2023-11-04: It Came From Yapool ~Visitor~
- Cast: Guy Shishioh, Yapool
- Where: Division Train
- Date: U.C. 0097 11 04
- Summary: While Guy ruminates on the events of the Algernon infection that took his crew, the devil in the wings steps onto stage.
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
At the end of it all...two were still alive.
Cactus Prickle and Tamara Gogol were in secure isolation in the Division Train's medical ward. And because Lamia had not stolen away Kamuy's body, but rather simply its Animus Seed, his was not in the morgue, but on a slab in the medical research lab, where Hinoki Sai is right this moment furiously experimenting on cultures of his brain matter to search for the cure to save their friends. Grim work, but...
Two lives can still be saved.
Guy isn't there. Guy is in his office, staring out the small sealable window, hands at his back, contemplating the stars. Not the sweep of the glrorious galactic sky, for once, but rather...
Whispers...several staff had reported it, that day. His fist balls and unballs, worry coming through him. More than whispers...a phenomenon reported by all who had confronted Kamuy and Tamara at the computer core.
"That man in black...what devil are we dealing with now...?"
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
"You're not going to find a solution, but please, by all means, continue to profane your precious friend's body." The cadence of that low, syrupy-sweet voice feels like a hand clasping the back of Guy's neck.
The man in black is sitting on Guy's chair, hands clasped, face in shadow from the wide brim of his hat.
"I do so love occupying space in your thoughts, Guy Shishioh. It's a wonderful little minefield of suffering and self-loathing."
He slowly raises a gloved hand to Guy.
"Hello, I am of Yapool."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
The voice sends a chill down Guy's spine, and the Acting Chief of GGG Green whirls, reflexively presenting his G-Stone-enhanced arm forward in the Green Planet's Purification posture. The mouth of the GaoBrace glares down his arm's length. but...he doesn't draw his real weapons.
It's like when he has to deal with Lamia. Something about this makes him upset on a gut level. Essential but inescapable.
"...polite introductions start with an appointment, typically," Guy says, and specifically doesn't take the offered hand. "Yapool. 'Of' Yapool. Another world, then."
A wonderful little minefield, huh. "You were the one talking to our staff during the Algernon outbreak, weren't you?"
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
The man slowly rises up, up, up, towering over Guy, the ceiling of the train rising with him into darkness -- and then he's looking the Evoluder in the eye.
"So charming that your greeting involves a weapon pointed at me. Maybe there *is* some humanity left in you, Evoluder." He tips his hat and turns around, pacing around the office.
"As for the whispers... The worst I did was ensure that you *heard* them, believe it or not. For a supposed "exemplar of human potential," you and yours are awfully *despised*. Then again, I wouldn't expect anything different. It's human nature."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Oh, that's cool. Zonderians never pulled this one. Except...
Pasdar...the one time he saw EI-01. That same sense of latent enormity. But even that was the sheer scale of his infection of Tokyo. This is...something else. An illusion or the like.
He doesn't break or bend to it. For whatever this man of Yapool says, his courage won't be broken by a few harsh words. However true they may ring. He watches the creature rise, jaw set and eyes focused. "I don't," Guy says flatly. His hand falls to his side, not particularly expecting Purification to be useful here. His telekinetic abilities are a shadow of Mamoru or Ikumi's, anyway. "Is there something you need from GGG, creature of Yapool? Or are you just here to test my patience?"
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Yapool laughs, showing Guy those horrible yellow fangs, like needles filling his mouth.
"Actually, you *do* have something of mine. Of *ours,* rather. The boy is on this train, and I mean to collect him sooner or later... As for *now*, I'm simply enjoying a measure of... autonomy in this universe. It feels *good* to be let in, Evoluder." The Man of Yapool adjusts his hat again, coughing into his gloved hand once.
"And what about *you*, Guy Shishioh? Why have you marshaled so many souls to sacrifice upon the altar of the King of Ruin? Surely you don't think you have a chance..."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Guy's gone face-to-face with monsters. The monster fangs don't startle him. What worries him most is that this thing simply became present. How much of this is an illusion...if he checks the cameras later, just what will they see...
Not the problem now. "...you got in through the wound the King of Ruin made, didn't you?" Guy infers. He doesn't cross his arms. For Taiga, that might be a bold symbol of confidence. For Guy, it's a posture unready for battle. Guy keeps his hands at his sides.
For the Yapool's question, Guy tips up his chin. "I do. I believe in these people and the oath we share. In the friend I have to retrieve." Galeon... "Stick around. You'll see."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Yapool chuckles darkly.
"There's that famous "courage" of yours. Or should I say, bravado?" He waves a hand casually.
"I wouldn't say I *got in* that way, but-
He shoves his fist into nothing at all, space cracking and falling away to reveal a small hole into a blood-red space that certainly *sounds* like hell, with writhing shapes and titanic, shuffling figures in the distance.
"His artless rampage certainly made the walls of your universe thin enough to penetrate easily." He slowly withdraws his hand, the wound in space seeming to rewind until there is no longer any sort of blemish in reality.
"The boy was made for this sort of task, but right now even this body can do it. It's so very *tempting*... But I'd rather see you prove the Oath Over Omega *wrong* then indulge in my *own* passions."
Prove Triple Zero wrong? What does THAT mean?
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Courage, or bravado? Guy chuckles, with the boldness of a hero. "Take a little of both, I admit," he says, conversational.
The smash through...it's so small, but it's something not even J and Tomoro could do. Genesic needed the Galeoria Road to make that kind of tunnel. THAT, he doesn't doubt is some shade of real. His eyes cut back over to the needle-mouthed man of Yapool. "I see," Guy says. "Good to know just how serious it is out there, then."
Even with the specter towering over him, he keeps his feet broad and his eyes locked. He doesn't inquire too far...but he does narrow his eyes. Prove Triple Zero wrong...somehow, he suspects this thing and Guy will quite disagree on what point they'll be proving. 'The boy'...he can only think of one mysterious young man he doesn't have at least some idea of his origins... Is that Shozo? "Then you're in for a show once we do get to Jupiter."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
A raspy, inhuman chuckle that crawls down Guy's spine through his ears. Yapool crosses his arms behind his back and leans in uncomfortably close to Guy's face, his eyes orbs of solid gold -- just like Zonuda's..
"Oh, Evoluder... *my* show has already begun. Your people are already teetering after even a tiny incident. How many times do you think they'll be able to kill their heroes -- your loved ones -- before they collapse under the weight?"
That grin again.
"How many times will *you* be able to do it?" he asks, his voice a perfect match for Mikoto's. "You've failed to save them once before, and you failed to save them now -- and perhaps that Betterman you don't trust won't be able to help you the next time... depending on his next meal, of course."
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
oh that's a deeply unpleasant noise. But, despite it bristling through his enhanced body, despite the solid gold eyes that bring to mind one of the worst things he's ever had to see...
He meets it, and stands. "Does this look like teetering to you?" he says, bold and brave. "That's just people. It's stressful, sometimes. But we believe in each other, and we push through, again and again."
Failed to save them...His jaw sets. Attacking him with her voice, now...But he hasn't failed.
She's still out there.
"As many times as it takes. Because that's just how we'll show the Oath Over Omega is wrong. By believing in each other, time and again. By reaching out to save each other, time and again."
He clenches his left fist and holds it up, the bare hand glowing with the G-Stone insignia and keening faintly with the Green Planet's power.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
"Yes, you'll reach out time and time again, Evoluder, with that hand of yours -- you know, some people would call that abuse, to keep forcing your hand upon people who don't believe in you -- even if they used to. Others would call it insanity, but I suppose that, of all things, I shouldn't judge." He laughs again, that same unpleasant sound.
"You're so sure, in your heart of hearts, that this is right, that this is courage driving you forward into the jaws of hell..." I wonder when that will start to fade, Guy Shishioh? Or do you just keep calling every suicidal impulse courage? You *are* teetering. You've been teetering your entire life. Everyone here has. So many of you *loathe* yourselves here. How much of your "courage" to believe in others is just a desperate attempt to get away from yourselves? The Oath Over Omega is not wrong because it views "miracles" as ultimately destructive -- it is wrong because it has failed to recognize your foolhardy stumbles as what they are. You are a curse, Guy Shishioh. Humanity, intelligent life, this violent, wretched universe is a jar of vipers, honing your venom through self-abuse and war."
Yapool throws open his arms, his smile far too wide.
"Every attempt to reach towards what you think is the right path across every world -- Protoculture, Green, Purple, Red, so on and so forth -- every one has led to death, misery, and cursing yourselves and those beyond your reach. How many hells have *you specifically* walked through, Evoluder, on the good intentions of those who came before you?"
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
The most sour way to look at it...
But the reason for that is soon revealed. "So that's how you see us," Guy says, eyes flicking up and down the Yapool. ...granted, that's not an entirely false point. And yet...
Guy flexes his hand again, and considers his own power. "Perhaps so. I can't deny that the wreckage of the Trinary Solar System has been equal parts blessing and curse. But I've never chosen to curse them for their wish to live, for continuing to advance their ideals. I've only ever fought to protect what we have now."
His eyes glide up to that horrid face again. He thinks of Akane, the girl they all fought so hard to save. "And I think you're trying to make me regret something I never, ever will. I don't think we're going to get along very well, man from Yapool."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Yapool's grin does not diminish, but he allows his hands to fall to his sides.
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Evoluder. May your suffering never, ever cease." He sweeps a hand to the side in a mocking bow.
"Oh, and you made one further error. I did not say I am *from* Yapool. I said I am *of* Yapool. And Yapool...
The walls of the train collapse and fall apart around Guy, leaving him staring up into the endless sea of stars...
As every single one "opens," *trillions* of gleaming eyes in the darkness, each of them looking at him from every direction.
"Is always watching."
Moments later, the walls of the train would rise back up again, leaving Guy alone in his office... as far as he could see.