2022-04-10: Overnight

• Log: 2022-04-10: Overnight
• Cast: Riika Sheder, Alexis Kerib
• Where: Macross City - Hotel
• OOC - IC Date: 0096-04-10
• Summary: Alexis and Riika discuss the use of his (her) kaiju, and where things might go from there.

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<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Yesterday, Riika arrived in Macross City for a concert. It was a good concert, all around, though she did come dangerously close to getting found out (or at least, she thought she did) so she made a bit of a quick exit afterwards.

Music helps her think through things, and she made a decision. So before she went to bed that night, she pulled out her phone and sent an email. Alexis had told her that anything addressed to him would reach him, and lacking any other ideas, she had sent it to alexis-kerib@tsutsujidai.net. She really didn't expect anything but a 'message not delivered'.

'Hello Alexis.

This is Riika. Could we talk tomorrow? I'll be up early. I'm in Macross City overnight, in a hotel - I've attached the address. If you want to show up around 8 AM, I can let you in, but I can't stay too late - I have transport to catch. You can call my phone when you get here.

-Riika'

Riika had sent it and immediately went to bed.

By 8 the next morning, she is showered and dressed, if not breakfasted. She is wearing a green top, a black skirt, black leggings - nothing fancy, but ... nice. Very civilian-on-vacation. She has chosen to sit at the little desk these places give you for no particular reason. Her luggage sits, all packed, nearby.

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Alexis is juggling a lot. More than it looks like, certainly -- and for someone so singularly invested in appearing to sit perfectly still, that presents some challenges. He hasn't followed up on a few things with near the alacrity he would like, honestly.

Fortunately, at least one of those things decides to follow up with him, instead. Alexis comes when he's called; it's the hallmark of his style. A heart cries for aid, and he appears. After all this time, Alexis still understands the world the way he used to, in some senses; listen for cries and respond.

Needless to say, a message very pointedly sent in his 'direction' qualifies.

He is also very, very abrupt. He has an appointed time and an appointed place, so he feels no need to bother with the pleasantries of a knock; there is simply a moment -- at 8:02 AM Macross City time -- in which Riika feels that 'someone-looking-at-me-from-behind' sensation, and then --

"Ah, apologies if I'm late," Alexis says, by way of announcement. "I had hoped to give you time to perform the usual morning rituals. You wanted to speak with me, then?"

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Riika wasn't *entirely* expecting Alexis to show up without, say, knocking, or using the door, but then again it's what he did before, so perhaps she should have expected it.

As soon as she feels the sensation, which makes the hair on the back of her neck rise up slightly, she rises from her eat. She's really not very tall; Alexis towers over her now that they're not both sitting in a car. (He towered over her in there too, but it's still more obvious now.)

She starts to smile, but it looks a little shallow. "Right on time, I think. ...Ah, yes I did, though I wasn't sure it would get to you in time. It was kind of unplanned, really. Is this a good time for you? I really should have asked first."

Now that she's actually DONE it, she's kind of second-guessing herself. "I did want to thank you, though."

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

"There are things I owe the young lady I take care of, but nothing so pressing that I don't have the time to follow up with you for a few hours," Alexis answers, truthfully. He gives her a moment to speak, looking her over a bit; the flames at the back of his head flicker and dance, a bit.

Eventually, though: "I take it you've put the kaiju to use, then -- and from the thanks, I assume things went well?" He floats just slightly to one side; no other part of him indicates movement. Even his cloak barely seems to stir in the process.

"Though I don't imagine things went *perfectly*... I'm unsure how much the situation on the ground has changed, in your war." Evidently, he doesn't read the news very much.

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Riika appreciates Alexis both giving her some room (physically) and some room (mentally) to gather her thoughts. It's so *weird* to look at him, she thinks; she's not used to talking to someone who appears partially on fire, so engulfed in a cloak she can't see much else about him.

"It went well enough," Riika admits. "It didn't change much, but I wasn't really..." Riika didn't know how much trust to put in it, but she's not sure how to tactfully put it. "It was tested," is her eventual choice.

"But it broke. I tried to repair it, but... it's not entirely my usual style of model. I usually work with different materials and kaiju aren't usually what I work with either." Ugh, Riika thinks, it sounds like I hate it. "But I really do appreciate it! I think it could do more, if I had used it right."

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

The lack of trust gets noted but Alexis ultimately isn't concerned. He's used to dealing with moody, overcautious people -- gaining their confidence always takes several steps, so he doesn't mind that Riika is taking her time. She at least sounds like she's trying to massage her responses -- a good start.

"Ah, yes. My apologies -- a clay doll can be a fragile thing! It's really no particular worry if it's damaged." He notes the comment that Riika could probably have done more, if she'd used it right; that brings a smile to his face.

"Perhaps eventually I can find you a tutorial," he says, with a knowing nod. "Then again -- recapturing someone else's design is a tricky thing. I find art is at its best when it gives rise to the artist's own unexpressed feelings, even if it starts from an idea found out in the world..."

For a moment, he's unsure where to lead Riika -- or at least he sounds it, with a faint 'hm.' After a moment, though, he asks: "Would you like another, then? Another -- event, has passed, with the kaiju in that other world; I certainly have more I can offer, in any case."

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Riika makes friends easily. She trusts easily. But something about Alexis...

Well. It's not every day someone shows up to help make your dream come true.

"I have it with me, if it would help." It's in her luggage, packed in a traveling case - Riika does do models, she had something about the right size, and she could tuck the phone thing in the same bag as it. "I would have used it again if I could repair it myself, but I'm not sure it went perfectly and I don't want it to come out broken..."

A tutorial, though? She has to think about that one for a moment. "Maybe," she says. "To be at peace would be a good thing, but I don't know if a war in Africa is a way to do it..." It's what she's been focusing on, because she is (mostly) a good ZAFT soldier. It's what she intended to do if she had repaired it.

There's something else that she thinks would work better. Perhaps that would include her own feelings.

"But, you said before why. But you never did say: why me? Why do you come all this way, to talk to me, specifically?" Pause. "And what happened in that other world?"

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

"Hm. I don't think it would -- for now, feel free to keep the pieces as a souvenir, if you don't feel you can live up to the creative intent behind them in their repair," Alexis says, with a small shrug -- a rare case of him actually physicalizing something. It's small, but with how little he moves while standing, it's noticeable.

"Why you, specifically...?" Alexis thinks for a few moments. "Well. 'Alien' is a definition the people of this star would apply to both of us -- perhaps even with invective attached. I perceive things differently; you perceive things differently. I suppose of the various visitors that other world has had lately, that gives us a certain kinship!"

He moves on to the last question. "Another kaiju attack. Now, people from your world came and repulsed it immediately... but these things do leave echoes, and I can offer those."

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

"I'll do what I can," Riika promises, about the kaiju. Still... "Maybe I will ask about that tutorial, though."

Something of her own... would that make this better? Or worse?

Alexis' answer isn't really an answer, to Riika's mind. She's also not sure if it's insulting or not - it's clearly not meant to be, but Riika considers herself a person of this star, if not this planet (this may be a poetics definition that she missed because Japanese is not her first language), and also because she doesn't think she perceives any differently than anyone else. It's a difference of equipment, not in results.

"...mmm." Is using the echoes of a kaiju attack - however *that* works - right? Riika isn't sure she's qualified to answer.

But.

But...

"I was thinking," Riika says, slowly. She's fussing with her hands and she doesn't even realize it. "I'll use the repaired model, never fear, but there's... something else I want to do. Something that really *would* make things more peaceful, I think, or at least less dangerous. Less threatening. Would you be willing to help? I think... everybody would like it, except perhaps the Earth's military." Deep down.

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

The downside of picking up lots of languages is that you start getting... weird with it. Alexis has had a lot of time and a lot of experiences. Puns and poetics don't actually alleviate his boredom, but they helped, once, and now he has the habit.

"Hooooh...?" Alexis starts, as Riika works her way around to that thought. "Well! That has my attention, to say the least. If you have a plan to bring peace to your world, by all means, I'd like to hear it. Naturally, I'll do everything I can to enable it."

The fact that Earth's military will dislike it... hm. That might get some pressure off of *Alexis*, at that. His concern level for the various blocs, sub-blocs, and special task forces is pretty low, but he does know that a fair amount of what's been working against him of late comes back to Earthnoid power structures...

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Riika was never very good at wordplay.

"I'm from the PLANTs," Riika says, which isn't something Alexis didn't know. She paces a little more before she says anything else. "We wouldn't be fighting if they hadn't pushed us the way they did. And we wouldn't be fighting as hard as we are if it wasn't for... Junius Seven."

"They brought a nuclear weapon - something they themselves decided was too destructive to use - to our agricultural colonies. Except of course it's okay to use in space, they say, because it's not *their* atmosphere. And they nuked one - and all the people on it - !"

Where she was distant before, a little careful of what she said around Alexis, there's more honest emotion in her voice; it's a little raw, even now. She feels, and she feels deeply about Junius Seven. It takes her a moment to pull herself back together.

"I want to stop them from doing that again. I know I couldn't possibly stop their military by myself, or even with your help, but... I followed the records, all the scans and reports. I know where they launched the ship that attacked Junius Seven came from. So I know where they keep their nuclear missiles."

Riika looks up. It's hard to meet Alexis' eyes because he doesn't really have normal eyes, but then again, neither does she. "They came from Ptolemaeus Lunar Base. There's nothing there but military, missiles and ships. I ... don't want them to be able to nuke anywhere else, ever again. They don't get to make that threat."

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

"Ohhoooooh, I see," Alexis says, following along with this. "You know, this is actually the second time Junius Seven has come up, of late... there's a young lady I take care of," he starts. It sounds like he's going somewhere with this seeming non-sequitur, though it requires some time to build up to.

"She's of your world, not the other," he adds, preoccupied with his control of the narrative. "Her own thoughts have been... preoccupied with Junius Seven, for some time. We'd met shortly before that, but she came into my care not long after. She'd been really quite distraught about it... I think she'd be happy to know someone was taking steps to prevent such a tragedy from happening again."

All that to say, "I'm fairly certain I can support you in such an endeavor! Of course, going against such a seat of power, so well-equipped... that would require a larger kaiju, yes? I can help with *that*, too."

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

"Really?" Riika can't imagine Alexis taking care of anyone. Unless he means something like what he's doing for Riika, but... that doesn't seem right, either.

Fundamentally, something about Alexis just doesn't make Riika think that he'd be very good at care.

"...I'm sorry for her," Riika says, after a long pause. "If there's anything I can do - if she'd like to talk to me - you can give her this. Maybe it would make her feel better, to know someone is doing something. And if she doesn't want to she can throw it away." Riika goes to the pad of actual physical notepaper, writes something short on it, folds it in half.

She speaks while she's doing this. "I think... it might. I don't think the one you lent me can manage it on its own." Not that she'd be doing it alone if she can convince a ZAFT strike force to help out - but Alexis doesn't need to know that, she doesn't even know if she can manage it.

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

"Ah -- certainly! I'll pass it along," Alexis agrees, pleasantly. In a *very* rare movement for him, he allows his hand to escape the shifting, almost amorphous cloak that might as well be the entirety of his form, taking the folded note once it's written out. "You'll forgive her if she doesn't reach out immediately, yes? She's..." Alexis's own long pause mirrors Riika's. "... She can be moody," he eventually finishes.

Back to practicals. "I don't know that you have the potential to make a kaiju of your own without some sort of starter force; there are humans that can, but it's a rare talent indeed. Fortunately, I can provide you with a scaffold to begin the process; you're free to make your own embellishments and adjustments to suit your needs, too. A kaiju is ultimately an expression -- and the feeling inside you, here, will no doubt make a tremendous one."

This is risky. Alexis is already dipping his toes into fairly unfamiliar waters by taking 'center stage' as the architect of the feelings he craves to feed on; can he really handle a *second*? ... well, he's done it, so there's that.

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

"Whenever she wants, if she wants." Riika tries another one of those smiles, which comes off as at least mostly sincere.

Honestly, Riika was beginning to wonder if he actually had hands in there. He must. She's seen him move things, though only when she wasn't actually watching him do it. But she hands him the note without complaint.

"..." Some kind of starter force? That's a thing humans can do on their own, even if it's rare... Riika knows she doesn't have any kind of special power like that. All she has is hard work.

But what else he's saying... some of it doesn't sit well with Riika. It feels wrong, in some ways. She'd give a lot to be rid of the threat of nuclear attack into the PLANTs again, and *that's* certainly not wrong, so what is making her a little uneasy?

Alexis isn't the only one uncertain of taking a risk here. But it's something she needs to do.

"I can definitely put in the time," she says, instead.

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Nodding to Riika, Alexis says, "Perfect. For changing the world at such a scale... I might have just the thing." He needs a little time to dredge it out, mind -- he can't produce it from his cloak in seconds, *unfortunately*.

He takes a moment to float back away from Riika, saying, "I'll be in touch, though. Rest assured, you'll have what you need, when you need it. Unless you have anything else, I think I'll be on my way; it was a pleasure seeing you again."

He continues to have his usual tricks -- which means that the next time he fully leaves Riika's vision, he'll no doubt be gone.