Key:
Shinji (S) Asuka (A)
Rei (Re) Kaworu (Kaw)
Misato (Mi) Kaji (Kaj)
Ritsuko (Ri) Maya (Ma)
Here we go again...
S: "So it's just the same thing again?"
Ri: "Red water though. Our seas aren't like that, in fact that's more akin to how the Laserdisc world was after
Third Impact."
Mi: "And Japan was
never in such a state after Second Impact."
A: "Who the hell would even draw a chalk outline of that! That looks like a damn Eva, I thought they weren't even
deployed before Sachiel."
Ri: "They weren't. Least in our world."
Ma: "At least we know
immediately this world will be different from ours. No blindsiding over halfway through the series."
Re: "We don't even know if the
mechanics of this world are the same compared to ours. There are so many things that could be different."
Kaj: "There already are."
Mi: "A
colour screen in my car? What the fuck, why don't we have that!"
Ri: "Forgetting the fact colour LCD's are prohibitively expensive, even for us? And
Renault isn't exactly the epitome of luxury either."
A: "At the very least, this looks a whole lot nicer compared to the Laserdiscs."
S: "Even compared to
our own world it looks nicer! I never had a cell phone that early!"
Kaw: "Some things are still the same, at least."
Rei saw her apparition. "This world is doomed."
Ma: "Oh don't be pessimistic Rei. Surely these versions of you won't make the same mistakes as last time."
Literally everyone glared at Maya.
~
Fourth Angel
Kaw: "Hello again, Sachiel."
Mi: "Y'know, not many things are different so far. Considering how much has changed."
Ri: "If the scrolls are the same, then the order the Angels came in should be similar. Sachiel was the Third."
A: "Not many things are different? It's pretty much been a shot for shot remake of the show!"
Ma: "Sachiel never grew a halo though."
Kaw: "We cannot know of the capabilities of my kin in this rendition. This has already diverged from what we consider prime."
A: "Good to see the military are still completely useless though. At least that hasn't changed."
S: "They're
still useless, even while we face the MP-Eva."
Re: "I don't recall them even
responding during our fights against the MP-Eva anymore."
Kaj: "Speaking for the UN, they all thought spending taxpayers money on deploying useless hardware against these beasts was a waste. Especially in the aftermath of the invasion of the Geofront. So now instead they're wasting it on other pointless endeavours, like the Indo-Pakistan situation."
S: "So NERV pretty much has full autonomy in Tokyo-3?"
Ri: "We already did. The Magi already administrate the city. It only makes sense that we have more power than most other organisations, considering our mission and responsibilities in protecting the world from devastation."
Ma: "Well,
more devastation."
~
N2
A: "Yep, that was still useless too. Much larger fireball though."
Kaj: "Wonder if they're making up for the visuals of the Laserdiscs."
A: "Good! That was one of my many complaints about those frisbees."
S: "Why would they remake what was already made though?"
Kaw: "It wasn't Gainax who made this though. Khara."
Ri: "If Gainax doesn't exist in our world, then I doubt Khara exists too."
A: "How would they even get the rights to it, if Gainax first made it?"
Re: "Your thinking is linear, Shinji and Asuka. We don't know if this is from the same Earth as the Laserdiscs."
Kaw: "And considering the differences between the two so far.
A: "...oh shit, you're right. This could've come from
another world than the Laserdiscs."
Ma: "One with apparently more progress. Especially considering they came on those weird discs."
Mi: "Least my car's still the same. Ish."
S: "Our conversation wasn't like that though, was it? This one feels more... abridged?"
Mi: "Yeah, it does. Though we don't really know what'll be different now. That'll just be one of the many small changes in this odd world."
~
Regenerate
A: "Wait a minute,
fourth?"
Mi: "What the hell? Even the
Angels are different?"
Ri: "Or an Angel was added. In our world, there's Adam and Lilith, then there was Sachiel."
Kaj: "Another progenitor, maybe?"
Ma: "Does Adam or Lilith even
exist in that world?"
Ri: "Second Impact obviously occurred in that rendition, though I daresay
our Second Impact was
tame compared to this one's."
Re: "Considering our oceans never turned to blood red."
S: "Though you can't really call something like
Second Impact tame, no matter the world."
Kaw: "...they speak of the Fruits this early."
Mi: "That isn't our damn logo. What is that even meant to be?"
Ma: "The leaf is still there. Not sure of the other elements. An... egg, maybe?"
Mi: "...Rits, make sure you get a few captures of this film when you have time. I think we can get some decent things from it."
Ri: "...you intend on changing our logo to that? It looks more cluttered."
She shrugged. "I'll get it printed onto something, see if I like it or not."
Ri: "And when people inevitably question on why you suddenly wanted to change the logo?"
Mi: "Moment of creativity." She shrugged
A: "Another thing that's the same is Gendo."
Ri: "He's still the same son of a bitch he always was."
~
Facility
Mi: "...NERV isn't
that industrial. I don't think I
like that aesthetic."
A: "Looks kinda grim. At least those mile long escalators and hallways are all well lit."
Maya leant over to her Sempai and whispered, "You still look hot in a swimsuit, Ritsuko."
She smiled and suggested, "Maybe I'll wear something like that later on."
Misato rolled her eyes. "Lovebirds."
Kaj: "Coming from you. No one here can cast the first stone on that matter."
Mi: "We're probably the most mature of everyone though."
Kaji raised an eyebrow at her.
She snickered. "Okay, Ritsuko and Maya are probably the most mature of everyone here."
Kaw: "...is it just me, or does LCL look more red in this rendition?"
Re: "...no, that's definitely red, Kaworu."
S: "It really
is like blood."
A: "What's wrong with orange? Though I suppose red LCL matches my plugsuit better."
~
Strange and Mournful Day
S: "Great. So it looks like I'll
still be booted into the Eva."
Ri: "I thought it would be foregone, considering the general scenario has been similar so far."
A: "And your dad's
still as cold as a witch's ass."
S: "Some things never change..."
Kaw: "I'm sure there's worlds where he's decent."
A: "This is the
third of those worlds we've experienced, including
ours. He's currently 3 for 3 on the asshole meter."
Shinji sighed. "At least we know for sure that these people aren't us."
Kaj: "Indeed. They may look and sound like us, but they will
not be us."
Mi: "It's still gonna make us feel like shit when we see us get shafted though."
S: "Like me getting shafted right now."
Ri: "Considering the situation, your trepidation was somewhat understandable. Even though you
still had to do it regardless, cold it may sound."
Shinji shrugged. "Watching these things kinda gave me perspective on how I was, but considering what I've been through."
Kaw: "...So that means he will
still use blackmail on you, won't it?"
S: "Probably."
Rei rolled in.
S: "Yes."
Steam emanated from Kaworu.
Re: "Will you combust like you did last time?"
Kaw: "...no. I think."
Ma: "...i can see why that would make you angry, Kaworu."
Kaw: "I'm glad he's gone."
Maya became pensive.
~
Sortie
This pensiveness was broken. "What the hell
is that graphic?"
Ri: "Plug depth. Though it looks much more advanced compared to our own display systems."
Ma: "If by advanced you mean more
frivolous. Why would you need
3D graphics for an organisation like us?"
Ritsuko shrugged. "Maybe Khara wanted to show off their capabilities, make it looks more futuristic."
Mi: "Even though NERV is as futuristic as you can get on this Earth."
A: "
That world must be set in damn
2050 then."
Kaw: "They definitely have had more work put into technology like that. It is possible Second Impact could take place at a later time, I suppose. We haven't been given a solid date yet, to my knowledge."
Re: "If the mechanics of Second Impact even apply to this world. And I would assume the general timeline would be similar, despite the changes."
Mi: "
Why do you need 3D graphics to show the
locks disengaging? What a complete waste of computing power!"
S: "I would've though the Magi would be able to do something like that."
Ri: "They could. 3D graphics are simply a collection of polygons on a cartesian plane, which is just relatively simple geometry. You could display 3D shapes on a damn
Famicom if you wanted to. But it's not the computers that would be the problem in this situation, it's the
screens. The graphics are of an absurdly high quality for what they need to do, our displays wouldn't be able to handle such things."
Kaj: "Though that could just be the video. And something else I noticed, NERV keeps switching between our logo and the other logo."
A: "Even
with all this extra cash, Gainax
still can't get some details right."
Kaw: "Khara." He corrected.
Asuka rolled her eyes. "Khara then. Damn it, I'm gonna have to rewire a few things in my head."
~
Battle
S: "Good to see
this went as well as it did." He deadpanned.
A: "Pretty much a failure?"
Ri: "It's not a failure if the Angel gets defeated."
Mi: "Even if it required his mother handling things for a bit."
Maya looked away from the carnage.
Re: "Odd. They didn't tell this via flashback."
Kaw: "Khara would've gone down another path when it came to telling our story. Especially if this has come from another world compared to the Laserdiscs."
Sachiel suicided into a giant cross.
A: "...good to see they
still like using references to such a foreign religion." She mocked.
S: "Can we really call it a reference if it
actually happened though?"
Re: "There was never a rainbow."
Ma: "And it didn't rain... wait, is that-" She gagged.
A: "Damn, and I thought
we could be bloody with battle."
~
Train of Thought
A: "Oh great, we're already getting to the trains."
Re: "...that's still the same though. I was practically his daughter."
S: "Considering how he treated me, that's not a
good thing. I'm not sure how
I'd be thinking about that though."
A: "Who even knows at this point Shinji. We don't even know if our backstories will be the same."
Kaw: "So far it seems the same though, or similar enough, at least for Shinji. We don't know enough about you or Rei, or others."
Kaj: "Then again, we're only around 20 minutes into this. They probably explain more later."
Kaw: "Probably. We'll see."
Mi: "Jesus christ, I hope that wasn't the aftermath of Sachiel. That looks worse than how Tokyo-3 looked after
Armisael."
~
Occult
Kaj: "SEELE is different? There were 12 members of the inner council."
Kaw: "And they aren't even bothering to use their aliases of the Human Instrumentality Committee this time. Odd."
A: "Also, the logo seems different."
Kaw: "More cluttered, in my opinion. They obviously tried to compress more symbolism into it, as if they wanted to appear
more occult."
Ritsuko observed. "There's the apple of Adam, and the Serpent, plus the regular occult eyes we see on Lilith's mask. Not sure about the German, mine isn't particularly up to scratch nowadays."
Asuka rolled her eyes and read. "
Überm Sternenzelt richtet Gott, wie wir gerichtet. Above the starry firmament God judges, as we judged."
Kaw: "The Ode to Joy." He noted.
A: "So it's either
more occult bullshit, or they're music snobs."
Mi: "Jesus christ it
is the aftermath of Sachiel. If
we had to deal with such a cleanup after every Angel, we would've gone broke by
Ramiel."
Ri: "It would save on cleaning up the massive corpses they could leave behind, at least."
Ma: "What about the pattern on the back of the monoliths, Nagisa?"
He thought and observed. "Symbolism? The checkerboards would be Masonic in origin, symbolising the duality of man. There is also the all seeing Eye of Providence."
Re: "...no other significance?"
Kaworu shrugged. "If there was,
I wouldn't know.
Our SEELE never had this imagery, not on the monoliths or anywhere in their facilities. Even the Mask of Lilith only appeared sporadically. When you work from the shadows, the last thing you want is an identifier. I'm sure the me of
these discs would know what it means, if I even
exist in these discs, but
I can only speculate."
~
Quarter
Ri: "This phone call was still the same." She glared at the commander.
Misato feigned offence. "I would never!"
Ri: "We saw the Laserdiscs, Misato. You would."
A: "If she did, I would rip her head off. No offence Misato."
Mi: "If I ever got to that point, I'd welcome it." She deadpanned. "Maybe if Kaji didn't end up
dead, I wouldn't have tried doing that to Shinji."
Kaji sighed. "I'm not gonna die on you, Misato. I got too much on the line now."
Mi: "You bet your ass you do Kaji! You end up burned and I'll recover your soul just to kick your ass!"
Kaj: "Knowing you, I don't doubt it."
Ma: "Lovebirds." She echoed.
Ri: "You'd think she was tsundere for him."
Ma: "Misato's practically dependent on him. No offence ma'am."
Mi: "None taken. I
know I'm dependent on him. Like how pretty much everyone here is dependent on their counterparts."
Ri: "Normally I'd say that was unhealthy, but considering
I'm a bit dependent on Maya, I can't exactly say that without sounding hypocritical."
A: "
You can't? If
anything were to happen to my Shinji, whoever did it would suffer for eternity at my hands."
Kaw: "I'm sure that's the same story for any of us."
Ma: "Considering how... violent you guys can be when one of you gets injured in battle."
~
Home
Kaw: "It still impresses me how the city can just sprout from nothing like that."
Re: "One of the many achievements of humanity."
A: "...I can't believe this. Your place is even
more of a pigsty then it was in reality, Misato!"
Most of them chuckled at the sight.
Misato had her head in her hands. "I don't even
like Doritos..."
A: "
That's what you focus on? Not the
ocean of canned coffee, sake, Yebisu and damned
Pizza Hut boxes?"
Kaw: "We
have Pizza Hut here?"
Ri: "It was one of the few American businesses to have survived Second Impact here, thank the Gods."
Kaw: "Why was I never told of this?"
A: "Khara probably included all these name brands for more money anyway." She muttered in scorn.
S: "Probably, but considering how good the film looks, they obviously
needed the money."
Re: "Especially considering the Laserdiscs, and how much you complained about the quality of them, Asuka."
Ma: "And you really led this life, Misato."
Mi: "You probably think less of me now, Maya." She groaned.
Ma: "A bit, yeah. Least you got over it."
Kaj: "Even though it took Shinji to get her out of it."
Ma: "...even though you're still indecent. Ma'am."
Misato shrugged it off. "Being indecent is fun though Maya! I know for a fact
you two can be quite a bit indecent when you
think there's no one around!"
Maya became a strawberry.
~
Toothpick
S: "Oh Gods, why does this have to be the same..."
The room burst out laughing.
A: "That never gets old."
Ma: "Man Misato, you're so lucky to have a penguin for a pet."
Mi: "He's quite a nice companion. Better than the average dog or cat."
Ri: "Cats can be alright too, you realise."
Mi: "Is your cats smart enough to read the finances?"
Ri: "...Why would Pen-Pen even be interested in stocks anyway? He's a
bird, he can't hold stocks!"
Misato shrugged. "You'd be surprised what Tosho-2 allows when you show a NERV ID."
Ma: "...He has
stocks?!"
Mi: "I don't see what the fuss is about."
A: "He isn't very good at it though," She giggled, "but it's harmless fun and he enjoys it."
Shinji chuckled. "He once invested in a company whose sole product was a ¥40000 juicer."
Misato burst out. "That was great. Bought their stock when they were ¥99 apiece, and when the company folded a few months later, they bought out his stocks for
less than a single Yen."
Kaw: "Apparently there just isn't a market for ¥40000 juicers."
Kaj: "What a surprise there." He deadpanned.
Maya and Ritsuko just looked at the group in shock, as they concluded her apartment was a den of chaos.
~
Familiar Ceiling
Re: "I assume my injuries were still the result of Unit-00."
Kaw: "I think it's safe to assume that
generally, events will proceed the same. They seem to be following the same path as the Laserdiscs, just in a different form."
A: "There's already been differences though. It's actually kinda obvious this rendition came from another world than the Laserdiscs."
S: "Do we know if it came from the same person?"
Ri: "The discs had no labelling on them, and came in no significant case. We would have to wait for the credits to know for sure, but it's certainly possible it's
another rendition of Hideki Anno."
Kaw: "I would've expected that. It makes sense the same idea could persist between worlds."
Re: "And sometimes that idea
is the world."
A: "I'd say it's more than sometimes, considering
our world is that idea." She winced at Toji's actions. "And I still need to hit him."
Ma: "...they skipped a bit of it, didn't they? Wasn't there a whole section where Shinji goes to school, and everyone finds out about his piloting?"
Ri: "Not in this rendition, obviously."
A: "So we are just to believe they
somehow found out about him being a pilot." She deadpanned. "If I hadn't already seen the Laserdiscs, I'd be confused about
how such a secret could be found out by
those two stooges."
Kaj: "Are you gonna point out
every difference between the two Asuka?"
A: "Yes. Because I already have the Laserdiscs as a standard to look out for,
especially considering the Laserdiscs followed our lives to the letter, until the 8th disc at least."
~
Call of Duty
A: "Odd. Somehow the simulator looks
worse than it did."
S: "Forgetting that it's
still a trigger pulling simulator."
Ri: "Taxpayers." She huffed. "Also we
don't have bespoke simulators like that. That's practically a simulation body!"
Ma: "We normally just interface directly with the sensory inputs of the Eva, don't we?"
Ri: "Yeah, it's simpler just to emulate input and output to an Evangelion, though I admit it takes a while to connect an Eva to the interface. Maybe the us of
that world thought that downtime to be unacceptable."
Mi: "...that doesn't sound like too bad an idea actually, what they did. It
does take hours to connect the Evas to the simulator interface, during which the Evas have to be taken off active deployment, whereas with a bespoke simulator like that, it could potentially be used in
minutes while allowing the Eva to remain on deploy."
A: "It
would also allow us easier access to the simulator, without all the various restrictions."
Ritsuko was actually seriously considering it. "It
would be expensive to make a simulator design akin to how the other NERV did it though. We know how it
looks like, but looks don't mean anything when we don't know the
mechanisms behind that machine. Though, it would be nice to reduce the turnaround of the simulator as it is now." She scratched some notes.
Ma: "If anything, you can at least add the idea to the pile and send it down the line, like most of our ideas."
~
Ski Lift
Mi: "Why don't
we have something like that?"
Ri: "Misato, if you try to incorporate every idea from this film into
our NERV, we're gonna go broke."
Mi: "So far though,
this NERV is blowing
our NERV out of the water."
Ma: "I dunno, most of the things they have seem similar. We both have a Magi, for example, and there's no reason to assume
their Magi is more capable than ours. Unless you count the eye candy, but we're paramilitary. We don't
need eye candy like that."
Kaw: "About the only thing
they have that seems a genuine improvement over
our technology is the Eva simulator. The rest we have, albeit looking less fancy."
A: "I kinda like our aesthetic though. It's grown on me."
Ri: "Good, cause it's not changing. Not over my dead body. I'm far too used to it, it'll interrupt our workflow."
Mi: "
Every change to the systems I propose breaks your workflow." She deadpanned.
Kaj: "They
are the administrators of said systems, you realise."
~
Shamshel
Kaw: "Shamshel's looking... different."
Ma: "Is it just me or does it look more... red?"
Kaw: "That was not her colour. She was a more purple, black colour."
A: "So not even the Angels are gonna be the same?"
Re: "We don't know for sure. I feel like that's been said a lot."
Mi: "...holy shit, those
battlements! That's awesome!"
Ri: "No, Misato."
Misato pouted like a child.
A: "Considering said battlements are almost completely
useless in
battle."
Ri: "Unless your goal is to-"
The movie's Ritsuko echoed her exact sentiment.
They chuckled.
Ri: "As
I said."
~
Fight
Ma: "Looks like those two
still snuck out."
A: "Morons."
Ri: "We chewed them out enough. They wouldn't make that same mistake again."
A: "They just did though."
Ri: "In
this world, they won't make the same mistake again."
Re: "Speaking of mistakes though, the battle with Shamshel."
S: "Yeah, that could've gone better."
A: "Not your fault Shinji, you were only taught
one strategy."
Kaw: "An ultimately ineffective strategy, considering Shamshel was different compared to Sachiel."
Mi: "We talked about this the
first time we watched this scene. We didn't anticipate the Angel this early, and we were still trying to teach him basics."
Ri: "I'm surprised things didn't end up as bad as I expected. Considering Shinji didn't return when he was told."
Shinji sighed. "I wasn't in the right-"
Mi: "Headspace."
Ma: "I'd say that was fair, considering what happened."
The battle raged on.
Kaworu sighed. "Still ended the same. Though she remained for a while in our world, didn't she?"
Mi: "Shamshel? We were actually able to
study it
and the S2 engine, thanks to Shinji's little stunt. Guess we don't even have
that in that reality."
A: "That appears to be a thing with these Angels. Sachiel also ended the same way, didn't it? Exploding into blood rain, making a rainbow."
Ri: "It would've saved on the cleanup effort, I suppose. We would've only had to invest in mops and waterproofing."
~
Runaway
Mi: "Least
you understand
why I had to chew you out, Shinji."
S: "Well, yeah. Even if I did defeat the Angel, I still disobeyed orders."
Ri: "They weren't even
moronic orders like what the previous commander would do. Least with his I could understand
why you would disobey them."
He shrugged. "At least she didn't throw me in the brig."
A: "Though he still ran away."
S: "He was almost certainly going through what I was going through though. At the very least they don't spend 15 minutes focusing on it."
Mi: "And at least he
wanted to go back, instead of being forced back by Section 2."
A: "Section 2 actually seem
competent in this rendition. It seemed like they were able to follow Shinji all the way."
Ri: "Even though he still noticed them."
S: "I'm not
that perspective."
Kaw: "They
do stand out a bit, considering they're meant to be secret. It was rather easy to shake them off, in my experience."
Kaj: "So that's
another thing this NERV has over our world's NERV. Actually competent security."
~
Honour
S: "Say what you will about Toji, he has
some honour."
A: "A weird kind of honour. Though maybe that's just a man thing I'll never understand."
Mi: "Testosterone's a wonderful thing. I'm glad I don't have to deal with it."
A: "Are
we really any better though?"
She shrugged. "The two sexes have their own unique problems to deal with. As Kaji said, man and woman are separated by a river. Our issues are our issues."
Kaj: "Well, it was more profound than that."
Misato poked her tongue. "I don't remember the specifics of the quote."
Re: "Though having someone of the opposite sex is quite a nice thing, I'd think."
Kaw: "Ritsuko and Ibuki are doing quite alright for themselves, don't you think?"
Rei looked towards them. "Was that insensitive?"
Ritsuko shrugged. "It's alright Rei. A relationship like ours is indeed odd in our society."
S: "Compared to what
else goes on in our world, it's rather tame."
A: "I've seen odder. Like what Kensuke has going on, for example."
Ma: "Is it really
both of them?"
Re: "Yes." She glared at Asuka, and she realised she may have ran her mouth.
Ma: "...What a stud. I wouldn't guess
he could do that."
Not many people knew the truth of their relationship.
~
Berserk
Re: "...I was right. Unit-00 was the same."
Ri: "I think I was a bit unfair to Gendo when I saw this scene. He wouldn't have been able to help her, since the plug ejected on its own."
S: "Though I wasn't that injured in
my berserker, even though events seemed similar."
Mi: "That's cause
we knocked you out and cushioned you better by increasing the pressure of the LCL to max. Oh yeah, sorry about that."
He shrugged. "No big. It helped me get out of it with only bruising. Though... your hands are still burned."
She took off a glove, revealing reddened skin. "You know I'd hurt myself to make sure you're safe."
Ri: "You are such a mother to them, Misato."
~
Acknowledge
S: "Well, nowadays I don't do it for my father's recognition."
A: "Not that you'd
want his acknowledgement anyway." She messed his hair. "You do it for us, don't ya?"
He chuckled, resting on her. "Yeah. I've broken free of that."
A: "Helps you have us to love you. Lover, mother, sister, friend. We have a whole family, don't we?"
A smile. "Yeah." He continued resting on her shoulder.
Ma: "Heh. Lovebirds."
Ri: "Kinda reminds me of how you two were like in college, Misato."
Mi: "We weren't
that lovey-dovey, Rits."
Ri: "Maybe not in public, Ms Week Straight."
Kaji and Misato started spluttering as they realised they
both saw that. The doctor and her Kohai started laughing.
Ri: "Oh, Rei. You still get a new ID card?"
Re: "Appears that way."
Shinji and Asuka's impromptu makeout session was interrupted by this revelation. "Ah shit. Don't tell me
that's the same."
Asuka glared. "I guess you'll get to second base with
your sister again."
He hid his face. "It was bad enough once. I was surprised Kaworu didn't chew me out."
Kaw: "Honestly, I was more entertained by how Murphy decided to relieve himself on you."
~
Dilapidated
A: "And
that's still the same. I still don't know how you could tolerate such a place Rei."
Re: "The cocktail of drugs I was on would help."
Mi: "Christ, I should've looked into your living situation earlier."
Ri: "I feel like I'm partially blame to that."
Re: "No need to feel that way. It
was the commander who gave me those quarters, after all."
~
Tumble
Shinji and Maya had their faces in their hands. "Not again..." He groaned.
Re: "You know, you were the first boy to make it
that far with me, Shinji. You could've at least bought me dinner first."
He groaned some more.
Kaw: "I would've been
salsa on the wall if I tried that with Rei. Guess being a brother has some advantages."
He groaned some more, to the laughter of the others.
Mi: "Man you guys are
not letting him live it down. I thought that was
my job."
Ma: "Please stahp this is embarrassing." The strawberry pleaded.
Asuka messed Shinji's hair. "It's all in good fun Shinji."
S: "I know." He was still a tomato.
A: "Though you only do that to
me now, kay?"
He groaned some more.
~
Hit Hit Hit
S: "At least he apologised, like I did."
A: "Though she's still gonna slap you I suppose."
THWACK
S: "Yep." He said flatly.
Re: "It was rather... satisfying, to be honest."
A: "I imagine it would be."
Kaw: "Though it's not satisfying to be on the receiving end."
Kaj: "We know that quite well."
Kaw: "I doubt you've been
bounced off a tree, Kaji."
Ma: "Damn Rei, you really
were yandere for him."
Re: "I'd say it was more of a tsundere. Sorta like Asuka."
Ramiel's siren did little to interrupt the conversation.
A: "Except
I can't bounce boys off trees when they get too in my face."
Mi: "Shoving them into a
bin is surely close enough though."
Asuka grew a smug little smile, chuckling. "You found out?"
Mi: "Yes. I would've berated you, but they deserved it honestly."
Ri: "I wouldn't exactly call that
healthy behaviour to teach a young woman, Misato."
Mi: "
None of us have healthy behaviour, Rits. You should know this by now,
you do the checks on them."
Kaw: "Holy hell, she looks even more beautiful."
They looked to the screen.
A: "Woah."
S: "Ramiel wasn't
that shiny."
~
Octahedron
Mi: "IT
TRANSFORMS?!"
Kaw: "I find it odd this rendition of Ramiel would expose her core like that to fire a shot. Especially since
our Ramiel didn't have to do such a thing."
Re: "In addition to taking several seconds to get into a firing position. That's already a disadvantage towards her."
S: "Not that it helped me."
Mi: "They got the blast shields up though. That would give you a few seconds to recover."
Ramiel transformed from an hourglass into a cross, and fired an even more powerful beam.
Misato simply glared at the screen. "Well shit."
Kaw: "She was
never this powerful. This is like Zeruel."
A: "Great. So the Angels are even
worse this time."
Ri: "I have low hopes for Zeruel in that case. At least Shinji was recovered."
Ma: "Do
we have bolts like that?"
Ri: "Ehh, we never had to use them, but they're there. Just in case there's a need for emergency recovery."
Kaj: "Never know when you need a contingency plan. I know for a fact NERV is chock full of them."
~
Meeting
Ma: "A
colour terminal?" Her eyes went wide.
Re: "Sounds like Yashima is still on the table."
Mi: "I would've come to the same conclusion, I imagine."
Kaw: "And indeed you have."
Mi: "Considering we only had until midnight, we were damn lucky the JSSDF were working on such a gun."
Ma: "And you were able to use all of Japan's power to use such a weapon."
A: "
And in such short notice."
Mi: "Japan's pretty great like that. Thank God the powers that be decided to unify the grids."
~
Rescue
Mi: "Aww, you decided to wait for Shinji."
Rei blushed. "I was probably waiting to give him information about Yashima."
Ma: "Still though. That's nice of you, Rei."
Kaw: "I am still
very impressed at the organisation this nation has."
Ma: "When we need to get stuff done, we can get it done fast."
Ri: "We're like that. Always working, like a beehive."
Kaj: "Though it helps the survival of this world was on the line."
A: "Considering in the Laserdiscs, in the end it didn't even matter."
Kaj: "These
aren't the Laserdiscs though. There's always a chance things will end up differently."
A: "Knowing
our luck when it comes to these things, Third Impact will happen
early."
Misato glared. "Thanks for jinxing it, Asuka."
Kaw: "...
eight Angels?" He counted in his mind. "...that's only 14 Angels in total, even considering the order was moved up by one."
Re: "Is that counting Ramiel?"
Kaw: "I didn't include her based on the former commander's tone. But that still only leaves 14 in
that world, instead of the 17 in ours, including myself."
S: "You would still be the final messenger though, right?"
Kaworu shrugged. "I cannot know for sure. This world is too similar so far to differentiate it in my mind. Though that leaves me wondering... who gets skipped?"
~
I already made the joke about train of thought, damn it.
A: "And that's
two trains so far."
Ma: "...Ohhh, I get it. Train of thought."
Kaw: "That's what I assumed they were getting at."
A: "Though to be fair, I
was in a train during my...
experience with Leliel."
S: "Maybe it's just a thing for this world then."
A: "It's odd though. Because I thought that was just
my mind trying to understand what was going on in that oxygen deprived hellhole. But apparently
half of Tokyo-3 got on that damn train during the Laserdiscs."
Mi: "Bit of an overstatement, but yeah. That analogy seems to be a favourite of... Anno, was it?"
Kaj: "There seems to be less introspective scenes though."
Mi: "You weren't even
here for the first bit of the Laserdiscs Kaji."
He shrugged. "Most of this stuff is what I was able to dig up before anyway."
Misato and Ritsuko glared at him.
~
Yashima
The power infrastructure continued to be established.
Kaw: "Very impressive."
S: "I don't remember being
this averse to piloting my Eva though. Especially considering
that me didn't even quit."
A: "To be fair, you were almost roasted to death by a seemingly
more powerful Ramiel."
S: "Still, I should've realised earlier that I can't simply shrug off piloting Eva like that."
A: "It's all in the past, Shinji. I know for a fact
you got
much better."
S: "I think you helped with that, Asuka."
A: "And everyone else."
Mi: "I wonder what
that me would do to convince you though."
Ri: "...You're a Lieutenant Colonel in this. That would put you 3rd in command. You probably have access to a lot more secrets than you did in our world."
Mi: "...wait,
Lieutenant Colonel? At this stage in our world, I was a
Captain. How the hell do I have such a high rank already?"
Kaj: "The highest you got before you were made commander was Major."
Mi: "And
she's already a rank above
that.
She would outrank
me, if not for the fact I was commander."
~
Terminal
Ri: "So
that's how you convince him."
Mi: "I knew of Lilith
this early? Fucks sake, that would've saved me a
lot of trouble."
Kaj: "Would've saved
me a lot of trouble as well. You even
identified it correctly, not even
I did at first."
Re: "...the Lance is already present as well."
Kaw: "Her mask is different. It's more akin to Sachiel's face than the seven eyed mask it has in our world."
A: "...hang on a minute, where the hell does the seven eyes come from then? I thought it came from said mask."
Kaworu shrugged. "Who knows at this point. I find it odd Shinji would be convinced by such a thing though."
S: "Well, it showed him that
he wasn't the only person who put their life on the line.
That probably convinced him."
Ma: "Though you didn't have to be shown Lilith to be convinced in this world."
Mi: "Not like I
could show him Lilith if I wanted to. I didn't even
know of her existence until after
Zeruel. I probably would've been shot by the autoguns."
~
Directive
S: "This was similar at least. Centre target, pull switch. Like I practiced."
Mi: "Even though it took two shots."
S: "That'll probably be the case this time as well, you realise."
Ri: "It's a good thing we weren't annihilated."
Ma: "I'd say. I thought we were toast when the first shot missed."
Japan descended into darkness, a singular point of light indicating Tokyo-3.
Kaw: "...they made this scene even
more profound than it was in the Laserdiscs."
Ri: "We needed everything for this operation."
Kaj: "Within 9 hours, you were able to route
all the power of Japan to a single point. I don't think you worked that fast since, even the Lance recovery operation had several days to prepare."
Re: "When survival is at state, anything seems reasonable." She thought. "I feel like I've said that before."
A: "Considering this is pretty much the same as what happened in the Laserdiscs, I wouldn't be surprised."
~
00:00
Mi: "Time's up. Let's do this."
The commanders monitored the operation.
Ri: "...we didn't bombard the Angel."
Kaw: "It seems to be a distraction. And she has yet
more forms."
Ritsuko had her notebook out, scratching notes into it. "Of course. We could've distracted the Angel with heavy bombardment. That might've prevented it from noticing and firing the first shot."
Kaw: "It was a good thing
we fired at that point."
Ri: "It is. In our world, the positron beam warped Ramiel's beam, causing it to hit off target. It was damn lucky actually; a direct hit would've been the end for us."
S: "Oh come on,
now's not the time to get brooding."
The gun fired. Ramiel screamed and bled.
A: "Yes! You got it!"
Mi: "First try! Hell yeah Shinji!"
~
nope.avi
Ramiel healed, and began changing and charging.
S: "Oh for fucks sake."
Ma: "Welp, we're boned."
Ri: "I concur."
Mi: "Yep. Boned."
Kaj: "Boned."
Re: "Boned."
Kaw: "Boned."
A: "You guys are
fucked."
Ramiel vaporised a mountain, directly hitting them.
A: "...holy shit."
Kaw: "This power! It's amazing!"
Kaj: "...What's even more amazing is how
everything survived."
Ma: "When that happens, all you can really do is thank the Gods for your luck."
S: "...man, I'm really determined."
A: "
That's the Shinji I know. Despite everything you
still soldier on."
~
Second Attempt
A: "C'mon Shinji, you can do it!"
Ma: "This feels much more dramatic than how it happened."
Mi: "Makes for better viewing. We need some damn popcorn for this!"
Ri: "Crap, it's firing again."
Re: "As it did in our world. But I protected Shinji in
our world. I will protect him in this one too."
She did just that.
Kaw: "...you seemed to spend a lot longer in her beam though."
Re: "It would be worth it."
The gun fired.
Ramiel's core shattered, and the Angel disintegrated into blood.
Asuka jumped from her seat. "YES! YOU DID IT!" She clung to Shinji.
He sighed. "Second time's the charm. Now I just need to get Rei out."
Mi: "...At the very least, we don't have to spend billions of Yen trying to clean up Ramiel in that rendition."
~
Rei
Mi: "Still adorable."
S: "Emotions were pretty high after this. Though I imagine
he would've been going through a lot more emotions at this stage, considering all that happened."
Rei smiled, to fawning.
Ma: "You're so adorable Rei."
The scene changed. Kaworu emerged from a sarcophagus.
Kaw: "...wait a minute, what the hell? What am I doing there?"
A: "...That's the Moon."
The being was shown. Gasps
Ri: "What in oblivion is
that? A progenitor?"
Ma: "It looks like
our Lilith, it even has the same mask."
Re: "...is
that the Third? There was Adam and Lilith."
Kaw: "Adam has not been shown yet. For all we know, that could
be Adam."
Mi: "On the moon though?"
Kaj: "We know for a fact SEELE have a base on Mars. The Moon would be easy for them."
A: "Adam was in damn Antarctica though. And it's obvious Second Impact still occurred, so how on Earth would they get Adam
off Earth and onto the
Moon? Forgetting the fact that Antarctica was
vaporised during Second Impact, and Adam was small enough to fit in a briefcase!"
Ma: "Didn't we deploy a few satellites around the Moon during Operation Crucifix?"
Mi: "We did, since it's not every day we go to the
Moon. We would know if there was anything going on there."
S: "So what the hell is
this SEELE doing? Kaworu?"
Kaw: "I'm running through the scenarios right now." He concentrated. "Rei?"
She leant some help. "You may continue debating while we try figuring out this universe."
Meanwhile Maya had got her terminal out, connected to the various satellites. "I know that's another universe, but it's worth making sure there isn't anything going on down there."
Ritsuko
also had her terminal out, but she was searching through the SEELE files that Melchior kept digging up. "...there's no mention of Lunar operations. Melchior has recently discovered references to
Mars though. Bit late, considering what happened." She skipped the video back to the titan.
"...so
our SEELE had contingencies on Mars, but
this SEELE has them on the Moon instead?" Asuka queried.
"Sure appears to be that way. And in that other universe, there seems to be a potential
third progenitor, if we assume the Lunar being
isn't Adam."
"...what if it's an Eva?"
Everyone stared at Shinji. A popping capacitor of the screen cut through the silence.
"...what? I don't think that's actual skin. It looks too rubbery, like they're trying to cover something. Also, the scale is off. I don't think there'll be
another progenitor that
no one knew about. We surely would've found it by now, considering we got surveillance both around the Moon
and aimed at Mars."
"...I mean, that's possible." Ritsuko admitted, relaxing a bit. "Maybe we're just being overly paranoid."
"It's a damn better possibility than it being
another progenitor." Asuka said. "What say you, Kaworu?"
"...Mark Six."
~
