2022-08-11: Kitten
- Log: 2022-08-11- Kitten
- Cast: Renais Cardiff, Alexis Kerib
- Where: Nouvelle Tokyo
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-08-11
- Summary: Renais receives a visit from an acquaintance of more than one Renais, who seems perfectly happy to discuss her present trajectory.
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
From Japan to Europe and back in the span of three days...
Thank God for the linear trains... not to mention a generous expense account provided through a Shuffle Alliance shell company.
Barely an hour off the plane from Tenchu, Renais Cardiff looks over an old-fashioned paper notepad while she walks down the streets of Nouvelle Tokyo. Several pages are full of notes, all related to Akane Shinjo. Family members, locations, various speculations and bits of marginal commentary...
Renais' emotions didn't really settle after she left the NERV/Alliance meeting. Even as she tracked her leads, she was wishing she'd stuck around just *another* moment, long enough to hear that woman put her foot further into her mouth, just enough that she could knock her on the floor...
It wasn't until she hit the inner ring and stopped for a cup of low-g coffee that she was finally able to get her mind on anything else. It was... confusingly awful, really. She wasn't even *mad* about it. More impressed, really. She was pretty sure whoever was running that shop was orchestrating a very elaborate prank of some sort.
But now she was upset for other reasons. She'd just gotten off the phone with one Mr. Shinjo, and...
She'd honestly forgotten just how much she disliked him... she doesn't blame Akane for her impressions of Chasseur now, with a dad like that on the force.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis is, as always, a predator of bonds and bondlessness; he finds his way to Renais in no small part *because* of the feelings she's having about Akane. At least, that's one way to guess how he came to be in a Nouvelle Tokyo coffee shop.
He steps out of the bathroom, as if he'd always been in the shop -- and perhaps he was. Making his way toward Renais, Alexis greets her as he would an old friend.
"Pardon, pardon. Is the coffee not to your liking?" he asks, moving to settle into a seat near her. "It really is a pity -- it looks perfectly fine! Then again, I suppose Akane-kun is fussy about *her* drinks, too. I really shouldn't be surprised you are too, kitten."
He doesn't miss a beat -- doesn't linger on what he's saying. "I really ought to have followed up with you sooner after you were purified," he says instead.
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais is looking into her cup, still slightly baffled as she holds a mouthful, really trying to figure out what the hell they *did* to it. Low-g coffee is nothing new for her, but--
The motion as Alexis steps in from the restroom catches her attention immediately, and she stiffens, eyes wide, staring at him like her eyes are death rays.
'Kitten'.
That word. That cadence, that tone and inflection...
Part of her is back in the old universe, for a moment. Chained and bound. Her body twitches, hunching forward just slightly as the ghostly memory of old pain lances through her abdomen. She nearly chokes on her mouthful of coffee, barely able to swallow, but she does. She curses herself silently for showing weakness...
Raggedly, she utters, "You..."
You were there.
She can't bring herself to say it. Anything more would be blind, white-hot rage. One hand drops below the table.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Hm? Is a young lion not a kitten?" Alexis asks, electing to play fully, fully stupid rather than admit to anything; it's honestly more fun for him this way. He settles into his seat, looking at Renais...
... well, his mask betrays nothing. But it's hard to miss the vague sensation of expectation that comes with being stared at so impassively. The two of them cut a very unusual figure -- but then, elaborate cosplay is hardly unusual in Nouvelle Tokyo! Surely they're friends.
He notices the movement -- toward the gun, no doubt. He does nothing to forestall it... yet.
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
She stares, blue-green eyes white-hot with anger. Echoes of a fear left behind fourteen billion years ago. Five years ago. Eight months ago.
Underneath the table, she silently draws a pistol from her coat, settling it against her abdomen. The metal is cool for the moment. It calms her, just enough. "You know exactly what you said," she spits back, finger running along the trigger guard. "You. Were. There."
He'd have seen her. Bound and chained. Helpless. Struggling. She stares at that mask, looking for those eyes. Wounds, healed so thoroughly they never existed, ache.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis watches Renais's anger rise -- spike, even. He enjoys the sensation -- all heat and light. He's been waiting a long time to see this. It would have been pointless to extract from Renais when she'd been overcome by the Aura of Dawn, but now...
"Hm? Oh, no, I assure you," Alexis says, all of the teal panels of his face lighting up. "The first time you and I met was when you were under the influence of the Oath Over Omega. But then -- things recur, I suppose. It'd be arrogant to suppose you were utterly unique in all the millions upon millions of configurations of the world."
He breezes right past the metaphysics, though. "But really -- I'd hoped to talk to you about Akane-kun, not muse on cycles. I understand I'm not the only one potentially privy to more about you than you might find pleasing?"
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Somehow, Renais doesn't find much comfort in the thought that it was *another* her that he spied on. He moves on... to a subject that's only mildly less enraging. Less infuriating. The gun's still gripped tight in her hand under the table... her finger moves away from the trigger guard, now, as her anger slows from a rolling boil to a simmer.
"And how much does she know? Do *you* know?" she asks, taking a sip of coffee without moving her eyes from that mask. She winces like she's just had a gulp of strong liquor. It's not good. But the taste is, at least, *grounding* her.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Alexis is perfectly delighted to talk about everything. "Everything this world's BioNet knows is within my grasp -- and by extension, hers. Now, much of it is really quite technical and far beyond her!" And far beyond Alexis himself, but he's not going to give her that for free. "But you can assume she knows plenty about you."
He watches her take a drink of her stunningly mediocre coffee, and glances up. "Mmm -- looks delicious," he says, knowing full well it isn't. "Have you thrown your lot back in with the Gutsy... whatever-it-is-this-month Guard, then? She seemed to be under the impression you'd given up on such things for now. I suppose Chasseur doesn't swear the same oaths, so that doesn't reflect on you so poorly."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
'Looks delicious.'
"Fuck you."
Renais lifts an eyebrow at the question, and after a brief pause, realizes just what that means. All of her records. Video recordings. Vitals. Two years of torture...
Her finger slips through the trigger guard, just barely caressing the trigger. She could do it. It wouldn't likely kill him, she figures--but she could make it hurt.
She wonders if shooting him in the crotch would do anything.
Create a headache for the Shuffle Alliance to have to clean up, she's sure... but not much else.
"I resigned from Chasseur, if that's what she meant," she answers, terse. "As for GGG... I haven't decided yet. I'd *hoped* for some time to myself, some time to reorient myself after you most *graciously* freed me from 000. But you and your victim have made it difficult."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
The invective seems to stimulate Alexis as much as anything else does.
Maybe a little more, actually.
"Victim? You really have a deep misunderstanding of the situation!" the cloaked figure says, continuing to chide. If he notices Renais's grip on that weapon getting steadily more intent, he doesn't acknowledge it -- as far as he's concerned, he's having a very nice conversation.
"Every choice she's made has been her own. Are you sure you aren't... projecting, kitten~?" He turns more fully to face Renais, leaning on the counter. (It's rare for him to occupy himself so fully -- but then...) "Ah -- can we get another coffee, actually? The same as hers," he offers the barista. You can be as strange as you want if you act like it's normal to be so strange, after all. "You want so badly to see her in you, to give her the rescue you had to carve out for yourself. A common affliction among her would-be heroes, I think!"
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Renais' blood surges. Her grip tightens. She feels the press of the trigger against her finger, mere grams of force separating the bullet in the chamber from Alexis Kerib's abdomen. The twitch of her eyebrow, the lift of her lower eyelids, is all the reaction she betrays this time.
Her finger eases away again.
"You told me once... what was it. You compared helping her to pruning a bonsai, didn't you? Of course, that was a lie."
"But-- no, you weren't lying, after all, were you? You're trimming and pruning. Carving and chipping away at her soul, until all that's left is pain... and then you'll find another one. You've already found a couple, I'm sure."
She glares at those panels on his mask a moment. "You're worse than the ones that took me, you know. They, at least, had an end in mind. A *purpose* beyond their own sick amusement. You? I think it really is just a hobby. It's what you do to while away those idle eternities. A child who knows no way to play except to destroy."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Who's to say I'm not finding one right now, hm?" Alexis asks, though he knows full well what he's inviting by saying it. "Though I must say the carving and chipping done to you has been really quite sloppy. And not just by BioNet." He decides to leave it ambiguous what he's referring to; Renais has had several people 'adjust' her, after all.
Alexis's coffee arrives. He doesn't drink, but he does offer a nice, "Thank you!" He even puts money out -- a hand snaking out to deposit several gilla. Then, of course, it's back to Renais.
It takes him a few moments to decide on what to say -- but when those teal panels start their dance again, it's with cruel, insistent purpose. "Do you think I'm doing anything to Akane that living in your world wouldn't have? Imagine what a young lady with all those feelings could have done with one of those highly-evolved mobile weapons."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
Her mind fills in the blank just fine, and she clicks her tongue at the thought of her father. "You've had more practice," she says. She watches in that silence, eyes flicking between the coffee and him, wondering if he's going to drink. If he *can* drink.
And when he speaks, it stings. She knows what the Newtype labs are like--at least, what the ones that flipped to BioNet were like.
Is a personal Hell, being broken down and winnowed by a personal abuser, any better than what would have happened to her in a place like that? Would her family have let it happen?
Would they have even cared enough to know until she was gone?
"... Doesn't matter," she concludes at last. "*You're* the one fucking her up."
There's another pause. "... Now that we're on the same page, though... why *did* you save me? I'm thinking it's because you could leave that stain on me. The knowledge that I was saved by *you*. Does something like that sound about right?"
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
It's unclear if he can drink; he certainly isn't, though. It sits there, cooling -- untouched -- on trajectory to be poured down a sink somewhere, ultimately.
He breezes past the topic of Akane, ultimately -- he decides to seize on Renais's question, instead. "An interesting notion! I think you'll have more fun with the mystery than the confirmation, of course. Knowing all the comings and goings of the world marks a short, short path to boredom." The question does lead him onward, however.
"I'm sure your friends won't tell you -- no doubt both Shishioh and Akane-kun are ashamed of it -- but I really didn't do anything of my own volition in that situation!" There's a breath out -- a faint 'heh' -- before he explains, "I simply thought it would be truly remiss if your salvation came without a multi-step request and approval process, and they were both fully prepared to ask for the help."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
They... asked *him* for help?
After he offered, she's sure.... "But why did you even offer? We both know your bullshit about killing 'Vessels of Light' to stabilize Tsutsujidai is just that--bullshit. You could have lied to her. Told her you couldn't, and killed me, then and there."
A realization hits her.
"... I suppose that explains some of her resistance, actually. By your definition, *I'm* a Vessel of Light."
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
"Hm. I wouldn't be so certain of what you know," is all Alexis offers back. "There's quite the gulf between her doing it and me, in a space inside her heart." Alexis stands at this point, realizing he's -- not cornered yet, but it would be easy for him to become cornered in short order.
"Things are much too far along, now, for you to do much of anything. Try your best to enjoy the ride," he says, standing back up. "Or, if not the ride, certainly the coffee."
He translates away from Renais. He does offer one final parting shot, though: "And do try to remember who first defined you as inhuman to dear Akane-kun! I'd hardly say it was me who created the trap in which you now find yourself."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
"I'm well aware," Renais confirms to the last point, deciding not to dignify the others with a response.
As Alexis begins to translate, she finally lifts her hand from beneath the table, dangling a comically high-powered pistol by its trigger guard.
"I'm going to make you regret letting me live, Kerib." She slides the gun back into her jacket and rises to her feet. "Enjoy your eternity while you can."