The Massachusetts trio were led into Wendy's abode. "Sorry for the mess, didn't have much notice i'd be boarding with you…"
It was a sty.
Her clothing was strewn all over the place (almost all with some sort of corduroy on it), and there were more than a few documents stacked up or fallen on the floor. But hey, at least it was relatively trash free.
Golden opportunity for a snark though. "Not exactly five star accomodation…"
"Look Dee, if we could afford to live like kings, the Fed will start asking questions." She brushed off, before flipping the mood to 'cheery'. "Make yourselves at home! Rooms are upstairs, I only have one bathroom so you're gonna have to ration your time in there."
"Well at least we can get settled." Trixie sighed, carting her cargo up the creeping stairs.
"Also you might wanna draw lots for who ends up sharing a room."
That stopped Trixie in her tracks. "You what?"
Yomiko raised her hand. "I volunteer to board with Derek."
"Oh good, that makes things a lot easier!" The guardian whooped. "If you get up to any funny business, make sure you wear a condom!"
"Do I get a say in any of this?"
"Do we want you to have a say in this?" Prodded Lulamoon.
"I mean I would prefer to have a choice between staying with a girl that could kill me."
"Hey I can kill you just as well as she can!"
"I mean, you could just board with Abigail if you wanted to." Wendy shrugged. "Think she's in one of the rooms. Oi Abby!" Shouting up the staircase.
There was the sound of a door opening.
And at the top of the staircase was Abigail.
"Honk."
The pilot candidates did not really know how to respond to this development. "Okay." Was all Yomiko figured was appropriate.
"What the hell is that?"
"My housemate." Wendy did not skip a beat. "She's pretty chill for who she is, can be a bit spirited at times but hey, you can't judge her for that."
"She is a goose."
"No shit Sherlock." Trixie snarked back. "Putting that MIT education to good use with your observations eh?"
The goose craned her head some, hearing Trixie speak. "Honk?"
"Eh? You talking 'bout me?"
The goose trundled down the stairs and immediately to Trixie. "…Hey buddy, how's things?"
And Abigail nuzzled her leg, letting out a rather satisfied purr, at least the closest thing to a purr a goose could make.
Trixie acquiesced to the gosling, crouching down and running her hand over their back. "…Heh, you're not bad, eh?"
"Honk!"
"Have I seriously been rejected by a bird?!"
The goose hissed at Derek over Trixie's shoulder.
"Great, so I can either board with a girl that'll kill me, a girl that'll kill me, or a duck that'll kill me."
Offended at the remark, Abigail broke free of Trixie to peck at Derek's feet. "Agh okay okay I'll room with Yomiko!"
"I am glad we could come to a consensus." Was all she wrote, taking her limited belongings upstairs with her.
"A goose out for my own heart!" Exclaimed Trixie. "I just know I'm gonna like you!"
"Honk!"
"What the fuck have I gotten myself into." Derek quietly muttered to himself, as he too walked upstairs to the room with two beds in it.
Yomiko had spent no time in segregating the room between themselves, quickly demarking a parallel between them with some masking tape that had been left, a shared DMZ set up in front of the doorway and going halfway into the room. "Mine, yours." Pointing north and south. "Cross this line and you will die."
"What if you cross into my territory?"
"Then I would pray, because I would not cross into it without a good reason."
"The reason being you're gonna kill me."
"Knowing you, most likely."
To Derek's dramatic sigh. "Fine, I will accept your terms."
"I have more."
A dramatic drop down onto his own bed. "I have already conceded so much already, I may as well sign over the Sudetenland while I'm at it."
"I will expect we will have to get changed in our rooms, but it will be difficult to achieve full privacy when doing so. Do not leer. I will do the same."
"Well that I can do." He huffed. "If there was anything my mom drilled into me it's that."
A pause from the esoteric girl. "At least she was able to teach something."
"Any more demands?"
"I will expect uninterrupted sleep. Do not make an unreasonable amount of noise at night, and I will do the same."
"So basically respect you as I would respect myself."
"With how you respect others I would have assumed you had no respect for yourself."
Derek tripped over that metaphorical hurdle for a brief moment. "I-I respect myself! Fine I accept your challenge, Yomiko! I will treat you as I treat myself!"
The girl noticed this. "See to it that you do, and I will treat you the same."
~
Shinji and Asuka were back in the entry plug. "Alright, let's see if I don't have a breakdown this time around."
"Ah you'll be alright, Asuka." Soothed Misato over the radio. "You two ready?"
The duo viewed each other over the video feed.
Shinji's hand leaned behind him, soon grasped by Asuka. "Yeah, we're ready, Misato." Voiced Asuka.
"Alright. Get ready Asuka, we're inducing in five."
They let go, and she sighed. "Wonder what I can do to… help this kinda… movem- woa-" And the lights were out.
It was Shinji's turn to sigh, as he focused on the connection between the duo, ever closer and closer until a spark. "Where was I… yeah, it sucks having the consciousness pulled from you. That's something I'd probably change in this if I could."
Shinji couldn't help but chuckle. "Good to have you back, Asuka."
"…Good to be back." He could feel her smile. "Alright, let's see how the blindness looks like this time…"
Shinji keyed into home base. "Alright Misato, cut the feed."
Within ten seconds, visuals from the Evangelion cut.
Instead of a white void, it was instead replaced with a 'No Signal' bouncing rapidly from side to side, like you pulled the RCA cables from an old television.
"Oh like that's much better!"
"Oh like that's much better!"
"Oi as long as it's not triggering you we can work with it."
"Are we just gonna ignore how distracting it is to see that scroll across your eyeballs?"
"Maybe it'll just add more to the challenge or something…"
"Alright, let's try it."
"That's the spirit." Radioing in. "Have you got a training plan, Misato?"
"More or less. We'll start with a few exercises."
Even without visuals they could sense something shifted. "To the left of you is a pallet rifle, 300 metres away is a target. You will need to figure out in what direction this target is in but it will be stationary. See how you go with that."
Grabbing the rifle was easy enough, and getting it into firing position may as well had been muscle memory at that point. "Alright, any ideas, Asuka?"
"Well I'm not hearing anything from the target, so…" It was on the right track, at least. "Let me see if I can remap something…"
Their sync ratio dipped slightly as Asuka looked within her. "…What if I…"
The 'No Signal' was replaced with a pitch black field this time, almost like they had powered down. "Okay, shoot anywhere and see what it comes up with."
"Okay?"
Shinji pointed the rifle upward and fired at an angle into the sky.
And colour filled the entry plug. "Wait what the-"
"Ahah!" Shinji could feel her exuberance. "Thought they were similar enough!"
The image lingered on screen before fading to red. "Okay, hearing test Shinji! Shoot that same shot again and I should be able to get a decent image this time around."
The shot was shot once more. "30 degrees left."
Shinji pivoted the Evangelion and was able to 'see' the target, appearing more as a three dimensional dot map of some sort of four legged creature.
Which he shot with no hesitation, the utter squelch of the Incubator violently exploding providing an excellent visual for Shinji. "Was that a fucking Kyubey?!"
"Asuka would like to know if that was a Kyubey." He filtered through to the bridge.
"Wow you even identified what kind of target it was…" Misato was impressed at least. "Nicely done you two!"
Asuka and Shinji did the metaphysical equivalent of a high five. "Heck yeah! But we'll need to figure out a more efficient way of using it, don't think it's a good idea to waste ammo like that."
A brief exchange of thought, before Shinji keyed back home. "Subcommander? Do the training bodies have the speakers enabled?"
Shinji could hear computery sounds over the radio. "It is now."
"Asuka, can you use the Evangelion to make sounds?"
"Hmm…" As she once again peered inward. "I mean, it has a larynx."
"See if you can make a regular tone every second."
"…Ah, good idea! I'll see what I can do."
It took a few seconds, but soon enough a visual filled the Entry Plug once more, updating at an approximate rate of one hertz, accompanied by a rhythmic clicking, almost like the ticking of a clock. "That good?"
"Yeah we can work with that!" Enthusiastic, hovering over the radio button. "Hopefully that ticking doesn't grind on us though. Misato, next target!"
"As you wish you two."
Next target was moving on a single plane, left and right. It appeared as if it was statically jumping several metres left every time the visual updated.
"…Fifty metres a second."
That was all the information Shinji needed. It took two cycles to hit the target, one to lock on and one to confirm his positioning.
"Yeah!"
"Moving to test three." Not allowing them a reprieve. "Target moving in all three dimensions, movement pattern random."
"Up the frequency, Asuka?"
"Ten hertz."
The ticking in the Entry Plug became more rapid, allowing more fidelity in their image. "I've played video games at a lower framerate than this!"
Shinji couldn't help but chuckle, closing in on the eccentric target and downing them.
"Yeah!"
"Yeah!"
"Test four, long range aggression and level 3 evasion."
The target spawned and immediately started shooting, forcing the duo behind a building. "Agh, give us warning damn it!"
"You could've given us some warning y'know…"
"The enemy won't."
"Curse her and her good points! Fine we can work with it!" Grumbled Asuka. "At least the enemy's shots are audible."
To Shinji it looked like a barrage of tracer fire going overhead, and he was almost able to see the target through the building.
"Level 3 means it won't try escaping on the Y axis."
"Which one was that again?"
"Baka it's up!" In a shout through the link, the sync dipping by a percentile. "X is left and right, Y is up and down, Z is forward and back!"
If only adding to the tutorialising, a multicoloured three line indicator appeared in the centre of Shinji's vision, similar to a crosshair, showing him his position in 3-space from his point of view. "Anyway, jump up on top of the building and lay down the pain, keep moving in a circular pattern and I'll let you know if you end up in their line of fire."
"Alright, let's do it."
The simulated Unit-01 leaped above the building, bounding on the skyscrapers as a hail of lead rained down on the target, as Asuka suggested it attempted to flee from the barrage along the streets. "Keep on them Shinji! We can do it!"
Another flaw of level 3 was it wasn't capable of suppressive fire while fleeing, Shinji and Asuka using this to their complete advantage to eliminate the target with gusto.
Shinji sighed. "Man, that went well!"
"…It did, eh?"
He could feel her warmth. It was… nice.
"Agh stop being so good!" Misato feigned annoyance. "We need to program more scenarios for this now!"
Not that the duo complained. It left them with a few more moments together.
~
These tests continued for the remainder of the working day, a good majority of which were successful. "They are remarkably close to their usual level."
"So fighting blind may actually be viable once they rejig themselves…" Misato wasn't sure what to think of that.
"Shows their skill, I think." The blonde scientist butted out her cigarette, before programming another target for them to face. "Down a sense and still almost as capable."
"Maybe next time we'll have to cut two of their senses."
"What, cut their sense of smell?" In a scoff. "Maybe Asuka will be calmer not being able to smell the blood."
This time around, the target was not merely neutralised, it was dismembered.
"…Yeah I think they had enough for today." Was all Maya suggested, before taking a sudden yet understandable leave of absence.
Misato radioed in. "Good job you two, that's it for today."
But a weary sigh. "Man, that was something. How'd we go?"
"Five percent off usual, pretty good considering you were literally blind."
Shinji fistpumped in the Entry Plug. "Hell yeah!"
"We'll give you a minute before shutting down, alright?"
To which the pilot nodded, before the feed cut.
"Well, at least that means we have options."
"Indeed." Ritsuko noted, typing down several notes onto her terminal. "I would be interested in seeing if there's any side effects with rerouting Evangelion level synapses on Asuka."
"Hey, did they ever roll those changes back?"
"I don't believe so."
"Do you think it's a good idea?"
Unit-01 shut down.
"Possibly."
"I swear if she goes blind from this-"
"Then we'll just have to throw them back in and get her to remap her synapses manually." Ritsuko quelled.
~
Meanwhile all went quiet in the Entry Plug, save for the mechanical actuators that slowly ejected the plug from Unit-01.
…And an occasional popping sound from Asuka. "…Heh. Ehehe…"
"Tired, love?"
"That, yeah… and I think I can see sound now?"
"That's… uhh…" Shinji wasn't sure whether to be concerned or not. "You can still see normally, right?"
"Yeah yeah, I can see that. But… there's these vibrant colours that pop in whenever there's a noise now."
"…What does my voice look like?"
"Yours is a blue-ish, sky or maybe even cerulean, and it's just outside my periphery, looks like… you know how some microphones and stereos have a visualiser on the audio level?"
"Mmhm?"
"Yeah it kinda looks like that, it grows and shrinks as the sound rises and fades… ah fuck I think I figured out why this has happened." In a groan. "I forgot to undo the… brain thingy- synapses of the Evangelion. God Ritsuko's gonna tear me a new one when she finds out-"
Shinji reached a hand around. "I'm… curious. What would that look like to you?"
Asuka knew what he was thinking, and held his hand, the plugsuit material squeaking as it contacted. "…Heh, looks like a deep magenta, maybe even a royal purple of sorts… kinda like that."
A short chuckle by Shinji. "Well, tonight will certainly be interesting for you."
"Ah- baka!" Playfully slapping Shinji's outreached hand. "How lewd! Ehehehe~!"
Soon the hatch would open, the duo helped out, Asuka using Shinji as a crutch against her exhaustion. And soon enough, they were on the bridge. "We really need to look into that fatigue issue."
"As long as it doesn't affect the pilots during a sortie, I think we can manage it." Thought Ritsuko. "Thought… it does add difficulty to pilot retrieval."
"Can't exactly debrief your pilots if one of them is barely staying awake." Chuckling toward the duo. "Heh, look at you Asuka, you seem pretty spaced out at the moment."
"Hey I'm… pretty fine for myself, I think." Asuka eventually thought out. "Just need to get situated again. Might be fine after some coffee…"
"Well that's good to hear, at least. Because you two actually did rather well for yourselves out there."
"…What I am wondering is why I see flashes of blue whenever you speak, Misato." In barely comprehensible query. "I would've thought it'd be purple?"
"…eh?"
"Asuka, what do you see when I speak?"
"Flashes of gold, which is odd cause I know you dye your hair."
Ritsuko started sporadically clapping her hands together. "What does this look like to you?"
"So it's a flash of your colour coming from your hands and dissipating."
"You have synethesia." Immediately diagnosed in a matter-of-fact manner. "Chromesthesia, to be more precise. Sounds like your auditory sensors are triggering the visual ones. That's… interesting."
Asuka sighed as Ritsuko began to take notes. "Yeah, I figured it was cause of what I did in the Evangelion." Scratching the back of her head. "Would that be right?"
"It makes sense if that's the case…" As she continued writing, showing her current notes to Asuka. "These don't look any different to you?"
Shaking her head.
"Alright so it's not grapheme-colour… So it's just sounds having a colour associated to it, they appear to bloom and wither in your sight depending on the sound?"
Nodding.
"Give me another sound you heard, like what your footsteps looked like."
"They were like little blinks of red at the bottom of my vision, and it changed from one kinda red to another when I went from the catwalk to the concrete and again when I went to the tiles. Little left right left right as I walked."
"…Fascinating." Ritsuko could only say. "…My apologies, Asuka. It's all rather strange for you I imagine."
"Honestly Ritsuko, I'm as fascinated as you are with this." She smiled. "I mean, I'm sure I'll get over it, but… it's pretty cool. Another perspective and all that."
Notebook was closed. "Since it was on the Evangelion's side of things, I'll suggest it's temporary. Might clear up tomorrow or in a week."
"And if it doesn't?" Misato had her concerns on how Asuka could suddenly develop something that significant.
"If it doesn't, well, be glad you didn't screw around with other synapses in the Evangelion." Warned the scientist, adjusting her glasses. "I'm sure you knew what went where on an intrinsic level, but you don't want to end up a vegetable once you get back because you accidentally hot-wired your legs to your arms."
"Maybe we'll give them a bit longer to shut down afterwards." Thought Misato. "So they actually have time to set things back."
"Ahh it's more on me for forgetting anyway." Shrugged off Asuka. "And yeah, learning experience."
"That's what the simulator is for, after all." Prodded Shinji. "We won't forget."
"Maybe, it does look pretty cool."
"For God's sake don't deliberately mess with your brain!" Misato belittled, half playful.
To which Asuka could only laugh.
~
Normally after a sync test like this, the pilots in question were far too exhausted afterwards to do much else but fall into bed.
Not today.
The coffee table in front of the couch had music CDs and Laserdiscs strewn all over it, Asuka full boar in exploring just what colours she would see in the sounds.
Rei was all too happy to help her with that. "Jeez I wouldn't have expected Sanjuro to look like that…"
The night would continue with music, classical from Kaworu's personal collection, some more contemporary works from Misato's collection, and topping off with Shinji and Rei performing on strings.
All of which had Asuka utterly enraptured, her eyes wide and locked on to wherever the sounds were, sighing in awe and giggling in ecstasy at how the colours would wax and wane and shift in tone with the music. "Ahheh!"
Their performance done, and Asuka continuing to explore the sights and sounds, Shinji and Rei were watching from the nearby table, Rei with a slight smile as she sipped on a cup of hot chocolate Shinji had made up.
The boy himself was resting his head on his right arm, his eyes tracking wherever Asuka was at the moment, looking utterly content with himself and with Asuka's joy. "…Gods I love her."
"It has been a while since I have seen her this… sparkling." With a sip. "She has always been curious, and this is essentially a new sense to her. She's experiencing how they all intersect and combine. It is… enrapturing. Is it not?"
A sound of agreement from the boy. "…Hey, is that what you see with your sense?"
"Similar." She thought. "I see the colours of souls and how they mingle with others. Which…" With a giggle. "I suppose you could call it a form of synethesia, when put into that context."
The duo continued watching their close friend, as she explored this newfound sense. "God this is amazing!"
The smiles remained.
Soon enough, Rei would finish her drink, and make her leave. "I will leave you to it, Shinji." She suggested, with sly smirk, before the door closed behind her.
And shortly after, Asuka would turn the music off. She sighed, eyes drifting over to Shinji, still nursing his mug of drink. "Content to watch on, eh?"
To which he simply nodded. "You know I love seeing you happy, Asuka."
A soft smile, and a slight blush.
She would soon walk over to him, leaning down to his level. Her hand gently brushing his cheek as she drew closer. "Shinji~"
And a kiss was shared, softly, gently. Their arms would naturally gravitate around one another, the room quiet except for the two.
They briefly broke off, Asuka leaving her forehead on Shinji's for a moment. "Mmhm, you were right, Shinji. That's certainly… interesting."
"Like what you see?"
"Mhm." She sounded. "I… it's hard to describe."
She would find a more comfortable position straddling Shinji, nuzzling into his shoulder. "It's like a… deep purple, like what I'd see when we touched earlier. When you're drifting your hands over me, or making me murmur… it's a constant glow."
Shinji would continue running his hand over her back, tracing patterns through her shirt. "So… you see this."
"And feel it, of course." With a light giggle. "It's a lot… well, quieter, if you could describe colour like that."
"Lighter?"
"Yeah, that." She smiled. "But… I still see it. Still that deep purple just less vivid."
"…Heh." As he continued. "Wonder if the shirt's helping."
"Pfft, I see what you're trying to do, dummy~" Before giggling. "You wanna take my shirt off so you can see if what I see is more vivid or not. Eh?"
"I am defeated!" Hands on his chest, upping the melodrama. "You have seen right through my play, Soryu-sama!"
"Heh, pervert."
Before doing just that. "But I am a generous God, so I will acquiesce to your demands." With a sly smirk, especially at how Shinji briefly froze. "After all, man cannot help his naturally perverted nature, who am I to deny them the privilege?"
Arms wrapped back around. "Coming from you."
They ended up being right in the end. It certainly was a lot more vivid.
~
Rei would watch on from her own bed. Their light certainly made the empty bed more manageable.
Kaworu had fallen asleep a while ago. She had taken to early nights so they may be together for a little bit, in the brief crossovers the timezones allowed.
It was easier for her to fall asleep that night.
~
On the other side of the world, Kaworu's eyes shot open, a pained groan escaped as he flung himself out of the bed and over to the wall.
The sensations soon stopped, and soon things would normalise. The breathing and heart rate would drop from their panicked origin, and all was calm once more.
"…Ash?"
"Mari?"
"…what… the fuck was that?"
"I…"
He sighed, bringing his knees up to his body. "…it was a flashback. From a past life."
"Are they that v-vivid?"
The burning that consumed him the pain the pain! "…Yes. I haven't had one that bad for…" A brief moment. "A while. But I have had them. And… this one's always the worst."
"You've… had it multiple times…"
"It's easy to ignore when it's quick. Most of them end up like that thankfully, but… there's always a few in particular that stand out in… the cruelty."
"This… wasn't the one you described earlier, was it? The… l-lighting one?"
"I think it was, unfortunately."
(broken and battered my body was thrown to the ground, seared inside and out from the immense potential of this boy i may have called friend in a past life)
The recollection would continue, at least as much as Kaworu had pieced together. "…Jesus Christ."
Mari could offer her warmth. "…I'm sorry I can't offer anything else, A-Ash."
"No, that's… that's enough."
One soon became two, Rei's love shining through.
"…You ought to join her up there, y'know."
"I would love to…" He yielded. "…Hopefully it does not take my soul long to rest."
Another moment of quiet, his breathing steady. A low yellow glow was filtering through the curtain, courtesy of the sodium lights on the street below.
"…Hmm." Mari thought aloud.
The quiet remained, but Kaworu couldn't help but note a welling from within. "What are you planning, Mari?"
"Trying out what R-Rei suggested."
The welling continued, soon accompanied by a soft yellow glow, eventually outshining that of the street lights outside.
A tendril reached out of his own body, an AT-Field coalescing into a Leyline of around two feet in length.
And at the end of this Leyline, a human figure would slowly come to be. They appeared with a golden glow, briefly wavering in the air like they were but a projection before solidifying into form.
The nature of self-image is a strong one, and quickly this figure took the shape of how Mari Makinami would have seen herself, back when she truly considered herself alive. Twin bangs framed her face, golden hair on golden skin.
Golden eyes stared into golden eyes.
"…Mari?"
The disbelief on his face was rather palpable, as the girl in question smiled back. "Ah so it does look l-like me!" This figure would briefly waver with her stutter.
Other than her twilight glow, and the Leyline coming from where her navel once was, she was the spitting image of the girl Kaworu would have seen in the Astral, once upon a time.
The same girl whose life he took. All that time ago.
"Not exactly in the f-flesh, but I suppose it's close enough, eh?"
Kaworu continued scanning the figure, how similar they were to the girl they once saw in the flesh. The look in her eyes so full of life, the hair, the-
Mari crouched down to his level. And wrapped her arms around him. "…Yes, it's me. If I can't do a-anything else… hopefully I can at least give you someone warm to hold."
Resting her own head on his shoulder, the boy soon relented, his own arms slowly wrapping around her back before pulling her closer. "…Damn it, Mari. You… you've done a lot more than that."
They would keep a hold of one another for a short while, no words exchanged as his soul was warmed from multiple sides.
Mari would soon shift their position, herself leaning up against the wall with Kaworu held close to her heart. "I can keep you warm here, Ash. Let Rei keep you warm u-up there, alright?"
…He could feel a heartbeat. "…Okay."
It didn't take him long after to fall into a slumber.
As Mari would hold him in the physical world, Rei would hold him the exact same way in this world of their own. "I'm here now, fish… I'm sorry for being so late…"
"It's… okay." He all so quietly spoke. "…I hate that flashback."
"I noticed Mari helped you while I was gone."
A small nod.
"…I'm proud of her." With small smile, running her hands through his hair. "She's developed a lot, you know… she cares for you."
A brief moment.
"…I hope I'm doing her right."
"I think you are, Kaworu." With a small smile. "I should tell you about Asuka today…"
~~~
Mabel clapped her hands. "Alright, thanks for coming up early!"
"Did we have a choice?"
"Shut up Derek." Both Trixie and Yomiko snapped in sync.
The Commander simply ignored it. "So there's more than a few things you need to learn before you're able to pilot successfully. One is the strategy and two is implementing that strategy, because learning is only so useful if you aren't a limp noodle when you face big momma in the flesh."
"Okay, do we have Evangelion to test in?"
"I'll be upfront and say no."
Trixie raised an eyebrow at this.
"Look, we had to start Unit-05 and Unit-06 from scratch after Congress kicked them out a couple years ago, cut us some slack. It took Japan and Germany years to get working Evangelion, you guys are lucky it's only going to take another week to get sync tests started."
"Well at least we have an ETA…"
"They aren't gonna eat us like they did to Nevada, right?"
"No, we made sure of that." Muttered Mabel. "So we will have to teach you some theory and all that, and it'll be boring classroom work even though I know you're at least used to that Derek."
He rolled his eyes. "I'll be happy to share the pain with my compatriots."
"Buuuuut," She continued, "It's the weekend, and we've already asked a lot of you, and Kaworu is still trying to get over his jet lag, so here's what we're doing instead. Wendy?"
The girl (dressed in full corduroy) dropped a golf bag in front of the trio. "Check them out."
Trixie had a look in, and practically squeed. "Oh my God we're going shooting?"
"…Wait what?"
"Course a hoser like you's never shot something." With cocky smile, throwing the gun toward him.
Who promptly fumbled it, falling on the ground, much to her amusement. "Hey, these kinda look-"
"Odd?" Mason interjected, internally trying not to facepalm at the show. "We got them made in the style of the Pallet Rifles the Evangelion use. This should give you a sense of how they weigh and how they fire."
"Though I reckon we'll need to start with the 101 when it comes to it."
"Alright, fine, how bad could it be?" Picking the gun back up, looking it all over.
This unfortunately included looking down the barrel, upon which Yomiko promptly ripped the gun off him. "Ohhh my Gooood…" Mason quietly muttered.
"Hey, that's why we don't load them beforehand, eh?" As Mabel prodded his side. "But yeah, you guys need training. Badly."
"I'm really the only one that knows how to shoot, eh?" Glancing between Derek (who was pouting) and Yomiko (who was dumbly staring at the rifle she held in hand). "Buncha city-slickers, you'd never survive out in the sticks!" She huffed. "Though maybe you might go well with that strength of yours, Yomiko."
"Training will help me."
"Heh that's the spirit!"
"C'mon lets get you guys down to the range…" Wendy escorted them away.
Mabel was able to keep herself from laughing until after they left their sight. Mason instead chose to bang his head against a wall, groaning in frustration. "Aargh I can't believe the Lulamoon is looking like the better candidate so far…"
"Hey, we're taking a gamble with all of them, we know that much." The sister quelled. "They'll need training, we knew that much."
"What of their camaraderie? Cause they look on the verge of tearing themselves apart!"
"Look, so far they seem to be finding common ground in their dislike of Derek."
"That's not a good thing Mabel…"
"Okay okay, here's what we'll do then. We'll get the Evangelion ready for sync tests, we'll see how they actually go in the pilot's seat, and then we decide from there, alright?"
The twin thought, and nodded. "They'll be ready in a week. I'll recommend deciding on the pilot pairs today, otherwise we won't have enough time to imprint the ELIZA construct."
"If I may put in a recommendation?"
"Mhm?"
"Derek and Yomiko get put with the NACSS system, and Trixie gets put with the ELIZA."
An eyebrow piqued. "Whatever for?"
"Well, Wendy already got those two sharing a room together, so it'd help her a bit if they were a good pair."
Mason blinked.
Before proceeding to lie down on his back, on the floor, in the middle of the hallway. "He's going to die isn't he?"
"Oh don't be a drama queen Dip!"
"He's gonna be lying just like this and he's gonna go back to his mom in a body bag!" With arms outstretched.
Mabel proceeded to kick in his side. "God damn it get up Dipper Pines!"
"Agh! Alright! Jeez, heels today?"
"I got the feeling you'd be dramatic over this."
Hand was offered and she picked her brother off from the floor. "And hey, trust me. You know I got that sense."
"What, like that merman you saw at SeaWorld when we were younger?"
"He was!"
"That was a manatee!"
"You won't ever convince me otherwise Dip!"
This bickering would continue for most of the day.
~~~
Kaworu certainly didn't mind the training regime ran by Wendy today.
Meant he could spend a bit more time up there with Rei.
Alas, time stopped for no one. "I'll call you up when we are ready to watch, alright?"
Kaworu could only nod. "I'll see you then."
Both sharing a small smile, they would return to the real world, Kaworu still finding warmth. "…You're still there, Mari?"
"Well I wasn't gonna let go of you now, w-was I?" With a goofy smile.
Kaworu glanced away. "…Thank you."
"And also because if I did, you'd w-wake up like this."
Her figure dissipated into glowing light, fading away to the air.
Unfortunately this also meant Kaworu's support faded away into the air, promptly resulting in a drop of perhaps a few inches. "Ah!"
Much to Mari's amusement. "Gotcha!"
Kaworu couldn't help but chuckle as well. "Well played, Mari."
They had enough time to wash up and clean up before their phone rang. "Hello Fish. Are you two ready?"
To his nod, as they sat the phone down on the table. "Hi Shinji, Asuka, Eliza, Hiro and Zero Two!"
Various hellos and giggles rang out through the apartment. "Full house, eh?"
"Indeed." With a warm smile. "Let's get this started."
~~~
), some of the jokes in the song and video would probably be in poorer taste in the context of 2I and might've come out differently.
