2024-07-05: Confined in Kamogawa
- Cast: Chloe, Kaworu Nagisa, Liam 7-020, Array Danon Ci, Youko Nakaizumi, Laffinty Fin E Ld Si, Madoka Kyouno
- Where: Pharos (Kamogawa, Japan)
- Date: U.C. 0099 07 05
- Summary: After an invasion from a mysterious adversary from afar, the personnel of Pharos and their friends question their captive...and find out mostly that he's a shockingly normal insecure human with only a little bit of useful intel.
<Pose Tracker> Array Danon Ci has posed.
Array Danon Ci had been hoping the adventure to Earth would've been a little more...adventurous.
The part of him that thought, 'whatever happens happens, and I'll move forward' is stymied by just how boring it is to stay in a prison cell for several weeks. Huge surprise! Given how modern and spacious a facility Pharos is, Array's accommodations are predictably simple, uninteresting, but not all that uncomfortable. The bed's cushy by prison standards, though the walls are bare concrete.
One might wonder, as an enemy combatant cruising across the stars specifically to attack Pharos, why Array's been so compliant. Submitting wordlessly to various medical tests, which yielded the particularly surprising result that by all metrics, his DNA is a 99.999% match to any given Natural, despite coming from a world with a long history and a vast distance from Earth.
A pile of books is at the side of Array's bed. He's had little to do but pore over them, and he's unfortunately a rather fast reader. ...But at least if he asks for something to read, staff delivers him something quick.
"You've got visitors coming, Array," comes Eri Watabe's voice through the intercom. There's a big glass wall dividing him from a large section of the room meant for said visitors. "Don't give them any trouble, not like you have so far."
"Sure, sure," Array handwaves, putting aside the half-finished book on the Warring States period, staring at the ceiling until company arrives. "...No way can I convince them to let me outta here, huh?"
<Pose Tracker> Chloe has posed.
Chloe is one of those that arrives amidst the group of 'visitors' that have come to see Array here. She's actually a little annoyed about it, because she has no desire to be here. Which is why when she enters she simply goes to lean against a wall, her arms crossed as she remains silent.
Then why is she here?
Obviously to babysit the one who did want to come. That being the artificial entity that appears with a flicker of light in all her holographic glory. The Electric Doll herself, AARC Noa!
Noa appears in her usual flowery dress of black and blue, floating a couple of feet in the air. She has her hands on her hips and an angry look on her face. She quickly raises a finger to point at Array, calling out, "You've got some nerve, pal!"
Quite a start. Noa crosses her arms and harumphs, "Showing up here at our planet uninvited and attacking out of the blue. And now you're just casually chilling like it's nothing. So rude!" She points at Array again, "You should feel ashamed!"
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Chloe has some (more?) menacing-looking backup, it seems. A third person steps up to the glass partition, and fixes his gaze on the prisoner. He's big, and broad-shouldered, and looks like he might be able to bench-press Array without breaking a sweat. His uniform is a cream-colored jumpsuit with maroon at the shoulders, and a matching beret.
Liam glances at NOA as she lays in with her opening volley, then offers Chloe a sympathetic smile. "Easy, now," he says. "We just wanted to ask you some questions." The questions Liam wants to ask might be different from the ones NERV wants asked, or plans on asking.
<Pose Tracker> Youko Nakaizumi has posed.
For Youko, this was her first time paying a visit to her cousin's, Madoka's that is, workplace out in the open. It would probably be for the best if she could investigate a bit more undiscovered, but a chance to interrogate a prisoner was hard to come by. It's not like she did fully trust whatever information she could just find lying around in the open anyway. Fortunately or not, interrogating a prisoner was a chance to obtain information that was unbiased to NERV's party, and even if it was biased towards the enemy instead, she could corroborate it with her own findings.
Which meant that it was time for Youko to appear on-stage. "I do have various questions of my own as well... Array, was it? And I hope we can get some answers without violating any humanitarian conventions, since we're all civilized here." Needless to say, it was up to the people in charge to figure out how did she come in, later. From the Voxes to their motives, there was a broad range of questions to ask. "Let's start easy and confirm name and affiliation, how about that?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
"Now, now, Noa. He's 'casually chilling' because he doesn't have anything else to do, because he's in prison," Kaworu says mildly, smiling crookedly like usual. He comes with Noa, Chloe, Liam, and the others, his administrator's suit lending him an air of authority, but he's so relaxed with his hands in his pockets that it might just undermine it.
Either way, he doesn't mind. He simply turns that smile to Array, red eyes shutting briefly as Liam assures him they're just here to ask some questions. "I'm Kaworu. Kaworu Nagisa. I'm an administrator with NERV, of which Novumundus is a part. Would you mind telling us your name, and why you and your allies attacked this base?"
He has an idea based on what Priscilla said--but she herself said she didn't know everything. It's Array here, who led that attack, who'd have more comprehensive answers, and Kaworu would like to hear them from him directly.
He doesn't seem to mind Youko's presence. He gives her an affable nod when she asks her own questions, in fact.
<Pose Tracker> Laffinty Fin E Ld Si has posed.
Fin E Ld Si Laffinty (Lan, if you're nasty) has, of course, been kept entirely away from overseeing this operation by Moid suggesting it's more in his purview and it'd be terrible to see her bothered when she needs to focus her energies on the Vox.
But apparently Moid's decided he's not getting much more out of this, so now she is able to be here. Despite nominally being here to keep things orderly, Lan doesn't present herself in a way that would stop much of anyone - she's a slip of a thing, of only a little above average height for a girl, and pale like a ghost besides. The blue uniform bolero she wears isn't even Novumundus standard - though it DOES match to Balance T. Moid, who slipped off before they got here.
Lan doesn't even particularly speak, hands silently at her sides, gaze drilling through to Array. She remembers him, alright...from the entourage at Gallia.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
Madoka, for better or worse, was busying herself with the rigors of Life and The Jersey Club; It took a bit to properly wait for Array to be available for visiting, as much as she took to trying to check up on him every so often. The understanding of "we need to keep an enemy combatant here to try and learn more about everything" clashing with "...do we really need to keep him locked up" with no clear answer.
That being said! When the murmurs of having people visit him arrived, she was practically the first to jump on the visiting bandwagon. To stride in fresh from training with the Vox just a beat after, thumbing out the last of her hair with a sigh and a bit more attention than she's supposed to. To stride in and-
"Onee-chan!?" Youko!? Here!? How!? When!? A bit of a surprise to see her so suddenly, even if her involvement was known. Ahem. Moving on, moving on-
At least, Array seemed fine? Nothing bad happening to him, he looks fine enough from the outside... "This feels more like a zoo." An eye cast over at the posturing holographic girl, a small wave towards Liam. Kaworu's tactitly acknowledged, and so's Lan (smile included), sidling up next to her.
"Uh, with all the other questions...Have you been well? I know you're a prisoner and all that, but they haven't done anything, right?" An innocent question of prisoner rights, even if she barely knew the phrase.
SCENESYS: Ryoko Subaru has posted scene #504, 'Break the World 1: Side B', at 19:00 ET on 08/23.
SCENESYS: Ryoko Subaru has posted scene #505, 'Break the World 1: Side A', at 19:00 ET on 08/24.
SCENESYS: Ryoko Subaru has posted scene #506, 'Break the World 2', at 19:00 ET on 08/30.
<Pose Tracker> Array Danon Ci has posed.
...There's more here wanting answers out of Array than he could've reasonably expected. Of course, Array's first question is by and large, "...Uh, who are most of you people? Besides, yknow, Kaworu...and the Princess over there, I know her well enough..."
Waving his hands in front of his face at Youko's assertive half-threats, Array blusters out, "You really don't even need to bring up humanitarian conventions! Honestly. I'm not some kinda martyr for the cause!" He sighs, and properly says, "...I'm Array Danon Ci. I used to be a student at Le Garite's royal military academy. ...the planet that Princess Laffinty is from."
Array's gaze momentarily turns towards Lan - and there's a little bit of...it's hard to say in his expression. ...There's this vague sense that he believes she should be disappointed in him? Evasive-eyes, but always coming back to her. "...I was one of the students that was at Gallia IV. ...That disaster happened, me and two of my classmates got wrapped up in a lot of crazy stuff, and, long story short, I tagged along with those two, hijacking a Le Garite transport and its Ovids to get here."
"We attacked here...because the power of the Vox would allow that disaster to be repeated," Array says, a little more quietly. "...I guess." ...he says, a little more noncommittally. "Truth be told, it's the other two who have something personal here, since someone we admired got wrapped up in all this Vox business. ...I think it'd be bad if that power were misused, but, honestly..."
Array falls backwards, and folds his arms behind his head. "I've maybe impulsively thrown my whole life away, haven't I?"
Madoka offers a more personal concern, and Array recognizes her voice, perking up a little bit. "...It's you. ...You were the one who were using the Vox." Array sits back up at attention, gazing closer at Madoka. Closer...she really does look like just...some girl. Indeed, among everyone here, Madoka's clearly the most unremarkable, ordinary one. "...Sigh. ...Nobody's done anything. ...Youko, you said her name was? She's done the closest to threatening me of anyone. ...More importantly, what about you? ...Isn't the Vox super dangerous? Is it doing anything to you?" Pairing voices to that combat incident again - "...You're the one who fought Captain Myroad when I backed him up for a bit," Array muses to Liam, "And Kaworu was in one of those really unsettling weapons..."
Which makes Noa the biggest mystery of anyone here, by a long shot. The holographic idol's sudden emergence makes Array fidget in place, glancing left and right, and he's forced to ask, "I feel like I'd remember someone as noisy as you! Is this kind of thing normal on Earth?! Khhh." Something about Noa seems to particularly tee Array off, and he stands up, tipping forward to lock eyes with Noa. "I'm not gonna feel something as stupid as 'ashamed'! I was gonna feel more ashamed if I just didn't do anything at all. Are you happy? I came here basically because I was kinda bored and going nowhere back home. It was something different from wasting my time waiting to fail! ...tch."
...His gaze does momentarily drift to Chloe, the silent one at the back, and Array slowly stands a little more upright. Gremlin mode decreasing a few notches. "...And who're you back there? Were you there that day too? Hm." A faint grimace across Array's mouth...
<Pose Tracker> Chloe has posed.
"Yes... Well... Even in prison he should be at least trying to be somewhat repentful." Noa does quieten down a bit as more people start talking to Array. And after her response to Kaworu she just waits, crossing her arms and staring holes into Array with her strange eyes.
As Noa listens to Array's story, her face does appear to soften somewhat. The description of the things he went through at Gallia IV is certainly concerning. And he does actually seem to realize that he's made a mistake. Not to mention concerned about Madoka as the pilot of the machine that is supposedly super dangerous. It seems like Noa may have misjudged Array...
... Right up until he addresses her directly. Noa's eyes go wide and she sputters, "N-No-Noisy!?" That felt like an insult. Even if it is technically true. But that alone wouldn't have been so bad...
... But then Array continues. Locking eyes with Noa. She stares back into his, growing more annoyed with each word. Until finally, "Bored!?"
Noa flickers out, appearing right up even Array's face beyond the dividing barrier. One of the advantages of being made of light. Though her voice still carries from the other side of the divider, "You came here because you were bored!? You attacked and threatened people's lives because you were bored!? Why... That's... Ngh..." Noa is no riled up about it that she's actually at a loss for words.
Chloe meanwhile has simply been staying near the back. Her head bowed and eyes closed. She'd been paying attention for the most part, though showing little reaction. However when she is addressed directly, she opens her eyes. They dart to the side to look in Array's direction, before she flatly says, "I was the one who put a giant railgun round through your machine." That makes it pretty easy to figure out who, given Array only had three opponents that day and two were Voxes.
Noa meanwhile flickers back to the correct side of the dividing glass. She introduces, "She's Chloe." She then bumps a fist against her chest, "And I'm her co-pilot, AARC Noa. We're with a group allied to those who you attacked."
<Pose Tracker> Youko Nakaizumi has posed.
If the Big Boss wouldn't complain about her presence here, neither should she comment on it. Deliberately ignoring Madoka's questioning, though she was tempted to scream that a minor illegally working without the approval of her guardians have no business asking Youko why she's here assessing facts and threats.
"Pshh. This was no more than a friendly greeting, Array!" Youko replied to Array's assertion of her supposed 'threats'. "Now that we know each other's names though" -the blonde added with a side glare to Madoka - "and yes, I'm more-or-less the guardian of the girl who kicked your ass - let's talk a bit more in depth."
Crossing arms, a slight frown on her face as she heard a couple things she had already deduced or pre-investigated in her findings about the Vox.... which were honestly not as deep as she'd have liked. "So you're saying that three young men, fresh from school, decided to hijack some weapons and attack an entire planet on their lonesome?" They had guts, if not much sense, if that was the case. In short, they were probably idiots. At least that's what Youko's intuition was telling her.
"How dangerous is the Vox, for you, to make you say so?" This was probably the information she was most interested in... given Array was not lying about his affiliation.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Kaworu leaves it to the others to introduce themselves, returning Madoka's smile but otherwise not pushing anyone to speak or not speak. Noa might have a problem with his lack of remorse, but Array seems agreeable enough to him. He nods as the youth explains his origins, reassures them he's been treated just fine--and gets to his reasons for being here.
"I see. You're saying that the Vox caused that disaster? You don't sound certain," Kaworu prompts. His gaze turns sympathetic at the mention of Array's loss, but he shrugs slightly at the question--and at Array's admission that he acted out of boredom more than anything else. "Not necessarily. It doesn't sound like you were living much of a life in the first place."
That's an observation and not a slam, honest.
Kaworu does look curiously over at Madoka and Lan when Array suggests that piloting the Vox might be detrimental to their health. (Youko gets a bit of a curious look too when Madoka seems shocked to see her, but if she's Madoka's sister, then it seems reasonable to him that she'd be here in Pharos. It's not Kaworu's home base.) "Is it?" he chimes in.
He doesn't remark on his own unsettling weapon. That's not what they're here to discuss.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam returns Madoka's small wave, but his attention snaps onto Youko. "Joking about torturing someone isn't friendly," he says, meeting her eyes. He folds his arms, and glances back at Array, through the glass. "I was."
'Onee-chan!?'
Liam's brow furrows. He glances between Madoka and Youko, and while he seems to take Youko's explanation at face value, he sidles a little closer to Madoka. "Older sister?" he asks, quietly. "She work for Novomundus, too?"
<Pose Tracker> Laffinty Fin E Ld Si has posed.
Lan's stare on Array doesn't break. However fragile her build may be, her posture is secure and her gaze is a piercing focus.
Though, when he says the power of the Vox would unleash another disaster like Gallia IV, she doesn't, quite, look in anyone's eyes for a moment, one hand slowly curling uneasily. She finally pulls her attention away to Youko, because like, who is that, actually. "Onee-chan?" Lan repeats, looking from her to Madoka. She answers Liam: "I...don't...think so?" she says, slowly. "The staff is large..."
Kaworu inquires after Array's accusation and Lan replies to him with a shake of her head. "Nothing like that has come up," she affirms.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
The more Array speaks, the more it strikes her that he really isn't anyone...Well, special? In her mind, pilots tended to trend towards capable people far out of her league, those who went for a cause with all their strength, fight for it, and generally were larger than life. Coming to see someone like this...Wait, that's a lot of info. Process, process...A student?
The minor sigh at the family dynamics in play, shifting her attention away from just the usual cursory self. Still, it's always good to see her cousinguardiancaretaker.
Still, Array...Good to place a name to a voice. And a face! Progress! "The Vox? No, its been working just fine. You know, just move it, and it moves along. What's that thing they called..." A frown as she tried to remember. Psycom? Psycho? Payconn? "...Don't remember. "But no, I've been feeling fine enough. Clean bill of health!" So proud of that.
Liam's question does bring an eyebrow raise, the question mark of wonderment all but appearing over her head. "I don't think so. But if she's here, then...Mmh, maybe she did? Don't worry about it too hard, she just pops up everywhere." Ask her about how many times she walked into rooms to find her cousin there!
There is a mental ding against his personal score for saying that he attacked out of boredom. But more than anything...
"...You don't strike me as the bad sort of person, you know."
<Pose Tracker> Array Danon Ci has posed.
Array skitters back across the bed when Noa holo-bypasses the glass, only to take a deep breath in, reaching out to try flicking Noa on the forehead. It phases through her, predictably, but it's the thought that counts! "We specifically just went after this facility! It's not like we went on some reckless rampage all over that town there. To me, this place looked like a raid boss, and if I just stepped outside my comfort zone and went for it, who knows? Maybe all it'd take to change a bad destiny is to work up the guts to fight whoever's guarding the legendary weapon."
Chloe's voice makes her much more clearly remembered, and Array's ears immediately go red. ...Of course. ...The really cool sounding one.
...of course. The really cool looking one. His hands reach down to hold onto the red bandanna tied around his neck. There's something...he can't quite place. "...You don't sound like you...had a lot of fun doing it." His hand claps over his face. "...what am I even saying?! ...I guess...just like the big guy there...you two have...some kinda soldier spirit I never coulda gotten? That must be it."
And yet, looking between Liam and Chloe...it's definitely the latter making him feel the most oddly self-conscious and self-adjusting.
Shaking his head, Array can instead laugh about what Youko has to say. "...Yeah. Yeah, it sounds stupid when you say it like that. Like I said, it's one of my classmates who pushed at all the, 'we gotta avenge Yurikano' stuff. ...Even if this is a weird way of doing it." Kaworu's obvious question makes Array bite his thumb a little bit. "...It's not quite the same thing. Augh. I didn't catch all the details, but when we got roped into Le Garite's custody after the incident at Gallia IV, we heard a lot of... 'the Vox on that distant planet has the real power we seek', like it was some kind of...imitation? If they can tear apart a whole planet just with an artificial version of the legendary demons...well. Most of us are told at night that the real ones completely annihilated Earth."
...Array looks to his left and right. "I guess that part isn't true, but if it isn't...why's Le Garite here at all? Why's Princess Laffinty here?" His gaze finally firmly locks on Lan's. "Colonel Taira...that...weasely looking man...there's something wrong with this whole operation in this Pharos place. And I wanted to get to the bottom of it."
There's a lot of serious tension in Array's voice for a while, but Madoka's...simple-mindedness both frustrates and relieves Array. Pressing his back to the concrete wall, Array sighs out, "...Kch. I'm not here for particularly selfless reasons. I thought I could play the hero in a way I never could any other way, but really I just made a mess for everyone and myself. I even thought, every so often, 'if I had that Vox for myself, maybe I'd become some kind of big shot'. ...though given who it tends to bond with, that might be kinda impossible on the face of it.
...He remembers Sanu, the classmate cursed with Memoria...Donomii, the Grim Reaper who wound up having that brand...and now Madoka and Lan in front of him...
...Coincidence, or is it...
"...Probably impossible for me, yeah."
<Pose Tracker> Youko Nakaizumi has posed.
She regarded Liam's question with a small scoff. If she was here, then she obviously is allowed to be here, is she not? Truly, the most important part of being anywhere is looking like it's right where you belong. "Don't think you're escaping some real questioning about this though, Madoka. Later, you and me. One on one." This was, however, not the point of this visit.
Honestly.... this had been more and less than what she bargained for at the same time - not that she had spent anything but her time and effort to be here. "I see. So a fake one sort of exploded a planet, and Le Garite came here for a real one, you say." Of course, this was exactly the kind of enemy-biased information she was thinking of, but at least Array clearly..... believed it, as much as one believed a fairy tale. Besides, her early finds on the Vox seemed to say something similar. "And? What do you plan to do now that you were captured by an organization that is-" at least technically "allied to your previous captors?"
Honestly, between the Vox and the 'scary robot' that Array had mentioned, NERV seemed to hold the collection of problematic weapons.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Kaworu nods thoughtfully as Array explains--it's not quite the same, but the Voxes on Earth are supposedly the "real deal" while the one that destroyed Gallia IV was a mere imitation. Yet Array had also been told that the "real" Voxes had outright destroyed Earth. Maybe there is something wrong with this operation, but if that's his reasoning--
"Perhaps you ought to explain what happened, Lan," he suggests to the pale princess. He remains thoughtful as she and Madoka both say they've been doing just fine as the Vox pilots. "Hmmm... That's good to hear." He looks back at Array. "I'm interested in hearing more about the Vox and the dangers they represent to avoid any future disasters, but it seems like you've been operating under a bit of misinformation, Array."
Who a Vox bonds with... That's a very interesting way of putting it. "Bonds with?" he echoes aloud, looking again at Madoka and Lan.
Youko's question of what Array plans on doing next is a good one. Kaworu suspects they already know the answer to that one, but he listens to his response all the same.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam returns Youko's scoff with a long, tight-faced look. 'She pops up everywhere', hm? How secure is this Pharos facility?
Liam does not know that Pharos may be strapped for personnel, to put it lightly.
"So that's... that's what destroyed Gallia IV? You're sure of it?" The 'real ones' come up. Liam blinks. And perhaps it's on him, then, to say the obvious. "What do you mean by 'completely annihilated Earth?' We're on Earth right now."
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
Yurikano...The name escapes her completely. A light frown as she searches her own memories. They came down for her? For the Vox? Still, Gallia IV being torn apart...That thing? It didn't strike her as a thing that could do it all on its own.
The visible pall of being Forcibly Scheduled into One on One Guardian Questioning. The worst of questionings! The dreaded- No, it wasn't as bad as it sounded, but it's still enough for Madoka to feel a chill down the back of her neck. "...Yes." There's no reason to dispute it. She didn't really hide the affiliation!
That being said. "Play the hero?" To step up, to sit right on the chair of The Hero and fight The Demon, a long-hard fought battle that ended with a happily ever after. There's a light, self-directing frown to process it. "You still can. I don't think you've done anything to not be a hero. Just not...the one right here?" It's the small steps in life that build up to something big. So does the simple mindset come into play.
The thought of the Vox being real...There's a quizzical glance over at Lan. Was it such a weapon? Such a question left unsaid, but Madoka had...No real problem with it right now. It worked. Fantastically, even. Sure, she knew nothing about it, but it felt...right to pilot it.
<Pose Tracker> Laffinty Fin E Ld Si has posed.
Lan doesn't rebuke Array for his deeds. She just...watches him, silent and intense.
"We were brought here when Gallia IV fell," she finally says. "We escaped aboard one of the fleeing vessels. Then Moid found Novumundus had discovered Voxes here, and thought it best to stay to research and protect them. Before De Metrio got their hands on them." Her gaze darkens, slightly, at that.
But before she can bring up anything there, she submits to Kaworu's other question: "A Vox bonds with a single pilot at a time. We call the process Memoria. You can't see the Memoria mark normally, but they emit an energy that certain instruments can detect."
Perhaps someone with an Angel's sight could see it on her - the tracery of a blue emblem like an elaborate flower on her left flank, just below her arm.
<Pose Tracker> Array Danon Ci has posed.
At Kaworu, Array struggles to explain, "I'm just thinking about...well. Mnh. That 'imitation Vox' made connections with three people, and it was sort of...a curse that weighed on those girls, or so we were told. But it doesn't seem to trouble Princess Laffinty and...uh..." Array flushes with embarrassment. "...I never actually got your name," he admits sheepishly to Madoka.
"Well, that's the story from the Polyhedron passed around down the ages," Array tells Liam, before beginning to recite: "The green demon will tear the skies, the blue demon will devour the stars, and the orange demon will spew darkness. Through countless sacrifices, they will rule the land. Feeding off a tainted heart, they emerge from within the mind. The demons will then rise...do not let them loose.
His voice becomes a whisper near the end, and he holds a gaze with Lan. "...It's a fairy tale, but it's one we're always told brought calamity to a long-lost home planet that our descendants fled from. ...Earth seems like a troubled place, reading up on it. Plenty of very different mythologies talk about some kinds of ancient cataclysms, but none of them sound anything like the one I know."
Madoka's profound little talk about that heroism widens Array's eyes a little bit, and that distant voice tugs at his shoulder once again in the process.
(Getting all the glory takes a lot more hard work than what you're putting in, Array!)
(Not everyone's gonna be important to the whole world, cause it takes guts to be important just to a single other person!)
"...Hah...no...after all this time, I can't get anything she said out of my head. There's something she thought I could do, but I think I have the 'tainted heart' that story spoke of. Of course, if you have a spare Vox and wanna test if someone like me could even potentially connect with it..." That slightly cheeky smile returns to Array, even if it's a little wistful. "I don't really care if I wind up 'cursed' by it. But I get the feeling you're not gonna do that, and it wouldn't even accept me, no matter how much I give up and offer to you all."
...his interest is piqued, and he asks Madoka and Lan, "...What was it like for you two? Connecting with those Vox Cores..."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Lan explains about Memoria, and Kaworu nods thoughtfully. His gaze does indeed dip to Lan's flank, to the exact spot where her mark would be. His gaze turns then over to Madoka's lower back, where hers would be.
"I see," he says. He looks back at Lan with a smile. "Thank you. That clears up a lot."
Liam states the factual obvious; Madoka states the ideological obvious. Kaworu leaves them to it, simply nodding to Array as he continues to explain his viewpoint--and the ancient legend of the 'demons' as passed down among his people. "Earth has been through a lot, it's true." No less than five mass extinction events over the past 500 million years, even. "Thank you for sharing, Array. I don't have the authority to share a Vox with you, but I expect you're correct and you wouldn't be allowed near one anyway."
Kaworu glances over his shoulder at Youko as she retreats a step. She never did actually give her full name, but if she's Madoka's legal guardian, it'll be simple enough to find it out. For now, he looks back to Madoka and Lan when Array asks them what their Memoria experiences were like.
<Pose Tracker> Youko Nakaizumi has posed.
Youko is left to ponder and grumble, what Array had said was true. He was clearly no expert, but what he said about Earthly cataclysms was not particularly wrong, per se. With that said, it was clear that he had no more information than what he already divulged, at least not something that would be of immediate interest to her. There were things that she could put the boy to use, but.... he was not her prisoner or anything, so.
"I see. I think I'll rest my case for now. I have more to look into, at least." said Youko, taking a step back to let the others continue their lines of question. Princess Lan's comment, however, elicited a frown from the marine biologist. "So that's why I didn't find the mark on Madoka's butt at the time...." She muttered to herself, spitting a small curse for being naive at her judgement.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
The captured pilot recites an old legend. Liam gives Array his full, undivided attention, committing it to memory. He nods, once, and--perhaps paradoxically--the tension drains right out of him. "I'm... glad people from other worlds have old legends, too," he says. "Even if they're grim. Hell, like you said, lots of ours aren't pretty, either. Mom had a theory the old faerie tales helped preserve things important to history--keeping people from tearing down old ruins, that sort of thing."
"But I've also talked with a literal witch, so--" He trails off with a lame little laugh. Elisa is not the kind of person you want to introduce to lighten a mood. Dark humor, it seems is the rule of the day.
"I'm with Kaworu on this, either way."
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
A curse? The Vox? It keeps popping up, the curse, the curse, the curse of the Vox...Peoploe keep on talking about it, but this is the first time she's truly heard the legend. "Green, Blue, Orange..." Wait, if there's a Green one, and a Blue one, then... "I don't think I've seen the orange one?" Making the leap of 'if this is true, then this other thing' so naturally, skipping a few internal steps in logic.
There is, of course, the question that seems to pop up...Who's Yurikano?
And the next question. "How it feels?" ...Wait. A thought in her head. Thinking. Thinking a bit more. Her face, lost in thought, turns into a frown. Thinking a bit more, pacing about. "When was it? Eh?" No, wait, maybe further? "Eh? When did I..." No, that'd be silly. Then. Then? But that's so long ago! The memories are vague at best, and there's...Not much in the way of wanting to dredge that particular nadir of her existence back up.
"...I don't remember it." That's the final answer she has on the subject of Array's question. "But something touching my butt, that should be...Around a decade ago? A bit more?" That should be the vague timeframe... "But as for using them, it works." A self-assured nod. The past was the past, and she's moved on from it. "The first test run wasn't too good, but the rest of the piloting track was easy." Indeed, after the first stumble, the way the Vox moves was so...Simple. So easy. Just shift, move, believe in it, trust in it, and it'll carry you through.
Simple.
<Pose Tracker> Laffinty Fin E Ld Si has posed.
Lan had been stanced with a distant confidence until now. Then Array speaks the legend. She *withers*, her posture collapsing to glance to the side, hands falling to her front with her hand clasping her wrist. She fails entirely to meet his gaze when he seeks for it. "So that's...the version you heard," she says, quietly.
Still, she rallies when Array gets saucy. "We don't," she says, head tilting back up, particularly when she senses Kaworu demuring the topic of loaning Voxes vaguely in her direction. "Only Ignis remains unused."
She glances to Madoka at her confusion. "Remember? They gain their color once you step in. The third one is Ignis, so it should be orange. We...assume."
As for her own experience, she looks to Madoka again, head tipping. "That long..." she murmurs, and then looks to Array. who's the one asking questions, here?? "...there wasn't much to say," she says. "There's a sense of...presence. That'd be inevitable, given their reactivity to biotelepathic waves."
That's probably just Le Garite's term for quantum brainwaves.
Then...
"'Imitation'...you say. Interesting conclusion."
Unfortunately, Moid has arrived. He towers over Lan, with a similar blue and white color to his uniform and a fox-faced sort of squint-eyed expression. His hair, a deeply pastel orange, is swept back as ever. He is eating a peanut butter cup.
He pops the rest of it in his mouth as he approaches, then produces from his clean hand...a Pharos access card.
"Ah, Miss Nakaizumi, your badge has been printed," he says, and favors her with a placid smile.
It says 'VISITOR' but doesn't have a date on it. It's indefinite.
Then he flicks his fingers to slide out the second card. Ah...so he knows about Souta, too.
With this distributed, he says, "And now, the Earth Human 'break time,'" and leaves without contributing anything useful.
<Pose Tracker> Array Danon Ci has posed.
"...they've got literal witches on this planet...?" Array, of course, is thinking of the big-hat and broomstick kind from games he's played, and he gives Liam an oh so foolish, oh so oblivious, "I guess coming here was the right call after all, hah. I'd like to see that, so maybe that'll be on my list of reasons to stick around Earth. ...Presuming I ever get outta here."
...Youko murmurs a statement bewildering out of context, and Madoka just says it aloud. It'd make no sense otherwise...
...Buuuuuut Array remembers Izo blustering his way about talking about Sanu in particular. Instead of being too blushy though, Array...grimaces a little? And tries to glance at Madoka for even the barest signal of if he could see it....there...
...No, not really. And he feels bad for trying. After all, he can't help but raise an eyebrow at Madoka's flailing around. "...a decade ago. ...So they've wanted to wake up here for some time. ...Say. You...uh." Array tugs at the scarf around his neck again, looking a little evasively at Madoka. "...I mean any of you. ...If you want to come back here...some time. I dunno. Not like I have a whole bunch more to say. But...You all are interesting. And you remind me of...someone I looked up to. ...Maybe I'd kinda want to have an outlook a little more like yours, if we're both nobody special."
Spoiling the moment of Array being able to put to words that tightening feeling at Madoka...Moid arrives, just as everyone's wrapping up reasons to leave, and then he leaves as quickly as he arrived. ...Array rubs his eyes once, but by the time he can get a better look at the guy, he's gone. ...A little bit of uneasiness that leaves Array falling onto his back and getting into that book again. "...Thanks for keeping the peace here, Kaworu. I can tell people like this can't be easy to keep in line. ...To say nothing of that kinda scary girl you were working with."
...One little sigh.
"...Okay fine. I kind of wish she came here too."
...This one really can't help but wish for trouble, it seems.