- Location
- Canada
That looks like an experiment gone wrong. Maya and Hikari's facial expressions give me that impression.Uhuh, uhuh... *takes notes*
Advice and Trust [NGE]
The level of disappointment that left my mouth after reading this was palpable.
Believe me, I've told worse.
- Location
- Online
And in soooo many ways. I mean how many plots are not only about to finish cooking and be brought out of the oven, but are about to fight over counter space(....did i just make a clever cooking analogy for plots coming to fruition and fighting it out?)? How many of those will effect the country, or even the whole planet? ...How many of them have other plans meant to stop them, directly or indirectly, or even both? And how many people are directly involved in all those plans?
Then there's the simple fact this is the end game, both for the plot itself and, really, the fanfic itself. Sure you can probably get a few more chapters out of this without the Eva stuff i am sure(the Pilots romances alone could be worth a chapter a piece). But by and large this is the end, and ending things is hard.
- Location
- Canada
Since you showed us that clip, it inspired a question from me. How likely do you think either Gendo or Seele will say something like that during the final battle?
As likely as any of them saying 'Feliz Navidad' before the year is over…
View: https://youtu.be/WR6fJRwIo_U?si=P47xGWZUP_d4BZWE
- Location
- On the Cinerama Screen
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I've baked a special one - a cellular peptide cake, with mint frosting!
Comedy Omake #201 - Manga Chronicles 2
BG_Character_592
The Fisherman
- Location
- Australia
I promised myself I'd get this out before Christmas, and here you go! New Chronicles!
Mari struggles with some realisations, Rei continues to learn about the past, and Hikari grapples with the prospect that yes, she is the most sane one in this group, because we're going through the Evangelion Manga again!
Mari struggles with some realisations, Rei continues to learn about the past, and Hikari grapples with the prospect that yes, she is the most sane one in this group, because we're going through the Evangelion Manga again!
Another four empty coffees now sat on the table. "You got my message."
"Not through lack of effort." As Spencer Makinami took a seat. "Any of these mine?"
Kaji pointed to a particular cup. "They're using almond milk."
To his scoff. "Did they run out of normal milk?"
"Yes actually."
"How the hell do you-" Catching himself, as Kaji huffed in amusement. "Your contact came though then?"
"Mhm, I've gone through the list." Passing him a notebook. "It's ciphered."
Spencer took out his key book and started breaking it down. "That list is all the Hawthorne employees that were also on the Blight payroll in this dataset."
"Mhm, we did take on a few when they collapsed." As he kept working. "Have kept my eye on them, but I'll redouble our surveillance on them."
"You've had any sabotage attempts yet?"
"No, but knowing Seele they like to worm their way in to cause the most amount of damage they can." In a huff. "I'll get an audit done on our current assets, check if anything's untoward."
Kaji couldn't help but be amused at how Spencer's face cringed upon sipping his almond milk coffee. "Mmgh… you have any at NERV?"
"At least one, yes."
The name was highlighted on his terminal. One Phillip Wittebane. "Might have to get our resident Angel to help us out with that."
~
Speaking of, Kaworu would make his presence known in the office of Commander Pines. "You wanted to see me, Commander?"
"You can just call me Mabel, y'know."
"Formality has been drilled into me from living in Germany and Japan my entire life."
"Heh, fair enough." Before a sigh. "I had a discussion with Dipper, regarding the pilots. I'm sure word would've gotten out one way or another that they are the pilots."
"You want more protection for them?"
"Well… yeah." With a glance aside. "What's your opinion on going back to school?"
He blinked. "Technically I was still meant to be in school."
"Oh? Well why didn't we enrol you as well?!"
"I did graduate university y'know." With a smirk. "School was a means to socialise me a bit more."
A moment of quiet, Mabel realising something.
She picked herself up, and walked towards him. "And I'm pretty sure someone else in there never ended up finishing school."
Another moment.
Kaworu stepped back, and the apparition would step out in front of him. Giving the Commander a sad smile. "I have a bit to c-catch up on, don't I?"
Mabel would scan the girl. Catching her eye to eye. "It really is you."
"Heh, no one else has a f-face like this, Mabes."
Another quiet.
Mabel pulled the being into a hug. "…I'm sorry."
"Hey, you weren't the ones that killed me. I'm pretty sure."
"No but it happened on our watch, and as Commander I've inherited that… we should have done more."
"Not much you could've done a-against Seele." In a sigh. "Sounds like it blindsided you g-guys."
"No one expected it Mari… God, I don't think Grunkle Stan ever forgave himself for sending you out like that."
"Doesn't surprise me."
They pulled back. "Whatever happened to the old c-codgers anyway?"
"Uhh… Stanley retired to Bend, and Stanford…" Furrowing her brow. "I don't know what he's doing actually. He still calls occasionally but he's always been skittish about what he's gotten up to since he retired… or even where he is."
"Oh the Pines twins have something secret going on, c-color me surprised."
Mabel couldn't help but snicker at that. "I mean it's pretty clear cut what Stanley is doing."
"I can't believe anyone would willingly l-live there."
"Hey! I come from there too young lady!"
"I'm only six years older t-than you."
"And still a teenager last time I checked!" She blinked. "Do you age when you're dead?"
"I mean technically?"
"Eh whatever." In a shrug. "Okay… so do I dare ask how you came back?"
"Do you want to hear a sob story?"
"Ehh…" Her brow settled.
"Yeah, thought so." Mari snorted. "Just know it was t-traumatizing and Ash here was pretty much the one who s-saved my ass."
"You're welcome."
Mari turned around to blow him a raspberry.
"I'm guessing that's why you're sticking around with him?"
"That and my s-soul can't survive on its own. It's gotten better, but I'm still p-pretty damaged."
"So you're pretty much crashing on his couch?"
"More or l-less, but he's cool with it."
"Mhm, for as long as you need Mari." With a small smile.
"And it's kinda cool, cause I can d-do a lot more than I could as well!"
"Oh I saw some footage of that Incubator fight, I didn't know that was you helping him out like that!"
Her wide smile immediately dropped to a frown. "And that's another thing! What are the Incubators and what do they want with us?!"
"Old enemies and our destruction."
"Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down, Kaworu?!"
"Oh we ain't n-narrowing this one down Mabes." Snickering. "Those little rats have hated us since the FAR."
"Goes back billions of years, yes."
Mabel was bug-eyed at the thought. "You can understand why we think the pilots need more protection, right?"
"Oh yeah it's perfectly u-understandable, huh Ash?"
"Sounds like I'm returning to school." He would chuckle. "It'd be good to keep an eye on Yomiko, at the very least."
"Alright!" In a cheer. "I'll get Dipper to kiss Nicky's boots tomorrow and hopefully you can get your first class this Tuesday!"
The door would close behind them. "Well, that went well."
Silence.
"…Mari?"
"I'm… going back." She stared into the distance. "I'm… I'm not sure if I'm ready, Ash. I… my death would've caused shockwaves there… I don't know if I want to see the aftermath of that."
A nudge on her arm. "I will be there, Mari. You will be okay."
"I… I hope so."
~~
Sayaka would watch the surrounds pass her by, her and Kyoko's train making the return journey to Tokyo-3.
The visit was… definitely enlightening, as it was colourful.
Closing her eyes, she'd sigh. "Kyo?" Giving the girl resting on her shoulder a nudge. "You up?"
"mmmgh… now I am." Half grumbling. "What's… what's on your mind?"
"Mami, mainly."
That got her counterpart to sigh too. "Yeah, I know… poor girl's going through a lot right now." She too would glance out the window, the natural surrounds gradually giving way to man made structure. "You think she'll be alright?"
"As alright as she can be, you know how Madoka's like. If she could get someone like Homura enjoying life…"
"You think she could cut through all that?" With a look towards her. "It'd kill me if I was in her shoes."
"Mami was easily the strongest of all of us, Sayaka." Nudging her back. "She'll be fine."
"Mmgh… you say that, but judging by our materials, she's one of the most fragile."
"Well think about it, if she lost hope, she would've thrown herself from that hospital window as soon as she had the chance. If she's really that fragile."
Pausing for thought. "…You have a point."
"She'll be fine, Sayaka." And a kiss for good measure. "Don't try to worry yourself."
She'd blush. "I-I'll try… and hey, we're telling Kensuke about it anyway, eh?"
"Yeah, maybe we can get some mileage from that!"
The train would begin to pull into the station. "Heh, there's our loveable nerd!" Kyoko beamed. "We gonna bum-rush him?"
"Ooh you bet, Kyo!"
Kensuke paced down the train, looking through the windows trying to find his birds. "Where are they-"
"Oi!"
He snapped a look to the front of the train, to find Kyoko and Sayaka waving at him. "Looking for us, dummy?!"
"Ah, I was actually!" He'd smile back, walking towards them. "How was ToKYO-"
He didn't even get a chance to react as they both slammed into him, knocking all of them and their luggage to the platform, much to the girl's joyous giggling, especially as they further embarrassed him in public by lathering him in kisses. "Oh how did you ever survive without us, Ken-Ken?"
"A-ah… I dunno!" Through his blushing. "I-I'm guessing Tokyo-2 was good t-then?"
"Mhm, very much so."
"It was great catching up with our old friends again, shame you had NERV business to attend to but I'm sure you can make up for it somehow…" As she gave a sly look to Sayaka.
Kensuke knew them for long enough to know what that look meant, and much like Zapp Brannigan or Philip J Fry on the planet of the Amazonians, he was both excited and scared at the prospect. "W-Well, at the very least, you're gonna get a bit more time with me!"
They both furrowed their brows at that thought. "What do you mean by that?"
"You didn't get fired already?"
"Nah nothing like that." He shrugged off. "It's just that the Commander and I had a chat over the weekend and with our exams coming up she told me to take some time off so I can study and all that."
A beat, and the two girls looked between each other. "Oh. That's great."
"Yeah, wonderful. So might be a while before you get back into NERV eh?"
"You two sound less pleased about that than you might've been."
Sayaka sighed, as she helped pick Kensuke and Kyoko up. "We'll tell you on the way back to yours… you had any plans for dinner?"
"Old man knew you'd be back, so he was working on a hot pot for us."
"Ooh!" That perked Kyoko up.
"Heh, knew you'd be interested."
They'd start the walk back. "So I'm guessing you had a favour you wanted to ask of the brass?"
Another look between the girls. "Well… it's Mami."
"Her sis was put up for adoption after that crash of hers and Mami has no clue where she went, no one was answering her questions so she was wondering if NERV might have any luck."
Kensuke blinked. "Well shit if it's something like that, I'll give my boss a buzz when she gets back and see what they can do."
"Wait where is your boss?"
"America."
"Why is she in America?"
"Did you not see any of the news going on?"
"Madoka's mom doesn't have a television."
"Why on Earth does she-" Kensuke could only shake his head at the thought. "So I don't know the exact detail but she went over there because something big happened, and then an Angel attacked Boston! She was meant to be back tonight but Gods know if that's happening now."
It was Sayaka and Kyoko's turn to blink. "Well, we missed a lot."
"Feh, you can tell her when she gets back then." Kyoko huffed, stretching her arms up and resting them behind her head. "No point worrying about that now."
"Hmm, yeah you're right. No point fretting."
Sayaka would wrap her arms around Kensuke's. "It wasn't all sadness over there at least, we made sure she had as good a time as she could."
"That's good to hear, sounds like she's been through the wringer…" He could only sigh. "Madoka's mom still a bit of a kook?"
"Oh Christ Kensuke, she spent almost half an hour just absolutely whining about NERV!" She could laugh about it now she was in a different city from her.
"And not just NERV, she had a lot to say about the rest of the brass from Mitsubishi, let me tell you!"
"Heh, sounds like she has some stress going on in her life."
"I reckon that's half a reason Madoka's dad got his foot in the door with her." Kyoko stared blankly. "She's loud."
"I told you screaming like that would come back to bite you Kyoko!"
"Oh shoot me for enjoying myself with you two, Sa!" She snapped back. "Ken honey is your old man on nights?"
"Nah he's on his break at the moment."
"Ah drat!"
Sayaka would blow her a raspberry in reply.
~
Shinji and Asuka stood at the precipice of their apartment.
"Will you two be okay?" Rei would ask from behind.
The two of them would turn their heads to face her. "Yeah… I think so." Shinji put on a smile. "Will you, Rei?"
"Do not worry about me." Her smile was a bit more genuine, at the very least, as she tapped on her head. "I have company. And I have some studies to keep me occupied."
"Shoot we have those exams coming up don't we?"
"Not those." She'd snicker. "Something more of interest to myself, I will say."
"That's not a euphemism for something, eh wondergirl?" Asuka would prod at the girl, metaphorically and literally.
"Quell that dirty mind of yours Asuka, nothing of the sort." Still, she would blush at the suggestion. "You two have a good night, okay?"
"Heh, we'll try."
A quick bolt forward to hug the both of them. "I mean it… try not to let this manga get to you, okay?"
"We won't, don't worry yourself Rei…" Asuka would sigh into her, returning the gesture alongside Shinji.
With that, she would return to her own apartment.
And Shinji and Asuka crossed the precipice into their own sanctuary. "Oy… what a day." As Shinji immediately flopped on the couch. "I'm not the only one feeling mentally drained, right?"
"Funny what being reminded of your past does to you, huh?" Asuka would ponder, in the midst of washing her face in the kitchen sink. "Mmgh… at least you had a bit of a silver lining. It was all just downhill for me since that kiss of ours, if you could even call it a hill."
Shinji would turn himself over, facing up to the lights. "What would you call it?"
"Hmm…" As she found a spot beside him. "I'd call it a flat mound that blew off the edge of a cliff like the ending to Thelma and Louise. But at least the director of that had the good grace to end it on a freeze frame instead of showing them plummet and explode in fire and gore."
"Something Anno didn't quite have the grace to do."
A snort. "Well he got the gore part of my demise down pat." Before poking Shinji on his nose a few times. "You got out of that situation lightly, if I say so myself."
"Heh… Ask that Shinji and he wouldn't have thought so."
"No such thing as lightly in that world, huh?"
"Mhm, all a matter of perspective."
A beat.
Her hand drifted down to his cheek, holding him gently as she kissed his lips. "We got off lightly."
"Not through lack of effort."
"Oh God no, we had to go through hell and back to get off this lightly!" She'd snicker. "Maybe we can take that manga as a reminder as to how good we have it then, hmm?"
Asuka's position would shift, snuggling up to Shinji's chest as the boy almost instinctively held her close. "Because despite everything that happened, all the shit we've been through… well, I still have you to call my own at the end of the day, don't I?" Looking up to him, a small smile glistening through. "Even if we start branching out to the others, you're always gonna be special to me. You're the one that broke through my shell, taming the shrew so to speak."
"Oh you were worse than a shrew."
"Heh, baka." For that, he got another kiss. "I went easy on you. Good thing too, might not have warmed me up otherwise."
Speaking of, she'd settle into his warmth… cooing softly as his fingers started playing with her hair. "Mmmgh… w… when's Misato getting back, y'know?"
"Knowing how sorties go, she's probably flooded in paperwork."
Another murmur of approval. "So we have some time together then…"
"Wark."
Both stopped what they were doing and snapped their gaze to the penguin, staring at them with a furrowed brow as he held a beer in his fin.
He'd subsequently point his flipper to the hallway, in a rather clear directive. "Wark."
"And you're gonna stop us how?"
"He'll probably say how we stained the couch or something like that."
"That was one time!"
"Wark!"
"I didn't know it was your favourite spot!" Asuka would loudly defend. "Misato had us scrubbing that out for hours!"
"Wark!"
"D'oh fine, du Scheißevogel!" Annoyingly waving him away as she picked herself up from Shinji. "I suppose we could use a bit more privacy for what I wanna do with you anyway, Shin-chan!"
"Heh, I'd love for you to elaborate on that." Staring at the bird. "In excruciatingly graphic detail."
"Oh gladly!" Giving said bird a stink-eye, before gleefully turning back to Shinji like nothing was happening. "So you're gonna whisk me away to our lovely suite, rip off all my clothes, and-"
The rather visceral description of certain appendages being forced down certain canals was enough to drive the penguin to drink, before they realised that they could've just returned to their sound-proofed fridge this whole time.
Overall it was a very amusing affair for Shinji and Asuka, the two of them breaking into giggles as soon as the bird was out of earshot, and as they started making tracks for the bedroom. "Ahh it's fun teasing that pesky bird, huh Shinji?"
"Heh, he's very easy to tease."
The door closed. "Now, how much of that do you want me to do?"
They'd share breath, her face inches away from his. "All of it."
~
Rei could quite vividly see their lights flourish in her periphery, alas she could not let that distract her from her studies. "Heh, have fun you two."
Her body would rest, and her soul would drift… eventually finding her way to the space between. "Ah… welcome back, my daughter." The visage of Lilith would warmly smile, embracing the girl.
"It's good to be back, mother…"
A brief flurry was warmth was all she needed. "Shall we continue our studies?"
"Mhm… let's."
The scene shifted, a warm red sunset bathing the small city. "It's difficult to understand exact timeframes when time moved so slowly for us, but in human years we are around twenty thousand years removed from before."
Rei blinked, and closely observed her surroundings. "…It's almost exactly the same."
Lilith found amusement in her bemusement. "Can you tell if we went forward or back?"
Another thought, before a shake of her head.
"Thought so." With a smile. "Time is a relative thing, after all. And shaped by our surroundings."
Shadows danced through the city, the artificial light of her ancestor's hand starting to illuminate the streets. The common people would move through the hustle and bustle, some paired in conversation with what Rei could assume were significant others of some description, meanwhile others would enter the various buildings, on tasks Rei understood from their last discussion. "How does time work in your world?"
"Our homeworld… [Gaia]. It did not have much variance as the Earth does. An axial tilt of near zero, and a rotational velocity close to as well. Our star is small, and we orbited close to it. A day for you is thereabouts twenty four hours, to use Earth units. On [Gaia], our equivalent to the day would measure around seventeen days, equally split between day and night."
A glance to their sun. "No seasons, none like the Earth at the very least. Temperatures were pleasant in the day but deathly cold at night."
"Understandable why you would want to be with someone then…"
"A good thing we were generous with our people." With a slight smirk. "Humanity have still yet to learn this wholesale kindness to their fellow person, but you will get there one day."
A young couple would walk through them from behind, the girl giggling as she spoke to someone shorter than her. "Let's follow them, Rei."
So they would, through the crowds, eventually into a quiet apartment building. "Told you we'd make it back with time to spare!" The girl would titter, leading the boy by the hand. "Now, what have we learned, [Jebediah]?"
"[Twilight's] always right?"
"Well I thought you knew that one already!" She'd snort. "I mean about what we studied silly!"
"Uhh…" They'd struggle to come up with something. "I gotta be honest I was mostly distracted most of the day."
"Feh, what could you have possibly been distracted by?!" As she turned around at their door, exasperated at the question.
Rei definitely noticed what he could've been distracted by. "Not you too [daughter]…" Lilith gently nudging her in a light chide.
"Can a girl not appreciate another girl's personality?"
"Oh is that what the youth are calling it nowadays?"
[Twilight] seemed to cotton onto the fact that [Jebediah]'s eyes were trained on… something in particular. A pair of somethings, some might say… "…Heh. Well, [harlequin], perhaps I need to work on a more personalised education for you."
Rei couldn't help but notice the grin on his face as the girl pulled him into the apartment, slamming the door behind them.
"So I gather that's the same… uhh, [Jacotine] from before?"
"Enunciate the [q] a bit more, [Rei]."
"…[Jeremicah]?"
"åoø∆ßa∂-∆bƒQ…"
Rei concentrated on the tongue. "…[Jebediah]."
"There you go." A smile and a roughing of her hair in reply. "You'll get there, [Rei]."
Time would speed up, daylight fading into the night.
Snow would dust the streets outside, as Lilith pulled up a… well, it was kinda a clock. "Due to the extremes in temperature, this era did not have consistent electricity, or [Spark] as we called it."
The street lights would flicker briefly, before they would shut off. As too did the lights in the hallway.
Rei looked out in awe, at the nebula that filled out the sky.
"The early universe held great beauty. The stars and their birth would regularly fill our night sky, and would shift as time went on. Sometimes I found myself drifting back down the [Chain] just to see it for myself." Lilith would spend a quiet moment, in contemplation. "We did not have a moon like the Earth does. Our only night light was the stars themselves."
"…Quite the sight." Softly spoke Rei. "A shame it had to be obscured by your light."
"Alas, that is the price of progress." She would turn from the window… clicking softly, finding her way to the door of [Jebediah] and [Twilight]. "Such was our endless pursuit of [Warmth], [Rei]."
Once more, she would drift through the door.
And Rei followed suit.
There would be a warm glow within the room, a few candles on a coffee table providing enough light for Rei to see. The apartment was cozy and the furnishings were few but evidently adequate for the couple, as they laid on the chaise lounge.
A ceiling fan spun above them, circulating the warmth that remained around the room. Rei could feel herself break out into a sweat, balmy it was.
"[Clockwork] fan. Uses stored mechanical energy instead of electrical." Lilith would note. "The more furnished houses would have allotment for fireplaces."
Of which their home did not have… Still, they seemed comfortable.
Unlike what Rei had seen between [Jebediah] and [Esther], the dynamic almost seemed reversed. The boy would coo softly as [Twilight] ran her fingers through his ashen hair, and across his equally ashen body. Resting quite happily on her, with not much in-between them.
"…When you think about it, [Jeb]… we're quite innocent as a species."
"What do you mean?"
"Well… Think about it, right?"
Her red eyes would glance down to lock with his, through her purple coloured bangs. "[Animals]. They live wild lives where all they can care about is maintaining their energy and eventually reproducing themselves. The [Plants] take from the [Sun], the [Herbivores] take from the [Plants], and the [Carnivores] predate the [Herbivores]. Without a single care as to what the quarry might have wanted out of life, and that's just the way it goes."
A slight sigh, as she settled her head back onto the lounge. "And we aren't entirely immune from that as well. A [Cow] lives [50] [Years] of its life just to be cut up into the [Meat] you see at [Market]."
"I mean… at least it lives a decent life before that." The boy would think aloud. "Doesn't have to worry about a [Wolverine] killing it, and we make sure it has food and company before its time comes."
"Mhm… which is fair enough." Her hand continued to drift over him. "It doesn't live a life of fear, like other prey animals may. And in exchange for that, we get something in return. It's not entirely free from cruelty, because you're still ending their one shot at life, but it's not nearly as bad as it could be."
"I suppose it's different between us, though."
"At this point… yeah." She'd snicker. "[The FAR] are different. We have [Warmth]. Hurt one of us, it hurts us all… We have each other, and we've had each other for billions of [Years]. And that's how we've survived this long, we don't prey each other like a common [Animal]. Look at us, [Jeb]. We're in a warm home keeping each other company instead of having to worry about if we will see the next [Day]. An [Animal] can't say that, can they?"
"I mean… you'd probably know more about that than I would…"
"Heh, you're the one that calls me an [Egghead] after all." Roughing up his hair with a snicker. "But yeah?"
"Was there ever a point in our history where it… wasn't like this?"
A beat, and a curious sound from the girl, her eyes drifting elsewhere in thought as her hands tapped on [Jeb's] back. "I'm sure you know of our various [Eons], eh?" Once more training her eyes on him, obviously expecting him to recall. "Being a billions [Years] strong society?"
"Uhh how did it go…" The boy thought. "Ah! So working back from now… Modern, Early Modern… Classical… Empirical… and then whatever came before that."
"Very good!" With a wide grin, and his reward was a kiss. "I did manage to get something in that head of yours!"
The boy glanced away with a pout, and a blush that was barely visible in the candlelight.
"But yeah, how you worded it… 'whatever came before that'. That's an accurate assessment. That long ago, we don't have many records from that time… not even the [Chain] goes back beyond that."
She would readjust herself, pulling him tighter. "Still… some stories remain."
There was a beat.
"[OZYMANDIAS]".
The boy flinched as [Twilight] spoke those words. Even Lilith winced on reception of that name. "Are you-"
"I am fine… you will understand shortly why I reacted in such way."
"And their name still has that much impact on us…" [Twilight] would soberly note, almost acknowledging Lilith's reaction. "Have you heard their story?"
"I mean… I've heard some stories based on it, but… not really. And now that I think about it… I don't think I've heard anyone say their full name before."
"It is not one said lightly." All quiet, eyes almost piercing as she told him. "Our words hold sway over our [Spirit], and it is important we use them wisely. In those derivative words, they may just use [O] or another analogous name. But it is important we remember this name and what they did. Because if we forget their actions… what's to stop it from repeating?"
There was a lull in the conversation.
"Would you like me to continue, [Jeb]?" Gently parting his hair. "If you are uncomfortable, I can stop."
"No… I should know."
"…Alright."
Lilith would draw particular patterns in the air, the light from the candles drawing up onto the wall, providing a monochromatic backdrop for [Twilight] and her story… almost painting a picture with the flame.
A round orb would form on the wall. "[Life] dawned on [Gaia] one billion [Years] after the creation of our [Universe]… and we came to being a billion [Years] after. Before the Empirical [Eon], [The FAR] were disparate, scattered all over the world in small tribes and city-states long since lost to the sands of time."
A clashing of swords. "[Skirmishing] was common, if you were not in the same tribe, you were an enemy. And dispatched much in the same way as [Livestock]."
A village. "It's in this environment that we find [OZYMANDIAS]. They did not have a special birth, they were born a [man] or a [woman] to a [mother] and a [father], and much of their early life was spent in service to their community. In what way it was is up for debate, but it is usually said to be a trade of sorts, [carpentry] or [stonemasonry]. Something that changes things to suit."
The visuals continued. "They became a pillar of their community, serving in an [Advisory] role. Like you and me, they found [Warmth] and companionship, they might have even had [Children]. This far back, it's impossible to tell, but the important aspect of this story is they are, essentially, a normal [Person]. They lived a life just like we would."
"…What changed?"
The visual would change, one of despair and hopelessness. "A great tragedy. Fire, plague, a great [Skirmish]… this far back, you can't tell. But… at the end of it all…"
Ashes. "They had lost almost everything. All they had left was the clothes on their back, and an equally damaged partner. The only silver lining in this situation."
The boy shivered at the sheer scale of this tragedy… almost unheard of, it was. "…What happened next?"
"Well… it changed them."
Her voice took on a remarkably darker tone. "They would become obsessed with the idea of immortality. Living forever. They would not [Fade] as everyone else in their life had.
"And so the descent into madness begins…" Mourned Lilith, she too quietly listening onto the words of [Twilight].
"What started as [Science] would devolve into madness… so desperate they were at finding this panacea that they had resorted to [Experimentation]. Abducting people, using and killing them, all in the name of this goal. But… at the end of the [Day], they would get what they were looking for. The figured out the secret."
[Jebediah] craned his head in query.
"They would absorb the [Spirit] of others."
Even being reminded of the thought very clearly disgusted Lilith, shivering in horror as she recalled. "Exchanging their life to add to their own. And whether it was willing or not, their partner would be the first one to suffer such a fate."
"That's…" The boy found it difficult to even comprehend. "[Guardian] help me…"
"It gets worse."
The visuals would cease from this point, Lilith choosing to keep close to Rei instead. "It was the wayward traveller at first. Poor [Spirits] moving from one city to another. Soon they became powerful enough that even their presence could hold sway, and they would use [Skirmish] to get their way…"
To Rei, it sounded like they had become a warlord. A tyrannical regime where almost the whole world fell into their enslavement.
"They'd soon start demanding tribute of these city states… the [Spirits] of others. Criminals to start, but no one would be safe from this. How they decided on who would be absorbed is debated; a lottery of sorts or even random abduction… imagine living like that, [Jeb]. Living in fear that you are not only going to have your life taken, but your very [Spirit] destroyed."
"…Must say." Rei would speak up. "He's taking this story well."
The boy was quite clearly shivering, despite the warmth of the room, [Twilight] pausing briefly to offer some comfort. "It is one of our darkest stories. This… wanton cruelty. You wouldn't think we were FAR."
"It's oddly human, in a few ways."
A grim chuckle. "That bad, huh… still, it is a story that needs telling. I was sick for weeks when I was first told of [O]. One of my colleagues stayed in her apartment for months with her partner at the time recovering from it. But despite our reactions, this story is important. It shows us what we could have been… what we desperately tried to avoid."
One of the candles was near the end of its wick… Lilith thought it a fitting analogy. "And what eventually became of us."
"Ozymandias…" Rei spoke in the human translation. "A fitting name, I presume."
"And nothing beside remains…"
[Twilight] had continued the story regardless. "About time we introduce our heroes, eh?"
"Oh thank [Guardian] for that!"
That got a snicker out of Twilight. "You bet everyone thanked [Them] for that!" Before a sigh, settling back into her story. "A nomadic couple found themselves in a desolate city-state. The citizenry had been depleted at this point, living in fear like [molerats], afraid their lot would be selected. They did not want anything to do with this couple at first, understandably so, but their kindness was enough to encourage the citizens to tell them this plight… and it so thoroughly moved this couple that they decided to take action."
"How could two people take them on thought?"
A soft smile. "What if I tell you those two were [The Dawn King] and their partner, [Princess Twilight]?"
The boy blinked in shock. "W-Wait what? Really?"
Another snicker. "Yep!"
"The same [Dawn King] and [Princess Twilight] that unified us and lived for a billion [Years]?"
"The exact same ones!"
"…Y'know, that explains a lot."
"Should tell you how they defeated them as well, no?"
"Uhh…"
She'd roll her eyes. "Surely you know how an [Eternal] works, right?"
Silence.
"Okay, so it's never really been studied properly, but very rarely, like one couple every billion [Years], there comes a couple that works so well together, their [Spirits] intertwining so perfectly, it acts as a perpetual [Solenoid]." Even the thought of such thing made her giddy. "They can keep their [Spirits] and themselves alive for as long as they want. And that's who they were; they were the first known [Eternals] we ever had."
"How many have we had since then?"
"Oh you can count the pairs on one hand, let's see… [The Dawn King] and [Princess Twilight], [Gideon the Good] and [Octavia Major]… uhh [Ramiel of Sevenstones] and [Zeruel the Brave]."
"None in recent memory, huh?"
"[Ramiel] and [Zeruel] were the most recent ones, and they both [Faded] a billion [Years] ago… [Jeb] you're distracting me!" Lightly bopping him on the head. "Where was I… Okay, our heroes worked their way through the cities and gathered their support, eventually working up enough force to drive into the fortress of the mad despot. They had their discussion, some say it went for a [Day] while others say it went for many [Years], but end result is the same. The despot attempts to take [The Dawn King]'s own [Spirit]."
"…What happened next?"
"[Princess Twilight] held him. And would not let him go."
Subtly pulling her own partner closer. "The [Love] between them was enough to keep them both alive, keeping them perpetual, even as the despot continued taking in as much as they could…"
"There must be a limit to what they could take, right?"
"Listen to her story, [Rei]." In gentle lecture.
"The despot would keep absorbing all this [Spirit] all this power… unaware that it was perpetual. That it would never end. By the time they came to realise this, it was already too late… too much power absorbed, more than their body could have ever hoped to handle. Some say they tried to rid themselves of this power, but the end result is the same. Eventually…"
Her hands splayed open. "Boom."
"…Boom?"
A nod in confirmation. "Boom." Before a grin. "A rush of energy as their body vaporised from the inside out. Some say this shot up into the sky and became the first [Aurora]. Either way, nothing beside remained of the despot, and [The Dawn King] and [Princess Twilight] remained."
"I mean that's not a great ending."
"Not for [O] it wasn't." In a joke, giggling. "You can imagine the heroes were immediately venerated as being sent by [Guardian] and were declared [Patron], and the rest is really history at that point." Raising an eyebrow. "History I'm sure you know at this point."
"The [Dawn Kingdom]."
"Mhm, exactly!" Another kiss as a reward. "And that's where I'll leave my lessons for tonight, young [Jeb]. Always appreciate when you listen to my ramblings!"
"Ahh it's nothing, [Twilight]…"
Glancing up to meet her eyes. "Quite the person to be named after, but you are well and truly deserving of such a name."
For that, another kiss… this one longer, gentler, and more tender than what had been. "Heh… wanna help me shut up for tonight?"
"What if I wanted you to make some noise, [Twilight]?"
"Hehe, that's the spirit!" Pulling him closer. "C'mere you~"
The two fell into one another, under the candlelight feeling their touch. Lilith couldn't help but crack a small smile. "We ought to leave them be, [Rei]."
Much to her sigh. "You are right."
"You can always sneak a look at your friends if you wanted that." She'd jab, their surrounds dissipating back to the Astral. "I hope this taught you a bit more about our people, [Rei]."
A nod. "I have more question now than I did before… all those words… Guardian, Eternal..."
"You will know in time, [Rei]." A kiss on her forehead would conclude their proceedings. "Get some rest, process what we had taught you tonight. And we will continue our studies when you are ready."
Rei's eyes briefly fluttered open, the night lights of man filtering through the curtains of her window.
Some time had past, she could tell. The lights of Asuka and Shinji were dormant, their afterglow burning like embers in hot coals.
"Lilith teach you well, Rei?"
"Mhm…" Her eyes would flutter back down. "S… she did… I'll tell you about it…."
Her body would settle back into its slumber, but the leyline with Kaworu remained open. "I'd like to hear it from your perspective, Rei."
~
"STAND! BOW! SIT!" Drill Instructor Hikari would yell out as their homeroom teacher made their presence known.
"Feh, cranky today are we?"
For that, the boy that said that got an eraser thrown square in his face.
"Thank you Hikari." Drolly noted the teacher, as the student rep took her seat. "First order of business, end of school year examinations will commence on the 12th of March and will run through to the 23rd. Study hard and get a good grade, we have plenty of tutoring available if you require it." Clearing their throat as they moved to the next order of business. "Applications for your extracurriculars are to be submitted to the head office by the end of the school year, that's the 30th of March if you are unsure. Some of the more popular ones have filled up so the earlier you submit them the better…"
Asuka would see a message ping on her terminal.
IKARI, S: "Do you reckon we're gonna get extracurriculars for the last year?"
She'd roll her eyes and type her reply.
SORYU, A. L: "Pfft, no! That cuts into NERV time!"
IKARI, S: "Drat :<, I wanted to get into the Strings Club this year!"
A muffled snicker from the girl, as the teacher continued on.
SORYU, A. L: "At least we're starting to get to the light at the end of the tunnel! One more year and we'll be done with this stupid place forever! \o/"
SORYU, A. L: "And look on the bright side, you wanna do strings you can just do it with us! c:"
IKARI, S: "That's a good point actually…"
"That concludes the dailies, do you have anything to add on, Horaki-chan?"
"No sensei!"
"Alright, your first class for the day will be English studies." The homeroom teacher would start to gather their belongings to make tracks. "Having seen the English exam for this year… if you haven't studied, you best go down to a shrine and pray, because you will be needing the grace of the Gods…"
The class would break into murmuring. "How are you gonna go with that, Asuka?" Shinji would lean over, now he didn't have to keep quiet.
"I mean English is like my third language so I should be okay. Maybe we'll just watch a few western movies without any subtitles and see how we go understanding it. Rei?"
"I have not seen a Tarantino film for a while."
"Might be good for the weekend, eh?"
"It is a date then." With a smile, turning back to her English notebook.
She could tell that got Asuka to blush, even if she couldn't see it… though then again, Shinji's snickering would have given that away as well.
Asuka's eyes would drift back to Hikari, the girl looking introspective. "…We sure she doesn't need a hand, Shinji?"
Toji wandered up to the front of her desk and poked her cheek, the girl giggling before entering into a nondescript conversation with him.
"I think she'll be fine. Toji will know what to do."
~
Soon enough, they'd find themselves back in the office… well most of them at least. "Is Hikari coming back?"
"She said to me during lunch she would, I thought she was just behind us?" Asuka would ponder.
"Wouldn't surprise me if she didn't want to continue."
"I mean that's her decision at the end of the-"
The door would open, Hikari trudging in and taking her seat. "Okay." With a sharp breath in and out. "Sorry, had to psych myself up before coming in today."
"Ah, like give yourself a motivational speech or s-something?"
"I… might've had assistance from Toji."
Quiet in the room. Which only emphasised the blush that started creeping up on her face.
Asuka would bark a laugh, lightly slapping the girl on her back. "You're learning! That's been our coping mechanism for years!" Glaring to the Commander. "Because someone's been dragging their feet in getting us therapy!"
"We're working on it!" Misato would bark back.
"Ah but don't be embarrassed by that, Hikari." Zero Two would quote unquote 'comfort'. "You're in good company when it comes to that!"
"Do we dare ask where you found the time and location to do such thing?"
"…I'd prefer not to answer that, Rei."
More snickering. "That is fair."
"C-Can we make a start with the manga?" Quietly pleaded Hikari.
"Oh okay okay, we can tease you after we read through this volume." Misato would decree.
"…Thank you?"
More snickering abounds, as the next volume commenced…
~~~
"Not through lack of effort." As Spencer Makinami took a seat. "Any of these mine?"
Kaji pointed to a particular cup. "They're using almond milk."
To his scoff. "Did they run out of normal milk?"
"Yes actually."
"How the hell do you-" Catching himself, as Kaji huffed in amusement. "Your contact came though then?"
"Mhm, I've gone through the list." Passing him a notebook. "It's ciphered."
Spencer took out his key book and started breaking it down. "That list is all the Hawthorne employees that were also on the Blight payroll in this dataset."
"Mhm, we did take on a few when they collapsed." As he kept working. "Have kept my eye on them, but I'll redouble our surveillance on them."
"You've had any sabotage attempts yet?"
"No, but knowing Seele they like to worm their way in to cause the most amount of damage they can." In a huff. "I'll get an audit done on our current assets, check if anything's untoward."
Kaji couldn't help but be amused at how Spencer's face cringed upon sipping his almond milk coffee. "Mmgh… you have any at NERV?"
"At least one, yes."
The name was highlighted on his terminal. One Phillip Wittebane. "Might have to get our resident Angel to help us out with that."
~
Speaking of, Kaworu would make his presence known in the office of Commander Pines. "You wanted to see me, Commander?"
"You can just call me Mabel, y'know."
"Formality has been drilled into me from living in Germany and Japan my entire life."
"Heh, fair enough." Before a sigh. "I had a discussion with Dipper, regarding the pilots. I'm sure word would've gotten out one way or another that they are the pilots."
"You want more protection for them?"
"Well… yeah." With a glance aside. "What's your opinion on going back to school?"
He blinked. "Technically I was still meant to be in school."
"Oh? Well why didn't we enrol you as well?!"
"I did graduate university y'know." With a smirk. "School was a means to socialise me a bit more."
A moment of quiet, Mabel realising something.
She picked herself up, and walked towards him. "And I'm pretty sure someone else in there never ended up finishing school."
Another moment.
Kaworu stepped back, and the apparition would step out in front of him. Giving the Commander a sad smile. "I have a bit to c-catch up on, don't I?"
Mabel would scan the girl. Catching her eye to eye. "It really is you."
"Heh, no one else has a f-face like this, Mabes."
Another quiet.
Mabel pulled the being into a hug. "…I'm sorry."
"Hey, you weren't the ones that killed me. I'm pretty sure."
"No but it happened on our watch, and as Commander I've inherited that… we should have done more."
"Not much you could've done a-against Seele." In a sigh. "Sounds like it blindsided you g-guys."
"No one expected it Mari… God, I don't think Grunkle Stan ever forgave himself for sending you out like that."
"Doesn't surprise me."
They pulled back. "Whatever happened to the old c-codgers anyway?"
"Uhh… Stanley retired to Bend, and Stanford…" Furrowing her brow. "I don't know what he's doing actually. He still calls occasionally but he's always been skittish about what he's gotten up to since he retired… or even where he is."
"Oh the Pines twins have something secret going on, c-color me surprised."
Mabel couldn't help but snicker at that. "I mean it's pretty clear cut what Stanley is doing."
"I can't believe anyone would willingly l-live there."
"Hey! I come from there too young lady!"
"I'm only six years older t-than you."
"And still a teenager last time I checked!" She blinked. "Do you age when you're dead?"
"I mean technically?"
"Eh whatever." In a shrug. "Okay… so do I dare ask how you came back?"
"Do you want to hear a sob story?"
"Ehh…" Her brow settled.
"Yeah, thought so." Mari snorted. "Just know it was t-traumatizing and Ash here was pretty much the one who s-saved my ass."
"You're welcome."
Mari turned around to blow him a raspberry.
"I'm guessing that's why you're sticking around with him?"
"That and my s-soul can't survive on its own. It's gotten better, but I'm still p-pretty damaged."
"So you're pretty much crashing on his couch?"
"More or l-less, but he's cool with it."
"Mhm, for as long as you need Mari." With a small smile.
"And it's kinda cool, cause I can d-do a lot more than I could as well!"
"Oh I saw some footage of that Incubator fight, I didn't know that was you helping him out like that!"
Her wide smile immediately dropped to a frown. "And that's another thing! What are the Incubators and what do they want with us?!"
"Old enemies and our destruction."
"Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down, Kaworu?!"
"Oh we ain't n-narrowing this one down Mabes." Snickering. "Those little rats have hated us since the FAR."
"Goes back billions of years, yes."
Mabel was bug-eyed at the thought. "You can understand why we think the pilots need more protection, right?"
"Oh yeah it's perfectly u-understandable, huh Ash?"
"Sounds like I'm returning to school." He would chuckle. "It'd be good to keep an eye on Yomiko, at the very least."
"Alright!" In a cheer. "I'll get Dipper to kiss Nicky's boots tomorrow and hopefully you can get your first class this Tuesday!"
The door would close behind them. "Well, that went well."
Silence.
"…Mari?"
"I'm… going back." She stared into the distance. "I'm… I'm not sure if I'm ready, Ash. I… my death would've caused shockwaves there… I don't know if I want to see the aftermath of that."
A nudge on her arm. "I will be there, Mari. You will be okay."
"I… I hope so."
~~
Sayaka would watch the surrounds pass her by, her and Kyoko's train making the return journey to Tokyo-3.
The visit was… definitely enlightening, as it was colourful.
Closing her eyes, she'd sigh. "Kyo?" Giving the girl resting on her shoulder a nudge. "You up?"
"mmmgh… now I am." Half grumbling. "What's… what's on your mind?"
"Mami, mainly."
That got her counterpart to sigh too. "Yeah, I know… poor girl's going through a lot right now." She too would glance out the window, the natural surrounds gradually giving way to man made structure. "You think she'll be alright?"
"As alright as she can be, you know how Madoka's like. If she could get someone like Homura enjoying life…"
"You think she could cut through all that?" With a look towards her. "It'd kill me if I was in her shoes."
"Mami was easily the strongest of all of us, Sayaka." Nudging her back. "She'll be fine."
"Mmgh… you say that, but judging by our materials, she's one of the most fragile."
"Well think about it, if she lost hope, she would've thrown herself from that hospital window as soon as she had the chance. If she's really that fragile."
Pausing for thought. "…You have a point."
"She'll be fine, Sayaka." And a kiss for good measure. "Don't try to worry yourself."
She'd blush. "I-I'll try… and hey, we're telling Kensuke about it anyway, eh?"
"Yeah, maybe we can get some mileage from that!"
The train would begin to pull into the station. "Heh, there's our loveable nerd!" Kyoko beamed. "We gonna bum-rush him?"
"Ooh you bet, Kyo!"
Kensuke paced down the train, looking through the windows trying to find his birds. "Where are they-"
"Oi!"
He snapped a look to the front of the train, to find Kyoko and Sayaka waving at him. "Looking for us, dummy?!"
"Ah, I was actually!" He'd smile back, walking towards them. "How was ToKYO-"
He didn't even get a chance to react as they both slammed into him, knocking all of them and their luggage to the platform, much to the girl's joyous giggling, especially as they further embarrassed him in public by lathering him in kisses. "Oh how did you ever survive without us, Ken-Ken?"
"A-ah… I dunno!" Through his blushing. "I-I'm guessing Tokyo-2 was good t-then?"
"Mhm, very much so."
"It was great catching up with our old friends again, shame you had NERV business to attend to but I'm sure you can make up for it somehow…" As she gave a sly look to Sayaka.
Kensuke knew them for long enough to know what that look meant, and much like Zapp Brannigan or Philip J Fry on the planet of the Amazonians, he was both excited and scared at the prospect. "W-Well, at the very least, you're gonna get a bit more time with me!"
They both furrowed their brows at that thought. "What do you mean by that?"
"You didn't get fired already?"
"Nah nothing like that." He shrugged off. "It's just that the Commander and I had a chat over the weekend and with our exams coming up she told me to take some time off so I can study and all that."
A beat, and the two girls looked between each other. "Oh. That's great."
"Yeah, wonderful. So might be a while before you get back into NERV eh?"
"You two sound less pleased about that than you might've been."
Sayaka sighed, as she helped pick Kensuke and Kyoko up. "We'll tell you on the way back to yours… you had any plans for dinner?"
"Old man knew you'd be back, so he was working on a hot pot for us."
"Ooh!" That perked Kyoko up.
"Heh, knew you'd be interested."
They'd start the walk back. "So I'm guessing you had a favour you wanted to ask of the brass?"
Another look between the girls. "Well… it's Mami."
"Her sis was put up for adoption after that crash of hers and Mami has no clue where she went, no one was answering her questions so she was wondering if NERV might have any luck."
Kensuke blinked. "Well shit if it's something like that, I'll give my boss a buzz when she gets back and see what they can do."
"Wait where is your boss?"
"America."
"Why is she in America?"
"Did you not see any of the news going on?"
"Madoka's mom doesn't have a television."
"Why on Earth does she-" Kensuke could only shake his head at the thought. "So I don't know the exact detail but she went over there because something big happened, and then an Angel attacked Boston! She was meant to be back tonight but Gods know if that's happening now."
It was Sayaka and Kyoko's turn to blink. "Well, we missed a lot."
"Feh, you can tell her when she gets back then." Kyoko huffed, stretching her arms up and resting them behind her head. "No point worrying about that now."
"Hmm, yeah you're right. No point fretting."
Sayaka would wrap her arms around Kensuke's. "It wasn't all sadness over there at least, we made sure she had as good a time as she could."
"That's good to hear, sounds like she's been through the wringer…" He could only sigh. "Madoka's mom still a bit of a kook?"
"Oh Christ Kensuke, she spent almost half an hour just absolutely whining about NERV!" She could laugh about it now she was in a different city from her.
"And not just NERV, she had a lot to say about the rest of the brass from Mitsubishi, let me tell you!"
"Heh, sounds like she has some stress going on in her life."
"I reckon that's half a reason Madoka's dad got his foot in the door with her." Kyoko stared blankly. "She's loud."
"I told you screaming like that would come back to bite you Kyoko!"
"Oh shoot me for enjoying myself with you two, Sa!" She snapped back. "Ken honey is your old man on nights?"
"Nah he's on his break at the moment."
"Ah drat!"
Sayaka would blow her a raspberry in reply.
~
Shinji and Asuka stood at the precipice of their apartment.
"Will you two be okay?" Rei would ask from behind.
The two of them would turn their heads to face her. "Yeah… I think so." Shinji put on a smile. "Will you, Rei?"
"Do not worry about me." Her smile was a bit more genuine, at the very least, as she tapped on her head. "I have company. And I have some studies to keep me occupied."
"Shoot we have those exams coming up don't we?"
"Not those." She'd snicker. "Something more of interest to myself, I will say."
"That's not a euphemism for something, eh wondergirl?" Asuka would prod at the girl, metaphorically and literally.
"Quell that dirty mind of yours Asuka, nothing of the sort." Still, she would blush at the suggestion. "You two have a good night, okay?"
"Heh, we'll try."
A quick bolt forward to hug the both of them. "I mean it… try not to let this manga get to you, okay?"
"We won't, don't worry yourself Rei…" Asuka would sigh into her, returning the gesture alongside Shinji.
With that, she would return to her own apartment.
And Shinji and Asuka crossed the precipice into their own sanctuary. "Oy… what a day." As Shinji immediately flopped on the couch. "I'm not the only one feeling mentally drained, right?"
"Funny what being reminded of your past does to you, huh?" Asuka would ponder, in the midst of washing her face in the kitchen sink. "Mmgh… at least you had a bit of a silver lining. It was all just downhill for me since that kiss of ours, if you could even call it a hill."
Shinji would turn himself over, facing up to the lights. "What would you call it?"
"Hmm…" As she found a spot beside him. "I'd call it a flat mound that blew off the edge of a cliff like the ending to Thelma and Louise. But at least the director of that had the good grace to end it on a freeze frame instead of showing them plummet and explode in fire and gore."
"Something Anno didn't quite have the grace to do."
A snort. "Well he got the gore part of my demise down pat." Before poking Shinji on his nose a few times. "You got out of that situation lightly, if I say so myself."
"Heh… Ask that Shinji and he wouldn't have thought so."
"No such thing as lightly in that world, huh?"
"Mhm, all a matter of perspective."
A beat.
Her hand drifted down to his cheek, holding him gently as she kissed his lips. "We got off lightly."
"Not through lack of effort."
"Oh God no, we had to go through hell and back to get off this lightly!" She'd snicker. "Maybe we can take that manga as a reminder as to how good we have it then, hmm?"
Asuka's position would shift, snuggling up to Shinji's chest as the boy almost instinctively held her close. "Because despite everything that happened, all the shit we've been through… well, I still have you to call my own at the end of the day, don't I?" Looking up to him, a small smile glistening through. "Even if we start branching out to the others, you're always gonna be special to me. You're the one that broke through my shell, taming the shrew so to speak."
"Oh you were worse than a shrew."
"Heh, baka." For that, he got another kiss. "I went easy on you. Good thing too, might not have warmed me up otherwise."
Speaking of, she'd settle into his warmth… cooing softly as his fingers started playing with her hair. "Mmmgh… w… when's Misato getting back, y'know?"
"Knowing how sorties go, she's probably flooded in paperwork."
Another murmur of approval. "So we have some time together then…"
"Wark."
Both stopped what they were doing and snapped their gaze to the penguin, staring at them with a furrowed brow as he held a beer in his fin.
He'd subsequently point his flipper to the hallway, in a rather clear directive. "Wark."
"And you're gonna stop us how?"
"He'll probably say how we stained the couch or something like that."
"That was one time!"
"Wark!"
"I didn't know it was your favourite spot!" Asuka would loudly defend. "Misato had us scrubbing that out for hours!"
"Wark!"
"D'oh fine, du Scheißevogel!" Annoyingly waving him away as she picked herself up from Shinji. "I suppose we could use a bit more privacy for what I wanna do with you anyway, Shin-chan!"
"Heh, I'd love for you to elaborate on that." Staring at the bird. "In excruciatingly graphic detail."
"Oh gladly!" Giving said bird a stink-eye, before gleefully turning back to Shinji like nothing was happening. "So you're gonna whisk me away to our lovely suite, rip off all my clothes, and-"
The rather visceral description of certain appendages being forced down certain canals was enough to drive the penguin to drink, before they realised that they could've just returned to their sound-proofed fridge this whole time.
Overall it was a very amusing affair for Shinji and Asuka, the two of them breaking into giggles as soon as the bird was out of earshot, and as they started making tracks for the bedroom. "Ahh it's fun teasing that pesky bird, huh Shinji?"
"Heh, he's very easy to tease."
The door closed. "Now, how much of that do you want me to do?"
They'd share breath, her face inches away from his. "All of it."
~
Rei could quite vividly see their lights flourish in her periphery, alas she could not let that distract her from her studies. "Heh, have fun you two."
Her body would rest, and her soul would drift… eventually finding her way to the space between. "Ah… welcome back, my daughter." The visage of Lilith would warmly smile, embracing the girl.
"It's good to be back, mother…"
A brief flurry was warmth was all she needed. "Shall we continue our studies?"
"Mhm… let's."
The scene shifted, a warm red sunset bathing the small city. "It's difficult to understand exact timeframes when time moved so slowly for us, but in human years we are around twenty thousand years removed from before."
Rei blinked, and closely observed her surroundings. "…It's almost exactly the same."
Lilith found amusement in her bemusement. "Can you tell if we went forward or back?"
Another thought, before a shake of her head.
"Thought so." With a smile. "Time is a relative thing, after all. And shaped by our surroundings."
Shadows danced through the city, the artificial light of her ancestor's hand starting to illuminate the streets. The common people would move through the hustle and bustle, some paired in conversation with what Rei could assume were significant others of some description, meanwhile others would enter the various buildings, on tasks Rei understood from their last discussion. "How does time work in your world?"
"Our homeworld… [Gaia]. It did not have much variance as the Earth does. An axial tilt of near zero, and a rotational velocity close to as well. Our star is small, and we orbited close to it. A day for you is thereabouts twenty four hours, to use Earth units. On [Gaia], our equivalent to the day would measure around seventeen days, equally split between day and night."
A glance to their sun. "No seasons, none like the Earth at the very least. Temperatures were pleasant in the day but deathly cold at night."
"Understandable why you would want to be with someone then…"
"A good thing we were generous with our people." With a slight smirk. "Humanity have still yet to learn this wholesale kindness to their fellow person, but you will get there one day."
A young couple would walk through them from behind, the girl giggling as she spoke to someone shorter than her. "Let's follow them, Rei."
So they would, through the crowds, eventually into a quiet apartment building. "Told you we'd make it back with time to spare!" The girl would titter, leading the boy by the hand. "Now, what have we learned, [Jebediah]?"
"[Twilight's] always right?"
"Well I thought you knew that one already!" She'd snort. "I mean about what we studied silly!"
"Uhh…" They'd struggle to come up with something. "I gotta be honest I was mostly distracted most of the day."
"Feh, what could you have possibly been distracted by?!" As she turned around at their door, exasperated at the question.
Rei definitely noticed what he could've been distracted by. "Not you too [daughter]…" Lilith gently nudging her in a light chide.
"Can a girl not appreciate another girl's personality?"
"Oh is that what the youth are calling it nowadays?"
[Twilight] seemed to cotton onto the fact that [Jebediah]'s eyes were trained on… something in particular. A pair of somethings, some might say… "…Heh. Well, [harlequin], perhaps I need to work on a more personalised education for you."
Rei couldn't help but notice the grin on his face as the girl pulled him into the apartment, slamming the door behind them.
"So I gather that's the same… uhh, [Jacotine] from before?"
"Enunciate the [q] a bit more, [Rei]."
"…[Jeremicah]?"
"åoø∆ßa∂-∆bƒQ…"
Rei concentrated on the tongue. "…[Jebediah]."
"There you go." A smile and a roughing of her hair in reply. "You'll get there, [Rei]."
Time would speed up, daylight fading into the night.
Snow would dust the streets outside, as Lilith pulled up a… well, it was kinda a clock. "Due to the extremes in temperature, this era did not have consistent electricity, or [Spark] as we called it."
The street lights would flicker briefly, before they would shut off. As too did the lights in the hallway.
Rei looked out in awe, at the nebula that filled out the sky.
"The early universe held great beauty. The stars and their birth would regularly fill our night sky, and would shift as time went on. Sometimes I found myself drifting back down the [Chain] just to see it for myself." Lilith would spend a quiet moment, in contemplation. "We did not have a moon like the Earth does. Our only night light was the stars themselves."
"…Quite the sight." Softly spoke Rei. "A shame it had to be obscured by your light."
"Alas, that is the price of progress." She would turn from the window… clicking softly, finding her way to the door of [Jebediah] and [Twilight]. "Such was our endless pursuit of [Warmth], [Rei]."
Once more, she would drift through the door.
And Rei followed suit.
There would be a warm glow within the room, a few candles on a coffee table providing enough light for Rei to see. The apartment was cozy and the furnishings were few but evidently adequate for the couple, as they laid on the chaise lounge.
A ceiling fan spun above them, circulating the warmth that remained around the room. Rei could feel herself break out into a sweat, balmy it was.
"[Clockwork] fan. Uses stored mechanical energy instead of electrical." Lilith would note. "The more furnished houses would have allotment for fireplaces."
Of which their home did not have… Still, they seemed comfortable.
Unlike what Rei had seen between [Jebediah] and [Esther], the dynamic almost seemed reversed. The boy would coo softly as [Twilight] ran her fingers through his ashen hair, and across his equally ashen body. Resting quite happily on her, with not much in-between them.
"…When you think about it, [Jeb]… we're quite innocent as a species."
"What do you mean?"
"Well… Think about it, right?"
Her red eyes would glance down to lock with his, through her purple coloured bangs. "[Animals]. They live wild lives where all they can care about is maintaining their energy and eventually reproducing themselves. The [Plants] take from the [Sun], the [Herbivores] take from the [Plants], and the [Carnivores] predate the [Herbivores]. Without a single care as to what the quarry might have wanted out of life, and that's just the way it goes."
A slight sigh, as she settled her head back onto the lounge. "And we aren't entirely immune from that as well. A [Cow] lives [50] [Years] of its life just to be cut up into the [Meat] you see at [Market]."
"I mean… at least it lives a decent life before that." The boy would think aloud. "Doesn't have to worry about a [Wolverine] killing it, and we make sure it has food and company before its time comes."
"Mhm… which is fair enough." Her hand continued to drift over him. "It doesn't live a life of fear, like other prey animals may. And in exchange for that, we get something in return. It's not entirely free from cruelty, because you're still ending their one shot at life, but it's not nearly as bad as it could be."
"I suppose it's different between us, though."
"At this point… yeah." She'd snicker. "[The FAR] are different. We have [Warmth]. Hurt one of us, it hurts us all… We have each other, and we've had each other for billions of [Years]. And that's how we've survived this long, we don't prey each other like a common [Animal]. Look at us, [Jeb]. We're in a warm home keeping each other company instead of having to worry about if we will see the next [Day]. An [Animal] can't say that, can they?"
"I mean… you'd probably know more about that than I would…"
"Heh, you're the one that calls me an [Egghead] after all." Roughing up his hair with a snicker. "But yeah?"
"Was there ever a point in our history where it… wasn't like this?"
A beat, and a curious sound from the girl, her eyes drifting elsewhere in thought as her hands tapped on [Jeb's] back. "I'm sure you know of our various [Eons], eh?" Once more training her eyes on him, obviously expecting him to recall. "Being a billions [Years] strong society?"
"Uhh how did it go…" The boy thought. "Ah! So working back from now… Modern, Early Modern… Classical… Empirical… and then whatever came before that."
"Very good!" With a wide grin, and his reward was a kiss. "I did manage to get something in that head of yours!"
The boy glanced away with a pout, and a blush that was barely visible in the candlelight.
"But yeah, how you worded it… 'whatever came before that'. That's an accurate assessment. That long ago, we don't have many records from that time… not even the [Chain] goes back beyond that."
She would readjust herself, pulling him tighter. "Still… some stories remain."
There was a beat.
"[OZYMANDIAS]".
The boy flinched as [Twilight] spoke those words. Even Lilith winced on reception of that name. "Are you-"
"I am fine… you will understand shortly why I reacted in such way."
"And their name still has that much impact on us…" [Twilight] would soberly note, almost acknowledging Lilith's reaction. "Have you heard their story?"
"I mean… I've heard some stories based on it, but… not really. And now that I think about it… I don't think I've heard anyone say their full name before."
"It is not one said lightly." All quiet, eyes almost piercing as she told him. "Our words hold sway over our [Spirit], and it is important we use them wisely. In those derivative words, they may just use [O] or another analogous name. But it is important we remember this name and what they did. Because if we forget their actions… what's to stop it from repeating?"
There was a lull in the conversation.
"Would you like me to continue, [Jeb]?" Gently parting his hair. "If you are uncomfortable, I can stop."
"No… I should know."
"…Alright."
Lilith would draw particular patterns in the air, the light from the candles drawing up onto the wall, providing a monochromatic backdrop for [Twilight] and her story… almost painting a picture with the flame.
A round orb would form on the wall. "[Life] dawned on [Gaia] one billion [Years] after the creation of our [Universe]… and we came to being a billion [Years] after. Before the Empirical [Eon], [The FAR] were disparate, scattered all over the world in small tribes and city-states long since lost to the sands of time."
A clashing of swords. "[Skirmishing] was common, if you were not in the same tribe, you were an enemy. And dispatched much in the same way as [Livestock]."
A village. "It's in this environment that we find [OZYMANDIAS]. They did not have a special birth, they were born a [man] or a [woman] to a [mother] and a [father], and much of their early life was spent in service to their community. In what way it was is up for debate, but it is usually said to be a trade of sorts, [carpentry] or [stonemasonry]. Something that changes things to suit."
The visuals continued. "They became a pillar of their community, serving in an [Advisory] role. Like you and me, they found [Warmth] and companionship, they might have even had [Children]. This far back, it's impossible to tell, but the important aspect of this story is they are, essentially, a normal [Person]. They lived a life just like we would."
"…What changed?"
The visual would change, one of despair and hopelessness. "A great tragedy. Fire, plague, a great [Skirmish]… this far back, you can't tell. But… at the end of it all…"
Ashes. "They had lost almost everything. All they had left was the clothes on their back, and an equally damaged partner. The only silver lining in this situation."
The boy shivered at the sheer scale of this tragedy… almost unheard of, it was. "…What happened next?"
"Well… it changed them."
Her voice took on a remarkably darker tone. "They would become obsessed with the idea of immortality. Living forever. They would not [Fade] as everyone else in their life had.
"And so the descent into madness begins…" Mourned Lilith, she too quietly listening onto the words of [Twilight].
"What started as [Science] would devolve into madness… so desperate they were at finding this panacea that they had resorted to [Experimentation]. Abducting people, using and killing them, all in the name of this goal. But… at the end of the [Day], they would get what they were looking for. The figured out the secret."
[Jebediah] craned his head in query.
"They would absorb the [Spirit] of others."
Even being reminded of the thought very clearly disgusted Lilith, shivering in horror as she recalled. "Exchanging their life to add to their own. And whether it was willing or not, their partner would be the first one to suffer such a fate."
"That's…" The boy found it difficult to even comprehend. "[Guardian] help me…"
"It gets worse."
The visuals would cease from this point, Lilith choosing to keep close to Rei instead. "It was the wayward traveller at first. Poor [Spirits] moving from one city to another. Soon they became powerful enough that even their presence could hold sway, and they would use [Skirmish] to get their way…"
To Rei, it sounded like they had become a warlord. A tyrannical regime where almost the whole world fell into their enslavement.
"They'd soon start demanding tribute of these city states… the [Spirits] of others. Criminals to start, but no one would be safe from this. How they decided on who would be absorbed is debated; a lottery of sorts or even random abduction… imagine living like that, [Jeb]. Living in fear that you are not only going to have your life taken, but your very [Spirit] destroyed."
"…Must say." Rei would speak up. "He's taking this story well."
The boy was quite clearly shivering, despite the warmth of the room, [Twilight] pausing briefly to offer some comfort. "It is one of our darkest stories. This… wanton cruelty. You wouldn't think we were FAR."
"It's oddly human, in a few ways."
A grim chuckle. "That bad, huh… still, it is a story that needs telling. I was sick for weeks when I was first told of [O]. One of my colleagues stayed in her apartment for months with her partner at the time recovering from it. But despite our reactions, this story is important. It shows us what we could have been… what we desperately tried to avoid."
One of the candles was near the end of its wick… Lilith thought it a fitting analogy. "And what eventually became of us."
"Ozymandias…" Rei spoke in the human translation. "A fitting name, I presume."
"And nothing beside remains…"
[Twilight] had continued the story regardless. "About time we introduce our heroes, eh?"
"Oh thank [Guardian] for that!"
That got a snicker out of Twilight. "You bet everyone thanked [Them] for that!" Before a sigh, settling back into her story. "A nomadic couple found themselves in a desolate city-state. The citizenry had been depleted at this point, living in fear like [molerats], afraid their lot would be selected. They did not want anything to do with this couple at first, understandably so, but their kindness was enough to encourage the citizens to tell them this plight… and it so thoroughly moved this couple that they decided to take action."
"How could two people take them on thought?"
A soft smile. "What if I tell you those two were [The Dawn King] and their partner, [Princess Twilight]?"
The boy blinked in shock. "W-Wait what? Really?"
Another snicker. "Yep!"
"The same [Dawn King] and [Princess Twilight] that unified us and lived for a billion [Years]?"
"The exact same ones!"
"…Y'know, that explains a lot."
"Should tell you how they defeated them as well, no?"
"Uhh…"
She'd roll her eyes. "Surely you know how an [Eternal] works, right?"
Silence.
"Okay, so it's never really been studied properly, but very rarely, like one couple every billion [Years], there comes a couple that works so well together, their [Spirits] intertwining so perfectly, it acts as a perpetual [Solenoid]." Even the thought of such thing made her giddy. "They can keep their [Spirits] and themselves alive for as long as they want. And that's who they were; they were the first known [Eternals] we ever had."
"How many have we had since then?"
"Oh you can count the pairs on one hand, let's see… [The Dawn King] and [Princess Twilight], [Gideon the Good] and [Octavia Major]… uhh [Ramiel of Sevenstones] and [Zeruel the Brave]."
"None in recent memory, huh?"
"[Ramiel] and [Zeruel] were the most recent ones, and they both [Faded] a billion [Years] ago… [Jeb] you're distracting me!" Lightly bopping him on the head. "Where was I… Okay, our heroes worked their way through the cities and gathered their support, eventually working up enough force to drive into the fortress of the mad despot. They had their discussion, some say it went for a [Day] while others say it went for many [Years], but end result is the same. The despot attempts to take [The Dawn King]'s own [Spirit]."
"…What happened next?"
"[Princess Twilight] held him. And would not let him go."
Subtly pulling her own partner closer. "The [Love] between them was enough to keep them both alive, keeping them perpetual, even as the despot continued taking in as much as they could…"
"There must be a limit to what they could take, right?"
"Listen to her story, [Rei]." In gentle lecture.
"The despot would keep absorbing all this [Spirit] all this power… unaware that it was perpetual. That it would never end. By the time they came to realise this, it was already too late… too much power absorbed, more than their body could have ever hoped to handle. Some say they tried to rid themselves of this power, but the end result is the same. Eventually…"
Her hands splayed open. "Boom."
"…Boom?"
A nod in confirmation. "Boom." Before a grin. "A rush of energy as their body vaporised from the inside out. Some say this shot up into the sky and became the first [Aurora]. Either way, nothing beside remained of the despot, and [The Dawn King] and [Princess Twilight] remained."
"I mean that's not a great ending."
"Not for [O] it wasn't." In a joke, giggling. "You can imagine the heroes were immediately venerated as being sent by [Guardian] and were declared [Patron], and the rest is really history at that point." Raising an eyebrow. "History I'm sure you know at this point."
"The [Dawn Kingdom]."
"Mhm, exactly!" Another kiss as a reward. "And that's where I'll leave my lessons for tonight, young [Jeb]. Always appreciate when you listen to my ramblings!"
"Ahh it's nothing, [Twilight]…"
Glancing up to meet her eyes. "Quite the person to be named after, but you are well and truly deserving of such a name."
For that, another kiss… this one longer, gentler, and more tender than what had been. "Heh… wanna help me shut up for tonight?"
"What if I wanted you to make some noise, [Twilight]?"
"Hehe, that's the spirit!" Pulling him closer. "C'mere you~"
The two fell into one another, under the candlelight feeling their touch. Lilith couldn't help but crack a small smile. "We ought to leave them be, [Rei]."
Much to her sigh. "You are right."
"You can always sneak a look at your friends if you wanted that." She'd jab, their surrounds dissipating back to the Astral. "I hope this taught you a bit more about our people, [Rei]."
A nod. "I have more question now than I did before… all those words… Guardian, Eternal..."
"You will know in time, [Rei]." A kiss on her forehead would conclude their proceedings. "Get some rest, process what we had taught you tonight. And we will continue our studies when you are ready."
Rei's eyes briefly fluttered open, the night lights of man filtering through the curtains of her window.
Some time had past, she could tell. The lights of Asuka and Shinji were dormant, their afterglow burning like embers in hot coals.
"Lilith teach you well, Rei?"
"Mhm…" Her eyes would flutter back down. "S… she did… I'll tell you about it…."
Her body would settle back into its slumber, but the leyline with Kaworu remained open. "I'd like to hear it from your perspective, Rei."
~
"STAND! BOW! SIT!" Drill Instructor Hikari would yell out as their homeroom teacher made their presence known.
"Feh, cranky today are we?"
For that, the boy that said that got an eraser thrown square in his face.
"Thank you Hikari." Drolly noted the teacher, as the student rep took her seat. "First order of business, end of school year examinations will commence on the 12th of March and will run through to the 23rd. Study hard and get a good grade, we have plenty of tutoring available if you require it." Clearing their throat as they moved to the next order of business. "Applications for your extracurriculars are to be submitted to the head office by the end of the school year, that's the 30th of March if you are unsure. Some of the more popular ones have filled up so the earlier you submit them the better…"
Asuka would see a message ping on her terminal.
IKARI, S: "Do you reckon we're gonna get extracurriculars for the last year?"
She'd roll her eyes and type her reply.
SORYU, A. L: "Pfft, no! That cuts into NERV time!"
IKARI, S: "Drat :<, I wanted to get into the Strings Club this year!"
A muffled snicker from the girl, as the teacher continued on.
SORYU, A. L: "At least we're starting to get to the light at the end of the tunnel! One more year and we'll be done with this stupid place forever! \o/"
SORYU, A. L: "And look on the bright side, you wanna do strings you can just do it with us! c:"
IKARI, S: "That's a good point actually…"
"That concludes the dailies, do you have anything to add on, Horaki-chan?"
"No sensei!"
"Alright, your first class for the day will be English studies." The homeroom teacher would start to gather their belongings to make tracks. "Having seen the English exam for this year… if you haven't studied, you best go down to a shrine and pray, because you will be needing the grace of the Gods…"
The class would break into murmuring. "How are you gonna go with that, Asuka?" Shinji would lean over, now he didn't have to keep quiet.
"I mean English is like my third language so I should be okay. Maybe we'll just watch a few western movies without any subtitles and see how we go understanding it. Rei?"
"I have not seen a Tarantino film for a while."
"Might be good for the weekend, eh?"
"It is a date then." With a smile, turning back to her English notebook.
She could tell that got Asuka to blush, even if she couldn't see it… though then again, Shinji's snickering would have given that away as well.
Asuka's eyes would drift back to Hikari, the girl looking introspective. "…We sure she doesn't need a hand, Shinji?"
Toji wandered up to the front of her desk and poked her cheek, the girl giggling before entering into a nondescript conversation with him.
"I think she'll be fine. Toji will know what to do."
~
Soon enough, they'd find themselves back in the office… well most of them at least. "Is Hikari coming back?"
"She said to me during lunch she would, I thought she was just behind us?" Asuka would ponder.
"Wouldn't surprise me if she didn't want to continue."
"I mean that's her decision at the end of the-"
The door would open, Hikari trudging in and taking her seat. "Okay." With a sharp breath in and out. "Sorry, had to psych myself up before coming in today."
"Ah, like give yourself a motivational speech or s-something?"
"I… might've had assistance from Toji."
Quiet in the room. Which only emphasised the blush that started creeping up on her face.
Asuka would bark a laugh, lightly slapping the girl on her back. "You're learning! That's been our coping mechanism for years!" Glaring to the Commander. "Because someone's been dragging their feet in getting us therapy!"
"We're working on it!" Misato would bark back.
"Ah but don't be embarrassed by that, Hikari." Zero Two would quote unquote 'comfort'. "You're in good company when it comes to that!"
"Do we dare ask where you found the time and location to do such thing?"
"…I'd prefer not to answer that, Rei."
More snickering. "That is fair."
"C-Can we make a start with the manga?" Quietly pleaded Hikari.
"Oh okay okay, we can tease you after we read through this volume." Misato would decree.
"…Thank you?"
More snickering abounds, as the next volume commenced…
~~~
Character Key:
Shinji (S) Asuka (A)
Rei (R) Kaworu (K) Mari (Mar) Hikari (Hik)
Misato (Mi) Maya (May) Eliza (E)
Hiro (Hir) Zero Two (Z)
Note: This uses the Viz Comics English adaptation of the manga.
Double spread pages are indicated with dashes: '4-5'.
If multiple pages are referenced in a block, it will be indicated with commas: '6, 7, 8'
Shinji (S) Asuka (A)
Rei (R) Kaworu (K) Mari (Mar) Hikari (Hik)
Misato (Mi) Maya (May) Eliza (E)
Hiro (Hir) Zero Two (Z)
Note: This uses the Viz Comics English adaptation of the manga.
Double spread pages are indicated with dashes: '4-5'.
If multiple pages are referenced in a block, it will be indicated with commas: '6, 7, 8'
Slob (2, 3, 4, 5)
Mi: "Oh c'mon you didn't have to mention my cup size!"
A: "I thought they were bigger than that."
Mi: "Not only did they just blab my size, they got the wrong size! I'm a D!"
Hik: "I mean you didn't have to blab your size then…"
A: "Oh we can blab our cup sizes, we're all friends here!" Asuka would grin near maniacally. "I'm a C. Rei?"
R: "B cup."
Z: "Uh what would you call mine?"
A: "I'd say you were a D?"
Mar: "Does it not say on your b-bra?"
Z: "You're meant to wear something to support it?"
S: "Hiro you lucky man."
He'd reply with a grin.
Mar: "I mean I don't know what c-cup a boy would have, but back before I died I think mine was C."
E: "I suppose being a near clone of Rei, I would have the same size. Never paid attention to that."
A: "What about you, Maya? Since we're all talking about it?"
May: "…B."
Mi: "Ritsukos are a lot larger."
May: "MISATO!" Now in full blush.
Hikari anxiously looked down at her chest. "…Never realised how small I was."
K: "I am sure Toji would tell you, but a man does not care what they look like. A breast is a breast and breasts are the best."
Hikari didn't even know how to respond to that, her face fully flushed in blush.
R: "Mari?"
Mari would apparate out of Kaworu and proceed to throw him into a wall. "Ow."
R: "Thank you."
Mi: "Would've been nice if they didn't say I was drunk as well…"
A: "That's just a coin flip at this point."
Mi: "I mean you're right."
S: "And the food you're eating is a lot nicer than expected."
E: "Only in the cover page though."
Mi: "Yeah that looks like the usual stuff!"
S: "I had such high hopes looking at that first page…"
May: "That's one of the reasons you want those two to stick around, huh Misato?"
Mi: "I mean if they wanted to move out, I might keep up those habits for… a few months?"
A: "For your sake we're not moving out anytime soon."
S: "I thought you were pretty well established in that apartment before I moved in?"
Mi: "Oh I might've only been there for three months at most before I took you under my wing, but I had everything unpacked by then. I'm not that lazy."
Asuka and Shinji gave her an unsure look. "What?"
… (6, 7, 8, 9)
S: "I mean, that went better than how I first met Pen-Pen."
A: "You're much less butt naked in this one."
Hik: "Thank the Gods for that…"
Z: "Doubt Asuka would be saying that."
A: "Oh they outright insulted Shinji's package size!"
S: "That should've been an omen for how that show would treat me."
K: "And how Sachiel went didn't serve that beforehand?"
S: "Okay admittedly that could've served as a bit of an omen as well."
A: "His package isn't even that small! They exaggerated it in the anime!"
E: "I'm sure Shinji appreciates you blabbing about that."
Mi: "Ah it's not the size that matters but how you use it!"
A: "And Shinji uses it wonderfully!"
Shinji didn't have any comment, because he was currently as red as a tomato.
So was Hikari, more at the subject matter than anything related to her. "On other notes… you're really bad at Janken, Shinji."
S: "I don't remember being nearly as bad as that…"
Mi: "I dunno, I'm pretty sure you were responsible for all the cooking either way."
Mar: "Judging by how you eat, that was a g-good thing in the long run."
Mi: "Oh don't get me wrong it was."
K: "Are you sure he didn't throw the games just to make sure he wasn't eating your food?"
Mi: "If he was, frankly I'd be impressed."
A: "I mean if I had to eat TV dinners every night, I'd probably throw myself from the balcony!"
Mi: "Welcome to the lifestyle of a busy salarywoman Asuka, I don't have time to cook after a long day's work!"
May: "Don't you use the mess?"
Mi: "Eh I don't like the food they have."
May: "We pay good dollars to have that mess Misato!"
R: "You mean the taxpayer pays good dollars have that mess."
Mi: "The taxpayer pays for everything we do, it all balances out anyway." Shrugging it off.
Droughts and Flooding Rain (10, 11, 12, 13)
A: "God I'm glad he went and retired, I couldn't stand that story about Second Impact!"
K: "It was near complete falsehood anyway. The meteor, at least."
E: "The events afterwards weren't."
K: "No, they were unfortunately too true."
Mar: "Do you guys consider the 20th c-century to have ended with 2001 or something?"
May: "You guys don't?"
Mar: "It ended in 1999! We had big c-celebrations and everything!"
Mi: "I mean we did celebrate it, but technically we did record the change of centuries to occur in the next year from 2000. So by our logic, it was in the last year of the 20th century."
Hik: "We don't need elaboration on the conflicts that came about as a result of that, we've learned that rather thoroughly…"
Z: "And half of your population died to that?"
Mi: "Three billion people, yeah." She'd huff. "Such a mind bogglingly large number, it's impossible to really put into terms. The natural disasters didn't even kill as many people as the wars did."
R: "Such is the state of humanity, if it does not have something else to hate, they fall back to hating each other. A backward thought, when you think about it."
Hik: "I mean we're all human, that's what I don't understand. How could you be so cruel to your fellow humans like that?"
Mi: "People are, no matter their excuses. That's been the thing with humanity, we're capable of great kindness and great cruelty in equal measure."
K: "In one of the works we had seen prior, the author had described the generation born after Second Impact as potentially being one of the most peaceful ones that had ever existed."
Hik: "Well I sure hope so! After seeing all that happen, and knowing how lucky we are compared to everywhere else in the world, why shouldn't we treat people with kindness?"
May: "If only more people had that attitude, Hikari."
Hik: "I don't even like when the rumour mill goes off… which is what's going on here. I vaguely recall they suddenly all shouted like they realised at once you were a pilot. It was a pain to get them all quiet again."
S: "I might've told them in the public chat."
Hikari gave Shinji a stink-eye. "Did it not cross your mind that might not be a great idea?"
S: "Not really…"
A harrumph from the class president.
… (14, 15, 16)
A: "Shinji, honey, you gotta learn how to lie."
Mi: "I mean they put the pieces together well enough, and obviously Shinji's lack of response was enough to convince them."
E: "Maybe they would make good pilots."
Hir: "Other than the fact they just blabbed on his status as a pilot."
Hik: "Definitely can't credit them on any opsec…"
A: "At least this time around you didn't just outright admit it!" Asuka would flick his nose playfully. "Cause that was pretty stupid, admitting you were a pilot!"
S: "And I found that out the hard way when Toji decided to give me a piece of his mind…"
Hik: "I still chew him out for that." She'd huff. "Freakin' macho man attitude…"
R: "You do not seem to mind his."
A: "Honestly he's mellowed out a lot since you two started dating."
S: "Not that you'd complain about that."
A: "Oh I'm not, this was the same boy that pulled down his pants when I slapped his face."
Hik: "He what?"
A: "Oh yeah, when I first met Shinji Toji and Kensuke on the military ship I arrived on, a gust of wind blew my skirt up, so I slapped them as payment."
Mar: "Fair enough but why were you w-wearing a skirt on a military ship?"
Z: "For that exact reason I bet."
A: "My reasons for wearing a light sundress on a windy day are of no relevance to this story! Either way, the reasonable way a boy would respond is apologising."
S: "Or wondering why you were wearing a light sundress on a windy day."
Hik: "And Toji reacted to that by pulling down his pants in front of you?"
A: "Underwear and all, all two inches of him."
Hikari cringed. "Did you punish him?"
A: "I kicked his crown jewels in."
Hik: "Good, I don't have to do that at least…"
Mi: "Hah! He never told you?"
Hik: "Of course he wouldn't tell me that! That's exactly the attitude I'm trying to teach out of him!"
K: "That would have been years ago at this point, so I presume you were successful."
Hik: "Well did he drop his pants in front of you since then, Asuka?"
A: "If he did I would have murdered him."
Hik: "Okay he's still alive so I'm assuming he didn't then."
A: "Not as bad as what Kensuke did though."
Hik: "…What did Kensuke do?" Perking an eyebrow.
A: "Oh you'll find out eventually."
Macho Macho Man (17, 18, 19, 20)
Hik: "I mean if I knew that was why he skipped school, I wouldn't have spoken to him harshly…"
S: "He didn't tell you?"
R: "They were not as close as they were back then."
Hik: "It was just crushing at that point, wasn't anything too serious until you guys pushed us together."
Mar: "So Toji p-pretty much just took you out of class to beat you up, and old man teach did n-nothing about it?"
A: "Bet he was watching with popcorn."
Mi: "If he didn't already retire we'd be reviewing his employment… that's a clear breach of pilot safety."
May: "I wonder why Section 2 didn't get involved with this, we couldn't have known it'd be something light."
Mi: "Any threat against the pilots, even if it's a schoolyard bash up, needs to be reported and actioned so it doesn't happen again! And Shinji sure as hell wasn't gonna tell me in his state!"
S: "I should've, looking back at it…"
Mi: "Eh I was new to you, I know now you'd tell me."
Z: "Now he'd have Asuka to bash up the people hitting him in return."
A: "Amen!"
Mi: "But you'd still tell me right?"
A: "Oh yeah, even if it was just a casual conversation about it. Believe me, I would've thrown them into a trash bin long before they'd lay a finger on Shinji. Only I and a select few others are allowed to do that!"
E: "I find it odd that his concern is more so the fact she may be scarred."
Hik: "Ah that's just him trying to mask his concerns. He loves his family, especially Sakura... I remember him telling me that was all that was on his mind for weeks afterwards, and when he finally saw you and realised you were the pilot, well, he let his anger get the better of him."
S: "I've long forgiven him for that, Hikari. You don't need to be concerned about it."
Hik: "Feh, I still don't like the idea of him beating people…"
May: "Well good thing he has you to beat that attitude out of him!"
Hikari flatly stared at Maya.
May: "Proverbially."
Mar: "Haven't really m-met him, but he's coming off as pretty casual in how he speaks."
Hik: "Oh yeah he held no respect in how he spoke. Slang and shorthand, could barely understand him!"
R: "That is another thing you taught him, I presume?"
Hik: "Not even consciously honestly… heh, I guess he just picked up on how I tended to speak and started doing that."
Z: "I'd call that love if I were you girl."
Hik: "Heh…" A glance aside in a slight blush. "I suppose that is love, huh." And a sigh. "Jeez, hard to believe the Toji I know today is more or less the same Toji I'm seeing here, it's night and day almost."
A: "Ah Hikari, that's just the magic of having some good influence in your life!" With a wide grin. "We wouldn't be here without them!"
E: "Literally."
Mi: "Yeah it was that kiss of yours that literally saved the world, so it seems."
Hik: "I still don't know how that works out…"
… (21, 22)
R: "I do not recall you butting in like that."
Hik: "I should've! That's worthy of disciplinary action that!"
A: "Surely you wouldn't rat on your boyfriend like that?"
Hik: "Well he wasn't my boyfriend proper back then, so I might've."
Mi: "Note how it's still a might've instead of a yes."
Hik: "I didn't mean it that way!"
Mar: "You got a tongue on y-you this time around, Shinji! Look at the anger on his f-face when you said that!"
S: "I did say something after he hit me the first time that caused him to hit me again, but I don't even remember what it was."
Hir: "Because he rattled that out of your head or something?"
Hikari would mutter indignantly at her boyfriend's actions.
E: "I'm assuming he's a lot better now, right?"
Hik: "Oh yeah, not just me but he started improving when he got friendly with Shinji as well! Was one of the reasons I actually pursued the relationship instead of just crushing endlessly on him."
A: "That and we pushed you to doing it."
R: "It was more of a shove, you really needed encouragement to do it."
Hik: "I got there in the end didn't I?!"
K: "And I am sure you wouldn't have it any other way, no?"
Hik: "…Yeah." With another slight blush.
Z: "Bet he shoves you in quite pleasant ways now, eh?"
Hik: "Well you don't have to word it like that, Zero Two…"
Pull Trigger (23, 24, 25, 26)
Misato grumbled. "I can't believe we missed that with your school."
S: "Not like I told you. That's more my fault than anything."
A: "I think she means it shouldn't have mattered if you told them or not. Their surveillance should've picked up on it."
May: "Looks like our training is better this time around, at least… did we teach you all that?"
S: "Nope." With a scoff. "All I was taught was 'centre target pull switch'. And pretty sure you told me all the things I'd need to know would just pop up on screen, Misato!"
Mi: "Look we didn't know when the next attack was so maybe we rushed through a few things!"
E: "You don't want to be completely reliant on the computer though."
Mar: "Coming from you, little m-miss Unix."
Z: "Yeah wouldn't that put you out of a job?"
E: "I said completely reliant, didn't I?" She'd snicker. "Like you still need to know how to aim a gun without me holding your hand throughout it. Cause what if I'm not there? You're screwed!"
Hik: "I think if the computers of the Evangelion stop working, you have more pressing issues…"
K: "Did your family call you in our world, Shinji?"
S: "Mhm, I kept up with them when I could. Even if it was just a couple minutes, barely enough to check in, it still counts for something… but y'know how busy we all got, especially near the end of the war."
A: "Seems they didn't really care about you in this one."
S: "I would've made it easy, with how I'm like in this one."
R: "Your personality is definitely more abrasive and depressive in this one."
S: "I can't even say I'm surprised I'm more depressed in this one, because I've seen works where I'm more depressed than I ever been!"
R: "You would have been very depressed during Kimigabuchi's work."
Hik: "I'm depressed thinking about it and I've never even read through it…"
Hir: "I don't recommend it."
Z: "Yeah I still get nightmares about that work and I wasn't even in it!"
A: "Oh you get nightmares?!"
Mi: "And to think the version you read through was the better one. At least it didn't have any pornography in it."
A: "I mean it would've been a nice break from all the depression!"
R: "We already knew that Shinji used you as a coping mechanism from seeing me, so to speak. I cannot imagine your anger if you had a sex scene immediately after that."
A: "…Y'know, thinking about that, yeah I would've been pretty fucking angry at that."
… (27, 28, 29)
K: "Interesting analysis… it seems you have almost completely disassociated from the world, Shinji."
S: "Mhm… I was a bit like that to start with, not as bad I think but I was very much not there most of the time."
A: "Could be why they aren't calling you. Even in those ten years, you were so closed off you didn't form any sort of relationship with them."
Shinji could only sigh. "And that's probably exactly what Gendo wanted from me. Someone passive, willing to do anything he wanted…"
R: "Unwilling to face the pain of the outside world."
S: "Exactly. But the thing I eventually realised, the world isn't just pain. It's love, and joy. But you need to open yourself up to experience all that."
E: "And you can't do that if you're shielding yourself from the bad."
S: "Mhm… I had an awful experience in my childhood, and no one responded in the correct way to it. Really it makes sense why I decided to close myself off."
Mi: "It's always awful when it's a kid going through that. They don't know a thing about what's going on; they need someone to tell them it's alright and to help them along."
Mar: "Sounds like that was rather l-lacking in this class."
A: "Tell me about it, Mari… at least we had parents to start with though. Rei and Kaworu, hell even you two Hiro and Zero Two, you never really had folks you could really call parents."
R: "Gendo was the closest thing to a father I had… but still not a father."
S: "And looking back on that, I used to think it would've been better off if I didn't have parents at all. If I was just an orphan."
May: "But that was part of that shrinking back from the pain and the outside world. Exactly what you're describing here, more or less."
A: "And we know how that ended."
Hik: "I still can't believe the fate on the world rode on you two getting together."
A: "Oh and us getting together was a twist of fate! It wasn't meant to happen, it only happened because Shinji tripped up or something!"
Mi: "I didn't have too much money riding on you two getting together; I thought you'd just endlessly orbit each other."
S: "Yeah and when we do that the world ends."
A: "Lesson here is don't try to be hedgehogs and all closed off, does no good for anyone."
Shinji could only sigh. "It's gonna take ages for me to get better, huh…"
"Even here, I only started seeing some improvements in your attitude after you ran away and especially after Ramiel."
"And don't discount me!" Boasted Asuka. "Despite my brash attitude, I helped bring out the best in Shin-chan right here!"
"And the world thanks you for it."
"You wouldn't think that with how many of these works it sends to torture us!" Tapping on the manga. "Like I get it! What Shinji and I made and caused is statistically unlikely."
"It really is, we have more than one example…"
"We have a dataset of universes where we are worse off because they didn't get together." Rei would flatly remark. "I… have yet to see a universe where they had both not gotten together and the world hadn't ended."
"Well I-"
A glare from Rei ended that thought from Mari. "Should we continue?"
~
Mi: "Oh c'mon you didn't have to mention my cup size!"
A: "I thought they were bigger than that."
Mi: "Not only did they just blab my size, they got the wrong size! I'm a D!"
Hik: "I mean you didn't have to blab your size then…"
A: "Oh we can blab our cup sizes, we're all friends here!" Asuka would grin near maniacally. "I'm a C. Rei?"
R: "B cup."
Z: "Uh what would you call mine?"
A: "I'd say you were a D?"
Mar: "Does it not say on your b-bra?"
Z: "You're meant to wear something to support it?"
S: "Hiro you lucky man."
He'd reply with a grin.
Mar: "I mean I don't know what c-cup a boy would have, but back before I died I think mine was C."
E: "I suppose being a near clone of Rei, I would have the same size. Never paid attention to that."
A: "What about you, Maya? Since we're all talking about it?"
May: "…B."
Mi: "Ritsukos are a lot larger."
May: "MISATO!" Now in full blush.
Hikari anxiously looked down at her chest. "…Never realised how small I was."
K: "I am sure Toji would tell you, but a man does not care what they look like. A breast is a breast and breasts are the best."
Hikari didn't even know how to respond to that, her face fully flushed in blush.
R: "Mari?"
Mari would apparate out of Kaworu and proceed to throw him into a wall. "Ow."
R: "Thank you."
Mi: "Would've been nice if they didn't say I was drunk as well…"
A: "That's just a coin flip at this point."
Mi: "I mean you're right."
S: "And the food you're eating is a lot nicer than expected."
E: "Only in the cover page though."
Mi: "Yeah that looks like the usual stuff!"
S: "I had such high hopes looking at that first page…"
May: "That's one of the reasons you want those two to stick around, huh Misato?"
Mi: "I mean if they wanted to move out, I might keep up those habits for… a few months?"
A: "For your sake we're not moving out anytime soon."
S: "I thought you were pretty well established in that apartment before I moved in?"
Mi: "Oh I might've only been there for three months at most before I took you under my wing, but I had everything unpacked by then. I'm not that lazy."
Asuka and Shinji gave her an unsure look. "What?"
… (6, 7, 8, 9)
S: "I mean, that went better than how I first met Pen-Pen."
A: "You're much less butt naked in this one."
Hik: "Thank the Gods for that…"
Z: "Doubt Asuka would be saying that."
A: "Oh they outright insulted Shinji's package size!"
S: "That should've been an omen for how that show would treat me."
K: "And how Sachiel went didn't serve that beforehand?"
S: "Okay admittedly that could've served as a bit of an omen as well."
A: "His package isn't even that small! They exaggerated it in the anime!"
E: "I'm sure Shinji appreciates you blabbing about that."
Mi: "Ah it's not the size that matters but how you use it!"
A: "And Shinji uses it wonderfully!"
Shinji didn't have any comment, because he was currently as red as a tomato.
So was Hikari, more at the subject matter than anything related to her. "On other notes… you're really bad at Janken, Shinji."
S: "I don't remember being nearly as bad as that…"
Mi: "I dunno, I'm pretty sure you were responsible for all the cooking either way."
Mar: "Judging by how you eat, that was a g-good thing in the long run."
Mi: "Oh don't get me wrong it was."
K: "Are you sure he didn't throw the games just to make sure he wasn't eating your food?"
Mi: "If he was, frankly I'd be impressed."
A: "I mean if I had to eat TV dinners every night, I'd probably throw myself from the balcony!"
Mi: "Welcome to the lifestyle of a busy salarywoman Asuka, I don't have time to cook after a long day's work!"
May: "Don't you use the mess?"
Mi: "Eh I don't like the food they have."
May: "We pay good dollars to have that mess Misato!"
R: "You mean the taxpayer pays good dollars have that mess."
Mi: "The taxpayer pays for everything we do, it all balances out anyway." Shrugging it off.
Droughts and Flooding Rain (10, 11, 12, 13)
A: "God I'm glad he went and retired, I couldn't stand that story about Second Impact!"
K: "It was near complete falsehood anyway. The meteor, at least."
E: "The events afterwards weren't."
K: "No, they were unfortunately too true."
Mar: "Do you guys consider the 20th c-century to have ended with 2001 or something?"
May: "You guys don't?"
Mar: "It ended in 1999! We had big c-celebrations and everything!"
Mi: "I mean we did celebrate it, but technically we did record the change of centuries to occur in the next year from 2000. So by our logic, it was in the last year of the 20th century."
Hik: "We don't need elaboration on the conflicts that came about as a result of that, we've learned that rather thoroughly…"
Z: "And half of your population died to that?"
Mi: "Three billion people, yeah." She'd huff. "Such a mind bogglingly large number, it's impossible to really put into terms. The natural disasters didn't even kill as many people as the wars did."
R: "Such is the state of humanity, if it does not have something else to hate, they fall back to hating each other. A backward thought, when you think about it."
Hik: "I mean we're all human, that's what I don't understand. How could you be so cruel to your fellow humans like that?"
Mi: "People are, no matter their excuses. That's been the thing with humanity, we're capable of great kindness and great cruelty in equal measure."
K: "In one of the works we had seen prior, the author had described the generation born after Second Impact as potentially being one of the most peaceful ones that had ever existed."
Hik: "Well I sure hope so! After seeing all that happen, and knowing how lucky we are compared to everywhere else in the world, why shouldn't we treat people with kindness?"
May: "If only more people had that attitude, Hikari."
Hik: "I don't even like when the rumour mill goes off… which is what's going on here. I vaguely recall they suddenly all shouted like they realised at once you were a pilot. It was a pain to get them all quiet again."
S: "I might've told them in the public chat."
Hikari gave Shinji a stink-eye. "Did it not cross your mind that might not be a great idea?"
S: "Not really…"
A harrumph from the class president.
… (14, 15, 16)
A: "Shinji, honey, you gotta learn how to lie."
Mi: "I mean they put the pieces together well enough, and obviously Shinji's lack of response was enough to convince them."
E: "Maybe they would make good pilots."
Hir: "Other than the fact they just blabbed on his status as a pilot."
Hik: "Definitely can't credit them on any opsec…"
A: "At least this time around you didn't just outright admit it!" Asuka would flick his nose playfully. "Cause that was pretty stupid, admitting you were a pilot!"
S: "And I found that out the hard way when Toji decided to give me a piece of his mind…"
Hik: "I still chew him out for that." She'd huff. "Freakin' macho man attitude…"
R: "You do not seem to mind his."
A: "Honestly he's mellowed out a lot since you two started dating."
S: "Not that you'd complain about that."
A: "Oh I'm not, this was the same boy that pulled down his pants when I slapped his face."
Hik: "He what?"
A: "Oh yeah, when I first met Shinji Toji and Kensuke on the military ship I arrived on, a gust of wind blew my skirt up, so I slapped them as payment."
Mar: "Fair enough but why were you w-wearing a skirt on a military ship?"
Z: "For that exact reason I bet."
A: "My reasons for wearing a light sundress on a windy day are of no relevance to this story! Either way, the reasonable way a boy would respond is apologising."
S: "Or wondering why you were wearing a light sundress on a windy day."
Hik: "And Toji reacted to that by pulling down his pants in front of you?"
A: "Underwear and all, all two inches of him."
Hikari cringed. "Did you punish him?"
A: "I kicked his crown jewels in."
Hik: "Good, I don't have to do that at least…"
Mi: "Hah! He never told you?"
Hik: "Of course he wouldn't tell me that! That's exactly the attitude I'm trying to teach out of him!"
K: "That would have been years ago at this point, so I presume you were successful."
Hik: "Well did he drop his pants in front of you since then, Asuka?"
A: "If he did I would have murdered him."
Hik: "Okay he's still alive so I'm assuming he didn't then."
A: "Not as bad as what Kensuke did though."
Hik: "…What did Kensuke do?" Perking an eyebrow.
A: "Oh you'll find out eventually."
Macho Macho Man (17, 18, 19, 20)
Hik: "I mean if I knew that was why he skipped school, I wouldn't have spoken to him harshly…"
S: "He didn't tell you?"
R: "They were not as close as they were back then."
Hik: "It was just crushing at that point, wasn't anything too serious until you guys pushed us together."
Mar: "So Toji p-pretty much just took you out of class to beat you up, and old man teach did n-nothing about it?"
A: "Bet he was watching with popcorn."
Mi: "If he didn't already retire we'd be reviewing his employment… that's a clear breach of pilot safety."
May: "I wonder why Section 2 didn't get involved with this, we couldn't have known it'd be something light."
Mi: "Any threat against the pilots, even if it's a schoolyard bash up, needs to be reported and actioned so it doesn't happen again! And Shinji sure as hell wasn't gonna tell me in his state!"
S: "I should've, looking back at it…"
Mi: "Eh I was new to you, I know now you'd tell me."
Z: "Now he'd have Asuka to bash up the people hitting him in return."
A: "Amen!"
Mi: "But you'd still tell me right?"
A: "Oh yeah, even if it was just a casual conversation about it. Believe me, I would've thrown them into a trash bin long before they'd lay a finger on Shinji. Only I and a select few others are allowed to do that!"
E: "I find it odd that his concern is more so the fact she may be scarred."
Hik: "Ah that's just him trying to mask his concerns. He loves his family, especially Sakura... I remember him telling me that was all that was on his mind for weeks afterwards, and when he finally saw you and realised you were the pilot, well, he let his anger get the better of him."
S: "I've long forgiven him for that, Hikari. You don't need to be concerned about it."
Hik: "Feh, I still don't like the idea of him beating people…"
May: "Well good thing he has you to beat that attitude out of him!"
Hikari flatly stared at Maya.
May: "Proverbially."
Mar: "Haven't really m-met him, but he's coming off as pretty casual in how he speaks."
Hik: "Oh yeah he held no respect in how he spoke. Slang and shorthand, could barely understand him!"
R: "That is another thing you taught him, I presume?"
Hik: "Not even consciously honestly… heh, I guess he just picked up on how I tended to speak and started doing that."
Z: "I'd call that love if I were you girl."
Hik: "Heh…" A glance aside in a slight blush. "I suppose that is love, huh." And a sigh. "Jeez, hard to believe the Toji I know today is more or less the same Toji I'm seeing here, it's night and day almost."
A: "Ah Hikari, that's just the magic of having some good influence in your life!" With a wide grin. "We wouldn't be here without them!"
E: "Literally."
Mi: "Yeah it was that kiss of yours that literally saved the world, so it seems."
Hik: "I still don't know how that works out…"
… (21, 22)
R: "I do not recall you butting in like that."
Hik: "I should've! That's worthy of disciplinary action that!"
A: "Surely you wouldn't rat on your boyfriend like that?"
Hik: "Well he wasn't my boyfriend proper back then, so I might've."
Mi: "Note how it's still a might've instead of a yes."
Hik: "I didn't mean it that way!"
Mar: "You got a tongue on y-you this time around, Shinji! Look at the anger on his f-face when you said that!"
S: "I did say something after he hit me the first time that caused him to hit me again, but I don't even remember what it was."
Hir: "Because he rattled that out of your head or something?"
Hikari would mutter indignantly at her boyfriend's actions.
E: "I'm assuming he's a lot better now, right?"
Hik: "Oh yeah, not just me but he started improving when he got friendly with Shinji as well! Was one of the reasons I actually pursued the relationship instead of just crushing endlessly on him."
A: "That and we pushed you to doing it."
R: "It was more of a shove, you really needed encouragement to do it."
Hik: "I got there in the end didn't I?!"
K: "And I am sure you wouldn't have it any other way, no?"
Hik: "…Yeah." With another slight blush.
Z: "Bet he shoves you in quite pleasant ways now, eh?"
Hik: "Well you don't have to word it like that, Zero Two…"
Pull Trigger (23, 24, 25, 26)
Misato grumbled. "I can't believe we missed that with your school."
S: "Not like I told you. That's more my fault than anything."
A: "I think she means it shouldn't have mattered if you told them or not. Their surveillance should've picked up on it."
May: "Looks like our training is better this time around, at least… did we teach you all that?"
S: "Nope." With a scoff. "All I was taught was 'centre target pull switch'. And pretty sure you told me all the things I'd need to know would just pop up on screen, Misato!"
Mi: "Look we didn't know when the next attack was so maybe we rushed through a few things!"
E: "You don't want to be completely reliant on the computer though."
Mar: "Coming from you, little m-miss Unix."
Z: "Yeah wouldn't that put you out of a job?"
E: "I said completely reliant, didn't I?" She'd snicker. "Like you still need to know how to aim a gun without me holding your hand throughout it. Cause what if I'm not there? You're screwed!"
Hik: "I think if the computers of the Evangelion stop working, you have more pressing issues…"
K: "Did your family call you in our world, Shinji?"
S: "Mhm, I kept up with them when I could. Even if it was just a couple minutes, barely enough to check in, it still counts for something… but y'know how busy we all got, especially near the end of the war."
A: "Seems they didn't really care about you in this one."
S: "I would've made it easy, with how I'm like in this one."
R: "Your personality is definitely more abrasive and depressive in this one."
S: "I can't even say I'm surprised I'm more depressed in this one, because I've seen works where I'm more depressed than I ever been!"
R: "You would have been very depressed during Kimigabuchi's work."
Hik: "I'm depressed thinking about it and I've never even read through it…"
Hir: "I don't recommend it."
Z: "Yeah I still get nightmares about that work and I wasn't even in it!"
A: "Oh you get nightmares?!"
Mi: "And to think the version you read through was the better one. At least it didn't have any pornography in it."
A: "I mean it would've been a nice break from all the depression!"
R: "We already knew that Shinji used you as a coping mechanism from seeing me, so to speak. I cannot imagine your anger if you had a sex scene immediately after that."
A: "…Y'know, thinking about that, yeah I would've been pretty fucking angry at that."
… (27, 28, 29)
K: "Interesting analysis… it seems you have almost completely disassociated from the world, Shinji."
S: "Mhm… I was a bit like that to start with, not as bad I think but I was very much not there most of the time."
A: "Could be why they aren't calling you. Even in those ten years, you were so closed off you didn't form any sort of relationship with them."
Shinji could only sigh. "And that's probably exactly what Gendo wanted from me. Someone passive, willing to do anything he wanted…"
R: "Unwilling to face the pain of the outside world."
S: "Exactly. But the thing I eventually realised, the world isn't just pain. It's love, and joy. But you need to open yourself up to experience all that."
E: "And you can't do that if you're shielding yourself from the bad."
S: "Mhm… I had an awful experience in my childhood, and no one responded in the correct way to it. Really it makes sense why I decided to close myself off."
Mi: "It's always awful when it's a kid going through that. They don't know a thing about what's going on; they need someone to tell them it's alright and to help them along."
Mar: "Sounds like that was rather l-lacking in this class."
A: "Tell me about it, Mari… at least we had parents to start with though. Rei and Kaworu, hell even you two Hiro and Zero Two, you never really had folks you could really call parents."
R: "Gendo was the closest thing to a father I had… but still not a father."
S: "And looking back on that, I used to think it would've been better off if I didn't have parents at all. If I was just an orphan."
May: "But that was part of that shrinking back from the pain and the outside world. Exactly what you're describing here, more or less."
A: "And we know how that ended."
Hik: "I still can't believe the fate on the world rode on you two getting together."
A: "Oh and us getting together was a twist of fate! It wasn't meant to happen, it only happened because Shinji tripped up or something!"
Mi: "I didn't have too much money riding on you two getting together; I thought you'd just endlessly orbit each other."
S: "Yeah and when we do that the world ends."
A: "Lesson here is don't try to be hedgehogs and all closed off, does no good for anyone."
Shinji could only sigh. "It's gonna take ages for me to get better, huh…"
"Even here, I only started seeing some improvements in your attitude after you ran away and especially after Ramiel."
"And don't discount me!" Boasted Asuka. "Despite my brash attitude, I helped bring out the best in Shin-chan right here!"
"And the world thanks you for it."
"You wouldn't think that with how many of these works it sends to torture us!" Tapping on the manga. "Like I get it! What Shinji and I made and caused is statistically unlikely."
"It really is, we have more than one example…"
"We have a dataset of universes where we are worse off because they didn't get together." Rei would flatly remark. "I… have yet to see a universe where they had both not gotten together and the world hadn't ended."
"Well I-"
A glare from Rei ended that thought from Mari. "Should we continue?"
~
Shower (2, 3, 4, 5)
Hik: "Oh goodness!" As she clenched her eyes shut upon seeing Misato's backside.
A: "Eh, you get used to it." Snickering. "You're a lot flatter than I remember Misato."
Mi: "Hmpf, they didn't capture my bust or my butt accurately…"
May: "It's very clearly fanservice."
Mi: "Oh yeah, but I never minded when it showed me off. Then again, I'm of age to be shown off! It's more concerning when they show Asuka off!"
A: "Of which they did plenty!"
Mar: "Did you really shower with the d-door open like that?"
Mi: "You gotta remember Mari, I was a bachelorette. I wasn't gonna lose sleep if Pen-Pen saw my boobs."
R: "And just maybe someone you were interested in would waltz in."
Mi: "Heh, remember this was before I got back with Kaji Rei." Snickering. "Still, maybe I wanted to tease Shinji or something."
A: "Well it did the job!"
Z: "Have you kept that door open while showering, Asuka?"
A: "When Misato isn't around, sure!" With a giggle. "Nothing like a free show, eh Shinji?"
S: "M-Mhm!" With a blush.
Hik: "None of you are free of sin!"
Hir: "Comes with the gig."
A: "Yeah and at this point, I'd prefer the more porny segments. Because at least you can reasonably say it's a more happier moment! They generally don't show that if it's a depressing segment!"
E: "You say that but you were found naked in a bathtub near the end of the Laserdiscs."
A: "Okay usually it isn't a depressing segment, there's always exceptions to the rule!"
E: "What about when Shinji mast-"
A: "Fine there's multiple exceptions to that rule! It's Evangelion, they thrive on our suffering!"
May: "I mean overall things look pretty good… Pen-Pen has definitely done that to my snacks before."
Mi: "He does that to my beer all the time." With a snort. "Also you didn't tell me you found my supervision record!"
S: "I didn't."
Mi: "Oh thank God I had a lot of things I said in that…"
Shinji raised an eyebrow.
… (6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Mi: "Wait we did know about it?!"
Hik: "Why did you take so long to do anything about it?"
Mi: "Ask her, Hikari."
E: "Before she gets too inebriated."
A: "Never thought I'd see you and Misato get into a shouting match this early, Shinji."
Mi: "I mean I do have a point, like it or not you're a core part of NERV now. You're a pilot, and you're the only thing between us and certain death!"
S: "Tell that to him, I don't think he quite realises that yet."
Z: "Probably could've worded it a bit differently, makes it sound like he belongs to NERV now."
A: "Lets be honest, we do belong to NERV as pilots."
May: "Well we give you some level of freedom…"
Asuka raised an eyebrow. "At any one moment we have seven different Section 2 agents looking at us, we're rarely allowed to leave Tokyo-3 let alone the country, and sure we could just not show up to work when the time comes but if we do, everyone we know and love is gonna die! So it's not like we have much choice when you think about it."
K: "And you can't even say we made that decision to live that life. Asuka, debatably."
A: "Yeah when I was four, coming off the back of seeing my mom hanging from a ceiling fan. That's not exactly the peak of mental health right there."
S: "And we weren't given a choice at all." He'd huff. "But at this point, I wouldn't have it any other way."
Mi: "Mhm, because you realise you're doing a public duty not just for yourself, but for others. Screw if you don't care about your own life, what about the lives of others?"
S: "Seems I still have a lot to learn… and odds are, that learning will probably be undone anyway by everything else that ends up happening."
Hik: "I do understand where you're coming from though. Like… you pretty much were forced into this. They might not say it but they damn well made that the only option for you, at least I had a choice in my decision. Even if I did have some influences making it a more appealing option."
Hir: "Whereas Shinji's influence was 'the world will end' and 'Rei would have to pilot'."
S: "And at that point, I might've not cared about the former, but seeing Rei like that…"
R: "Hard to say no when you see someone who will directly suffer from that choice."
Mar: "Least it means you have s-some sort of morals. Can't say the same for the person who decided to send Rei out there despite h-her injuries."
R: "What other choice did we have?"
Shelter (11, 12, 13, 14)
Hik: "Ooh you're really good at getting on his nerves, Shinji."
S: "I wish I was that good at that." In a snort. "This would totally do it though."
A: "I'd rather he not push you off that roof."
E: "You see how self destructive Shinji is at this point, right?"
Mi: "I don't remember you being that bad back then."
S: "I think I was more passive in terms of that. I just stayed quiet and kept it in my head."
Mar: "And if you think from a more nefarious point of view, if he d-did hurt you like that, Section 2 would come down on him like an anvil."
Mi: "It'd definitely solve that issue…"
Hik: "Do I wanna know what'd they'd do with him?"
Mi: "Eh, probably send him to juvenile detention for a few years."
Hik: "Well that's not good…"
Z: "On the bright side, the world would've ended before he had a chance to experience a good chunk of that!"
May: "I don't think that's the silver lining you think it is Zero Two."
Z: "Ah there's always a silver lining!"
A: "Usually the silver linings in our works amount to the light at the end of the tunnel being an oncoming train."
Hik: "I'm guessing there's no way up from here then?"
A: "Oh there's some upwards travel, but then it crashes like a meteor."
Hikari sighed. "Well, could be worse I guess… no one's died yet."
Hir: "Now that's looking on the bright side!"
… (15, 16, 17, 18)
Mar: "I'd call that s-saved by the bell."
K: "Saved by the Shamshel."
Rei rolled her eyes at the pun.
Hik: "Where do those names come from anyway?"
K: "The names were designations from Seele, with their own assigned meaning. Shamshel, in example, is the angel of the morning."
A: "Good morning you sons of bitches!"
Mi: "Sure felt like that when we saw it come over the horizon…"
K: "And mine, being Tabris, was designated by them as the angel of free will."
R: "You definitely lived up to that."
K: "Here more so than anywhere else, as it seems I am usually fated to an unfortunate demise."
May: "With how Rei was treating you, we feared that'd be the outcome."
K: "I thought so as well."
R: "I only thought about killing you half of those times."
Hik: "So you were an Angel as well?"
K: "My soul was born of Adam, and was given flesh by Seele. Yes, by all accounts I am still an Angel, but the dangers I possessed back then have been mitigated by this point."
E: "Helps you fell in love with Rei."
K: "Indeed, I had a few reasons to keep this world going, despite my natural urges to return to my father."
Hir: "Bet they're glad to have you on their side though."
Mar: "I'm glad he's on t-their side! I don't know where I'd be if he didn't find me!"
Z: "Rei I like how you didn't care Shinji was getting beaten up."
R: "That is his own business, is it not?"
A: "I mean I'm sure he would've preferred the assistance!"
Hik: "She has an arm in a sling Asuka!"
R: "That would not have stopped me."
Shinji sighed. "Well, this Angel didn't go that great in our world."
"You survived d-didn't you?"
"And looking back on it, it was rare these Angels went well." Snorted Asuka. "They all had a challenge of some sort."
"As would have been expected." Kaworu thought aloud.
"Did Toji tell you about how he had to get his butt saved by Shinji?"
"He said something about that, didn't really elaborate too much on it." Hikari glanced aside. "I made sure to tell him he was an idiot."
"Oh we told him and Kensuke both quite thoroughly how idiotic that decision was." Huffing. "But at the very least, it made both of them realise just what Shinji was going through. They became good friends after that."
"Knowing what Toji was doing, I'm surprised that was the outcome."
"I think it was more he just needed to learn that." Shrugged Shinji. "He's the type to learn from demonstration more than lecture."
"Doesn't matter what the subject is, that's Toji to a T." Snickered Hikari. "And I had to learn that myself."
"Heh, so you could get to know him a bit better?"
Hikari blushed at Asuka's question. "M-Maybe…"
~
Hik: "Oh goodness!" As she clenched her eyes shut upon seeing Misato's backside.
A: "Eh, you get used to it." Snickering. "You're a lot flatter than I remember Misato."
Mi: "Hmpf, they didn't capture my bust or my butt accurately…"
May: "It's very clearly fanservice."
Mi: "Oh yeah, but I never minded when it showed me off. Then again, I'm of age to be shown off! It's more concerning when they show Asuka off!"
A: "Of which they did plenty!"
Mar: "Did you really shower with the d-door open like that?"
Mi: "You gotta remember Mari, I was a bachelorette. I wasn't gonna lose sleep if Pen-Pen saw my boobs."
R: "And just maybe someone you were interested in would waltz in."
Mi: "Heh, remember this was before I got back with Kaji Rei." Snickering. "Still, maybe I wanted to tease Shinji or something."
A: "Well it did the job!"
Z: "Have you kept that door open while showering, Asuka?"
A: "When Misato isn't around, sure!" With a giggle. "Nothing like a free show, eh Shinji?"
S: "M-Mhm!" With a blush.
Hik: "None of you are free of sin!"
Hir: "Comes with the gig."
A: "Yeah and at this point, I'd prefer the more porny segments. Because at least you can reasonably say it's a more happier moment! They generally don't show that if it's a depressing segment!"
E: "You say that but you were found naked in a bathtub near the end of the Laserdiscs."
A: "Okay usually it isn't a depressing segment, there's always exceptions to the rule!"
E: "What about when Shinji mast-"
A: "Fine there's multiple exceptions to that rule! It's Evangelion, they thrive on our suffering!"
May: "I mean overall things look pretty good… Pen-Pen has definitely done that to my snacks before."
Mi: "He does that to my beer all the time." With a snort. "Also you didn't tell me you found my supervision record!"
S: "I didn't."
Mi: "Oh thank God I had a lot of things I said in that…"
Shinji raised an eyebrow.
… (6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Mi: "Wait we did know about it?!"
Hik: "Why did you take so long to do anything about it?"
Mi: "Ask her, Hikari."
E: "Before she gets too inebriated."
A: "Never thought I'd see you and Misato get into a shouting match this early, Shinji."
Mi: "I mean I do have a point, like it or not you're a core part of NERV now. You're a pilot, and you're the only thing between us and certain death!"
S: "Tell that to him, I don't think he quite realises that yet."
Z: "Probably could've worded it a bit differently, makes it sound like he belongs to NERV now."
A: "Lets be honest, we do belong to NERV as pilots."
May: "Well we give you some level of freedom…"
Asuka raised an eyebrow. "At any one moment we have seven different Section 2 agents looking at us, we're rarely allowed to leave Tokyo-3 let alone the country, and sure we could just not show up to work when the time comes but if we do, everyone we know and love is gonna die! So it's not like we have much choice when you think about it."
K: "And you can't even say we made that decision to live that life. Asuka, debatably."
A: "Yeah when I was four, coming off the back of seeing my mom hanging from a ceiling fan. That's not exactly the peak of mental health right there."
S: "And we weren't given a choice at all." He'd huff. "But at this point, I wouldn't have it any other way."
Mi: "Mhm, because you realise you're doing a public duty not just for yourself, but for others. Screw if you don't care about your own life, what about the lives of others?"
S: "Seems I still have a lot to learn… and odds are, that learning will probably be undone anyway by everything else that ends up happening."
Hik: "I do understand where you're coming from though. Like… you pretty much were forced into this. They might not say it but they damn well made that the only option for you, at least I had a choice in my decision. Even if I did have some influences making it a more appealing option."
Hir: "Whereas Shinji's influence was 'the world will end' and 'Rei would have to pilot'."
S: "And at that point, I might've not cared about the former, but seeing Rei like that…"
R: "Hard to say no when you see someone who will directly suffer from that choice."
Mar: "Least it means you have s-some sort of morals. Can't say the same for the person who decided to send Rei out there despite h-her injuries."
R: "What other choice did we have?"
Shelter (11, 12, 13, 14)
Hik: "Ooh you're really good at getting on his nerves, Shinji."
S: "I wish I was that good at that." In a snort. "This would totally do it though."
A: "I'd rather he not push you off that roof."
E: "You see how self destructive Shinji is at this point, right?"
Mi: "I don't remember you being that bad back then."
S: "I think I was more passive in terms of that. I just stayed quiet and kept it in my head."
Mar: "And if you think from a more nefarious point of view, if he d-did hurt you like that, Section 2 would come down on him like an anvil."
Mi: "It'd definitely solve that issue…"
Hik: "Do I wanna know what'd they'd do with him?"
Mi: "Eh, probably send him to juvenile detention for a few years."
Hik: "Well that's not good…"
Z: "On the bright side, the world would've ended before he had a chance to experience a good chunk of that!"
May: "I don't think that's the silver lining you think it is Zero Two."
Z: "Ah there's always a silver lining!"
A: "Usually the silver linings in our works amount to the light at the end of the tunnel being an oncoming train."
Hik: "I'm guessing there's no way up from here then?"
A: "Oh there's some upwards travel, but then it crashes like a meteor."
Hikari sighed. "Well, could be worse I guess… no one's died yet."
Hir: "Now that's looking on the bright side!"
… (15, 16, 17, 18)
Mar: "I'd call that s-saved by the bell."
K: "Saved by the Shamshel."
Rei rolled her eyes at the pun.
Hik: "Where do those names come from anyway?"
K: "The names were designations from Seele, with their own assigned meaning. Shamshel, in example, is the angel of the morning."
A: "Good morning you sons of bitches!"
Mi: "Sure felt like that when we saw it come over the horizon…"
K: "And mine, being Tabris, was designated by them as the angel of free will."
R: "You definitely lived up to that."
K: "Here more so than anywhere else, as it seems I am usually fated to an unfortunate demise."
May: "With how Rei was treating you, we feared that'd be the outcome."
K: "I thought so as well."
R: "I only thought about killing you half of those times."
Hik: "So you were an Angel as well?"
K: "My soul was born of Adam, and was given flesh by Seele. Yes, by all accounts I am still an Angel, but the dangers I possessed back then have been mitigated by this point."
E: "Helps you fell in love with Rei."
K: "Indeed, I had a few reasons to keep this world going, despite my natural urges to return to my father."
Hir: "Bet they're glad to have you on their side though."
Mar: "I'm glad he's on t-their side! I don't know where I'd be if he didn't find me!"
Z: "Rei I like how you didn't care Shinji was getting beaten up."
R: "That is his own business, is it not?"
A: "I mean I'm sure he would've preferred the assistance!"
Hik: "She has an arm in a sling Asuka!"
R: "That would not have stopped me."
Shinji sighed. "Well, this Angel didn't go that great in our world."
"You survived d-didn't you?"
"And looking back on it, it was rare these Angels went well." Snorted Asuka. "They all had a challenge of some sort."
"As would have been expected." Kaworu thought aloud.
"Did Toji tell you about how he had to get his butt saved by Shinji?"
"He said something about that, didn't really elaborate too much on it." Hikari glanced aside. "I made sure to tell him he was an idiot."
"Oh we told him and Kensuke both quite thoroughly how idiotic that decision was." Huffing. "But at the very least, it made both of them realise just what Shinji was going through. They became good friends after that."
"Knowing what Toji was doing, I'm surprised that was the outcome."
"I think it was more he just needed to learn that." Shrugged Shinji. "He's the type to learn from demonstration more than lecture."
"Doesn't matter what the subject is, that's Toji to a T." Snickered Hikari. "And I had to learn that myself."
"Heh, so you could get to know him a bit better?"
Hikari blushed at Asuka's question. "M-Maybe…"
~
Rotten Mood (2, 3, 4, 5)
Mi: "Heh, I don't mind that little snark from you Shinji!"
May: "Probably not the best time for it though…"
E: "It's only before a sortie."
A: "Cut him some slack, he clearly doesn't want to be there!"
S: "Should I make it more obvious maybe?"
Hir: "I think they can tell, but they wouldn't give a damn either way."
Z: "Been there before."
A: "Oh tell me about it, but hey, can't help it when a giant alien attacks huh?"
S: "I mean it's probably gonna take me at least until when I run away to realise I'm being at least a bit of an ass."
Hik: "Can't say I'm surprised you're responding like this, at least. You're doing something you really don't wanna do."
R: "That version of Shinji doesn't want to do anything at the moment."
That got a snicker out of their version of Shinji. "Mhm, though that was the same here, I just internalised it a lot more and didn't make much fuss."
Mi: "Look if we could have gotten you therapy at that time we would've, but we were in a bind in more ways than one."
A: "Really Hikari you're the most normal well adjusted one here." She'd joke. "You could pick any issue under the sun and I'd be fine!"
Hik: "Mari seems fine enough!"
Mar: "I mean I p-probably have something going on but I kinda died before I could really figure out for m-myself."
K: "Seems like Canterlot does attract those varied types, or at least encourages the varied types to be themselves."
A: "God forbid you have a different way of thinking in our school! If the teachers don't wring you out for it the students will!"
Hik: "The students there wring you out for anything anyway…"
Mi: "I'm kinda curious, what's the worst thing you've pulled something up on?"
Hik: "So I know you guys regularly… uhh, make love in some secret spots, but I don't pull you up because you generally do it in your own time and you don't make much fuss about it. Heck, a part of me wants to do it with my lummox, but I have an image to uphold!"
A: "You didn't tell me you knew of that!"
Hik: "Anyway worst thing was probably catching a couple trying the same thing, only they were far too loud to be considered anything subtle, and when I politely knocked on the door to tell them to keep it down, they fumbled so much they both ended up falling out of the door, right in the middle of the hallway."
Whatever embarrassment Asuka and Shinji had was replaced with amusement. "Well that's what nightmares are made of!"
… (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
May: "Ever considerate of the taxpayer I see…"
Mi: "Gotta at least keep up the appearance we're trying other options, they were still unsure about the Evangelion's capability back then."
K: "They serve as a distraction at the very least."
E: "A few seconds bought is worth it, I'd think."
Mi: "And really if they cared about us spending all that money, we'd all be dead long ago."
A: "At least the shelter looks pleasant enough, hell looks like some folks are having a picnic!"
Hik: "I mean if you're stuck in a room with over two hundred other people, you gotta make the most of it. Not like the televisions had anything on at the time…"
Z: "You wouldn't catch me stuck in a room like that."
Hik: "It's not the greatest thing in the world, no. The climate control isn't too great either, it's all recirculated air, so it gets real stuffy after too long!"
S: "You're almost better off in the Evangelion."
Hir: "There must've been something in the air to get Kensuke out there to look… I don't think I've seen that sorta thing from him!"
May: "Kensuke's one of those people that's too curious for his own good."
Mi: "Oh we chewed both of them out well and good after the fact."
Z: "What did they end up doing again?"
Mi: "You'll see for yourself, but it's pretty stupid."
Hik: "I wouldn't have thought it'd be Toji being the reasonable one here… good on him! That's what I want!"
E: "He still went for it."
Mar: "Y'know what they s-say about curiosity."
R: "And you know what they say about the satisfaction regarding curiosity."
May: "Only I don't think they would have been brought back if they got squished by the Evangelion's boot…"
Witness To Destruction (12, 13, 14, 15)
S: "So in retrospect, where I went wrong in this sortie is I didn't think about neutralising their AT-Field before opening fire."
A: "Which naturally would have required getting up close with it."
S: "But all I'd been taught at that time was 'centre target and pull switch', I think we skimmed over the whole AT-Field business actually."
Mi: "I mean we didn't think it necessary to elaborate too much on how the AT-Field worked. Having the explanation be more or less a 'force field' was enough."
E: "Well clearly not."
Hik: "I'm guessing that tape was destroyed once you got your hands on it."
May: "Yeah they weren't allowed to leave without it."
Z: "I'm sure Kensuke still complains about it to this day."
Mi: "Well maybe he shouldn't have left a shelter and risked his life and Toji's life for curiosity's sake. A lot of it ends up on the Internet one way or another, at worst he could have just waited a bit longer."
Mar: "He probably wanted to put it up on t-the Internet."
A: "I'm surprised you guys even bothered killing the TV channels and all that."
Mi: "Intention was to disincentivise journalists risking their lives in trying to cover it. Though we had limitations to that: it was only broadcasts within Kanto, and we couldn't touch AM broadcasts because the government already designated them as an emergency service."
May: "Didn't mean we could influence them though."
Mi: "Well yeah, we were the ones controlling the information, they'd only know what we told them."
Hir: "Which I'm assuming isn't much."
Mi: "Oh not at all, but of course as the Angel War went on, more folks got bold and it was seen as brave for them to stay out and record the goings on like Kensuke was doing."
E: "None of them died did they?"
Mi: "None that I know of, thank God, but it could have been very different. And God forbid Kensuke ended up killing Toji and himself due to this stunt; I don't think Shinji would have ever forgiven himself!"
S: "You know how fragile I was regardless of that, if that happened I probably wouldn't even be here."
R: "They absolutely did not have any idea the power the Angels had, did they?"
K: "I'm sure they thought twice after this."
Mi: "I dunno, he still tried recording Gaghiel… I don't even know how he brought his camera on board, technically you're not meant to bring recording devices on UN vessels!"
A: "He didn't do some bullshit like say he was a journalist, right?"
Mi: "Even then the best you can do is bring a camera, not a camcorder." That got a gruff sigh out of her. "At the very least, he's keeping his mouth shut about NERV business now he's working here."
May: "Pretty sure we got him on a monitor anyway."
S: "Oh he knows, and knows all of us are on that."
… (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
S: "Mhm, there you go, didn't put any mind into neutralising that AT-Field."
Mar: "And looks like you're c-choking as well, but I suppose that's fair given that's gone outside of w-what you were taught."
S: "Gotta remember I was still very green and very much not keen on piloting."
A: "And completely broken as a person."
S: "Yeah that too, but that did mean I'm not as effective."
Mi: "I mean effectiveness is one thing, we weren't expecting you to be perfect with it."
E: "We were probably expecting you to listen at least."
Hik: "See I can't even say you were overconfident…"
S: "Oh I didn't have any confidence at that time, and you can see that. I didn't have that strategic mind yet; as soon as the plan I was taught failed I folded like a newspaper."
Mi: "Honestly that's our fault, so don't beat yourself up over it. We weren't sure when the next Angel was gonna be, so we taught you the absolute basics in strategy, idea being that anything more we could just guide you over the radio."
May: "Of course we should've read your aptitude better. I'm sure Kensuke would tell you this, but a maxim of any sort of conflict management is 'plans die on first contact'."
Mi: "Mhm, war is inherently chaotic and you need to think on the fly. I'm good at that, that's why I was in Operations. I wasn't quite able to pass on that maxim, which caught you off guard."
Shinji would sigh. "Still, I should have realised it wasn't working."
Mi: "You weren't taught it, Shinji. I didn't help with how I reacted afterwards, I could have managed that better. You got it done in the end, and that's what matters."
Z: "Looking at that, he was probably still traumatised from the previous fight. I've seen that kinda shock in some of our Franxx pilots; they're so shaken that they're essentially ineffective in the next fight."
R: "That just sounds like shellshock."
Mi: "I assume your world didn't pay much mind to it though?"
Z: "Oh hell no, they just sent them out and replaced them when they inevetably died because they couldn't function correctly."
Hik: "I really need to see that show you're in…"
Z: "Well I'm glad you figured I'm from another world, Hikari." With a wide grin. "What clued you in on that, the horns? The strange eyes? The fact I'm taller than everyone else in this room?"
Hik: "I mean strange eyes isn't exactly an oddity for NERV nowadays…"
K: "They're quite freely available if you wanted some."
Hik: "I might stick with my own for now, relatively boring they are."
… (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
Mi: "I mean we've already talked about how you froze up there."
S: "And how green and damaged I was."
Hir: "Yeah this battle did not go well by the looks of it."
Mi: "Any battle we survive is a battle that went well, but yeah there was a lot of room for improvement, for all of us."
S: "But mainly me."
A: "Ah don't have that attitude, you were literally piloting for weeks and you already faced two Angels! I meanwhile had over half a decade of experience under my belt before the Angels were even a thing!"
Hik: "So if they knew the Angels were coming, and coming to Tokyo-3, why didn't they shift Asuka over there beforehand?"
A: "Going to Japan was on the cards for a while actually, they were going to deploy me there at the end of the year for additional training. I don't think NERV anticipated the Angels would arrive this early."
May: "Well parts of NERV didn't."
E: "Was it really that much of a surprise that the Angels arrived when they did? It sounded like they knew the approximates for it at least."
Mi: "You know how people are like, you can tell them about the dangers all you want but they don't actually respond to the danger until it's barrelling down at them like a freight train. We were on shoestrings until the Angels actually attacked, and we've had to keep battling for our funding since the Angels stopped."
May: "Always budget conscious…"
Mi: "Can't spend your coin if you and everyone else in the world is dead."
K: "On another subject, I overheard during the sortie at Boston their Evangelion were capable of twenty minutes on charge."
A: "We're still stuck on five minutes!"
Mi: "They have a lot less infrastructure they can use, Boston as a city is almost 400 years old and we really had to work around the limitations of being in such an old and developed city. At least with Tokyo-3 we could design it from the ground up to be a siege machine, we can't do that with Boston."
May: "The harbour forms a lot of the strategy surrounding Boston from what I've read, would mean they have their C-Type fit outs by default."
R: "That would make their Evangelion rather bulkier, wouldn't it?"
Mi: "They're no butterflies, that's for sure."
… (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
Mi: "And this is another reason we chewed them out, Shinji was right to protect them from the Angel but it ended up opening us up to more danger! That's why we get the civvies out of there!"
S: "I think I spent half a minute holding off that Angel for them."
Hir: "They better have appreciated you a bit more after that."
S: "Won't have to worry about that, at least."
A: "Turns out saving someone's life from certain grizzly death tends to endear them to you!"
E: "Looked like they were close to facing a grizzly end at Unit-01's hands anyway."
May: "I don't think you would've ever recovered if that ended up happening, Shinji."
S: "I'd be in so much shock the Angel would probably kill me then and there."
K: "And that would be the world gone."
Mi: "It really could have resulted in that, and believe me we made that clear to those two."
Hik: "Shows your character that you put yourself in that much harm to protect them."
S: "My issue back then is I really struggled to think about how my decisions affected others. It pretty much took you putting it right in front of my face before I realised 'oh crap that could happen'."
A: "Almost like you were stunted by your upbringing or something like that."
S: "Mhm, funny what being abandoned does to you huh."
"Looks like things are getting a bit dire with that…" Concerned Hikari.
"Hopefully they're a-alright!" Prodded Mari. "Did you end up surviving this one, Shinji?"
A flat look. "What does it look like?"
"Well we may as well keep going to find out!" Cheered Misato.
"You know how it went anyway!"
~
Mi: "Heh, I don't mind that little snark from you Shinji!"
May: "Probably not the best time for it though…"
E: "It's only before a sortie."
A: "Cut him some slack, he clearly doesn't want to be there!"
S: "Should I make it more obvious maybe?"
Hir: "I think they can tell, but they wouldn't give a damn either way."
Z: "Been there before."
A: "Oh tell me about it, but hey, can't help it when a giant alien attacks huh?"
S: "I mean it's probably gonna take me at least until when I run away to realise I'm being at least a bit of an ass."
Hik: "Can't say I'm surprised you're responding like this, at least. You're doing something you really don't wanna do."
R: "That version of Shinji doesn't want to do anything at the moment."
That got a snicker out of their version of Shinji. "Mhm, though that was the same here, I just internalised it a lot more and didn't make much fuss."
Mi: "Look if we could have gotten you therapy at that time we would've, but we were in a bind in more ways than one."
A: "Really Hikari you're the most normal well adjusted one here." She'd joke. "You could pick any issue under the sun and I'd be fine!"
Hik: "Mari seems fine enough!"
Mar: "I mean I p-probably have something going on but I kinda died before I could really figure out for m-myself."
K: "Seems like Canterlot does attract those varied types, or at least encourages the varied types to be themselves."
A: "God forbid you have a different way of thinking in our school! If the teachers don't wring you out for it the students will!"
Hik: "The students there wring you out for anything anyway…"
Mi: "I'm kinda curious, what's the worst thing you've pulled something up on?"
Hik: "So I know you guys regularly… uhh, make love in some secret spots, but I don't pull you up because you generally do it in your own time and you don't make much fuss about it. Heck, a part of me wants to do it with my lummox, but I have an image to uphold!"
A: "You didn't tell me you knew of that!"
Hik: "Anyway worst thing was probably catching a couple trying the same thing, only they were far too loud to be considered anything subtle, and when I politely knocked on the door to tell them to keep it down, they fumbled so much they both ended up falling out of the door, right in the middle of the hallway."
Whatever embarrassment Asuka and Shinji had was replaced with amusement. "Well that's what nightmares are made of!"
… (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
May: "Ever considerate of the taxpayer I see…"
Mi: "Gotta at least keep up the appearance we're trying other options, they were still unsure about the Evangelion's capability back then."
K: "They serve as a distraction at the very least."
E: "A few seconds bought is worth it, I'd think."
Mi: "And really if they cared about us spending all that money, we'd all be dead long ago."
A: "At least the shelter looks pleasant enough, hell looks like some folks are having a picnic!"
Hik: "I mean if you're stuck in a room with over two hundred other people, you gotta make the most of it. Not like the televisions had anything on at the time…"
Z: "You wouldn't catch me stuck in a room like that."
Hik: "It's not the greatest thing in the world, no. The climate control isn't too great either, it's all recirculated air, so it gets real stuffy after too long!"
S: "You're almost better off in the Evangelion."
Hir: "There must've been something in the air to get Kensuke out there to look… I don't think I've seen that sorta thing from him!"
May: "Kensuke's one of those people that's too curious for his own good."
Mi: "Oh we chewed both of them out well and good after the fact."
Z: "What did they end up doing again?"
Mi: "You'll see for yourself, but it's pretty stupid."
Hik: "I wouldn't have thought it'd be Toji being the reasonable one here… good on him! That's what I want!"
E: "He still went for it."
Mar: "Y'know what they s-say about curiosity."
R: "And you know what they say about the satisfaction regarding curiosity."
May: "Only I don't think they would have been brought back if they got squished by the Evangelion's boot…"
Witness To Destruction (12, 13, 14, 15)
S: "So in retrospect, where I went wrong in this sortie is I didn't think about neutralising their AT-Field before opening fire."
A: "Which naturally would have required getting up close with it."
S: "But all I'd been taught at that time was 'centre target and pull switch', I think we skimmed over the whole AT-Field business actually."
Mi: "I mean we didn't think it necessary to elaborate too much on how the AT-Field worked. Having the explanation be more or less a 'force field' was enough."
E: "Well clearly not."
Hik: "I'm guessing that tape was destroyed once you got your hands on it."
May: "Yeah they weren't allowed to leave without it."
Z: "I'm sure Kensuke still complains about it to this day."
Mi: "Well maybe he shouldn't have left a shelter and risked his life and Toji's life for curiosity's sake. A lot of it ends up on the Internet one way or another, at worst he could have just waited a bit longer."
Mar: "He probably wanted to put it up on t-the Internet."
A: "I'm surprised you guys even bothered killing the TV channels and all that."
Mi: "Intention was to disincentivise journalists risking their lives in trying to cover it. Though we had limitations to that: it was only broadcasts within Kanto, and we couldn't touch AM broadcasts because the government already designated them as an emergency service."
May: "Didn't mean we could influence them though."
Mi: "Well yeah, we were the ones controlling the information, they'd only know what we told them."
Hir: "Which I'm assuming isn't much."
Mi: "Oh not at all, but of course as the Angel War went on, more folks got bold and it was seen as brave for them to stay out and record the goings on like Kensuke was doing."
E: "None of them died did they?"
Mi: "None that I know of, thank God, but it could have been very different. And God forbid Kensuke ended up killing Toji and himself due to this stunt; I don't think Shinji would have ever forgiven himself!"
S: "You know how fragile I was regardless of that, if that happened I probably wouldn't even be here."
R: "They absolutely did not have any idea the power the Angels had, did they?"
K: "I'm sure they thought twice after this."
Mi: "I dunno, he still tried recording Gaghiel… I don't even know how he brought his camera on board, technically you're not meant to bring recording devices on UN vessels!"
A: "He didn't do some bullshit like say he was a journalist, right?"
Mi: "Even then the best you can do is bring a camera, not a camcorder." That got a gruff sigh out of her. "At the very least, he's keeping his mouth shut about NERV business now he's working here."
May: "Pretty sure we got him on a monitor anyway."
S: "Oh he knows, and knows all of us are on that."
… (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
S: "Mhm, there you go, didn't put any mind into neutralising that AT-Field."
Mar: "And looks like you're c-choking as well, but I suppose that's fair given that's gone outside of w-what you were taught."
S: "Gotta remember I was still very green and very much not keen on piloting."
A: "And completely broken as a person."
S: "Yeah that too, but that did mean I'm not as effective."
Mi: "I mean effectiveness is one thing, we weren't expecting you to be perfect with it."
E: "We were probably expecting you to listen at least."
Hik: "See I can't even say you were overconfident…"
S: "Oh I didn't have any confidence at that time, and you can see that. I didn't have that strategic mind yet; as soon as the plan I was taught failed I folded like a newspaper."
Mi: "Honestly that's our fault, so don't beat yourself up over it. We weren't sure when the next Angel was gonna be, so we taught you the absolute basics in strategy, idea being that anything more we could just guide you over the radio."
May: "Of course we should've read your aptitude better. I'm sure Kensuke would tell you this, but a maxim of any sort of conflict management is 'plans die on first contact'."
Mi: "Mhm, war is inherently chaotic and you need to think on the fly. I'm good at that, that's why I was in Operations. I wasn't quite able to pass on that maxim, which caught you off guard."
Shinji would sigh. "Still, I should have realised it wasn't working."
Mi: "You weren't taught it, Shinji. I didn't help with how I reacted afterwards, I could have managed that better. You got it done in the end, and that's what matters."
Z: "Looking at that, he was probably still traumatised from the previous fight. I've seen that kinda shock in some of our Franxx pilots; they're so shaken that they're essentially ineffective in the next fight."
R: "That just sounds like shellshock."
Mi: "I assume your world didn't pay much mind to it though?"
Z: "Oh hell no, they just sent them out and replaced them when they inevetably died because they couldn't function correctly."
Hik: "I really need to see that show you're in…"
Z: "Well I'm glad you figured I'm from another world, Hikari." With a wide grin. "What clued you in on that, the horns? The strange eyes? The fact I'm taller than everyone else in this room?"
Hik: "I mean strange eyes isn't exactly an oddity for NERV nowadays…"
K: "They're quite freely available if you wanted some."
Hik: "I might stick with my own for now, relatively boring they are."
… (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
Mi: "I mean we've already talked about how you froze up there."
S: "And how green and damaged I was."
Hir: "Yeah this battle did not go well by the looks of it."
Mi: "Any battle we survive is a battle that went well, but yeah there was a lot of room for improvement, for all of us."
S: "But mainly me."
A: "Ah don't have that attitude, you were literally piloting for weeks and you already faced two Angels! I meanwhile had over half a decade of experience under my belt before the Angels were even a thing!"
Hik: "So if they knew the Angels were coming, and coming to Tokyo-3, why didn't they shift Asuka over there beforehand?"
A: "Going to Japan was on the cards for a while actually, they were going to deploy me there at the end of the year for additional training. I don't think NERV anticipated the Angels would arrive this early."
May: "Well parts of NERV didn't."
E: "Was it really that much of a surprise that the Angels arrived when they did? It sounded like they knew the approximates for it at least."
Mi: "You know how people are like, you can tell them about the dangers all you want but they don't actually respond to the danger until it's barrelling down at them like a freight train. We were on shoestrings until the Angels actually attacked, and we've had to keep battling for our funding since the Angels stopped."
May: "Always budget conscious…"
Mi: "Can't spend your coin if you and everyone else in the world is dead."
K: "On another subject, I overheard during the sortie at Boston their Evangelion were capable of twenty minutes on charge."
A: "We're still stuck on five minutes!"
Mi: "They have a lot less infrastructure they can use, Boston as a city is almost 400 years old and we really had to work around the limitations of being in such an old and developed city. At least with Tokyo-3 we could design it from the ground up to be a siege machine, we can't do that with Boston."
May: "The harbour forms a lot of the strategy surrounding Boston from what I've read, would mean they have their C-Type fit outs by default."
R: "That would make their Evangelion rather bulkier, wouldn't it?"
Mi: "They're no butterflies, that's for sure."
… (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
Mi: "And this is another reason we chewed them out, Shinji was right to protect them from the Angel but it ended up opening us up to more danger! That's why we get the civvies out of there!"
S: "I think I spent half a minute holding off that Angel for them."
Hir: "They better have appreciated you a bit more after that."
S: "Won't have to worry about that, at least."
A: "Turns out saving someone's life from certain grizzly death tends to endear them to you!"
E: "Looked like they were close to facing a grizzly end at Unit-01's hands anyway."
May: "I don't think you would've ever recovered if that ended up happening, Shinji."
S: "I'd be in so much shock the Angel would probably kill me then and there."
K: "And that would be the world gone."
Mi: "It really could have resulted in that, and believe me we made that clear to those two."
Hik: "Shows your character that you put yourself in that much harm to protect them."
S: "My issue back then is I really struggled to think about how my decisions affected others. It pretty much took you putting it right in front of my face before I realised 'oh crap that could happen'."
A: "Almost like you were stunted by your upbringing or something like that."
S: "Mhm, funny what being abandoned does to you huh."
"Looks like things are getting a bit dire with that…" Concerned Hikari.
"Hopefully they're a-alright!" Prodded Mari. "Did you end up surviving this one, Shinji?"
A flat look. "What does it look like?"
"Well we may as well keep going to find out!" Cheered Misato.
"You know how it went anyway!"
~
Third Party (2, 3, 4, 5)
R: "So Shinji was responsible for letting them into the entry plug in this world."
Mi: "I'm surprised you knew the way of doing that!"
S: "Well I wasn't gonna let them be squished, was I?"
Hik: "Were you just gonna let Toji die Misato?!"
Mi: "Not here I wasn't! None of those kids were gonna die on my watch!"
May: "But we also didn't want Shinji to die either."
K: "From a pragmatist's point of view, Shinji would be the priority over those two. And they did put themselves in harm's way."
Mi: "But we also know how Shinji reacted in the Laserdiscs when he was forced to hurt Toji."
Hik: "So is that gonna play out the same way here, then?"
Z: "I mean just from my perspective, it looks like this manga has been making the scenarios slightly worse so far." She thought aloud. "Rei ended up a lot more injured, Shinji's a lot more damaged than he was…"
E: "So you're saying Toji could end up dying."
Z: "Well I'm not saying that of course, mainly because I don't know what Hikari would do to me if I suggested that."
Hik: "Sounds like you pretty much suggested it."
Mi: "Even if Toji got absolutely screwed over in the Laserdiscs, he survived. I can't see that being different."
A: "Unless they wanted to ratchet up the cruelty for Shinji, cause remember Gendo forced him to beat Toji to a pulp. Imagine if Gendo forced Shinji to do that and he ended up dying as a result."
S: "I'd genuinely consider murdering him."
Mar: "As if you w-weren't thinking that before."
S: "I mean I was, but I might've actioned something."
R: "It should come as no surprise that a majority of us had planned to remove him before he could enact anything. And in fact, how he was removed was a culmination of a few plans."
May: "I'm… assuming you would have sorted him out if I didn't do the job?"
R: "That was why I was down there, yes." With an aside glance. "And given what he was planning… it was good fortune I was there in the first place."
… (6, 7, 8, 9)
K: "I would question what other option he had at that point."
Mi: "I did too, that's why we let them into the plug! It was annoying to work with; it added a lot of noise to the linkup, but we got there in the end!"
S: "Do you still think I should've retreated?"
Mi: "With those two in the plug, yes I still think you should've. You were running low on power and it was clear we weren't really in a strong position, and what if you didn't get the Angel on the last dredges of power you had? Wouldn't have been good, eh?"
S: "No, it wouldn't have…"
Mi: "But you got it done, so that's okay. But you understand why I went off at you I hope."
S: "I mean now I do, but back then I don't think I did."
Z: "I'd say they must've been excited to go for a ride, but I think it takes on a different feeling when it's in active deployment."
Hir: "Did you ever have a tagalong in your sorties, Zero Two?"
Z: "Uhh…" Furrowing her brow as she thought. "I mean you couldn't really have tagalongs in the Franxx… and now I'm thinking more about it, I don't think anyone would want to tag along with me given my reputation."
A: "Didn't you say you killed most of your partners?"
Z: "Oh it wasn't just most of them. It was almost all of them." She'd snicker. "Only exceptions I know of are darling here and Mitsuru."
Hir: "Mitsuru barely survived at that."
Z: "And not through my lack of trying!"
E: "Exceptions that you know of?"
Z: "Yeah there were some sorties I went too hard and knocked myself out, but I'm assuming if I got to that stage, the Stamen probably wouldn't have survived."
Mar: "Remind me not to pilot w-with you anytime soon…"
Mi: "Oh yeah she's not piloting with anyone else other than Hiro."
Z: "See? If you're violent enough you get what you want!"
Hik: "I don't think that's a lesson we should be taking to heart!"
A: "It worked against the Angels Hikari! If we didn't use overwhelming violence against them we wouldn't be here!"
R: "You are right about that."
Hik: "You seemed to get Kaworu on side without that."
K: "Oh she used overwhelming violence against me as well."
R: "And it worked to great effect."
Hik: "Okay fine maybe in our line of work, violence works. That's the exception!"
No I Won't Back Down (10, 11, 12, 13)
S: "Speaking of overwhelming violence though…"
E: "Well you can't beat an Angel with love… not unless you're Rei."
R: "I was also incredibly violent towards Kaworu."
K: "But luckily for the continuity of my life, we were able to continue using love after a while."
A: "I think Kaworu's the only Angel you could beat with love anyway, can't say someone like Leliel would have been pliable to that."
K: "Some could, though their dedication to the call and their general form would not allow for it. Good luck trying to get action from Ramiel."
Mar: "Oh I'm sure you could make it w-work if you wanted to!"
Hik: "What did Ramiel look like?"
A: "You know that massive blue tetrahedron thing that floated above Tokyo-3?"
Hik: "Oh my goodness- that would be interesting!"
Z: "On another note, you chose a good time to grow some chest hair, Shinji."
S: "Look, on that same line as only realising how important things were when they were right in front of me, my mind just locked to protecting Kensuke and Toji and, well, that led me to my course of action. Not the course of action I should've done, in retrospect, but that was my thinking at the time."
Mi: "And that's more our failing to teach you properly in time too. You do need a specific attitude when in a battle situation like this, and you weren't quite there yet."
Mar: "It takes several weeks of b-basic to teach that to able bodied and mentally well military recruits. You're laughing if you were t-thinking of teaching that to Shinji in the few weeks you had."
Mi: "Honestly if we didn't need Shinji, he would've failed every character assessment we would have done. NERV is just as strict as the military when it comes to who gets in, we've had a few decent prospects who we couldn't bring onboard because they failed one of their aptitude tests."
A: "Of course we get a free pass because of what amounts to nepotism."
May: "I mean the nepotism was pretty much engineered at this point… though outside of bringing someone onboard out of desperation, we still run our tests on them. You went through quite a few internal assessments before we decided on you, Hikari."
Hik: "How did Toji score on them?"
Mi: "Surprisingly high, given his attitude. Even back then he was 2nd on the list, but especially since you've whipped him into shape."
K: "Were we going to onboard him formally once Unit-03 is switched to NACSS?"
Mi: "It's ticking along slowly, though you know our informal sync tests with both of them. Of course we can't properly bring him onboard until we figure out what we can do to bring Mrs Horaki back."
Hik: "You haven't figured it out yet?"
Mi: "Well we can't just have incursions on demand, like how their mothers got out. We might have to make a Nephilim shell for her, but there's a lot of issues with that behind the scenes, the UN really don't like the prospect of Nephilim."
Hik: "Ah so it's more politics preventing my mom from returning…"
R: "What is wrong with Nephilim?"
Mi: "They see it as a form of forced evolution. Even though we've never pushed that."
Mar: "Maybe they're just p-paranoid after what happened with Seele."
Mi: "It's just that, yeah, but Nephilim really aren't much of a priority at the moment anyway. Heck, we only just restarted production of them, compared to developing the Evangelion."
R: "Strange times when they prefer the Evangelion for once…"
… (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
Hik: "Wow you really went off at them, huh…"
A: "If there's one thing you don't do, it's anger Shinji. Cause he can be scary when that happens!"
K: "Has Toji remarked to you about this sortie, Hikari?"
Hik: "I've heard bits and pieces of it, never in full detail. But looking at this, I can see why he might not wanna talk about it too much."
E: "What's the bet Kensuke hasn't stopped talking about it?"
May: "He hasn't."
Mi: "You guys understand why we were concerned he went against orders, I hope?"
Z: "I mean it's a failure civvies were allowed out like that anyway. I thought they'd have bathrooms in the shelters?"
Mar: "Not like you can get everyone in a s-shelter. Might be different here where your people actually have some sorta t-trust in authority, but I bet a lot of folks in America would rather sit out and watch the fight on their porch just to spite t-them."
R: "Curiosity will always get the better of us, unfortunately. Though we can at least offer the option of relative safety."
Mi: "Still, that was a design oversight that we corrected after we went through our assessments of what happened. Even outside of them using it as an excuse, you're opening yourself up to injury if you wanted to use a bathroom, and that doesn't make much sense."
Hik: "I always thought it weird they didn't have any ablutions built in."
Hir: "I find it interesting the tactics you employed with these Angels. We'd be insane to try fighting a Klaxosaur like that."
Z: "It's better than the tactics the standard squads had, I swear they taught them strategies that shortened their lifespans!"
Hik: "What was their strategy?"
Z: "So while they did have spears as a standard load out, instead of doing something reasonable like stabbing relentlessly, they used them as a harpoon, which they used to snare a Klaxosaur in place before someone else just stabbed it."
Hik: "I mean that doesn't sound so bad."
Z: "Have you ever tried snaring a lion with a strand of hair?"
Hik: "Ah, they weren't that strong I'm assuming?"
Z: "I saw many examples of a Klaxosaur breaking the snare, and because they only teach the standard squad one standard tactic, they don't know how to respond to it, and lacking the critical thinking and rapid fire problem solving skills that you'd get in a brain that wasn't lobotomised by constant Yellow Blood Cell infusions, that results in a squad that fumbles and gets wiped out, leaving me to clean up the mess!" Her irritation was evident. "Those inconsiderate bastards!"
Mi: "Oh yeah screw them for dying huh?"
S: "Boy I'm glad I ended up fine."
Z: "You're able to think at least, that's more than you could say of a regular standard squad. Some of the saddest people I've ever met, I bet they didn't even care about dying."
Hir: "And probably didn't help your opinion on humans if that's who you were exposed to."
Z: "I mean I didn't consider myself or the rest of the 9's human, darling. Humans in my eye were the adults cracking the whip on us or the brain dead pilots they used as cannon fodder."
K: "I can't even call that a pessimistic view, because it was like that."
Hik: "It still baffles me there are real worlds worse than our one…"
Mi: "Oh our world is amazing, Hikari. You don't even know the half of it!"
… (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
S: "And I still wasn't sure why I was doing it…"
Hik: "Doing it for your fellow man wasn't good enough?"
S: "Not when I hated myself and everything else. The world didn't do me any favours, so why should I?"
Mi: "That's exactly the attitude we should've focused on from the start."
E: "Sounds like he wouldn't have even been a pilot, considering his aptitude."
Mi: "Oh if Shinji applied for military service, they would've bounced him back immediately because of it."
A: "But for better or worse you were all stuck."
S: "Not like I had any real options either, mind you. I'm sure Gendo would've had his ways of forcing me to do it either way."
Mi: "At least with me you had a chance to learn the correct way of going about it."
A: "Instead of being browbeaten into it."
Mar: "The clear mental a-anguish you were going through probably didn't help the thinking."
S: "It took me quite a while to fight through that. And I'm still fighting it, even though I'm much better nowadays."
Mi: "Oh you were a state back then Shinji. Part of me wondered if that attitude would ever shift; it seemed pretty firmly set by the time we started living together."
A: "But then he started opening up!"
K: "Amazing what actually experiencing the world does for your opinion of it. That is exactly what I went through as well, after several years under the purview of Seele."
E: "If I spent years with Seele I'd want to end the world as well."
Z: "Gotta say that's a pretty sick image of you and the Angel, Shinji!" In cheer. "The both of you frozen in battle like that!"
May: "Somehow a photo of that started circulating on the internet, and it's still one of the most seen photos of an Angel attack. I've actually seen a bit of art of it similar to how it's shown here."
Mar: "I mean it's a very dramatic w-way of showing it, no wonder it's so popular!"
Mi: "I've seen a few of the more popular ones, yeah it definitely inspires something in the people."
A: "Makes me wonder why NERV didn't really focus on that sorta propaganda type thing. You see the military do it all the time, that sorta epic imagery that drives some poor young bastard to enlist."
Mi: "I mean not like we need people enlisting, and not like we need the income as well. Hell, that's why we haven't even really looked at merch yet, even though I know we could make a lot of money from it."
E: "You'd probably have unauthorised merch anyway, I thought it'd make sense to have authorised merch. At least that way you can go after the unauthorised stuff with more gusto?"
Misato shrugged. "Eh we'll wait and see. How would you like to be a skimpy figurine, Eliza?"
E: "Not so much thank you very much."
Mi: "Mhm thought so."
Mar: "I mean I w-wouldn't mind that."
A: "You're Mari you're the exception to that!"
All Shinji could do was sigh. "Given there's still a bit left in this volume, I'm assuming it has the next part of that story."
"You running away?"
"When you put it that way you make it sound like a bad thing, Asuka."
"Oh don't get me wrong, I understand why you ran away and quit." Misato would quell. "Sure it really screwed us over, but I understood it."
"And like you said, I doubt Gendo would have kept it that way for long."
"He probably would've thrown me back into the entry plug himself, Rei…" Another sigh. "Oh well, let's see how this goes…"
~~~
R: "So Shinji was responsible for letting them into the entry plug in this world."
Mi: "I'm surprised you knew the way of doing that!"
S: "Well I wasn't gonna let them be squished, was I?"
Hik: "Were you just gonna let Toji die Misato?!"
Mi: "Not here I wasn't! None of those kids were gonna die on my watch!"
May: "But we also didn't want Shinji to die either."
K: "From a pragmatist's point of view, Shinji would be the priority over those two. And they did put themselves in harm's way."
Mi: "But we also know how Shinji reacted in the Laserdiscs when he was forced to hurt Toji."
Hik: "So is that gonna play out the same way here, then?"
Z: "I mean just from my perspective, it looks like this manga has been making the scenarios slightly worse so far." She thought aloud. "Rei ended up a lot more injured, Shinji's a lot more damaged than he was…"
E: "So you're saying Toji could end up dying."
Z: "Well I'm not saying that of course, mainly because I don't know what Hikari would do to me if I suggested that."
Hik: "Sounds like you pretty much suggested it."
Mi: "Even if Toji got absolutely screwed over in the Laserdiscs, he survived. I can't see that being different."
A: "Unless they wanted to ratchet up the cruelty for Shinji, cause remember Gendo forced him to beat Toji to a pulp. Imagine if Gendo forced Shinji to do that and he ended up dying as a result."
S: "I'd genuinely consider murdering him."
Mar: "As if you w-weren't thinking that before."
S: "I mean I was, but I might've actioned something."
R: "It should come as no surprise that a majority of us had planned to remove him before he could enact anything. And in fact, how he was removed was a culmination of a few plans."
May: "I'm… assuming you would have sorted him out if I didn't do the job?"
R: "That was why I was down there, yes." With an aside glance. "And given what he was planning… it was good fortune I was there in the first place."
… (6, 7, 8, 9)
K: "I would question what other option he had at that point."
Mi: "I did too, that's why we let them into the plug! It was annoying to work with; it added a lot of noise to the linkup, but we got there in the end!"
S: "Do you still think I should've retreated?"
Mi: "With those two in the plug, yes I still think you should've. You were running low on power and it was clear we weren't really in a strong position, and what if you didn't get the Angel on the last dredges of power you had? Wouldn't have been good, eh?"
S: "No, it wouldn't have…"
Mi: "But you got it done, so that's okay. But you understand why I went off at you I hope."
S: "I mean now I do, but back then I don't think I did."
Z: "I'd say they must've been excited to go for a ride, but I think it takes on a different feeling when it's in active deployment."
Hir: "Did you ever have a tagalong in your sorties, Zero Two?"
Z: "Uhh…" Furrowing her brow as she thought. "I mean you couldn't really have tagalongs in the Franxx… and now I'm thinking more about it, I don't think anyone would want to tag along with me given my reputation."
A: "Didn't you say you killed most of your partners?"
Z: "Oh it wasn't just most of them. It was almost all of them." She'd snicker. "Only exceptions I know of are darling here and Mitsuru."
Hir: "Mitsuru barely survived at that."
Z: "And not through my lack of trying!"
E: "Exceptions that you know of?"
Z: "Yeah there were some sorties I went too hard and knocked myself out, but I'm assuming if I got to that stage, the Stamen probably wouldn't have survived."
Mar: "Remind me not to pilot w-with you anytime soon…"
Mi: "Oh yeah she's not piloting with anyone else other than Hiro."
Z: "See? If you're violent enough you get what you want!"
Hik: "I don't think that's a lesson we should be taking to heart!"
A: "It worked against the Angels Hikari! If we didn't use overwhelming violence against them we wouldn't be here!"
R: "You are right about that."
Hik: "You seemed to get Kaworu on side without that."
K: "Oh she used overwhelming violence against me as well."
R: "And it worked to great effect."
Hik: "Okay fine maybe in our line of work, violence works. That's the exception!"
No I Won't Back Down (10, 11, 12, 13)
S: "Speaking of overwhelming violence though…"
E: "Well you can't beat an Angel with love… not unless you're Rei."
R: "I was also incredibly violent towards Kaworu."
K: "But luckily for the continuity of my life, we were able to continue using love after a while."
A: "I think Kaworu's the only Angel you could beat with love anyway, can't say someone like Leliel would have been pliable to that."
K: "Some could, though their dedication to the call and their general form would not allow for it. Good luck trying to get action from Ramiel."
Mar: "Oh I'm sure you could make it w-work if you wanted to!"
Hik: "What did Ramiel look like?"
A: "You know that massive blue tetrahedron thing that floated above Tokyo-3?"
Hik: "Oh my goodness- that would be interesting!"
Z: "On another note, you chose a good time to grow some chest hair, Shinji."
S: "Look, on that same line as only realising how important things were when they were right in front of me, my mind just locked to protecting Kensuke and Toji and, well, that led me to my course of action. Not the course of action I should've done, in retrospect, but that was my thinking at the time."
Mi: "And that's more our failing to teach you properly in time too. You do need a specific attitude when in a battle situation like this, and you weren't quite there yet."
Mar: "It takes several weeks of b-basic to teach that to able bodied and mentally well military recruits. You're laughing if you were t-thinking of teaching that to Shinji in the few weeks you had."
Mi: "Honestly if we didn't need Shinji, he would've failed every character assessment we would have done. NERV is just as strict as the military when it comes to who gets in, we've had a few decent prospects who we couldn't bring onboard because they failed one of their aptitude tests."
A: "Of course we get a free pass because of what amounts to nepotism."
May: "I mean the nepotism was pretty much engineered at this point… though outside of bringing someone onboard out of desperation, we still run our tests on them. You went through quite a few internal assessments before we decided on you, Hikari."
Hik: "How did Toji score on them?"
Mi: "Surprisingly high, given his attitude. Even back then he was 2nd on the list, but especially since you've whipped him into shape."
K: "Were we going to onboard him formally once Unit-03 is switched to NACSS?"
Mi: "It's ticking along slowly, though you know our informal sync tests with both of them. Of course we can't properly bring him onboard until we figure out what we can do to bring Mrs Horaki back."
Hik: "You haven't figured it out yet?"
Mi: "Well we can't just have incursions on demand, like how their mothers got out. We might have to make a Nephilim shell for her, but there's a lot of issues with that behind the scenes, the UN really don't like the prospect of Nephilim."
Hik: "Ah so it's more politics preventing my mom from returning…"
R: "What is wrong with Nephilim?"
Mi: "They see it as a form of forced evolution. Even though we've never pushed that."
Mar: "Maybe they're just p-paranoid after what happened with Seele."
Mi: "It's just that, yeah, but Nephilim really aren't much of a priority at the moment anyway. Heck, we only just restarted production of them, compared to developing the Evangelion."
R: "Strange times when they prefer the Evangelion for once…"
… (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
Hik: "Wow you really went off at them, huh…"
A: "If there's one thing you don't do, it's anger Shinji. Cause he can be scary when that happens!"
K: "Has Toji remarked to you about this sortie, Hikari?"
Hik: "I've heard bits and pieces of it, never in full detail. But looking at this, I can see why he might not wanna talk about it too much."
E: "What's the bet Kensuke hasn't stopped talking about it?"
May: "He hasn't."
Mi: "You guys understand why we were concerned he went against orders, I hope?"
Z: "I mean it's a failure civvies were allowed out like that anyway. I thought they'd have bathrooms in the shelters?"
Mar: "Not like you can get everyone in a s-shelter. Might be different here where your people actually have some sorta t-trust in authority, but I bet a lot of folks in America would rather sit out and watch the fight on their porch just to spite t-them."
R: "Curiosity will always get the better of us, unfortunately. Though we can at least offer the option of relative safety."
Mi: "Still, that was a design oversight that we corrected after we went through our assessments of what happened. Even outside of them using it as an excuse, you're opening yourself up to injury if you wanted to use a bathroom, and that doesn't make much sense."
Hik: "I always thought it weird they didn't have any ablutions built in."
Hir: "I find it interesting the tactics you employed with these Angels. We'd be insane to try fighting a Klaxosaur like that."
Z: "It's better than the tactics the standard squads had, I swear they taught them strategies that shortened their lifespans!"
Hik: "What was their strategy?"
Z: "So while they did have spears as a standard load out, instead of doing something reasonable like stabbing relentlessly, they used them as a harpoon, which they used to snare a Klaxosaur in place before someone else just stabbed it."
Hik: "I mean that doesn't sound so bad."
Z: "Have you ever tried snaring a lion with a strand of hair?"
Hik: "Ah, they weren't that strong I'm assuming?"
Z: "I saw many examples of a Klaxosaur breaking the snare, and because they only teach the standard squad one standard tactic, they don't know how to respond to it, and lacking the critical thinking and rapid fire problem solving skills that you'd get in a brain that wasn't lobotomised by constant Yellow Blood Cell infusions, that results in a squad that fumbles and gets wiped out, leaving me to clean up the mess!" Her irritation was evident. "Those inconsiderate bastards!"
Mi: "Oh yeah screw them for dying huh?"
S: "Boy I'm glad I ended up fine."
Z: "You're able to think at least, that's more than you could say of a regular standard squad. Some of the saddest people I've ever met, I bet they didn't even care about dying."
Hir: "And probably didn't help your opinion on humans if that's who you were exposed to."
Z: "I mean I didn't consider myself or the rest of the 9's human, darling. Humans in my eye were the adults cracking the whip on us or the brain dead pilots they used as cannon fodder."
K: "I can't even call that a pessimistic view, because it was like that."
Hik: "It still baffles me there are real worlds worse than our one…"
Mi: "Oh our world is amazing, Hikari. You don't even know the half of it!"
… (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
S: "And I still wasn't sure why I was doing it…"
Hik: "Doing it for your fellow man wasn't good enough?"
S: "Not when I hated myself and everything else. The world didn't do me any favours, so why should I?"
Mi: "That's exactly the attitude we should've focused on from the start."
E: "Sounds like he wouldn't have even been a pilot, considering his aptitude."
Mi: "Oh if Shinji applied for military service, they would've bounced him back immediately because of it."
A: "But for better or worse you were all stuck."
S: "Not like I had any real options either, mind you. I'm sure Gendo would've had his ways of forcing me to do it either way."
Mi: "At least with me you had a chance to learn the correct way of going about it."
A: "Instead of being browbeaten into it."
Mar: "The clear mental a-anguish you were going through probably didn't help the thinking."
S: "It took me quite a while to fight through that. And I'm still fighting it, even though I'm much better nowadays."
Mi: "Oh you were a state back then Shinji. Part of me wondered if that attitude would ever shift; it seemed pretty firmly set by the time we started living together."
A: "But then he started opening up!"
K: "Amazing what actually experiencing the world does for your opinion of it. That is exactly what I went through as well, after several years under the purview of Seele."
E: "If I spent years with Seele I'd want to end the world as well."
Z: "Gotta say that's a pretty sick image of you and the Angel, Shinji!" In cheer. "The both of you frozen in battle like that!"
May: "Somehow a photo of that started circulating on the internet, and it's still one of the most seen photos of an Angel attack. I've actually seen a bit of art of it similar to how it's shown here."
Mar: "I mean it's a very dramatic w-way of showing it, no wonder it's so popular!"
Mi: "I've seen a few of the more popular ones, yeah it definitely inspires something in the people."
A: "Makes me wonder why NERV didn't really focus on that sorta propaganda type thing. You see the military do it all the time, that sorta epic imagery that drives some poor young bastard to enlist."
Mi: "I mean not like we need people enlisting, and not like we need the income as well. Hell, that's why we haven't even really looked at merch yet, even though I know we could make a lot of money from it."
E: "You'd probably have unauthorised merch anyway, I thought it'd make sense to have authorised merch. At least that way you can go after the unauthorised stuff with more gusto?"
Misato shrugged. "Eh we'll wait and see. How would you like to be a skimpy figurine, Eliza?"
E: "Not so much thank you very much."
Mi: "Mhm thought so."
Mar: "I mean I w-wouldn't mind that."
A: "You're Mari you're the exception to that!"
All Shinji could do was sigh. "Given there's still a bit left in this volume, I'm assuming it has the next part of that story."
"You running away?"
"When you put it that way you make it sound like a bad thing, Asuka."
"Oh don't get me wrong, I understand why you ran away and quit." Misato would quell. "Sure it really screwed us over, but I understood it."
"And like you said, I doubt Gendo would have kept it that way for long."
"He probably would've thrown me back into the entry plug himself, Rei…" Another sigh. "Oh well, let's see how this goes…"
~~~
Insubordinate (2, 3, 4)
Z: "May sound harsh but she has a point. Orders are orders."
K: "But at this point, Shinji has not yet learned how to take those orders."
S: "Honestly at this point I still hated where I was. Why would I take orders from a group who seems to want me dead? Gendo wouldn't care."
Mi: "And that's why we probably wouldn't have taken you if we had that choice. NERV's paramilitary, and like any military or paramilitary, you need a specific set of values in order to fit within it."
May: "Kensuke would probably go at length to you about how the whole resocialisation works, you're essentially reprogramming someone to work in a military. Because it's not entirely natural; your line of work potentially involves killing and you need a specific training for that."
A: "Why didn't you guys send us through a boot camp?"
Mi: "Asuka you were hired on when you were four, we are not sending a four year old through boot camp! And even now, I wouldn't send you into boot camp until you were an adult, and by then you are already so engrained into NERV culture that it's practically moot."
Hir: "I mean they sent us through something like that."
Hik: "It sounds like they treated you as disposable though."
Z: "They killed those who failed so yeah, you're not wrong."
Hir: "I thought it was easy to pass?"
Z: "Do you know of anyone that failed it, darling?"
He didn't have any words.
Z: "Because they're all dead. Probably turned into the rations the rest of the plantation eats at that, like that soylent documentary we watched a few weeks back."
Mar: "I don't think Soylent Green is a d-documentary Zero Two!"
Z: "It isn't? So New York isn't a hole?"
May: "Didn't you go to America recently?"
Z: "I went to… uhh, Boosting?"
E: "Boston."
Z: "Yeah that, and it wasn't anywhere near as bad."
Mar: "Of course it wasn't, America isn't as bad as what's shown in Soylent Green!"
A: "I dunno it can be a bit of a hole."
Mar: "Oh we have problems but we don't eat the poor!"
Misato did naught but raise an eyebrow. "Maybe not literally speaking."
… (5, 6, 7)
Misato almost immediately recoiled seeing her counterpart's reaction. "Oh for God's sake…"
S: "I'm being a lot more of a bastard this time around."
Mi: "Don't get me wrong you were being a little shit, but I didn't freakin' hit you like that. No wonder you end up running away this time around…"
A: "I mean he pretty much called you disingenuous."
E: "He must think everyone is his father."
S: "You can see why I'd think that."
Hik: "So why did you run away, anyway?"
S: "Because I thought it was easier. It's painful facing it, and I didn't want to face it anymore. With my mindset at the time it was an easy decision."
Z: "And you didn't think they'd get you back?"
S: "I thought they wouldn't care."
Mi: "You're the only one who can reasonably pilot Unit-01, of course we care! What we didn't consider was how fragile your psychology was, and what we needed to do in order to help you."
A: "Not like you have therapists anyway to help fix that."
Mi: "We're working on it!" Before a long sigh. "I only realised how much of a state you were after you ran away like that. I thought you were just a bit quiet and shy before that."
S: "Not like I really said anything about it…"
May: "You and everyone else in this country." She'd huff. "Not really something that's talked about. Or treated at that."
Mi: "Only treatment most folks get in this fucking country is a one way to Aokigahara…" With an aside glance. "Can't deny we're not being proactive about it, slow progress it's been admittedly."
Hik: "Honestly I could probably use a therapist for a few things..."
R: "And she is the most stable of us as well."
Hik: "I still can't believe that's the case sometimes. But the more I read through this, I really can't say I'm surprised."
K: "Just you wait for the rest of us to make an appearance."
E: "At the very least, your issues in the Laserdiscs were more physical."
K: "More so the lack of a certain physicality."
Mar: "You're gonna be so f-fucking shocked when we get to Ash, Hikari."
Hik: "Oh boy. I can't wait." She lied.
Drive Around The World (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
Mi: "Well I didn't wait a day to report it. You made it quite clear that you were going to run away Shinji."
S: "I wasn't subtle about it, that's for sure."
Hik: "Did you even have an idea where you could go?"
Shinji shook his head. "I just wanted to leave. Didn't want anything else to do with NERV."
Mi: "And that's why I outright dismissed you. That just leaves us liable at that point."
E: "Gendo would've brought him back."
Mi: "Most likely, but I didn't know how important Shinji was to him at the time. I thought he was just another kid picked by the Marduk Institute."
K: "And the Marduk Institute is a sham anyway."
Mi: "There were a lot of things I didn't know back then Kaworu. I think I even mentioned to Ritsuko we could just rewrite Unit-01's system like it was something you could do."
R: "I don't think Yui would have appreciated that."
Mi: "But that's just my not knowing showing through. Ritsky probably had a little chuckle to herself about that."
May: "That's another minor difference from the Laserdiscs, I don't remember seeing a scene at the school."
Mi: "Toji and Kensuke actually visited my apartment and told me they were concerned about him. Kinda felt bad about lying about it but I wasn't gonna tell them that you just ran away."
S: "I mean it wouldn't have been a good look…"
Hik: "Running from your problems seldom is."
A: "Cut him some slack, he didn't know any different at the time. And especially in those high stress situations, you're gonna fall back on old habits like that. My habit was similar, but I'd just push people away."
S: "I think that dismissal was the kick I needed to at least start changing my mindset. It wasn't going to change overnight, of course, and at that point I felt like no one was my friend. Of course I fall back on the old habit."
Z: "It's interesting seeing how you were, like you're night and day in comparison!"
A: "If you think Shinji's an improvement, just you wait to see me!"
Hir: "Did you know Kensuke and Toji were that concerned about you, Shinji?"
S: "I didn't know until the Laserdiscs told me." In a snort. "Toji's far too proud to admit that kinda stuff."
A: "On another note did you keep a supervision record of me as well?"
Mi: "It's a requirement so yes, admittedly it fell by the wayside once things started reaching a boiling point, but I still keep it. Mainly as a part of tracking your mental states and seeing if there's anything that could cause problems."
Hik: "Well that'd be a depressive read."
… (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
Mi: "That's what you were thinking, huh…"
S: "Well you can understand why I thought that."
Mi: "I mean… yeah." She'd sigh. "That insecurity of yours was a real big issue; even once you started getting more into your role, I only really started seeing improvements once Asuka moved in and you had someone else you could bounce off, so to speak. Someone that pretty much forced you to show up and perform."
Mar: "You must've had just the right a-amount of positive pressure on Shinji to encourage that, cause I doubt this Shinji would've held up to your standards."
A: "Oh he wouldn't have, he would've refused to wear my plugsuit and we'd all be dead in the water!" She'd snicker, as she playfully nudged the boy in question. "Also, he was definitely bouncing off me before too long!"
Both Misato and Hikari gave her a thoroughly unamused look. "Oh not like you two are any different!"
Hik: "On another note, I didn't know you encountered Kensuke during this, does he still do those war-games?"
S: "I don't think he's had much time to do that lately, especially now he's an apprentice here."
Z: "Do those birds of him join in?"
R: "He had mentioned so."
Z: "Heh."
Hik: "I mean I'd like to think it's more than just elaborate erotic role-play…"
S: "Oh in the Laserdiscs he was really getting into the role, like pretending he was shot down and everything! He's probably enough of a military otaku that he'd get the girls involved with that."
E: "No matter how reluctant they may be."
A: "I get the impression from both of them that they'd still find some interest in it, even outside of the whole sex aspect. Also, holy shit that image of Kensuke holding a fucking rifle… how did he even get that?!"
May: "I mean toy guns aren't exactly uncommon, probably wouldn't be able to see the orange tip in a black and white medium… I hope that isn't a real gun at least."
Hir: "He seems like the type of guy to have a real gun just as an ornament."
A: "He's got the military ensign of Japan plastered on his bedroom wall so yeah, I understand that impression."
Z: "Is that a bad thing?"
Asuka simply gave Zero Two an unamused look.
Z: "Oh right, the war you guys were involved in."
Asuka merely rolled her eyes. "At least his trigger discipline is on point."
Hik: "It's understandable why Kensuke didn't elaborate on this conversation at least, seems pretty much between you two."
S: "Honestly, it helped me understand how important it was. Seeing how much it meant to Kensuke, well, that managed to get it through all the walls I had built up."
Mi: "But you can see why we would not want Kensuke to pilot."
E: "He sounds quite happy to be in a supporting role anyway."
May: "And he can help a lot more in this supporting role as well! In fact, just between us, we might be commissioning him for a coming project that'll help all of us!"
A: "Are we finally getting a replacement for that damn simulator?"
May: "Well you saw right through that." Maya blinked. "Still very early stages but yeah, we need a system that doesn't require us to hook in the Evangelion every time we want to run simulations."
R: "I am surprised you did not develop such a system earlier."
May: "I mean the sim bodies were never rebuilt after Ireul so couldn't use that… but yeah, give us some time and I'm sure you'll be very satisfied with the end result!"
Retrieval (20, 21, 22, 23)
A: "So they are required to escort you back, but at least they ask you if that's okay!"
S: "I didn't even get that, they just told me to come with them."
Z: "And you obliged?"
S: "In my mind I thought they'd just take me anyway."
Mi: "As a pilot you can't just run like that, especially after knowledge of you being a pilot leaked out like that. What if someone kidnapped you for ransom? Or one of the apocalypse cults sacrificed you?!"
E: "I don't think that Shinji would have cared much at that point."
Hik: "You weren't mad at him, Misato?"
Mi: "I mean I couldn't really. I knew why he ran away, he couldn't handle it. I was disappointed, sure, and a bit cut up that he decided to run instead of trying to talk about it, but I suppose at that point it was a fool's bet to think he'd open up that quickly."
S: "Honestly it took me a while to open up to anyone about that."
K: "Do you think Toji will blame Kensuke for not doing anything?"
Hik: "He did that? What else could Kensuke do that didn't involve him getting shot?!"
Hir: "At least he wanted to protect you, he immediately jumped to your aid when they arrived unannounced."
Hik: "Kensuke's pretty good like that, push come to shove. It's no wonder Sayaka and Kyoko like him so much."
A: "I think what they have going on is more than like at this point." She'd snicker.
Hik: "Well yeah but I was trying to be polite about it…"
… (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
K: "Mhm, an interesting attitude towards it… maybe that made you realise how your old life was like."
S: "I mean, my old life I was just stagnant, not going anywhere… like yeah piloting is difficult, and it took me a while to get in the right mindset for it. But I can't deny now it's lead me to great places!"
A: "Wouldn't have us without the Evangelion, eh?"
R: "It also sounds like this was the first time you had been offered a choice."
S: "I'd tend to just go with the flow of things. Never really sought to change my circumstances… though now I've been offered that, I'm realising just how bad those circumstances were before."
Mi: "I'm glad you came around in the end… I wasn't sure how we were gonna work that out, honestly. Especially now I know how key Unit-01 was to Gendo's plan."
S: "That's why I think he would've gotten me back anyway, if it didn't fall in his favour. But hey, I made the quote unquote correct decision at the end of the day." He'd shrug.
May: "Would you pilot if you had the choice?"
Mar: "Maya I don't think any of u-us would willingly pilot, but we all have our reasons for doing so that override that. My reasons was that I w-wanted to protect my friends, and do right by my mother."
A: "You all know my reasons for piloting to start with, but that evolved into much of the same. And I'm sure you're exactly the same, Hikari."
Hik: "Mhm!" With a decisive nod. "I can actually action something in the Evangelion! Not just shelter and hope for the best… hard to describe piloting and sortieing as fun but I like being able to proactively protect those I love."
Mi: "And that's the attitude we failed to realise you didn't have. We'd just assumed you'd have that!"
S: "Can't fault you for not knowing every in and out of me. I think it was clear I didn't have that standard attitude of wanting to help others; the world didn't help me so why should I?"
Hir: "Which is fair enough, and the world didn't help you."
S: "Nope, I had to learn to help myself… took me years to learn that, and I only started learning that when I became a pilot."
E: "An extreme way of learning such thing, but it worked. The Shinji in the manga is almost incomparable to you."
S: "Especially at this early stage too, same as with the Laserdiscs… man we really do need help do we?"
Mi: "Working on it! Just trust the process!"
All the pilots just gave Misato a flat stare. "Okay, I know, hard ask when you know what the process is. Look, you still have your own methods of therapy to tide you over!"
Asuka shrugged in reply. "Eh it's worked for us so far, and we've only broken down a few times since then!"
Hik: "I'm really the most well adjusted one here huh…"
All Shinji could do was sigh. "Had this feeling in the Laserdiscs as well… it's annoying seeing how I was like back then. I know this Shinji's a bit different but still…"
"Shows how much you have grown as a person." Rei would suggest, with a pacifying glance. "You were them but you will never be them again."
"Even though I could've had it earlier."
"Well that probably wouldn't have gotten you to here right now, eh?" As Asuka nudged his arm. "So I'm not complaining! And hey, no point fretting about how your past self was like. My past self was a complete basket case! I look back at her and I see a scared child who never got the help she needed!"
"You don't need to remind me Asuka…"
"I'm gonna remind you until we get some help! And proper help at that!"
"And I keep saying we're working on it!"
"You can say that all you want but it doesn't mean much until we see it."
"I know and you're right, Eliza. But we weren't gonna find the right one overnight!" In defence. "There's a lot of things we require in a psychologist, and our strategy is to teach someone from scratch about it all."
"So a student psychologist?" Hikari would query. "Really throwing them into the deep end with that assignment."
"Heh, you're learning to snark Hikari!" Grinned Asuka. "You're learning how to fit in with us!"
"I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."
"That's the spirit!"
~
Z: "May sound harsh but she has a point. Orders are orders."
K: "But at this point, Shinji has not yet learned how to take those orders."
S: "Honestly at this point I still hated where I was. Why would I take orders from a group who seems to want me dead? Gendo wouldn't care."
Mi: "And that's why we probably wouldn't have taken you if we had that choice. NERV's paramilitary, and like any military or paramilitary, you need a specific set of values in order to fit within it."
May: "Kensuke would probably go at length to you about how the whole resocialisation works, you're essentially reprogramming someone to work in a military. Because it's not entirely natural; your line of work potentially involves killing and you need a specific training for that."
A: "Why didn't you guys send us through a boot camp?"
Mi: "Asuka you were hired on when you were four, we are not sending a four year old through boot camp! And even now, I wouldn't send you into boot camp until you were an adult, and by then you are already so engrained into NERV culture that it's practically moot."
Hir: "I mean they sent us through something like that."
Hik: "It sounds like they treated you as disposable though."
Z: "They killed those who failed so yeah, you're not wrong."
Hir: "I thought it was easy to pass?"
Z: "Do you know of anyone that failed it, darling?"
He didn't have any words.
Z: "Because they're all dead. Probably turned into the rations the rest of the plantation eats at that, like that soylent documentary we watched a few weeks back."
Mar: "I don't think Soylent Green is a d-documentary Zero Two!"
Z: "It isn't? So New York isn't a hole?"
May: "Didn't you go to America recently?"
Z: "I went to… uhh, Boosting?"
E: "Boston."
Z: "Yeah that, and it wasn't anywhere near as bad."
Mar: "Of course it wasn't, America isn't as bad as what's shown in Soylent Green!"
A: "I dunno it can be a bit of a hole."
Mar: "Oh we have problems but we don't eat the poor!"
Misato did naught but raise an eyebrow. "Maybe not literally speaking."
… (5, 6, 7)
Misato almost immediately recoiled seeing her counterpart's reaction. "Oh for God's sake…"
S: "I'm being a lot more of a bastard this time around."
Mi: "Don't get me wrong you were being a little shit, but I didn't freakin' hit you like that. No wonder you end up running away this time around…"
A: "I mean he pretty much called you disingenuous."
E: "He must think everyone is his father."
S: "You can see why I'd think that."
Hik: "So why did you run away, anyway?"
S: "Because I thought it was easier. It's painful facing it, and I didn't want to face it anymore. With my mindset at the time it was an easy decision."
Z: "And you didn't think they'd get you back?"
S: "I thought they wouldn't care."
Mi: "You're the only one who can reasonably pilot Unit-01, of course we care! What we didn't consider was how fragile your psychology was, and what we needed to do in order to help you."
A: "Not like you have therapists anyway to help fix that."
Mi: "We're working on it!" Before a long sigh. "I only realised how much of a state you were after you ran away like that. I thought you were just a bit quiet and shy before that."
S: "Not like I really said anything about it…"
May: "You and everyone else in this country." She'd huff. "Not really something that's talked about. Or treated at that."
Mi: "Only treatment most folks get in this fucking country is a one way to Aokigahara…" With an aside glance. "Can't deny we're not being proactive about it, slow progress it's been admittedly."
Hik: "Honestly I could probably use a therapist for a few things..."
R: "And she is the most stable of us as well."
Hik: "I still can't believe that's the case sometimes. But the more I read through this, I really can't say I'm surprised."
K: "Just you wait for the rest of us to make an appearance."
E: "At the very least, your issues in the Laserdiscs were more physical."
K: "More so the lack of a certain physicality."
Mar: "You're gonna be so f-fucking shocked when we get to Ash, Hikari."
Hik: "Oh boy. I can't wait." She lied.
Drive Around The World (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
Mi: "Well I didn't wait a day to report it. You made it quite clear that you were going to run away Shinji."
S: "I wasn't subtle about it, that's for sure."
Hik: "Did you even have an idea where you could go?"
Shinji shook his head. "I just wanted to leave. Didn't want anything else to do with NERV."
Mi: "And that's why I outright dismissed you. That just leaves us liable at that point."
E: "Gendo would've brought him back."
Mi: "Most likely, but I didn't know how important Shinji was to him at the time. I thought he was just another kid picked by the Marduk Institute."
K: "And the Marduk Institute is a sham anyway."
Mi: "There were a lot of things I didn't know back then Kaworu. I think I even mentioned to Ritsuko we could just rewrite Unit-01's system like it was something you could do."
R: "I don't think Yui would have appreciated that."
Mi: "But that's just my not knowing showing through. Ritsky probably had a little chuckle to herself about that."
May: "That's another minor difference from the Laserdiscs, I don't remember seeing a scene at the school."
Mi: "Toji and Kensuke actually visited my apartment and told me they were concerned about him. Kinda felt bad about lying about it but I wasn't gonna tell them that you just ran away."
S: "I mean it wouldn't have been a good look…"
Hik: "Running from your problems seldom is."
A: "Cut him some slack, he didn't know any different at the time. And especially in those high stress situations, you're gonna fall back on old habits like that. My habit was similar, but I'd just push people away."
S: "I think that dismissal was the kick I needed to at least start changing my mindset. It wasn't going to change overnight, of course, and at that point I felt like no one was my friend. Of course I fall back on the old habit."
Z: "It's interesting seeing how you were, like you're night and day in comparison!"
A: "If you think Shinji's an improvement, just you wait to see me!"
Hir: "Did you know Kensuke and Toji were that concerned about you, Shinji?"
S: "I didn't know until the Laserdiscs told me." In a snort. "Toji's far too proud to admit that kinda stuff."
A: "On another note did you keep a supervision record of me as well?"
Mi: "It's a requirement so yes, admittedly it fell by the wayside once things started reaching a boiling point, but I still keep it. Mainly as a part of tracking your mental states and seeing if there's anything that could cause problems."
Hik: "Well that'd be a depressive read."
… (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
Mi: "That's what you were thinking, huh…"
S: "Well you can understand why I thought that."
Mi: "I mean… yeah." She'd sigh. "That insecurity of yours was a real big issue; even once you started getting more into your role, I only really started seeing improvements once Asuka moved in and you had someone else you could bounce off, so to speak. Someone that pretty much forced you to show up and perform."
Mar: "You must've had just the right a-amount of positive pressure on Shinji to encourage that, cause I doubt this Shinji would've held up to your standards."
A: "Oh he wouldn't have, he would've refused to wear my plugsuit and we'd all be dead in the water!" She'd snicker, as she playfully nudged the boy in question. "Also, he was definitely bouncing off me before too long!"
Both Misato and Hikari gave her a thoroughly unamused look. "Oh not like you two are any different!"
Hik: "On another note, I didn't know you encountered Kensuke during this, does he still do those war-games?"
S: "I don't think he's had much time to do that lately, especially now he's an apprentice here."
Z: "Do those birds of him join in?"
R: "He had mentioned so."
Z: "Heh."
Hik: "I mean I'd like to think it's more than just elaborate erotic role-play…"
S: "Oh in the Laserdiscs he was really getting into the role, like pretending he was shot down and everything! He's probably enough of a military otaku that he'd get the girls involved with that."
E: "No matter how reluctant they may be."
A: "I get the impression from both of them that they'd still find some interest in it, even outside of the whole sex aspect. Also, holy shit that image of Kensuke holding a fucking rifle… how did he even get that?!"
May: "I mean toy guns aren't exactly uncommon, probably wouldn't be able to see the orange tip in a black and white medium… I hope that isn't a real gun at least."
Hir: "He seems like the type of guy to have a real gun just as an ornament."
A: "He's got the military ensign of Japan plastered on his bedroom wall so yeah, I understand that impression."
Z: "Is that a bad thing?"
Asuka simply gave Zero Two an unamused look.
Z: "Oh right, the war you guys were involved in."
Asuka merely rolled her eyes. "At least his trigger discipline is on point."
Hik: "It's understandable why Kensuke didn't elaborate on this conversation at least, seems pretty much between you two."
S: "Honestly, it helped me understand how important it was. Seeing how much it meant to Kensuke, well, that managed to get it through all the walls I had built up."
Mi: "But you can see why we would not want Kensuke to pilot."
E: "He sounds quite happy to be in a supporting role anyway."
May: "And he can help a lot more in this supporting role as well! In fact, just between us, we might be commissioning him for a coming project that'll help all of us!"
A: "Are we finally getting a replacement for that damn simulator?"
May: "Well you saw right through that." Maya blinked. "Still very early stages but yeah, we need a system that doesn't require us to hook in the Evangelion every time we want to run simulations."
R: "I am surprised you did not develop such a system earlier."
May: "I mean the sim bodies were never rebuilt after Ireul so couldn't use that… but yeah, give us some time and I'm sure you'll be very satisfied with the end result!"
Retrieval (20, 21, 22, 23)
A: "So they are required to escort you back, but at least they ask you if that's okay!"
S: "I didn't even get that, they just told me to come with them."
Z: "And you obliged?"
S: "In my mind I thought they'd just take me anyway."
Mi: "As a pilot you can't just run like that, especially after knowledge of you being a pilot leaked out like that. What if someone kidnapped you for ransom? Or one of the apocalypse cults sacrificed you?!"
E: "I don't think that Shinji would have cared much at that point."
Hik: "You weren't mad at him, Misato?"
Mi: "I mean I couldn't really. I knew why he ran away, he couldn't handle it. I was disappointed, sure, and a bit cut up that he decided to run instead of trying to talk about it, but I suppose at that point it was a fool's bet to think he'd open up that quickly."
S: "Honestly it took me a while to open up to anyone about that."
K: "Do you think Toji will blame Kensuke for not doing anything?"
Hik: "He did that? What else could Kensuke do that didn't involve him getting shot?!"
Hir: "At least he wanted to protect you, he immediately jumped to your aid when they arrived unannounced."
Hik: "Kensuke's pretty good like that, push come to shove. It's no wonder Sayaka and Kyoko like him so much."
A: "I think what they have going on is more than like at this point." She'd snicker.
Hik: "Well yeah but I was trying to be polite about it…"
… (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
K: "Mhm, an interesting attitude towards it… maybe that made you realise how your old life was like."
S: "I mean, my old life I was just stagnant, not going anywhere… like yeah piloting is difficult, and it took me a while to get in the right mindset for it. But I can't deny now it's lead me to great places!"
A: "Wouldn't have us without the Evangelion, eh?"
R: "It also sounds like this was the first time you had been offered a choice."
S: "I'd tend to just go with the flow of things. Never really sought to change my circumstances… though now I've been offered that, I'm realising just how bad those circumstances were before."
Mi: "I'm glad you came around in the end… I wasn't sure how we were gonna work that out, honestly. Especially now I know how key Unit-01 was to Gendo's plan."
S: "That's why I think he would've gotten me back anyway, if it didn't fall in his favour. But hey, I made the quote unquote correct decision at the end of the day." He'd shrug.
May: "Would you pilot if you had the choice?"
Mar: "Maya I don't think any of u-us would willingly pilot, but we all have our reasons for doing so that override that. My reasons was that I w-wanted to protect my friends, and do right by my mother."
A: "You all know my reasons for piloting to start with, but that evolved into much of the same. And I'm sure you're exactly the same, Hikari."
Hik: "Mhm!" With a decisive nod. "I can actually action something in the Evangelion! Not just shelter and hope for the best… hard to describe piloting and sortieing as fun but I like being able to proactively protect those I love."
Mi: "And that's the attitude we failed to realise you didn't have. We'd just assumed you'd have that!"
S: "Can't fault you for not knowing every in and out of me. I think it was clear I didn't have that standard attitude of wanting to help others; the world didn't help me so why should I?"
Hir: "Which is fair enough, and the world didn't help you."
S: "Nope, I had to learn to help myself… took me years to learn that, and I only started learning that when I became a pilot."
E: "An extreme way of learning such thing, but it worked. The Shinji in the manga is almost incomparable to you."
S: "Especially at this early stage too, same as with the Laserdiscs… man we really do need help do we?"
Mi: "Working on it! Just trust the process!"
All the pilots just gave Misato a flat stare. "Okay, I know, hard ask when you know what the process is. Look, you still have your own methods of therapy to tide you over!"
Asuka shrugged in reply. "Eh it's worked for us so far, and we've only broken down a few times since then!"
Hik: "I'm really the most well adjusted one here huh…"
All Shinji could do was sigh. "Had this feeling in the Laserdiscs as well… it's annoying seeing how I was like back then. I know this Shinji's a bit different but still…"
"Shows how much you have grown as a person." Rei would suggest, with a pacifying glance. "You were them but you will never be them again."
"Even though I could've had it earlier."
"Well that probably wouldn't have gotten you to here right now, eh?" As Asuka nudged his arm. "So I'm not complaining! And hey, no point fretting about how your past self was like. My past self was a complete basket case! I look back at her and I see a scared child who never got the help she needed!"
"You don't need to remind me Asuka…"
"I'm gonna remind you until we get some help! And proper help at that!"
"And I keep saying we're working on it!"
"You can say that all you want but it doesn't mean much until we see it."
"I know and you're right, Eliza. But we weren't gonna find the right one overnight!" In defence. "There's a lot of things we require in a psychologist, and our strategy is to teach someone from scratch about it all."
"So a student psychologist?" Hikari would query. "Really throwing them into the deep end with that assignment."
"Heh, you're learning to snark Hikari!" Grinned Asuka. "You're learning how to fit in with us!"
"I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."
"That's the spirit!"
~
Rewrite (2, 3, 4)
S: "I was fumbling towards something alright…"
Mi: "Hey you got there in the end buddy!"
A: "So how would it have worked if Gendo was serious in not forcing Shinji to pilot?"
R: "With how his scenario was, it wouldn't. Unit-01 could not be reprogrammed, insofar that the only reason Yui tolerated me as a pilot is due to the genetic similarity we shared. And I doubt once she had Shinji as a pilot she would be so keen to synchronise with me again."
Mi: "Your sync with Unit-01 did drop around that time, at least until you were able to properly communicate with them."
R: "And by that point, we could discuss these subjects like people, and we came to the accord that I as Shinji's close friend should be capable of working with her to pilot if required."
S: "You guys weren't considering brainwashing me right?"
Mi: "Shit, I wasn't… God knows what Gendo or Ritsuko were thinking, I didn't even know you could do that!"
Z: "Eh it's trivial, just pump them full of chemicals."
R: "Worked for me."
E: "Shinji's mental state was poor enough, I can't imagine how it'd be on what you were on, Rei."
Hik: "What were you on?"
R: "A combination of sedatives and other depressive type medications, which essentially stripped me of my free will and drive to do anything."
Hik: "Well that's messed up…"
Mi: "And needless to say that will not happen under my watch."
A: "Seeing how Rei was like really didn't help my aversion to medication."
Mi: "You have fair enough reasons why you're averse to it though."
Hik: "Do I dare ask?"
A: "My step-mom tried to force me to take pills to become a placid doll, Gehirn caught wind and chased them out of the country, and that's how I became an orphan!"
Mar: "Christ and I t-thought my family was messed up…"
Mi: "Well what's your claim to fame, Mari?"
Mar: "My ma freakin' fled Ireland because the E-English were catching up with her."
A: "Was your mom a member of the IRA or something?"
Mar: "I mean she never outright confirmed it, and my d-dad obviously never did, but she did have a lot of that sort of memorabilia and I remember seeing some old news articles and thinking 'gee that gal looks a l-lot like ma'…"
Hik: "Wait you're Irish?"
Mar: "I like how that's the t-thing you're surprised about, and not the thought that one of my folks was from the IRA."
Hik: "I honestly never expected that, I didn't get that from your accent at all..."
A: "She is a born and bred American, so figures she has that accent."
Mar: "Always thought that a shame honestly, the Irish accent is damn sexy!" With a barked laugh. "Ma knew a few f-folks that my dad kept up with after she passed and I g-gotta say, they could make anyone swoon over!"
Mi: "So your mother is a member of the IRA and your father is a secret agent… that's a bit of an eclectic combo."
Mar: "Go figure I ended up at NERV h-huh."
… (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Mi: "Oh c'mon, at least let me say goodbye to him…"
May: "At least Gendo said something in regard to you, Shinji."
S: "Not to my face, of course…"
E: "There's a chance mama could've just said that to make you feel better."
S: "Mhm, he might not have even thought that at all!"
Hik: "And that's such a snide way of saying it as well. How the heck did you ever deal with your father, Shinji?"
S: "Painfully."
A: "I think we were all glad he ended up shot during the Incursion."
S: "Well it got rid of most of our issues, that's for sure."
Hir: "What do we think Toji's gonna do?"
Mi: "In our world, he and Kensuke came over and wanted to know what was going on with Shinji. Though that was while he was running."
S: "I did end up meeting with them before I was set to leave though, made amends and all that."
K: "Even if it was mostly Toji that had his concerns with you."
Mar: "That's a way of saying it…"
Realisation (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
Misato seemed to quietly snicker. "Ah, so that's how I realised in that world."
Z: "Realise what?"
Mi: "Well, the reason I chased after Shinji was because I realised what he wanted. He just wanted a family."
S: "Well I hadn't really had much of that. My uncle was good to me but there was always that disconnect that I pretty much imposed myself. You were really the first person I felt comfortable around."
Mar: "Your friends seem a l-lot more proactive in this one as well."
S: "Mhm… I didn't even know they showed up concerned for me while I was running away."
Hik: "Toji's not the type of person to admit his softer sides unless you really get to know him. But he does have it. And it's a wonderful side of him, if I say so myself."
R: "You may have some bias of course."
Hik: "Well so do you with your partner." With a cheeky grin.
May: "Interesting to see their thoughts on seeing you, Misato…"
Mi: "Eh they're typical boys, first thing on their mind is women and second thing on their mind is breathing. Kensuke especially was a lot more of a horndog than I thought, especially once Asuka came over…"
A: "He's a nerd, presumedly with unfiltered Internet access. Doesn't surprise me, but still didn't make it right."
Hik: "Yeah that wasn't a good look for both of them… I had words with Toji once I found that out."
E: "He's lucky it was just words."
Hik: "Oh I slapped him as well. Not sure how Kensuke's girls dealt with him but I'm presuming they know by now as well. Wait so these Laserdiscs were how you found out?"
K: "They knew she'd rip their faces off if they told her."
A: "Still, I would've appreciated being told about it by them, instead of having God tell me." She'd give a sharp sigh. "Feh, it was that long ago that it didn't change much of my opinion on them; they had already become much better people thanks to you and both of Kensuke's birds."
S: "You still socked Kensuke in the face when you went to school though."
A: "Well yeah, and I told him why I socked him in the face and he accepted it."
Hik: "It sounded like he knew it was coming for some time."
R: "Must have been a relief to finally not have that sword of Damocles hanging above his head."
May: "Part of me wonders if his partners used it as a bargaining chip. 'We could just tell Asuka about what you did…'"
That got the girl in question to snicker. "They don't seem like the manipulative type, maybe Kyoko, but that's a hilarious concept to think about!"
Hir: "Probably not for Kensuke."
… (17, 18, 19, 20)
Mi: "This was similar, at least… didn't have Pen-Pen of course."
R: "Perhaps he will be key to the story you have for him."
Z: "If you make the train."
Mi: "I should, I did in our world… and we still have God knows how many of these things left."
E: "I count 14 volumes all up."
A: "D'oh we're gonna be here for ages!"
S: "Better hope they don't just have several pages blank."
A: "Hehe, to emulate how they just stayed on that one frame for like two minutes?"
Mi: "I mean I don't think it was that long for real life…"
Hik: "Oh Gods was yours a budget anime?"
A: "Sure seemed like it at times! They'd literally pad out the runtimes by holding on a single frame!"
E: "Gainax did it with their other anime as well."
Hik: "You see some of the shows they have on NHK and you just have to wonder how they were able to make an episode for the same amount as a bento box."
A: "Ooh bento box money, that's luxury right there! That might get you an action sequence!"
May: "At least with a drawn medium you'd think they'd show a bit more of it."
Mar: "Well what if they get bored in t-the middle of it and just left it off?"
Reunion (21, 22, 23, 24)
Mi: "Heh… I suppose that's close enough to how it went with Pen-Pen."
A: "I mean it was obvious he was experimented on."
Mi: "Mhm, not really where I used to work though. It was a separate research facility that Gehirn had bought out, and yeah, they were about to dispose of him when I took him in."
Z: "With how that bird's like you'd think he'd be a bit more appreciative."
Mi: "He is, personality aside." She'd snicker. "But yeah… I suppose that's true as well. I lived alone for a while, but I don't like living alone. Not having anyone to bounce my thoughts off."
K: "Not good being alone with your own thoughts."
Mi: "Especially if you're in a state like… well, I suppose we all have something like that. Maybe that's why I like drinking as well, helps distract from the thoughts I tend to get."
Hik: "What thoughts, if you don't mind me asking?"
Misato responded by lifting her shirt, showing Hikari her scar. "I was in Antarctica when Second Impact happened. My father saved my life at the cost of his own, and I have this as a memento to show for it."
Hikari absolutely did not know how to respond to that. "O-Oh… that's…"
E: "Terrible?"
A: "Pretty shit?"
Mi: "God tell me about it." With a wry smile. "Was a state for a good while, got better but I still have it spinning around my brain. Of course I do, it's pretty clearly my trauma response to it."
Hir: "Sounds like you need the therapy as well."
Mi: "Eh I'm still functional." She'd shrug. "And I'm gonna prioritise you guys over myself anyway. We really screwed you around with what we asked you to do, least we could do is get you some actual help with it."
Mar: "Least you c-could do for your family, huh?"
Mi: "Heh, not very opaque with that this time around, am I?" With a snicker. "Really though… I think that's what we all wanted. We're all broken, and we somehow came together and made a little messed up family for ourselves…"
It was a small smile, but it held a lot of meaning for her. "Well, most of us are broken. I think you and Maya are pretty well put together, Hikari."
Hik: "I mean… I guess in comparison."
A: "Oh be a bit more positive with yourself girl! You're probably the most mentally stable person in the room right now!"
Hikari would look around the room. "Maya?"
May: "I killed a man."
Hik: "I really am the most stable person here… jeez I don't think that's saying much! Like, I have anger issues and I really struggle with having my authority questioned, that's gotta account for something!"
E: "It's all a relative measurement anyway, I think we all may be a bit skewed towards the more unstable mindsets."
Mi: "Don't suppose we should be playing trauma olympics when it comes to that anyway." Misato thought. "We'll sort it out, don't you guys worry about that."
… (25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
S: "Heh… that would've been nice."
Mi: "Something actually done better in this work, huh?" With a soft smile. "But I suppose the message was still the same."
K: "You had a taste of how that was like, you didn't want to give it up."
S: "And I only realised that at the last minute there. While on that platform."
A: "Good thing you did!"
Hik: "I'm not sure how concerned I should be with how much of why the world still exists today is tied to how you guys went…"
E: "You get used to it, I wouldn't have even existed if things went differently for them."
Mar: "None of us would be e-existing right now if things went differently." She'd snicker. "So yeah, thanks guys."
May: "Did you at least hug him later?"
S: "It did take me a while to accept that sort of touch… but you did hug me after Ramiel."
Mi: "I mean I thought I was gonna lose you during that."
R: "She was able to do what your uncle and his family couldn't."
S: "I mean they were never that open about that sorta thing. Not that me being completely closed off helped."
Hir: "You started healing around this time then, didn't you?"
S: "Mhm… that's when it really started. Though in the Laserdiscs, it really started going backwards going to the end of it."
Mar: "Again, a good thing t-that didn't happen here!"
Z: "Maybe things are gonna go a bit better in the manga than it did in the Laserdiscs, then?"
Quiet in the room. "Ehh… jury's out on that."
~
Hikari, once again, was quiet at the conclusion of another volume of the manga. "I… I think I need a moment."
By moment, she meant getting out of her seat, and leaving.
"She's struggling."
"She'll get better." Misato affirmed. "Give her some time."
"At least she has someone to h-help her out with that."
"I suspect that is what she is doing."
Meanwhile Hikari… well, she was on the phone. "Hey… pa? Yeah late training again, I'll probably be staying at Toji's tonight. You and Noz will be fine?"
A small smile at the reply. "Mhm, that's good… say hi to her for me once she gets back home, alright? I'll see you tomorrow."
Clicking her phone shut, and slumping down in the elevator. "Oy… c'mon Hikari you've blocked nuked with your bare hands, why are you struggling with this!"
She knew why she was struggling… seeing her friends like that. And realising that had always been the case.
"Heh… how the hell are you the lucky one in this world?"
The elevator dinged, and she immediately recomposed herself. "Gotta reach Toji… then you can spill your feelings."
~~~
S: "I was fumbling towards something alright…"
Mi: "Hey you got there in the end buddy!"
A: "So how would it have worked if Gendo was serious in not forcing Shinji to pilot?"
R: "With how his scenario was, it wouldn't. Unit-01 could not be reprogrammed, insofar that the only reason Yui tolerated me as a pilot is due to the genetic similarity we shared. And I doubt once she had Shinji as a pilot she would be so keen to synchronise with me again."
Mi: "Your sync with Unit-01 did drop around that time, at least until you were able to properly communicate with them."
R: "And by that point, we could discuss these subjects like people, and we came to the accord that I as Shinji's close friend should be capable of working with her to pilot if required."
S: "You guys weren't considering brainwashing me right?"
Mi: "Shit, I wasn't… God knows what Gendo or Ritsuko were thinking, I didn't even know you could do that!"
Z: "Eh it's trivial, just pump them full of chemicals."
R: "Worked for me."
E: "Shinji's mental state was poor enough, I can't imagine how it'd be on what you were on, Rei."
Hik: "What were you on?"
R: "A combination of sedatives and other depressive type medications, which essentially stripped me of my free will and drive to do anything."
Hik: "Well that's messed up…"
Mi: "And needless to say that will not happen under my watch."
A: "Seeing how Rei was like really didn't help my aversion to medication."
Mi: "You have fair enough reasons why you're averse to it though."
Hik: "Do I dare ask?"
A: "My step-mom tried to force me to take pills to become a placid doll, Gehirn caught wind and chased them out of the country, and that's how I became an orphan!"
Mar: "Christ and I t-thought my family was messed up…"
Mi: "Well what's your claim to fame, Mari?"
Mar: "My ma freakin' fled Ireland because the E-English were catching up with her."
A: "Was your mom a member of the IRA or something?"
Mar: "I mean she never outright confirmed it, and my d-dad obviously never did, but she did have a lot of that sort of memorabilia and I remember seeing some old news articles and thinking 'gee that gal looks a l-lot like ma'…"
Hik: "Wait you're Irish?"
Mar: "I like how that's the t-thing you're surprised about, and not the thought that one of my folks was from the IRA."
Hik: "I honestly never expected that, I didn't get that from your accent at all..."
A: "She is a born and bred American, so figures she has that accent."
Mar: "Always thought that a shame honestly, the Irish accent is damn sexy!" With a barked laugh. "Ma knew a few f-folks that my dad kept up with after she passed and I g-gotta say, they could make anyone swoon over!"
Mi: "So your mother is a member of the IRA and your father is a secret agent… that's a bit of an eclectic combo."
Mar: "Go figure I ended up at NERV h-huh."
… (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Mi: "Oh c'mon, at least let me say goodbye to him…"
May: "At least Gendo said something in regard to you, Shinji."
S: "Not to my face, of course…"
E: "There's a chance mama could've just said that to make you feel better."
S: "Mhm, he might not have even thought that at all!"
Hik: "And that's such a snide way of saying it as well. How the heck did you ever deal with your father, Shinji?"
S: "Painfully."
A: "I think we were all glad he ended up shot during the Incursion."
S: "Well it got rid of most of our issues, that's for sure."
Hir: "What do we think Toji's gonna do?"
Mi: "In our world, he and Kensuke came over and wanted to know what was going on with Shinji. Though that was while he was running."
S: "I did end up meeting with them before I was set to leave though, made amends and all that."
K: "Even if it was mostly Toji that had his concerns with you."
Mar: "That's a way of saying it…"
Realisation (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
Misato seemed to quietly snicker. "Ah, so that's how I realised in that world."
Z: "Realise what?"
Mi: "Well, the reason I chased after Shinji was because I realised what he wanted. He just wanted a family."
S: "Well I hadn't really had much of that. My uncle was good to me but there was always that disconnect that I pretty much imposed myself. You were really the first person I felt comfortable around."
Mar: "Your friends seem a l-lot more proactive in this one as well."
S: "Mhm… I didn't even know they showed up concerned for me while I was running away."
Hik: "Toji's not the type of person to admit his softer sides unless you really get to know him. But he does have it. And it's a wonderful side of him, if I say so myself."
R: "You may have some bias of course."
Hik: "Well so do you with your partner." With a cheeky grin.
May: "Interesting to see their thoughts on seeing you, Misato…"
Mi: "Eh they're typical boys, first thing on their mind is women and second thing on their mind is breathing. Kensuke especially was a lot more of a horndog than I thought, especially once Asuka came over…"
A: "He's a nerd, presumedly with unfiltered Internet access. Doesn't surprise me, but still didn't make it right."
Hik: "Yeah that wasn't a good look for both of them… I had words with Toji once I found that out."
E: "He's lucky it was just words."
Hik: "Oh I slapped him as well. Not sure how Kensuke's girls dealt with him but I'm presuming they know by now as well. Wait so these Laserdiscs were how you found out?"
K: "They knew she'd rip their faces off if they told her."
A: "Still, I would've appreciated being told about it by them, instead of having God tell me." She'd give a sharp sigh. "Feh, it was that long ago that it didn't change much of my opinion on them; they had already become much better people thanks to you and both of Kensuke's birds."
S: "You still socked Kensuke in the face when you went to school though."
A: "Well yeah, and I told him why I socked him in the face and he accepted it."
Hik: "It sounded like he knew it was coming for some time."
R: "Must have been a relief to finally not have that sword of Damocles hanging above his head."
May: "Part of me wonders if his partners used it as a bargaining chip. 'We could just tell Asuka about what you did…'"
That got the girl in question to snicker. "They don't seem like the manipulative type, maybe Kyoko, but that's a hilarious concept to think about!"
Hir: "Probably not for Kensuke."
… (17, 18, 19, 20)
Mi: "This was similar, at least… didn't have Pen-Pen of course."
R: "Perhaps he will be key to the story you have for him."
Z: "If you make the train."
Mi: "I should, I did in our world… and we still have God knows how many of these things left."
E: "I count 14 volumes all up."
A: "D'oh we're gonna be here for ages!"
S: "Better hope they don't just have several pages blank."
A: "Hehe, to emulate how they just stayed on that one frame for like two minutes?"
Mi: "I mean I don't think it was that long for real life…"
Hik: "Oh Gods was yours a budget anime?"
A: "Sure seemed like it at times! They'd literally pad out the runtimes by holding on a single frame!"
E: "Gainax did it with their other anime as well."
Hik: "You see some of the shows they have on NHK and you just have to wonder how they were able to make an episode for the same amount as a bento box."
A: "Ooh bento box money, that's luxury right there! That might get you an action sequence!"
May: "At least with a drawn medium you'd think they'd show a bit more of it."
Mar: "Well what if they get bored in t-the middle of it and just left it off?"
Reunion (21, 22, 23, 24)
Mi: "Heh… I suppose that's close enough to how it went with Pen-Pen."
A: "I mean it was obvious he was experimented on."
Mi: "Mhm, not really where I used to work though. It was a separate research facility that Gehirn had bought out, and yeah, they were about to dispose of him when I took him in."
Z: "With how that bird's like you'd think he'd be a bit more appreciative."
Mi: "He is, personality aside." She'd snicker. "But yeah… I suppose that's true as well. I lived alone for a while, but I don't like living alone. Not having anyone to bounce my thoughts off."
K: "Not good being alone with your own thoughts."
Mi: "Especially if you're in a state like… well, I suppose we all have something like that. Maybe that's why I like drinking as well, helps distract from the thoughts I tend to get."
Hik: "What thoughts, if you don't mind me asking?"
Misato responded by lifting her shirt, showing Hikari her scar. "I was in Antarctica when Second Impact happened. My father saved my life at the cost of his own, and I have this as a memento to show for it."
Hikari absolutely did not know how to respond to that. "O-Oh… that's…"
E: "Terrible?"
A: "Pretty shit?"
Mi: "God tell me about it." With a wry smile. "Was a state for a good while, got better but I still have it spinning around my brain. Of course I do, it's pretty clearly my trauma response to it."
Hir: "Sounds like you need the therapy as well."
Mi: "Eh I'm still functional." She'd shrug. "And I'm gonna prioritise you guys over myself anyway. We really screwed you around with what we asked you to do, least we could do is get you some actual help with it."
Mar: "Least you c-could do for your family, huh?"
Mi: "Heh, not very opaque with that this time around, am I?" With a snicker. "Really though… I think that's what we all wanted. We're all broken, and we somehow came together and made a little messed up family for ourselves…"
It was a small smile, but it held a lot of meaning for her. "Well, most of us are broken. I think you and Maya are pretty well put together, Hikari."
Hik: "I mean… I guess in comparison."
A: "Oh be a bit more positive with yourself girl! You're probably the most mentally stable person in the room right now!"
Hikari would look around the room. "Maya?"
May: "I killed a man."
Hik: "I really am the most stable person here… jeez I don't think that's saying much! Like, I have anger issues and I really struggle with having my authority questioned, that's gotta account for something!"
E: "It's all a relative measurement anyway, I think we all may be a bit skewed towards the more unstable mindsets."
Mi: "Don't suppose we should be playing trauma olympics when it comes to that anyway." Misato thought. "We'll sort it out, don't you guys worry about that."
… (25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
S: "Heh… that would've been nice."
Mi: "Something actually done better in this work, huh?" With a soft smile. "But I suppose the message was still the same."
K: "You had a taste of how that was like, you didn't want to give it up."
S: "And I only realised that at the last minute there. While on that platform."
A: "Good thing you did!"
Hik: "I'm not sure how concerned I should be with how much of why the world still exists today is tied to how you guys went…"
E: "You get used to it, I wouldn't have even existed if things went differently for them."
Mar: "None of us would be e-existing right now if things went differently." She'd snicker. "So yeah, thanks guys."
May: "Did you at least hug him later?"
S: "It did take me a while to accept that sort of touch… but you did hug me after Ramiel."
Mi: "I mean I thought I was gonna lose you during that."
R: "She was able to do what your uncle and his family couldn't."
S: "I mean they were never that open about that sorta thing. Not that me being completely closed off helped."
Hir: "You started healing around this time then, didn't you?"
S: "Mhm… that's when it really started. Though in the Laserdiscs, it really started going backwards going to the end of it."
Mar: "Again, a good thing t-that didn't happen here!"
Z: "Maybe things are gonna go a bit better in the manga than it did in the Laserdiscs, then?"
Quiet in the room. "Ehh… jury's out on that."
~
Hikari, once again, was quiet at the conclusion of another volume of the manga. "I… I think I need a moment."
By moment, she meant getting out of her seat, and leaving.
"She's struggling."
"She'll get better." Misato affirmed. "Give her some time."
"At least she has someone to h-help her out with that."
"I suspect that is what she is doing."
Meanwhile Hikari… well, she was on the phone. "Hey… pa? Yeah late training again, I'll probably be staying at Toji's tonight. You and Noz will be fine?"
A small smile at the reply. "Mhm, that's good… say hi to her for me once she gets back home, alright? I'll see you tomorrow."
Clicking her phone shut, and slumping down in the elevator. "Oy… c'mon Hikari you've blocked nuked with your bare hands, why are you struggling with this!"
She knew why she was struggling… seeing her friends like that. And realising that had always been the case.
"Heh… how the hell are you the lucky one in this world?"
The elevator dinged, and she immediately recomposed herself. "Gotta reach Toji… then you can spill your feelings."
~~~
Yui and Kyoko would quiz over a whiteboard of various sums and diagrams, as they continued to puzzle together some of the science from the Half-Life games. "So… at this point we're assuming that their concept of using Xen as a slip-space of sorts for an Einstein-Rosen bridge can be ported to our universe if we assume we can do the same with metspace?"
"More or less."
"And do we have an idea on how we can harness this metspace?"
Yui gave an approximation of a shrug. "I mean we know the Dirac exists, we know there's some sort of alternative reality that can be accessed from realspace under certain conditions." Pointing to a drawing of Leliel. "But until we figure out a way we can harness this, it's more or less a moot point thinking about it."
A beat.
"Well why are we thinking about it?" Quipped Kyoko. "Let's get some dinner!"
A pack up and they were out the door. "Oh hey Eliza!"
"Hi Ikari-san, Soryu-san." With a small nod. "How'd you go today?"
"Scheiße."
"No big breakthrough then."
"The main thing that's blocking us is not knowing about what metspace is." Sighed Yui. "There's only so much you can theorise when you don't know what you're dealing with."
"And I get the impression the big bosses won't allow us to open Dirac Rifts on a whim to study it." Kyoko rolled her eyes. "Daran ist nichts Gefährliches!"
("There's nothing dangerous about that!")
"Yeah I think that's a good decision." She was flat.
"You got much to do?"
"Mama wanted me to keep an eye on some decryption the Magi were doing while she was out."
"Oh if you need to decrypt some files from Seele, my father used my birthdate as an encryption key." Before leaving with Kyoko.
"Ya could've told us earlier!"
A beat, and a gruff grunt. "The Magi have been working on this for months…" Getting her hands on the terminal and logging in. "Uhh Yui Ikari… you don't look that old…"
She'd put a few different permutations of her birthdate as a key. "Wouldn't expect the same key to be used on the whole lot… but might get us somewhere at the very least."
One of the best sounds in the world was when the Magi pinged in success. "Okay, that's about… twelve megabytes of data." Immediately furrowing her brow. "You can fit more on a ZIP disk."
A sigh, as she uploaded the decrypted data. "Feh, data is data, no matter how little you get… might be something in there for mama to look at…"
~~
Kaworu stood on the balcony of his apartment, watching as the sun started going down over the city of Boston.
"You're still nervous."
Mari appeared next to him. "How can I not be, Ash?" Deep in thought. "I… I'm not sure if I can go back."
He could feel the conflict within her. "Tell you what, how about you take me on a tour through the city? I still haven't seen much of Boston from the ground, and I get the impression you'd know a lot about it."
"Heh… it's only my home, Ash." She'd smirk. "C-C'mon, I know a few decent places."
They were soon out and about. "How keen are you on churches?"
"I appreciate their beauty and significance, even if I am not quite the religious type."
"Thought so."
They'd soon find themselves at the foot of one. "Not the oldest one in this city, but one that holds a lot of meaning to m-me."
Through the doors, and greeted with a grand stained glass portrait, front and centre… almost like they were watching down on them.
"Ah… Saint Brigid." Kaworu would recognise. "Patron of Ireland."
"And my m-mother's namesake."
A beat.
Mari stepped out from him, walking closer to the stained glass… "It's been a while, hey ma?"
Turning to Kaworu, and slightly smiling. "Do you want to know more, Ash?"
He would nod.
"Thought so…"
Sitting herself down on a pew. "My mother comes from a long line of republicans. Irish republicans. My grandparents on her side were pretty staunch C-Catholics, if you couldn't tell by the fact they named ma after her." Pointing up, with a snicker. "Supposedly they liked my old man, according to h-him at least."
Her eyes would drift to a nearby flag. "I was born right at the start of the Second Troubles. Second Impact really opened up old w-wounds again, and when England tried to raise taxes on the north to pay for everything… well, there was already bad blood between the two sides but that was just the straw that broke the back, I guess."
"You managed to get out of there though?"
"It was… early 2001, I believe. Ma was a part of the Irish People's Liberation Army, bit of an upstart compared to the big players like the IRA but they were all in t-the same boat."
"…What changed?"
Mari looked to Kaworu.
She'd pick herself up, and walk herself to one of the walls.
A board of names. "Black Friday, is what we called it. Pretty much Bloody Sunday again… only it was two hundred civilians that lost their lives."
And all their names were on this board.
"It got wild in Northern Ireland after that. A full uprising. Total warfare. And… ma didn't want to raise me like that. No kid should have to be raised in a warzone."
A moment of silence, as Kaworu scanned the list." Her maiden name was McCarthy, if you're looking for that."
He could spot three names that matched that description. "Is…"
"One was my grandfather. The others were nephews." All she could do was sigh, however. "And there were a lot more gone after all was said and done. They wanted ma to leave, wanted us to have a better life in Boston. That's something we owe a debt to the P-Pines to, actually… he pulled a big favor from them in order to get us there, and get us work at Gehirn."
It still took him aback, looking at the names. "Were you close with the elder Pines twins?"
"I never knew my grandparents, Ash. Dad's side passed away before I was born, and ma's… well, you can see for yourself. Stanley and Stanford… well, t-they ended up being the closest thing I had to grandparents, especially after ma passed away. And when I started getting more involved with the Evangelion."
She'd chuckle. "Understandable why Mabel r-reacted like that then, huh?"
"…Were you close with her?"
Mari shrugged. "The Stans deliberately kept them away from B-Boston until they couldn't anymore. Didn't really get to know them that much, they were a lot older than I was anyway so not like I r-really saw them in school or anything. Still, I understand why she reacted like th-"
The door behind them creaked open, Mari dissipating into wisps of light as she returned to Kaworu.
"Ah… a good even to you, Spencer."
"Likewise, Nagisa."
He'd walk up beside him, where Mari had stood. "A tragic affair, isn't it?"
"One of many such post-Impact." Noted Kaworu. "You have a connection to it?"
"Indeed…"
He would not elaborate on such thing however… though the gesture of placing fresh flowers in a nearby vase could say magnitudes. "I suppose you have a different mission than Kaji?"
"Indeed I do." He'd nod. "I'm sure you were able to see it recently."
"Mhm."
A beat.
"I want you to keep the name Philip Wittebane in mind, when you're at NERV. He's on our radar. I would appreciate another set of eyes on him."
"Seele?"
"Suspected. Nothing solid yet, and could very well be a coincidence. Only dirt we have on him so far is he worked for Blight Industries."
"Hmpf, I'll be on the lookout." A glance up. "But you know how slippery they can be."
"I'm sure you know that too, Nagisa."
With that, he'd make his leave.
Mari appeared again, longingly looking towards the door. "…Sorry, dad."
Slowly turning, looking towards the flowers. Roses and lilacs, her… mother's favourites.
In the bouquet, a card.
'Keep them safe'.
Mari's figure would warble, as she struggled to maintain her composure. "I…"
The figure dissipated again. "I… n-need a moment, A-Ash."
"Take as much time as you need, Mari." Hand to his heart. "I am here."
"…T-Thank you, Ash."
~
Ritsuko's terminal would ping. "…Ah, thatta girl!"
The decrypted files had come through… not like she had much going on while she was waiting for her jump jet. Maybe if the Quebec party came through with something, she could be working on that, but alas.
"Let's see… junk, junk, manifest- I'll flag that with the Magi and see if there's anything new in there…" Quickly commanding it. "Junk, junk…"
Document.
"Why would they have a diagnosis of a Gehirn employee here…"
Her eyes would go wide in concern as she saw the name of who it referred to. "Is that… no, that can't be Mari's mother, why would she be…"
A beat.
Rapid fire typing on the keyboard, as she searched through the remaining files for more reference to the woman in question.
And the picture it would end up painting…
"Oy… I think she needs to know this."
~~~
"More or less."
"And do we have an idea on how we can harness this metspace?"
Yui gave an approximation of a shrug. "I mean we know the Dirac exists, we know there's some sort of alternative reality that can be accessed from realspace under certain conditions." Pointing to a drawing of Leliel. "But until we figure out a way we can harness this, it's more or less a moot point thinking about it."
A beat.
"Well why are we thinking about it?" Quipped Kyoko. "Let's get some dinner!"
A pack up and they were out the door. "Oh hey Eliza!"
"Hi Ikari-san, Soryu-san." With a small nod. "How'd you go today?"
"Scheiße."
"No big breakthrough then."
"The main thing that's blocking us is not knowing about what metspace is." Sighed Yui. "There's only so much you can theorise when you don't know what you're dealing with."
"And I get the impression the big bosses won't allow us to open Dirac Rifts on a whim to study it." Kyoko rolled her eyes. "Daran ist nichts Gefährliches!"
("There's nothing dangerous about that!")
"Yeah I think that's a good decision." She was flat.
"You got much to do?"
"Mama wanted me to keep an eye on some decryption the Magi were doing while she was out."
"Oh if you need to decrypt some files from Seele, my father used my birthdate as an encryption key." Before leaving with Kyoko.
"Ya could've told us earlier!"
A beat, and a gruff grunt. "The Magi have been working on this for months…" Getting her hands on the terminal and logging in. "Uhh Yui Ikari… you don't look that old…"
She'd put a few different permutations of her birthdate as a key. "Wouldn't expect the same key to be used on the whole lot… but might get us somewhere at the very least."
One of the best sounds in the world was when the Magi pinged in success. "Okay, that's about… twelve megabytes of data." Immediately furrowing her brow. "You can fit more on a ZIP disk."
A sigh, as she uploaded the decrypted data. "Feh, data is data, no matter how little you get… might be something in there for mama to look at…"
~~
Kaworu stood on the balcony of his apartment, watching as the sun started going down over the city of Boston.
"You're still nervous."
Mari appeared next to him. "How can I not be, Ash?" Deep in thought. "I… I'm not sure if I can go back."
He could feel the conflict within her. "Tell you what, how about you take me on a tour through the city? I still haven't seen much of Boston from the ground, and I get the impression you'd know a lot about it."
"Heh… it's only my home, Ash." She'd smirk. "C-C'mon, I know a few decent places."
They were soon out and about. "How keen are you on churches?"
"I appreciate their beauty and significance, even if I am not quite the religious type."
"Thought so."
They'd soon find themselves at the foot of one. "Not the oldest one in this city, but one that holds a lot of meaning to m-me."
Through the doors, and greeted with a grand stained glass portrait, front and centre… almost like they were watching down on them.
"Ah… Saint Brigid." Kaworu would recognise. "Patron of Ireland."
"And my m-mother's namesake."
A beat.
Mari stepped out from him, walking closer to the stained glass… "It's been a while, hey ma?"
Turning to Kaworu, and slightly smiling. "Do you want to know more, Ash?"
He would nod.
"Thought so…"
Sitting herself down on a pew. "My mother comes from a long line of republicans. Irish republicans. My grandparents on her side were pretty staunch C-Catholics, if you couldn't tell by the fact they named ma after her." Pointing up, with a snicker. "Supposedly they liked my old man, according to h-him at least."
Her eyes would drift to a nearby flag. "I was born right at the start of the Second Troubles. Second Impact really opened up old w-wounds again, and when England tried to raise taxes on the north to pay for everything… well, there was already bad blood between the two sides but that was just the straw that broke the back, I guess."
"You managed to get out of there though?"
"It was… early 2001, I believe. Ma was a part of the Irish People's Liberation Army, bit of an upstart compared to the big players like the IRA but they were all in t-the same boat."
"…What changed?"
Mari looked to Kaworu.
She'd pick herself up, and walk herself to one of the walls.
A board of names. "Black Friday, is what we called it. Pretty much Bloody Sunday again… only it was two hundred civilians that lost their lives."
And all their names were on this board.
"It got wild in Northern Ireland after that. A full uprising. Total warfare. And… ma didn't want to raise me like that. No kid should have to be raised in a warzone."
A moment of silence, as Kaworu scanned the list." Her maiden name was McCarthy, if you're looking for that."
He could spot three names that matched that description. "Is…"
"One was my grandfather. The others were nephews." All she could do was sigh, however. "And there were a lot more gone after all was said and done. They wanted ma to leave, wanted us to have a better life in Boston. That's something we owe a debt to the P-Pines to, actually… he pulled a big favor from them in order to get us there, and get us work at Gehirn."
It still took him aback, looking at the names. "Were you close with the elder Pines twins?"
"I never knew my grandparents, Ash. Dad's side passed away before I was born, and ma's… well, you can see for yourself. Stanley and Stanford… well, t-they ended up being the closest thing I had to grandparents, especially after ma passed away. And when I started getting more involved with the Evangelion."
She'd chuckle. "Understandable why Mabel r-reacted like that then, huh?"
"…Were you close with her?"
Mari shrugged. "The Stans deliberately kept them away from B-Boston until they couldn't anymore. Didn't really get to know them that much, they were a lot older than I was anyway so not like I r-really saw them in school or anything. Still, I understand why she reacted like th-"
The door behind them creaked open, Mari dissipating into wisps of light as she returned to Kaworu.
"Ah… a good even to you, Spencer."
"Likewise, Nagisa."
He'd walk up beside him, where Mari had stood. "A tragic affair, isn't it?"
"One of many such post-Impact." Noted Kaworu. "You have a connection to it?"
"Indeed…"
He would not elaborate on such thing however… though the gesture of placing fresh flowers in a nearby vase could say magnitudes. "I suppose you have a different mission than Kaji?"
"Indeed I do." He'd nod. "I'm sure you were able to see it recently."
"Mhm."
A beat.
"I want you to keep the name Philip Wittebane in mind, when you're at NERV. He's on our radar. I would appreciate another set of eyes on him."
"Seele?"
"Suspected. Nothing solid yet, and could very well be a coincidence. Only dirt we have on him so far is he worked for Blight Industries."
"Hmpf, I'll be on the lookout." A glance up. "But you know how slippery they can be."
"I'm sure you know that too, Nagisa."
With that, he'd make his leave.
Mari appeared again, longingly looking towards the door. "…Sorry, dad."
Slowly turning, looking towards the flowers. Roses and lilacs, her… mother's favourites.
In the bouquet, a card.
'Keep them safe'.
Mari's figure would warble, as she struggled to maintain her composure. "I…"
The figure dissipated again. "I… n-need a moment, A-Ash."
"Take as much time as you need, Mari." Hand to his heart. "I am here."
"…T-Thank you, Ash."
~
Ritsuko's terminal would ping. "…Ah, thatta girl!"
The decrypted files had come through… not like she had much going on while she was waiting for her jump jet. Maybe if the Quebec party came through with something, she could be working on that, but alas.
"Let's see… junk, junk, manifest- I'll flag that with the Magi and see if there's anything new in there…" Quickly commanding it. "Junk, junk…"
Document.
"Why would they have a diagnosis of a Gehirn employee here…"
Her eyes would go wide in concern as she saw the name of who it referred to. "Is that… no, that can't be Mari's mother, why would she be…"
A beat.
Rapid fire typing on the keyboard, as she searched through the remaining files for more reference to the woman in question.
And the picture it would end up painting…
"Oy… I think she needs to know this."
~~~
A few more differences with the manga this time around compared to the show! I like how it tackled Shinji's reunion with Misato at the end of this volume, the anime was missing a scene like that and I'm glad Sadamoto included something like that
The alternative would've been putting in several blank pages, which while it would fit for Evangelion it'd be a bit crap
Other than that, well, it's still similar enough that they don't have much more to say (other than what already had been said)... well, other than Hikari, who's still struggling with it all, but don't worry I'll give her some time with Toji before I throw her into the deep end again next time
Speaking of deep end, there's a couple instances of that this time around. Lilith continuing to teach Rei the culture and concepts of the FAR (of course the more you learn the more questions you have), and Mari has her deep end upcoming with the realisation that she's going to start getting more and more involved with her past life! You can see her emotion at the prospect, and you bet I'm looking forward to writing all that emotion! So stay tuned for that sometime in the future!
It's gonna take a while to get through, let's be honest
Probably won't be having much else this year, so I hope everyone has a good Christmas or holiday of choice and here's to a great new year! I hope I can up my pace of writing a bit, a lot of things this year worked against me and sapped my drive to write but I kept going and I'm glad I did.
But given I have more than a few things on my plate next year, including a massive holiday coming up... yeah, expect this pace to continue for the time being
Here's to 2024!
~
The alternative would've been putting in several blank pages, which while it would fit for Evangelion it'd be a bit crap
Other than that, well, it's still similar enough that they don't have much more to say (other than what already had been said)... well, other than Hikari, who's still struggling with it all, but don't worry I'll give her some time with Toji before I throw her into the deep end again next time
Speaking of deep end, there's a couple instances of that this time around. Lilith continuing to teach Rei the culture and concepts of the FAR (of course the more you learn the more questions you have
), and Mari has her deep end upcoming with the realisation that she's going to start getting more and more involved with her past life! You can see her emotion at the prospect, and you bet I'm looking forward to writing all that emotion! So stay tuned for that sometime in the future!It's gonna take a while to get through, let's be honest
Probably won't be having much else this year, so I hope everyone has a good Christmas or holiday of choice and here's to a great new year! I hope I can up my pace of writing a bit, a lot of things this year worked against me and sapped my drive to write but I kept going and I'm glad I did.
But given I have more than a few things on my plate next year, including a massive holiday coming up... yeah, expect this pace to continue for the time being
Here's to 2024!
~
Wixelt
NGE Fic plan 490 pages and counting...
- Location
- England, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
Great as usual, BG. Been looking forward to the Ozymandias stuff coming up for a while. Lilith has a lot of FAR stories to pass on to her children.
And damn, Mari needs another hug.
"Wait, no--!" Shinji started, but quickly faded from existence.
Especially since the next step on it as we've planned is one of the most recent ideas we've come up with.
And damn, Mari needs another hug.
"Dead it is, then."
"Wait, no--!" Shinji started, but quickly faded from existence.
You killed a Gendo, Maya. Big difference.
And here... we... go!
Would've been hilarious if they'd doubled down like that, though.A few more differences with the manga this time around compared to the show! I like how it tackled Shinji's reunion with Misato at the end of this volume, the anime was missing a scene like that and I'm glad Sadamoto included something like that
The alternative would've been putting in several blank pages, which while it would fit for Evangelion it'd be a bit crap
It's going to be a fun ride to read, if not for her emotionally. Looking forward to seeing it come out.Mari has her deep end upcoming with the realisation that she's going to start getting more and more involved with her past life! You can see her emotion at the prospect, and you bet I'm looking forward to writing all that emotion! So stay tuned for that sometime in the future!
It's gonna take a while to get through, let's be honest
Especially since the next step on it as we've planned is one of the most recent ideas we've come up with.
Whatever speed works for you, mate. Life is a priority, after all.Probably won't be having much else this year, so I hope everyone has a good Christmas or holiday of choice and here's to a great new year! I hope I can up my pace of writing a bit, a lot of things this year worked against me and sapped my drive to write but I kept going and I'm glad I did.
But given I have more than a few things on my plate next year, including a massive holiday coming up... yeah, expect this pace to continue for the time being
And another year of terrible, terrible decisions.
- Location
- Canada
Since Ozymandias was mentioned, this quote/trope come to mind.
Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair
I think that applies to a lot in Evangelion.
Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair
I think that applies to a lot in Evangelion.
AustSakuraKyzor
Confused Librarian
- Location
- Bhaile
The 12th Commandment of Rei: The Laserdisc universe isn't canon.
Neither are you, Hikari. You're not special.
Disgustingly enough, that's also what our universe did (up until the end of WW1)... assuming they weren't executed for being a coward.
To quote Richard Jeni: "The answer is always the same if somebody tells me 'violence doesn't solve anything.' I always say 'eh... it solved WW2.' Violence is not the best solution, but it is a solution."
Rei: The 38th Commandment of Rei: Remiel is best-
PenPen: *interrupting slap* WARK
Rei: ...sorry.
Interestingly enough, people actually did that during the Civil War
I know of two universes where Kensuke gets in the god damn robot. Three if you count that one fan art with Crazy Hikari overdosing on Brawndo.
In one universe he's a pilot and it goes very badly. In another universe everything is going fairly well for him, all things considered.
Hikari: Well? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
Rei: Yes.
Isn't that basically the backstory of the parents in the Spy Kids movies?
"You ran outta ink too, didn't you, ya bastards?"
When the person who would win the trauma olympics 100% of the time says no, you don't play the trauma olympics.
See, Hikari? We all knew you were full of sin, too.
Gendo's still a human, and nothing more. A corn-on-a-poo example of a human with delusions of adequacy, but still a human.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
*Looks towards Gamera, who is a heroic Kaiju by nature and is literally titled "Guardian of the Universe and Friend to all Children"* "Does he not count as a good guy?"
AustSakuraKyzor
Confused Librarian
- Location
- Bhaile
Rei: No. Exceptions.
Asuka: But...
Rei: Clearly this means that Gamera isn't a kaiju. My logic is flawless!
Funny, considering how in the fic 'Leviathan', Rei becomes caretaker to the at the time pint-sized Gamera.
I've often said that The Shinji Ikari Raising Project is EVA by way of Archie...albeit a slightly raunchier Archie.
Well, Archie Comics is about to give me the reverse thanks to this:
Archie & Friends: All-Action #1
(Additional pages seen here.)
Well, Archie Comics is about to give me the reverse thanks to this:
Archie & Friends: All-Action #1
(Additional pages seen here.)
AustSakuraKyzor
Confused Librarian
- Location
- Bhaile
Just when I think Archie Comics can't surprise me anymore...
But in this case, the surprise isn't Pacific Evangelion, it's the fact that they hadn't done it yet.
But in this case, the surprise isn't Pacific Evangelion, it's the fact that they hadn't done it yet.
And yet we still haven't gotten a modern, full-on sitcom-ish animated adaptation.
Well, the last act of WW2 was the usage of a weapon that makes people who even think of it experience the Fear of God. And in Europe that it was the victory of the Soviet Union. Solutions, eh?
- Location
- supernatural
Me too Asuka.
Yeah that's not a healthy mindset to have Shinji.
...Oh my Sadamoto was a big fan of Misato.
Shinji is such an ASS right now.
It would not surprise if Misato own a motorcycle like that.
AMAZING!
I like Rei little smile here.
He looked so surprised that she actually slap him.
Rei can be... intense for some people.
I would not be surprised if that gun was real.
Kensuke is very good at getting past the walls people built up around them.
This cover are is amazing.
Man he is so insightful towards people.
This both sweet and funny at the same time.
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GoukaRyuu
Shadow Cabal Made Man
- Location
- New Jersey
...Oh my Sadamoto was a big fan of Misato.
Because he has the best taste.
Also, you should probably spoil those showering images since they are NSFW.
