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Advice and Trust [NGE]

Reader mode
So, the following is not a passive-aggressive "what's taking so long?" kind of thing, but a genuine, sincere, worried question brought about by how long it's been since I remember last seeing him even show up in this thread:

Is Strypgia still alive?
 
Is he back in the military? Last I recalled, he'd been discharged (honorably, hopefully) and he was in the middle of civilian life and raising his kids.
 
Yes, Stryp was some updates ago safely *not* hunkering down in some trench, thankfully. However..

Talk of this brings to mind that this was not the case almost a decade ago, when the popularity of this thread drove hundreds of thousands of page views a week (which feels like not that long ago). That is, when he and other SVers participating in discussion while deployed had a narrow window to make updates that did not compromise op sec. And intelligence leaks show that whomever is fighting wherever that they are up against some wickedly smart, machine-learning assisted counter-intelligence pushes.

Basically, and I'm sure you all appreciate this already, to allow his whereabouts and status to not be reflected in real time, for that is always going to get gobbled up. I request we turn the discussion around, to instead focus again on theories pertaining to in character extenuating dialogue central to the story as we all get to the conclusion. Think, instead, how dangerous things are becoming for these bright minded kiddos and how perhaps navigating through this helps Stryp unpack some experiences from recent memory.
 
waito_x said:
Think, instead, how dangerous things are becoming for these bright minded kiddos and how perhaps navigating through this helps Stryp unpack some experiences from recent memory.
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Well, NERV in the story is about to break into a 3 way open war between Eva pilots/rei/kaworu, gendo/Rei4 and SEELE forces with all 3 forces capable of initiating third impact and 2 of the sides wanting to do it. And Kaworu is currently a mentally unstable, suicidal and sexually frustrated walking nuke. And it is all happening in an area with civilians still present. Its pretty damn bad.
 
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MauerNicolasGlee said:
Well, NERV in the story is about to break into a 3 way open war between Eva pilots/rei/kaworu, gendo/Rei4 and SEELE forces with all 3 forces capable of initiating third impact and 2 of the sides wanting to do it. And Kaworu is currently a mentally unstable, suicidal and sexually frustrated walking nuke. And it is all happening in an area with civilians still present. Its pretty damn bad.
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Here is a question inspired by Avengers Endgame. If Asuka or Shinji got the trigger to perform the impact, do you think they would be tempted to use that power to purge Seele and all loyal to them?
 
Vajrei said:
Here is a question inspired by Avengers Endgame. If Asuka or Shinji got the trigger to perform the impact, do you think they would be tempted to use that power to purge Seele and all loyal to them?
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Perhaps they'd be TEMPTED, but hopefully they won't. Strypgia mentioned in one of his more recent updates that Instrumentality is basically the power of GODS, and he mentioned that could be used to CHANGE the current state of humanity.
I'm thinking perhaps Strypgia intends to have humans ascend beyond Earth and begin exploring the universe OR he might have them undo the Second Impact and heal the broken Earth. Either would completely reshape the status quo as we know it, and it doesn't sound like vaporizing SEELE is part of that.
 
MauerNicolasGlee said:
And Kaworu is currently a mentally unstable, suicidal and sexually frustrated walking nuke.
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You think that's one of the biggest issues. I certainly agree it will prompt additional security around Kaworu being the undisclosed beyond a select crowd First Angel. But considering scientists were poking the metaphysical equivalent of nuclear reactor control rods into his sarcophagus before his own awakening could trigger a full Impact he probably has not only some pent up feelings...but some colleagues among the First Ancestral types who are losing patience at the delays, in part having not touched grass in millions of years.
 
I have a question in regards to the setting of Advice and Trust as well as its spin offs. How would Asuka and Shinji celebrate Mothers Day?
 

Credit to @Wixelt for these titlecards by the way, they've done an excellent job with these over the past few years :D

Wow okay so today marks a pretty significant day for Chronicles. Today marks five years since it had its start in this thread! :D

I honestly never thought it'd get this far, what started as a funny one-shot kinda quickly spiralled out of control into the behemoth it is today huh? :p The only reason it's lasted this long is due to your continued support, so for that you have my eternal thanks and gratitude. It means a lot to me :)

Let's get a bit statistical (nothing sexier than that huh :p) and look at just what Chronicles has achieved over the past five years. In five years we:
  • Have a total of 22 mainline works, 3 April Fools works, 1 sidestory, and at least 80 omake
  • 1.8 million words shared between all of these according to AO3 (the longest of which so far is still Project G at 367k words (thanks Ultra Sonic 007 :p))
  • Over three hundred total works suggested to cover for Chronicles
  • And a lot more left to go! Believe me, with the ideas Wix and I have come up with, we have plenty to fill out another five years! If only you knew what we had planned, maybe we'll pepper a few clues in for you to pick out :p
What better way to celebrate such an anniversary than with a new chapter? :D

Mabel gets some good news, Kaworu gets his hands wet, and the gang all wake up early (begrudgingly :V) to make a start on Half-Life 2 Episode 2!

Reader discretion advised for section 3, it gets violent.

PLAYBACK FILE: REC10_BALTHAZAR.912854:1865061_230218

Wendy would open the door to Mason's office, giving a somewhat suggestive stretch. "Man those pilots can hit, hey dude."

Dipper couldn't help but linger a look on her for longer than usual, well and truly noticed by the girl to her smirk. "U-uhh hey!" Slamming some work shut. "How'd the training go?"

"Yomiko's crazy in melee, the rest are alright." She could only shrug. "They're learning, what else can we do?"

"Well, as long as they don't completely suck eggs."

"Oh yeah I had this drop on my desk while I was out, think it's meant for you."

Glancing towards her hand, seeing a nondescript envelope in it. "Ah, thanks Wendy. Just chuck it on the desk."

A beat.

"…Yeah?"

"I'll give it to ya if you agree on another date with me."

Much to his amusement. "Alright, Wendy." Pretending like it was inconvenient for him. "Wanna do Saturday evening? If the world doesn't end before then?"

"Pfft, like that could ever happen!" With a beam. "But yeah, I can do that."

Going towards him, and placing it on his desk.

Before leaning over and sneaking a kiss on his cheek. "You're setting up the next date though buddy."

"Y-yeah I can agree with that!"

"Heh, all this time later and you're still bashful with that." With a giggle, as she made her leave. "God I remember how you were like with Paz when you two were first getting to know each other, couldn't even string a sentence together!"

"H-Hey I'm doing better!" Indignant, though the blush. "…Okay not really." In murmur to himself. "What's this then…"

The letter would be opened.

The immediate thing that popped out was the seal of the president of the United States in the header.

Mason would carefully read the letter.

"…Heh." With a smirk. "Oh you're gonna love this, Mabel."
~

Mabel meanwhile was spending her 'smoke break' (in this case a candy break) flipping through old photos she had laying around. Mostly from her childhood, she liked to keep them close to heart as a reminder what she was fighting for.

And what was given up by her in joining this fight.

All she could do was sigh. "…Been a while since I gave you a call, huh. Wonder if you still have your number."

A knock on the door. "Interrupting anything?"

"Just my internal rumination about love lost." This sigh was a lot more dramatic.

"Hey you got pretty lucky by the end of it, didn't ya?"

"I know but… gah I'm still mad I only had that summer with her!" Exclaiming it out for the world. "The one success I've ever had in my love life and it was ripped from me because of these stupid NERV politics!"

"It's understandable, given what we know now."

"D'oh I know! And I know I shouldn't be mad but…"

She'd pass him one of the photos.

It was her kissing the cheek of her girlfriend at the time.

"Sometimes I wonder what could've been if Tam came along with me."

All Dipper had was a small and sad smile. "Should've known lucky number thirteen would've ended up in tragedy."

"I remember saying as much to her." In a mutter. "And really. Every single boy had failed miserably! Of course I became a carpet muncher I had twelve boyfriends and none of them worked!"

"You were about as good at picking them as Forrest Gump was at picking non-historic events." Flatly muttering it out.

"Oh where do I even start there's that creepy emo dude, that weird sockpuppet dude, that other creepy emo dude-"

"Was that the one in the gnome hat or the one that looked like a zombie?"

"Both!" With hands in the air. "And did I ever tell you more in depth about that boy band boy I got with?"

"Which one was that again? Was that the blonde haired looker, the blonde haired looker, the-"

"YEAH YEAH I GET IT!" In another exclamation. "But no joke Dip, they were literally all the same. Like, quintuplets! And they didn't even tell me about it, they made it a game to swap themselves around to see if I noticed!"

"I mean that's just dog, but I'm sure they weren't that-"

Mabel would shove another Polaroid photo in his face.

It was her sitting cross legged on a couch with a wide smile, as five identical blonde haired white boys stood behind her.

"You deliberately set it up like that didn't ya."

They messed me about but I couldn't pass that photo-op up!" With a snicker. "And no we didn't get up to any funny business, I prefer exclusivity with my partners thank you very much!"

"I wasn't gonna say anyth- hang on why am I just seeing this photo now?! That would've been years ago!"

"You never asked!" Indignant. "I kept it for this exact moment!"

The photo went away. "Oh and don't even get me started on Gideon! His family are literally Christian preachers how can he be so awful?!"

"You've heard some preachers, right?" Dipper deadpanned. "Just because they're religious doesn't mean they're not an asshole."

"Dip I met his folks, they're some of the sweetest human beings to ever exist on the planet! They volunteer in soup kitchens and everything!"

"Maybe it's their atonement for Gideon." With a snicker.

"I mean I'm sure they did everything they could. Some people just end up unsalvageable I suppose, morally speaking."

"Didn't you think you could change him?"

"Maybe."

"Mhm, and how long did that last?"

"Three days."

"Three days too much if you ask me." Dipper would snark back.

"Oh you were there, Dip! You saw how charming he was to start with!"

"Yeah, and I said to you he was being too charming. You know I think that's sus!"

"Ah that was just you being a protective brother."

"I was right." In flat stare.

To which she scratched the back of her head. "Yeah maybe that was justified… heh, think I can admit something to you, Dip?"

"You have feelings for Paz don't ya."

"A-bu- where did that come from?!" Indignant.

"Well the way you go on about her after visitation, the utter dedication to getting her out of the clink, the murmurs I hear from your room in the night pining for her-"

She would quickly become as red as a tomato. "DIP!"

"Well I wouldn't be poking fun at it if you just talked about it with her!"

"W-Well maybe that's just me being a helpful friend! If she wants more than that she would've said that to me!"

"Uh-huh." He'd raise an eyebrow.

A part of him really wanted to tell her about all the things Pacifica told him when they were "together"… well, more him serving as her beard. Pushing Mabel into the arms of another to protect her… and given what he knew of her family now, he could understand.

He didn't mention that to his sister, however. If anyone was to tell her… "Wouldn't hurt to ask, y'know. I should've done that sooner with Wendy, if I'm being honest."

"Well it's different with you two. You and Wendy have been making eyes at each other since we were kids, only thing getting in the way was the age gap, and that's not an issue now we're well over eighteen!"

"Well what is the difference then? It's not cause she's a woman, I know that much." With another look. "No one this side of the bible belt gives a damn about that anymore, hell you could be with a horse and half this country won't care."

"I'm not-"

"Point aside, all I have ever cared about was that you get with someone you care for." Sat down on her desk. "And who cares for you. I was happy when you got with Tam because you finally had someone who could love you like you deserve."

This was always twinged with a melancholy knowing what Pacifica said. "I know it's been a while since then. I think you're starting to realize what you feel for Paz. Would you really be working this hard to get her out if she didn't mean something significant to you? And if she's the one you care about in that way, well… you know I'm gonna support it, sis."

A long beat as she thought.

"…Do people really go for horses?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want answered, Mabel."

"Okay okay… But yeah, I get your point, Mason." Somewhat downcast, despite the support. "It's been so long since I've even seen Tam… maybe I should try working on someone a bit closer." All she could do was sigh. "So… what do you think I should do?"

A defusing snicker. "Well if I were you, I'd suggest snogging her after some life threatening event."

She'd giggle at the remark. "Well that does sound like something I'd say!" She was smiling again at least. "Not like she had a shortage of them recently. Speaking of I'd rather get her out of the clink, first of all. Can't really do any sorta fun in visitation."

He would glance down to the letter that he had been holding onto. "Y'know that's half the reason I stopped by in the first place."

Mabel would tilt her head, prompting a continuation.

"You know how Tokyo-3 found that iPod thingy with all that music from another dimension?"

"Mhm, I didn't know what we could use it for. Did you find a use for it?"

"Did you listen to any of them?"

"Honestly there's so many of those Rift materials now I don't even know where to start."

"Well, just so happens one of those albums was from dear mister president himself." Waving the letter in front of her. "Remember when I stopped by Canterlot a few days ago? Well, we went there to show him it. And, well, let's just say he appreciated it so much he offered NERV a favor."

A beat, as Mabel's eyes slowly went wider and wider.

The letter was snatched from his hands, Mabel immediately reading starting. "Da da da- 'As a sign of goodwill between the Bowie Administration and NERV, Pacifica Northwest will be released into the custody of NERV-Massachusetts so that her skills may be utilized for the good of the people of the United States of America-' you WHAT, MASON?!" Very nearly screaming her shock.

"Not exactly getting her off scot free, but I think that's the closest he can get without getting himself impeached." Scratching the back of his head. "I believe you can handle the rest from-"

Mabel would bowl Dipper over, tackling him to the ground and into a tight hug. "…Damn it! You stupid… you… ya could've told me earlier!"

His smile only grew, as Mabel's eyes visibly welled.

"…Mason." Her head on his chest. Some tears soaking in. "…How the hell am I ever gonna repay you for that…"

"Hey, you opened the door with me and Wendy, didn't you?"

"I didn't go directly to the President to do so!" Slightly muffled.

"I had to one-up you somehow, eh? Wouldn't be a good brother if I didn't at least try!"

Another lull, as Mabel collected herself. "

"…God, Dip." Glancing up, with a warm smile. "If you weren't my brother I would've totally married you by now y'know."

"Good thing I am your brother then." Grabbing the letter and waving it in her vision. "For Paz's sake."

"Heh, yeah." She'd sigh. "…Thanks."

"You know I love helping you out." With a snicker. "Now can you please get off me before folks start thinking things?"

"Dip they already think those things of us." Rolling her eyes, she'd still pick herself and Dipper up. "When's she getting out?"

He'd look at the letter. "Saturday 0900."

"Heh, turning out to be a packed week isn't it?"

"What like every other week in our lives since we got given this job?"

"God sure feels like it huh." She'd chuckle. "Well we best start getting things ready for her then!"
~

The Bad Witch Coven Club would converge after another ordinary school day. "Hey any of you seen Trixie all day?"

"Honestly I just assumed since she wasn't at homeroom NERV had things to do with her." Luz shrugged at Caleb's question. "Don't think I've seen the other pilots as well now I think about it."

"Well as long as they don't end up dead I suppose we shouldn't complain."

"Oh I'm sure they won't kill their pilots again." Willow's words weren't exactly soothing. "Gus d'ya know if they have anything planned?"

"Apparently they're running up their Evangelion on Friday, so would make sense if they were focusing them on that." Turning a chair around to sit on it backward. "Y'know they are only meant to be doing school part time."

"I mean at this point they're old enough to not need school." Luz shrugged. "We only have another year or so of it anyway so what's the point doing it full time?"

"Just cause you wanna go do something else." Nudged Amity.

"Hey I prefer it over working." With a small chuckle, sitting on the desk at the front of the classroom. "Alright, so no Trixie in today then. Everyone else here?"

"Luz you can use your eyes for that."

"No one likes a snarker Caleb."

"Well I don't mind-"

"Anyway we need to have the mandated pre-class meeting." Rolling her eyes and taking a single sheet of paper out. "Uhh, oh! Here's for if you missed it, the Royal Canterlot Symphonic Metal Orchestra are putting out tenders for a showpiece for later on in the year, applications for ideas close end of month with an ideas preview, as they call it, to be ready end of March." Page down looking over at the class. "I'm assuming at least a bit of the showpiece needs to be written by then to give them an idea what to expect."

"Are any of us good when it comes to music writing?" Gus queried. "I mean we probably have the ideas-"

"I was just expecting to net Vinyl or Octy honestly." In a shrug. "They've mostly written it for them in the past, if we can get an idea ready for tender they should be able to work with it."

To his shrug. "Works for me."

"So, Saturday and all next week, we're gonna be brainstorming these ideas!" With a slam on the desk. "The past few showpieces have been just that, a showpiece. I wanna tell a story with it this time!"

"Well got any in mind, Luz?"

A breath in, and a pause, and a disappointed release of tension. "Nup. But that's why we're brainstorming! C'mon Caleb you're a creative come up with something!"

"Well I know it's rich coming from me but what about something horse related?"

"Bro that's not even just you this entire school's weirdly obsessed with horses." Flatly remarked Gus. "It's literally in the name."

"Yeah it's a start!" Looking back at the sheet of paper. "And… oh why the hell not, let's have the weekly idea bucket as well!"

It would be placed on the desk. "Dear God."

"There's more."

"No!"

Quite literally, in this case, a few more scraps of ideas being thrown into the bucket and Luz shuffling it around. "Alright what have we got for today…" Picking one out. "Ooh! Symbology! 'Draw something abstract that can represent a concept'!"

"Like astrology symbols?"

"Yeah kinda like that!" She cheered at Willow's query. "How about thirty minutes and we see which one has the best one?"

Murmurs of agreement. "Alright! Let's get it on!"

The Bad Witch Coven Club would get on with it. Luz taking a seat near to Amity. "You got any ideas girl?"

"Nope!" Freely admitted Amity. "What about you with that special mind of yours?"

That got a blush out of her. "W-well, half the reason I put that one in there is I've been seeing some weird abstract looking symbols in my dreams lately."

"Is that what's been making you restless?" With small chuckle. "You knocked me out of the bed with one of those!"

"And I'm still apologizing for that to this day…" It really was embarrassing for her. "But no matter! Hey, I'll show you one of those symbols if I can remember how to draw it."

A brief pause for thought, before putting pen to paper. "So circle to start… triangle… circle… triangle…"

"I have no idea how you freehand circles so perfectly…"

"Eh, it's a learned thing." Another pause. "And then it was line, and another couple lines like that."

And it was done. "How's that look?"

"Very alchemical."

"I thought it looked similar! Maybe I was dreaming about that?"

"You weren't dreaming about Fullmetal Alchemist again were you?"

"I mean maybe." With a head scratch. "I think they only started when we binged that manga."

"Did we have some of that Smile Dip stuff as well?" Struggling to recall. "I don't know how Vinyl gets that stuff…"

"Well that would make sense why my dreams are all out of whack then!" She'd laugh. "Okay okay lay off the Smile Dip I get it."

"Got any more of them?" Quizzed Amity.

"Want one for yourself?"

"Well it'd make this whole thing a bit easier for me." Cozying up to her. "C'mon you don't have another symbol up there you can lend me for this challenge?"

"H-Hey!" With a nudge away. "Just cuz you're my girlfriend doesn't mean I can let you blatantly cheat like that!" Blowing her a raspberry. "Get your own strange symbol!"

"Hmpf." With a pout. "Well if you insist!"

She'd quickly draw a sketch of a stick figure with stink lines coming off of it. "Here's my alchemical symbol of you!"

That got Luz rolling on the floor. "Hah! Good one!"

Meanwhile the other three were working on their own symbols together. "They love having an excuse to cozy up, huh."

"Ahh, young love." Sighed Willow. "Great to see. Eh Caleb?" Nudging him.

"M-mmhmm!" Trying to hide his own blush.
~~

We continue in the In-Between, Kaworu and Rei sat down, in front of Lilith.

Throwing pretty much any question they can think of. "The Moons. It is clear they were used to seed other worlds, but why would the FAR need to use such thing?"

"A complicated scenario." With a melancholic look. "Our kind were in their terminal days. The Moons, as you call them, were seen as the best way to keep it going. To start from scratch, so to speak."

"I take it had something to do with the Solenoid?"

"Indeed." Still with her look. "Our society was not ready for the changes it would bring. There's… quite a bit more detail I will need to go into regarding it."

"Only around twelve t-trillion years of background knowledge."

"It's only twelve billion, Mari." Like it mattered. "But yes. What I can say now at least is that was why we had a variety of Moons. An equal spread of Life and Knowledge, but never both. The idea was that both would develop apart, and then when they were well and truly ready they could combine into a form we thought ideal."

"Of course it has not worked out like that."

Much to her amusement. "You know the story, Rei. My unconscious feelings for Adam drew me to what would become the Earth. And everything that has happened since."

"So…" The thought ticked in Kaworu's head. "The point of the Moons is to create life that is essentially the FAR?"

"Essentially. The hope is that a guiding hand may help them prevent the same mistakes we made. Although one thing I did not anticipate was the rapid evolution this world begets."

"Why do you think that is?"

"Earth is a death planet compared to our home world." In a flat mutter. "I was unsure anything could evolve in such a hostile environment, but I did not have an option."

"How far along your original plan are we?"

"Several billion years ahead of schedule." Somewhat chuffed, in her own way. "We had assumed based on our rate of evolution and societal development, which humanity had rather violently rushed through."

Still, she'd give a smirk, proud of the development. "If I were to estimate, humanity as they currently sit are equivalent to my kind after five billion years of societal development."

"We've only been around ten thousand y-years!"

"And for every single one of those ten thousand years I have been worried you would wipe yourselves off the face of the Earth." Muttering. "So much blood…"

"Cannot deny the result, at least." Rei would prod.

Before another thought crossed her mind. "So… in a way, Seele were right?"

"What Seele were doing were seeking to activate the emergency stop. It would not have been forced evolution as they sought. It would have been the destruction of life on Earth, as Adam's children sought."

She would stand. "But I suppose in a way, they were correct about the evolution aspect. Humanity will evolve into the FAR, genetically equivalent as we were in our prime. It is the when that is up for question. Will it be forced? Willing? Or a natural development? That I will leave for my children to decide."

"Do you have a preference?"

"Yes. But I would not want that to influence you." With small smile. "I believe that is your cue, Rei."

Her alarm was ringing in the physical world. "…Time waits for no one."

With that she woke up.

"…So many questions. So little time." She would bemoan, picking herself up and preparing to go down to the Geofront.
~

"So do you think this will be worth the early wakeup, Kyo?"

"No probably not." Muttered Kyoko to Sayaka, as her and Kensuke walked into the lab.

"Ah c'mon we wanna see what happens don't we?!"

"Not at 4:30 in the morning!"

"Ah you get used to it!" Cheered Asuka, as her and Shinji sprung in.

"Asuka I thought you hate getting up early!"

"Oh I do!"

"Profoundly actually." Added on Shinji.

"But after plenty of early wake ups I'm just glad we aren't waking up early for a battle! Or a sync test, like c'mon you can schedule them at a better time Ritsuko!"

"I only just got in and I'm already being berated, what a great start to the day!" Literally as she was walking in with Maya and Misato.

"Ah it's just Asuka." Misato shrugged off.

"Did you have much luck getting Hiro and Zero Two?"

"Yep!" Standing aside.

They looked like death. "So tired…"

"Zero Two you knew we were running this early when did you go to bed?!"

"Same time as usual!"

"One in the morning…"

"I thought you said you were going to bed early!"

"Oh we did, but we kinda got distracted doing-"

"Each other, yeah alright got it." Shut down Misato. "Well you guys have school, we have an Evangelion coming in, and these guys have sleep to catch up on, so I say let's get it started already!"

"Are Kaworu and Mari onboard yet?"

"I will call them up when we are closer to being ready."

"At least someone will be saved from ten minutes of solitaire!"

"Hey might not be solitaire this time around!"

VIDEO START (00:00)

"Hey have we seen Eliza yet?" While the computer was starting up.

The lab door slid open. "I slept through the alarm. Did I miss anything?"

"Nothing at all actually!" Beamed Misato.

"In fact you join us just in time to watch another fifty minutes of file transfers!"

"Joy my favourite!" It was hard to tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

"Well we won't be burning it to a disc this time around." Ritsuko muttered, still typing on her terminal. "Episode two doesn't fit on one even with our compression algorithm."

"How the heck are we gonna get it on then?" Was Kensuke's query.

"Does it at least have an Ethernet port?"

"Uhh…" Looking at the back of the PC. "Can you do coaxial token ring?"

"Oh for goodness sake…"

"What?! I can't afford an Ethernet card!"

"You work for NERV!"

"Yeah what does that say about what you pay us?" Snarked Asuka, much to the group's amusement.

"Fine! We can work with that Gods forsaken protocol!"

Like any good systems administrator, Ritsuko had several drawers filled with obscure or obsoleted cables and devices. Well in this case it was several filing cabinets worth, quickly sorting through a few of them. "What the heck is that cable?"

"This, Zero Two, converts ESCON to TOSLINK."

Zero Two didn't understand what any of those acronyms meant. "What."

"Ritsuko what the hell would you even use that for?!" Asuka did understand what those acronyms meant, and it didn't help her understanding of what the cable was used for at all!

"Either way it's not the one we need." Tossing it aside. "Where is that- there."

It was a standard coaxial cable, which despite only having a theoretical max of two contacts (being the core and the shield), for some reason went into a 96 pin panel connector. "Sempai. Is that connector really required?"

"It is if we want it to speak to the Magi." Plugging the coax into the computer, and lugging the cable over to the plug point for the Magi.

"I don't even know how you fit that one in there…" Was all Maya noted.

"Do I dare ask what the hell that cable does, Rits?"

"I could go at length for days but basically the Magi's going to be adapting that ancient network protocol into something that we can actually use for file transfer."

"Surely we can't even get that much bandwidth out of an aerial cable."

"We can't." Admitted Ritsuko, as the computer chimed in startup. "Okay Kensuke I'm assuming it's all hooked in properly judging by how long it took to prep its network, go to mapping a network drive."

"Uhh pretty sure that's in here…"

Ritsuko typing in her own terminal. "Use 192.168.0.188 and connect to usbshare1', no spaces or underscores and the digit one."

"Got it."

"Why are we using a USB hard drive?"

"I'm not letting this computer access any of the main storage on the Magi, Sayaka, so I moved it to one of our burner drives."

"D'oh it's gonna be even slower!" Connecting. "Need a password Sempai."

"Use 'admin' and 'password', all lowercase."

"Why."

"The USB drive has nothing of immediate value on it, and this connection is in several dozen firewalls and DMZs. And let's be honest, the SMB protocol isn't secure to start with, so what's the point pretending?"

It would finally come up. "Okay what the h-heck are these folders?!"

"None of your business Mari." Turning back to Kensuke. "Episode 2, copy it over."

"On it!"

The estimate was fourteen minutes. "Oh for God's sake!"

"Anticipation makes it better, Asuka."

"Is that what you believe?" Querying Rei.

"No, but we can pretend to make it more tolerable."

"I know just the thing to pass the time!" Loading up another program. "Minesweeper!"

"Ooh I remember playing t-that game!"

"Do you know how to play it?"

"No." With a chuckle. "I just clicked the b-boxes until I blew up."

"Which is exactly what Kensuke will be doing I bet!" Snarked Kyoko.

"Oi! I've used Windows long enough to know how Minesweeper works!"

"Well why don't you show us then! Expert mode!"

"Fine!"

First game he got around four boxes in before blowing his foot off. "Damn it!"

"Yeah that's how m-most of my games went."

"I will get a game before the copying is done!" He lied.

The second game he stepped on a landmine with the second click. "Screw you!"

Much to everyone's amusement. "Kensuke just give up, you aren't gonna win this."

"I'm not staring at a copy screen for that long!"

He finally got a half decent start. "Okay okay, so Minesweeper you do what the game says, you sweep for mines. The numbers indicate how many mines are surrounding that point, so if it says one and the only point is on a corner-"

Flagging it. "It's a mine!"

"Kensuke how many people here know how to play Minesweeper?!"

"I didn't know." Kaworu would input. "An intriguing game of logic and chance, as Kensuke demonstrated it can be easy to step on one if you do not have a good reference to work with."

"Doesn't seem that difficult, but I can see it boiling down to a fifty/fifty depending on how the mines are set."

"Yeah sometimes it's like that." Still concentrating. "And sometimes you misclick and- agh rat bastard!"

"Like that huh?"

"Yes, Kyo, exactly like that." Flatly remarking his loss.

He'd continue going, to very little success in everything except blowing his foot off, even after dropping down from expert. "Oh c'mon give me something!"

"Nah you're destined to lose all these side-games now Ken!"

"Kensuke it's finished copying." Noted Ritsuko.

"I'm seeing this game though!"

He wouldn't be seeing it through for too much longer. "Bastard! Okay fine I'll play the dang game!"
~~~
Character Key:
Shinji (Sh) Asuka (A)
Rei (Re) Kaworu (Ka) Mari (Mar)
Zero Two (Z) Hiro (H) Eliza (E)
Kensuke (Ke) Sayaka (Sa) Kyoko (Ky)
Ritsuko (Ri) Maya (May) Misato (Mi)

PLAYBACK FILE: REC10_BALTHAZAR.912854:1865061_230218

Extinction Event Horizon (11:00)
Ky: "Good ol' Valvy, can't get enough of him."
The menu would load in, into a wooded region.
And the ruins of City 17 visible through the tree line. "Sheesh, that place didn't get off lightly."
Re: "At least it would have been quick."
May: "And what of that… is that what a portal storm is?"
Ri: "If it is, then humanity are about to have a bad time."
Ka: "Humanity would not last minutes if the Combine can send reinforcements from their home dimension."
Re: "Surely this code they stole from them could be used to close it? If you can reverse engineer it?"
Mar: "Even with the hazard s-suit I would not want to get close to that."
Sh: "You'd need to do it from above, right? Orbital maybe?"
Ri: "I wouldn't have a clue how to close something like that. So good thing we're playing through this!"
Ke: "Are we gonna be using that knowledge?!"
Ri: "I hope not! But just in case!"
E: "What of the other Citadels? Could they not just detonate them and establish another portal storm?"
H: "Wouldn't that depend on the damage they sustained from City 17 going up? Cause if they were knocked out by the feedback loop caused by us defeating Breen, I can't imagine they'd be going well after this one."
A: "Ahh, so this is in general a last ditch effort by the Combine to establish a link, and if they don't they're stranded for real?"
H: "I think? That's how I'm thinking of it, at least."
Mi: "I mean it's a logical thought. But wasn't this all caused by that Resonance Cascade? What's to say they can't just gather the materials to do that and start another one?"
Ka: "The Combine, even in this state, would have the ability to gather the appropriate hardware for it. Perhaps even make it more refined."
Ri: "The anti-mass spectrometer wasn't designed to open dimensional portals."
Z: "It looked like Black Mesa had a way to get to Xen anyway! They were experimenting with it long before the Resonance Cascade!"
Ke: "And the Combine control that border world, so any sort of link towards it could be exploited by them."
Mi: "I suppose that means they absolutely cannot go back to Xen, y'know if they do actually close that portal storm and prevent it from happening again."
Ke: "That sounds like something that'd be for another sequel." As he entered the game.
… (12:10)
It would be a cold open, Gordon waking up in the ruins of the train car.
Ky: "Wow they're lucky they were protected inside that train car we saw them in last game!"
Mi: "Creative license, Kyoko! They're trying to tell a story!"
E: "Have they changed how the flashlight works?"
Ke: "If it's on a separate battery that's gonna be so much better!" Diving into the water. "Oh jeez thank the Gods we were in a train car."
Ri: "I'm assuming Alyx is still alive at this point."
A: "She's only a main character, she gets immunity from this kinda stuff!"
Sh: "If it works for us."
A chortle from Asuka. "Yeah that's the only reason we survived, we were the main characters in a story somewhere!"
Mar: "A shame my story happened to b-be a tragedy." In a mutter.
Making it deeper into another train car. "Ooh there's the gravity gun!"
On the other side of where he was. "Why must they mock me like this."
Z: "Such a shame you can't just climb through a window or anything!"
Lucky for Gordon, Alyx spawned in. "She would have survived this, even without the immunity you would expect from being an important character."
A: "This isn't even the worst she's survived! Like it's up there but surviving the Citadel was probably the big one."
Ka: "Not even taking into account how she has survived so far."
Alyx was still able to use the gravity gun as well. "How the hell is Gordon so buffed out that the gravity gun does nothing to him when he uses it?" Was what Sayaka wanted to know. "Like she almost got thrown back from it!"
Mar: "Gordon must be like Arnold S-Schwartzenegger with how tough he is!"
Ri: "Well a lot of the earlier shooter protagonists were people like Duke Nukem and Doomguy, and they were pretty clearly trying to pivot off the action films of the 80s and 90s. Even though we never see Gordon Freeman, who's to say he's not as strong as them?"
Ke: "Counterpoint? Gordon is a qualified nerd, and being a nerd myself I absolutely can not square up to any of them."
A: "Well just because you're a nerd doesn't mean you have to be scrawny. I have a degree in computer studies, and if you called me scrawny I'd throw you into a bin like those idiots at school!"
Re: "Alyx has really fallen for Gordon." Rei would note serenely. "Look at the concern on her face and tell me that is not love."
E: "Amazing what four days can do for some."
A: "Hey, some folks are slow burners, and some collide like a freight train into a wall!"
Sh: "And somehow we did both."
Now out and about, Kensuke would wander. "Well not that way… though the freight cars then."
… (14:30)
The chapter title would print on the screen. "So we were up there and…" Turning himself around. "Oh wow…"
At the foot of a small pond, they could see the absolute ruin of City 17 and the Citadel.
And perhaps to more concern, the energy storm that circled around what was left of the Citadel.
Ka: "The desperation they must have felt to warrant such a reaction."
Re: "They are scared of the human spirit. We were given an inch and have taken miles."
E: "Even with everything they did, you can't dull that."
A: "Heck yeah humans are indomitable!" With a cheer. "We proved that pretty well I think!"
Ri: "Judging by that portal storm they aren't quite indomitable yet."
A: "Ah they'll get it done by the end of the game!" Waving it off. "We did alright in… okay we didn't do alright in our series."
Sh: "Asuka the world ended in…" Thinking about it. "All of them. Yeah, all of them!"
Mi: "Hey you did alright in Wolk's works!"
A: "Only because he worked his butt off to undo a lot of the shit Anno did!"
May: "How do you know it came from the same universe?"
A: "Well it surely had to have come from somewhere where at least the original anime already existed, otherwise he would've just written it from the start! Like Bond did!"
Ri: "It's logical thinking, at least. Working off the base that Anno established and fixing things as required."
Mi: "I wish we could do that!"
Ka: "We kinda did, judging by the fact the world hasn't ended by this point."
Mi: "It doesn't feel like it!"
A large wave of energy swept over Alyx and Gordon, knocking the railway bridge they were just near down to the ground.
Ky: "Well, good thing we moved away from that!"
Ke: "Bet we're gonna get a lot more of those huh."
Ri: "So that's what a proper portal storm is like." Mentally noting it down. "I hope we don't have to see that."
Z: "Y'know for being utterly decimated it doesn't look that bad."
A: "It's what you expect for a Soviet style town."
E: "Surely even that ruin is a lot worse than a Soviet town, right?"
A: "Oh God no, that's practically beach weather by Soviet standards!"
May: "I wouldn't wanna go to any of that planet's beaches…"
Ke: "Well, I don't really wanna wait around and see what the next portal storm might do to us, so how about we keep moving?!" Coming to the start of a mineshaft. "…Oh hey, it is on a different battery!"
E: "Why didn't they do that from the start?!"
Ri: "Maybe the shock of the impact set the suit into a different mode."
Sa: "Or they being Valve realised how idiotic it was to have your sprint oxygen and flashlight tied to the same energy bar when it's possible you could be using two of those things at the same time!"
Ke: "Oh I definitely appreciate it, I would've appreciated it earlier though!" Making his way in, collecting a few pickups along the way. "Wonder how many complaints they got about it in their universe."
H: "I mean we were complaining about it, so it seems to be a rather universal complaint."
Ri: "It'd be a multiversal complaint in that instance."
E: "I get the feeling the victory mine hasn't been rather victorious for a while."
Mi: "Is that what the Cyrillic translates to?"
E: "Mhm, Шахта победы." She'd repeat. "And the text below that sounds like it's remembering something that happened fifty years ago, at least at the time of printing."
Ke: "Well if it's Russia, the two biggest things are the October Revolution or the end of the Second World War. So… 1918- puts that sign 1968, and 1945 puts that sign at 1995."
Z: "So that could approximately be when the Resonance Cascade happened?"
Mi: "Give or take a few years, I doubt they'd be that up to date with the iconography."
Mar: "I'm just wondering w-why they even have the company logo in underground working anyway!"
Ke: "Can't imagine the dead rebels or the antlions care too much." With a grim chuckle, as Gordon and Alyx made their way through the old workings. "Or the living ones!" Starting to throw gas bottles at them, for lack of better weaponry.
Ky: "Ya couldn't have spent five more minutes trying to scrounge up those weapons you dropped at the end of the last game?"
Sa: "And get crushed by that portal storm?"
They wouldn't put up much of a fight. "Not sure if I should feel insulted they prioritised the antlions over me."
A: "Don't complain about being alive I say."
… (18:24)
A control room was found. "Hey that looks fairly modern by Soviet standards!"
Ri: "I haven't seen mainframes like that since my mother showed me one as a child."
A: "I said by Soviet standards!"
Ke: "Well the lights are still running so I'm presuming we can get it working." Alyx would definitely make an attempt. "Not sure how I feel about having the generator inside the building though- what the heck is that?!"
It was a gnome. "Well. Out of all the things I'd expect in this game, that wasn't it."
Ky: "You better carry it throughout the game!"
Ke: "W-What?! Why would I do that!?"
Ky: "For fun!"
Kensuke launched it through the roof and into space. "Mah!" Kyoko would pout.
Ri: "I'd rather not see a gnome front and centre when we're going through this footage in post, thank you."
Mi: "Got something against gnomes?"
Ri: "I don't even know why westerners put them in their gardens, I saw it all the time when I was in Germany and hell even when I went to Massachusetts I saw a few around."
A: "They're actually a pretty big thing in German folklore, heck they were invented in Germany according to some. Dresden were making the ceramic gnomes by the 1840s. Heh, my mama actually dressed as a gnome for Rosenmontag one year, that was a fun one."
Mar: "Boston had quite a few G-Germans emigrate after Second Impact, heck we had just about every European demographic emigrate over once the b-borders reopened and we got the flooding under control. It's quite a melting pot of a c-city."
Ka: "It is a very beautiful city. Quite a bit of history contained within it, it makes for fascinating dichotomies of styling and culture."
Mar: "Heh, we definitely d-did our bit in helping that along."
Alyx clambered up to fix something. "Oh jeez I wonder if it's that conveniently loose plug."
Ke: "Why does everything require three power plugs in this world?"
Ri: "Maybe instead of having three phases in a single connector, they just have a single phase over three connectors."
E: "Oh is that why it has such a massive arc of electricity when you plug it in?"
May: "Does anyone in this world know what isolation means?"
Mi: "All we can do is teach them and then it's on them if they break the isolation procedure." With a huff.
A: "What do you even do with someone if they break those rules?"
Mi: "Honestly if it's not blatant we just chew them out and get them to brush up on the procedure. If it results in an injury then they get fired immediately."
Sa: "Is that before or after you patch them up?"
Mi: "We'd get in the shit legally if we fire them before patching them up, so we fix them up and fuck them off. I mean for goodness sake we had a fitter stick their hand in a moving fan blade because they for one didn't isolate the damn plant and two failed to identify jeez a moving fan blade could be a hazard I need to account for!" Exclaiming it. "Come on! I have no experience with that kinda thing and I know not to stick my hand in an industrial fan!"
Ke: "Don't stick your hand where you wouldn't stick your dick, I think I heard Kyoko summarise."
Mi: "Ooh that's a good one! I'm gonna use that next time!"
Re: "What about for the women?"
A: "Don't stick your hands in what you wouldn't stick inside you?"
That got a giggle out of her. "Bit bulky but it gets the point across."
Alyx could finally connect to White Forest. "Well they seem concerned."
Ri: "I would be too if it meant having a Gods know how big they are empire come through to kill us all."
H: "On the bright side, it isn't open yet."
Sa: "And hopefully it doesn't open!"
The head of White Forest, one Dr. Magnusson, would berate Kleiner for not seeing the obvious reasonings why the Combine were chasing after him. "Should've known you'd make an appearance as well…"
May: "You know him too?"
Ri: "Through my mother, yes. A petulant man, I'm glad they captured his attitude accurately."
Ka: "Was he involved with Nevada as well?"
Mar: "Wouldn't s-surprise me if he was the one behind the scenes pushing for the test to go ahead. Didn't really speak much with him but from what I heard from Eli he was eager to test out the recovered S2."
Mi: "Do you think he collaborated with Seele?"
Mar: "Nah he wouldn't have b-been able to keep his mouth shut over it."
Ri: "Mhm that I can attest to. That and I get the feeling he'd be a grindstone to the old men."
E: "So it's possible he could have missed the sabotage Seele performed on that Solenoid?"
Mar: "Oh I wouldn't be surprised."
Ri: "He can be very single minded when it comes to a project he's heading. We all are, but it was especially notable with him, and I can definitely imagine him getting caught up with the S2."
Ke: "Honestly it looks like he's getting caught up with… wait they have a satellite?!"
Z: "Ooh! We did this in the first game as well!"
Mi: "Well shit if it works… so what, they already have satellites in orbit?"
Ri: "Maybe the old Black Mesa satellites are still in orbit. It does sound like the Combine teleported directly to Earth, bypassing local space entirely."
Re: "Perhaps they anticipated the local population to be entirely unable to access space once they were done with them."
Ka: "It would have been a reasonable assessment to make."
The comms cut out, as the Overwatch voice cut in.
Ky: "Well they ain't playing anymore."
E: "You know it's bad when they start sounding like GLaDOS. They're going to murder you!"
Ke: "Well I hope they don't." As the door opened. "I quite like living thank you very much!"

Hunter (21:55)
Back into a shaft. "Oh no you don't!" Kensuke, lacking many other options, killed the poison headcrab with a large boulder the size of a small boulder.
Mi: "Y'know Alyx has a firearm right?"
Ke: "I don't want to completely rely on the partner." Up a rail drive. "Now, I'm seeing a minecart here, loaded with heavy stuff, and I see it going downhill to that wooden blockade."
Ri: "I'm assuming you get what you need to do then?"
Ke: "Well I'd like to think so."
Unblocking the minecart, it rocketed down and through the barricade.
E: "Probably should've told Alyx you were doing that."
A: "Eh she seemed aware enough to not be on the train tracks."
Re: "And quite the complement from her."
Ky: "Who knew all a woman like her could have wanted was a completely quiet guy who was also a badass!"
Mi: "Removes a lot of the friction that could be generated in a relationship, can't deny that!"
Ka: "Though it does make me wonder what long term communication might be like."
Mar: "Maybe he knows some s-sort of sign. Pretty sure I mentioned a mute girl who was my classmate, usually she'd communicate back in sign or failing that s-she had a whiteboard she carried in her rucksack."
Z: "Wonder if Gordon is a bit like that, cause he hasn't spoken anything at all. Heck, he hasn't really communicated in the slightest!"
E: "Well you can't really sign if you have your hands full with weapons. Would any of them know it?"
Ri: "I'm sure if Gordon is mute they would've learned how to, otherwise he's just a grunt doing nothing but what people tell him to do."
Ke: "That's literally the point the G-Man was making in the first game and in the second one! He's just been used as a tool by the powers that be, and I bet if he made a fuss about it he wouldn't be an ideal candidate!"
Re: "On the bright side, Alyx at least does not seem to be using Gordon. Even if she does see ancillary benefit in him being quiet."
Ka: "As long as he has a way of expressing his like for her back."
Re: "I am sure saving her life a few times can express such thing."
Ri: "Ah so they do have an array of satellites they can utilise… it seems Black Mesa had been anticipating such thing to happen."
Z: "Well that rocket in the first game was described as being used to close the interdimensional rift, if it wasn't being held open on the other side by that Nihilanth whatever it was." In a shrug. "Shit, if it worked the first time!"
H: "It didn't even work the first time."
Z: "Well the Nihilanth is dead and I don't think the Combine have been able to replicate such thing!"
Mi: "I wouldn't count those chickens before they hatch, Zero Two."
A pinging noise, and Kensuke saw something up on the rooftop. "I do not like the look of that thing!"
E: "That's the thing that attacked Mossman!"
May: "Are they like a mini strider almost?"
Ke: "One that'll probably kill me dead faster than I could blink!" The noises it made sent chills down him. "I don't have any weapons for crying out loud! And I don't think this thing will cut it!"
… (23:55)
Dropping into the train yard, and seeing several dead antlions. "Well that's a good sign." Snarked Kyoko.
Mi: "If they're anything like a strider in their attacking, I am not looking forward to facing that!"
Ke: "Oh you aren't? I'm the one at the keyboard!"
A: "I have this horrid feeling that something's gonna happen to Alyx."
E: "Well it can't happen to you as the player, and the only other person around is Alyx, so yeah her chances of death have just skyrocketed."
Mar: "Hey it probably won't be d-death. It'll just be critical injury that may result in d-death!"
Ri: "In a world with absolutely no formalised medical treatment with everything out to kill you."
Alyx was starting to get worried about the whole situation. "Gee if only he wasn't mute or had a way of communicating with you!"
May: "I get the impression she wouldn't understand sign either."
Ke: "I kinda got my hands full with the gravity gun anyway!"
Re: "And now you are being separated." As Kensuke went to find a way to open a gate. "They are telegraphing it."
Sa: "Honestly if I was her, I would've followed you instead of being out in the open, alone, with something making scary sounds out there."
Mi: "I probably would've expected her to stick close to Gordon. So… yeah, girl's getting screwed by that spider thing."
He dropped into a control room. "There it is again!"
Sh: "That pistol isn't gonna do anything to that thing!"
Ka: "And it looks like you are unable to exit via the door either. No door handle."
Ke: "This is such a setup…" Opening a hatch and examining it. "Looks like that's the only way outta here."
H: "Perfect chance for an ambush."
Ke: "Well, we got no other choice." Clicking the button. "Thanks Valve."
Just as Gordon was climbing out, the machine pounced on and promptly stabbed Alyx straight through the guts, before trapping Gordon in rubble and continuing to beat the girl.
Mi: "Y'know I should be upset over it. But it was so obvious something would happen to her that I'm just angry at Valve for so obviously setting it up."
Ri: "I don't believe they will actually kill her. Not this early on at least."
Ke: "Not at all!" Irate at the outcome. "This is bullshit! I had nothing and they very deliberately arranged it so that she'd get fucked!"
Re: "Perhaps to indicate the risk associated with these entities."
E: "There were several ways to mitigate that risk, like not standing in the open! Or spending a few minutes at the start to scrounge up the weapons you dropped from the last game!"
Ke: "I'm so blasting that thing with a rocket launcher once we get weapons again."
… (26:00)
Meanwhile Gordon could only watch helplessly as antlions started to mess with Alyx's lifeless body, at least until a Vortigaunt came to play. "Oh thank God for that! If only they came around earlier!"
Z: "Well if they did, we wouldn't have this contrivance to move the story forward!"
May: "I'm surprised she's still alive, even if barely."
A: "Honestly if I was killed in that stupid a way, I'd be so mad I'd freakin' stay alive out of spite!"
Mar: "I like to think that's exactly what A-Alyx is doing at the moment, she won't accept this is how s-she goes out so she clings on."
Mi: "Spite can be an excellent motivator."
Ky: "What d'ya think would be the stupidest way to go out?"
A: "Gas leak." In immediate reply. "You don't even notice it and next minute you're dead."
Ri: "I thought we have gas leak monitors in the apartments."
Mi: "We do, I'm pretty sure I set one off when I put on the stove one time without actually sparking it."
Ri: "I'm glad you didn't spark it cause that would've been problematic."
Sh: "Doesn't it smell like rotten eggs when it leaks out?"
Mi: "I thought the eggs had gone off, and to be fair they were sitting there for a while…"
Ky: "Well at least if it sparked it would've been a bit more of an interesting way to go out."
A: "I'd rather not get immolated either thank you very much."
The Vortigaunt released Gordon from his entrapment. "But yeah at least it's more spectacular than just getting stabbed helplessly!"
Ke: "Are they sure they aren't just dead?" Zooming in. "She's looking pretty dead!"
E: "Do you know if the models visibly breathe in this game?"
Ri: "I haven't really noticed such thing, but I'd be surprised if they thought to implement such depth for a video game. Though then again, this game is already more in-depth than anything I've seen since… well, since the first Half-Life."
Ka: "Bit of an indictment of the state of video gaming in our world, when this game came out in 2010 at the latest and possibly earlier in wherever it came from."
Mar: "Y'know if we set up a s-shell company we could make a killing selling the shit that comes through. If they aren't c-classified enough."
Ri: "Depends on the whole copyright situation, because Half-Life is an existing property and Valve at least existed at one point in time. No idea who owns the copyright at the moment."
Mi: "Honestly it'd probably be trivial to buy it out if we set up a shell video game dev. I do kinda wanna monetise some of this stuff, could be a good source of income for NERV if we play our cards right."
Ri: "We won't have to start actually developing video games, right?"
Sh: "Just buy the rights to one of the old companies I say."
Sa: "Yeah bring back Sega!"
Ri: "Actually I think we do have Sega as one of our dormant shells, we would've bought it out as part of the fire sale they were doing. Eliza?"
E: "I'll check." On the terminal. "Uhh- yeah looks like we have Sega, or at least the right to Sega and their brands if not a proper company."
Ke: "How long have you guys been sitting on that?!"
Re: "I should have known when I saw the Sega logo during the anime's movie."
Briefly communicating with their kin, the Vortigaunt informed Gordon that they will be transporting her to a secluded place.
A: "As long as there's no more of those things!"
Sh: "But I get the impression there'll still be antlions."
Ke: "I think that'll just be a constant no matter what."
… (28:20)
They'd make way to an elevator, held in place by a crowbar. "Oh boy a weapon!"
Mi: "That elevator's gonna collapse as soon as you remove that."
Ke: "I mean duh, Gordon can't catch a break in this game!"
Mar: "Think that'd do much to t-that thing?"
Ky: "Annoy it slightly?"
Kensuke started zapping it. "Man it's really stuck in there!"
Ri: "Almost like it's holding the whole weight of the elevator or something."
May: "For being an apocalypse, there's quite a few crowbars around!"
Go figure, the elevator immediately collapsed into the mine. "Okay so we have a crowbar at least."
Sa: "That still isn't much! Get yourself a gun already!"
Z: "Would a mine even have firearms?"
A: "It's a Russian mine in the woods so probably. Need to fight off the bears somehow."
Through a loading zone, and a door, he'd find another elevator of sorts.
Mi: "How the heck are you expected to use something like that?!"
Ke: "They really couldn't afford a motor huh." Testing it out, it dropping down as soon as he let go of the spindle. "How can you even be expected to rotate that with any sort of strength it's an elevator! It's probably holding tons of ore and shit!"
E: "Does that track for Soviet mines?"
A: "It wouldn't surprise me."
H: "How are you even supposed to get those items there?"
Ke: "Like this probably." Letting go, immediately collecting the items and then dropping onto the correct level. "Not sure if that's what the mine operators intended."
Mar: "Only God knows what t-they were thinking designing an elevator like that… gun!" Cheering as any good American would.
Ke: "Heck yeah better than nothing!" Dropping into a hole, and immediately opening fire on an antlion. "Yeah run away coward!" A bit more ammo would help out. "Come back here and die!"
At least until an earthquake interrupted things. "I take it back!"
Re: "Seismic activity could be an indicator of mass excavation underground. As the caves collapse in. And I doubt this mine had been maintained."
Ka: "Or, judging by the antlions, had been maintained by them instead."
Ke: "They haven't done a good job keeping the headcrabs out!" As a poison headcrab announced itself. "Where are you- THERE!"
He'd drain an entire clip into it. "Stay dead!"
Mi: "A justified response."
E: "Do I still hear more or is it something else?"
Making it to new workings. "…Huh. I think these are antlion tunnels."
May: "Which makes that an antlion larva."
There would be a brief beat, before Kensuke shot the larva dead. "Hey!"
Ke: "You've seen antlions Sempai, I'm not running that risk!"
He would proceed to shoot, stab, or squish every antlion grub that he could. "Hell yeah Kensuke kill those babies!"
A: "Are we sure the antlions aren't gonna be pissed at you for doing that?"
Ky: "What, more so than usual? Which is completely?"
Ke: "I thought I saw a weird one walk through up there…" Killing another grub. "Hope they aren't much difficulty."
Sh: "One of them is probably gonna kill you now y'know."
Ke: "Yeah I know i jinxed myself." Making his way into a tunnel, hitting a sack of what he presumed was eggs.
Re: "That sounded like it angered them."
Ke: "Oh? Did it?"
He'd keep hitting it. "Heh, how'd ya like that?!"
Re: "They are going to kill you, Kensuke."
Ke: "At the very least I took a few of them out!" Right before dropping down a shaft he saw one of those strange antlions run past. "Yeah I'm getting this out…"
He'd drop in, pistol armed. "Okay what can you- ACID!"
It would spit in Kensuke's general direction, completely eating away at the boxes that were supposed to protect him. "Yeah I am not getting hit by that thing!"
Good for him though, he was able to get on top of it. "Nice one Ken! Didn't get killed yet!"
A: "Emphasis on that last word."
Ke: "I've spent far too much money on this so far, I'm not dying ever again!" He'd cheer. "Ooh more grubs!"
He'd pick them off from a distance. "Heh, like a shooting g-gallery."
… (35:00)
Up a bit further, this time two of them were attacking. "Ow that's neurotoxin!?"
E: "Your ammo is low."
Retreating to a side room. "Shotgun!" Picking it and a few grenades up. "Why the heck does a mine have these?"
Ka: "Rebels most likely placed them."
Ke: "Eh, I shouldn't complain." Charging them in, wiping them out. "Probably could've used the gas bottles as well."
Ky: "You really wanted to shoot something though huh."
Ke: "If I had guns before Alyx might not have gotten stabbed!"
Sa: "Kensuke we already established everyone was at fault in that situation! Especially Valve!"
Ke: "As long as we can keep moving forward she might get out of this alive!" Towards another hole. "…Oh I see how they set that up."
It was a stone held up by some planks, only it didn't kill any of the grubs. "Oh come on! Fine I'll just shoot the fuckin-" More grubs were ex'd. "And a revolver as well! It's like the Gods are asking me to do some pest control!"
Mi: "God knows that world needs it." As another acid antlion went down. "What are we even gonna do with the headcrabs and antlions once the Combine have been sorted out?"
Ri: "They're all Xenian life, I wonder if there's a method to destroy them efficiently. Otherwise you will be dealing with this for eternity."
Ka: "They probably will be anyway, but in comparison to the Combine, antlions and headcrabs are not much of an issue."
Z: "Odds are the headcrabs have been genetically engineered by the Combine anyway and can't even survive without their intervention. Maybe the original ones could?"
E: "Might be able to seal their caves up and flood it with insecticide of some sort."
Sa: "You're gonna need a giant can of bug spray for that."
Ke: "Man they're gonna come from everywhere aren't they?" Entering a large stope, eliminating another antlion, and then immediately taking potshots at more larva.
Ka: "I wonder whatever you could be doing to anger them."
Ke: "Gee I wonder- wait they heal you?"
Mi: "By one point!"
Ke: "It's one more point than what I had!"
Ri: "Great he has more incentive to kill now!"
Ke: "You bet I do!" As he kept moving through the cave, killing more grubs and antlions. "C'mon if there's one thing we'd want to wipe out it's them surely!" Into some water.
H: "Oh they can't swim?"
A: "They can't swim!" In a cheer. "We can flood the caves!"
May: "With what water?! They got rid of all of it!"
Mi: "Could be a good use for leech water, flood their caves and seal it off at the top. Leeches will get rid of them and the larva, and then you can just it there for long enough for them to naturally die out! Win win!"
Z: "And that's why you're the Commander, Commander!"
Ke: "They should be able to get rid of the barnacles as well, while we're at it." Picking up more magnum ammo. "Oh thanks desiccated skeleton!" As he kept going.
May: "Actually perhaps we can keep the barnacles for now, if they can eat the antlions."
Ke: "Yeah I can agree to that." As he kept going, both in killing the grubs and in finding wherever the hell that Vortigaunt took Alyx to. "Gods it's like a labyrinth in here! How do they navigate this place?!"
Re: "Pheromones usually."
Another water filled section, a couple regular antlions immediately killing themselves. "They aren't that bright are they?"
Mi: "They're giant bugs, Kyoko."
Sa: "Even a fly knows to stay away from water though."
More antlions threw themselves into the drink trying to stop Gordon. "Like c'mon this is their own home! Surely they should know this!"
A: "Yeah getting rid of all of them is gonna be easy at this rate!" With a laugh. "The grubs are helpless, they're dumb enough to fall into water when they can't swim, like literally just get a high pressure water hose and that'll mess them up!"
Mar: "And once you get rid of t-the Combine, you can get started on this pest control!"
Ke: "I don't know why this antlion is leading me somewhere but I get the feeling I'm not gonna like it."
Ky: "Why on Earth are you following it then?!"
Ke: "Well where else can I go?!" Screeching. "Ah crap there's a few of them!"
And they got several hits on him too. "Gah!"
Sh: "Oh wow they actually pack a punch if you let them get on top of you."
Ke: "Well it's a good thing there's several of these grubs around huh?" As he chased after one. "C'mon I only wanna kill you!"
He was the one who ended up killed, to everyone's amusement. "Okay that's my fault."
Ky: "Usually they are your fault."
At least the checkpoint was far back enough for him to have full health. "Alright let's avoid using the shotgun unless we're in an appropriate range…"
Some grenades and egregious use of the magnum would do it. "Easy!"
Sa: "If only it was like that the first time around!"
E: "I think there is still another."
Ke: "What do you- gah!" As one shot at him from below. "Bastard!"
He'd get it with the magnum eventually. "Yeah kill that bug!"
Mi: "So how much more of these caves would we have?"
Ke: "I dunno but I'm already starting to get tired of the walls." Stomping a few more grubs. "I won't ever get tired of that though!"
~
Siege (45:00)
He'd drop into a tunnel. "Oh! Hey I'm not an antlion don't shoot!"
Ky: "Imagine if that's how Freeman went."
A: "It'd still be less stupid than how Alyx might've gone!"
Speaking of, Alyx was busy bleeding out on a dirty table. "I can't imagine that's sanitary."
Mi: "Look it's the apocalypse, they're working with what they have!"
Mar: "And lemme guess, something's g-gonna happen that'll probably disturb the Vort."
Re: "They are mentioning antlion sensors, so they must come into play."
The rebel would explain the utility of the sensors. "At least we have turrets to mess with as well!"
They also explained how much of a terrible no good very bad idea it'd be to step on their grubs.
All in question stared at Kensuke. "Uhh, yeah, about that buddy-"
Z: "You guys are so screwed."
Ke: "Bah! No matter!" As the first alarms went off. "They're antlions! They're nothing to me!"
Sa: "I do fondly recall them killing you not five minutes ago!"
Kensuke wasn't even doing anything. "…You're playing with me. C'mon!"
Mi: "Don't complain about an easy battle!" Misato would incredulously exclaim. "Easy battles are good!"
E: "There are three lights on those traffic signals, so odds are it'll get harder."
Ky: "Yeah I want all of those tunnels to be lit up by the end of it!"
Another tunnel was next to alarm, Kensuke moving the turrets over. "Ooh yeah they are not gonna stick to one tunnel."
Ri: "Almost like it's ramping up the difficulty or something."
H: "Generally you don't walk in front of the active turrets though…"
Mar: "Maybe he's just as bored as Kensuke is, h-he's just making it more lively!"
Kensuke meanwhile was spinning in his chair. "Wonder how long I can get away without firing a shot."
Sh: "Well it's your funeral buddy."
Ke: "At this rate I'm the one paying for it as well."
Ky: "Yeah Kensuke they were pretty quiet until you came along with bug guys on your boots!"
Ke: "Hey, I wasn't not gonna squash every single grub I saw! Antlions freakin' suck man!"
Swarm at 24. "Ooh a two alarm!"
Ke: "Gah!" Kensuke urgently relocating the turrets. "I get to do something!"
A: "Hey why can't you run while carrying something?"
Ri: "Gordon is a stickler for health and safety and knows not to run when you're carrying heavy components."
Despite it apparently being a heavier wave, Kensuke still didn't get involved. "Three in a row?! Are you kidding?!"
Mi: "Heh, might have the time for a few drinks at this rate!"
36 and 12, with Kensuke assigned to the latter. "Now you get a chance to hold back your own tunnel!"
Z: "You could at least give them one sentry!"
Ke: "Ahh they'll be fine!"
Z: "Are ya sure?"
Kensuke gave the rebels a turret. "Heh, thought so."
Ke: "I'm only doing it cause I wanna shoot stuff!"
So he would. "You got some!"
Ke: "It looks like it but I think the turret did all the work!" A palm down on the desk. "C'mon!"
Three swarms this time. "Be careful what you wish for, Kensuke."
Ke: "I was careful, this is exactly what I wanted!" The rebels took one, the turrets another, and Gordon facing a tunnel alone. "Come up and get me!"
Kensuke was immediately overwhelmed. "I REGRET MY DECISIONS!"
This got the expected laughter out of the group. "You totally deserve that Ken!"
Mi: "Hmpf, that's what getting cocky does!" Misato could be smug at least. "Getting cocky kills you."
Gordon would be assigned to the breach. "Okay let's see how I go with this one!"
Sh: "Poorly."
Ke: "Hey I'm not dead yet!"
Sa: "Emphasis on that last word."
Instead Kensuke would set up single turrets over the one alarm tunnels, and assist the rebels in the two alarm tunnel. "Bold move, Kensuke. Let's see if it pays off."
It would. "Oh they totally w-would've been overwhelmed if you didn't help them out Kensuke."
Ke: "Okay I'm starting to regret bugging about how easy it was." Restocking for the next wave. "These things are relentless!"
One alarm from everywhere. "Why?!" Desperately trying to defend everything.
More laughter. "You caused that Ken!"
Ke: "I know!"
This wave would come and go, Kensuke breathing a sigh of relief.
Re: "Do not think it is over."
Three one alarms, and one two alarm. "Okay turrets and me on the one's and faith in the Gods the rebels can handle the two."
A: "They can't."
Ke: "Then the Gods have forsaken me."
Ka: "I think they forsook you long ago Kensuke."
They really did, a turret going up in smoke during the wave. "Oh for fuck's sake!"
Ky: "Hey if you're looking for a new god to believe in, God is kinda okay."
A: "Nah he fucks you around as much as anyone else!"
Ke: "They're all fucking me at this point!" As the wave was done. "Wait did the other turret go up as well?!"
May: "And the lesson to take from this is don't be a smartarse!"
E: "Duly noted!"
Ka: "Misunderestimate, what a word."
Mari would give a snort filled laugh. "Oh my God that world had George W as well?"
Re: "Was that a word he coined?"
Mar: "He literally has entire phrases and words that h-had been coined Bushisms. Misunderestimate is one of them."
Ri: "Surely you could just use underestimate and have the same meaning?"
Ka: "Perhaps a misunderestimation is for when you have severely underestimated something."

Vortal Combat (55:45)
Luckily it was the signals that misunderestimated the danger, a gaggle of Vortigaunts coming out. "Ooh! Friends!"
E: "Understandable why they were delayed at least. Kensuke."
Ke: "What?!"
H: "Well they definitely held their own against the infinite antlions out there."
This alert wasn't a misunderestimation however. In fact, it was a gross overestimation. "Oh for goodness sake!"
Mi: "You heard the man! Grab a tunnel and just start fucking shooting the bastards!"
Ri: "Hey maybe we ought to set up a rush siege like that for training…"
A: "Great Kensuke now you're giving her ideas to make our lives harder!"
All Kensuke could do was crack his knuckles. "Mah… time's up, let's do this."
The music would swell, Kensuke doing nothing but shoot.
Ky: "Man they're everywhere!"
A: "Okay on second thought I kinda wanna do that."
Ri: "Thought you would."
Ke: "Gods they're really coming for us!" More shotgunning. "Just give over already!"
It would take several minutes, but eventually their immediate number were exhausted.
Sa: "Good work at the pest control, Kensuke!"
He'd give a sigh of relief. "Alright! Few bugs aren't anything to me!"
E: "Probably hasn't helped Alyx's chances of survival."
Ke: "Oh yeah that's why the Vorts were called in the first place!" Running to her. "But let me guess, they alone can't do it."
May: "It's gonna take the power of love!"
Not exactly, it'd take some larval extract, they'd agree. "Surely you can just use the pus on his boots!"
Ka: "Perhaps they need some with minimal contamination."
Ri: "Her wounds would've already gone septic by now I would've thought."
Ke: "Do I ever get a say in any of this?!"
Sh: "You don't get a say in anything anyway Kensuke, you have two girlfriends!"
Much to Asuka lightly whacking him upside the head. "True though!"
May: "Why'd ya hit him then?"
A: "Well just because it's true doesn't mean he gets to say it all willy nilly like that!"
Ke: "Story of my life right there." Prodding with a snicker. "Okay mister Vortigaunt, where are we going next?"
Mar: "Why on E-Earth would he word it like t-that? He? They? Do they have a sex or g-gender?"
Mi: "They're aliens from another dimension, Mari."
Mar: "They then."
Ky: "Still, that's the kinda stuff I'd say to Sa or Ken in the bedroom!"
It was Sayaka who whacked her upside the head this time. "Kensuke you literally haven't learned from the last time!" Seeing him immediately squashing more grubs.
Ke: "I'm killing them and you can't stop me!"
… (59:35)
Into the nest. "Well that's grim."
E: "That was their food."
The Vort had words about it. "The Vortigaunts have as much a way with words as I'm assuming Bush does." Was all Kaworu commented.
Ke: "What even is a pin-nyaa-ta anyway?"
Mar: "Y'know sometimes I forget you guys p-probably don't know about this kinda stuff."
Sh: "Well we don't expect you to know about our traditions and sayings."
Another chuckle. "Fair. It's a little paper mâché doo-hickey f-filled with candy that you bash until it breaks!"
Sh: "Oh we have that!" In an immediate cheer. "We usually use watermelon for that sorta thing though."
A: "Y'know I never realised how similar those two things were."
Mar: "Wait you guys use watermelon?"
Ke: "Suikawari!"
Sa: "Suikawari!"
Ky: "Suikawari!" They would all beam in sync. "Love playing that in the summer, especially if you have someone buried to their neck in the sand next to it as well!"
Mi: "You guys play it high stakes as well?!"
Ke: "Y'know what else is similar to suikawari?"
He'd immediately bash a grub in.
Z: "You even get a piece of candy out of it!"
Into an open stope, the Vortigaunt aiding Gordon in disabling the antlions. "Ooh that's gonna be useful!"
Ky: "Y'know, as long as you play with some sort of competency."
Ke: "And just what is that meant to-" Before getting sprayed with neurotoxin. "Gah!"
Ky: "That, mainly."
The poison antlions would be carefully dispatched. "I can't imagine we're gonna be getting much in the way of ammo drops down here."
Re: "Depends how many more piñatas they have around."
E: "They probably have plenty of those."
Ri: "Something that would help would be using a weapon with range instead of the shotgun."
Ke: "But it's such a nice weapon!"
Sa: "Don't wanna jump in that pit Kensuke?"
Ke: "Nah not particularly." Killing another grub.
May: "You're killing all of them aren't you?"
Ke: "Yes." And shooting dead an antlion that tried to get revenge. "Sempai surely you don't think we shouldn't kill them all right?"
May: "I mean surely there's a better way right?"
Ka: "There are, as discussed, but at the moment the best way of dealing with them is lead."
The Vort would blow some up. "Sheer energy works well too!"
Into another tunnel, breaking open another grim piñata. "At least he's kinda decent with protecting you. Or whatever they are."
Ri: "Misato they're an alien."
Mi: "Kaworu do Adamites have a concept of gender or sex?"
Ka: "Why do we need to bother when that of Adam was never meant to reproduce? If our life was to be indefinite, reproduction of that life would be irrelevant." In thought. "Now that I think about it, I believe reproduction as a concept falls in the ballpark of Knowledge."
Re: "It is a form of knowledge transfer. Genetic knowledge, or educational knowledge. The fruit of Life was never intended for such thing."
Ka: "Mhm, we are, but we could never become more than the sum of our parts."
Ke: "Well you're doing alright for yourself." Shooting yet more antlions.
Ka: "Only because I had been greatly augmented as an Adamite. This body is borrowed from Lilith, and I have exchanged parts of my soul for one of Lilith as well. Without such thing, I would be just as my kin."
A "Do you think it's because you pretty much were given a vessel to start with?"
Ka: "Perhaps. If I had developed myself, like my kin had, it would have been as incongruent to humanity as they were."
E: "So you don't identify as anything then?"
Ka: "It is no matter to me, but for convenience sake I identify as a male."
E: "I mean that's kinda how I think. I'm a computer, we don't have gender usually."
Ke: "Tell that to a connector."
Much to her eye roll. "I mean, think about it. What sex or gender would you assign a Unix system?"
Sa: "How'd you end up in that body then?"
E: "Copied from Rei."
Re: "You still haven't dyed your hair."
E: "I'm gonna get around to it." Waving her off. "But yeah, I'm in what would be interpreted as a female body, so I just identify that way. It's no matter. Everyone calls me a girl anyway." In a shrug.
Mar: "Well you didn't say if you had a p-preference!"
E: "And I don't!"
Ri: "Actually that's an interesting thing I wanted to talk with you about, Mari. We haven't really studied what would happen if a soul was put in an opposing body than what they were in."
Mar: "Oh don't get me wrong it was strange to s-start with, what with having e-extra bits in places there shouldn't be bits, but honestly I was just glad I had a body to crash in so I really don't mind it."
Ri: "It's not dysmorphic in any way?"
Mar: "Honestly I was already dysmorphic about the b-body they gave me, at least Ash is who I'd consider a close friend."
Ka: "You've kept your figure in Astral form, at the very least."
Mar: "Well I've never been that knowledgeable about h-how the soul works but I'm pretty sure you keep the image as how you see yourself. Or something."
Re: "Close enough."
Ri: "Do you know if the soul can mould a shell to its own self image?"
Re: "I recall the Ayanami shells had the red eye colour. Last I checked, your eyes are grey, Eliza."
Eliza would droop one of her eyelids in her general direction while poking a tongue.
Ka: "I'm thinking the more differences between a shell, the longer it'll take to mould it. And some things I don't think would be mouldable at all, anything sexual would be out of the question."
Mar: "Yeah I don't think if I was put in a male shell the tacker w-would just invert itself."
Ke: "Well that's an image that'll keep me up at night." Still shooting, and proceeding onwards. "They just don't stop!"
Ky: "Almost like you're in their home or something."
Z: "I'm surprised this discussion isn't distracting you."
Ke: "Honestly I barely understand most of it."
Z: "Well I guess that helps."
… (1:05:25)
Kensuke would end up dropping back into the mines. "Oh thank God something friendly!"
He immediately fell down an elevator shaft.
Sa: "You are so fucked Kensuke."
Ke: "I can recover from this!" He'd boast. "There's a ladder!"
Surprising everyone he could! "Wow even the Vort's mocking you."
Ky: "Damn it I was totally expecting you to die!"
Ke: "Oh I'm not that bad!"
Kensuke's near death experience would trigger a thought from Ritsuko. "Kaworu do we have your genome on file?"
Ka: "I would not expect so, being a Seele Nephilim." More thinking. "I do not even know the original donors for my shell."
Mi: "What was the plan for getting you back?"
Sh: "Misato you've seen our show, they weren't planning on bringing him back."
Ka: "It would have defeated their purpose." With a small chuckle. "If they were any sort of wise, which I have no reason to doubt they were, they would have randomly picked genetic samples to create a host body. Last thing they would have wanted would be to trace it back."
Ri: "It wouldn't surprise me if Kihl ended up using parts of himself to make it up."
A: "You saw how decrepit he was in the show, even back then were those parts even functioning?"
Ka: "I think I would prefer an anonymous donor over him."
Ri: "Well we won't look into it."
Ka: "You can if you wish, if you intend to replicate my vessel for a worst case scenario. Just don't tell me the detail."
Ke: "Oh crap zombies!" Shooting them.
Mi: "Well if it is Kihl, you're gonna struggle getting any material from him."
Re: "Worst case scenario, you could make something close from your own genetic material and a donor. We do not have Adamite material anymore, not any that would be useful at least. So if you were to be provided a replacement vessel, it would be Lilithian."
Ka: "That does not concern me."
Ri : "Honestly that's probably where we'll have to go anyway. We used the last of our original gene stock creating those shells for you and Eliza, you have around… two?"
May: "Two or three."
Ri: "Two or three shells left, and then we'll have to come up with an alternative. Gendo ain't around anymore, and I doubt Yui was even asked to volunteer so don't want to put that on her…" Quickly thinking. "Easiest solution would be to use your and Kaworu's gametes to create Nephilim, if Kaworu's is compatible."
Ky: "Hey Ken, see if you can solve this puzzle while they're all distracted with their nerd talk."
Ke: "Oh I'm definitely gonna try…" At the locked gate.
Re: "They are, Lilith saw to that."
Ri: "I will not ask about that." Blinking, taking out a scratchpad. "Only issue I can see is that technically any future vessels would be your children, including yourself if you just so happen to land yourself in one of them."
Re: "The family tree is already a bush." Rei would note. "Technically I am Shinji's sister."
A: "Well that never stopped you kissing him."
Ri: "Yes but if you for example end up in a shell made from you and Kaworu, you would end up as Kaworu's son and your own daughter."
Re: "It is still the same genetics as we currently have between us." Coyly pointing out. "If you wanted to you can add Shinji and Asuka to the genetic pool if you have concerns."
Asuka wasn't sure what to feel about that. "Misato already calls us a tumbleweed that'd make it worse!"
Ri: "It's all theoretical anyway." Still writing notes though. "Never know when that could come in handy."
Mi: "Y'know I did wanna explore Nephilim's a bit further at some point, now that we're making a start with them again. As long as you two don't mind it of course."
Re: "I do not. If we could treat it as a back up."
Ka: "If you have any Seele files, they may have some more information. I believe they had developed it more so than Gehirn had."
A: "How did we get Nephilim anyway?"
Ka: "I'm pretty sure Gendo smuggled the knowledge from Seele and he was deemed too important to punish for it."
Ri: "Convenient."
Re: "For my coming to being especially."
Ke: "Ooh okay I wonder if I have to weight that one down then…" Taking several steel beams out from the undercroft.
Z: "Hey if you're thinking of making new Nephy-whatevers, I think we technically count as them."
H: "Except we can't reproduce."
Ka: "I am sure we could use your genome for something, regardless of the presence of viable gametes."
Ri: "As said, all theoretical." Still writing it down. "Thought you can make stem cells, which you can replicate into any cell required."
Mi: "I thought adult stem cells couldn't do that?"
Ri: "Normally not, but you know how we can grow spare body parts and organs for our pilots?"
Mar: "Wait that's why you wanted a g-genetic sample from us?!"
Ri: "You can make these stem cells pluripotent by inducing them in an LCL solution and annealing them by a couple degrees. That's how we can make replacements."
Re: "Is that a different process to growing a shell?"
Ri: "It's a more precise process. This way we can easily replicate limbs or organs that exactly match the person's genome, otherwise they'd get rejected by their immune system. And I'd rather not put the pilots on immunosuppressants."
Sh: "So I suppose it'd have to be absolutely catastrophic to warrant a new body?"
Ri: "Death is pretty catastrophic, yes. Anything involving the brain, it'd be more worth to grow a new body. Uhh if your torso got blown to shreds, we'd probably also make a new body."
Ka: "I mean the torso connects the body together, so odds are if that happened you'd be dead anyway."
Ri: "Honestly as long as you aren't just a head and you survive long enough to put into a nutrient rich LCL bath, you should be able to come back from a lot of things."
Re: "At this point the question I have was how much time would it take? Would it be more worth to just put them in another shell?"
Ri: "Gendo never did that with you, even when you had been gravely injured."
Rei didn't really have a response to that.
Ri: "I'm not killing you guys for the sake of faster recovery. I know how it has affected you, Rei. I'm not putting anyone through that if I can help it." With a small sigh. "The shells are a worst case scenario. If we absolutely cannot bring you back to how you were. I don't care how long it takes, I don't care if we need to substitute you out of piloting for however long it takes, we'll put you back how you were and we'll do it without killing you. And I'm sure you'll agree, Misato."
Mi: "You're Goddamn right, Rits." With a friendly pat on her back. "Couldn't have said it better myself."
Ke: "Hey, guys?" Kensuke would interrupt. "While you've been having that conversation about… whatever the hell all that is, I literally just solved this puzzle." As the Vortigaunt opened the door to the next area. "Y'know, of the video game we're monitoring?"
Ri: "Oh come now this was an interesting conversation!"
Sh: "Wasn't even that difficult to follow along with honestly."
Ke: "You guys have been knee deep in that stuff for years!"
E: "So you have a lot to catch up on, good thing we are discussing this!"

On A Rail (1:11:50)
Coming up on a rail drive. "Well I definitely know it's not that way."
Ky: "Nah ride on it and see where it ends up!"
Ke: "It ends up being another thousand yen to you two." In flat remark. "Now my question is how many crates can I recover before that falls into a bottomless pit?"
H: "There's only one way to find out if it really is bottomless!"
Z: "Heh, nice one!"
Ke: "Not falling for it!" Lifting a crate off. "Oop there it goes!"
Three crates were recovered all in all. "Damn that Vort's really r-riding your dick there huh."
Z: "Do they even have holes to ride dick with?"
Ky: "Well they have a mouth."
E: "Oh for goodness sake…"
Ri: "Glad to hear you have the same opinion as us when it comes to how they think."
Ke: "Well that's obviously gonna come down and kill me." At another minecart at the top of an incline.
It would come down but it wouldn't kill him. "Hah!" And then an antlion attacked. "Gah!"
Mi: "Seems they don't like the zombies as well."
Sh: "Hey why don't the headcrabs affect the antlions? Could be a way of disabling them?"
May: "Do they even have much of a brain to latch into and control? I thought insects and mammals were rather different in that regard."
Ka: "You could also ask the question how a headcrab can possess something rather different to it, unless they are an example of congruent evolution and mammals end up being close enough for it to still work."
Mar: "What if they're all s-similar, like with Adam and Lilith?"
Mi: "We are not getting a headcrab through here to find out."
Ri: "Or opening portals to Xen."
Ke: "I'd happily keep that to my imagination, thank you very much."
Re: "You can gauge a lot about what the Vortigaunts believe in by how they speak."
Sa: "Wouldn't even surprise me if this All in One they talk about actually exists."
Ke: "It's Xen, they've had gods before." Up a ladder. "…What the heck is that thing?"
Mar: "Is that a hopper of some s-sort?"
Ke: "I dunno, I can't go through that wood there…" Trying to break it down. "What if I could fit through…"
He'd shimmy his way under the hopper, landing in a minecart that started to move rapidly downhill. "Shit!"
Ky: "You're lucky the G-Man has spares of you on standby."
Ke: "C'mon get me out of here!"
The cart would catapult off the edge into an open shaft, which would ultimately send Kensuke into the drink.
He blinked in shock. "I don't know how I freakin' survived that."
A: "But you survived, so don't complain!"
He'd stare up, on the ladder, to witness the cart falling towards him. "Asuka! You killed me!"
The cart somehow missed him. "W-What?! How?!"
Re: "I would not push your luck further, if I were you."
Ke: "Yeah I'm just gonna get out of- GHA!" As the Vortigaunt practically jumpscared Kensuke. "Dude!"
Z: "Maybe the earholes would work to stick something into, how do they reproduce?"
E: "How long have you been thinking of that, Zero Two?"
Z: "Honestly it's been stuck in my head ever since it's been mentioned. Like… how."
Re: "They are a metaphysical species, so perhaps their method of reproduction is the same. In that sense they may not have holes and poles as we do."
Misato couldn't help but splutter a laugh at the comparison. "I'm just hoping that little claw on their chest isn't what amounts to genitals."
Ky: "I can't imagine that'd feel too great."
A: "Maybe they don't even have holes, they just hold hands with that thing."
Ke: "Are we really talking about how Vortigaunts reproduce?!" Entering another cave, continuing to kill every grub he saw.
A: "Hey it's an interesting subject!"
E: "This definition of interesting is interesting in of itself." Muttering. "I think I hear a pounder."
Mi: "Not any of the boys here right?"
E: "You're just as bad as they are."
Much to her snicker. "I'm sure Ritsuko is just as bad as they are, she's just a lot more quiet about it!"
Ri: "Maya definitely isn't quiet about it."
May: "SEMPAI!" She was already trying to stop a blush but that just made her full tomato face. "…You aren't wrong."
E: "I'm surrounded by perverts." Was all she could mutter.
… (1:17:20)
At the very least, Kensuke reaching the vibratory device, as the Vortigaunt put it, would give them some leeway with the antlions.
Sh: "That's an even worse name for it!"
Ky: "God imagine though!"
Ke: "I can't compete with that!" Exasperated, as he started shooting the dead. "Gods why is this place so packed?!"
Mi: "Well it's exposed to the surface and it has zombies so I'm assuming it was a rebel base at one point."
A: "The dead rebels kinda imply that as well."
Ka: "There is a dropship present down here as well. Something must have happened and I don't think anyone won."
E: "Other than the antlions."
Ke: "Their fault for treading in their home- WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?!" As a poison headcrab sent him to one health. "I hate that mechanic!"
Luckily there wouldn't be any more that the Vort couldn't solve. "Alright! Where to from here…"
H: "Is that an elevator over there?"
Ke: "Oh yeah!" Calling it. "That just started a siege hasn't it."
Sa: "Yeah you probably should've thought about that before clicking the button."
Ke: "But it's a button! Do you expect me to not click it?"
Predictably several dozen enemies would spawn, attempting to turn Gordon from is to was. "Give me a break this was meant to be a respite area!"
Z: "Well other than that first stupid death you've been going alright."
May: "You're trying to jinx it ain't ya?"
Z: "Yep."
Ke: "Well you won't!" Running and shooting, and eventually making his way to the elevator. "I'm just too good."
Mar: "If you fall off that elevator now I s-swear to God."
Ky: "And the Vort's just letting you go like that? How's he gonna get back up?"
May: "I'm sure there was enough space on that lift for the both of you!"
Luckily for the Vortigaunt (and for Kensuke as there was a door that required a Vortigaunt to open), they were able to find another platform to elevate themselves. "Yeah! Good going buddy!"
The next room wasn't as amusing though. "Well that's grim." Muttered Ritsuko. "You can tell exactly what they did."
Mar: "That bloodstain isn't e-exactly subtle, huh."
Sa: "I wouldn't exactly call that peaceful I think it's pretty obvious they ran buckshot through their head!"
Ka: "Well they aren't complaining about it."
A: "That's mainly because they're dead Kaworu!"
Ke: "I can think of worse ways to go." Breaking open a door. "Shit, if it was that or zombification, or getting eaten by an antlion."
Re: "A grim world it is where that is something you have to consider."

Nectarium (1:22:50)
Speaking of things that could quickly kill you in the world of Half-Life, the guardian made an appearance. "Ah Gods where's the shotgun."
Mi: "No one's killing themselves on my watch!"
Ky: "Should've said that to Ken before his eleven billion deaths."
Ka: "Choice words from the Vortigaunt."
A: "At the very least you have a challenge now Kensuke!"
Ke: "I was being challenged already!"
E: "At least it means you're getting close, if the Vortigaunt is to be believed."
Ke: "Man it's always annoying when there's a split path in a game like this, cause you don't wanna miss out on stuff but you're also unsure as to what path is the right path."
Sa: "Kinda looks like the downward is where you don't wanna go."
Ke: "I'll go there first then."
The Vortigaunt definitely told him similarly. "Hey you could've missed out on an ammo drop you didn't have use for!"
Ke: "It's still important to check Kyo! You know how video games work!"
Sh: "I'd say you've just given the guardian more time to catch up with you."
Z: "I know these games are glorified hallways but I'm getting nervous how this is just a hallway."
Ke: "You think I might be chased down it?" As he entered a loading zone.
Z: "I mean it seems a common thing in movies at least."
May: "Even those Crash Bandicoot game I played when I was younger had levels like that."
Mar: "You had Crash Bandicoot here too?"
May: "I was surprised to learn it wasn't Japanese! It's a perfect game for us I don't know how the Americans did it!"
Ri: "They weren't in charge of the marketing."
They'd make it to another elevator. "Well that's mighty convenient!" Cheered Kensuke. "It goes all the way to Alyx!"
Mi: "Why didn't we just scale down the shaft to begin with?"
Ka: "Perhaps their sense of smell isn't that keen."
A: "Or it's a long-ass shaft. Dunno how deep a mine can go but surely that could be a few kilometres in the earth at this point!"
Mar: "There were quite a few mines in S-South Africa that went up to two miles underground. Not sure what's going on with that c-country nowadays."
Ka: "Much like a majority of the African continent, they collapsed into infighting and civil war when Second Impact hit and their cities were flooded."
Ri: "They would've gotten no quarter from it either, being in the direct line of fire from Antarctica."
Ka: "Since then as with everything else involving Africa, information has been scarce."
Mar: "Surely there had been excursions there, right?"
Mi: "The world literally only found out Australia still existed once Seele were out of the question and we could focus on things that weren't Angel related, I totally believe if something like that could be obscured from the world, whatever is happening in South Africa."
Mar: "Tell me New Zealand got out of it alright at least?"
Mi: "I think the UN made contact with them around the same time as Australia. Surprisingly enough they got off Second Impact almost totally unscathed!"
Ri: "They like Japan are in a seismically active area, but they were close enough to Antarctica that their own sensors could detect the quake from Adam, which gave them enough time to evacuate for higher ground before the tsunamis hit."
Mi: "Heck by the time the UN got there, they were the hegemon in what was left of the Pacific!"
May: "And now we export all our used cars there apparently."
Ri: "Them and Australia, they've had nothing but local industry for decades."
Mar: "Those poor bastards."
Ke: "I think I need to jump to that." Kensuke would think. "That is a long drop there!"
Z: "Just don't fall in!"
He fell in. "I'm blaming you Zero Two."
Z: "You're welcome!" In a cheer.
A: "You don't have to know Vortegese to know that means 'you idiot'!"
Reloading. "Well at least I have a vague idea of what's going on!"
And landing in the tunnel, breaking free a fan which would spin until it broke. "Wait you don't want me to kill that thing?!"
Ky: "I don't think you could kill it if you tried."
Ke: "I don't have rockets so I probably couldn't."
… (1:27:05)
He'd eventually find another antlion tunnel. "Well if it's just down here it should be- aieeee!" Falling into the void, and landing in a water puddle. "I'm fine!"
E: "Those grubs are very fragile, I don't even know what killed that one."
Ke: "I won't complain!" Diving through the water to make it to the other side. "Oh right barnacles exist."
Ky: "D'oh I wanted you to find out the hard way!"
Ri: "Well at least they enjoy the corpses…"
Didn't stop Kensuke from getting snared on one. "Oh come on!"
He'd eventually find way into a bloody tunnel. "Well that's fresh."
Mi: "How can you tell?"
Zero Two just gave a blank stare at Misato.
Mi: "Y'know what forget I said anything…"
A few more acid-lions would be shot, as Kensuke dropped into another tunnel. "It's gonna be ages before we find this elevator isn't it…"
Sa: "Well at least you have more time to squash a few grubs, eh?"
Ke: "Always a silver lining." Squishing some more. "Y'know I probably shouldn't given the guardian's roaming around."
Sh: "Yeah but you'll keep doing it."
Ke: "You know me too well."
Dropping to another part of the cave, he'd immediately be accosted by the guardian, it promptly ramming some stalagmites. "Help!"
Re: "Do what the game tells you to and run."
Ke: "Will do!"
Practically throwing himself into another hole, he'd sneer at the guardian. "Bleh!"
A: "I definitely wouldn't count that chicken before it hatches, Kensuke."
Ke: "Worst it can do is kill me!" Peering out. "Running again!" And into another nest.
May: "Never thought a grub like that could be a man-eater."
Mi: "Well we all know how great protein is for the growing kid!"
May: "Does it have to be man protein though?"
Asuka would snicker, as Kensuke bolted for the third nest. "Okay where does this go…"
To an open cave. "…I'm not sure where to run to." He went right. "That wasn't the right way!"
Ky: "Get back in the hole!"
Ke: "No I can make it!"
He couldn't, the guardian throwing him into the void. "I couldn't make it!" Slamming his head on the keyboard to respawn. "Again!"
This time around, he'd goad the guardian out from where it was, making a break for it as soon as he could. "Damn this sprint meter!" Barely making it into another hole.
Z: "At least you didn't die this time!"
Ke: "I just have to keep running where I think is the right way." As he made his break again, sprinting over a small drop and into a nest. "Gotta keep going! C'mon- MINESHAFT!"
Desperately taking out the gravity gun he'd tear down the rafters. "Come on! Let me in!"
He'd barely make it, as usual. Back against the wall as the guardian was ravenous in tearing into the shaft.
Mar: "You need to s-stop having these near death experiences Kensuke it's not healthy f-for you!"
Ke: "I need to stop having death death experiences as well!" Dropping down. "Like that dude!"
E: "On the bright side he hasn't been eaten yet."
… (1:32:45)
Breaching into an open cutting, he'd find some human works. "I think that's our elevator!"
May: "Wonder what went wrong with it."
The missing gear probably didn't help. "Yeah figures that."
Ke: "Wonder where it could be…" Roaming around, squashing the grubs as he went. "Poison!" Shooting the headcrab dead. "Screw you!"
Luckily there was another broken elevator engine, which just so happened to have the missing gear.
Ri: "Wonderful having spares, huh."
E: "You never know when you could use it!"
Ke: "Oh I'm definitely not comp-" It was snared by a barnacle. "Come on!" Shooting it. "Don't freaking steal my- ow fuck!" As the presumedly several kilogram heavy gear landed square on his head.
Ky: "Well Freeman just lost a few IQ points with that."
At long last the elevator would be called, the Vortigaunt descending and singing Gordon's praises. "God get a r-room you two!"
Mi: "I'm not even sure if they're just being overly flirtatious or if this is normal for them."
Z: "Didn't he kinda free the Vortigaunts from the Nihilanth or something?"
Ka: "So in essence Freeman is a messiah to them. Perhaps it is no wonder they are singing their praises of him in that case."
They would enter the nectarium, a sprawling stope packed to the brim with antlion larva. "Holy shit… and that's an opening to the outside?"
Re: "Quite the sprawl. No wonder it would be difficult to rid them."
Ka: "Once you have reached this deep into the sanctum, perhaps it would be trivial."
Ke: "It's not trivial getting here Kaworu!"
The Vortigaunt would, via reasons known only to fellow Vortigese, harvest a bounty of larval extract.
E: "Part of me wonders if the antlions hold significance to the Vortigaunts. If they have such knowledge on how to tend and take use of them."
Sa: "You don't think they've domesticated them in Xen, right?"
E: "We know you can control them if they think you're a guardian. Presuming you present yourself as the guardian, and you know how to command them, by all rights you should be able to corral them and harvest from them like you would a honey bee."
Ky: "A honey bee that can fucking kill you and eat your guts."
And with that, they made it back to the elevator, the Vortigaunt once again heaping praise onto Freeman Pontifex. "Okay so Eliza, good on you for getting it right."
To her smug smile.
A: "But what the hell would an antlion have that could be harvestable?!"
Re: "If this vortescence is similar to how the AT-Field works, perhaps it is a key component in mending a collapsing AT-Field."
Ri: "Well we aren't domesticating antlions to find out, but perhaps we can find a synthetic means of replicating its function."
Ke: "We should be seeing how it works soon at least."

Inhuman Frequency (1:37:25)
They would come back with no time to spare. "Do they know how to do CPR?"
E: "I think she's a bit beyond CPR with those two holes in her gut!"
Mar: "Well they've done alright s-so far without touching her. What, how long has it been since that happened?"
E: "Almost an hour for us but for them it's probably been more than a few."
Mi: "Shit even that long on an obviously unsanitised bench top probably isn't healthy for her… did they even try to stem any bleeding?"
Ri: "Misato she's still fully clothed, I don't think they touched her at all!"
Ke: "So what they were just gonna shine that healing light on her no matter if it worked or not?"
A: "Well I probably wouldn't trust Griggs to heal her up."
Ky: "He does seem pretty dense."
The Vortigaunts beckoned Freeman join them. "Oh look! They're soulbinding those two!" Cheered Asuka.
Re: "Well if their relationship was not strong before."
Z: "Should we ask why a human is needed?"
May: "Maybe it's so they have a template to heal them from?"
Mar: "I mean it's not exact to her g-gender but I suppose it's better than nothing."
Sa: "That and she's the only female for like hundreds of kilometres. Unless one of those Vorts are female."
Ky: "I've been struggling to tell."
Ka: "Oh wow it really is a soul bond… outright weaving Freeman's life with hers."
Ke: "This isn't gonna do some stupid shit like tie our health together, right?"
Mi: "I've never seen a video game with a shared health bar."
Ke: "I played this weird Quake mod which tied your health with a random ally, more often than not it just meant you died quicker. But the concept of it is definitely interesting, might be good for a more sandbox type game."
Ri: "Honestly that might even be a good gimmick for a sim if we can get it coded."
A: "And you're sure we won't just die faster because we get twice as much damage?"
Ri: "Well no, but maybe it'll encourage teamwork and not dying."
Mar: "Isn't not dying what y-you're meant to be encouraging anyway?"
Ri: "It's an important aspect of piloting that we encourage on a regular basis."
Re: "I do not recall the soul bond being this visceral." Seeing Alyx's internals through her clothing.
Ky: "Does that count as nudity?"
Sh: "I think this is a bit more than nudity at this point."
E: "Part of their healing. Perhaps they need to see what they're working on."
May: "Wonder if Gordon is looking the same way then."
Time stopped.
And an all too familiar voice would introject. "D'oh I thought we had enough of you!"
H: "So the Vortigaunts actively resist the G-Man then?"
Mi: "Much to his consternation, it sounds like. Well if you can call it consternation."
A: "So… wait, Alyx is just as key to him as Gordon is?"
Ka: "Who knows what machinations are running in their head."
Z: "I still don't know if G-Man is working for or against the Combine."
Re: "The Vortigaunts think them an interloper, but they have actively been working against the Combine, at least their presence on Earth. It's difficult to say where their allegiances lie, in fact in all likelihood they have no allegiance to anyone but themselves and their clients."
Ka: "Ah but then the question becomes, if they are just a middleman, who is commissioning them to do such thing? It can't be the Vortigaunts if they work against their machinations."
Ri: "What would you even pay to have that? Do they operate in favours? Everyone expects something in return!"
Ky: "Obviously them being an effective tool he can use is payment enough. Thought that's just got me curious where Alyx fits into this."
Mar: "I mean she's been just as key to all this as Gordon has, even if it's a m-more mutual partnership."
Sh: "Does that mean we might get a game starring her?"
Ky: "God I hope so, she'd be a fucking girl boss!"
Sa: "What the heck is that rocket?"
E: "Well that's Magnusson so I'm assuming this is the White Forest."
Ri: "And his prized missile." With a mutter. "Now what restrictions would someone like them have to abide by?"
Ke: "Maybe he set a challenge for himself?"
Ka: "Or maybe they're keeping their options open. As we say, their machinations are an enigma."
H: "I think we're well beyond the scope of what he was planning. I don't think he ever intended Alyx to survive atop the Citadel."
Z: "So this is more trying to set it back on track then."
The G-Man would leave Alyx some choice words. Prepare for unforeseen consequences.
Re: "Perhaps you are right, Hiro. This is beyond their scope. They cannot predict what will happen now."
And with that, Alyx would regain consciousness. "Heck yeah!" Cheered Kyoko.
A: "Knew she'd be too stubborn to die!"
Ke: "So they're a hunter… they sure as hell live up to the name."
Mi: "They're like a Predator I swear!"
Despite the death defying, Alyx was keen to get going. "So it has been hours." With emphasis on the plural.
May: "Considering the portal storms that probably gave the Combine a bunch of time."
Ka: "They probably assume it sorted. No doubt the hunter would have identified them as being the targets, so they are probably assumed dead."
Mar: "Heh, they're gonna b-be in for a rude shock."
Ke: "Oh Gods she still has the blood on her clothes…"
Ri: "Well they didn't heal that up."
Re: "I do not believe clothing has a presence in the vortescence. And if they did, it would be Kill la Kill all over again."
Mar: "Oh she is so soulbound to y-you now, Kensuke!" At Alyx's request, as they entered the elevator to the topside. "'Next to me' c'mon you a-ain't slick girl!"
E: "She literally just survived a traumatic injury thanks to him, I'm sure this is an expected reaction."
A: "From strong woman Alyx thought?"
Mi: "She's still so vulnerable, and I think this has convinced her that she is vulnerable." To her sigh, unconsciously bringing her hand to her chest. "I sure as hell can relate to that feeling."
But Alyx is nothing if not a fighter, able to walk by the time the elevator reached the top.
Ke: "Oh right I forgot about the guardian…" He'd huff. "Can we kill it?"
Z: "Well unless Alyx dies again you shouldn't need the extract!"
Re: "Even her body language is different. She's exhausted."
Ka: "And yet she has to push. She can't stop."
Sh: "If she does it's the end of humanity. Which we can definitely relate to."
Kensuke could only sigh. "Yeah I wish we could give her a break, but… yeah. The Combine won't." As he and the others continued onward."
~
Shu'ulathoi (1:44:00)
Ke: "Are they coming with?" Waiting a moment for them to drop down. "No? Alrighty!"
Ri: "They'll probably just spawn in."
E: "Is that another vibratory device or is it something more?"
Kensuke would exit the mine, and it was something more. "Oh for the love of-"
Re: "By the sounds of it, they are going for complete genocide."
May: "So that voice is of the Advisors?"
Mar: "Or Shu'ulathoi, as the V-Vorts call them."
Mi: "To have a name, they must have a history with them."
Z: "So the Combine are now split amongst the Advisors, in that case?"
Ka: "An autonomous unit, yes. No longer do they have central authority."
A: "They have to do the work themselves now!"
Re: "And probably better than Breen could."
A: "Well that's not even a contest, a frog could do a better job than Breen!"
Sh: "Sounds like you're getting another vehicle at least."
Ke: "That buggy was pretty fun in the first game, hopefully it's as good as that!"
Ky: "They're gonna net you a Soviet vehicle."
Ke: "I hope it isn't."
Mi: "What, do you expect a Mustang or something?"
A: "By Half-Life standards, a Soviet vehicle is a Mustang!"
Kensuke would enter into the valley, picking up an ammo drop along the way. "I hope they can't see us from up there…"
Sa: "Dare ya to shoot them."
He'd take out the magnum and give them a poke. "…Nop, didn't notice us."
Sh: "That could've been idiotic."
Antlions were still the enemy of note. "Oh for crying out loud, I've had enough of these bastards!"
E: "And Alyx is still exhausted. She's going to struggle getting to the vehicle."
Indeed, Kensuke forced to bring Alyx from thumper to thumper in order to give her even the briefest of respites. "Okay we all survived that?"
A: "She won't die now."
Ke: "Well I wouldn't rely on the game to tell me that." Looking westward. "I think that's an elevator over there, so-"
A guardian would breach through a blocked off drive. "Ah shit."
Ky: "Hey at least you have plenty of barrels Kensuke!"
Ke: "I got that going for me!" Punting a few. "Wait is that-"
Another would breach through the other drive. "Oh for fuck's sake!"
Sa: "Wow it's almost like you angered them or something."
Ke: "I don't have the time for this!" Sprinting for a central safety net. "I can't imagine there's that many barrels around anyway!"
A well timed barrel blast killed one of them. "Yeah! One more!"
Shotgun wasn't doing it. "Shit I might have to use the grenades for this one…"
A: "Too far out, Kensuke!"
Ke: "Gah, okay I'm rushing it!"
Shotgun in hand, he'd rush it. "Die you bastard!"
With two shells left, he'd kill it. "DID IT!" With a bang on the desk for good measure. "SCREW YOU!"
May: "At least it gave Alyx a bit of time to rest up."
Sa: "Well I doubt it was a great rest, with how absolutely stressful it would've been."
Ka: "I'm sure she believed she was in capable hands."
Ky: "What, Kensuke's?"
Ke: "Oi I didn't die to either of them! This time at least…" Making it to the elevator. "Man they're really moving north are they?"
Mi: "At least they're moving at marching pace. If you get a fast enough car you might beat them!"
And because it couldn't all be easy, the lift was out. "I knew it!" He'd climb up, blasting away a poison headcrab in the process. "Never freakin' easy is it?!"
Ri: "Story of our lives."
Someone had jammed a pickaxe in the elevator brake. "How the heck did it even get stuck here then?"
Z: "Bet there's not even gonna be anyone there."
E: "With how hard the Combine have been coming down, it's definitely possible this encampment had been found and dispatched."
Ke: "Just one thing after another isn't it…" Dropping into a loading zone.
… (1:52:00)
Alyx and the Vort would drop down the stairs, following Gordon as he entered the encampment. "Well the lights are still on so maybe?"
H: "You literally passed one of those shells on the way up, Kensuke."
Ke: "They're all dead aren't they?"
They'd enter a garage, to an utter slaughterhouse.
All Kensuke could do was sigh. "So much for that."
Ky: "At least you got a pulse rifle out of it."
Sa: "And still sounds like they can't even fight a damn headcrab! They're the ones who launched them!"
Sh: "Do you think it's one of those vehicles?"
Kensuke would zoom in on the bridge. "I freakin' hope not."
A: "What's that one on the far side though?"
A nearby terminal would zoom in on the vehicle. "Ooh that's not a Soviet car!"
Mi: "Wait that's a Mustang!"
Mar: "Eh I think it more looks like a Dodge. Charger, I t-think."
Ke: "How are Dodges like in terms of quality?"
A: "Kensuke here's how car quality goes: Soviet, English, Italian, American, German, Japanese."
Ke: "Okay so it's mid range, that's not so bad!"
Mar: "Yeah I like Dodge muscle but they and C-Chrysler in general are perhaps the most unreliable of the American brands."
A: "Well that's saying a lot! And I was about to mention how large the gulf is between American and German quality, that it may as well be the Atlantic ocean!"
Mi: "Look I've driven Italian vehicles and I'm never gonna drive one again. No matter how cool Haruko makes it look."
A: "Honestly I might just get one for the fun of it. And because getting a scooter license is easier than getting a car license."
Mi: "You guys are exempted from it anyway as NERV employees."
Ri: "Though I'd still like to at least pass you out on it."
A: "Ritsuko we pilot Evangelion for a living, how difficult would driving a car be?"
Sh: "If Misato can do it, I'm sure we can."
Mi: "Gee thanks."
Ke: "Oh of course you recommend me for the task, it's always me!"
May: "Kensuke you're literally the player."
Ke: "I'm just thinking from Gordon's perspective, surely he's starting to get tired of being the main character all the damn time!"
Mar: "I don't see her in no h-hazard suit."
Ky: "She'd totally rock one though."
Mar: "Oh yeah no doubt there!"
Alyx would at least get a field down for him, allowing him passage into the maw below. "Alright, I suppose if it's for you Alyx…"
Sa: "Thatta boy!"
Into an upper room. "Okay where the heck am I meant to go from here…" Looking around and moving some boxes around. "That door's not usable- Oh! The garage door!"
E: "Was wondering when you'd get that."
Ri: "I don't like the sound of that fast zombie though."
Ke: "Yeah I'm not looking forward to it either." Dropping down a shaft. "And I'm hearing more of them- I think that's a poison zombie!"
Z: "And of course it'll be right where you need to go!"
Much to his dramatic sigh. "Okay do I still have my grenades…"
He had one. "Fine fine let's see if I die to this bastard!"
As soon as he removed the chair holding to door in place, it shattered. "Gah!" Backpedaling, dropping the grenade at its feet and using the last of his shotgun to dispatch it. "Okay now the headcrabs!" Barely killing one before it latched on, and switching to the SMG to finish off the other. "Hah!"
Ky: "That went better than I expected."
Down another hole. "Gods I don't like when they ratchet up the horror aspect of this game."
May: "You're not one for horror games?"
Ke: "I can't imagine you are either, Sempai."
May: "And you're right!"
Mi: "For it being an aspect of the game and not the entire focus, this game does horror pretty well." With a chuckle. "Like I can tell how tense you are facing those zombies and all that, Kensuke!"
Ke: "I'd rather not get clapped by a zombie thank you!" Down into an elevator, using the pulse rifle to dispatch some poison headcrabs. "Or clapped by them for that matter!"
… (1:57:05)
Speaking of clapped, Alyx and the Vortigaunt managed to get the rifle charged up, dealing with a zombie before Gordon even noticed it. "Now that will come in handy!"
Ky: "Sniping a nice relaxing job isn't it? Perfect for someone that needs to rest."
Mi: "Well other than the recoil."
Mar: "And the fact it doesn't work in e-enclosed rooms."
The cry of a fast zombie would emphasise this. "I can't imagine she'd be quick enough to get that one either."
Ke: "Okay so I'm still probably gonna get eaten by a zombie then." In a sigh, as he continued on. "Ooh those barnacles I'll be able to get rid of though!"
Sa: "Do you think that other box is still there?"
He looked down the bottomless pit. "Yeah I think it's gone, Sa."
More barnacles would be dispatched with explosives, Kensuke working through a powerhouse. "Well glad that's on fire." As some zombies immolated itself in burning gas.
Z: "Anything to save ammo eh?"
Next was a Zombine bashing a door. "Shit I don't have anything to kill them quick huh…" Cycling through weapons. "C'mon magnum don't let me down!"
It took four shots to rid the Zombine. "That was c-close."
Ke: "Oh yeah that could've been far worse." Opening the door.
And it was far worse. "Oh come on!"
E: "You're good at jinxing yourself aren't you?"
Ke: "It's a talent at this point." Opening fire with the SMG, dispatching the zombies inside. "Oh but there's shotgun ammo though! Well worth it!"
Outside again, seeing some rummaging in a dumpster.
H: "May as well use some of those grenades you found huh?"
Ke: "I think that's what they want us to do, yeah."
He threw it in.
And it was promptly thrown out. "GAH!" Exploding. "You cheeky bastard!"
He threw another one in. "Kensuke why did you try that again?"
Ke: "Well you never know if it'll work a second time!"
Surprisingly it did, setting a fast zombie on fire and giving Kensuke an advantage in dispatching it. "I'd call that worth it!"
Into a hallway, Alyx coming in clutch in assisting Gordon with the gaggle of zombies within. "Thatta girl!" Cheered Misato. "Not even a few minutes from her death and already shooting things!"
Into a stairwell now. "Alyx please shoot that poison zombie!" Desperately throwing a barrel at it, and weaving around the barrage of headcrabs it would throw at him. "Bastard!"
Sa: "You could've used that gas pipe I think."
Ke: "D'oh I only just noticed that!" The drops would come in handy at least. "Is that door locked? Maybe I need to use it anyway…"
For some reason setting it off was enough for a zombie to break it down and come for him.
Re: "Barbecued zombie coming up."
Ke: "Can't imagine it'd taste particularly nice." Setting it alight, sorting out a poison zombie, before a few more barrels detonated to dispatch a few more. "And on we g- hang on." Zombine. "Let me try getting that one as well." Leading it back.
Sa: "You're gonna fail."
Ke: "No I won't."
He failed, the Zombine not catching fire and charging him, now trapped by the fire. "Help!"
Lucky for him it would detonate without injuring him. "Phew! Okay that was getting cocky."
Ri: "At least you identified it."
The next room was chaotically sorted out with some barrels getting rid of everyone. "Now that's what I want!"
What he didn't want was a Zombine bashing through. "Oh for the love of-" Shooting it dead. "C'mon! When does it end!"
Ka: "When you get to the Charger, presumedly."
Back on the surface, collecting a few weapons that were laying around. "I get the feeling I'd wanna keep this saw blade on me." Up to a roof.
E: "Those panels look moveable, might allow Alyx to snipe in."
Ke: "Good idea." Opening the roof up and letting Alyx show the zombies who's boss. "I think that's most of them." Dropping down.
Sa: "Congrats you entered a siege."
Ke: "I'm glad I have this!" Making egregious use of the saw blade.
Perhaps overly egregious, as a Zombine detonated in his face. "Oh come on! Where are you Alyx!"
May: "She did say she needed a clear shot at them!"
A few drops would save his ass. "C'mon where's the next one coming from…"
The roller door would be bashed down, Kensuke immediately killing three with one blade. "Yeah! That's the ticket!" Weaving around another Zombine to kill it with the blade. "Okay still a few more…"
The saw blade would come in clutch in sorting the rest of them. "And that's how you do it!"
Ky: "Nice one! Never doubted you!"
Much to Kensuke's flat look.

Crawl Yard (2:07:15)
Into a store room, saw blade still in hand. "These are actually really useful for the Zombine."
Ri: "If there's something that could kill instantly, it's a saw blade cutting you in half."
Ka: "Judging by the torso zombies, there may be a chance it doesn't kill instantly."
Re: "Just throw another saw blade at it."
He'd quickly find use of it to dispatch a fast crawler. "Glad I have i-" It was snared by a barnacle. "Oh come on!" And he immediately saw another crawler. "OH COME ON!"
Ky: "Hey I wonder if you could lure them into a barnacle!"
Ke: "Eh, don't wanna risk it." Using barrels to sort out the other zombie. "Okay now how to navigate this…" Climbing the shelving. "I guess just- GAH!"
Shooting a poison headcrab dead. "Don't do that to me you bastards! Ooh is that a forklift?"
E: "I don't think that'd be a useful vehicle for getting to White Forest…"
What it would be useful for was to make an elevated work platform. "Okay I know our occupational health isn't that great, but we don't use that as a platform! We can afford scissor lifts damn it!"
Ri: "Forklifts don't have the height we need for our EWP needs anyway."
Mar: "I like how that's your concern instead of having it be a p-platform."
Ri: "I don't know how but a scissor lift costs us more than a forklift."
Mi: "We need to buy those extra long scissor lifts for the Evangelion! Like, hundred metre! I didn't even know folks made them!"
Ri: "They don't, we manufacture them in house. In comparison Toyota gives us a significant discount on their forklifts because we save the world on the regular and it looks good for their image."
Sh: "Surely you guys aren't chewing through forklifts regularly, right?"
Ri: "No, but we need a lot of them. I think we have over a thousand forklifts working in the Geofront, granted at least a third of them are charging at any one time and we need that rapid turnaround. You'd be surprised how much of our logistics rely on forklifts."
Mi: "Technically lifting anything more than twenty kilos requires mechanical lifting aides, and especially over long distances you'd need more than a pallet jack."
Sa: "Maybe if you guys can get the gravity gun working, it might be better than just using a forklift for everything."
Ri: "I dunno, forklifts are really useful…"
May: "Not to mention the sheer amount of resources it'll take to sink into that to get working."
E: "I mean we have a lot of the setup. Even if we do it at a macro scale to start with, we can always minimise it later."
A: "Might keep our mothers occupied at least."
Mi: "Oh yeah they were interested in a research and development role, might be a good chance to cut their teeth on something that isn't Evangelion." She blinked. "Shit I might get them on that today, see what they can do with it."
Sh: "Sounds like they're gonna have a few things to look into with this game."
Ri: "Thanks to Bond we have made a head start on some of the concepts elaborated on in this game. We can definitely get them on gravity manipulation. Might melt their brains less than the timespace stuff."
May: "Ikari seemed pretty excited about the possibility."
Ri: "We can keep her on that and maybe Soryu on the gravity gun concept."
A: "Ooh she might like that!"
… (2:09:30)
Through some ventilation, down a hole, he'd make his way to the toxic pits.
Sa: "Y'know it's always baffled me how there's just random pits of toxic radioactive material just around everywhere."
A: "That's probably the Combine poisoning external water supplies. Can't have the humans just survive on their own y'know?"
Ke: "Considering they themselves are vulnerable to the toxicity, ends up working against everyone but the zombies." Luring a few into Alyx's line of fire.
Mi: "Maybe that's what they want, they just want a world of zombies."
Sh: "Wouldn't even be surprising at this point, seems like something they'd do."
Kensuke would sort out the gaggle with several barrels, mainly of the non-explosive variety. "Huh, a crate of SMG grenades. What an odd choice."
Ky: "Obviously they intend you use them."
Ke: "Well duh but it's just an interesting choice of weapon for whatever I'm facing next."
E: "They don't intend you to run back and forth to get more, right?"
Ke: "I hope not with how tight everything is!"
Not like he could anyway, dropping further into the mire. "See now I don't even want to use them because I won't be able to access them!" As he dispatched a poison zombie with everything but an SMG grenade.
Sa: "At least you're getting close to the car!"
Now was a precarious situation. "Ah Gods I'm gonna have to jump over this shit aren't I?"
Z: "Wouldn't be Half-Life without some precarious jumping." More a mutter than anything.
H: "We struggled with that in the first game."
Z: "Those suspended crates and that weapons facility are gonna haunt my nightmares…"
Ke: "At least this one's a bit better than those." Making an island. "The zombies don't help but at least Alyx is helping."
Well, mostly, as he threatened to be overwhelmed. "Okay I'm just gunning for it!" Luckily the toxic mess didn't hurt him too badly, making the ladder as Alyx picked off the rest. "Alright! I'm gonna make it!"
Unfortunately for him, a Zombine would see to his early demise. "Oh come on!"
Ky: "You heard the grenade, Ken! Why did you run towards it!?"
Ke: "Panic." Reloading, thankfully the checkpoint was immediately before. "But now I know!" Picking up a folding chair. "And I know that bastard is over there!"
Bashing it over the head with the chair did nothing but anger it. "Come on!" Luckily Alyx would pick that one off this time around. "Oh thank you!" Picking up a few drops before making it to the bridge. "Alright! I'm guessing we have to get this car to the other side of the bridge, right?"
E: "Doesn't look like there's even much bridge left."
If they thought the bridge was in rough shape now, a portal storm would damage it further. "Oh come on!"
Sa: "Hey at least the car looks decent!"
May: "A sorry state when a half built American car is the best one out there."
A: "That cart Kensuke had in the first game was better than any Soviet car!"
Ke: "Shit even for half complete, it doesn't look bad at all!" Giving it a once over. "Two seats, V8. Steering wheel's on the wrong side but it's American so I can forgive them for that."
Mar: "It's the correct side for America!"
A: "And Europe for that matter. Unless you're an Englishman. Hey why does Japan have the steering wheel on the right, I thought that was an English thing!"
Mi: "Pretty sure we hired English companies to build our first railways, and they were using the left hand drive rule already so we just stuck with it."
Mar: "Was it much adjustment when you w-went to Germany?"
Mi: "Not even, bit funny trying to shift gears with the opposite hand but it's pretty trivial to just flip things around in your mind. It eventually just becomes muscle memory again."
Mar: "At least it still has that fat back end!" With a giggle. "That's totally a Charger!"
May: "Gods how garish..."
Ri: "That's what American muscle is. Big and loud."
Ke: "It's not gonna be a subtle vehicle then." Giving it a little test drive, mainly reorienting it for the bridge. "Well some of the gauges work."
Sa: "Damn they couldn't splash for the nav system?"
Ke: "I'm just glad it drives." Leaving. "Hey the lights work!"
As soon as he stepped onto the bridge, more of it collapsed below.
E: "Are we sure it's usable?"
Ke: "Well if it isn't we're stuck, so I'm assuming yes it is." With a thought. "Though we probably need some weight to bend it back to something usable."
Re: "You have plenty of Soviet iron around at least."
A: "Yeah there might be some metal left in them! Might weight it down!"
Ke: "Not like we have much choice."
He'd knock some of the iron off the far end of the bridge, while moving the ones closest to the Charger as close as possible.
It was enough thankfully. "Okay! Almost there!" Back to the Charger. "Let's see what the American can do!"
Engaging the turbo, he'd clear the bridge and skid straight into the roadblock. "Sick! I like this thing!"
Mar: "If you think it's good in that state, just you wait until you s-see an intact one!"
Sh: "It might even be more reliable in this game, if only because it's been so worked on already and has so much stripped from it there's not much else that can fail on it."
Mar: "Looks l-like an older model Charger, it's all carbureted and probably very few electronics in it at all, let alone a computer."
E: "Part of me doubts they have ECUs readily available in this world."
A: "Matches the rest of the contemporary Soviet vehicles at least."
With that, Alyx and the Vortigaunt were reunited with Gordon, now with a vehicle to make the trip. "Now how's that for a road trip? Classic American iron, nothing but the road and the scenic forest-"
Ri: "If only you didn't have the Combine chasing after you trying to kill you, Misato."
Mi: "Well I didn't say it'd be a relaxing road trip!"
Alyx was definitely excited about the car. "Heh, seems she loves it as well!" Prodded Kyoko. "How's that for a classic?"
Mar: "Well old American iron like that has been s-said to attract the ladies."
A: "Does it work for you?"
Mar: "Eh, they look nice but I always p-preferred a good working truck. That might just be my biases though."
Re: "It does seem like more something a man may buy to woo someone."
Ky: "You don't even have a backseat in it though! Where are you meant to do the deed?!"
Mar: "Another reason why a pickup is the best, you have an entire tray to spend time in!"
Mi: "Station wagons are also good for that regard, plenty of space for that kinda stuff." With a snicker. "Kaji actually let me know of a special type of vehicle the Australians have, it's pretty much a light pickup except the rear tray is a more van type covering. A panel van I think they called it."
Mar: "Oh yeah is that like a d-delivery or something? That's a classic body style but I've only s-seen a few recent examples. Chevy did one."
May: "How was it?"
Mar: "Shit." With a snort. "They tried going for this neo-retro s-style with it like the rest of the industry tried and it just looked terrible and ran like a Chevy would."
A: "Shit?"
Mar: "Yeah!"
Re: "A shame they are not joining us, they would have proved useful."
Ka: "I would rather them deal with an Advisor than us, at least."
Ke: "I like to think they'd know what to do." Looking back to the car. "That and it's only a two seater, so unless he wants to sneak in the back or get smuggled in the boot."
Ri: "Bit unbecoming of him I'd think."
Alyx would give the Vortigaunt a thankful kiss for all their help, before they sought to open the door leading into the White Forest.
Mi: "Heh, he wasn't sure what to think of that."
May: "I think that was bashful? I dunno, hard to tell."
Kensuke would flip the car around. "Oh well, let's get this on then!" Slamming pedal to the metal, he'd start the drive to the White Forest.
~

(2:18:35)

A small alarm would ring out from Ritsuko. "Yeah about that."

Drifting the car to a sudden stop. "Oh come on it's not time yet!"

It was just past seven o'clock. "And you guys still have school."

"D'oh fine, we'll call it there…" In begrudging sigh, as he started to close up shop. "You bet we're coming back tonight to get it done though!"

"Oh I'd want you to come back tonight, cause tomorrow's gonna be filled up with not just testing NT-Unit-00, but with our sync tests as well." With a blink. "Oh yeah did you tell them about that, Misato?"

"You got sync tests tomorrow at 0500 hours."

"Oh come on!" Asuka would plead. "Why is it always so early!"

"Asuka we haven't done sync tests on you in a while, and we need to get a baseline before we hook the Evangelion up to the sim again." Pointing out. "You know how long it takes to get them set up and going! And we're trying to get it ready by Sunday so we can properly test out NT-Unit-00's systems."

"Heh, at least that means we can get back in the saddle, huh darling?"

"Has been a while." With a small smile. "I don't mind it."

"Well I hope you didn't, it's only meshing our brains together!"

"Oh yeah we might get you two to help us out with that as well once they come in." Ritsuko would drop on them. "Not sync tests per se but more so just you jumping in and synchronising just so we can cycle it."

"I won't complain about that, chief."

"Alright!" Cheered Misato. "We all in agreement as to how the day will go?"

"Begrudgingly." Mused Asuka.

"Nice!" In another cheer. "Now get to school!"

They didn't have to be told twice, those who were in education immediately scrambling from the lab.

"I don't have to go to school as well do I?"

"No but I'd appreciate if you helped out as well today."

"You know I'd like to!"

"Alright." Looking at the time. "They should be up by now. Maya?"

"Yes Sempai!"

The two would follow Akagi out.

"So when's the old girl getting back?"

"Our estimates were 0900 hours, but knowing the JSSDF it'll probably be a few hours delayed." With a huff. "Chill out for a few hours and I'll give you a ring when we're ready."

"Yeah we can do that." Zero Two would shrug. "Do you know what they have for breakfast in the cafeteria?"

"I think they have grilled salmon and rolled omelette as a special today."

"Ooh that's not so bad!" Grabbing her darling by the arm. "C'mon! I haven't had fish in ages!"

Misato could only sigh. "Lovebirds."

Picking herself up and giving a stretch. "Well, may as well do the rounds and make sure everything's ready to go."
~~~
Yui had been up for the past couple hours, looking through whatever was available in regards to the new Evangelion systems, the NACSS and the ELIZA.

In came the elder Kyoko, with a couple mugs of coffee in her hands. "Thanks Kyo." Yui grabbing hold of hers and sipping with both hands.

"So what do you think of it?"

"I think we've missed out on decades of development." With a snort. "At least it feels like it. Baffles me this is at most a couple years of development."

"Isn't the NACSS months old at this point?"

"And yet so much development already." Passing a few papers. "They work fast."

In essence, it was all the same concept they had developed long ago: two souls working together to move the Evangelion. Well with the ELIZA, it was trivial if it could be called a soul, at least in early stages. But the NACSS was essentially the core system without having the other within the core.

"…Heh. Wonder how things would have gone if we'd developed such a system first."

"Glaubst du, die alten Bastarde würden uns dieses System überlassen?"
("You think the old bastards would let us have that system?")

To Yui's snicker. "No, probably not." And sigh. "If it was all preordained as they thought."

"Think there's more a couple old-timers like us could add to it?"

A thought.

"Nah." With a slight smile, twinged with melancholy. "I think the current generation has it sorted."

The papers would be moved aside, Yui taking another sip of coffee. "Sounds like there's plenty out there to research, at least."

"Mhm, we won't be left out on the street at least!"

The doors would open. "Good morning Soryu, Ikari." Ritsuko would bow. "Zeppelin too."

"Ich bin gerne dabei." She would mutter. "Busy day today."
("Glad to get involved.")

"Mhm, it'll probably be all hands on deck for us testing NT-Unit-00 and getting the other Evangelion ready for sync testing tomorrow." Filing in. "Not that we expect you two to get involved in that."

"We've never had much luck with sync tests." Yui would offer in flat remark.

"I see where Shinji gets it from."

"Mhm, we have it sorted."

She'd take out a few files, and place them down. "But I'm sure you know by now we have other research ongoing at any one time. Befitting our roots as Gehirn, we never stopped researching the metaphysical and adjacent. Even if they had broadly taken a backseat as we pivoted over to Evangelion."

"Especially with all these Rift works we have, there's a bounty of options to choose from!"

Indeed there were. "Gravity manipulation… Calabi-Yau space manipulation… Angel substrate and how to monetise it?"

"Oh yeah that's our Ultradisc project, you can use Ramiel-esque crystalline like a CD and hold a lot of data. I think it was twenty gigabytes on a single disc off the top of my head."

"Main limitation is synthesising this substrate into something commercially viable."

"Or even synthesising it at all." Maya would shrug. "I don't think we've even gotten that far yet."

"Might be an interesting thing to tackle." Yui thought aloud. "How far along is it?"

"It's been on the backburner for a while now, not much else has been done."

"We've had a few equivalents come through as Rift Material on blue ray I think their term was." Elaborated Maya. "Capacity wise they're equivalent but we really need to think of a better way of reading them."

"How do you read them now?"

"Uhh this was the room I think."

Leading them to a lead door. "So in here is our prototype Ultradisc reader. Maya?"

Clicking a button, a beam of violent would blare through the several inch thick layer of glass.

"Ich glaube, du hast gerade meine Augäpfel sterilisiert."
("I think you just sterilised my eyeballs.")

"And that's why it's a prototype!"

"Hey is safe to be exposed to that, right?"

"It's only marginally outside of the safe range for ultraviolet exposure."

"Oh joy." Yui blinked. "Yeah if only just so you guys don't get irradiated I might work on that."

"Do you guys have other projects?"

"Not really anymore fully developed." Sorting through the documents. "Heck even the Calabi-Yau stuff is early days and theoretical, at least the gravity manipulation we have the theory proven. We just need to work on getting a prototype working."

"If we weren't so busy of course."

"And the Magi have a few more internal projects as well, one of our Rift materials disappeared into the void so they're looking back through security footage in order to re-create it. Might be more things in there once it's ready for reading again."

"Heck even going through the Rift materials yourself and seeing if there's any inspiration to be gauged from it!" Beamed Maya. "The Portals might be good in that regard, hard-light and speed gel."

"If you can get past the murderous computer."

"The what now?"

"Yeah I might go for the gravity manipulation." Kyoko would select. "I always wondered how that worked."

"It's gravitons."

"Wait really?"

Ritsuko would nod.

"Huh, my money was on non-symmetry."

"I was a MOND girl myself." Ritsuko would chuckle. "Anyway, I'll leave you two to it. I trust you have it in hand to gather up a science team for it?"

"Well we've done it before."

"So what we're the heads of these projects now?"

"No one else is." With small smile, and an arm around her daughter's shoulder. "I'm sure Eliza would be keen to help out with one of those projects."

To her grin. "You bet!"

The two seniors would look between each other. "Well I'm sure gravity would be of more interest to her than a CD."

"Mhm, you wanna help out with that, Eliza?" Kyoko would request.

"Yeah!" With a nod. "I helped a bit out with it before, so I'd like to see it through."

"That and it keeps you occupied for the day."

"That too." Rubbing the back of her head.

"I will leave you three to it then." Ritsuko would say, both her and her Kohai turning to leave. "I'll come get you when we're ready to go through the Rift material again Eliza."

"Thanks, I'll see you then mama! Ma!"

Both giving coy waves away, and they left.

"Heh, I didn't know she was a mother already."

"About time for her!" Kyoko would prod. "Wait how does that work you're as old as Rei right?"

"Oh I didn't come about the usual way, I'm an ELIZA."

Kyoko blinked. "Y'know I should've known that given your name."

"I thought it was obvious."
~~

The sun had set over the city of Massachusetts, the heavy clouds and rain aiding to bury the light.

Kaworu and Mari would watch, from a rooftop. Heedless of the weather.

It was an itch that couldn't be scratched at this point. Like a dagger poking into their back. "…God, Ash. What is this thing?"

"I don't know."

Stepping onto the railing. "But tonight we find it. And we sort it."

And stepping onto the air.

Their AT-Field would function as an umbrella, shielding them from the rain. The yellow glow like a firefly in the air, ripples at Kaworu's feet as Mari hovered around him.

Working on the feeling. "Ash?" As she pulled him westward.

So they would continue. "It is stronger here, but not as potent as it was before."

"We're getting close though."

Closer, and closer.

"Here."

They would find themselves on top of the Prudential. Harsh halogens and the warning beacons of the radio towers providing the only illumination, as the rain continued to come down.

"No more running." He would command. "Show yourself."

A quiet.

And yet the feeling remained. "I know you're here." Walking forward. "Show yourself."

Another beat.

And the ringing of a jingle bell. Like the warning of a rattlesnake.

Eyes would pinprick, goosebumps on his skin.

Mari would dissipate back into him, as he took another step forward.

"…Samia dostia." A language neither he or Mari knew. But perhaps they would. "…Ari Aditia."

A soft but garbled voice in reply, before it switched to something they would know.

"You speak in your ancient tongue without understanding what it means."

Kaworu would slowly turn his head to the voice.

So he beheld, the Incubator.

It was sat on ground, not caring of the weather as Kaworu was. It would stare at Kaworu with lifeless red eyes and unmoving expression. "How far your kind have fallen from their height."

"…What do you mean, our kind?" Cautious, and firm, in his query.

"To not even have an understanding of your history." Still emotionless in tone, if not word. "To use such base words to describe them would be a disservice, regardless of our mutual past."

The rings around their ears would slowly spin, the figure on their back giving a soft glow. "A history lesson, then."

A void emanated from the Incubator, Kaworu immediately setting up an AT bubble around him to give him some protection.

Darkness. If not for the jingle bell. "Where are you?"

"Let there be light."

A burst, before the rapid formation of a nebula. "Our stories are mutual. Similar if not on the opposite sides of the galaxy you would eventually call a home."

A rocky world around a red dwarf. "Like your ancestors, we first came to be around a protostar. And over the billions of years-" The world visibly greened and built up, orbital constructs appearing. "-We would eventually reach the stars."

Two visibly and diametrically opposing ships, and in the centre a large nexus. Within, humanoids similar in shape to Kaworu and figures to match that of the Incubator. They appeared to have reached an accord between each other. "Our kinds would meet, and make peace. Eventually to live together." Scenes of their collaboration. "Working together. Relaxing together. Finding comfort in each other."

Kaworu would take in the scenes from his bubble. "What changed?"

Shifting to a bombardment. "War."

A mass battle in space. Attack ships on fire. Mass emplacements glittering in the dark. "No blame can be laid. It was so long ago that whatever disagreement we had is irrelevant."

The implication they held would be made clear shortly, however.

A sudden shift onto a planet.

And the corpses of Incubators. Above, the Milky Way in the night sky was marred red. "However it started, it ended with the near complete genocide of our kind."

Kaworu would feel nothing.

They would end up back on top of the Prudential. "Of course, as we are coming to learn, the dominion of your kind was not to last. To choose to settle on such a backwater, far away from the core worlds."

Another piercing gaze. "And yet even in this base form that you call humanity, there still springs elements of them." The rings would slow to a stop. "An interesting happenstance that we could not ascribe to coincidence, despite lacking evidence."

A step forward. "To see you, however. In the form of them. An interesting development, to say the least."

"If you're trying to manipulate me, Incubator, it will not work." Quiet, yet simmering. "That's what you are. Your nature is to manipulate who you see as lower, and anything other than your kind is lower. All you care about is to harvest from the cattle that you believe us to be."

A beat.

"Perhaps you know more than I thought."

Before it turned around. "I get the impression we will be seeing each other again. So I will see you then."

"No." Kaworu commanded. Slowly walking towards it. "This ends tonight."

"We are not interested in a fight." It walking away.

"I do not care." Kaworu would rush towards it at a high speed, attempting to grab hold of it.

Only for it to phase out, and back in on one of the support beams holding the radio tower up. "Once again your kind is the instigator. Another similarity."

It knew how to get under his skin, Kaworu jumping up to intercept. "Stand and fight."

Once again phasing in and out. "It is not in our best interests to fight."

He'd fall to the ground with a thud. "No matter how enlightening it may be for us."

"STAND AND FIGHT!" Once more rushing it, and once more the Incubator phasing away.

This time above Kaworu, it attempting to pounce on him from above only to be parried by Mari. "You are not them. You are not worth spending energy on."

Mari would toss them ahead, it flipping in the air and landing on their feet. She stood aside Kaworu, as they both approached. Stand and deliverer.

"Do you want to find out how close we are to them?" His golden eyes would glow in the night.

A beat. Seemingly processing it, almost computerised in their thinking.

"Yes."

The rings around their ears would spin rapidly, the Incubator suddenly outputting another reality bubble, Kaworu and Mari shielding themselves from it.

It would appear as a grassy knoll, with dark clouds above. "This is another manipulation, it will not be massive in scale."

"On it."

Her form dissipated into Kaworu's AT-Field, acting as a spur rocketing out of it.

A massive figure akin to an Incubator would appear in the clouds, immediately gunning for Mari. "Heh, that's cute."

Dissipating again she'd appear on the other side of Kaworu's field. "Come here!"

It would follow her. "Make yourself portable Ash!"

He'd hover in his field, the ground beneath him fading into the grass as the field fully enveloped him.

Mari would rush back, through the inside of Kaworu's field, and directly opposite again. Moving until the tether would tighten. "Get ready Ash!"

He'd let the tension release, as Mari set herself on an upward trajectory.

Kaworu in his bubble would be spun around like a trebuchet, landing on the figure at great velocity.

This was enough to disable the manipulation briefly, Mari reforming beside Kaworu. "Where are they?"

He'd turn, to see the Incubator stand on the precipice. "Interesting."

It would jump.

"C'mon!"

The two would jump and catch up to it, Mari punting it against one of the concrete supports. "Unnecessary."

Another pounce, off the concrete and straight into Kaworu.

Even with the AT-Field, the velocity it possessed was enough to send him flying. "No you don't!" As Mari counteracted it, wielding Kaworu like a hammer.

He'd be turned around, his AT-Field eventually coming into contact with the Incubator at such a velocity that the windows of that side of the Prudential would shatter.

That wouldn't be enough for them, following where the Incubator would fly, it impacting hard on the bricks of an alleyway before landing on the ground with a thud.

Still, it would stand. "An interesting ability you possess. One I have noted in others but not nearly as strong. And yet I wonder, why do you need a construct to maintain your integrity?"

"For all the knowledge you possess, you do not know of something as base as the AT-Field." He'd scoff. "Pitiful."

"We do not need this AT-Field to maintain our forms." Still with such a blank stare. "Is this replicant form really so fragile as to warrant this extra protection?"

Mari would emerge through Kaworu. "Wouldn't you like to know you fucking rat!"

The Incubator would be punched, it gracefully landing on a wall and bouncing back towards Mari.

Phasing in and out, it would attempt to land hits on her, as Kaworu orbited, and occasionally pulling her back as means of protecting her.

A parry, and a bounce back. "And you. A compartmentalised spark of life, coexisting with another in the one vessel. Such a feat our greatest thought impossible, and yet here you stand."

"Hah!" In a sneer. "Impossible means nothing to us! Just who the hell do you think we are?!"

"You are nothing." Once more pouncing.

She would dissipate into the wind.

And from above, Kaworu would rocket down, forming a crater in the ground.

The dust quickly settled, aided by the rain. He now held the head of the Incubator in his hand, in a death grip. Suspended in front, his AT-Field completely mitigating anything it could do, as it squirmed helplessly.

"…tell me, Incubator." The rain was boiling off his AT-Field at this point. The only light coming from his eyes, and a single sodium lamp above a back door. "Do you fear death?"

"The universe does not care if you are living or dead. It will continue unyielding. And as long as there is one of our kind left in this universe, so too will we."

"Perhaps, but what of yourself?!" Putting the pressure on, as he started to burrow into its mind. Eyes now fully consumed in a golden glow. Doing to it what Arael did to him, an attempt to learn by force. "As soon as you die your world ends. And what then? I could go on to kill the rest of your kind, as we had done before. I could end the universe. Does it not eat away at you to not knowing?!"

"Ash!" Muffled to him at this point.

"Tell me, Incubator!" Forcing himself further and further. "What will you do if I kill the rest of your kind?!"

Eyes unmoving, Kaworu felt them lock onto his own.

What had been a void was suddenly filled with noise. Echoes. Of vehement hatred and existential fear. "Whatever you do to me does not hold a candle to what your ancestors did to us."

It was a testament to Kaworu's resolution that he did not tremble at the display. The absolute overwhelming nature of the emotion expressed by the Incubator only caused his grip to tighten.

"There is no me." The hollow mind echoed the line back. "You do not yet possess the capability to end us. If I were in the hands of a-" The next word sounded like static to him. ", They would end our presence in a heartbeat. You are not capable of that. So why should we care what you do to me, and why should we care what we do to you?"

There was a quiet. Broken only by the fluorescent buzz of the lamp, and the sizzling of rain on his field.

Kaworu could sense another emotion from the being. Or perhaps the collective of beings.

Mockery.

With the speed of a rail gun, the Incubator was thrown against a brick wall, leaving a large blood stain as it lifelessly slid down.

This was not enough for Kaworu, who jumped the Incubator.

It would be thrown and hit against the walls several more times.

The utter insolence. Their continued existence was not only an insult to him, nor to all of mankind.

It was an insult to all life borne from the First Ancestral Race.

The lamp would shatter in Kaworu's rage, sparks raining down as the light left it. "ASH! STOP!"

Soon enough, the Incubator's neck would end up wrapped in Kaworu's hands, him squeezing.

The crushing of bone would rip through the alley as his nails carved in, their eyes still locked on Kaworu, uncaring. He could not even tell if it was alive or dead.

Blood dripped from his hands, and his head.

A hand found itself on his shoulder. "…Kaworu. Please." Mari quietly pleaded. "T… That's enough."

A quiet gasp, as he froze.

The glow would fade from his eyes.

And he would drop the Incubator to the floor. The neck was so destroyed at this point, it only took the relatively minor shock of hitting the concrete from a few feet up to free the head from the neck.

And yet even battered and bruised, with no signs of life as blood pooled from what was left, it would still possess those eyes. They did not change even as the Incubator lost its life, if Kaworu could even call its existence living.

He'd heave breath. Falling to his knees. The rain washing over him.

He was tired. This would show even on Mari's form, flickering like a poor signal as she ran in front of him, clutching at his arms. "Kaworu! Talk to me dude! Are you okay?!"

His mind was ablaze. His heart pounding. His body aching. Unable to concentrate on anything.

Mari's eyes would rapidly glance over him. She could feel the pain he was going through.

All she could do was hold him. Offering what warmth she could. "Hey… I'm here, buddy… I'm here…"

Holding him in the rain. Feeling his breathing calm down, his heart quell. His mind slow.

Feeling his arms wrap around her, slowly returning the gesture. And desperately holding onto her.

You couldn't tell if it was rain or if it were his tears. "…so this is what the Lilim felt for us."
~~~

Maybe with the old guard working in the background some of these projects we've mentioned over the past five years can finally get some traction eh? :p

Big happenings in Massachusetts though, practically the culmination of this arc in a few ways. The first encounter with the Incubator (and believe me there'll be much more where that comes from). And yeah, if anything can bring utter rage to a FAR descendent, it's them.
The reasons for this will become clear in future instalments, as the Incubator mentioned they go back a long time :D
Y'know what else also goes back a long time? Wix and I planning this backstory :p

And yeah, Kaworu's gonna be needing a few hugs from anyone after tonight. At least Mari is with him, and Rei has a presence within him.

Meanwhile Mabel's just having a completely peachy time ain't she? :D And yes, there may be more than a friendly feeling she possesses for Paz, look forward to that if you ship them :D
And if you don't, well, sucks to be you :p Dip's already taken unless we start getting into polycules. Which, y'know, it is Chronicles, may not be out of the question IF NOT FOR THE FACT IT"D BE WITH MABEL AS WELL NO FORGET I MENTIONED THAT-
On another note I implied Mabel was with Tambry in the past, and fun fact there are absolutely no Tambel fics out there! Like, at all! There's a single kinda crummy AO3 fic about Dipper getting a love potion of some sort and playing havoc and the Tambel that has is a single line of them ignorantly sharing a kiss!
I thought this was the Internet! We ship everything with everyone! I've seen more Mabill content than Tambel! Doublepines is a more popular ship for God's sake! I'm gonna fucking write a Tambel fic even if it kills me!

*ahem* almost lost my cool there :p

Episode 2 definitely brings along some improvements, definitely more variety compared to Episode 1, but still not as good as the original Half-Life 2 at least to start with. I definitely enjoy it a lot more once you get to the jalopy. Wasn't a fan of the whole Alyx getting stabbed, would've thought at that point she'd have more awareness of how dangerous the world could be, and if you hear a strange noise you don't know what it is, you might wanna find somewhere to stash yourself just in case it's a freakin' hunter y'know? :V
Still, always satisfying squashing all those antlion grubs, so that makes up for it. Well worth Alyx getting stabbed :p

Anyway, one more chapter to go in Lambda! And then we get to The Comedown Chronicles covering Strypgia's Evangelion The Hangover! (no not A&T The Hangover despite it being somewhat similar in background :V). Wonder if this will inspire a tumbleweed again (not if Misato has anything to say about it! And she does! :p)
No, Ritsuko will not make Romulan Ale in Chronicles no matter how much they beg, that is perhaps the worst idea she could implement from the Rift materials. I mean c'mon the pilots are the horniest people known to man already! This will just make it worse! :p
And after that, well, that my friends is where the fun begins 😈
 
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Has it really been five years? ...How long has it been since i even started posting in this Thread? ...How long has this Thread been around? ...Why do i feel old?
 
A question for @BG_Character_592 : has the Asuka of the Chronicles Timeline ever experienced visiting via dreams a reality that in some way is better and in other worse than her native one... fighting with a scaled down copy of the True Lance together with a squad all lesbian for their tuna teammate (aka: Honkai Impact 3d)?
 
At least we know how much is left of Half life 2. While you say Ritsuko will not invent Romulan Ale in the chronicles timeline, what if some one else finds the formula for it? A minor question in regards to some thing mentioned in this chronicles. What would be the status of the manga Fullmetal Alchemist in the chronicles timeline?
 
BG_Character_592 said:
Credit to @Wixelt for these titlecards by the way, they've done an excellent job with these over the past few years :D
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Always a pleasure. :D

BG_Character_592 said:
Wow okay so today marks a pretty significant day for Chronicles. Today marks five years since it had its start in this thread! :D

I honestly never thought it'd get this far, what started as a funny one-shot kinda quickly spiralled out of control into the behemoth it is today huh? :p The only reason it's lasted this long is due to your continued support, so for that you have my eternal thanks and gratitude. It means a lot to me :)
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*hugs*

BG_Character_592 said:
Let's get a bit statistical (nothing sexier than that huh :p) and look at just what Chronicles has achieved over the past five years. In five years we:
  • Have a total of 22 mainline works, 3 April Fools works, 1 sidestory, and at least 80 omake
  • 1.8 million words shared between all of these according to AO3 (the longest of which so far is still Project G at 367k words (thanks Ultra Sonic 007 :p))
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'Terrifying' doesn't even begin to describe the amount of words written. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
Over three hundred total works suggested to cover for Chronicles
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Yeah, that sounds about right.

BG_Character_592 said:
And a lot more left to go! Believe me, with the ideas Wix and I have come up with, we have plenty to fill out another five years! If only you knew what we had planned, maybe we'll pepper a few clues in for you to pick out :p
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And don't think I didn't spot them. :D
Really, ya'll have no idea.

BG_Character_592 said:
The letter was snatched from his hands, Mabel immediately reading starting. "Da da da- 'As a sign of goodwill between the Bowie Administration and NERV, Pacifica Northwest will be released into the custody of NERV-Massachusetts so that her skills may be utilized for the good of the people of the United States of America-' you WHAT, MASON?!" Very nearly screaming her shock.

"Not exactly getting her off scot free, but I think that's the closest he can get without getting himself impeached." Scratching the back of his head. "I believe you can handle the rest from-"

Mabel would bowl Dipper over, tackling him to the ground and into a tight hug. "…Damn it! You stupid… you… ya could've told me earlier!"

His smile only grew, as Mabel's eyes visibly welled.

"…Mason." Her head on his chest. Some tears soaking in. "…How the hell am I ever gonna repay you for that…"
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"Invite me that the wedding, maybe?"

BG_Character_592 said:
"…God, Dip." Glancing up, with a warm smile. "If you weren't my brother I would've totally married you by now y'know."

"Good thing I am your brother then." Grabbing the letter and waving it in her vision. "For Paz's sake."
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Among others reading in on the conversation. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
Ke: "Well if it's Russia, the two biggest things are the October Revolution or the end of the Second World War. So… 1918- puts that sign 1968, and 1945 puts that sign at 1995."
Z: "So that could approximately be when the Resonance Cascade happened?"
Mi: "Give or take a few years, I doubt they'd be that up to date with the iconography."
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The best guess i've seen for the date of Half-Life 1 - and the one I personally ascribe to - is 2003. Really, any date in the early 2000s is a good bet.

BG_Character_592 said:
Ke: "Well the lights are still running so I'm presuming we can get it working." Alyx would definitely make an attempt. "Not sure how I feel about having the generator inside the building though- what the heck is that?!"
It was a gnome. "Well. Out of all the things I'd expect in this game, that wasn't it."
Ky: "You better carry it throughout the game!"
Ke: "W-What?! Why would I do that!?"
Ky: "For fun!"
Kensuke launched it through the roof and into space. "Mah!" Kyoko would pout.
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So much for the achievement. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
The music would swell, Kensuke doing nothing but shoot.
Ky: "Man they're everywhere!"
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Vortal Combat is the best piece of music in the soundtrack, no joke, and for good reason. :D
Last Legs is a close second.

BG_Character_592 said:
Ke: "Story of my life right there." Prodding with a snicker. "Okay mister Vortigaunt, where are we going next?"
Mar: "Why on E-Earth would he word it like t-that? He? They? Do they have a sex or g-gender?"
Mi: "They're aliens from another dimension, Mari."
Mar: "They then."
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Pronouns are important. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
Ri: "It's all theoretical anyway." Still writing notes though. "Never know when that could come in handy."
Mi: "Y'know I did wanna explore Nephilim's a bit further at some point, now that we're making a start with them again. As long as you two don't mind it of course."
Re: "I do not. If we could treat it as a back up."
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Count your blessings Chronicles isn't that dark, Rei. You live in an Evangelion world, so it'd have been needed ten times over otherwise.

BG_Character_592 said:
Re: "You can gauge a lot about what the Vortigaunts believe in by how they speak."
Sa: "Wouldn't even surprise me if this All in One they talk about actually exists."
Ke: "It's Xen, they've had gods before."
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They'd prefer you didn't refer to the Nihilanth by such terms, I'd imagine. They were a cruel slavemaster, desperate as they were.

BG_Character_592 said:
Z: "Maybe the earholes would work to stick something into, how do they reproduce?"
E: "How long have you been thinking of that, Zero Two?"
Z: "Honestly it's been stuck in my head ever since it's been mentioned. Like… how."
Re: "They are a metaphysical species, so perhaps their method of reproduction is the same. In that sense they may not have holes and poles as we do."
Misato couldn't help but splutter a laugh at the comparison. "I'm just hoping that little claw on their chest isn't what amounts to genitals."
Ky: "I can't imagine that'd feel too great."
A: "Maybe they don't even have holes, they just hold hands with that thing."
Ke: "Are we really talking about how Vortigaunts reproduce?!" Entering another cave, continuing to kill every grub he saw.
A: "Hey it's an interesting subject!"
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No joke it actually is. Never thought about it before but... Yeah, i'd say it'd have to be a metaphysical union of some kind unless the necessary whatits are concealed. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
At the very least, Kensuke reaching the vibratory device, as the Vortigaunt put it, would give them some leeway with the antlions.
Sh: "That's an even worse name for it!"
Ky: "God imagine though!"
Ke: "I can't compete with that!"
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A feeling of inferiority in the face of the Combine's power is fairly normal, i've found, though it honestly shouldn't be and my advice is to ignore it and shoot things.

BG_Character_592 said:
Ke: "Oh I'm definitely not comp-" It was snared by a barnacle. "Come on!" Shooting it. "Don't freaking steal my- ow fuck!" As the presumedly several kilogram heavy gear landed square on his head.
Ky: "Well Freeman just lost a few IQ points with that."
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This nearly got a genuine snort out of me, BG. Well played. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
The Vortigaunts beckoned Freeman join them. "Oh look! They're soulbinding those two!" Cheered Asuka.
Re: "Well if their relationship was not strong before."
Z: "Should we ask why a human is needed?"
May: "Maybe it's so they have a template to heal them from?"
Mar: "I mean it's not exact to her g-gender but I suppose it's better than nothing."
Sa: "That and she's the only female for like hundreds of kilometres. Unless one of those Vorts are female."
Ky: "I've been struggling to tell."
Ka: "Oh wow it really is a soul bond… outright weaving Freeman's life with hers."
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I was wondering if Rei was going to notice this. It's one of the aspects of this setting that probably draws the most interest for her, given the rest of it is... well... you know.

BG_Character_592 said:
Ke: "I played this weird Quake mod which tied your health with a random ally, more often than not it just meant you died quicker. But the concept of it is definitely interesting, might be good for a more sandbox type game."
Ri: "Honestly that might even be a good gimmick for a sim if we can get it coded."
A: "And you're sure we won't just die faster because we get twice as much damage?"
Ri: "Well no, but maybe it'll encourage teamwork and not dying."
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We can only hope, Rits. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
Mar: "I mean she's been just as key to all this as Gordon has, even if it's a m-more mutual partnership."
Sh: "Does that mean we might get a game starring her?"
Ky: "God I hope so, she'd be a fucking girl boss!"
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And she is in it, too. Might want to get through this game first, though.

BG_Character_592 said:
Ke: "Are they coming with?" Waiting a moment for them to drop down. "No? Alrighty!"
Ri: "They'll probably just spawn in."
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It happens like that at a few point. The game saves on development time by shortcutting animations and having moments like that happen outside the view of the player. Notice that you never see the Vort climb a ladder even though he'd have to have done so at least once or twice following you around the mine. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
May: "So that voice is of the Advisors?"
Mar: "Or Shu'ulathoi, as the V-Vorts call them."
Mi: "To have a name, they must have a history with them."
Z: "So the Combine are now split amongst the Advisors, in that case?"
Ka: "An autonomous unit, yes. No longer do they have central authority."
A: "They have to do the work themselves now!"
Re: "And probably better than Breen could."
A: "Well that's not even a contest, a frog could do a better job than Breen!"
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This stuff is a detail I love about Half-Life. Small moments like this open up so many implications for the wider universe, inferring so much history in a single statement, even if it never gets elaborated on. :D

BG_Character_592 said:
A nearby terminal would zoom in on the vehicle. "Ooh that's not a Soviet car!"
Mi: "Wait that's a Mustang!"
Mar: "Eh I think it more looks like a Dodge. Charger, I t-think."
Ke: "How are Dodges like in terms of quality?"
A: "Kensuke here's how car quality goes: Soviet, English, Italian, American, German, Japanese."
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Totally not biased, there. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
Outside again, seeing some rummaging in a dumpster.
H: "May as well use some of those grenades you found huh?"
Ke: "I think that's what they want us to do, yeah."
He threw it in.
And it was promptly thrown out. "GAH!" Exploding. "You cheeky bastard!"
He threw another one in. "Kensuke why did you try that again?"
Ke: "Well you never know if it'll work a second time!"
Surprisingly it did, setting a fast zombie on fire and giving Kensuke an advantage in dispatching it. "I'd call that worth it!"
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Was hoping this moment would happen. Was not disappointed. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
Ri: "They don't, we manufacture them in house. In comparison Toyota gives us a significant discount on their forklifts because we save the world on the regular and it looks good for their image."
Sh: "Surely you guys aren't chewing through forklifts regularly, right?"
Ri: "No, but we need a lot of them. I think we have over a thousand forklifts working in the Geofront, granted at least a third of them are charging at any one time and we need that rapid turnaround. You'd be surprised how much of our logistics rely on forklifts."
Mi: "Technically lifting anything more than twenty kilos requires mechanical lifting aides, and especially over long distances you'd need more than a pallet jack."
Sa: "Maybe if you guys can get the gravity gun working, it might be better than just using a forklift for everything."
Ri: "I dunno, forklifts are really useful…"
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Look, justify your forklift cult however ya'll like. Ya ain't slick. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
May: "Not to mention the sheer amount of resources it'll take to sink into that to get working."
E: "I mean we have a lot of the setup. Even if we do it at a macro scale to start with, we can always minimise it later."
A: "Might keep our mothers occupied at least."
Mi: "Oh yeah they were interested in a research and development role, might be a good chance to cut their teeth on something that isn't Evangelion." She blinked. "Shit I might get them on that today, see what they can do with it."
Sh: "Sounds like they're gonna have a few things to look into with this game."
Ri: "Thanks to Bond we have made a head start on some of the concepts elaborated on in this game. We can definitely get them on gravity manipulation. Might melt their brains less than the timespace stuff."
May: "Ikari seemed pretty excited about the possibility."
Ri: "We can keep her on that and maybe Soryu on the gravity gun concept."
A: "Ooh she might like that!"
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Might even need to draft up some project names, at this stage.

BG_Character_592 said:
Ky: "You heard the grenade, Ken! Why did you run towards it!?"
Ke: "Panic." Reloading, thankfully the checkpoint was immediately before. "But now I know!" Picking up a folding chair. "And I know that bastard is over there!"
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"By Lilith its Gordon Freeman with a steel chair!"

BG_Character_592 said:
"We've never had much luck with sync tests." Yui would offer in flat remark.

"I see where Shinji gets it from."
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"...The defeatism or the bad luck with sync tests?"

BG_Character_592 said:
Leading them to a lead door. "So in here is our prototype Ultradisc reader. Maya?"

Clicking a button, a beam of violent would blare through the several inch thick layer of glass.

"Ich glaube, du hast gerade meine Augäpfel sterilisiert."
("I think you just sterilised my eyeballs.")
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"You say that like its a bad thing."

"...It is a bad thing!"

BG_Character_592 said:
"I was a MOND girl myself." Ritsuko would chuckle. "Anyway, I'll leave you two to it. I trust you have it in hand to gather up a science team for it?"

"Well we've done it before."

"So what we're the heads of these projects now?"
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Pretty much. Project X and Project... uh... B?

BG_Character_592 said:
"Heh, I didn't know she was a mother already."

"About time for her!" Kyoko would prod. "Wait how does that work you're as old as Rei right?"

"Oh I didn't come about the usual way, I'm an ELIZA."

Kyoko blinked. "Y'know I should've known that given your name."

"I thought it was obvious."
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"Part of me assumed it was named after you, really."

"Technically it is."

BG_Character_592 said:
"You speak in your ancient tongue without understanding what it means."

Kaworu would slowly turn his head to the voice.

So he beheld, the Incubator.
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Bastard.

BG_Character_592 said:
Two visibly and diametrically opposing ships, and in the centre a large nexus. Within, humanoids similar in shape to Kaworu and figures to match that of the Incubator. They appeared to have reached an accord between each other. "Our kinds would meet, and make peace. Eventually to live together." Scenes of their collaboration. "Working together. Relaxing together. Finding comfort in each other."

Kaworu would take in the scenes from his bubble. "What changed?"

Shifting to a bombardment. "War."

A mass battle in space. Attack ships on fire. Mass emplacements glittering in the dark. "No blame can be laid. It was so long ago that whatever disagreement we had is irrelevant."

The implication they held would be made clear shortly, however.

A sudden shift onto a planet.

And the corpses of Incubators. Above, the Milky Way in the night sky was marred red. "However it started, it ended with the near complete genocide of our kind."
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Not complete enough, awful as that sounds.

BG_Character_592 said:
Kaworu would feel nothing.
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Understandable.

BG_Character_592 said:
Kaworu could sense another emotion from the being. Or perhaps the collective of beings.

Mockery.
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They really are a bunch of awful little shits, aren't they?

BG_Character_592 said:
Feeling his arms wrap around her, slowly returning the gesture. And desperately holding onto her.

You couldn't tell if it was rain or if it were his tears. "…so this is what the Lilim felt for us."
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Don't put yourself down like that, Kaworu.

...What the Lilim felt for you was tame compared to this.

BG_Character_592 said:
Maybe with the old guard working in the background some of these projects we've mentioned over the past five years can finally get some traction eh? :p
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Fingers crossed! :p

BG_Character_592 said:
The reasons for this will become clear in future instalments, as the Incubator mentioned they go back a long time :D
Y'know what else also goes back a long time? Wix and I planning this backstory :p
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Geez, its been an age since the first bits of this were laid, eh?

BG_Character_592 said:
Meanwhile Mabel's just having a completely peachy time ain't she? :D And yes, there may be more than a friendly feeling she possesses for Paz, look forward to that if you ship them :D
And if you don't, well, sucks to be you :p Dip's already taken unless we start getting into polycules. Which, y'know, it is Chronicles, may not be out of the question IF NOT FOR THE FACT IT"D BE WITH MABEL AS WELL NO FORGET I MENTIONED THAT-
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Already forgotten it what were we talking about again?

BG_Character_592 said:
On another note I implied Mabel was with Tambry in the past, and fun fact there are absolutely no Tambel fics out there! Like, at all! There's a single kinda crummy AO3 fic about Dipper getting a love potion of some sort and playing havoc and the Tambel that has is a single line of them ignorantly sharing a kiss!
I thought this was the Internet! We ship everything with everyone! I've seen more Mabill content than Tambel! Doublepines is a more popular ship for God's sake! I'm gonna fucking write a Tambel fic even if it kills me!
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I'm with ya, but I feel like I have to state the mandatory "Please do not die!" anyway. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
*ahem* almost lost my cool there :p
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Almost.

BG_Character_592 said:
Episode 2 definitely brings along some improvements, definitely more variety compared to Episode 1, but still not as good as the original Half-Life 2 at least to start with. I definitely enjoy it a lot more once you get to the jalopy. Wasn't a fan of the whole Alyx getting stabbed,
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Would've been more than a little concerned if you were.

BG_Character_592 said:
would've thought at that point she'd have more awareness of how dangerous the world could be, and if you hear a strange noise you don't know what it is, you might wanna find somewhere to stash yourself just in case it's a freakin' hunter y'know? :V
Still, always satisfying squashing all those antlion grubs, so that makes up for it. Well worth Alyx getting stabbed :p
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We'll agree to disagree. :p

BG_Character_592 said:
Anyway, one more chapter to go in Lambda! And then we get to The Comedown Chronicles covering Strypgia's Evangelion The Hangover! (no not A&T The Hangover despite it being somewhat similar in background :V).
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Reality adjacent, at the very least.

BG_Character_592 said:
No, Ritsuko will not make Romulan Ale in Chronicles no matter how much they beg, that is perhaps the worst idea she could implement from the Rift materials. I mean c'mon the pilots are the horniest people known to man already! This will just make it worse! :p
And after that, well, that my friends is where the fun begins 😈
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*conspiratorial giggling resumes*

In the meantime, great piece BG! Always a treat to see these things come to fruition. :)

Fate/Online said:
Has it really been five years? ...How long has it been since i even started posting in this Thread? ...How long has this Thread been around? ...Why do i feel old?
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I instantly aged several decades when BG told me how long it had been. :p
Also, I checked for you, Fate. Thread started in September of 2014. You've been in this thread since October of 2016. Six and a half years, that means, placing you as having been around for more than half of the thread's eight and a half year history.
Personally i've only been here since December of 2018. Four and a half years, roughly, which is still a heck of a long time in Internet terms and terrifies me slightly.

Vajrei said:
A minor question in regards to some thing mentioned in this chronicles. What would be the status of the manga Fullmetal Alchemist in the chronicles timeline?
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Can't speak to any thoughts BG might have on this particular thing, but I can tell you from research that the FMA manga began in July of 2001, coming up on a year after Second Impact took place in the Evangelion timeline. Make of that what you will, but it would at minimum change the way the manga released, most likely.
 
BG_Character_592 said:
No, Ritsuko will not make Romulan Ale in Chronicles no matter how much they beg, that is perhaps the worst idea she could implement from the Rift materials.
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Given that I nearly had her leave Misato, Kitakami, and Nagara in the brig due to a Romulan Ale-fueled barfight at Deep Space Nine in my fic, it seems Ritsuko smartly has an intensive distaste for it in every timeline.
 
Fate/Online said:
Has it really been five years? ...How long has it been since i even started posting in this Thread? ...How long has this Thread been around? ...Why do i feel old?
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:p

MWKillKenny84 said:
A question for @BG_Character_592 : has the Asuka of the Chronicles Timeline ever experienced visiting via dreams a reality that in some way is better and in other worse than her native one... fighting with a scaled down copy of the True Lance together with a squad all lesbian for their tuna teammate (aka: Honkai Impact 3d)?
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Well who can truly know with how the realities work and interact with the metaphysical, especially considering we can see alternate realities already via the Astral... so maybe! :D

Vajrei said:
While you say Ritsuko will not invent Romulan Ale in the chronicles timeline, what if some one else finds the formula for it?
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If someone else finds the formula for it NERV will make sure it doesn't see the light of day :V

Vajrei said:
A minor question in regards to some thing mentioned in this chronicles. What would be the status of the manga Fullmetal Alchemist in the chronicles timeline?
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Wixelt said:
Can't speak to any thoughts BG might have on this particular thing, but I can tell you from research that the FMA manga began in July of 2001, coming up on a year after Second Impact took place in the Evangelion timeline. Make of that what you will, but it would at minimum change the way the manga released, most likely.
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Wix said it best :D
I did mention FMA existing (Luz and Amity know about it, turbo nerds they are :V), but odds are no anime of it exists.

Wixelt said:
Terrifying' doesn't even begin to describe the amount of words written. :p
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How about 'gargantuan'? :V
And yet there are still many more series out there with a lot more when it comes to the word count!

Wixelt said:
The best guess i've seen for the date of Half-Life 1 - and the one I personally ascribe to - is 2003. Really, any date in the early 2000s is a good bet.
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I've read 2001 to 2002 but yeah, any of those dates would probably fit.
Which would put HL2 in the 2020s, as if the new 20s could get any worse than OTL :p

Wixelt said:
So much for the achievement. :p
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Hey they made it to space! In another way :V

Wixelt said:
Count your blessings Chronicles isn't that dark, Rei. You live in an Evangelion world, so it'd have been needed ten times over otherwise.
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Well there's still time to make it dark if we want to :V

Wixelt said:
They'd prefer you didn't refer to the Nihilanth by such terms, I'd imagine. They were a cruel slavemaster, desperate as they were.
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They didn't see the [Everyvort hated that] indicator above them when they said it :V

Wixelt said:
No joke it actually is. Never thought about it before but... Yeah, i'd say it'd have to be a metaphysical union of some kind unless the necessary whatits are concealed. :p
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Wow so they just have their junk just out like that huh, if they knew that's actually their bits we'd never hear the end of it!

Wixelt said:
This nearly got a genuine snort out of me, BG. Well played. :p
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Rather amazing what funny moments come about when you actually play the dang game yourself huh :D

Wixelt said:
I was wondering if Rei was going to notice this. It's one of the aspects of this setting that probably draws the most interest for her, given the rest of it is... well... you know.
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There's quite a few similarities between the Vortescence and the metaphysical that I've noticed playing through the game, and yeah I'd like to think this bond they now share would come into play in future instalments (y'know, if we had any :V)
And yeah, she'd like to focus on that and not the whole Combine genocide and all that.

Wixelt said:
It happens like that at a few point. The game saves on development time by shortcutting animations and having moments like that happen outside the view of the player. Notice that you never see the Vort climb a ladder even though he'd have to have done so at least once or twice following you around the mine. :p
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I did notice that, you could even hear them climbing the ladder but that was the only feedback you had!
Much easier to record sounds than to draw an alien climbing a ladder huh :V

Wixelt said:
This stuff is a detail I love about Half-Life. Small moments like this open up so many implications for the wider universe, inferring so much history in a single statement, even if it never gets elaborated on. :D
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Makes it great fodder for elaborating on huh :D

Wixelt said:
Was hoping this moment would happen. Was not disappointed. :p
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YW :V

Wixelt said:
Look, justify your forklift cult however ya'll like. Ya ain't slick. :p
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Forklifts are great okay!

Wixelt said:
"By Lilith its Gordon Freeman with a steel chair!"
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The Combine are broken in half!

Wixelt said:
Geez, its been an age since the first bits of this were laid, eh?
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The Mabel and Paz stuff especially I think go back to 2020, and the Incubator stuff is at least a year or so old at that!
And if we're only getting to that stuff now, just you guys wait a few more years when we get to the stuff we're discussing now :D

Wixelt said:
I'm with ya, but I feel like I have to state the mandatory "Please do not die!" anyway. :p
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Don't worry I won't, not until there's at least one Tambel fic out there!
Of course it's Chronicles where this non-existent ship has a chance of existing :V

Wixelt said:
Already forgotten it what were we talking about again?
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NOT THAT! :p

Wixelt said:
In the meantime, great piece BG! Always a treat to see these things come to fruition. :)
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Especially when we've been tending to it for as long as we have huh :D

Wixelt said:
I instantly aged several decades when BG told me how long it had been. :p
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I've already used the Matt Damon gif so just imagine that again :V

Wixelt said:
Also, I checked for you, Fate. Thread started in September of 2014. You've been in this thread since October of 2016. Six and a half years, that means, placing you as having been around for more than half of the thread's eight and a half year history.
Personally i've only been here since December of 2018. Four and a half years, roughly, which is still a heck of a long time in Internet terms and terrifies me slightly.
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I've been here since the start of 2018, think there's only around 5 months removed from when I started here and when I started posting Chronicles. So I've pretty much been posting Chronicles as long as I've been here :D
That also means Chronicles has been running for more than half the length of the thread.
Where has the time gone indeed...

Allansfirebird said:
Given that I nearly had her leave Misato, Kitakami, and Nagara in the brig due to a Romulan Ale-fueled barfight at Deep Space Nine in my fic, it seems Ritsuko smartly has an intensive distaste for it in every timeline.
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It's Romulan Ale for God's sake it's a cursed drink that causes all sorts of narrative shenanigans! :p
 
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