2022-12-14: The Magician's Report
- Cast: Shota Hebikura, Jana Cektru, Kaworu Nagisa, Rei Ayanami
- Where: Tsutsujidai - South Floodgate
- Date: U.C. 0096 12 14
- Summary: A collection of people receive cryptic notes that appear to be from the captain of STORAGE, Shota Hebikura. Who they meet is that man's alternate persona, with a story to convey, and a crank to turn.
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<Pose Tracker> Shota Hebikura has posed.
A small group had been called to the 'nearer' floodgate, by the train tracks. In the shadow of the piece of infrastructure, the now-realities of the situation, and the unrealities of their present circumstances, had converged in an enigma of a message.
On scraps of STORAGE stationary, torn from unperforated sheets, folded in places, are notes left to each member.
Nothing typed. Handwritten, with a fountain pen. Dribbles and spatters of ink reveal a journeyman's hand at the calligrapher's art.
It reads:
- I can no longer remain entirely silent on topics that are clear to me. The matters of the past - my past - are returning. Patterns, which ran themselves out, repeating. I no longer have the luxury of time. Perhaps I never did.
It ends differently, depending on the recipient.
To Jana Cektru,
- Doctor. Did you bring your notes? I brought mine.
To Rei Ayanami,
- Rei. There are ways that you may move that I cannot, so I will not make the same mistake three times and refuse to arm you. As well, there is still a moon I can show you. It, and a trip, I will promise you. When this is over.
To Kaworu Nagisa,
- Administrator. Now, I think, we are at the time for simple questions and simple answers. If you'll permit me,
- I intend to make my report.
THE MECHANICS BUILDING,
South Floodgate,
Late Afternoon.
The service ramp to the mechanics building for the gate is lightly to moderately obstructed with randomly placed distressed boxes and barrels, scattered like set potpurri without marking or purpose. The chipping blue and burnt orange coatings of the barrels chip and rust away, without leaving marks. Reaching the door, the handle works imply and the door shows clear signs of being forced open with a metal wedge of some sort. Inside the squat structure is a catwalk that services the side of the winch mechanism around in a U-shape, and then has metal grate stairs down into a lower level. The entire situation seems haphazardly copied or less understood, empty space in the shape of what on Earth would be filled with much more aboveground machinery and actual mechanics, but on a PLANT was linked in with the systems of the colony to not need a direct, colony-aboveground access to the gate's maintenance areas.
It has the exact feeling of a set, for filming. A place created haphazardly by someone who had seen a pump room only on television, and only because it was cheap to gather reel in the place.
The idea of a mechanics room from people who largely didn't interact with mechanics - but the major parts were there. It functioned.
In the lower level, a large copper and steel still, built out with pipes and ribbed with gaskets and crossbacks, sits spigot-ready over a rusty metal bucket. The top hopper is open and exposed. Jana Cektru knows this machine: It is a re-creation of Celebro's Medal Gacher, or at least something very much resembling Celebro's stolen science. In the place of greened and verdigrous metal was functional and clean construction by someone at least capable of following instructions and measurements.
Oddly, besides the Medal Gacher is a plastic table with four folding chairs set out, an unopened ration tray with wrapped snacks atop the center of the table, and a disposable cup of water at three of the four spots. The fourth has an empty bubble-tea cup save for melting ice intermixed with droplets of recently-consumed beverage.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Though Kaworu may be wandering hither and yon, he does still report in daily to the NERV ships present in Tsutsujidai. It's at that time that he receives a handwritten letter from a certain familiar hand, one that speaks of the report that he is to finally receive. Patterns, and the past... Kaworu reads it in silence, then folds it neatly and tucks it with his hands into his pockets. Then he walks out, calm and with purpose, towards the pattern that he senses within Tsutsujidai.
He'd been to the Northern Floodgate just that morning, in the wee early hours. Now it seems only fitting that as the day ends, he heads to the South.
When he reaches the mechanics building, he strolls almost as if unimpeded by the many impediments strewn about. He only pauses to consider the door that's been forced open, and only for a moment; he lets himself inside, then walks along the catwalk, down the stairs, and up to the still. He stops a reasonable distance before it to consider this contraption. Then he looks to one side at the table set for four.
The sign of Hebikura's presence is marked by melting ice. Kaworu takes the seat opposite it, crossing his legs and waiting until the others arrive.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
The nearer floodgate. But nearer to what?
Rei Ayanami found her note near the cramped gantryways that serve as a poor substitute for the Evangelion cage (but then, you're not supposed to stay in the field for this long - are you?) Still with the damp of LCL in her hair, Rei unfolded it and read.
Topics.
Revelations.
Why does he trust me?
But so too does -
Nagisa.
Something concealed. Ways that I may move.
A moon, to show me?
Rei had folded the paper.
And--
LATE AFTERNOON
Arrived.
The curious The ramp upwards is scattered with objects. This slows Rei, but it does not deter her. She has gone through strange spaces before. It certainly would look strange to those looking on to see a girl in an outfit like hers - because she continues to wear her plugsuit, even here, even now - weaving through assembled trash. Yet perhaps not that strange.
The fractal and industrial isolation of the place is comfortable, but to Rei it is disquieting for reasons wholly different than the average; for Rei it felt *wrong*, like a plant corrupted by toxin or exposure to radiation in the seed.
The metal steps down are troubling enough that Rei pauses there, and reaches down to the projection on the suit, the one that rests below the bustline. She feels for a moment - this is not something which has come up much - and clicks something on. An integrated LED shines forwards, a thin white cone of illumination, forwards and inclined slightly downwards. Rei considers for a moment, but then makes her way downwards.
The machine - the table -
The mystery has thickened.
"Then," Rei says to Kaworu, even as she approaches the table - reaches out to touch the side of one of the cups of water, though she does not lift it, nor sit down - "it was not just I?"
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
As it happens, Jana Cektru does in fact have her notes. She brought them along on the Hermes, and happens to have a copy with her much of the time, with the ease with which she can carry data. It's fine. Handwritten with a fountain pen, though...
Jana is here, at this floodgate. It is... interesting, to see this object here.
But let's catch up. Dr. Cektru has had a great deal to do since things have sealed off, in part intentionally; she is preferring not to simply sit and brood over what's happened and what is likely to happen here. The note provided a welcome point of interest.
"It was not," Dr. Cektru says to Rei, and moves to take a seat to Kaworu's left.
"It's an interesting collection of individuals," she admits. "We shall see why."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
An LED light approaches; a pair of footsteps draw near. Kaworu looks up at Rei when she settles, but does not sit, nearby, and smiles slightly at Jana when she answers.
"I have some ideas as to what Captain Hebikura may have in mind," he says. "But let us wait together for him to arrive. There's no need to make haste." He pulls the note addressed to him from his pocket and sets it down. "He summoned me with this letter. I take it the two of you were likewise?"
At least one can reasonably assume that this is everyone. There are only four seats, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
Rei turns her head to look at Jana. The suit casts a strange light before her, seen from the side; perhaps the light has been slightly intruded by LCL. Rei reaches up and clicks it off, looking at her for several long seconds, but finding, it seems, nothing to say right away.
She sits, however.
"It was very strange," Rei says, eventually.
<Pose Tracker> Shota Hebikura has posed.
Those that are sensitive feel it, a scrape across awarenesses past seeing, past hearing.
Those that are listeners then hear it, a scrape, metal shearing frictive across concrete.
And then the door works again. Framed in the greater light of the early afternoon into the dimmed, dreary and mysterious mechanics room is a humanoid figure with hair combed loose opposite to the way the STORAGE captain normally wore his. In one hand is a sword, gleaming silver even in the sunlight, vague in silhouette. The tip taps against the lower frame of the door as the figure looks in and sees, and then resumes dragging something behind him.
THUNK
UNK
UNK
KA-BAN
Thunks the large item, that fills the doorframe and must be yanked in, down each step, and to the group at the table.
In the dimness, 'Hebikura' stands in a black suit-jacket, pants, and collared shirt with a maroon single-breasted vest and tie. He smirks, in apparent cheer, as he favors each member of their band in turn, and then drops the large thing -- a horn, a spike, a claw, some kaiju material that is screamingly familiar -- completely on the ground besides the Medal Gacher.
"I had to find our... special guest." The man who parts his hair the other way from Shota Hebikura answers.
"This place hurtles towards a conclusion that has already occurred, in another place, and another time. Not Celebro, Doctor-" He pauses to smirk-snort at Jana, lingering on the survivor among their quartet. "-but the Lord Monster of this place."
"The girl."
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
Awareness. Friction...
Jana frowns, thoughtfully. There is a lot of 'very strange' going on right now, and Jana nods to Kaworu. "I also received a letter," she says. Then she watches the man in his suit, with that sword. Draaaaaaaaaaaag....
"So I see," Dr. Cektru answers of the special guest, looking at it, the 'claw'?' and 'Hebikura' thoughtfully. She does not comment on the 'who'. But instead, she considers the conclusion--indeed, her mind first jumps towards the latter, towards a /different/ entity entirely, but.... The smirk is right.
"Yes. Miss Shinjo," Jana states, and looks thoughtful. Cryptic.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Strange indeed. Yet Kaworu smiles at Rei's remark. "Captain Hebikura is one who is fond of strangeness," he comments.
Then there is a scrape across awareness, and Kaworu looks up.
Light shines in from the doorway, silhouetting a familiar-yet-unfamiliar man in shadow. Kaworu recognizes him even with his hair parted the other way. He'd been fond of that suit for quite some time, after all--and in fairness, it compliments his figure far better than the STORAGE jumpsuit does. Kaworu turns his gaze towards that which 'Hebikura' is dragging in, thumping and bumping down the stairs as he brings it to their table... or more accurately, to the floor between it and the Medal Gacher.
No need to name the girl. Jana does it for all of them. Kaworu simply nods, smile dimming. "Then do you have an idea as to how to help her?"
She is, after all, quite emphatically not accepting help. And while he can see the shape of what the man in the suit has in mind, as clearly as the shapes of the horn, spike, and claw on the floor, he'd like to hear from him directly what he wants to do.
After all, he said he was ready to make his report--and there are surely more pieces here than what he's just presented.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
Rei hears it before she feels it. She thinks. PErhaps later, she'll wonder. She turns her head...
Thunk unk unk THAM.
Rei takes this in, beyond words; which does not take much for her. The familiar form of "Hebikura." Is it familiar? Is it "Hebikura?" All good questions. He is dragging with him some member of a kaiju. Eventually, it comes there, to rest. Rei stares at it when Hebikura comes to a stop.
But...
Rei looks upwards, and towards --
Is it him?
"'Lord Monster'," Rei says, though it's really more of a question; NOW she looks at "Hebikura," because the thing he dragged in has lost any new information Rei could take in from it without getting up and walking over to examine it.
"Is she a kaiju?"
<Pose Tracker> Shota Hebikura has posed.
"I'm sure you're waiting for the show to start, still." Jugglus Juggler answers, lifts his hands to his side, and sweeps the gesture around the room with a left-right pivot from the waist. In his right hand, held against his palm with just his thumb, dangling and casual, the ground-scraping sword sways.
He nods, bringing his arms crossed and tightening a reversed grip around the sword-hilt, stepping around the table to scoot his chair out with a dress-shod foot and sit, sprawlingly, in the chair.
"A long time ago, in a place truly far from here, there is a planet with no name - it is a shape and a number. And on that planet with no name is a mountain. At the top of the mountain was a light, and that light chose the man who rose to the summit. . ."
It's certainly Captain Hebikura's disbelieving chuff, a tired and well-trod moment of humor in the dark. ". . . after me. First to the top, but last to the prize. The start of my pattern."
His left hand uncrosses from its place, reaching forward to grasp the dregs of his icewater vaguely tasting like bubble tea, to obnoxiously slurp out all the moisture until he draws on air for a solid second, then places it down with an 'ah'.
"I have liked being 'Captain Hebikura'." He admits, and this voice is small, parenthetical, truly audible in the dimness of the lower level, at the table of four, among people he had selected. "So, after this, I may like going back to that. With that in mind, 'Administrator', the report:"
He raises his neck, craning it back to look at the Medal Gacher. "This item's method was stolen from Ultraman Hikari, the brilliant scientist of the Ultras, granter of tools, builder of powers. It can turn a fragment of power into a medal. Medals, cards, dolls, unassuming things. Toys, for children. Weapons, for warriors. Salvations, for people."
Back to the table, lurching forward, his hand steadies on the lip of the folding-table, and when it moves, three items are there:
Little colorful coins with rainbow holographic faces. If you didn't know better, if you weren't sensitive, if you had not laid hands on, been within something many steps removed from the real thing, may be mistaken for a piece of metal and plastic pressing a bit of paper or image in rainbow film.
But the three silver figures depicted in bust on the faces of the Medals exude a palpable power, a harmonic frequency, a signature sign.
"I have met these men. And they are men, of course. Like me!"
He finds this uproariously funny for a moment, giggling and laughing, and then drops to a haunted, sullen pause. "I met them, and they... failed, right at the end, to save every person." His eyes flick down, staring at one among the rest, crimsoned in the silver. "Ultraman-" U-ra-to-ra-man, syllabic and drawled. ". . . Dyna. A consummate warrior."
At Kaworu, an apologetic smirk. "I'm jumping around. I joined my... friend, on his quest from the mountain. On it, we met two maidens on a mission from a foreign queen." Distant, sad. "My friend, the second to the summit, was convinced to help. It was his duty. And it was my... confusion, that had me follow. When none of the rest would act, I--"
A twist of the tone, and he swipes his hand across the empty air above the table. "-- cut the problem in two, and proved my justice. But it was spurned, it was not 'right'. It was something... ugly, and convenient to shove aside. I understood, I thought. I acted, *when they would not*. But..."
Anguish. "Then they -- then he -- saved the 'villain'. The villain?" He repeats, confused, still confused, hopeless and lost, but the story continues and his tone resumes.
"And so I parted from my friend, as he had found his people, the second to the summit, and there was no place for the first to the top among their number."
Okay. He's really still salty about that, actually. But he's had several years to get over it and have many arguments with the shadow of a person from history.
"And then several other things happened, and I came here." The whiplash finishes with a light, almost humorous fast forward ending. Rei asks an important question.
"She is... Someone who needs help." Jugglus Juggler answers, clear and direct, after only a moment's hesitation for gentle wording.
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
An idea as to how to help her... Maybe that's the point of the story, in its way. 'Is she a kaiju?'
"She believes herself to be," Jana says of Akane.
But indee--she was waiting for the show to start. And so it sarts. The man sits in the chair, and he mentions light, and a mountain... ah, yes. His pattern. Jana listens. She listens carefully. He admits his preference, and Jana inclines her head.
She knows, not uniquely among this company, what it is to 'like' being someone.
Jana has seen such things. The medals... Their signature. And they are, indeed--
"Of course."
They failed... Hm.
"...I have never yet known anyone who has succeeded in saving every person," Dr. Cektru admits, and only in such company is her youth relevant. "...My people, too, had a belief in a certain kind of 'justice', for a long time."
She nods, thoughtful. "So she, too, is the 'first' to the top of the mountain," Jana speculates. "Someone in need of help..."
"She believes she is a kaiju," Jana says again to Rei. "Once, I would have agreed with her--would have said that she has turned her back on her humanity. But instead, now... I believe she has not so much turned her back upon it as it was /taken/ from her."
"She does not want 'help'. She does not feel that she deserves it. But we must find a way."
"...I believe... I have a hypothesis, at least. In your Earth occult spheres the saying is 'As above, so below.' This refers to the similarity in the greatest and least of cycles; it is an important concept in your systems of belief..."
"But in this case it may be apt. This 'world' that is Miss Shinjo's heart; if we cannor provide care to Miss Shinjo directly, perhaps, in caring for her 'heart', we can change the conditions of this place, and show her another path."
"...It is only a hypothesis. But if you are willing to go so far as to share your story with us... Then I believe that such 'honesty' may be the 'salvation' of all present."
BBSYS: Post 535, 'Golden Gundam Spotted at Neo-Mexico' has been published to IC News/Rumors by Rita Bernal.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Kaworu only smiles at the talk of waiting for the start of the show. He's very good at waiting, and with Juggler now here, he's reasonably confident he won't need to wait much longer. He's right, at that: though it takes him some time to get to the report, Kaworu listens, close and quiet. He gazes back at the Medal Gacher as the Illusion Demon explains that Ultraman Hikari was the original inventor of the method, that it was stolen and copied by the one who uses it now. It's fascinating, in its own way. Transforming power into something that can be accessed by anyone... even a human--even a kaiju.
It's fascinating, and disturbing. Some powers shouldn't be that accessible. Even a Namegon became something truly fearsome thanks to a medal like the ones Juggler sets down before them. He looks down, but even without looking he can feel the power that hums within them. He looks back up. First and second; maidens on a mission; a problem, cut in twain; abrupt laughter and abrupt sullenness, bitterness and resentment, confusion and hopelessness; but under control, this time. More or less. Kaworu listens to it all, and one thing stands out to him immediately. If this is a pattern that is repeating here and now--if Akane Shinjo is someone in need of help, even when she refuses to accept it--
"Was there really no room?" he wonders quietly.
Jana is rather more pragmatic, focusing instead on how this all correlates to Akane. He listens silently as she answers Rei's question, then gives a grim nod. "She cannot or will not accept help, and the end result is the same."
But--if Tsutsujidai is Akane's heart, then perhaps the solution is to give care to it, and in doing so transmit that care to her. Kaworu gives this due consideration, his expression thoughtful. "Yes... Now that the Venora are dead, she has no more means by which to sweep away undesirables and pretend bad things never happen. I believe your hypothesis has merit, Dr. Cektru."
He looks back at Juggler. Whether he answered his earlier question or not, he says, "I don't mind if you return to being 'Captain Hebikura.' I've liked being 'Kaworu Nagisa,' too." The First Angel glances at Rei, his smile turning a touch wistful; she already knows some of what he means, but it's a big admission for him all the same, especially with Jana who knows none of it here. He looks back at Juggler. "If you'll permit that of me, I'll certainly return the favor."
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
Juggulus Juggler tells them a story.
Rei listens. It rings in her head. Resting there, in the sea of water and light. She cannot condemn; she can only try to encompass it, to comprehend...
Several other things happened.
A coin rests on the table - no, three. They look curious; artificial, synthetic. Unreal. Rei looks at them for several seconds, seeing the subtle sheen on them. But there is something there; the sensation reminds her of the subtle feeling of an activated Evangelion, nonetheless still.
Her eyes turn back towards Jana. She has regrets; and doubts. And an answer. Well, a hypothesis. Rei takes it aboard as well.
Kaworu, then. He speaks - and suggests something.
'Kaworu Nagisa' is only a name.
Like 'Shota Hebikura.'
Like...
Her eyes turn back towards Jana, then. Honesty. And now she knows too; or at least, she could, and Rei knows she is not a foolish woman. And speaking of those:
"She acts blindly, I think. With great power," Rei says. "I don't know if this is a kaiju, or something else, that has caused..."
All of this.
A second or two. "It's strange."
"Can you 'give help,' if they do not wish it?"
<Pose Tracker> Shota Hebikura has posed.
"She has been given the burden of first." Hebikura adds to Jana's thought. "But the answer to that is, actually: I don't know!"
Hebikura laughs, chortling and chuckling with a somber humor. "I will be specific. She is on the mountain. But if she is first, second, or not to be counted, isn't known. She has not... touched the ring?"
He tries to clarify, lifting his fingers and then reaching them out, over the snack plate, to provingly pluck a sugary puff of fast energy and dopamine suited for combat zones and ages 18-35 - a cream tart snack cake roll - and then pantomimes being 'burned' on the wrapper. "To see if she would be chosen. You are more correct about her humanity - it has been taken, suppressed."
Hebikura actually reaches forward to take up the snack cake after, peeling the single use plastic to reveal the nauseatingly produced-sweet scent to the air. He happily takes a bite, chewing and enjoying to not talk over Jana's hypothesis.
When it ends, he nods, crinkling snack cake wrapper and placing it before him on the table in a lean. "You saw the corpses, mmm? The rotting kaiju? They were..." 'Uhu.' "Unalived?" He smirks. "Recently." He pauses to thumb a purple cream'ed thumb back at the large claw/horn/spike that he had dragged all the way down the stairs. "I pulled that from one of the corpses. Material for Hikari's press."
He brings the thumb in to lick off while righting in his seat. "Kaworu, Rei, the Evangelion units won't be able to use the full civil defense arsenal of NERV while they are here, and adapting to the mission needs means... ah, what's that saying. It's one of my favorites."
It is, and he delivers it with relish. A truly human escalation: "Desperate times call for desperate measures? Mm. Mmhmm. Yep! That's the one."
Kaworu's press on if there was no room lingers in Hebikura, in Jugglus Juggler, and he casts his mind back. He was there, in a way. He had never left that moment. He could recite the story as often as required, and he knew it by heart.
This most ugly pattern, his own.
"I will tell you, why I had to bring you here, to tell you this story that I could in all likelihood have sim-ply told the whole class during school hours, and gained, perhaps, a tearful eye and understanding:" Juggler begins, at no-one, at his sweet roll. It's a fine talking companion. "It is not theirs to know. And also, this:"
He takes a breath, and furtive, casts his eyes at Rei, at Jana, at Kaworu. It almost comes out delicate, but the weight of the words are too heavy for gentleness. "When I nearly doomed a different Earth, an other-Humanity, because I was hurt, it was lashing out in anger and fear that was my ven-geant catalyst."
"They destroyed themselves by cutting the tree. If it wasn't the right answer then it would be no-one's answer. And by a sacred tree it was stopped, too." He giggles, dark. "Poetry."
A grand sigh. "Then Ultraman arrived, and saved me too. It only took. . . everything." His shoulders sag.
"I'd like to avoid that, this time." A pause. "And the punch in the face." There was something else that happened he may not mind, but that's not theirs to know for nothing.
"Leito's plan to strike at Alexis*Kerib may be a disaster in the making, but just telling that man not to do anything will ensure he does it. So..." A soft smile, primarily to Jana, as Kaworu proposes delivering care to the 'Heart Itself'. "Civil Defense will just have to clean up." A slant to Rei. "We can give help if there's work to do, and tools to do it with. I don't think it was wrong to do something, tree or not. Perhaps cutting it in half was a... bit much. This time," This time. "-haven't we all been trained in relief during disasters?"
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
"I see." 'The burden, but the truth is less obvious' is fair enough to Dr. Cektru, accustomed to working in uncertainties. "...So, perhaps a matter of that fear, as well..." Taken. Suppressed. Jana does not chew for the moment; she is Thinking, and often gives her full attention to eating, for some reason. But she is pragmatic, indeed; it is her nature. She does not reach out to be a part of Juggler's story, in the earliest moment; she regards it at a distance, sees patterns, looks to trends. Bt Kaworu does indeed share something. The Venora are dead. And he has liked... "I for one am inclined to let people 'be' as they wish to be," she allows, acknowledging that she has heard these things--but then, she has already 'revealed' herself to the others. An impetuous move, to be sure, which might seem strange in such a rational woman. Ad yet...
"I believe," Jana says to Rei, "That that is indeed the question. There are things we can do regardless. But the 'final step', the step of 'acceptance'... That is hers and hers alone to choose. We cannot--" Jana pauses. She is not entirely certain that is true. After all, Alexis...
"We must not attempt to 'force' it on her."
That seems to suit her better. But Juggler explains why he has shared only with them; the first ansr is fair enough on its own. The second, thgh....
"...Fair enough," Jana says. "We shall avoid what we can." She considers, then. Leito...
"Mm. 'Leito'," she says, and does not elaborate. She is unsure how many know his secret; it is not hers to tell. But 'Leito' is not the one she finds to be impetuous of the two. Instead, she considers the matter of Civil Defense... "We have this training, and these skilsets. We will do as we can. I will... /attempt/, to deal with this matter of Leito and Alexis Kerib, but..." She doesn't like her chances there.
"I lack the 'power' to force the issue in this case," she says, with a shake of her head. "Which is just as well."
"But I see. You propose an interesting matter as regards our resources; I may be able to assist. I have... experience, in emulation." The Imitation Ultraseven Array.
"...But indeed it is best to do 'something.' I have come to learn..."
"That the difference between us and those such as Alexis Kerib--is primarily in involving ourselves with the subject. To hold ourselves apart and separate will aid no one but our own pride."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
It's been known for a good while to Kaworu that Akane's humanity has been stolen from her, and by whom. It isn't even just Alexis*Kerib; Akane's parents, Akane's teachers, surely more people he doesn't know about have laid the groundwork that made her vulnerable to him. He thus doesn't remark on that. Knowing didn't make a difference anyway--for him, or for her.
Instead, he looks again at the kaiju pieces. Material for Hikari's press, hm. He looks up at Juggler as the Illusion Demon revels in that snack cake, a snack that Kaworu doesn't partake in--doesn't even partake in the water. Instead, he hums quietly, thoughtfully. "I see... So that's what you had in mind. Let's see how it works, then." He looks Rei's way, seeking her eyes. "We can test it together."
'It's not theirs to know,' Juggler tells his roll, and Kaworu gives him a rueful little smile. It turns more rueful still. Ending an Earth because one was hurt by a friend... He hadn't thought of it like that before. But he and Juggler are very similar indeed in some ways, aren't they?
Perhaps that's why he's trusting him like this. It's an honor, really. Kaworu always feels more at ease when he encounters someone who's like him.
"It would be nice to avoid," Kaworu agrees. He nods to Jana as she speaks of the final step. "She may or may not accept our help, but we must continue to try." He smiles at Juggler. "If there's anyone besides Gridman who might be able to defeat Alexis*Kerib, surely it would be him." And he doesn't say 'Leito.' After all, he's only the host. "As long as we're careful about our battlefield, I see no reason not to try."
To hold ourselves apart and separate... That strikes a chord in Kaworu, though. He regards Jana with a melancholy thoughtfulness. She'd revealed herself before, and she'd made it clear she'd caught what he said too. Is it better to be fully honest after all...? It would be nice to not have to hide anymore... But these versions of events aren't nearly so forgiving as they were in the early days, and even those were literally murderous.
He'll have to think on it more. After all, it's not for everyone to know. But--he reflects as he gazes at Rei anew--it would be good for some to know.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
He could have told them all.
He only told Nagisa.
He only told Dr. Cektru.
And
me.
It is a duty being placed upon her shoulders. It feels heavy, but it's a balanced sort of heavy.
Rei hears Jana as she speaks but does not look at her. She is feeling a great deal of thought. The step of 'acceptance.' Steps that are Akane Shinjo's alone to take.
Grasping a hand, held out.
Rei's eyes meet Kaworu's for a moment.
But afterwards, she reaches downwards to pick up one of the coins, hesitantly - as if expecting it, somehow, to be fragile. Or...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKKmwieN-6Q
"It feels familiar," Rei says, picking the coin upwards with a kind of instinctive reverence. She raises it upright and looks at it for a long moment, turning it over in her hand. "I think I feel it; where"
she
"the Eva can strain."
Rei puts it down, with that same reverence.
Her head turns a little to look at the strange machine. "... Small; it's so small."
Civil defense.
To protect another.
I cannot fight well. I'm not
like the others?
like the others?
like the others?
like the others?
like the others?
like the others?
like the others?
Rei's head turns then. "I don't know if I can protect all of this place. It is large. There are many spaces. Many precious things."
<Pose Tracker> Shota Hebikura has posed.
Shota Hebikura, Captain of STORAGE, a Civil Defense Team of Earth has only this to say about Leito, agreeing with Kaworu's thoughts rather formally:
"If there is any one man who can do it, yes. Perhaps Inaguri-san. I didn't stop him at the school, and I won't stop him on the battlefield. It's not possible. But," He smirks ruefully, with Kaworu. "-even he can overdo it."
"Stop him short of racing into Alexis*Kerib's traps. Don't let him run off, alone, to make a mess of things."
Rei, Juggler follows with great interest as she reaches out to lift the coin and hold it up, the light of Gaia reflecting in her face, a twinkle of gold against her eyes even in the dark, an inner light. He pauses as she recites, now cautious and interested, and nods at her final decision. "The medals are tools. Let's make one." He offers.
Kaworu had called for it, anyway. Spinning out of his chair, Hebikura stands and moves the short distance to the shoulder-high still, the large opening at the top of the hopper a large funnel fed into tubes that would not even remotely fit the whole of the claw/horn/spike.
Indeed, it doesn't, as Juggler reaches around the Gacher to the downed spike to ratchet off a large fissure-rent chunk and feed it into the top.
Immediately, Weirdness starts, the top coughing to life and accepting the spike-piece rather like a singularity peeling the offered piece inside once it was in use. The kaiju bit becomes a clear light-emitting and sound-clattering Object that tumbles loudly through the pipes and gaskets.
"The press draws in unliving material of a certain type, bombards it with energy in a certain--" Dry wit splits his lips with a smile that he shows the trio. "--pattern," It's a theme. "-of the arrangement of channels. Celebro used metal pipes. I've made... small adjustments to be closer to Hikari's vision." I.e., nearly-unlimited production of Ultra and Kaiju Items, controlled only by vague honor system. What could go wrong?
He works a large, important looking black crank that certainly cannot be simply turned very purposefully to produce an artifact of any kind of power...
And yet...
Out of a lower spigot, the light tumbles and clatters and deposits itself into the rusted bucket with a triumphant cacophony that only a metal medallion cartwheeling from a metal pipe and into an abused receptacle can make.
On the medal's front is an odd sort of... dinosaur... spikey?
"Honestly it's so easy even a child could grasp how to operate it." Hebikura asides.
<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.
Yes. They see how it works. That is... nice enough. As for 'him'... Jana frowns, and then sighs. "Yes. We must support him, reckless as he can be."
But Jana looks back to Kaworu, at his melancoholy--and does not press. Instead, she loos upon Rei, and considers her for a while. What she has to say--the responsibility she takes in this--
"...We will do all that we can," Jana assures Rei, when she is unsure. "And we will keep hope in our hearts that it will be enough."
But the machine... it works. Jana is... troubled.
Oh, it works, all rgiht.
But is that such a good idea...?
"I wonder about that," she says of 'a child could operate it'.
"We will have to act responsibily."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Kaworu watches Rei as she picks up the coin to inspect it. He smiles faintly at her comments, at her reverence. It isn't amusement; it's appreciation. "It's all right," he reassures her. "You won't need to do it alone."
Jana's input gets a smile as well, likewise of appreciation. "Yes. We must all keep hope."
If there's any amusement to be had, it's for what Hebikura says of Leito ("Leito"). Kaworu laughs faintly at that. "I'll do my best."
He watches carefully as Hebikura works the Medal Gacha-like, listens carefully to his explanation. It is quite simple--rather too simple, in Kaworu's unspoken opinion.
Jana's exactly right, after all. But they are all here to protect the Lilim and the Repli-Compoids. They'll do what they must... responsibly.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
<poem> Rei does not understand the nature of this device, beyond the general outlines; but of course, it might be terribly, terribly advanced.
It's from another world, isn't it?
And the Zentraedi, for all their power, weren't that far beyond Earth - save in a few, specific, very important things.
Other people would have far, far more to share.
Rei watches the demonstration with interest, perhaps surprise. She nods slowly, once, at the mention of its adaptation from Cerebro's.
"I will retain confidentiality," Rei says, with airs of both 'assurance' and 'repeating something she has been told elsewhere, possibly a number of times.' "... Thank you, for, your trust."