2023-07-15: re configure: (opposite)
- Cast: Asciel Colette, Koji Kabuto
- Where: OCU Japan
- Date: U.C. 0097 07 15
- Summary: Self renovation in progress. Query resolved: 'to reject gods and devils, it's gotta be an idol!'
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
-The reports swiftly blare in on countless OCU channels, the Brave Police, and any other available Federation task force contacts.
<High alert: wanted terrorist 'Atrytone' - Asciel Colette - spotted in Kofu, OCU Japan.>
<Do not engage lightly - municipal police forces are not to act aggressively.>
<Target is erratic and very dangerous - not typically known to hold civilians hostage, but liable to cause copious collateral damage if confronted.>
<Subject appears unarmed and is...holding...a concert.>
<Send out alerts to all residents to stay indoors->
<They aren't listening, and we don't want to send the police out there to detain them. There's plenty of evidence the terrorist's mobile weapon can engage optical cloaking, and it could be anywhere nearby.>
...Needless to say it's causing quite a stir, and all for a scenic little musical venue! It's a city just north of Mount Fuji and the crowning peak is visible off in the distance - the concert itself is on the slopes of Mount Atago, the night-time town lights behind Asciel's stage. It's just as the reports indicate - she's just as we speak finishing up a high speed keyboard solo, all on her own on the platform. Her crowd is modest, but it's being streamed to plenty.
"Thank you, all of Japan!~ A show on this short notice garnering a crowd even this humble's what we love to see. Sadly, we're pretty close to getting shut down, so enjoy it while you can!~ One day, the world will be in tune with this song, and I'm not afraid of whatever's gonna try and shut it down! One more encore though, for all of you!~"
The crowd gives a softly enthusiastic little cheer, and Asciel's last song is slow and methodical, baleful even - a tune heralding conclusion, since she knows she's likely to have to end it in a hurry...
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
There's a red motorcycle with the winged-Z badge of the Photon Power Research Institute parked near this impromptu concert venue. Where is its owner?
Koji Kabuto is about as incognito as someone like him can get - a soft cloth hat to cover his wild hair and a pair of blue-tinted sunglasses (at night?) hiding most of his features - as he moves through the crowd, looking up at Atrytone on her improvised stage as she performs.
He has to admit: It's not terrible. She could make a solid career out of this.
'One day, the world will be in tune with this song', huh?
As she moves to her encore - a closing performance - Koji looks around and slips out of the crowd. Are there no guards? Is she running this whole thing alone?
'It would make sense, if she is what I think she is.'
It's hard to say that there's anything 'backstage' in a venue like this, but he's trying to slip behind anyway, to wait for Atrytone to finish up while he tries to figure out likely escape routes she'll take to her camouflaged machine.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Having an overview of her surroundings is, unfortunately - the kind of thing Asciel, especially, is quite adept at! Monitoring the ebb and flow of the crowd, the attitudes people in it have, whether they're energetic or wary - all of that is second nature to Asciel, even as closed off as she is. It's a point of pride, really.
She's all smiles, all carefree jazzy piano playing with those hip-mounted keyboards of hers - until, the moment Koji's near enough behind the curtains... she's striding right towards him, dragging him from backstage to front in way too fluid a motion for an ordinary human.
"Well, my lovely turnips, it appears I've pulled a very special guest from the crowd! Here to secretly put a stop to the performance, it seems...~ How horrible!~ If someone's gonna be a showstopper, they should do it with flair, not a knife to the amplifiers!~" Asciel's thousand-watt smile widens, left eye glowing forcefully beneath her glasses as she gets a better look - and, at the same time...
Foists the microphone right towards Koji's mask. "Go on. Before you pull whatever stunt you were thinking of - get addicted to the spotlight for a little while. Get overwhelmed by it. Even photons can exert the kind of pressure that'd make people crack, after all. I'm not going anywhere, so you just make a performance until you fall to your knees with sweat."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
He's fought Gamias - the way Atrytone moves is unmistakable as she lunges for him and drags him back onto the stage. The best way to not get hurt when a taller, stronger gynoid grabs you is to roll with it - especially when she's confirming your suspicions in the first place.
Atrytone thrusts her microphone in his face, and he blinks behind his own obviously-AR-augmented glasses. "... wait, turnips?"
"I'm not here to mess with you," he says, folding his arms. "If I were, this would be very different. I just wanted to talk, but you don't exactly have a manager I can arrange an appointment with."
Well, fine. He can play this ball where it's landed. "You don't want me to sing; everyone here's been having such a good time, it would really spoil things." Leading with a couple of jokes is one of the few things he has learned about public speaking.
"Since you've got me here, though... How do you feel about taking a couple of questions?" No plan, in a bad confrontation... Might as well cut to the chase.
"Speaking of photons... I'm sure you've learned some more interesting things about them, recently, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Asciel does take just a step back realizing this isn't some G-Hound assassin trying to one-up her - subtly, she clicks her tongue, fingers splayed over her cheek. She'd hoped to make someone like that sweat adorably, but instead, she's got someone with a bit more public wisdom under their belt.
But what a someone!
"Well well WELL! An interesting guest I've got indeed. I'd remember that voice anywhere. Would you believe it everyone - it's none other than the Koji Kabuto up here!" Asciel presents Koji to the crowd who, well - cheers even louder! He's a celebrity around here, even if this isn't actually Fujinomiya - still close enough for a lot of people to commute over there though! It's still a city with an economy pretty tightly bound to Fuji!
...Whether Koji knows it or not, though, he's activated Asciel on a fairly fundamental level - her expression goes slightly more placid, yet slightly more eager, standing fully at attention rather than tipping and performing. "Questions for me, yes! I am for answering all the world's inquiries, don't you worry! I am sure you are full of them, just as everybody in this world is.~"
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji removes his hat and tips his glasses up, waving to the crowd as they cheer. Might as well roll with it. It changes what he can talk about, though - these people don't need to find out about the thing under the mountain not so far from here, or... any number of things. (He doesn't remove his cloth mask, though. Proper procedure in a public space!)
"Before that, though, I'd like to thank you for your discretion." He smiles - a confident expression of his own. "You've made a few discoveries that we at the Research Institute are still devoting our efforts to researching and are not yet ready to disclose to the public. Officially speaking, we appreciate your candor on the matter, and I'd like to invite you to come... discuss what we've learned privately, in order to clear up any misunderstandings about the situation."
It's a Sword of Damocles - a revelation that could destroy everything he and Sayaka have worked so hard to build - and he's just. Directly challenging the threat.
"There's a big question I'm sure is burning everyone's lips, one everyone wants the answer to - just who is Asciel Collette anyway? Who is Atrytone? Why has she committed to this presentation - 'the idol who challenges the world'?"
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"Hooooooh. A 'few discoveries', you say." Asciel's eyes close at the idea of being somehow diplomatic about Infinity, the unthinkable and impossible arbiter of divinity and damnation beneath the distant, illuminated Mount Fuji. "I have extreme doubts that my understanding at assessing that well within the Earth's top ten calamities is off, but it'll remain to be seen exactly what you intend to inform me of.~"
...She can't help but double over in laughter at that last set of questions, of course.
"Kyahahah...you're claiming that as the most lauded question in the world, when it's so far from that!" Asciel mimes wiping tears from behind her glasses, flicking her hand outwards to the audience. "Koji Kabuto. You cannot possibly mean to tell me that the world does not need to be challenged. You cannot tell me a planet that has countless scars from the horror the Universal Century has wrought is pleased with having gotten absolutely nowhere. A planet clinging to miracle after miracle after miracle hoping to stay alive."
"Even knowing full well that the exact same means produce calamities as miracles!~"
Asciel's hand points skyward, her other on her hip, up towards the stars. No - up towards the distant band of flickering lights that divides the stars in two. The Orbital Ring, which crowns the Earth even from afar. "So much reaching for the stars by a handful of pioneers, and so much devastation that has come to everyone else for it! The Zentradi War was a disaster of carelessness in tampering with a contagion from beyond. The destruction of Sydney was thanks to deciding to ship countless numbers of desperate humans up into massive bombards that'd ruin the Earth. The Devil Gundam - why that was damned near a folly in search of immortality!~"
Her expression immediately darkens. Her right eye, dark but for the pale moon-like iris, widens as her smile drops to a fall. "And behold, before me. An audience of people searching for light on a planet swiftly discarded, who sleep beneath the glittering crown that could send this whole fair island of Japan to ruin on a moment's notice."
The spotlights shift, away from illuminating Asciel and Koji equally, all towards herself. "So don't be ridiculous! I'm Asciel Colette - as I decided! An idol who arose thanks to the needs of those who would idolize! Humanity's quiet wishes echoing deep in the soil - for protection from the stars, for an end to the senseless cycle of violence, to cease building an ever-cancerous monument to grandness with their corpses as the brickwork! I exist to save the world from all that would bring tragedy, and I exist to secure everything that could ever become a miracle or a calamity, to protect the world with harmony and simplicity."
"No human should ever need to become a god or a devil, ever again.~"
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Oh, I don't disagree," Koji says, a hardness in his eyes. "I just wonder why the idol part, mostly."
A need to perform - to be Seen and Acknowledged? Maybe.
"So you're our sole saviour? The one person who can bear every burden that threatens our lives, so we don't need to worry about protecting ourselves?" The mention of the spectre of Sydney gets a thoughtful look - after all, news is already racing across the Earth Sphere of the potential of Evangelions to repel kinetic-kill strikes of that magnitude.
'No human need be a devil or a god ever again'.
He sighs. "No human, huh? It's not something anyone should aspire to - placing yourself so far above is to lose sight of what's important."
"But then, a top-down perspective comes naturally to you, doesn't it?" He grins, knowingly.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"One cannot single-handedly make bold moves to change the world for the better without understanding what others live for." Asciel leans forward, hands under her chin, resting upon her microphone stand and kicking her heel into the stage idly. "Performing for people makes a lot of sense, as a cohesive glue binding the dream of a starless world together. After all, humanity's instinct to reach towards something, to fixate on a distant ideal, is not going away any time soon. It is their primal curse grasped for survival in a difficult world - to solve it without simply needlessly restraining everyone means replacing that desire!~"
Sweeping that microphone out to the audience, Asciel energetically cheers out, "Besides, it's been a compelling ride so far! Hearing everyone's voice ROAR-!" A shift of her posture and a trailing of her hand across the crowd, and they oblige, cheering on at the provocation with arms raised high and glowsticks aplenty. "Aaaah~ It's really, really something! Honestly, it's motivating!~ It feels so, so right!~ Hearing countless people in harmony with each other is the beeeeest!~ Thank you, everyoooooone!~"
---Somehow...is this one of the first times she's truly been 'genuine' around others? Practically pulsing with everyone's electricity, glittering in the spotlight, drinking in their praise - Asciel looks, above all else, sublimely comfortable here.
High on the adoration of even a humble crowd - it's not really more than 100 people at most, Asciel cranes her head over her shoulder at Koji. "...It's because it comes naturally to me. I can't help wanting to prove it. Prove that I can master the affairs of the heart. Not just 'better than a being like me could'. Better than ANYONE. In this cute little country in particular - I bet someone like you knows just how hot idols burn, and how horribly they smolder. It's too fierce a fire for most people. The difference with me..."
"Is that I could keep this up forever!~"
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
It's kind of fascinating to watch her on stage like this. It's not so different to hearing her in battle - that's like a performance too, of course.
Koji steps back a little as the spotlight focuses on Asciel, looking around at the equipment on the stage.
"The heart's a mystery not even the greatest philosophers solved. Quite a challenge." The more they talk, even despite all her flowery speech and posturing... he's getting a clearer image of the person underneath the presentation.
"I don't doubt you could keep this up forever," he says, looking out at the crowd. "After all, us mere mortals need rest from time to time."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"From time to time, you say~" Asciel closes one eye, looking past Koji to the horizon - the mile or so of perimeter along the main rode that the municipal police have set up, which only stokes the curious into trying to sneak past, and which mainly deters the people who happened to get here earlier from actually leaving. "Underselling it quite dramatically. This is a planet in dire need of eons of rest. The stench of an Earth polluted by dreams that just couldn't stay in everyone's sleep."
The idol's palm covers her right eye, the one that usually stays shut. "It's really not that mysterious. Why, just take what a 'dream' really is. People talk about those like they're a truth just waiting to be manifest...but what an actual dream comes from is garbage. Junk data being filtered through an idling mind. Of course the world's gone rotten, if everyone's trying to make their dreams into reality!"
The circle of law enforcement starts to make a few moves - shifting and glancing at each other uncertainly. Off in the distance, the tell-tale sign of Patrol Labors with shoulder-sirens a-blaring elicits a little sigh from Asciel. "In any event, our time is up, everyone! I hope that little encore wasn't too stifling an outro. For now, your elder sister must leave you all to the cold winds of reality, but I'm never far! One last kiss of wisdom to ring in everyone's ears...~"
"At least once in your life, plant a garden, and taste from its branches!~"
A kiss-blowing fingergun to the crowd later, and Asciel gives Koji one little salute...right before a very sudden THUMP sounds just behind the back of the stage. A metallic anchor embedded into the road from an unknown source, which Asciel swiftly hops onto - and a little whirring later, she's reeled skywards towards several apartment rooftops, a shimmering flicker in the air the only mark of where she's left her usual Arm Slave housing...
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji watches Asciel retract on the anchor - of course her machine would be way out of range - and leaves the stage himself. He'll probably have to answer questions from the local Labor pilots, but it shouldn't be too hard to talk his way out of that, at least.
Still - not a meaningless confrontation. He's learned a lot about the way Asciel thinks, and how she sees the world. Maybe that can build something better, later.
"Junk data in an idling mind..." he repeats, frowning. "Well, better that than a mind that never stops running." After all - that's called anxiety.