2022-11-14: The Way Home

• Cast: Eisen Daiwel, Sonia Sophia-Grace
• Where: The Sea of Trees, Mt. Fuji Area, Free Japan
• Date: U.C. 0096 11 14
• Summary: On the way back from the Infiltration mission, Eisen and Sonia talk.

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<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

As the crew gathers back up from the battle against the Ninth Angel, they are missing three crew members. Yuta and his allies have disappeared inexplicably. Multiple vehicles are approaching for cleanup operations, but it isn't long before Eisen and the rest of the team ends up in a few vehicles on the way back to Tokyo-3. Driving through the warped forest at far less breakneck speeds.

Eisen has been quiet - having manage to calm since the fight with Yuta. He's treated the cut beneath his left eye, stopping it from bleeding. But his nose still looks bruised from the nasty hit Yuta got in.

"Apologies for that rather... ugly moment." Eisen remarks to Sonia from the seat in front of her, turning his head a bit to look her way. That glowing green eye gazing at her. Without so many others around, the noise of other people is lessened. And that's just what makes him stand out. This stange 'lie' before her. Someone who feels both young and old at the same time. Touching under his eye for a moment to check a mark, before dropping his hand again.

"I believe you wanted to know some things about Angels?"

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

Sonia had been staring the whole time, gaze switching between Yuta and Eisen in what can only be called something akin to tired exasperation. She really would like to step in, but there's a decision behind that dark blue gaze of hers to just ... just stay out of it. For now. Perhaps there is a time later when she might want to inquire, but there are more important things at hand.

"Yes, please." She says, earnestly. "Just ... it is likely to be a odd question."

A moment of hesitation, then, quietly: "Has anyone ever said anything about the Angels having some sort of ... almost sentience, to them?" She queries. "Like a animal would."

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

Eisen quiets when Sonia remarks on the Angels having a sentience to them, and thinks about this for a moment. "No, it's not a very odd question. But it's not a very wide qualification. They do have sentience in animalistic terms from what I can tell. They have a sense of self-preservation. They can feel pain. They bear malice. I would say they are beyond just mere sentience though. They make intelligent tactical decisions from time to time. Though perhaps not in the same 'manner' that the human species does."

The youth wonders if that really is the kind of knowledge she is looking for.

"They are the enemy of humanity, and they know to target us. They specifically seem to target Evangelion units as well as the Tokyo region. So they also all recognize the region itself for what it is."

He pauses for a moment, before he adds; "Why do you ask?"

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

"It's ... no." Sonia says, with a nod. She's seemingly thinking out loud. "It wasn't rather... human, at least now that I really focus on the memory of it. It's like a remote control... but that's obvious. The Core is the one controlling the Angel, out on the field, which is why we were able to do what we did. If we hadn't been quiet enough to sneak under it's notice, the field..."

That thought again makes her grimace, full on nose-wrinkle, cheeks scrunched sort of grimace. She hated thinking about that again!

"I need some ibuprofen. It knew it was going to die. It knew we were predators."

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

"That's why it hid from us. Why it used this tactic. But... is that really all there is to that Angel?" He asks her, givign her a look. The way she responds allows Eisen to indeed ascertain that he was right with his comment earlier.

He reaches down under his seat and pulls out a small case he'd carried with him during the mission. Pulling out a small capsule and then giving her a small capri-sun like drink pouch as well as two pills. "Take this. It's a bit stronger than Ibuprofen, but it'll help with the headache. I imagine that Screetch reached you on multiple levels." Eisen posits, then sits back forward.

"But yes. If we had messed up for even a moment, we would have died. And with that, humanity would have fallen - or perhaps the people who came after us might have gotten really lucky. But right now... there aren't many people qualified for such a mission anymore."

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

Before continuing to talk, Sonia takes the drink pouch and the two pills. She raises the drink in a thankful salute, then pops it open and downs the meds with a all-too-trusting pop of them in her mouth. Closing her eyes, Sonia exhales with a short huff of breath, then inhales the rest of the drink with a few long sips. When she finally looks back at Eisen, she looks about five percent less tightly wound. This is a significant improvement.

"Thank you."

"No." Sonia says, quietly. "That's not all there ever is to anything, is there, Angel, you, me... everything is hiding something, even if it's not a known aspect. What are the Angels hiding? Is it a what?"

"Is it a who?"

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

"I... do not know." Eisen answers with a bold grin on his face. "Isn't that what is so exciting about all of this? Hiding something - secrets. They're delightful to try and find the answers to." He remarks, before leaning his head back on the chair. There's the subtle 'crunch' of something between his fingers...

And soon, an ice pack joins his left eye. Darkening the world to him ever so slightly.

"I will be glad if they are hiding something as simple as a 'who', but I would rather that their secret be something more grand. Something more great than a mere 'who'. A mere 'who' would either reveal themselves eventually, or force us to reveal them. But a 'what' would be more interesting. Take more people. Something that must truly be unearthed by small hints we gain along the way."

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

Something clicks.

"Oh -no-, you're that type!" Sonia says with a burble of laughter coming up from her throat. She's clearly not laughing at him, but the realization she's made. "You don't want simple little answers, my dear self-named Mad Scientest, you want something juicy that's going to make most people hide underneath their desk while you go striding into the unknown!"

"Well." She says, leaning back in her seat. "Let me know if you want company." The smile she gives him is slasher-like, an edge of 'you'd be surprised what I'll do' sort of to it.

"So is there anything I haven't caught on yet that is good to know, with Angels?"

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

"I am fairly certain that most of NERV is made of people who would come striding into the Unknown with me." Eisen answers her boldly. "As you may have seen this day. Our descent into madness and the unknown. And with luck, a successful expedition at that. Certainly, one would need to be mad to go down there, do you not agree?" He asks her bemusedly.

Still, the way she's giving him that slasher-like grin of hers, has him return it in kind.

"Hmm. The main thing you don't know about yet is their A.T. field. It allows them to... kind of reject damage, or reject reality itself. It requires an Evangelion to tear apart an A.T. field - or /extreme/ weapons fire. Something beyond an N2 bomb." He explains. "That's why it is critical that during an Angel Battle, there is at least one Evangelion around. Because without it, Angels are untouchable." The youth explains.

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

"The ... A.T. field. That's must of been ... something of what I felt. I just had this clear understanding that if it knew we were down there, then we'd be in deep trouble." Sonia says. "That's why I didn't want to really say anything; I didn't want to cause anyone to panic, as I was concerned that would cause them to notice us even more easily." She closes her eyes, shudders, then looks back at him, that slasher smile going lopsided.

"Thank you for the information. It is filed for future use."

Filed?

"Now, speaking of future use, I have... questions. About what happened between you and Hibiki back there." She tilts her head, white and blue eyeing green and black. "Please, again, you know my newness to NERV. What's up with, your words, 'that bitch?' I'm still catching up on reports outside of the more immediate Angel issues."

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

"Listen, when you are thrust into a new faction -and- a command position of a battleship in the same go, you'd still fairly new ages later! It's been a lot of adjusting to things. Let me claim to be new, you ... you..." Sonia grasps for a word. "Dork!"

When offered the pad, she gives a vague 'mmhmm' before bending her head to read it, chewing on her bottom lip the whole time.

When she's done, she offers him the pad back. "I see. So Hibiki is quite fond of her, and doesn't view as what she's doing as truly bad, based on the conversation you two were having." She closes her eyes, frowning. "Ugh. That is a messy situation. What is the place... Tsutsujidai like?"

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

"Dork?" Eisen raises his brow in slight disbelief. "I am a well established Mad Scientist. Please refer to me by my appropiate title." He points out to her, then leans to the seat again and lays his hands behind his head. Looking at the road while giving Sonia a moment to read from the pad.

"I don't know. I don't like visiting the place." Eisen remarks. "The place is such an enormous mess. And I don't really like to go and enter into someone else's domain of power, unless I need to." In other words, he doesn't trust that the town won't suddenly decide to eat him or something. Eisen has a really bad understanding of Tsutsujidai.

"But it's basically... a town with almost-people. On the face of it, it's a normal place. If you can ignore the Kaiju in the background -- and the god-like entity that runs it with the emotional fortitude of a young girl with serious issues."

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

Opening her eyes, the Number squints at Eisen. Appropriate title? Sonia lifts one eyebrow at him in quiet amusement for a moment, lifting the other eyebrow at the end. "... Dork."

"Ah." She murmurs as he explains how it goes in that ever so unique place. She reaches up with her right hand, rubbing at the side of her cheek and then pushing her glasses up to her forehead as she rubs her eyes next. Thankfully, the meds he gave her are helping avoid a second tension headache.

"Fantastic." Is all she adds. "I look forward to seeing things all go to Inferno." Says the captain of the Paradiso.

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

Eisen lets out a huff of disdain as he gets another 'dork' from Sonia. But in many ways, he is used to that kind of response to his Chuuni insistence. "And yes, I expect things to come to a head in a really bad way in that place." Eisen points out, as he rubs his forehead slowly.

He's got a headache just thinking about it.

"I expect things to just get back to the status quo if we get people out - as if nothing happened." Eisen predicts.

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

She does smile at him, all in fond teasing. She may barely knows him, but she does seem to like him already.

"I... wouldn't argue bad thoughts to come when that hasn't happened." She says, carefully. "I don't doubt that we're wrong, in that things are going to go badly if the situation isn't handled in the right way, but the 'status quo' effect, arguably, almost seems like it's different than what this Akane girl is looking for, and won't be what happens."

"But well, I don't disagree we shouldn't be prepared for it, nevertheless. Always have a plan, and then have a plan for that plan going to hell in a handbasket."

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

"We'll see." Eisen remarks, a bit grumpily. He doesn't really quite get why he's quite this grumpy about tall of this. But he knows that every time he thinks about all of this, it's really irritating to him.

"We'll see." He repeats, before glancing around the corner of the seat and looking Sonia's way. "How's the headache?" He checks, some time having passed for the stuff to start taking effect. Eisen is not great at small-talk unfortunately. He's got... issues.

Conversing with people around topics that aren't as much of interest to him is harder for him.

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

Sonia eyes Eisen at the grumpy tone, but tactfully avoids saying anything.

"I'm good, thank you." She says, calmly. "Here's hoping this conversation hasn't given you one too. My brain was considering it." She adds this on lightly, with kind concern behind the tone.

"... Ah, thank you, by the by. I'm knowledge sponge. I like to know."

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

"I'm okay. Just my body finally getting over the shocks it had to deal with earlier, and now settling into tension." He explains to Sonia, missing the eyeing at him.

"It's not the conversation." He tries to ease her concerns, as his eyes remain on the road. Following the road is easier for him right now that staring someone in the eyes. Something he hates doing to begin with.

"You're welcome. What kind of fields do you personally frequent yourself?" He then inquires, trying to learn more about Sonia. Or at least, trying his best to do actually make an effort at learning about someone other than himself. Something beyond just a surface level.

"I believe to recall you're a historian right? I didn't look to see if you have any published works."

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

"Ah, good, didn't want you to be getting a headache too." A pause.

"Mmh, I'm not published, so you saved yourself from accidental effort." Sonia admits. "I'm a historian, yes, specially in breaking down wars and battles and how they were fought and their impact culturally, socially, and how they impacted the actual war itself. It's quite a intriguing topic considering everything going on right now, but that actually just makes it all the more interesting, both as a captain now and a pilot before."

"I like all history though - it's fascinating how things grow, develop, and disappear in a lot of cases, or adapt in many others."

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

Eisen wonders, as she begins to speak of the cultural and sociological impact of the wars in history. Waiting for a turn to speak, until she finally ends.

"So what do you think of how the Britannian wars have changed the landscape and changed the sociology of this world? After all, you're working for NERV now. We receive a very notable amount of funding from them." He remarks to her, trying to see what she might think on the subject.

"After all, there's little what stops Britannia from using that funding to force the deployments of Evangelions against non-Kaiju targets." He adds.

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

"Ooooh boy. That's..." Sonia looks out the window for a moment, gaze unfocused.

"As a former Brittanian Forces pilot ... I am ..." Sonia pauses, looks around, and drops her voice to a softer tone.

"I'm not -fond- of the Brittanian system, in the slightest. On very many aspects. This is admittedly a bit of a ... tart reaction on my end, due to the racism I was subjected to." She shakes her head. "Take the Black Knights, for example, with this conversation. Had the Union not taken over 'Area 11' as they have ... what is the likelyhood that such a group would exist? They socially and culturally crush whatever they take over. Not to mention the territory itself; as most of the money for repairs to the geography is sunk in the Neo Colonies." She holds up one hand, all fingers but her thumb up. "I'm nothing more than a Four, after all, even if I am a first-generation born, and thus considered an Honorary Brittanian."

"So the Union is asking, socially, for us to forgive, while doing nothing that would make most think about it."

"Sorry, that was a bit of a rant."

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

Eisen quiets as she begins to explain that one. The Brittanian system is an extreme situation, and he knows that she's from one of the Areas. She her own experiences on this, while also being a historian, are of notable interest to him. After all, he's never been a proper 'member of society'. He's only recently started to go to school, and that's within the Tokyo-3 region -- so he's not seen any of the problems himself.

"Cultural oppression and erasal, in order to create a mono-culture. Under some kind of idea that it would squash rebellions over the generations faster, and lower the amount of tensions between people." Eisen summerizes some of what Britannia does. His tone is flat, as if reading it from a book - trying to make it clear that he's citing someone else, and that this isn't something he is either supporting or not supporting.

"No, it's okay to rant. I... get most of my information from books. From reading things on the web. So it's good to actually get this kind of response from someone who actually is learned, and has experienced it." Eisen then adds. "I never thought about that - asking socially to forgive while doing nothing - it's a good thought."

The youth tilts his head a bit to the side. "I look at the Black Knights, and I see the further disruption to the status quo and society. I get worried what damage they might do to the military infrastructure during the recent conflicts. From the approach of Angels, Kaiju, but also those Bug Aliens from Space that have been showing up. And then there's ZAFT. It's... short-sighted. On my part."

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

"No, no." Sonia lifts up a hand. "Eisen - may I use your first name, or are you more of a formal type - the short term needs to be thought about just as much as the long term. Actions taken in the short can have long-reaching consequences after all. Consider this. There are still hundreds of thousands if not more that struggle daily to make sure they are fed and healthy. If we can't, short term, make sure we protect our fields, the cattle, the greenhouses, the animals - people aren't going to be able to keep fighting. In the long-term, if we can't get this figured out now, then there's not going to be anyone left ..."

Sonia's tone is bleak, but honest.

"That leads to effects on the economy - people cannot sell what extra they have, because there is no extra. So money cannot be circulated. Yes, there are agri-centers up in the colonies, but what happens if one fails? There's space concerns, you've mentioned that. Paradiso bless, she's primarily -space- orientated." Sonia points out about her battleship.

"It's important to think about." She says, softly, tucking a hank of her hair behind one ear. "I think so, at least."

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

"Eisen is fine." Eisen jumps in between her sentences, and quiets a bit after that. His right eye whirring a bit as they finally pull onto a road and start heading out of the forests and back to Tokyo-3.

It's good to be back on a smooth road.

"Certainly, it's important to keep the infrastructure going. From food to everything else it takes to have a society. I'm no expert on that subject, so I can't really comment on that with any kind of valuable input. But are things that extremely bad right now?" He inquires.

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

When back on the smooth road, Sonia sighs contently, sliding down in her seat.

However, his statement causes her to pause, a frown tugging at the edges of her lips again. "Well..."

"I wouldn't say that they're that bad right now, but there's a caveat on that." Sonia remarks quietly. "How many shots from of your Evangelion weapons would it take to set a small town on fire? How many of my missiles fired on a colony? Things can snowball... but that's why we have to be careful."

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

"My Evangelion doesn't set things on fire. But a single mis-step would destroy a small town." Eisen answers her. "Trust me, I understand the problems about snowballing. It's why I am so concerned about some of the things happening lately. The issue isn't to stop damage from happening, but just... minimizing it. Because let's be frank - no military operation goes without damage. Every political decision made echoes for decades to come."

He's not going to use terms like 'reasonable casualties' or the like. But she can probably tell that Eisen is a more analytical kind of man(?) who is okay with a few lost lives if it's done in the duty of saving the many.

"It's why I prefer the scope of what I do. I work with Kaiju, I run experiments to help enhance humanity and the beings in their environment. As hypocritical as that sounds, what with the long-term ethical implications that come with all of that... but I'm already born with a demon within me... may as well be a mad scientist at that point." Words that... don't make sense without context.

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

"Fire, misstep, you get the point." Sonia flicks a hand contently in dismissal of the adjustment. "That's the snowballing we need to worry about. Minimizing is a -great- idea, and I definitely encourage it; it's part of the reason why I've been so careful about my adjustment to battleship er... captaincy. Not piloting, captaincy."

"I pray that casualties are never -deliberate-, so we minimize to make that zero. I'm an odd one with that, though - if there is a casualty that must occur, I pray it will be me, and not anyone else."

"Yeah, okay, you're going to need to explain that last sentence of yours there. ... What."

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

Eisen tilts his head back from that spot in the front seat, looking back at her once more. That glowing eye of his. A devilish grin on his face. "I was born with a demon within -- I do not belong. I am like none of the other Children, the other Evangelion Pilots. I came from the depths of a great magic - a great experiment - and came out against all odds." Which all continues to sound like nonsense.

At which point he motions a hand dismissively, as if that explains it all; "And that's all you're getting from me." Playing it up as some kind of great mystery.

After which he puts his hands behind his head again, looks out onto the road, and just goes quiet.