2024-12-21: This Silence Is Mine
- Log: 2024-12-21: This Silence Is Mine
- Cast: Yurikano De Metrio Lu, Kaworu Nagisa
- Where: Pharos, off the coast of Tokyo-3
- OOC - IC Date: 21 Dec UC0099
- Summary: A simple investigation reveals a woman beyond the barrier that restrains reality to the proper laws of physics. A few talks, a few assertions, and a mild wonderment about the future at play.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
Pharos was still the same it had always been, chugging along without a complaint as it drifted off the coast. A short trip from the Kamogawan coastline, east to hover around Sagami Bay for proper interfacing with NERV and its related partners. Sure, there were places that one could not step into (encouraged very heavily by the crew to please don't, please, we have enough trouble as it is), but for all intents and purposes: Those with NERV could enter and exit freely as any other place with the proper credentials.
This sort of laissez-faire security extended down to the hangar. With each Vox stored in a separate hangar facing different directions out of the island, Vox Aura stood there alone, silent, a singular piece of machinery that was inactive, inert, and merely biding its time. The hangar itself was nothing out of the ordinary: A few ropes of tinsel nearby, a calendar on the far end with multiple dates crossed out, and a small green circle celebrating the Jersey Club. The Vox itself was as banal as could be.
And it sat there. Silent as the world shifted around it, as the various lights of the hangar turned on, off, and on again while others either came here on purposes for a quick checkup, or to try and figure out their next destination.
After all: The workers of Novumundus couldn't be late for their potluck.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Tokyo-3 and Kamogawa aren't as close as Kamogawa is to what might be called Tokyo-1, but they aren't significantly far apart either. As allies within NERV, it isn't a problem for Kaworu Nagisa to come pay Pharos a visit when the opportunity arises. A battleship meets the battleship in Sagami Bay, and Kaworu strolls on with the understanding that he's conducting a brief inspection of Pharos's battle-readiness.
Which is more or less true. Kaworu himself says nothing about it, content to let Central Dogma send forth the distortions thereof on his behalf.
He strolls down to the hangar where Vox Aura is held. That one isn't the only Vox here, but it's the one Kaworu has chosen to come see. There are sparks of life and personality within the hangar, and Kaworu looks at the tinsel and the marked calendar with his nigh-perpetual smile. He doesn't stop for them, though. He stops only for the Vox itself.
The hangar seems empty. But to Kaworu, who looks human but is not quite, there is another here.
His consciousness reaches forth towards Vox Aura, while his physical body remains standing, hands tucked into the pockets of his administrator suit, red eyes fixed on the machine. There are not words, but there is a sensation--a feeling--that he sends into the other. It is a greeting, made politely. He doesn't try to take over or enforce his will upon the machine; it's no more or less than the metaphysical version of a knock at the door and a 'hello.'
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
The battle-readiness of the ship is nominal: There's no conclusions that can't be drawn of any ship working during December. THe cold, the faint aura of the holidays, the people trying their best to rquest a few bits of leave here and their for their own families and holidays. Granted, there's still a bit of stringent setup overall, especially from the way that Moid questioned what Christmas actually was.
In essence: Pharos was battle capable and had their pilots whereabouts mostly known...Within reason. As it turned out, having three girls who all had their own activities in mind diminished battle-readiness the slightest bit. Within acceptable levels, though!
In the middle of it all, Vox Aura remains silent. The machine, cold, hard, unfeeling, unwilling, any sense of sentience washed out by the sheer sense of nothing.
Merely pure machine.
The knock at the door is met with a resounding, metaphorically dull silence, one reserved for a fist hitting marble.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Perhaps it's because of the holidays that this opportunity has come. Kaworu has intended on coming to greet the Voxes for some time now. Right now, as the holy days approach, is when that opportunity has borne fruit. It's only appropriate.
The report later will state acceptable levels of battle-readiness for the pilots. It's nothing NERV isn't used to with the early days of the Evangelion pilots. These days, of course, school is not so much of a concern.
Kaworu regards Vox Aura with curious eyes. No response--as if it really were just a machine. He knows the difference between them well, being able to command machines with but a touch or a glance, but this... Is it because Madoka Kyouno isn't here? He isn't familiar with the threads from which she and the Voxes hail.
It's possible he's simply mistaken, but he doesn't give up immediately. Instead, he broadens his perceptions around the machine, to find whatever threads of something more there may be entangled with it. If there's still nothing... he can always move on to the next one.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
The machine stands still. It remains there, unplacated by the whims of the outside world as it stays inert. The silent battle (if one could dare term it that) raged on in the ticking of seconds. Perception around the machine finds little the minute hums of one's ego, a thing containing the absolute faith of the pilot in its craft, the faint radiance of trust between pilot and machine.
Though the pilot isn't there, it still faintly, minutely brims with the steadfast confidence of the one who guides it along. And as the perception is pushed open, that curious, searching sense of abstract thought diffusing into the air...
Green energy minutely flicker along the Vox Aura's lines, equal parts curious and reproachful. The faintest of strands permeating through the air, flickering between one reality and the next. INvisible yet visible, transient yet completely understandable, the widened perception of consciousness shifting beyond the usual sight of a human's field of perception.
It is not attached to anything. The strings that dangle with nothing at the opposite end fading into the air, even as something seems to have joined the room.
Two somethings, even. Distant hazes that flicker the instinct of being watched, with little else daring to reveal itself.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
It's no battle, at least to Kaworu's view; simply a visitor who refused to be daunted by getting ignored. As he broadens his perceptions, there is that hum that goes along with that abstract thought, until that green energy flickers along the threads of its existence. They are unattached--and yet there is something there.
Or rather, somethings. Someones? Kaworu is not particularly fussed about the distinction, but it's good to be aware of it.
He turns his gaze towards the focus of attention from the one watching him. They see him, and he sees them. He continues smiling amiably.
"Hey," he says, both in this reality and another. "Would you mind talking for a bit?"
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
The machine dares to minutely hum; To declare itself as an existence that mattered to the universe, another minute flash of green along its coattails. It stays silent, merely atterting itself as a presence and nothing more.
The other something...It takes a few for everything to focus. A hangar. A cold, metallic room menat for storage and utilitarian usage, the air thick with the subtle odor of cleaning detergents, recycled air, and of human acitivity that no amount of scented candles could free up.
And yet, there was a slowly undeniable undercurrent of the fresh salt of the sea tinging the air, the very odor of its environment.
A wave crashes on a sandy shore. Phantom, yet real.
"Been a while since I talked with anyone, really. Can't say I'm surprised that one of you showed up! Aaaah, I was hoping to make it to next year." A chipper, feminine voice that sounded from everywhere and nowhere, punctuated with the soft grunt of someone streeeeetching. "So?"
"What are you here for?" Immediately getting down to business, the radiance of someone's initial guard; More preventative than actually hostile.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Air is such a vital element. Kaworu knows it well. But his soul is of the sea. It's right there in his name: Kaworu Nagisa--Kaworu of the Shore. That smell of salt is comfortable to him, and so too is the crash of phantom waves.
A woman's voice speaks to him. Kaworu is unruffled. They both stand on that distant shore, watching the green light in the distance.
"To say hello," he replies, easygoing as ever. "I noticed an unusual presence to the Voxes some time ago, and I thought it would be good to introduce myself."
He turns that smile towards her. "Oh, and don't worry. If you'd rather I not mention you to anyone else, I won't. For now, I'm Kaworu. Kaworu Nagisa. And you are?"
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
The stoic black of shelted darkness seems to fade away bit by bit, the horizon flickering with the promises of distant stars. Of thoughts and emotions unseen but comprehensible, twinlking in the night sky to be witnessed by ones who took the time to open their eyes.
The soft, minute shuffle of someone stepping on the sandy shore, coming to a stop beside Kaworu. "Figures. People looove to look at what they don't understand!" Hands interlaced behind her head, keeping an eye on those stars blinking overhead. The hues of orange, of green, of blue flicker above, as does the distant horizon.
Dusk, dawn, the eternal twilight that cannot decide if it is sinking into night or to erupt into daylight.
Crooking her head over, the long-haired brunette could only crook an eyebrow upwards. The clear, close look of someone checking up the person next to her, peeling off soon after.
"Kaworu Nagisa..." Sounding the words in her lips, flickering her mind through the implications of such a name. "Yurikano. Yurikano de Metrio Lu, Zurvorg Alliance." Her eyes narrow for a few; A keen eye for catching on reactions, provided there were any.
"I don't think people know I'm here, so keep it that way. They have to move on for their own sakes. If they knew I was back, then they'd be worse off for it all." Who 'they' were is left unsaid.
"And just to introduce yourself? That's pretty suspicious in of itself, but it is that time of year."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
It is a beautiful view. Kaworu takes some time to admire it before he regards Yurikano. He doesn't agree or argue with her comment. He simply waits for her to make her decision about him, and for her to introduce herself back.
There's of course a chance that she would have refused, but that chance didn't come to pass. Her name isn't familiar to him, but her allegiance is. He hums thoughtfully--not just at that, but at the fact that she is still so attached to it that she gives it out.
"Very well," he replies when she does indeed ask he keep her presence a secret. "But how did you end up here?"
She calls him suspicious. He laughs faintly but genuinely at it. Still, he continues to neither agree nor argue with her.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
Time seems to tweak itself, bit by bit. The heaviness that usually accompanies such massive gaps in conversation is nonexistent, the slow, agonizing task of finding the proper words seemingly easier.
Yurikano releases a breath she barely knew she had. Watching the horizon glitter in silence, taking just as long a time to respond as the answers came forth.
"...I thought you knew! You just came from it! One part of it, but it's still a Vox!" It's genuine surprise, that eyebrow crooking up further in curiosity. "You're telling me that you walked in here and decided to bash around a Vox's mind without knowing anything?"
The seconds taken to process that sentence only serve to click a few more things into her mind. "No, but...I mean, the galaxy's a bit far away, but all the Voxes reached here, and Villaguilio and Dizelmine came here too..." The scrunch of the forehead, hazel eyes scanning over Kaworu once more. "You're already setting off alarm bells, but you're already here."
...There's no use in trying to try and question what Kaworu actually was, considering he's in the space of the Rinne.
"The Vox. It split into three, but that's how I'm here. 'Bwam'." Explosive emphasis, an open hand to reinforce that it was such.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
"I tried to avoid 'bashing,' but yes," Kaworu replies, matter-of-fact. "The one who pilots Vox Aura and I each work for allied organizations. Our goal is to protect our home planet, Earth. I thought I felt a mind beyond Vox Aura, and that's why I came here in greeting. So that was actually you?"
Villagiulio and Dizelmine... Those names are more familiar. They're related to Princess Lan--and to the enemies they've fought thus far who were out to destroy the Voxes. Her response is curious. He'd been told that the Voxes on Earth had already been on Earth for a long time, but she names herself as someone from another planet. The Vox itself is clearly connected on a deeper level to other parts of the universe, but Yurikano doesn't strike him as someone beyond the ken of humankind...
"How long ago was that?" he wonders.
He doesn't comment on 'here.' Kaworu is used to shoreside views. As for alarm bells... well, that's only natural, all considered.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
"Of course it's Earth..." A low sigh, head in her hand for a few before readjusting herself. All things considered, she's taking advantage of being able to speak with someone after a while. "Yeah, it was me. Hard to not peek in when no one's prodded at the barrier for a while. I wish you didn't, but I did think it was a matter of time."
It's said so nonchalantly.
"About..." A small frown, counting her fingers. "Add the dates, remember its base, if the initial date was this...What date is today?" Given or not, she does work it out. "At least a year. Maybe two. The exact date would be whenever Sheryl Nome's concert happened." A beat.
"...Over at the planet we were on, I mean." A few more mental calculations before returning to resigned understanding. "Still, Earth's had its share of problems even if the Vox isn't ever used again. Is Earth always like this?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Of course it's Earth. Kaworu laughs another faint, breathy laugh. Such true words. Then if the Vox were once one but split into three, it must be the same for each, and only seemed different due to the different machines. He takes her nonchalance in stride. He's the same way too.
"Today's date is December 21, UC 0099," he replies. It turns out Yurikano doesn't really need the date, though. Sheryl Nome's concert... That confuses him for an instant, until he realizes--Sheryl Nome had been a part of the Gallia IV expedition, as had Ranka Lee. Both of them had supposedly put on a concert while out there, albeit not on the same day.
"Gallia IV, then," he says aloud. "I see. So the Vox was indeed involved in its destruction. I was busy dealing with a different issue, but I did read the reports afterwards. Princess Laffinty Fin E Ld Si of La Garite and her companion Moid escaped and came to Earth in its wake, too. They're part of the same organizations I mentioned before."
Is Earth always like this, though? Kaworu considers this for a moment. "No, not always," he concludes. "But very often."
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
"Everyone's gearing up around December. The tinsel's a nice touch." Still, to be able to use sopmeone like a rubber duck for her own thoughts, gears turning in her mind after having eroded into stasis...It's nice to be able to eludicate on her own voice after a while.
"That's the one. Need To Know about what was out there, so go ask Villagulio for the details. I'd say go for Moid, but he still gives me the creeps." An instinctual shudder. "Lan's a good one. Head on her shoulders. You can lean on her, even if she looks like she might break." A small grin at that.
"Sounds like you have your work cut out for you, I think. I can't do anything on my side. Just sit here and..." A wide sweep towards the horizon. "Watch the results of my actions." A shrug at that.
Still, to think that another planet was perpetually dealing with its own problems. "Some things never change, do they? I hope we can have these times be a distant memory."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
"It is," Kaworu agrees, of the tinsel. "The glitter of it reminds me of a fresh-fallen field of snow. There's a certain brightness of this season that's full of hope, isn't there?"
He doesn't usually get to make it to this season, so the fact that he's seen it multiple times this time around makes it extra-hopeful.
Ask Villaguilio. Kaworu considers this thoughtfully--as well as Yurikano's warning. "Is Moid not trustworthy?" he wonders. He means this sincerely. Moid seems perfectly trustworthy to him, but Kaworu knows he isn't always able to see through the machinations of Lilim and similarly devious creatures.
His gaze softens as she goes on. "Yes," he replies--a blanket agreement for her various statements. For him, though, those memories will never be too distant.
He gazes out towards the horizon, far out over the ocean. "Is there anything you'd like to request I do on your behalf? I can't promise I'll be able to do them, but I can at least hear you out."
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
A new bit of knowledge to add to the repitoire. "The end of the year always helps bring the mood up. One door closes, another opens, and we keep going on to whatever we want to do." A self-assured smile at that; It's hard to not be slightly optimistic about the advent of a new century. "...You guys don't celebrate Centennials? If it's UC0099, it feels like there'd be some big event in your capitals."
The question is left hanging, lightly frowning as she shifts her weight side to side. Contemplation. Wonderment. "His vibes are off, but he's brought you all here. He had to be my overseer for a lot, so..." A sigh. "Just be careful around him." The ambivalent warning is the best one. Even she doesn't know how he is.
There's a heavy silence at Kaworu's question. Allowing the silence to settle in, to have even the whispers of the waves slowly die down in heavy, crushing thought. Yurikano looks out towards the horizon, the slow, creeping influence of the mental self darkening the skies the slightest bit, luminosity dimming.
"Those who came from Gallia IV and such and professing my name about it all...Don't blame them, alright? They're trying to move on in their own ways." That sort of sentence feels right to ask of a near-complete stranger.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
"I'm sure there are those who do," Kaworu replies of Centennials. For him, it's all the same. He doesn't mind watching Lilim celebrate from afar, though.
He falls into thoughtful silence when Yurikano warns him in a touch more detail about Moid. As a practical warning, it doesn't do much, but-- "I'll keep that in mind," he replies.
Yurikano would be in a position to know if Moid's vibes are bad or not, after all.
He invites her to make a request; she doesn't respond at first. He falls into silence with her, joining her attention on the horizon, where the brightness starts to fade. When she finally does make her request, he doesn't even need to think it over.
"All right. I won't," he agrees.
He already didn't blame them. It's simplicity itself to continue that.
There is an approaching noise, though, and Kaworu looks over in the real world at the source of footsteps nearing the hangar. There isn't a person in view yet, but that doesn't stop him any. He looks back at his companion on the other plane of reality.
"Thank you for talking to me, Yurikano de Metrio Lu," he tells her. "I should go now. Would you prefer I stay away from now on?" She did say she wished he hadn't breached the barrier, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
Platitude after platitude. She can't help but wonder a bit about how forthcoming he's been; So straightforward. So pure. The instincts of a princess never truly went away, but she can't exactly confront him about it.
Silence. Broken by the oncoming footsteps, the transient waves of reality demanding entrance into the blurred barriers of the planes. Yurikano's quick to pick up on it, glancing towards the source of the sounds before giving a sigh. She can't deny the inevitability of someone's actions, no matter what she can do on the other side of the screen.
"I don't exactly mind if you come about, but that depends. I don't think I have anything for you, and you don't have anything for me. If it is an emergency, do so. Otherwise...Keep this barrier sealed. The Rinne can't be allowed to bloom."
...She glances away for a moment. A quick moment to compose.
"If anyone asks, you got seasick here! Good luck on your excuse!"