sort of sick joke he'd find funny."
With a little clearing of his own throat, Roger steps toward that twisted jester, and then leans back from the leering invasion of his space.
"Allow me to be clear. My job was simply to deliver your severance pay. It was entirely your own choice to burn it."
There's a flicker of disruption in the Negotiator's cool as he flicks the burning mask from his hand with a little gasp of dismay. It only lasts a moment, though, as he meets Schwarzwald's mad gaze.
The way he talks, and writes - it's an inhumane view of the Truth, isn't it? One that seeks to tear down all the illusions of life, all its comforts. One that's perfectly capable of reducing humans and their lives to symbols, and rendering judgment on them in perfect self-satisfaction.
Maybe a different man would say as much. Roger Smith just turns his head enough to nod in affirmation of Kaworu's request, and then, gripping his watch - to plunge himself through shattered glass, staring that giant dead in the eye.
"Big O! It's Showtime!"
The black behemoth rises from Paradigm's streets, its arms cocking back as it settles into a fighting stance. The radio crackles.
"Master Roger, I am dreadfully sorry. I haven't managed to properly replace the munitions you used up dealing with that Beck character. That is--"
"I'm unarmed, hm? It's fine, Norman. I'm sure you did a wonderful job on the maintenance as always."
KTS: Roger Smith has deployed in The Big O. KTS: EN Barrier activated! KTS: Roger Smith targets Kaiju Navi with Strike Pile Jab! KTS: Roger Smith has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to parry Roger Smith's Strike Pile Jab, taking 3980 damage! KTS: Roger Smith has engaged Kaiju Navi! KTS: Roger Smith begins a Formation attack! KTS: Kaiju_Navi has deployed as a Boss for 5 opponents. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has deployed in Plan 1059 Codarl-m 'Rapunzel'. KTS: Sayoko Shinozaki has deployed in RK-92 Savage. KTS: Sayoko Shinozaki has changed loadout.
<Pose Tracker> Sayoko Shinozaki has posed.
The new arrivals decline any of the refreshments offered by Sayoko, so she of course gives them a bow in response and moves off. She continues to make her way through the party, eyes watchful for the unexpected while the others approach Schwarzwald with that cheque. The lighting of the offered money is unusual, but not an immediate threat. No, that instead comes from elsewhere!
It's Kaworu's warning moments beforehand that gets Sayoko's mind spinning as to the reason behind it. And her mind settles on one course of action: She reaches up, ripping off the mask she had donned, to blend in with the other servers, and sending it flying just as it bursts into flames.
Sayoko's polite smile is quickly replaced with a more stern one as she starts off in a run. As she does so, she reaches up to grab at the server attire she's wearing, pulling on it. Amidst a flourish of clothing, said attire is discarded, revealing the white and deep violet of Sayoko's ninja gear beneath, complete with orange scarf.
Sayoko flings the server tray in her hands towards the nearest window, smashing it open before she leaps out of it.
The ninja maid falls a short distance, before landing atop the head of a stone gargoyle attached to the building's exterior. She watches the bandaged titan rise up, her scarf blowing in the wind.
With another leap, Sayoko lands atop the roof of a nearby building. She runs across it before leaping off the other side and vanishing behind it.
A short time later, the black Savage seemingly armed with only the two straight blades on its back leaps up to land on the rooftop Sayoko had just vacated. It reaches behind its back for just a moment, producing a set of kunai which it sends flying towards the titan's eyes. They explode as they get in proximity.
Over the radio, Sayoko's voice warns, <"[We should act swiftly. This titan could cause considerable damage to the city."> And them, of course.
KTS: Sayoko Shinozaki has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sayoko Shinozaki targets Kaiju Navi with Explosive Kunai Throw! KTS: Sayoko Shinozaki has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
The initial task is set. The money handed over to the cackling madman, lost in his pursuit of Truth. What he does with it beyond that, matters not. Though she wouldn't mind asking the man questions... It's been long evident that his mind is too taken with madness to truly provide many of the answers she may seek. If he ever knew them to begin with.
And so, when he opts to burn the money, she has no care of it. No... it's only when the people catch flame, that her ire is raised. On cue, she hurls her own mask, left merely in hand, until it sticks to a window. Spreading its heat across the glass. An instant later, a mummified giant rises from the abyss of the streets below. How many stories down is it? That question matters not.
A glance is spared to the people within. And then Kaworu, who has volunteered to protect them. "We'll be seeing you in the aftermath then." And to her 'date' for the evening, a cool grin crosses her lips. "Hold on tight and curl inward a moment. I'll keep you perfectly safe." And before those words have even been finished, she's already performed a sweeping motion with her arms, to lift Emilia into a bridal carry as she leaps over a snaking bandage. A quarter turn, and then her left heel rockets off the foot, shattering the same window she had thrown a flaming mask into.
And in an instant, the lady with crimson hair, date still secured in her arms, has sprinted out the window, descending in a manner that defies logic and physics alike. In mid-air, she reclaimed her shoe first, and then began hopping from pane to pane of shattered, descending glass, until she can land atop the outstretched hand of a familiar avian Knightmare. No doubt somebody is going to have questions later... but in a city such as this, are death-defying displays of drama and action really so out of place?
Upon her landing, she sets Emmy down carefully, making sure she hasn't even the faintest trace of glass dust upon her. "We've only just arrived, and already the final dance of the evening. Shall we take their breath away?" She's REALLY gotten into the spirit of this place tonight, hasn't she?
No sooner has she sent Emmy on her way to the Rapunzel, than does the Guren itself spring to life. A dress isn't really ideal for the motorcycle-style piloting setup unique to her machine, but that certainly won't stop her from pushing the recently repaired Guren to take action. For dealing with this kind of enemy, she'll try a different tactic than usual. Two Harkens rip out from the Guren's chest as it races forward. A pair of sturdy cables, to wrap around the legs of a giant. Perhaps the gesture is futile... and yet, to bring such a gargantuan thing to its knees, sometimes one needs only the smallest of figures.
KTS: Kallen Kozuki has deployed in Type-02 Guren Mk. II. KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Kaiju Navi with Slash Harken Entangle! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayoko Shinozaki rattles Kaiju Navi, making its next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to intercept Sayoko Shinozaki's Explosive Kunai Throw, taking 4050 damage! KTS: Kallen Kozuki anchors Kaiju Navi, forcing it into close range. KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Kallen Kozuki's Slash Harken Entangle, taking 2190 damage! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has engaged Kaiju Navi! KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has deployed as a Sub Pilot for Roger Smith! <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"I-if you say so," Emilia says, blushing a little under Kallen's touch. It feels... a little unfair to Kallen to be playing this act, but it was better they move together- and the two of them together made the most sense.
"...It's n-not s-s-safety I'm worried about." She says quietly, as much as she appreciates Kallen gesture.
And then the man named Schwarzwald makes himself known, as Roger Smith tries to get him to accept the check. Maybe this will be quick and easy-
It isn't. The room- and the guests- burst into flames, and Emilia hurls the mask she was holding as it lights in her hand. "Wh-what's-"
% Kaworu moves to start smothering the guests-
And outside, a mummified giant looms.
This must have been what they were hired muscle for. Her eyes cast briefly back towards the guests-
-but ultimately, Kaworu has asked them to deal with him.
"O-okay!" Emmy replies, as Kallen suddenly sweeps up. She curls up close, as best as she can.
The fall, past broken class, and Kallen sets down on the surface level, setting Emmy down as well. She really hadn't expected Kallen to make a move like that but, well. Daring was kind of her MO.
"Yeah. L-let's." She stammers out, lacking anything nearly as cool to say. While Kallen runs for the Guren, Emilia turns and dashes for the Rapunzel.
A dress isn't ideal, and she hikes up her skirt and slips her legs into the ARM Slave's control systems, her arms following suit. As she does so, Rapunzel's simple AI drones to life. "Systems online. Engaging combat mode."
The purple arm slave bursts from the darkness, a pistol drawn, opening fire on the giant with a sudden snapshot, the three red eyes glinting in the dark.
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Kaiju Navi with ARCADIA Auto 57mm Heavy Pistols Snapshot! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Emilia Eschonbach's ARCADIA Auto 57mm Heavy Pistols Snapshot, taking 2625 damage!
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
Schwarzwald's laughter echoes across the streets of central Paradigm as the Megadeus and his colleagues emerge in such spectacular fashion. "Good. Good!! I wouldn't have it any other way! The black Megadeus, a Memory that flees from scrutiny just when it's resurfaced. And our guests, a Fiction that can't help but assert its own rules even as the rules of this city contort them![norma]
The massive lumbering mummy's feet dig into the asphalt from the combined light assault of the Black Knights, the tangled cord of the slash harkens weaving and winding among the bandages, peppered with hole after hole, revealing the faintest hint of red beneath. "Fruitless, fruitless! You in your glorified toys, attempts to soften the wonderful glow of pure destruction - you don't stand a single chance! A knife in the dark is a romantic way to think about changing the world, but it can never compare to utter cataclysm! Gyahahaha!!!"
All the while, behind Kallen and Emilia sharing their 'dance', two ribbons of fabric snake along the pavement - lunging out and attempting to wrap around their legs, in a mirror to the usual tactic of the harkens.
"And as for you..." The Big O's rearing fist is met with Schwarzwald lunging out his own monstrosity's arm. It's uncanny how the two are matched in posture and bulk so eerily similarly - the might within the wrapped monster's arm matching the Big O's pound for pound. But the wraps slowly spin and whirl, turning their flexible structures into a whipping, cutting frenzy that shears at Roger's fingertips. "So terrified of the inevitable nature of ruin that you're more willing to let me have my way - than you are to cause some of it yourself? Roar, Megadeus! Let me hear your scream of iron - the siren call of the Memory made to be forgotten!!"
In his mania, however...Schwarzwald hasn't kept on top of the literal ninja in the room - and while the kunai doesn't do much direct damage, it does set the thing ablaze - a fire that rapidly starts spreading across the entire machine's form. Schwarzwald's 'coherence', as it were, breaks utterly in the face of flame - as much as he favors it himself, he seems equally cursed to become utterly undone by it, as though everything he touched became doused in gasoline. Screaming and staggering, the titanic mummy becomes an effigy in fire - and one of those rapidly falling apart bands lurches towards Sayoko blindly...
---------------------
...Kaworu's efforts to help the unfortunate partygoers calms the chaos in the now ruined penthouse, but even when the fire is quelled, the exhausted survivors continue to laugh drunkenly to themselves, giggling in spite of the burns on their face. It's a more hollow laughter though - they turn balefully towards the sight of the clashing Big O and its mummified rival. It's a collision of Memory too harsh to bear for most...
"...Just like before, you're focused on trivial little things more than the bigger picture, huh?" V.V. muses, the flickering flames on his mask finally dying out - seemingly no worse for wear, burns briefly visible before fading like ash. "I'll never understand you. What kind of entity cares so much more for props meant to be shattered than the opera using them as a metronome? It's frustrating, that you, the fruit of that fateful impact, cares so much about everything that's supposed to just dissolve in the end..."
KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Emilia Eschonbach with Mummy Wrap Ambush! KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Kallen Kozuki with Mummy Wrap Ambush! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Roger Smith with Mummy Wrap Cutter! KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Sayoko Shinozaki KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Sayoko Shinozaki with Mummy Wrap Encoiling! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach successfully eVADEs Kaiju Navi's Mummy Wrap Ambush KTS: Kallen Kozuki successfully evades Kaiju Navi's Mummy Wrap Ambush KTS: Sayoko Shinozaki successfully EvAdEs Kaiju Navi's Mummy Wrap Encoiling KTS: Roger Smith blocks Kaiju Navi's Mummy Wrap Cutter, taking 1050 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi has engaged Roger Smith! <Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Though the attendants of this party may be too rich to care about what happens to anyone else, and may well deserve judgment, their time to be judged is not now. At least one of them was able to remove their masks in time, though she too makes a window-bound exit. Kaworu assumes she knows what she's doing. With a smile farewell-for-now to Roger, Emilia, and Kallen, he gets to work on putting out those on fire.
Once the last of them has been safely extinguished, he gazes out among them and their charred faces. Medical professionals will need to tend to them now... though judging by their drunken laughter, they at least don't feel any pain. He takes a moment to make calls to arrange that--and then, finally, he looks over at V.V., still aflame, but only for a few seconds longer. The fading burns don't get so much as the twitch of an eyebrow.
"It's the consequence of living among Lilim. Though each one may be a speck in the sands of time, they are also lives fully lived and realized," he replies. "I'm well used to the scenario that would treat them as background props to ultimately dissolve into one, like you described. But there are those who would find them precious even so--and even an individual can change the world."
As much as the two could have a full conversation on that matter, however... There's Schwarzwald himself to attend to. And listening to him now, it seems as though V.V. has indeed let him in on some of the secrets of the world. At least, his maddened ramblings have more of a ring of truth to them now, or at least the truth as seen by those who would return everything to nothing.
He strolls to one of the shattered windows, just over the black Megadeus. The wind whips at his hair and his tie, but Kaworu minds them not. His hands remain in his pockets, where his smartphone comes to life...
"<Utter cataclysm... So you believe that all must be destroyed before the world can be built anew, Schwarzwald?>" he transmits through the collected mechs. "<Ruin may be inevitable, but to give oneself fully over to it with no hope for the future is a sad way to live one's life. Still, I understand. You've decided to play your role out to the very end.>"
He shifts his gaze to Big O. The monitor within it will crackle to life and display a snowy portrait of Kaworu. "<Roger Smith. If this world does indeed insist on a prewritten ending, then I believe your victory is assured. Show Schwarzwald that truth.>"
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Roger Smith with Awe! KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Roger Smith KTS: Kaworu Nagisa inspires awe, increasing Roger Smith's Morale! KTS: Roger Smith has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Roger Smith has activated the Valor Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Roger Smith has posed.
As ever, the Black Megadeus simply weathers the storm. Sparks fly as something scrapes against the tremendous black shields on its arm, and Roger grips the controls, gritting his teeth through the clash. This Megadeus Schwarzwald has found... just what type is it? Was he also drawn to another machine like the Archetype?
What is the Truth of the man who burned away Michael Seebach to stand in his place?
Whatever the case, if you want to live a happy life in this city, you ought to leave memories alone when they pop up. That's Roger Smith's Rule No. 1.
"You talk too much, Schwarzwald. Maybe you do know something I don't... But whether it's about the past, or the future, I don't really care. The facts worth understanding are right here in the present - in a city where people, with no past to call their own, went right on living! I won't hand them over to you or that friend of yours to play with!"
The Megadeus rears back a fist, eyes flashing - but in place of the expected punch, a piston slams into place, a burst of pressure blasting out of the Megadeus's wrist to scour its opposite number.
KTS: Roger Smith targets Kaiju Navi with Burst Impact! KTS: Roger Smith has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
The Mummy's bandages seek for the Rapunzel's leg, and the Rapunzel leaps into the air, the AS' mobility saving her as the bandage flies for her, pulling her second pistol to fire on the damned thing and hopefully shred it before it finishes closing.
She lands, then, in the middle of the street, now able to get a clear view of the giant Megadeus. "<What are. You. Talking about!?>" Comes the staccato, modified voice of Rapunzel's pilot, lining up her pistols again. "<Memory? ...Fiction? What does that. Have to do. With anything!?>"
She lines up her pistols as she talks, taking aim. Is there a weakness in that mass? What would it even be?
Wordlessly, she looks to the Guren. Something this big is going to require teamwork. It's not like carving through KMFs. She opens fire on one of the Big's legs, hoping Kallen can take advantage of the weak spot.
"<You keep! Talking like you! Know something!>" She shouts, angrily despite the distortion. "<...Why is this place. Here, then!?>"
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Kaiju Navi with ARCADIA Auto 57mm Heavy Pistols Aimed Shot! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Roger Smith rattles Kaiju Navi, making its next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Roger Smith's Burst Impact, taking 5043 damage! KTS: Roger Smith has engaged Kaiju Navi! KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Emilia Eschonbach's ARCADIA Auto 57mm Heavy Pistols Aimed Shot, taking 2958 damage! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach continues a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Sayoko Shinozaki has posed.
<"To change the world with but the single stroke of a knife takes skill...">
A flaming band lashes out in Sayoko's direction. Her Savage leaps away, letting the fiery wrap whip through the space it had been moments before. The Savage flies towards a nearby building, its hand reaching up to pull forth one of the blades on its back. It stabs it into the building's structure, creating an anchor point to hang from.
<"It takes dedication. And patience...">
The Savage draws its second blade with the other hand, stabbing it into the building a little higher up. It then starts to climb, gaining height on the titan mummy.
<"It takes intellect and wisdom. To see who, what, where and when to strike. To achieve the desired outcome with minimal amount of effort and risk.">
Once deemed to be at a sufficient height, the Savage pushes off from the building, pulling its straight blades flee and leaping through the air towards the titan's head, spinning as it does so. Ports in its arms open, cables within unfurling outwards in a whirling fury around the rotating machine. They light up with flashes of electricity as they are charged, threatening to deliver that energy into the titan's frame.
<"Pure destruction is the realm of those who are lacking.">
KTS: Sayoko Shinozaki targets Kaiju Navi with Shock Wire Hit! KTS: Sayoko Shinozaki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Sayoko Shinozaki's Shock Wire Hit, taking 3834 damage! KTS: Sayoko Shinozaki has engaged Kaiju Navi! <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
A madman and his mummified mechanoid are a truly terrifying force to behold. Interesting that this one is a different beast than the last. Even at a glance that much is obvious. The shape of its body is similar, but where the titan in the tunnels was in... disrepair perhaps, or never completed to begin with, this one seems to have its full range of functions. And based upon the results of her entanglement, this one's armor is far less lacking. She can't help but muse upon what it might be capable of when she sees its own glint of red.
So captured in the moment is she, that she nearly fails to spot the bandages creeping upon she and her partner. Nearly, for they give themselves away from being Too Silent. Lacking any sound of the expected chaos at their flanks. The Guren uses the lashing from its Harkens to spring backward, sailing over the bandage at the same time it rushes forward to try and grab her. "<Eyes on your flanks.>" A warning, quickly, but perhaps unnecessary for her allies.
After all. Both Schwarzwald himself and the mass of bandages begin to burn and fray, creating quite visible fire. But also smoke, obscuring the truth of the giant's form even now. "Such a fickle creature, the flame. No matter how fond we may be of it... No matter all the good it may do. That cleansing burn is ever prone to turn against a careless or abusive master." What has gotten into her tonight? Even she herself can't be certain... but the words simple feel right in the moment.
And of course, she has more than merely words. The city's buildings are ripe territory for a Knightmare Frame, dancing through alleyways and streets, claw at the ready. A Megadeus has excellent armor, but the heat burning all across its body will give it weaknesses. Softened metal that can be exploited! Joints to carve into with this slicing claw! And she's certainly being given exactly the opening she needs. Following the clang and plink of Rapunzel's pistols, darting between the expended shots. A swipe of the claw, leading into a spin and a following lunge, to pierce burning steel and grip the inner workings. No words need be exchanged, for their teamwork. Kallen has instructed Emmy through so many exercises by this point. They've regularly drilled and trained on their cooperative movements. Functioning as a single unit is only expected at this point. It's what they'll need, to overturn the titan of Britannia in the end as well.
KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Kaiju Navi with Iron Nail 'Drill' Slash! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Kallen Kozuki's Iron Nail 'Drill' Slash, taking 7545 damage! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has engaged Kaiju Navi! KTS: Kallen Kozuki completes the Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
The flames may sear away so much of what we hold dear - but if we wish to understand what lies beneath the muck - the purity they reveal tells all.
The forests clear, and the dust they grip together rises.
Beauty and ugliness alike crumble to reveal muscle and bone.
And this false image of a towering bandaged menace...
Beneath it lies a horror from the past.
It could pass for the spitting image of the Big O - it's clearly not just any other Megadeus or wild creation. Its riveted metal frame, red and silver. The bulky, elongated arms - countless vents and ducts belying the complex mechanisms within. The ornate yet cold stare in its eyes.
The Megadeus's fingers spin and whirl - and the lumbering giant begins to do the unthinkable, slowly hovering skywards, its massive tiltrotor arms sending the air around it into a hurricane.
Flickers of a Memory emerge. The flames of war, hellfire scouring the land - civilization toppling in its wake. The indomitable black-iron soldier marching mercilessly. The roaring red inferno, spewing judgment from the unassailable skies. The unwavering general, cautious yet decisive when it takes action. An echo of cataclysmic war - yet at the same time, mythical, figurative, somehow...
"...ahaha. AHAHAHA. For all your valiant struggles...all you bring to yourselves is the more ferocious, more inhospitable reality! Behold! Big Duo! Accepting even a wretched soul like myself as its Dominus - for it, too, knows what lies must be razed! Every brick laid down by a dream - every street that fades like thought. You've felt it. We've all felt it!! Surely, you, outsiders, notice it most...the slithering fingers this accursed city sinks into your heart! The memories that were never here to begin with! Monuments to gods that none ever worshipped! Try to shake a man into realization, and he falls over as though a mere cardboard cutout!!"
"And you...Negotiator. I've had my eye on you. Your 'memories' don't fall into place so easily either. You know it too, deep in your soul, that we stand atop a feeble house of cards. Will you defy it until the very end that it all comes toppling down? Or will my flames act as your mercy - a siren song for you to clamber for your lives towards the bottom! Ahahaha...AHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Big Duo ascends into the heavens - its mass may make it accelerate slowly, but once it starts, it keeps pushing higher and higher, more like a space shuttle in motion than an aircraft. In one final defiance of this city, the man once known as Michael Seebach seeks nothing more than to scar Paradigm's central dome - to leave a shattered rupture in its curved monumentality. To let a single eye of the sky peer through the ominous yellow-green panes.
"...Honestly, as useful as he can be, he sure is a witless one, isn't he?" V.V. says, strolling past Kaworu to stand at the neighboring window, back facing away from the city. "I inform him of a few fundamental facts about this world - its obvious artificiality - and he constructs a religion out of it. I help him awaken a sentinel of this dream's secrets, and he tries to make it 'his own'. Making any use of this place before it washes away is proving to be quite the pain..."
The Code Bearer shoots one side-long glance at Kaworu. "...No wonder you seemed to like it here. Annoying superficialities seem to be what nourishes you. I have to say I disagree with Charles about our findings in Antarctica - in my books, the whole exercise was a pointless, fruitless failure towards our goal."
He steps back, as though to plummet like the other partygoers did-
But of course, trying to track his fall comes up empty. You know how V.V.'s ilk love to exit the stage with their hidden trapdoors.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Kaworu listens in silence to Schwarzwald's ravings as the bandages fall away to reveal a red Megadeus with rockets and propellor arms. Yes, he knows well the truth of this world now. However, for a journalist, he's quite bad at conveying that truth with coherence. Big Duo takes to the skies, and flies, flies, flies through the dome and leaves glass shard snow in his wake.%
V.V. walks up next to him, mostly to jeer and assert his own superiority. "It may be artificial, but there is a real heart at the center of it," Kaworu replies, watching the fragment of sky left in Schwarzwald's wake. "As long as you don't respect that, you won't be able to do anything here." More's the better, in his opinion. If the one at the heart of this world is indeed like Akane Shinjo, then it ill needs V.V. and Charles mucking about.
But he does say one interesting thing. Kaworu returns his side-eye with a faint smile. "Hmm... Is that so?"
In other words, Charles thinks it important still. And his dissent matters far more than V.V. would like it to.
He doesn't stop him from flinging himself off the building. Kaworu already knows he'll survive the fall. Instead, he transmits out to the assembled robots, "<Is everyone all right? ...We should make our way home.>"
<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
And so another mask clatters to the ground before them all. The titan of the skies... "Big Duo... and of course that menace is airborne." Kallen quietly grumbles to herself, about the problems inherent in a close-range ground warfare machine, trying to deal with something that has a pair of forty year old airplanes strapped to its arms! Nothing to be done for it though. He's already taken off to his escape, and the task they were hired for was completed. Dealing with him, and his benefactor, will come in the fullness of time.
A few deep, calming breaths are taken. As a voice reaches to them all. "<Quite well here, yes. Though I feel as if I've learned both a great deal tonight, and yet also nothing at all.>" And so the Guren finds itself in a lower gear, to idle along. Maybe they can all pick up a nice, local meal somewhere to ease their souls. Since they're not inclined to be shooting at one another.
<Pose Tracker> Roger Smith has posed.
"That guy... I can't make heads or tails of him. But there's one thing I do know... that machine was another Big. Just what were... those memories I saw?"
Do they have something to do with how I found Big O? But... I never fought any war like that. And yet, I remember it...
There's just the briefest moment of pressing his palm into his temple, before he shakes his head and sighs.
For a happy life... Roger's rule number one. Whatever that maniac wants, it's not like he won't show up again. A Megadeus like Big O, but with flight like that... will be a very dangerous opponent.
He taps at his controls, crackling back over the radio.
"No more worse for wear than usual. A little bit of a headache, from listening to that jerk run his mouth. That's all it is..."
He wonders if he sounds convinced.