2022-01-27: Knocking

• Log: 2022-01-27 - Knocking
• Cast: Kaworu Nagisa, Akane Shinjo
• Where: Tsutsujidai
• Date: January 28, 2022
• Summary: Kaworu comes to check in with an acquaintance, after receiving a lot of worrying information.

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<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    There's something appropriate about an eternal summer for a land where everything is ideal and nothing ever meaningfully changes. Kaworu has lived through many worlds locked in eternal summer that were anything but ideal and unchanging, but as a place set up *just so*, it's appropriate. Winter is far too cold, and spring and autumn are intrinsically mutable. For one who wants to wallow in her own happiness, summer is the way to go.
    
    Though at this point, Kaworu is uncertain if Akane really is happy, as she claimed she was. After what he bore witness to the other day--the battle between Akane's kaiju, the Gridman Alliance, the many real-world warriors drawn in through their dreams, and how the world reset itself afterwards--he has to wonder if Tsutsujidai is really as stable and idyllic as Akane claims it to be.
    
    There's also the matter of how all those people got inside in the first place. If Alexis is truly the guardian of this place, then how could he have let so many people intrude in the first place? Thinking about it makes Kaworu uneasy. Even moreso given how Shinji desperately wants to make sense of his experiences here. Even *more* moreso considering his recent conversation with Renais.
    
    So, after considering the matter, he's decided the best way to deal with all of these things is by approaching Akane directly. She is at the heart of all of these matters, both figuratively and literally. As such, one sunny afternoon, well after school's let out, Kaworu strolls up to the Shinjo residence and knocks on the front door.
    
    After that, he's both patient and diligent. He'll knock regularly, at unintrusive but not ignorable intervals, for as long as necessary until there's an answer. Hopefully Akane is up for company at the moment. He *would* simply let himself inside, but she'd been quite adament about not intruding on her room, and it seems only polite to let her determine where in her house she's okay with him being.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

The answer to where in Akane's house she's fine with Kaworu being is nowhere -- but she does hear the knocks, and being approached is so novel that she actually does respond. She's had several days to get out the greater-than-standard amount of brain-scream she presently has, and is in... if not better *spirits*, certainly more up to putting on the act.

She groans and rolls out of the trash. "Who could that be?" she wonders; her creations don't generally knock. They don't generally come to her door, even. She takes a second to choose her presentation -- today's choice: glasses, rather than stockings -- and heads to the door.

She opens it, and shifts to a slightly lopsided stance. "Oh! Kaworu, right?" she asks, surprised -- in... honestly, a pleasant way? -- to see him again. "What a surprise," she says, and it's at least half-genuine.

She doesn't have much of a taste for small talk, in general -- or, well, she can, but Kaworu is not yet someone who lights up that part of her brain. "What did you want?" she asks, and while it might sound a hair direct, she's not yet approaching him in a hostile way. She wants to know so she can address it, not so she can speed the conversation to an immediate close.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    When Akane stirs within, Kaworu slips his knocking hand back into his pocket and waits. He doesn't need to wait long; soon she's at the door, opening it for him, wearing glasses. They look aesthetically pleasing on her, and he imagines that's why she wears them. Why adorn anything that is anything less than beautiful?
    
    He smiles at her greeting, though. "Right," he confirms, nodding once. He laughs a little at her half-genuine statement and adds, "Sorry for dropping by unannounced, but I didn't have your phone number."
    
    This is actually a joke. The humor is that there are other ways of communicating for both of them that don't include phones, but using them probably would have been even *more* intrusive than showing up at her doorstep. Whether Akane gets or appreciates the humor is not really important. Kaworu's sense of humor is obtuse that way.
    
    He doesn't mind her directness, either--far from it. "There were a few things I wanted to discuss with you," he says. "Namely, the attack here the other day, Alexis, and Cardiff-san. Is now a good time?"
    
    Having not yet received an invitation to enter, he doesn't try to head inside. If Akane were to insist they talk outside instead, though, he'd be fine with that too. Kaworu can roll with most things.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane has not actually realized *how*... aware, she is. She simply assumes everyone gets this level of emotional data and she happens to be coping with it like absolute dogshit. The idea that her subjective experience of reality is *different* is very hard for her to wrap her head around.

"It's fine," Akane says, taking a few moments to more fully orient herself. Kaworu asks if they can talk about some things -- and to his tremendous credit, he then actually lists the things. Each request gets a big sting of complex emotions.

"... Can we talk at... hm..." She considers her options thoughtfully, and eventually says, "Why don't we go to a breakfast buffet? I'm not going to eat, but I think watching you eat might be fun!" She's all smiles about it. "We can talk on the way, too."

She doesn't wait for an answer. She begins walking. Already she has a vague sense of regret that she didn't swap to her preferred outdoor wear, but it's fine.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    Perhaps, one day, she'll understand. For now, it's fine.
    
    "If you aren't going to eat, then I'd prefer not to eat either," Kaworu replies. "I don't dislike food, but eating as an activity to do by myself doesn't interest me. If that's all right with you, then I don't mind talking at a buffet."
    
    Apparently he's totally okay with going to a restaurant solely to talk and not for either of them to eat anything. It's fine, though, right? This is her world. Who's going to notice an oddity like that?
    
    Either way, once she starts walking, he follows after her, pace unhurried, hands still in his pockets. "Which topic would you prefer to discuss first?" he asks. Since he *is* the one imposing on her, and she's allowing it, it seems only fair to let her choose the order of what they talk about. In all fairness: "Though, they're largely interconnected..."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

... Huh. Kaworu, one of Alexis's friends, is also not an eater, huh. Despite being an alien monster. Akane commits that one to memory. It's a little bit fascinating. "Then we can just go walking, I guess," Akane says, taking a hard right turn. Maybe the graveyard? Kaworu seems like the type of person who won't be unsettled by Akane's urge to walk through those. It's a bit of a walk, but...

The idea of being at a buffet and *not* watching someone eat isn't very fun.

Everything's interconnected -- there's Alexis, Renais, and the attack. Akane does some mental math. If they're all connected, that suggests Kaworu knows rather a lot. Akane needs to know *how much* he knows before approaching the topics of Alexis or her own activities, and she's genuinely interested in Renais, so...

"... Let's start with Renais." Akane considers how to prompt Kaworu for what he already knows -- and decides to wait. Kaworu will probably volunteer something she can act on, if he's initiating the conversation. She can wait to see if he's got new information or if he has the same things she does.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    Mostly not an eater, at least. Kaworu will eat as a social activity--i.e., if he's in the company of people who are also eating, who in turn invite him to eat with them--but eating while someone else watches him eat likewise sounds distinctly un-fun. He's also had enough to eating for the sake of acting as though he is a creature that needs to eat, too; he did enough of that several universes ago. There's one exception at present, but... Black*Star Soup's crab bisque is just *that* good.
    
    "All right," Kaworu says, following Akane's hard right with ease. He indeed won't be unsettled by a walk through the graveyard, and may even slow his stroll to admire the various headstones therein. There's a melancholy beauty in seeing the various ways how Lilim honor their dead.
    
    "Very well," he replies. And, not knowing that Akane is actually trying to fish out what he knows by leaving him to ask what he will, he asks, "She said that she was going to tell you everything about herself. Has she done that yet?"
    
    ...It's like they're playing information ping-pong and only one of them realizes that's the game.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

It's still a ways out. It's not *that* far -- Akane designed the world to keep things and places she likes close -- but not exactly next door, either. For now, she gets to appreciate the steadiness of the walk.

"Hm? She did," Akane says, with a nod. She considers how much to volunteer herself, again. It sounds like Kaworu knows the whole sad, confusing story, top to bottom. She'll probably get more if she volunteers less, but Kaworu might be able to act more on what she knows or has surmised...

... So she decides to end information ping pong for now. "I think there's something wrong with her," Akane eventually says. "You have that same feeling, don't you? Like -- even when I was, like... ten, or whatever, I knew that whole doing a coup thing was super fake. And this is way worse than that. It doesn't add up, right?"

Akane considers volunteering what came *out* of that conversation. ... she doesn't, yet. Kaworu would probably be disgusted with her if he knew she'd accepted help from Renais with full knowledge of what was happening with -- happening to -- her.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    Then they'll get to appreciate the view along the way. There's always something to appreciate in the situation one is in. That is one form of "hope."
    
    "I see," Kaworu replies. "She said she would, so I thought she had. But there was always the possibility of an interruption that prevented her from doing so." Fortunately, Akane volunteers further information--enough for him to be able to consider and react to. He nods assent at her first question. "It isn't natural for her and almost all of her companions to have the same 'revelation' at the same time under the same condition. The light of the Dawn, this Triple Zero, has no doubt affected them in some way. I'm not certain exactly how yet, but the end result is clear."
    
    'Yet' keeps being an operative word, doesn't it? For example: even though Akane doesn't volunteer the results of that conversation *yet*, Kaworu looks over at her with a pensive frown. "It seems Cardiff-san wants to leave this space for last. However, that still means she'll come for you eventually. To her, the extermination of all sentient life is a mercy, after all. What do you plan to do about it, Shinjo-san?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Yep! That was what I caught onto too. Plus she said it was something she 'must' do," albeit with prompting, "which is kinda weird, right? Either of those things on their own would be one thing, but the whole situation just stinks. I was thinking of asking Alexis for more information..."

She trails off. Kaworu gives her a slightly -- *different* take on Renais's offer than she would've arrived at on her own. It's enough to make her stop for a moment. The world feels uncomfortably close. Her eyes snap wide open. ... Then she hits stride again and starts walking. "Wwwwwasn't thinking about it." comes her first answer, which is honest, if decidedly oblique about *how* it's honest.

"So she's going to, what, let me use her -- and use me back -- until she has to kill me?" Akane... actually has a bit of a double-take at *herself*, because the idea feels like it's not making her as angry as it should. To have her peace until all are gone...

... her bag tells a story on that front, actually.

She doesn't actually want the outside world to disappear, though -- she wants *herself* to disappear *from it*, which is a key distinction. "It's not like I can fix it," Akane eventually says. "Kaiju don't care who they hurt. And nothing else here could even approach her! So in the end, Iiiii guess the answer is nothing! 'cuz I can't."

Akane knows this answer is ass and Kaworu can tell that she knows this answer is ass. Akane misses the turn for the graveyard, then has to double back.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    "Mmm. It does seem like Alexis knows a good deal about the Heralds of the Dawn..." Kaworu muses, though that hadn't been his reason for bringing him up at the start of the conversation. That he can leave for a little later, though. "I agree that it seems suspicious. I'd like to try talking to the person who wasn't affected, to see what was different about him. Until then, she seems quite attached to you despite her declarations, so I thought it would be worthwhile for us to discuss the matter."
    
    It's a little to his surprise to find that she not only hadn't thought of that, but even now that she *has* thought of it, she doesn't intend on doing anything. But only a little. For a moment, he eyes her; in the end, though, he smiles, faint and rueful. She bears a certain resemblance to someone else he knows.
    
    "Then let's approach it like this: if you felt you could do something about her, what would you do?" he presses gently. As she doubles back, he steps out of her way, then reorients to follow once more. One thing she says does stick out to him, quite aside from Renais: "Kaiju don't care who they hurt, hm..." He reflects on this as he gazes up at the sky--and on the kaiju that she created to kill Gridman. It dovetails in well with one of his other intended topics, so: "Do you often send out kaiju to erase the things you don't care for in this world?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Alexis knows about this stuff? That's new to her -- and it's something that gives her cause to smile, because she got information without asking for it by not volunteering the full run of what she knows the second she was asked. She could get used to that part, at least. "Oh -- right, someone wasn't affected," Akane reflects. She writes that into her memory a little more firmly.

The idea that Renais is attached to her despite the end of the world sits ill to Akane. It colors how she answers the next question she's given. "If I were God to her," Akane says, with careful, specific phrasing and emphasis -- more to 'her' than to 'God,' because the former is something she's already used to -- "... I'd want to fix her," she admits. "She seems like a good person. I'd like her to be herself."

Even when stuck trying to end the world, Renais cares about Akane -- easily and readily. No, maybe *because* she's stuck trying to end the world? That one's easier for Akane to wrap her head around. The topic naturally moves forward. "Yeah. This is the third time in a month or so," Akane answers, quite honestly. "I was trying to take care of someone in my class and they smashed the food. Then someone dumped hot coffee on Renais." She's skipped one; Kaworu gets a flash of the middle case she's leaving out -- she was bumped into and went unapologized-to; she lost interest because the behavior changed after her failed attempt. Even if Akane doesn't voice it -- because she's lost interest in it, since the behavior changed -- she does think about it.

"The world would be better if no one in it was a jerk, right?"

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    It's a good habit to get into. Kaworu is a fundamentally honest person--he never outright lies--but having been raised by SEELE in several timelines has taught him the value of not immediately stating what you're about in all encounters. At the same time, though, he knows well how people can use that behavior to actively deceive others; SEELE did *that* to him, too. If Akane didn't know that Alexis was aware of these things, then that's frankly on Alexis, not Kaworu. All considered, it might be best for Akane to know her 'fun uncle' isn't completely transparent with her on all things.
    
    As for Renais, Kaworu considers Akane's phrasing as well as the answer itself. "I'd like her to be herself, too," he says, tucking the rest away; its meaning is not exactly a mystery to him, after all. "If it were her sincere belief that all life must be ended, that would be one thing. But I don't like that she may have been compelled." With a distinctly vehement note within his usual calm, he concludes, "It's reprehensible to force a living, thinking being to believe that they have no choice in life but one."
    
    The third time in a month. Yet Akane only lists two. That isn't an issue with Kaworu, who catches that flash of her thoughts and feelings, but...
    
    'The world would be better if no one in it was a jerk, right?'
    
    "Hmmm..." Kaworu considers the headstones around them. How many belong to whose who Akane deemed a 'jerk'? "All the intruders who appeared during that battle must have been especially distressing for you, then," he notes. "One of them was a friend of mine, and another an associate. They didn't intend to appear here; they simply did, in the middle of their dreams. And since there was a conflict in progress, they fought. I can't speak for anyone else who appeared, but at least for those two, that's the case."
    
    He tilts a faint frown Akane's way. "It's troubling to me that a place like this, which is supposed to be isolated and protected, could draw in so many to battle by pure accident."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"I don't like it, either," Akane says. She doesn't have the conviction Kaworu has -- but she doesn't have the calm, either. Despite the heavy subject matter, she sounds exactly like what she is: an angry, sulky kid. "Okay, so... what would you do about it? I mean, I can't really do anything but order her to fight people and watch Tarabaman with her." Akane knows that's false. She could do a whole lot. She already made a beam-eating kaiju; maybe she could make a sun-swallowing kaiju.

But in the end, she only knows how to hurt people with her kaiju. Even Devadadan was just hurting with extra steps. Speaking of extra steps, Akane's taking a whole lot of them -- her pace picks up a little once she's in the graveyard. It offers a particular sort of stillness in the heat -- something she appreciates.

"... yeah. I don't know what's up with that," Akane answers, truthfully. "This place spent like eleven months totally closed off. At first I thought it was just Alexis letting his buddies in, but... it seems like a lot lately! Weird, huh?"

There's some evasiveness here, but more for herself -- no genuine guile. Akane has absolutely no idea why her space is suddenly filled with people. "Mobile suits, too. Even the local ones... I thought I set this place up not to have those -- or at least not anything past the One Year War. But some of that stuff is new, or stuff I only found out about reading the newspaper..." For someone who claims, and has claimed, to have set up the world exactly the way she wants, there's a lot of junk that doesn't add up, right?

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    "What I'm currently doing about it," Kaworu replies, a very gentle emphasis on wording, "is seeking information. Until I met Cardiff-san, I'd never heard of this Dawn before. The more I learn about it, the more I will understand about it. The more I understand, the closer I will come to finding a solution." He offers Akane one of his trademark refreshing smiles. "We both know so little right now, Shinjo-san. That doesn't mean either of us are helpless to act."
    
    That conviction, that steel, comes from past experience. Kaworu knows well what it's like to be so convinced of the immutability of fate that one simply repeats the same cycle over and over again. It takes someone willing to tear all of that away for the sake of their love to break the cycle down. ...Perhaps that's another reason why he wants to help Renais, if he can. Or maybe it's all the same reason.
    
    As Akane speeds up, Kaworu matches her pace, keeping up with her with ease. He pays little attention to that though, instead nodding as Akane admits that it is indeed strange. The more she says, the clearer it seems to Kaworu that she doesn't have the control over this world that she thinks she does. He'd thought at first that it was just a matter of editing an imperfect creation, but that simply doesn't account for the arrival of people who didn't even mean to come here.
    
    "The most generous conclusion is that there's some sort of subtle psychic rupture in the boundaries of your world. While he *was* there at the entrance, Alexis didn't let me in; I found your world and let myself in." Kaworu pauses. "To clarify another point, when the two I mentioned came into this world, they didn't bring their mobile suits with them physically. It was strictly their minds." He pauses again, this time in consideration. "...If you like, I could bring them by so we could all discuss it together."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

There's no sense that Akane knows what Kaworu never having heard of something means. Alexis does tell her very little. "... Well, I'll try to make her do things that give us information," Akane eventually offers. "She seems like she's going to take orders from me right up until the end! So I can probably get away with that much. If you think of something, lemme know, okay?"

Kaworu presents an idea about what's going on with her world. "Psychic rupture..." That ... tells Akane some things. The idea that her world is somehow 'psychic' is itself new to her -- something to press Alexis on, possibly. It presents several options and they're all quite challenging, and most of them are kind of bad.

"Oh, I mean, I can tell that *your* friends are just kinda doing whatever. Everyone seemed pretty ambushed, right? Like, I don't think they even meant to come." She reflects on that for a moment. What does it mean if her world is simply -- pulling people into itself? Was it set up to do that? *She* didn't set it up to do that. "Maybe Gridman broke it open on the way in..."

She reorients on practicals. "But *my* people getting mobile suits -- and *current* ones... that's kinda weird to me. This place wasn't supposed to... progress, like that, after the One Year War." Akane frowns. Kaworu makes a pitch, and says, "Sure, as long as you don't tell them this is *my* space. Let me be just someone you met, okay?"

'God, now I have to meet Alexis's *friends'* friends? This blows.' She hates it.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    It's notable, at the very least, but not necessarily a red flag. Since Akane has negative amounts of interest in the outside world, it makes sense that Alexis might not bother to tell her much about people from it, especially ones who have come from an even *more* outside world than the outside world. Kaworu takes note of it and moves on.
    
    "A good idea," he agrees, nodding once. "I'll be sure to do so." But then he offers a guess as to what might be the matter with her world, and Akane doesn't seem like she likes any of the implications. Kaworu doesn't either, really. But he's not really certain that's it. It's only the most generous guess he can think of. A less generous guess... is that Alexis is deliberately opening up her world to intrusions.
    
    But Kaworu will keep that thought to himself for now. If it's a behind-the-scenes error that Alexis is trying (and failing) to discreetly fix, it would be an unkindness to cast undue aspersions upon him. Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, the saying goes.
    
    Even if the Alexis Kerib (Over Justice) he knows is not an incompetent man.
    
    Maybe Gridman broke it open on the way in. "Possible," Kaworu concedes. "He was already here by the time I arrived, after all." And the Gridman Alliance had expressly welcomed the Federation there. Yes, it certainly is possible that they'd been the one to call the outsiders in. Except... if the Gridman Alliance is made of *her* people... Kaworu frowns at the implications, eyebrows furrowing a hair. "Strange..."
    
    But he leaves it at that, for now. That particular topic seems like one he should address with *Alexis* directly. For now, he notes the tenor of the feelings behind her frown and responds with a faint smile.
    
    "Perhaps you'd rather observe them from a distance at first, then," he re-suggests. "Truthfully, I'd rather keep them from entering this place again at all if I could, but it's outside my ability to control, and my friend is deeply worried about what it means that he'd been drawn in here without his consent. It seems unavoidable that he and our associate will eventually come to investigate. In which case, I'd like to make sure it's under controlled circumstances. For all our sakes." He flashes a deeper smile, before it fades back to his normal. "Once you've observed us to your satisfaction, then you can 'meet' us at your leisure if you so desire. Is that better?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane nods along with Kaworu. She takes some time to think about the offer -- Kaworu is giving her an out. She can appreciate that, at least. She didn't need to ask for an offramp -- just suggest that one ought to exist, and she got it. It's... a relief, in a way. It's genuine accommodation of the type she's not used to at all.

She has no idea how to engage with it. She settles for a simple, "Yeah, that sounds easier," which is true, because it does. "Let me know when you're gonna bring them over, okay? If you guys show up with all your," vague gesture, "stuff, and it's a surprise, it's gonna be a problem. At least if you let me know ahead of time it won't have to be a problem!"

Akane could probably have asked that *not* as a threat, but, now she's asked it as a threat, and, that's the way it'll be!

She doesn't seem hung up on it. "Anything else you wanted to talk about?" she asks, after a moment. She doesn't think he's touched on Alexis to the extent he wanted -- after all, that was its own topic when he started out. Then again, maybe he's just bad at phrasing...

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    Kaworu has spent several lifetimes studying humans--including their loneliness and anxiety. For the time being, he still sees Akane as more human than monster. He may not always *understand* those feelings, but he can at least *recognize* them. If Akane doesn't know how to engage with it and thus decides not to, that's honestly convenient for him too.

    For now, he laughs a little at Akane's warning, which he takes as a warning rather than a threat. "I'll be sure to send a message ahead. Is there a way you prefer to receive them?"

    Bad at phrasing... That's certainly possible. Even though Kaworu is forthright, he also has a dense way of speaking. In this case, he's technically already asked the things he wanted to ask about Alexis; it was just wrapped up in the matter of the battle in Tsutsujidai. But... if he's being invited to ask...

    "How did you and he meet, anyway?" he wonders. First meetings are so precious. Perhaps knowing some of the context for the connection between them will help him understand what Alexis is trying to do here.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane gets tossed back and forth between the extremes herself. If pressed very hard, she would have trouble stating whether she's a monster or a human, at this point. Alexis, of course, always encourages her to center her essential humanity!

"Hmmm. Usually I'm on my phone. Network service was spotty for the last little while, but it's fixed now," Akane says; sure enough, she pulls out her phone. "If you have yours, let's make a chat, okay?" Assuming Kaworu goes with it, she's gonna try to add him as a friend -- in the slightly weird shake-your-phones-at-the-same-time way.

Then she receives a question, and she's a little nervous about it. How much should she say...? Then again -- it is her life, and it is Alexis's friend. "We met online," she says, casually. "I was posting about some dumb stuff around my 15th birthday and we started talking about ways he could help! Then about a month later I actually asked him for it, and, here we are!"

This actually gives Kaworu way more data than Akane is consciously thinking about, thanks to her social media profile. She's been here about eleven months, according to this timeline, going on a year; her birthday is listed and it's January 2, meaning 'a month later' is some time in February...

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    How kind of him.

    When Akane pulls out her phone, Kaworu does likewise. He doesn't truly *need* a phone, but most of the people around him do, so it's useful to have as a concession to the limitations of Lilim. Most of them, anyway. The two of them beam their phones at each other, and soon enough, they've added each other to their contacts list.

    It's honestly a little funny to him that he's going to be communicating with Akane *by phone* of all things. Still, he has no reason to protest, and instead pulls up her information and reads it off his phone. If Akane's paying attention, she might notice that he doesn't actually tap his screen to do so.

    "Online? Hm. Yes, that makes sense for him," he muses. He doesn't really know what Akane means by 'dumb stuff,' but if Alexis's response was to offer help, it must have been something that was bothering her. According to her profile, her birthday was earlier this month, and she appears to be sixteen now, so... She's been bubbled up here for almost a year now. He turns his gaze to her. "How's he been treating you since?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane pokes at her phone a bit. She doesn't interrogate Kaworu's profile very much -- she can do that on her own time.

"Alexis is very good to me," Akane says, simply. It's not insincere-sounding, but there's a flatness to her cadence that's far from her usual playfulness. "He's been a little busy lately, but judging from how quickly he was able to get more help for me when the Federation and those other guys showed up, he's probably doing his best to support me." Kaworu can feel Akane's mood drop as she spools that one out.

She gets a little more animated as she explains, "And he helps me make the kaiju! He's always on call for that." Akane convinces herself to be happy with the dynamic again. "I have to design them and figure them out, but he's the one who makes them big..."

"He always has the nicest things to say, too. He always says how nice my designs are, and he can always tell when something bad happened..." She smiles. Whatever she churned into her emotional punchbowl seems to have been safely fished back out.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

    She wouldn't find much there, anyway. Just his name and his date of birth: September 13, 0081. The day of Second Impact, if Akane remembers her history. How unlucky for him, but probably not especially noteworthy. With a global population of 5-6 billion even after the many disasters of the past couple decades, there's no doubt lots of people with that date of birth. The profile doesn't even include a photograph; it simply retains its blank, vaguely human-shaped standard avatar.



    But that's not important, anyway. Kaworu tucks his phone away and listens to what she says, feels the drop in her mood, sees the way she shifts when she brings up the kaiju. If Alexis is trying to repair a tear in this world, it would make sense that he's been busy lately... He can't really tell for sure based on just this statement.

    "Oh? I'm glad to hear it," he thus says, smiling at her. If Alexis *is* trying to treat her kindly, then that's for the best. He knows why he might want to attach himself to a girl about Akane's age at that. But that's not something Akane needs to hear about. If Alexis ever feels like sharing his past, he'll do it himself on his own time.

    For the rest... Kaworu will simply have to ask Alexis directly.

    So for now, he says, "That's all I wanted to discuss for now. I'm sure we'll have much, much more to talk about as time unravels, but that is for then." He pauses. Then he adds, "Oh--I was curious about one thing. It's a small thing, though. When do you wake up in the mornings?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane notices the date, but doesn't think much of it. Indeed, lots of people are born on any given day. Lots of people die on any given day, too! In the end, even the days where horrible things happen aren't... that special, Akane guesses.

Akane lets Kaworu be glad. It's nice. It's good that they've presented a happy home! That's what Akane wanted. A home where she felt cared for. And if it convinces *other* people, well -- that means it's real, right?

"... Wake up?" Akane seems caught off guard by the question. Her bright red eyes widen in sincere surprise at the question. "Didn't you know? Real people don't need to sleep here. I stay up all night making kaiju, making places..." She hangs her head as she says, "I got sick of people wondering when Bonta-land was gonna reopen."

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

<poem> "Oh? I see," Kaworu replies, eyebrows rising a hair at her answer. 'Real people' don't need sleep here, huh... He gives her a long, considering look before he simply nods. "I hadn't realized."

...she's distanced herself more from the Lilim than he'd realized, he means.

"That's all, then. Thank you for your time, Shinjo-san," he continues, easing into his usual smile. "I'll be back again sometime soon."

Whether Akane escorts him out or stays there in the graveyard, he'll then take his leave.