Or how about now? Now? Now is good.
This time, it's the Asukas.
As before, the A&T!Asuka is in white, the SIRP!Asuka in blue.
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*SCENE OPENS*
Nodding over her shoulder at her Shinji (and what a thought that was, there being more than one of all of them!), Asuka waved her counterpart into her room. "Here, this will be the quietest place to hang out, since if we go out, we'll get mistaken for twins or something."
She takes a seat on the slightly-larger-than-a-twin bed and gestures at the desk and chair. "Have a seat, 'me'?"
Asuka shrugs and follows her doppelganger's suggestion. Until now her eyes mostly lingered on the other girl's still-intact hair, but she takes the opportunity to look around the room.
"So... what's with the..." She waves at her counterpart's head. "Bad Angel fight, I take it?"
"My head was on fire."
"On fire? What the Hell..."
"Well, not my head. My Unit's. I just got the sympathetic burns."
"I take it you haven't fought the lightning Angel yet?"
"When you do, watch out. It can stuff itself into an Eva."
"Uh....no. Closest we got was the Giant D8 of Doom. That had Terrawatt-level positron beams. Nearly fried Shinji and Rei, but that was before I got here. Poor baka got some pretty good burns from his sympathetic bleed-through. Jesus, that must have hurt, your head, I mean. I'll grow back fine, right?"
"Probably? The time this happened," Asuka points to a small scar on her face "All the wounds more or less healed. So...it'll probably be fine."
"Yeesh! I'm glad we haven't had as many close calls as that!" Asuka pauses for a moment. "Well...ok, nevermind. The 6th Angel nearly ate Shinji and I at sea, and the fucking volcano one..." She shivers. "If Shinji had been one second slower, I'd be dead."
"Okay, definitely not the same Angels, then."
"A volcano, though? That sounds...bad."
"How big was it?"
"Sounds like we've had totally different sets, yeah..." She nods. "It was...dormant, in a volcano. We tried to capture it. It was...mm, about 150m long when it 'hatched', I think? And swam through lava. I was dangling from coolant cables, and didn't even have a weapon!"
"Luckily, Shinji dropped me his Prog knife, and had that brilliant idea about thermal shock." She snorts and laughs a moment. "And he only thought of that because I was flirting at him earlier in a bikini! Haha!"
"Okay, yeah. That sounds pretty bad. But not as bad as I was picturing."
"When you said volcano Angel I thought you meant Volcano Angel.
"Given how things work, I'm half expecting that next. Last one was the Angel of Freaky Mind Rape From Space."
Asuka shudders.
"Maybe not totally different sets, then."
"That one was...oh, God."
She puts her arms around herself.
Asuka winces. "Ah... that one hit you? Sorry... um. It hit Rei and Kanworu here. They were... pretty messed up by it. I killed it with some giant spear from Terminal Dogma." She looks awkwardly around. "I... do you want to talk about it? Or... like, a hug?"
"I know Japanese people are all weird about it, but you and I are more sensible, I think."
Asuka shakes her head.
"You wouldn't believe how many hugs I got after that."
"It's just that it was the worst."
"Uh....good? Shinji is good at that, and Rei's pretty... um... nice too."
"Rei still won't talk about what it made her see. Kaworu either."
"I can understand that. Like I said, it's the worst. Give me head on fire any day, over that. The first thing it made me see...ropes came down from the ceiling and hanged everyone. Me included."
Asuka scratches her neck.
Asuka unconsciously touches her own neck. "Jesus fuck... I... yeah. Give me the fire." She shudders.
"Wait... you know about Mama? Where she is now?"
"I...yeah. Misato told us."
"Not...not really sure what I'm supposed to do about that."
Asuka blinks. "Wait, she told you? How did she find out? Shinji and I compared notes and I figured it out here. Then we tried talking to them while synched, and it worked."
"Sort of."
"I don't know. She's got the whole spy thing going."
"After it became impossible to deny the conspiracy, she sat us all down and told us everything."
"I was so mad I couldn't see straight."
"Wow. I bet she and Kaji are doing it. He's good at that." Asuka nods. "Yeah, I... I was pissed too, but man, Shinji was nearly ready to kill his dad."
"After he had a freak out about his whole family being crazy and/or evil."
"I never thought I'd say it, but as bad as he is, I'm glad Papa isn't like Commander Asshole."
"Shinji's mom told him... the whole conspiracy, and that she'd left a bunch of letters, pictures, videos of her for him to have growing up. And that Commander Asshole had... destroyed them all."
"I'd never seen Shinji so... that angry."
"Wait, isn't Shinji's mom...you know?"
"'You know' what?"
"A giant monster?"
"Yeah, she was. That's why he was freaking out. He was all... worried that he had some kind of 'tainted blood' thing, since his mom and dad were crazy-evil. It took me and Rei to cheer him up."
"No, I mean, isn't she Unit 01?"
"Or at least the core?"
"Yeah, she is. That's how Eva's work. Aren't yours the same?"
"Yeah, but...they can talk?"
"I never..."
"Have you ever talked to...Unit 02?"
Asuka nods, her face serious. "Yeah, we did. I... Mama's alive." She hesitates. "But... broken."
"Ah?"
"When we're synched, we can... push into the Core a bit, and talk, if you know they're there. It does... crazy things to your Synch Rate. We keep almost shooting past 100% unless we are careful. I think Doctor Bitch knows something's up. But... Mama answered." She pauses again. "....both of her."
"Both?"
"She's... I think she's still... split, from that experiment. There's a voice that sounds like the Mama we knew, and there's a voice..." Asuka wraps herself in her arms and runs her shoulders. "The other voice keeps... telling me to die with her."
"I... try to listen to the good one."
Asuka sighs and leans back in her chair.
"Damn it!"
"They ruin everything!"
"Yeah. But at least she's still alive. Not gone. There's got to be a way to get her out."
"Hikari got sucked into a Core, and came out. We know it can happen."
Asuka perks up slightly, then deflates.
"If it were that easy, no way would the Commander go through this whole thing."
"He'd just get his wife out. Instead of ending the whole world just to do that."
"That's exactly what my baka Shinji said. But... it's possible! We... she's there! There has to be a way!"
"I...maybe," Asuka sighs. Optimism doesn't come easily to her. "If we live that long."
"Damn it, I'm so mad."
"At SEELE?"
"SEELE. NERV. Gendo Ikari in particular."
"Yeah, fuck Commander Asshole. I'm pretty close to trying to shoot him myself."
"My Shinji i still half and half on that last one."
"Says he can't be too mad at him for trying to get back someone he loves."
"Or for making Rei."
"Not here. I don't think anyone is more pissed at Gendo Ikari than Shinji. Maybe Misato, once we told her that Commander Dickhead was part of setting up her dad to die in Antarctica."
Asuka skids to a verbal halt. ".....what was that last one?"
"What last one?"
"Rei?"
"Yes!" Asuka waves her hands wildly. "What the fuck do you mean 'he made Rei'? She's not a doll! And... she's not Shinji's sister or something, is she?"
Asuka's face contorts as her fiery tongue tries to fire off an explanation while something holds her back. After making several weird faces, she calms herself with a wrench of effort.
"I...shouldn't be the one to tell you."
"But you and your Rei need to have a talk."
"Soon."
Asuka leaps to her feet and starts pacing, as much as that's possible in the still fairly small room. "Oh what the fuck!? 'Made her'? He..." Asuka subsides into furious muttering, brow furrowed in intense thought.
"It's not as bad as you think! She's her own person."
"Mostly," Asuka adds, remembering something unpleasant.
She eventually stops, dropping heavily back on the bed. "I... it's not that. Look, I... after we saved her ass against the 14th Angel, Rei... told us she loves us. Shinji and I. Both."
"And... we... kind of love her back."
"Like... yes, that way."
Asuka's eyes bulge out.
"What?!"
"Rei's the only other person in my life who's ever said they love me. So... She and Shinji are..."
"I mean, Shinji and I are together, but... Rei is almost as important to me."
"So I don't care if she's artificial or something. She's still... Rei. I'm not going to... stop liking her."
"But...girls can't love girls!"
Asuka snorts. "Says who?"
"I'm the great Asuka Langely Soryu. I save the world regularly. If I want to love a girl, I can. And if the world doesn't like it, they can shove off."
"And...all three of you? That's...sick!"
Asuka frowns at her counterpart. "Sick?"
"Yeah! When you love someone, you're supposed to be faithful to them. Not...whatever it is you do!"
"Come on. We haven't done anything but a kiss. And we're not about to," she waves her hands vaguely, "Start doing anything perverted in the middle of class or something."
"We just... it's emotional, alright? Love. Not....porn."
"And I am faithful. Not even the end of the world is going to split me and Shinji. And we both like Rei. I'd throw myself in front of a gun for either of them."
"Because I know they'd do the same for me."
"Yeah, me too, but that doesn't mean I make out with her!"
"That only happened once!"
Asuka blinks. "Wait... you'd still... take a hit for her?"
"Well, yeah. Just because I'm not a sexual deviant doesn't mean I can't protect my friend."
"Any of us would take a hit for each other."
"Rei more than anyone."
"'M not a deviant," Asuka mutters.
"Shinji will happily confirm I'm into guys. It's not girls, just... Rei. She's special." Asuka sighs. "Sorry if it's weirding you out. Your world seems... kind of harder for 'us'."
"I...yeah. Maybe it is. Maybe it'd be easier if I could be like like you."
"Just say 'hey, guys, I want to make out too' and just join them."
"It would definitely be easier than reading all this old poetry books."
"I... wish you could. I mean...just... be here for a while." Asuka blinks. "Wait... huh? I...oh, Rei and Shinji are a thing?"
"Yeah, of course. I mean, they're a thing here too, right?"
"A...weird thing."
"Not... exactly? It's me and Shinji, and Rei kind of...orbiting us."
"...huh."
"How...did that happen?"
Asuka tries to contain her huge smile... and fails. "I...um... asked him if he was bored and... wanted to try a kiss. I was.. um... trying to play it off like 'haha, it's just a thing, I don't mean it. But...I did. And it was good. We... started talking. Found out how we're... just like each other. Mother gone, dad a jerk, no one wanted us but to be Pilots..."
"He... understood me. Wanted me. Liked me."
"And after... I got pulled into a... like, wormhole Angel. Trapped in it for most of a day. I thought I was going to die alone. When I... somehow got out, I... didn't want to wait anymore, since we could die any time."
"So he just goes for whichever girl kisses him first," Asuka scoffs. "Figures."
"It's not like that!" she scowls. "It was the talking! Because we... talked."
"That's all it took."
Asuka looks back at her memories of Rei and shakes her head in disbelief.
"I don't think he's the kind of guys who's into talking."
"He seems to like the silent type."
The hosting Asuka shrugs. "We do at least as much of that at night as the rest. I've never felt so close to someone. It's... incredibly freeing, to have him just... listen. I mean, he really listens to me. And gets it."
She looks down at the bed beside her, absently running her hand across the sheets. "I know he'll be there, in a fight or anything."
"I mean...yeah," Asuka says, remembering something else. "He can...do things. Say something and suddenly I'm not mad anymore."
"Sometimes."
"It's...why I wanted him."
"He just... yeah, does that. That...weird, quiet insight. He's a good guy."
"You...wanted him but... Rei... just kissed him first?"
"Huh..."
"Yeah. We were arguing about whether or not to end the world. I said no, she got angry, so she just grabbed him and kissed him."
"I mean...I think she already had him, really."
"....arguing about whether or not to end the world?"
"Yeah. I'm against it."
"Well, yeah! I...Rei isn't?!"
"She's fifty-fifty. Maybe sixty-forty."
Asuka just stares at her short-haired opposite. "What....the... fuck? Why?"
"I don't know. She's scared someone else will do it first. She wants to be in a cuddle pile with all of humanity. She wants to give Gendo what he wants. She's scared of losing people."
"Pick a reason."
"I...can get the rest, maybe, but she still wants to give Gendo what he wants?"
"Yeah. He...saved her or something, so she feels obligated. She promised to side with us over him, but it's hurting her."
"I think that's another reason she wants to pull the trigger - no more separation means no more conflict or pain."
Asuka opens her mouth, then subsides. "Ah... Ok, I can sort of see why Rei would... look at it like that. It's still wrong, but... I can get why. Rei's not... evil. She just doesn't want anyone to hurt. Ok...whew."
"You're still making me want to have a serious talk with our Rei, to make sure she's not... even thinking that."
"I don't think she is."
"Like I said - you really should have a talk."
"Damn right... I... shit, she's even told us she has things she's been holding back, out of fear we'll be in danger from 'knowing too much', and we've let it be since we trust her, but... she shouldn't have to be afraid we'd hate her for being artificial. She's still Rei, still human and everything."
"Yeah. I...get why she's scared, though. If she told me before she actually did, I don't think I'd have taken it well."
"There was a...hair pulling phase."
Asuka smiles weakly. "Yeah, I kind of...ah... hated her, the first couple months. She freaked me out."
"Tell me about it."
"She kind of grows on you, though, yeah?"
"It wasn't all her fault, her acting weird. Our.... our Rei was being drugged a lot by NERV. Like, tranqued to the gills, every day."
"Huh."
"I think ours was just weird."
"I don't know. We're throwing around all this information, but if there are differences like that..."
"I don't know how much of it will be useful."
"I think we need to use the time we have left to compare notes."
"Not about...personal stuff."
"About Angels and conspiracies and such."
"That's...kind of what started us to being more friendly. I kind of freaked out at the idea of NERV drugging us Pilots, and told her to stop taking them. Surprisingly, she listened. And that made her start to... open up." She shrugs. "Anyhow... well, you've had different Angels. So yeah, let's go over them. Maybe we can avoid surprises."
"And maybe you can come back, I dunno. Ok... My first Angel was a giant fish thing..."
"The first Angel I was there for had ninety nine faces and cried blood..."
"....you win."
*SCENE CLOSES*
