2010-07-22 - Sellin' Sugar to the Sweet


 * Lagrange 2

Ribbons Almark has seen many things in his long life. He has seen the rise and fall of many fools who thought more of themselves than they should have.

This generation, however, has been particularly full of them.

The hall that he sits in is opulent. Everything about it speaks almost of an inhuman grace -- like sitting in the midst of heaven. Marble floors lead down winding stairways to a large open space, lush red carpet and a single red couch being the only furniture of note amidst the spiraling columns. The broad windows to either side of the room display an entirely too realistic scenery of the antarctic landscape. To anyone unaware of where they actually are, it would be as if they were actually amidst that cold wasteland.

Ribbons Almark himself sits at the edge of that single couch. Smiling, the green-haired youth seems content to watch a simple holographic screen, displaying a number of meetings and news reports, all revolving around the 'NERV Incident.'

So many, many fools.

It has been some time since Louise Halevy saw him face to face. Too long, she thinks; when someone you practically worship for pulling you back together is an actual, tangible entity, something that actually exists in the world, it's hard not to long to see him.

She was briefly at peace -- but more than anything, that experience not long ago has left her contempt for humanity heightened. How dare they pull her in with them? How dare they tease her with a split second of happiness that she can never really have? It's almost enough to draw her attention away from other, more concrete things to be angry about.

Walking toward Ribbons, Louise currently wears her A-LAWS uniform. Revive had an outfit not unlike his or his sent to her, but she doesn't feel comfortable wearing it in front of him yet. After losing Stenbuck so thoroughly from the flock, she isn't sure she deserves to wear it in his presence just yet.

She says nothing; he knows she's here. She's sure of it.

She doesn't say anything. But he knows she's here. Standing behind him, apprehensive. Hesitating. Ashamed? Ribbons closes his eyes, and smiles. Human nature is a predictable thing.

He says nothing for roughly a minute, letting the silence linger. Shots of the devastated crater that was Tokyo-03 pan across the video screen as those violet eyes open again.

"Louise Halevy," he speaks, finally, looking back at her with a calm and expectant smile. "You've been through quite the experience, haven't you?"

His gaze drifts gradually back to that screen; the corpses of the Mass Produced Evas are utterly vacant from the blast radius as reporters comment on the 'phenomenon' that had taken place. Legs crossing, and hands settling in his lap, Ribbons tilts his head gradually to the side.

"But you have something you'd like to talk to me about, don't you?" he asks, as if it were simply obvious.

Louise is asked to talk about what she wants to talk about, rather than the topic that Ribbons's screen shows his interest in, plain as day. Louise is taken a bit off guard, but volunteers her answers just the same -- after all, she was asked.

"... yes," she says, almost ashamed of what she's about to say. Sticking to the practical side of it first -- Louise knows better than to assume that he has any interest in the petty affairs of humans as a first answer, she says, "I don't feel I can use the GN Cannon effectively anymore. With Captain Stenbuck... under investigation, and Lieutenant Peries missing, it doesn't feel right." /That's/ an understatement.

Louise's emotions are a mess; standing in a room with her while sensitive to her feelings might best be compared to riding the Tilt-o-whirl on a full stomach. "It was meant to be part of a unit that doesn't exist anymore," she hesitantly finishes, as if trying to justify her feelings.

"And you do not want to be a part of that unit anymore, do you?"

The question comes calmly, yet still carries that subtle weight of judgment to it. As if Ribbons were sitting on high, reading the sins of lesser beings as if reciting a book. Despite that, his expression is completely serene, his violet eyes lifting towards the ceiling as strains of gold begin to filter in digital patterns across his irises.

"The GNX Team has been dissolved. Lieutenant Stenbuck is in disgrace. But the idea of still existing cohesively disgusts you, doesn't it?" Ribbons closes his eyes again. He can feel it. All that turmoil, all that doubt, all that chaos.

"Don't you remember what I told you, Louise Halevy?" his voice cuts through like a cold knife through the turbulent storm.

"That unit was merely a stepping stone for you."

Instantly, Louise understands -- of course she does; he has weighed and judged and considered and spoken. Nothing can be done against the truth. "Yes, sir," Louise says, her own eyes the same digital gold Ribbons's are. "Lieutenant Stenbuck," she corrects herself, "has proven that he doesn't care about us, and doesn't care about humanity's future." And doesn't care about Louise, she thinks to herself.

"The idea of having a brother unit with his -- makes me sick." She's not lying, either -- she's chosen the inferior Superbia on multiple occasions now, simply to avoid having to pilot the GN Cannon. "But... you're right -- it was just a stepping stone... but..." Louise hesitates again, trying to find the words.

"Even after talking to Revive, I wasn't sure if I had stepped past it." She decides not to mention Lieutenant Peries and the GN Tank again... at least, not directly. "May I ask you a question? About the GN Cannon, and... the others."

"Lieutenant Stenbuck was never meant to grow beyond the limitations that he reached," Ribbons says as if it were simply an inevitable fact. "He believed that all of his superficial desires could be granted through the petty acquisition of power. And when he found out human life was not designed to be so simple, he cast it all aside." Ribbons closes his eyes. "Cast aside the very thing that gave you the life and power to see you to your retribution."

Hardly an uncommon tale of human weakness. "But he's fulfilled the purpose he was meant to fulfill. Don't concern yourself about him. His role is over." But worry is all Louise can feel, isn't it? Ribbons can tell. Not just about Leo Stenbuck and the broken heart he left behind, but--

A question. Of course. "What is it, Lieutenant Halevy?" he asks, gently. Encouragingly. The smile on his lips is one of absolute, unfalterable confidence. "You may ask anything you would like."

Louise's contempt for Leo -- and with it, for humanity -- grows, as Ribbons admits that he was simply incapable of reaching the plateau she had. It's okay to desert him -- just like Takaya, he doesn't really belong in the new world anyway. Shaking her head, she says, "He's finished. Whatever he does now, it's not my concern. I understand." If she says it enough, she'll believe it.

"They weren't the first machines designed that way," Louise says. She'd have had to live under a rock as a child not to see Gundam, Guntank, and Guncannon -- the heroes of the war. "Why those designs? I understand why the leader had to be a Gundam -- had to be something like that, against the people we're fighting against." She's genuinely developed some curiosity about this one -- it's too specific to be coincidence.

"And why him as the pilot of the Gundam? Unless..." Louise trails off there, as if realizing something. Perhaps this was part of the plan all along. Perhaps 'Gundam' /had/ to fail.

Leo was useful. An individual from Jupiter, who had not only experienced a wealth of turmoil but had been taken under the wing of Paptimus Scirocco -- he was the perfect candidate to pilot that unit. As perfect as one could be. Ribbons' gaze shifts back towards the screen as it seems to abruptly shift, the hell of Tokyo-03 and Geo-Front that Louise likely still remembers so well being replaced--

--With the CBY-077 GN Cannon, the CBY-075 GN Tank, and the CBY-001 1 Gundam. "From a practical standpoint, the designs are well chosen; there is a reason why those three units excelled, after all," Ribbons notes dimly as the screen filters through various design specifications. He should know. "But humans must see things they believe in order to be inspired. Symbols. Legends. Belief needs substance in order to thrive. That is the limit of human beings."

That they were all flawed wasn't unexpected. Ultimately, one can't rely on multiple pilots. Perfection can only come from God. But the GN Tank... perhaps some of those elements were superfluous--

"These represent a symbol humans needed to see. To know that your justice was the absolute in this new world, they needed to see you in the symbols of old. Leo Stenbuck was meant to test that symbol, so that I could carve a new one from those results. And you... were supposed to learn the truth of human nature." A pause. "And now that they have faltered..." Due to human limitation.

"... you will be free to carve the new symbol of your justice on the world." The screen shifts. The Gundam, the GN Tank, the GN Cannon fade away -- replaced with the image of a machine Louise may have seen before.

The GNMA-Y0001 Empruss.

"Do you know what this is, Louise Halevy?"

Louise turns her attention to the screen again, just as Ribbons implicitly asks her to; she's seen the unit there before, but it takes her a few minutes to determine just where it's familiar from. She wasn't part of Fraternity; she went from the GNX team to the GNZ team with no stops, and barely worked with Jung. Still... she at least saw it in action, once or twice.

"That's one of the new GN-based mobile armours," she says, nodding. "Someone from Fraternity Unit was testing it." She's accepted Ribbons's answers about her old trinity of machines whole cloth; again, nothing can be done against the truth, and she simply moves on with the knowledge. It's almost too easy -- but then, now that she has nothing but Ribbons to believe in, why wouldn't it be?

She knows that the Fraternity girl got some new unit recently; does this mean he's transferring the Empruss to her? She has to admit, part of the idea appeals to her on a very visceral level; it feeds her vanity in a tremendous way, the idea that it's /her/ job to carve that symbol onto the world, /her/ job to make humanity understand.

With Leo's tests complete, it's only a matter of time before that unit that will truly guide humanity will be complete. Yet... there's something missing. That Celestial Being Gundam. The two drives. The Meister that used it--

"The unit's serial is GNMA-Y0001, code name 'Empruss.' Captain Jung Freud was assigned to test it." Ribbons lets this information sink in. He stands as he says this, turning toward Louise. His smile is faint, like the smallest hint of a promise.

"This unit will not be yours," he says, as if answering Louise's thoughts. "This machine is merely a test type. A caterpillar that must experience and grow until it can develop into its true form. It is a prototype...

"... of what will eventually become your unit." Her unit. Not a unit to test for a grander cause. Not a unit to be used to pander to the ego of another human. Her own unit. Her own justice.

Her own vengeance.

"This is my gift to you, Louise Halevy. This is my trust in you -- as the one who will become humanity's first Innovator."

Eyes still digital gold, mind still attempting to take in every last word Ribbons says. Something that's hers -- not something bound up in someone else, not something whose fundamental nature means it's secondary to another concern. The unit of Louise Halevy -- the first Innovator.

She doesn't smile; she doesn't exult. She accepts the eventual gift with a quiet, understated, "I understand. Thank you." Whatever is born of the Empruss, of GNMA-Y0001... is hers. He has seen fit to give her a machine that can stand alone.

"I understand," she says again, posture perfect as she stands in front of Ribbons, eye turned toward the Empruss on the screen again. A unit not born of the same line as that hateful 'Gundam' -- a unit that's hers.

Finally, a smile tugs at the corners of her lips.

She understands. Of course she does.

It is what he has deemed she should understand.

"I have high expectations of you," Ribbons Almark says calmly to Louise's affirmation. "One day, you will stand apart from everyone. From Revive Revival, from Healing Care... I've chosen you to lead the the few who will achieve enlightenment alongside you." A role that Leo Stenbuck wasn't suited for, that quiet voice says, that quantum fluctuation asserts. A role that no one else can achieve.

A role that only Louise Halevy can fill.

"In the meantime, the Superbia won't do for a replacement unit, will it?" Almark asks, thoughtfully. "It isn't much of an apology, but I've had A-LAWS command transfer Lieutenant Soma Peries' old unit to the Blanc Rival. The Ahead Smultron, wasn't it?" He pauses, smiling. A unit with emotional weight to it. A unit with history. A unit belonging to a lost connection.

What more fitting tool of retribution is there?

"I hope it suits your needs for now."

"I understand," Louise says, yet again. "I'll use it to the best of my ability." Soma... she still misses her -- but something in the way things were when she left Christina Sierra's broken body told Louise that that friendship was never going to be the same. And with her missing again... perhaps it's best that she take up the Ahead Smultron, in the end. "I understand the Superbias are getting used as aggressor units more often -- I'll make sure mine gets back into the general unit rotation," she adds, knowing that she won't need it with the Smultron around.

"Thank you," she says again. "Will there be anything else?" It's not that she's eager to leave; it's that she's eager to be certain that he has gotten everything he wants from her presence.

"They're not mobile suits suited toward your new path," affirms Ribbons Almark in a way that can be nothing other than the absolute truth. "For now, the Smultron will suffice. It is made to exploit and build those new powers of yours." Something that will be useful for later on.

Slowly, Ribbons turns back to the screen. As he does, it changes, becoming a roster of A-LAWS pilots - a listing of various squads and their member lists. "That's enough for now, Lieutenant Halevy," the green-haired 'youth' says pleasantly, his hands folding behind his back. "Congratulations on your promotion, by the way.

"I hope your first bit of revenge satisfied some of your lust." Of course, he knows. The would-be Innovator smiles as the roster skims down, to list 'Leo Stenbuck and Michael Trinity, filed under 'FRATERNITY.' It'll never be enough.

Because that, too, is a human condition.

"We'll meet again soon."