2022-07-26: Closed Walls and Closed Hearts
- Log: Closed Walls and Closed Hearts
- Cast: Lin Xiahe, Alexis Kerib
- Where: Nouvelle Tokyo
- Date: 26th July 2022
- Summary: Xiahe enjoys a skyscraper picnic and receives an unexpected guest.
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
Lin Xiahe is spending some time in Nouvelle Tokyo, that most clean and wonderful of cities, a virtual bastion of modernity and wealth and splendour! ... and crime, because much like how her sempai Julia came before her, there's just something so attractive about this place that draws super-criminals to this town.
Maybe it's the way their rescue response service is so /good/. Don't have to feel so bad afterwards.
"Hmm hmm hm," Xiahe is humming as she sits ontop of a skyscraper, dressed in her traditional gowns of white with gossamer blue and red silks, her qilin horns poking out of either side. "Which am I going to go with?"
She leans her head to one side. "The mysterious giant trash can in the midst of Nouvelle Tokyo!" she dramatically declares to... no one. "The horrific UFO that leaves crop circles in its wake! ... too much. They'd take me for a conspiracy theorist."
She rubs her chin. "Ah, Julia has a well-defined theme already... I am jealous. I did not think this through. 'Tis easy for people to think, 'It must be Julia Ampere!' when she leaves a trail of drained machinery in her wake."
The 20-something woman plops onto her little picnic mat, holding a certain seed up to the light.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
One minute, Alexis is not there; the second he is -- just out of view. Alexis inserts himself into the narrative when it would be interesting for him to be there, or when he needs to.
Today... hmmm. Split the difference?
He inserts himself into the self-monologue as if he's a conversation partner without so much as a 'hello,' or at least, not a leading one; he moves a little faster when among potential compatriots. "Ah, consistency -- the much-misquoted hobgoblin of little minds," Alexis offers, tone surely a little wry.
He tilts his head slightly, looking at the seed -- then back to Xiahe. It's /now/ that he starts being a little more polite. "Pardon, though -- is now a good time...?" He looks at the little picnic mat. "This seems a strange place for a picnic..."
He wonders, for a moment, if she isn't trying to make a kaiju the long way -- drop a seed amid a banquet of feelings and let it fester. Such thoughts remain unvoiced.
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
There's a pause, as Xiahe feels that ever so subtle shift in the air -- but honestly, she can't really deny that the day's been incredibly boring and she really needed something to take her mind off the ever-painstaking dullness that is having nothing to engage with at present.
Xiahe pulls her head up, staring at Alexis upside down. "The /subtle/ entrance! I love it. I have to remind myself that being bombastic every single time can bore an audience too used to it."
She sits up and rolls around gently, to sit side-legged. "Oh, but not at all! Distractions are always welcome. But who do I have the pleasure of saying hello to?"
Xiahe doesn't hide the seed or anything; she just places it on a painstakingly tiny lacquered table in front of her.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"You may call me Alexis Kerib," the Devil answers, at specificity. He glances down to the table, now; it's so /small/, so /intricate/. Even if Alexis's true joy is only like model-building in its most abstract sense, there /is/ part of him that has -- through his partnership with a weird art girl -- come to more fully appreciate craftsmanship.
"Just who is your audience, then?" Alexis asks, now curious about Xiahe; the truth is that he'd come to poke through the metaphorical rolodex of BioNet-adjacent science criminals, monsters, and ne'er-do-wells and see who might make Akane worse the fastest, but...
... well, the universe has a lot of things in it and Alexis has a lot of time. He can spare some for niceties, every now and again.
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
Xiahe appreciates that name for a while; a more /ordinary/ name than she anticipated, perhaps, but one that invites curiousity nonetheless. "I am Lin Xiahe," she dramatically announces herself with a flourish, before that toothy grin inevitably pops up as she shows a bit of fang.
Who /is/ her audience? "Is that not a question for the ages? In truth, I have not yet decided. It does not stimulate me to merely harrangue and bully established heroes. What joy is there to provoke established stars? But alas, cry wolf and they will come, without fail."
She draws her legs up a bit, placing a finger to her lip as she lifts her chin up. "You could say my audience is Earth itself. They know me as a former hero, for all the word means. But such colours do not suit me anymore."
She smiles just a bit more vividly. "And what about you, my new friend? How do you pass the time in such a meandering, ill-suffering world?"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Wanting some sort of novel emotional state from your audience, at least, is something that Alexis gets. Nevertheless... "There's a certain interesting stimulation to creating someone interesting out of someone not, I suppose." He starts to trace her motives, and then --
... ah, Alexis thinks. And with no effort from him!
He breezes along rather than digging into it extensively. ... Seeing kaiju users self-sabotage is its own joy and he has no interest in stopping one from doing so on their own.
"Mmm -- about the same, I suppose... like you, I have a fondness for seeing the ways humans change." There's a lot he's hiding in saying that, mind, but it's certainly not /untrue/. "The meanderings and sufferings make for an interesting backdrop, don't they?"
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
Does Xiahe mind that she's spilling herself open like a book? Nah. There was a time when she dreamed about being a schemer, about wearing the robes of mystique and trickery and being unreadable, but...
To be frank, it's a real pain in the ass.
There's a smirk at the way Alexis phrased that sentence, though. 'Seeing the ways humans change'. "Hmm. I do agree. The way people change... and the way they do not... is certainly an interplay I cannot say is dull."
She leans forward a little as she rises to her feet, pressing her hands to her waist. "Do you fancy yourself a distant observer, then? Or do we have more in common than I think?"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis remains static as Xiahe stands; he keeps his movements so minimal, so often. (It makes it all the more concerning when he does move, but that's a separate issue.)
"Hm..." he starts, considering that. "Well, I would certainly like to have painted myself an observer, but /someone/ has made it clear that my options for that are becoming increasingly thin," Alexis answers, eventually. It's annoying -- to have the layers of obfuscation and artifice stripped away by what amounts to a feral child.
Alexis has found annoyance /often/, of late, and among the stimulating emotions it's one of the less enjoyable ones!
"So I suppose we do have a fair amount in common... though I prefer not to stir up problems like those that sprout from that seed of yours /myself/, unless it makes the other ones more interesting."
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
Xiahe is a fair clip shorter at her full height compared to Alexis, but that isn't surprising. She is fairly tall among human beings, though.
"Hmm. I somewhat understand that," Xiahe replies noncommittally, since the statement is free enough of specifics that she can say that. And in a way, she does understand having her hand diminished by irritating factors.
She brushes a lock of her black hair back, between the white, twig-like horns protruding from her head.
"A member of the backstage, then," she whimsically says. "Unseen, but important nonetheless; without, the illusion of the play cannot proceed. But it sounds like your fellow actors are not cooperating as you wish."
She chuckles, and lifts the seed up again. "You do not mind, if I make my own seeds sprout once in a while?" Using the same language, working on an implicit assumption. "Not that such incidents are unknown to those who defend this city."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Things should be back on track, given a little time; I've done the necessary maintenance," Alexis answers. It's fine for him to seem irritated, but seeming /incompetent/ would frustrate him; no, he has to be certain that other potential actors view him in a particular light.
"Oh, by all means, though -- act as often as you like! My best work is confined to a fairly narrow slice of the world -- breadth is the last resort of fools whose narratives outspin them." He doesn't seem to put himself in that particular category, at least, even if he /is/ facing some setbacks.
"I almost wonder if you might not make a fine associate for the young lady," he muses aloud. "Have you seen her -- introduction? A touch combative, but certainly not without its charm."
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
"Oh, I am certain. But to have everything go to plan without setback is in itself a kind of unexciting," Xiahe smiles sweetly. "Irritating as it may be." Nothing worse than a plan that just simply goes... as is.
She taps her chin as Alexis encourages her to act as often as she likes, and mentions the fools whose narratives outspin them.
"Is it not grand to be a fool, though?" Xiahe invites, swooping her arms out. "The great Grimaldi, performing in 'Harlequin and Mother Goose, or the Golden Egg'! It is exquisitely funny and will cure you of all your ills."
She lets that pause and hang in the air for a moment.
"'Tis a true fool to pretend to not be a fool, when all the world's a fool."
Alexis brings up the young lady, though, and Xiahe perks up. "Oh, I do believe I saw her video. Akane Shinjo, was it? Curious business, with the PLANT! I will have to do just that."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Always a challenge with these humans -- Alexis isn't sure what to make of the idea that the setbacks in a plan are themselves the interesting part. ... it might be both -- watching /Akane's/ setbacks is interesting. His own, perhaps...
... less so.
Alexis breezes past the performance of foolishness in favor of the final comment on it: "Perhaps, then, better to exist outside the world at all!" he concludes, tone pleasant-as-ever. He would rather talk about his charge -- and, perhaps, what Xiahe can offer her.
"I must admit, that twist did surprise even me," he says, accidentally planting himself firmly on the foolish side of the equation in so doing. "I had honestly expected her to remain on the other side of the wall forever, but I suppose there is a certain power in making things plain."
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
Xiahe connects the way Alexis mentions 'existing outside the world at all' and the way he mentions how Akane would 'remain on the other side of the wall'; ah, to find reality so repugnant and uninteresting that it be best that she create her own world. She's fancied such thoughts before...
... and concluded that she'd be even more miserable.
"People change, one supposes -- as you yourself mentioned mere moments ago," is Xiahe's comment on that. "The PLANTs happen to be something of a personal interest of mine," she allows that factoid to come to light. "I shall come visit. But do tell, shall I meddle as I see fit, or will you bare fangs at me for doing so?"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
That /is/ the adult's conclusion, one supposes -- that an open heart will experience more joy than a closed one, all heartbreaks included.
(What does it say, then, that Alexis guards his so jealously?)
Xiahe asks permission -- a thing Alexis has very much stayed away from giving others, up to this point, but... "Hmmm... at this stage, I think the ball is rolling enough that you can no longer arrest it, and the occasional interesting diversion of its path will only be more entertaining."
Besides -- kaiju users have a history of making each other worse in a group setting. This just means Xiahe might become interesting in her own right. "What draws you so to them?" Alexis asks, instead, on the topic of the PLANTs.
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
Xiahe is definitely trying to sense the air between Alexis and his charge -- whether it's one of guardianship, or a give-and-take relationship... as she expects, it doesn't come to light so easily, but there is something in the detached way he speaks about her that suggests matters.
Not that Xiahe's content to just let it stand on third party comments -- best to see how this young lady feels, herself.
It is true, though. The last time Xiahe spent a significant amount of time with other Kaiju Users, namely the Eugenicists from so long ago, it certainly ended up rather explosively, through... well, no fault of one person in particular.
"Are you familiar with their history? It is a closed wall of its own, the PLANTs, some thirty plus years ago; they were designed to fail its inhabitants. To force their residents to be reliant on their outside masters."
She richly chuckles. "It flourishes now, thanks to certain hands at play over time; but to conceive a tiny world of such artificial suffering as that... hm. What will they think of next?"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"I know the broad strokes, certainly!" Alexis answers, with his usual jovial enthusiasm; when Xiahe begins describing the PLANTs -- the walled garden designed to wilt -- that actually gives him a little pause. It's a nuance Alexis had never really considered, until now -- he knew Akane's feelings on them, certainly, but...
"Humans have become expert in self-torture, haven't they...?" Alexis murmurs, the teal panels of his face flickering, the flame behind his head dancing in the breeze. "I'm so terribly curious if Akane understands the nuance of that situation herself... she's quite young, you know."
... he wonders, for a moment, if the possibility of her spelling this out to Akane is dangerous -- but he decides it's better not to interfere too much, at this stage. Akane will no doubt find a way to torture herself regardless of anything Xiahe brings her.
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
"The young have exceptional capability for both kindness and cruelty," Xiahe muses. "Often without realising it themselves. Unfortunately, the young are also ill afforded the context of history, and are often uninterested in it, having never experienced it themselves -- especially when history only comes from people they only feel the urge to rebel against. History becomes this... false echo of something that sounds horrific, yet simultaneously is hollow and unimpactful. And to that end, they are prone to committing the same mistakes of the old generation."
There's a flat, wide smile as she considers that for a long moment. Oh, the absolute irony of it all.
"Well!" Xiahe claps gently, clicking her finger and making her little picnic mat tie itself and the table and seed up into a bundle, then literally shrinks into nothingness. Magic!
She places one hand to her elbow, then the finger on the other to her lips. "I must say, it has been refreshing to meet another user. I have not had the privilege for... oh, quite some time now, shall we say."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"All too true!" Alexis agrees, floating just slightly to one side; he wants to see Xiahe, perhaps, from a new perspective. "The urge to rebel against one's elders simply because they are one's elders... a force of progress and destruction in equal measure. And so fascinating in that tension."
Xiahe snaps her picnic mat out of reality, and Alexis gets the sense things are moving to a close. "My capabilities," Alexis notes, by way of clarification, "aren't /quite/ a match for yours -- and hers, different still. I doubt she could do what either of us are capable of. Do keep that in mind in your interactions with her."
All of the panels light up in a momentary smile-or-something-like-it, and Alexis affirms, "I suppose I should let you enjoy the sights... still, this has been an enlightening chat. I'll see you, I'm sure." Not soon, perhaps -- but he will.
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
"If no one rebelled against their elders, we would truly see stagnation. And yet, some of history's greatest mistakes also come from that desire to violently change," Xiahe finds herself chuckling faintly. "It is truly fascinating, I cannot even begin to lie about that."
Because there is something truly fascinating in the truly horrifying, Xiahe must admit. There is excitement in terror, after all. The mind's attraction to horror is a topic a thespian like herself is intimately familiar with.
"Ah. Not quite a user, then," Xiahe muses. ... she was like that, once upon a time. "I will keep my touch light, worry not."
She watches the panels light up in that mysterious way of his, then smiles. "As do you. Fare you well, Alexis Kerib."
And with that, Xiahe seats herself into a little eye-shaped rip of vivid whites, blues and red billowing silks... and then just plops on through, with only her hand doing a little 'toodles' gesture. Then, zip!
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis watches Xiahe make her retreat -- in full view, no less!
He is perfectly silent, but he's thinking:
'... you can /do that/?'