2023-09-13: Goragon Described

• Cast: Koji Kabuto, LiSA, Sayaka Yumi
• Where: Fujinomiya City - Old Photon Power Laboratory
• Date: U.C. 0097 09 13
• Summary: Reeling from the events of 2023-09-10: The Dance of Light and Dark, Koji and Sayaka express their worries about the coming battles. The Large Intelligent Systems Agent reveals the information she's recently become privy to, about the nature of the Mazin below the conquered Mt. Fuji.

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<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

The stolen Macross 13, in its new teal livery, hangs over Fujinomiya City like a judgmental deity. Multiple silhouettes of kikaiju that were only ever singular designs patrol the fields and forests outside of the city. Their home is an empty city, its residents evacuated to shelters across Free Japan.

Somehow unscathed: The Old Photon Power Lab, situated outside the city and inexplicably overlooked by the kikaiju army.

Perhaps because Hell's true desire is the mountain, not the city or the labs.

In the control room, Koji, a patch over his left eye, is staring out of the windows at the Macross floating over the city. A crumpled newspaper lies discarded on the floor - thrown to the side in anger.

The silence is heavy in the room.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.

The Old Photon Power Lab. Of course Hell wouldn't see any value in the place, knowing what his true target is. The mood is heavy - and it's hard to say the last time Sayaka looked this stone-faced.

"Ridiculous." She finally speaks, shaking her head harshly. "What in the world was she /thinking/?" Any goodwill she was just willing to offer Asciel... vanished. "Shamelessly selling out to Hell of all people.... I can't believe this. She knew what was in that damned mountain. And we all know what he'll do with it." World domination? No... she's a scientist, too. She figures it's all the more about proving a point. He's a man who refuses to accept he lost, after all.

Her eyes dart over to the crumpled newspaper. "Benerit, huh. With the amount of information control they're working, I don't trust them in the slightest. Even if we do finish off Hell for good, there's no doubt they'll swoop in, claim credit, and use it as an excuse to shutter the labs."

Can you tell Sayaka hasn't slept in days? She hasn't.

<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.

Lisa had slept, and in the process, had those familiar dreams she had. The large core. The smaller one. Those effervescent golden cubes... and she had done it in a room where she had first learned of the golden light of Miracles. A place where they had once hid a bird ... on a beanbag that Lisa had ocne snuggled up to a bird.

Basically, she fled to the old repair bay.

(Koji and Sayaka KNEW this, of course - she's young, not stupid.)

After a moment, that slight figure appears in the doorway, holding a radio to her chest. It's not on or anything, she's just holding it. "... Master?" She finally says, tenatively. "It's ... it's time."

"For Goragon."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"I told her," Koji growls, "That if she wanted to know what the deal was with Infinity, she just had to come talk to us, and instead she - rrrrrrrrgh!" He slams a clenched fist into the top of the console. "She should have shot me in the back at Denver if she was planning on this!"

If there's one thing that has never changed, it's that Koji - however guileful and quick on his feet he might be in battle - hates trickery and feeling like he's the butt of a joke. That, combined with the reappearance of their arch-enemy with a force greatly outclassing Hell's entire army from the original war, is banking a dangerous anger in him.

If there's one thing that could cut through that anger, though - it's the voice of the teenage girl he's come to care deeply for, tilted with a tentative worry that catches his attention.

He draws in a deep breath, and turns to face LiSA. He recognises that word - not only did Brocken and Ashura recite it like a prayer, but it's also the very first word the girl uttered after she was extruded from the crown of Infinity. At this time, he doesn't ask her not to call him Master; there's a much more important question to be asked:

"What is Goragon, Lisa?"

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.

"Ugh. She's never been one to just sit down and have a chat, I suppose... always something grand and extravagant with her." She answers Koji's frustration. She fares a little better in these situations, but her stress is no less palpable. "One thing's clear... I'd certainly like to give her a long talking to, whether she likes it or not."

She also has LiSA to worry about, noting her avoidance and unusual quiet. She gives her space nonetheless, but it's good to see her out of the old repair bay, even if she bears uncertain news.

Goragon... "I'd like to know too, Lisa. It must have something to do with Infinity, correct?"

Goragon wasn't the only unknown term, though. "They also kept using the word Magine... when Brocken said it, I figured it was meant to be 'Mazin' with an accent. But my gut tells me there's a different meaning behind that word."

<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.

Lisa's eyes close as she considers how to best explain it. Then she opens her eyes, and with that directness that they all share, she says, simply, "The one you dubbed 'Infinity', from which I had sprung..."

"... I am here to be the one to guide it, when it activates its ultimate ability. 'Goragon'. This ability is to override our very reality ... as chosen by the one who is permitted to use it."

Her gaze very squarely, but also very slowly to the point of being deliberately, slides straight to Koji Kabuto.

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

Lisa says a lot of words. Koji blinks.

He blinks again.

Then, he evidently decides this is a Floor Gang conversation, digging out a couple of cushions and passing them to the others in the room before sitting down on them.

"... The multiple-realities interpretation of Quantum Theory?" He begins, tentatively. "Except... The user of Goragon is the one who decides which possibility branches create the new world?"

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.

Goragon... the ability to override this very reality. Sayaka looks at Lisa for a long few seconds, taking in what she says.

"Hold on, I have some questions about that..." She takes Koji's offer to take this one seated.

"First of all, that was just a theory. Nothing tells us for certain that there truly are multiple realities." She clarifies. "Second, if Goragon truly grants the ability to override reality, what gives a person the right to use it? What makes a person chosen?"

She looks back at Lisa, though, as she really does look like she's telling the truth. "It sounds like your hypothesis is about to be put to the test, Koji. If Infinity truly arrived here from another reality, then... I think we need to make sure this 'Goragon' can never come to pass." She decides, resolutely. "Even outside of that megalomaniac's hands, it's always been up to us to choose our destiny. I don't... want to live in a world that's not ours."

<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.

Lisa takes her cushion and settles down onto it with a sort of casual understanding that there's about to be a long conversation.

"It's not a theory." Lisa says, calmly. "The world is full of infinite possibilities. Look at Rita." She nods in the rough direction of what was/is the hangar for the Phenex. "Is this really that far out of the question?"

With that statement, she rolls over, placing the radio in front of them. "Well... I've already chosen."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Rita was... overwhelmed by possibilities," Koji says, with a nod - that's how he's come to understand the Heart of the Phenex's powers, at least.

He looks down at the radio in front of them, then looks back up at Lisa. "... It came to me. It's here because of me."

He looks haggard for a moment - suddenly aware of a terrible burden on his shoulders - and looks at Sayaka as she speaks up. "I mean... yeah. To rewrite reality according to your whims... if anything's playing god, it's that." He turns around a little, to look south-east - towards the border with occupied Japan - and falls silent in thought. "... It's very tempting, though."

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.

The comparison to Rita gets some thought from Sayaka. She was never certain whether she truly meant literal alternate timelines... or the burden of choice.

In this situation, it's a little of both, Sayaka surmises. "It chose you, and that's why Lisa came to us." She guesses.

But the way Koji quiets... "Playing god is tempting... but I don't think you have it in you. Not fully." In her time as Director, she's watched countless good intentions twist into something worse. It's human nature.

"I just... can't see any way that power could be used that wouldn't undermine our entire decade of work." She shakes her head. Would rewriting history to make the occupation never happen really defeat Britannia? "...Don't make the wrong choice. I believe in you both."

<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.

"... a alternate universe doesn't also have to be something about the past." Lisa says, quietly. "That is the purpose of an alternate universe, yes? Something changes in the past, so the present and the future are different. Something changes in the future, causing a inescapable being. That is the power of possibilities."

"This is the question ... will there be a devil in charge of the very thing I am bound to, or will there be a god?" Ah, Lisa...

"... I am sorry, Master." She adds on, after a moment. "I ... never would have expected this situation, but I am not, obviously, infallible." A pause. "You and Sayaka have become very important to me..."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

Koji's gaze shifts as Sayaka speaks again, resting on the brunette woman. The distant look in his eyes becomes more focused as he manages a smile despite everything, and he shuffles over to put his arm around her waist, gently bumping his forehead against hers. "Thankyou," he murmurs. "You're right. We've worked hard to lead the world to a better future - it wouldn't be right to impose our vision on everyone."

"... We knew Hell would come for us eventually," he answers Lisa, "but... we tried so hard to keep it secret. All those kikaiju, though... How did he even get that many?" His own twisted 'possibility', perhaps?

He extends his other arm to Lisa, welcoming her into the hug. "... As far as we know, he can't activate it yet, right? Infinity needs its 'Systems Administrator' to get working properly?"

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.

The power of possibilities, Lisa offers to them both...

As for her own question? "A devil or a god? I think we already know the answer. You're something more, Lisa." She looks at the young girl with the impossibly huge burden, one she's come to care for so much, too. "...I'm grateful you think that of me."

She nods at the conclusion Koji comes to. Being leaders to a better future, rather than a tyrant like Doctor Hell.

"Not only the sheer numbers... did you notice? The way they practically appeared out of thin air. Even a Macross... I don't think it was capable of that type of high-speed transportation. This is something else." Twisted possibility, indeed... "No matter how many or how fast they come... we won't lose to them."

"That's exactly the trump card I held onto when they took Fujinomiya." She says, of Infinity requiring a Systems Administrator. "Even he shouldn't be able to override Infinity's interface. Making you our hope, Lisa."

<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.

Hugs! Hugs! Give hugs! Lisa leans into that other arm, and the three are briefly truly a trio, by choice as much as luck and understanding. The faith the others have in Lisa being the only way to use it, is heartwarming in it's own unique way.

"Ah.. well." A shrug. "Mycenae empire?" Says the Super AI Repli-Compoid Mycenaen creation questioningly.

"... Please, though. Don't leave me locked up. If we're... you... are going to fight... please let me, too?"

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"It's a question we might be able to answer later," Koji concludes, on Hell's army. "Or we might never get an answer, but as long as they die the same as the originals... we might have a shot."

He falls quiet, holding both the others close. "I know it 'makes sense' to protect the critical asset, but..." He shares a glance with Sayaka. "I don't think either of us want to leave you behind either, Lisa."

He sighs. "I don't trust Dominicus to deal with this properly, if the Federation are downplaying just how bad the situation is. We're probably going to have to call in... a lot of favours to get this done - and figure out how to even fight a Mazin like Infinity, if Hell figures out a way to get it operational." He's not going to pretend Hell can't do it - the man is a notorious genius, after all.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.

Sayaka is pleased to hold Koji and Lisa close in a group hug. But when she hears Lisa plead... she's aware she sheltered her heavily before. But this time... "Yes. This is our fight, and it means it's your fight, too, Lisa. I won't deny you it."

"We'll find a way, just as we always have. And we'll call in as much support as we can - having connections pays." Sayaka concludes on fighting the kikaiju and Infinity. "There's a couple new models, but we know most of their tricks. And as Mazin pilots ourselves... there's no one else who could know how to fight one better. I'm not going to say it will be easy... but we have our pride."

<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.

"I... realize kidnapping is always on the line, but ... I'll do my best to avoid ... that?"

Wow, that was awkward.

"If I've learned anything from you two, it's to try to take care of myself, you know?" Lisa points out, reasonably. "I take after m... Sayaka - I won't let anyone just take me, I can try to take care of myself!"

Ah, feisty. Meanwhile, there is hug, and Lisa will happily attempt to sneak into the middle somewhat-ish.

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

Koji ruffles Lisa's hair. "We're gonna worry, but Sayaka's right - this is as much your fight as it is ours - so we'll look out for you out there, too."

It's warm. He holds the other two close for another moment, then squeezes Sayaka's hip. "We can work the details out... later. We're all going to need rest if we're going to handle this." He kisses Sayaka's cheek. "Go to bed, love. I'll be there soon."

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.

Lisa boldly pronounces she won't just let anyone take her, because of what she learned from her. "That's my girl," Sayaka gives her a proud smile.

Despite that, Sayaka probably looks very visibly exhausted - it's a good thing Koji forces the issue. "It's a deal... don't keep me waiting too long, okay?" She teases, pulling Koji into a tight embrace.

Turning over to LiSA, she adds, "You make sure to get some rest too, young lady. All of us need to be at our best if we're going to win this together."