Bond Breaker (SI - Multiverse Cross)
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
12
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Eleven
I watched with fascination as Shinji gazed around with a lost look at the kitchen the next morning.
There were no eggs in the fridge. There was no rice.
There was nothing but beer bottles and some strange form of raw fish -that apparently belonged to the penguin.
"Convenience store?" I asked.
"I don't have any money," Shinji replied softly.
"Uhm...Misato dropped her wallet on the table," I offhandedly remarked.
"I'm not going to steal," Shinji bristled.
I sighed. "Well, there's one 'party' dinner left," I said. "There's no way to heat it, but I suppose if you keep it in your bag and leave it in the sun long enough it will thaw by lunchtime?"
Shinji gave me a disgusted expression. I looked back at him with a half-bored look. "I am, or well was, an IT-guy. Trust me: the human body can eat anything and make himself like it."
"IT?"
"Information Technology, you know when your computer breaks and you're all out of luck? You call us. Although it largely depends on whether you were stupid enough to try to 'clean' the screen with water and a mop while the personal computer was running or not."
Shinji's eyebrows raised.
"Trust me, I'm an Engineer!" I said in the end. "It's not going to kill you, and we do need a lunch of sorts."
"Uhm...what do you eat?" Shinji asked.
"Nothing," I grumbled. "And trust me, I so would love to have some coffee right now...my kingdom for a coffee pot!"
"Coffee's bitter," Shinji said.
"Put milk and sugar in it then," I drawled. "And eat it with a croissant! Oh...a jam filled one. Peach jam or if you're feeling daring, cream! Ah...cream," I licked my lips. "Why are you so sweet and so striking? Oh I'm salivating, and I'm not even hungry..."
"Uhm...Can I ask you a question?" Shinji said, as he packed the 'lunch' in his school bag.
"I've got nothing but time." I replied with a lazy shrug as we left the apartment and began to walk towards the school -there was a badly drawn picture of how to reach it, written by a half-drunk Misato the night before. Apparently, Shinji wouldn't begin school until the next week. We simply had to go to school to check in, enroll, get the uniform, the book list...stuff like that.
Uh...
Boring stuff.
"Why me?"
"Why you what?"
Shinji remained silent for a moment, and then finally said. "Why are you sticking with me? Are you some sort of...hero companion? Shouldn't you be with a real hero?"
I snorted. "You're so off the bat it's not even funny. I'm not a hero companion and I have no power over who I stick with. It happens," I shrugged. "Live with it."
"You make it sound easy," Shinji said.
"Some things you can change, others you cannot. Don't break your head over the location of a mountain." I hummed. "I don't remember what the second Angel is about, but if I'm not wrong it should happen...sometime in the future. Really, why can't I seem to remember..."
I sighed. "It was so long ago...I probably was your age," I grumbled. "Fourteen years old, hormones going and raging, and a firm belief that life was happiness and easy to live through," I chuckled. "Still...ready for school in a week?"
"I'm a bit nervous," Shinji admitted.
"Don't be. School's easy. When you're in middle school, you think high school's going to be hell, and when you're in high school, you think University is going to be hell, but they're nothing compared to life." I sighed. "But don't worry about life. You've got years ahead of you, years."
I hummed. "And depending on the casual universe laws, you might even marry a red head, a blue head, or get it on with a raven head or a brown head and..."
Shinji turned red.
"W-What are you saying!?"
"My dear Shinji..." I smiled, "Trust me! I've seen things! Lots of things! There are funny spin-offs and interesting Visual Novels...and games, never forget the games," I chuckled. "And chicks dig giant robots," I added. "And heroes. Chicks dig heroes, but then again they also dig sparkling vampires too for some reasons and 'pedophile love is fine as long as he's pluricentenary and hot and she's half-frigid fish and half emotionless doll'."
Shinji spluttered.
I laughed.
"So you know the future?" Shinji asked.
"I know a future," I replied. "I'm not going to make the mistake of expecting the rails to stick through it until the end, but I know what a possible future awaits, and I'm going to do my utmost best to prevent it."
Shinji looked at me. "Really?"
"Yeah," I replied. "I deny a future like that. I refuse it. You'd refuse it too if you knew about it. I'm not going to tell you, there's some heavy stuff in there that is...way too screwy, but I'll do what I can to soften the incoming blows."
"You mean...like telling me I'm going to end in a fist fight at school?"
"Well, a warned man is half-saved, I say," I looked at the road. "Know this: when in a pinch, hit the balls or the eyes. Man can do miracles, but even he falls to the two hit combo known as punch-ball and eye gouge."
Shinji looked sideways, slightly anxious. "I'm...I'm not much of a fighter."
"I'm not either," I replied. "But you know, you don't need to always show off as a fighter. You need to show you're not willing to back down. If you're bullied, forget the tripe about 'be the better one' and 'talk with the professors', that's disgusting and useless. You simply need to go at it the Russian way."
"The Russian?"
"Make it painful. They steal your stuff? You slam a pencil through their hands," I grinned. "They try to hit you at physical education? You slam a bench on their bodies. They hide your things? You throw theirs in the water cabinet," I sighed. "And for the rest, don't give a damn. That's how I survived being next to bullies for the five years of high school I had," I chuckled. "You don't need to be super strong, or super tough, or super smart...you just need to take a stand when it truly matters. Of course, teachers are going to yell at you. They'll say that violence is bad, and that you shouldn't do it, but then again, you aren't being violent with everyone. You're just returning the favor. Again and again if needed until they get it, but that's just what it is."
I hummed. "Returning favors sounds so terribly like a thing a Mafia man would do...but it's just the way the world works. You use sign language to speak with deaf people, don't you? So you need to use strength of arms when it comes to bullies. It's as simple as that. If every bully received a large whack on the head to the point where it bled when they acted like bullies, there would be way less bullies...and way more female bullies, I suspect."
Shinji frowned. "Uh?"
"Don't be sexist Shinji. There are dumb people among males and females of course. You think there are no female bullies or what? The worst is the 'even opportunities' bullies. 'You can't hit me because I'm a girl, but I can tear your stuff to shred because I'm a bully'. Well...girls really should learn to keep their hair short if that's their thought."
"Uhm..."
"Oh, I'm probably scaring you, right? Well, don't worry. That's all in the past. I think it was middle school, and she had a compass. But yeah, it's in the past," I shrugged. "Long story short: take a stand. It will hurt, but all stands hurt...but it's because they hurt, that they're called 'stands'."
"You hit a girl?" Shinji asked.
"No," I sighed. "I slapped one. Then I backhanded another. I made friends with one more, another had a crush on me...I lived, Shinji. That's the point. Every single living being has thousands of situations that he'll look back at with either a happy thought or a sad one, but they do not define me, just like the fact you wake up one sunny morning does not define you for the rest of your life. I'm not 'Shade, the guy who when he was twelve hit a girl because she was a bully'. I'm 'Shade, the guy who you call when your computer's broken or you need a network installed' and 'Shade, the guy who's a dungeon master and has an evil cackle'. You're not 'Shinji who woke up this morning' are you?"
Shinji frowned, and shook his head.
"You're Shinji Ikari, and you are composed of every little action you've done, are doing, or will do. That's what is important." I said.
And then, I added. "And this world seems to enjoy wringing out every tiny bit of symbolism, long ranting included, from my body," I groaned. "We'll never get things done if this keeps up!"
"Uhm...what do you mean?"
I looked at him. "Well, you see..."
Ka-chink.
I halted mid-word.
"Shinji, right now," I said, "Did something emotional inside of you change?"
"UH?"
"Anything? Shinji, answer me. Do you feel braver, more cowardly, more trustworthy in my regards...anything?"
Shinji shook his head, "N-No, I mean, this is...strange but, you don't look like a bad person, so..."
"Look, I've just heard a Ka-chink," I told him. He looked at me with a lost expression, and so I explained. "Whenever I hear a 'Ka-chink' it's because I've done something that eventually leads to me leaving this world and step into the next one."
Shinji's eyes widened. "Like, passing over?"
"Yeah, something like that," I nodded. "I thought it was the same thing no matter the world, which meant increasing the trust between us," I commented... "But right now, the chain went 'Ka-chink' without reason. It can't have gone without reason. I'm not going to feel offended or anything, but what? Did you think me a bit more insane, or a bit evil, or a liar...or...anything?"
"N-No?" Shinji replied.
I groaned.
I looked down at the ground.
"Why then!? Why did the chain go 'Ka-chink' for no reason!?"
I looked up at the sky. "You think changing the rules is going to work!? I'm going to show you, you hear me!?"
I raised my fist. "I will go back home! To my reality!"
And then I snarled. "AND. I. WILL. HAVE. COFFEE!"
//Author's notes. You will (not) redo. Welcome to the Enrichment Center.
I watched with fascination as Shinji gazed around with a lost look at the kitchen the next morning.
There were no eggs in the fridge. There was no rice.
There was nothing but beer bottles and some strange form of raw fish -that apparently belonged to the penguin.
"Convenience store?" I asked.
"I don't have any money," Shinji replied softly.
"Uhm...Misato dropped her wallet on the table," I offhandedly remarked.
"I'm not going to steal," Shinji bristled.
I sighed. "Well, there's one 'party' dinner left," I said. "There's no way to heat it, but I suppose if you keep it in your bag and leave it in the sun long enough it will thaw by lunchtime?"
Shinji gave me a disgusted expression. I looked back at him with a half-bored look. "I am, or well was, an IT-guy. Trust me: the human body can eat anything and make himself like it."
"IT?"
"Information Technology, you know when your computer breaks and you're all out of luck? You call us. Although it largely depends on whether you were stupid enough to try to 'clean' the screen with water and a mop while the personal computer was running or not."
Shinji's eyebrows raised.
"Trust me, I'm an Engineer!" I said in the end. "It's not going to kill you, and we do need a lunch of sorts."
"Uhm...what do you eat?" Shinji asked.
"Nothing," I grumbled. "And trust me, I so would love to have some coffee right now...my kingdom for a coffee pot!"
"Coffee's bitter," Shinji said.
"Put milk and sugar in it then," I drawled. "And eat it with a croissant! Oh...a jam filled one. Peach jam or if you're feeling daring, cream! Ah...cream," I licked my lips. "Why are you so sweet and so striking? Oh I'm salivating, and I'm not even hungry..."
"Uhm...Can I ask you a question?" Shinji said, as he packed the 'lunch' in his school bag.
"I've got nothing but time." I replied with a lazy shrug as we left the apartment and began to walk towards the school -there was a badly drawn picture of how to reach it, written by a half-drunk Misato the night before. Apparently, Shinji wouldn't begin school until the next week. We simply had to go to school to check in, enroll, get the uniform, the book list...stuff like that.
Uh...
Boring stuff.
"Why me?"
"Why you what?"
Shinji remained silent for a moment, and then finally said. "Why are you sticking with me? Are you some sort of...hero companion? Shouldn't you be with a real hero?"
I snorted. "You're so off the bat it's not even funny. I'm not a hero companion and I have no power over who I stick with. It happens," I shrugged. "Live with it."
"You make it sound easy," Shinji said.
"Some things you can change, others you cannot. Don't break your head over the location of a mountain." I hummed. "I don't remember what the second Angel is about, but if I'm not wrong it should happen...sometime in the future. Really, why can't I seem to remember..."
I sighed. "It was so long ago...I probably was your age," I grumbled. "Fourteen years old, hormones going and raging, and a firm belief that life was happiness and easy to live through," I chuckled. "Still...ready for school in a week?"
"I'm a bit nervous," Shinji admitted.
"Don't be. School's easy. When you're in middle school, you think high school's going to be hell, and when you're in high school, you think University is going to be hell, but they're nothing compared to life." I sighed. "But don't worry about life. You've got years ahead of you, years."
I hummed. "And depending on the casual universe laws, you might even marry a red head, a blue head, or get it on with a raven head or a brown head and..."
Shinji turned red.
"W-What are you saying!?"
"My dear Shinji..." I smiled, "Trust me! I've seen things! Lots of things! There are funny spin-offs and interesting Visual Novels...and games, never forget the games," I chuckled. "And chicks dig giant robots," I added. "And heroes. Chicks dig heroes, but then again they also dig sparkling vampires too for some reasons and 'pedophile love is fine as long as he's pluricentenary and hot and she's half-frigid fish and half emotionless doll'."
Shinji spluttered.
I laughed.
"So you know the future?" Shinji asked.
"I know a future," I replied. "I'm not going to make the mistake of expecting the rails to stick through it until the end, but I know what a possible future awaits, and I'm going to do my utmost best to prevent it."
Shinji looked at me. "Really?"
"Yeah," I replied. "I deny a future like that. I refuse it. You'd refuse it too if you knew about it. I'm not going to tell you, there's some heavy stuff in there that is...way too screwy, but I'll do what I can to soften the incoming blows."
"You mean...like telling me I'm going to end in a fist fight at school?"
"Well, a warned man is half-saved, I say," I looked at the road. "Know this: when in a pinch, hit the balls or the eyes. Man can do miracles, but even he falls to the two hit combo known as punch-ball and eye gouge."
Shinji looked sideways, slightly anxious. "I'm...I'm not much of a fighter."
"I'm not either," I replied. "But you know, you don't need to always show off as a fighter. You need to show you're not willing to back down. If you're bullied, forget the tripe about 'be the better one' and 'talk with the professors', that's disgusting and useless. You simply need to go at it the Russian way."
"The Russian?"
"Make it painful. They steal your stuff? You slam a pencil through their hands," I grinned. "They try to hit you at physical education? You slam a bench on their bodies. They hide your things? You throw theirs in the water cabinet," I sighed. "And for the rest, don't give a damn. That's how I survived being next to bullies for the five years of high school I had," I chuckled. "You don't need to be super strong, or super tough, or super smart...you just need to take a stand when it truly matters. Of course, teachers are going to yell at you. They'll say that violence is bad, and that you shouldn't do it, but then again, you aren't being violent with everyone. You're just returning the favor. Again and again if needed until they get it, but that's just what it is."
I hummed. "Returning favors sounds so terribly like a thing a Mafia man would do...but it's just the way the world works. You use sign language to speak with deaf people, don't you? So you need to use strength of arms when it comes to bullies. It's as simple as that. If every bully received a large whack on the head to the point where it bled when they acted like bullies, there would be way less bullies...and way more female bullies, I suspect."
Shinji frowned. "Uh?"
"Don't be sexist Shinji. There are dumb people among males and females of course. You think there are no female bullies or what? The worst is the 'even opportunities' bullies. 'You can't hit me because I'm a girl, but I can tear your stuff to shred because I'm a bully'. Well...girls really should learn to keep their hair short if that's their thought."
"Uhm..."
"Oh, I'm probably scaring you, right? Well, don't worry. That's all in the past. I think it was middle school, and she had a compass. But yeah, it's in the past," I shrugged. "Long story short: take a stand. It will hurt, but all stands hurt...but it's because they hurt, that they're called 'stands'."
"You hit a girl?" Shinji asked.
"No," I sighed. "I slapped one. Then I backhanded another. I made friends with one more, another had a crush on me...I lived, Shinji. That's the point. Every single living being has thousands of situations that he'll look back at with either a happy thought or a sad one, but they do not define me, just like the fact you wake up one sunny morning does not define you for the rest of your life. I'm not 'Shade, the guy who when he was twelve hit a girl because she was a bully'. I'm 'Shade, the guy who you call when your computer's broken or you need a network installed' and 'Shade, the guy who's a dungeon master and has an evil cackle'. You're not 'Shinji who woke up this morning' are you?"
Shinji frowned, and shook his head.
"You're Shinji Ikari, and you are composed of every little action you've done, are doing, or will do. That's what is important." I said.
And then, I added. "And this world seems to enjoy wringing out every tiny bit of symbolism, long ranting included, from my body," I groaned. "We'll never get things done if this keeps up!"
"Uhm...what do you mean?"
I looked at him. "Well, you see..."
Ka-chink.
I halted mid-word.
"Shinji, right now," I said, "Did something emotional inside of you change?"
"UH?"
"Anything? Shinji, answer me. Do you feel braver, more cowardly, more trustworthy in my regards...anything?"
Shinji shook his head, "N-No, I mean, this is...strange but, you don't look like a bad person, so..."
"Look, I've just heard a Ka-chink," I told him. He looked at me with a lost expression, and so I explained. "Whenever I hear a 'Ka-chink' it's because I've done something that eventually leads to me leaving this world and step into the next one."
Shinji's eyes widened. "Like, passing over?"
"Yeah, something like that," I nodded. "I thought it was the same thing no matter the world, which meant increasing the trust between us," I commented... "But right now, the chain went 'Ka-chink' without reason. It can't have gone without reason. I'm not going to feel offended or anything, but what? Did you think me a bit more insane, or a bit evil, or a liar...or...anything?"
"N-No?" Shinji replied.
I groaned.
I looked down at the ground.
"Why then!? Why did the chain go 'Ka-chink' for no reason!?"
I looked up at the sky. "You think changing the rules is going to work!? I'm going to show you, you hear me!?"
I raised my fist. "I will go back home! To my reality!"
And then I snarled. "AND. I. WILL. HAVE. COFFEE!"
//Author's notes. You will (not) redo. Welcome to the Enrichment Center.
RazorBlaxe
Just another transient being
- Location
- Earth
I'm starting to think that Shade's losing it. 
Silver W. King
King of Adventures
- Location
- The Nasuverse
Shinji probably thought that life, no matter how bad it gets, will most likely be alright in the end. Or something like that.
Ardion Prosili
An (im)Perfect Cell
Losing it implies that he hadn't lost it already, leading to this particular situation in the first place.I'm starting to think that Shade's losing it.
Its so far and long gone that it's achieved light speed.
Clandistine1
(Verified Spaceship)
- Location
- Toorak, Melbourne
It's probably already achieved Ludicrous Speed!
Only in madness can he truly become wise.I'm starting to think that Shade's losing it.
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
There has never been a great man, without a teacher of madness.
*Quotes an obscure game with Greek Poleis civ management*
*Quotes an obscure game with Greek Poleis civ management*
13
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Twelve
I couldn't survive this pacing.
Shinji wouldn't start school until the end of the week.
I was dimly aware that since all of my contacts had been cut off abruptly, the only things I had on me when Shinji went to sleep were my bloc notes and my Ipod.
My bloc notes was half-filled, and my Ipod half-charged.
When they ended...would I end up without both of them?
When the ink in the pen dried up, would I be without?
"Calm down," I whispered. "Calm down. Don't think long-run. Don't think you'll have to spend an eternity. There aren't many worlds I can travel into that I know of, and if I'm not the God-Author, then whoever it is can't have invented so many either..."
I began to nervously pace in the house, as Shinji was meanwhile busy in the shower.
The Emperor Penguin Pen-Pen went about his way, utterly ignoring me.
I sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
"Do you believe in a thing called angst? Cause that's totally how you get angst," I mumbled. "Isolate a person, leave him alone in the dark for hours...and he'll break. Isn't that the concept of the prison cells? Where you put someone up alone in a cell padded to keep the noises out to make him feel like he's the last living being on earth? And what does the human body do when that happens? It shuts down. In silence, trapped in a hole, the human body shuts down and goes to sleep, hoping that when it wakes there is a light and a tunnel out of there."
I closed my eyes. "This entire situation is engineered to milk out Angst. That's the angle I must exploit. Naruto had always been alone, all he wanted was to have friends, not to become Hokage. He wanted people to recognize him, and to accept him. The thing that would have hurt him the most would be the loss of a dear one."
I opened my eyes calmly. "So you made him trust me. That was the point. By having him trust me enough, when I disappeared I left behind a gaping wound. You purposefully chose him as the first go, because in that way, I wouldn't be able to warn him of it. You wanted it raw, to bleed and hurt and pour salt on it."
I slowly drifted into a seated position, arms crossed, while in mid-air.
"You wanted to scar him."
There was no reply.
"And then, here, the chain clinked while fighting the first Angel and seemingly for no reason at all. But this isn't a matter of trust, or of growing a spine...this is something else."
I closed my eyes again. "If I assume you're me, doing all this, then you must be following the path of Absolute Despair. If that's the case, then the only way to go at it is to take what one dearly wishes, show it in front of their noses...and then take it away when they're about to reach it. It's like showing a thirsty kid a bottle of water, and then emptying it on the desert sand and leaving the kid behind to die of thirst. That's absolute despair."
I opened my eyes a bit. "You want me paranoid. You want me bitter. You want me to engage in conversation with the main protagonist because in that way, through interactions butterflies are born. I think it was in Puella Magica Madoka that the concept of 'despair' was used as a mean to halt heat death. But you're not Kyubey. You're not even the guy from Bokurano. You're something else. Quiet. Silent. Ever-observing. You only give me the slightest nudges through subtle subliminal messages that there is actually a mastermind, because in that way, you can keep me on my toes."
I clenched my fists. "But you can't directly interact with the universe, or you'd already do it...no, you do something else, don't you?"
I looked at the chain. "I'm linked to the protagonist. I don't think the link is purely symbolic or graphic...there's a meaning to it, a definition, but what is it?"
I brought the back of my left hand to my forehead, and sighed. "What is the meaning of this?"
I hovered a bit, my arms now crossed behind my head.
"Without strife, there is only stagnation," I said. "Without conflict, there can be no evolution. But despair...despair is another thing. Damn it, damn it, damn it!" I snarled.
It was easy not to realize the passing of time with Naruto. But Shinji? Shinji was a normal human being who took bathes, went to the bathroom, and generally didn't do much over the course of the day.
I'm not saying he was uninteresting, but as my predicament was currently turning me mad...he wasn't doing enough to keep me from being bored.
"Astrological diary, five minutes after the last entry," I mock spoke. "I hate this world. I hate this God. I hate your very existence, oh you who lords over me from the heavens. If I could ensure you wouldn't simply 'overlook' my next words, I'd start citing erotic novels in the hopes of having you shut down this thing."
If only I was physical, I'd at least have needs of sorts. As it was...I didn't have them.
I wasn't thirsty, sleepy, or anything.
A boon became a curse.
Boredom can kill people.
And I was getting bored.
Why couldn't something better have gone through with me? Like...I don't know...something like a never-ending book.
Shinji came out of the bath and changed in comfortable night clothes, and I sighed.
"Uhm..." Shinji said softly. "Can I ask you-"
"Yes! Ask!" I said, "I'm getting bored. Very, very bored," I grumbled.
"Do you know what happens this week?"
"No," I shook my head, and slumped my shoulders. "I'm sure it could be very interesting, but it wasn't included. I know what happens when you go to school...but except for that..."
"Would you like a book to read?" Shinji asked.
"I can't touch things in the 'material' plane," I deadpanned. "My only two treasures are this, and this," as I said that, I showed my Ipod and my bloc-notes. "And they're both half-way through to boot."
"Ah," Shinji said, and fell into silence.
"I'll hang around the bath area," I said with a grin. "I'll tell you the color later."
"The color?" Shinji asked, before he caught my drift and turned a terrible crimson color.
"Ahahaha!" I laughed and shot through the wall.
I couldn't touch things? Fine.
But at least, one of the positive things of being a ghost was the lack of peeping skills required to see glorious Booty!.
...
If Misato actually took a shower, that is.
Unfortunately, it appeared she did not.
...
Sometimes, my life conspires against me.
I ended up chewing on my chain just to pass the time, feeling the consistency of the shackle as I ground my teeth against it.
It had a metallic flavor, like iron, but had also a hint of something frizzy to it.
It was better than nothing.
"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it." I hissed as I laid face down on the bathroom's floor -without actually touching it. "Urgh!" the lights in the bath were off too. "Damn it!"
I turned on myself. "There must be a way to interact with the world! Damn it! Any way! What else are you here for, you damn, frigging, chain!?"
And I pulled the chain.
Predictably, nothing happened.
"Maybe it's like Ghost?" I mumbled, and looked at a bar of soap left on its holder.
I brought my hand towards it. "Believe you can touch! And touch!"
And nothing happened.
"Then don't believe in touch! Ignore!"
And nothing happened.
"Why?" I groaned. "I just...want to touch things!"
The lights in the bathroom turned on, and I turned surprised to find out Pen-Pen was apparently taking a bath next.
"Oh yes, why not," I said flatly. "Penguin porn! Oh my..."
I gripped the chain with both of my hands, formed a loose noose and quietly floated behind Pen-Pen. I wasn't expecting anything. I just wanted to just...sigh and waste my time trying to mock the penguin -very adult like, yes, but really...do you have another alternative when you're awfully limited with your tools?
"Guess who's Jack The Hanger!?"
And the chain went through Pen-Pen's neck.
The next moment, I felt a pull in the opposite direction and my eyes widened.
And so I watched with sick fascination as Pen-Pen's soul...or whatever it was, left the penguin's body as I held the grip on the chain.
Then the penguin turned to look at me. His soul at least.
As I held him in the choke-hold with the chain.
"Ah..."
Shinji could touch the chain.
I could touch the chain.
The Chain could touch both realities, super-imposed and not.
I tightened the grip.
The Penguin began to froth from its mouth, and suddenly I let go and the soul returned into its body.
The Penguin's body trembled, and then the penguin woke up and began to cry and scream and look around angrily, but he could no longer see me.
I quietly floated with my chain in both hands to the kitchen, and towards the empty beer bottle left on the table's surface.
I looked at the chain.
"Hehe," I giggled softly.
My lips were parting in a smile.
A very bright smile.
"Hehe," I giggled again.
I slowly circled the bottle with the chain and I pulled.
And a 'Soul' bottle ended up trapped in my chain's noose.
I gripped it.
I was gripping a bottle. A 'soul' bottle.
And as I held it, I began to laugh.
I had lost it. I slammed the ghost-bottle down, and it cracked, before shattering against the table as if it actually still held consistence.
The bottle on the table remained where it was, untouched.
Well, I couldn't 'destroy' things that weren't living, but I could apparently choke living things out of their bodies...And that meant only one thing.
I floated into Shinji's room, where the boy laid half-asleep with his music player on. I
"Oh Shinji~ wake up~" I sang with a half-demented look, and Shinji's eyes widened quite a bit when he saw me. "I need you to help me~ Little old me~ I need just a thing from you~"
I admit, maybe that wasn't the best way to ask a favor of an impressionable fourteen year old with a broken beer bottle in my right hand.
And admittedly, Shinji could have avoided screaming like a scared fourteen year old girl.
...
"Oh Shinji~ It's coffee~~ time~~~"
And I laughed.
// You can (not) fix. You must (not) fix. You will (not) fix.
I couldn't survive this pacing.
Shinji wouldn't start school until the end of the week.
I was dimly aware that since all of my contacts had been cut off abruptly, the only things I had on me when Shinji went to sleep were my bloc notes and my Ipod.
My bloc notes was half-filled, and my Ipod half-charged.
When they ended...would I end up without both of them?
When the ink in the pen dried up, would I be without?
"Calm down," I whispered. "Calm down. Don't think long-run. Don't think you'll have to spend an eternity. There aren't many worlds I can travel into that I know of, and if I'm not the God-Author, then whoever it is can't have invented so many either..."
I began to nervously pace in the house, as Shinji was meanwhile busy in the shower.
The Emperor Penguin Pen-Pen went about his way, utterly ignoring me.
I sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
"Do you believe in a thing called angst? Cause that's totally how you get angst," I mumbled. "Isolate a person, leave him alone in the dark for hours...and he'll break. Isn't that the concept of the prison cells? Where you put someone up alone in a cell padded to keep the noises out to make him feel like he's the last living being on earth? And what does the human body do when that happens? It shuts down. In silence, trapped in a hole, the human body shuts down and goes to sleep, hoping that when it wakes there is a light and a tunnel out of there."
I closed my eyes. "This entire situation is engineered to milk out Angst. That's the angle I must exploit. Naruto had always been alone, all he wanted was to have friends, not to become Hokage. He wanted people to recognize him, and to accept him. The thing that would have hurt him the most would be the loss of a dear one."
I opened my eyes calmly. "So you made him trust me. That was the point. By having him trust me enough, when I disappeared I left behind a gaping wound. You purposefully chose him as the first go, because in that way, I wouldn't be able to warn him of it. You wanted it raw, to bleed and hurt and pour salt on it."
I slowly drifted into a seated position, arms crossed, while in mid-air.
"You wanted to scar him."
There was no reply.
"And then, here, the chain clinked while fighting the first Angel and seemingly for no reason at all. But this isn't a matter of trust, or of growing a spine...this is something else."
I closed my eyes again. "If I assume you're me, doing all this, then you must be following the path of Absolute Despair. If that's the case, then the only way to go at it is to take what one dearly wishes, show it in front of their noses...and then take it away when they're about to reach it. It's like showing a thirsty kid a bottle of water, and then emptying it on the desert sand and leaving the kid behind to die of thirst. That's absolute despair."
I opened my eyes a bit. "You want me paranoid. You want me bitter. You want me to engage in conversation with the main protagonist because in that way, through interactions butterflies are born. I think it was in Puella Magica Madoka that the concept of 'despair' was used as a mean to halt heat death. But you're not Kyubey. You're not even the guy from Bokurano. You're something else. Quiet. Silent. Ever-observing. You only give me the slightest nudges through subtle subliminal messages that there is actually a mastermind, because in that way, you can keep me on my toes."
I clenched my fists. "But you can't directly interact with the universe, or you'd already do it...no, you do something else, don't you?"
I looked at the chain. "I'm linked to the protagonist. I don't think the link is purely symbolic or graphic...there's a meaning to it, a definition, but what is it?"
I brought the back of my left hand to my forehead, and sighed. "What is the meaning of this?"
I hovered a bit, my arms now crossed behind my head.
"Without strife, there is only stagnation," I said. "Without conflict, there can be no evolution. But despair...despair is another thing. Damn it, damn it, damn it!" I snarled.
It was easy not to realize the passing of time with Naruto. But Shinji? Shinji was a normal human being who took bathes, went to the bathroom, and generally didn't do much over the course of the day.
I'm not saying he was uninteresting, but as my predicament was currently turning me mad...he wasn't doing enough to keep me from being bored.
"Astrological diary, five minutes after the last entry," I mock spoke. "I hate this world. I hate this God. I hate your very existence, oh you who lords over me from the heavens. If I could ensure you wouldn't simply 'overlook' my next words, I'd start citing erotic novels in the hopes of having you shut down this thing."
If only I was physical, I'd at least have needs of sorts. As it was...I didn't have them.
I wasn't thirsty, sleepy, or anything.
A boon became a curse.
Boredom can kill people.
And I was getting bored.
Why couldn't something better have gone through with me? Like...I don't know...something like a never-ending book.
Shinji came out of the bath and changed in comfortable night clothes, and I sighed.
"Uhm..." Shinji said softly. "Can I ask you-"
"Yes! Ask!" I said, "I'm getting bored. Very, very bored," I grumbled.
"Do you know what happens this week?"
"No," I shook my head, and slumped my shoulders. "I'm sure it could be very interesting, but it wasn't included. I know what happens when you go to school...but except for that..."
"Would you like a book to read?" Shinji asked.
"I can't touch things in the 'material' plane," I deadpanned. "My only two treasures are this, and this," as I said that, I showed my Ipod and my bloc-notes. "And they're both half-way through to boot."
"Ah," Shinji said, and fell into silence.
"I'll hang around the bath area," I said with a grin. "I'll tell you the color later."
"The color?" Shinji asked, before he caught my drift and turned a terrible crimson color.
"Ahahaha!" I laughed and shot through the wall.
I couldn't touch things? Fine.
But at least, one of the positive things of being a ghost was the lack of peeping skills required to see glorious Booty!.
...
If Misato actually took a shower, that is.
Unfortunately, it appeared she did not.
...
Sometimes, my life conspires against me.
I ended up chewing on my chain just to pass the time, feeling the consistency of the shackle as I ground my teeth against it.
It had a metallic flavor, like iron, but had also a hint of something frizzy to it.
It was better than nothing.
"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it." I hissed as I laid face down on the bathroom's floor -without actually touching it. "Urgh!" the lights in the bath were off too. "Damn it!"
I turned on myself. "There must be a way to interact with the world! Damn it! Any way! What else are you here for, you damn, frigging, chain!?"
And I pulled the chain.
Predictably, nothing happened.
"Maybe it's like Ghost?" I mumbled, and looked at a bar of soap left on its holder.
I brought my hand towards it. "Believe you can touch! And touch!"
And nothing happened.
"Then don't believe in touch! Ignore!"
And nothing happened.
"Why?" I groaned. "I just...want to touch things!"
The lights in the bathroom turned on, and I turned surprised to find out Pen-Pen was apparently taking a bath next.
"Oh yes, why not," I said flatly. "Penguin porn! Oh my..."
I gripped the chain with both of my hands, formed a loose noose and quietly floated behind Pen-Pen. I wasn't expecting anything. I just wanted to just...sigh and waste my time trying to mock the penguin -very adult like, yes, but really...do you have another alternative when you're awfully limited with your tools?
"Guess who's Jack The Hanger!?"
And the chain went through Pen-Pen's neck.
The next moment, I felt a pull in the opposite direction and my eyes widened.
And so I watched with sick fascination as Pen-Pen's soul...or whatever it was, left the penguin's body as I held the grip on the chain.
Then the penguin turned to look at me. His soul at least.
As I held him in the choke-hold with the chain.
"Ah..."
Shinji could touch the chain.
I could touch the chain.
The Chain could touch both realities, super-imposed and not.
I tightened the grip.
The Penguin began to froth from its mouth, and suddenly I let go and the soul returned into its body.
The Penguin's body trembled, and then the penguin woke up and began to cry and scream and look around angrily, but he could no longer see me.
I quietly floated with my chain in both hands to the kitchen, and towards the empty beer bottle left on the table's surface.
I looked at the chain.
"Hehe," I giggled softly.
My lips were parting in a smile.
A very bright smile.
"Hehe," I giggled again.
I slowly circled the bottle with the chain and I pulled.
And a 'Soul' bottle ended up trapped in my chain's noose.
I gripped it.
I was gripping a bottle. A 'soul' bottle.
And as I held it, I began to laugh.
I had lost it. I slammed the ghost-bottle down, and it cracked, before shattering against the table as if it actually still held consistence.
The bottle on the table remained where it was, untouched.
Well, I couldn't 'destroy' things that weren't living, but I could apparently choke living things out of their bodies...And that meant only one thing.
I floated into Shinji's room, where the boy laid half-asleep with his music player on. I
"Oh Shinji~ wake up~" I sang with a half-demented look, and Shinji's eyes widened quite a bit when he saw me. "I need you to help me~ Little old me~ I need just a thing from you~"
I admit, maybe that wasn't the best way to ask a favor of an impressionable fourteen year old with a broken beer bottle in my right hand.
And admittedly, Shinji could have avoided screaming like a scared fourteen year old girl.
...
"Oh Shinji~ It's coffee~~ time~~~"
And I laughed.
// You can (not) fix. You must (not) fix. You will (not) fix.
Clandistine1
(Verified Spaceship)
- Location
- Toorak, Melbourne
Gendo is fucked.
And Seele.
And loads of annoying school children.
And Seele.
And loads of annoying school children.
- Location
- None
And now we've gone from bound ghost to Skynet.
SV - We are Helping!
Finbar
Generic Minion #314
- Location
- Sydney
The worst part......
I havent found decent coffee in Japan .....
you can get cans of coffee......which is pure evil. It's just nasty.
However, when you get real coffee, they use japanese milk which has a stupid amount of Iodine in it, which takes horrible and ruins the coffee
I havent found decent coffee in Japan .....
you can get cans of coffee......which is pure evil. It's just nasty.
However, when you get real coffee, they use japanese milk which has a stupid amount of Iodine in it, which takes horrible and ruins the coffee
14
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Thirteen
Shinji did passable coffee at midnight, even after being scared out of his wits. I 'took' the cup with the warm liquid and made extra caution not to let it topple over, and Shinji watched with curiosity as I did my 'double' trick.
"What happened?" Shinji asked.
"You can't see it?"
"No...what did you do?"
"I apparently can 'pull' over to my super-imposed dimension objects that I can 'pull' with my chain and the things they contain. And..." I touched the cup, it was still warm. "They seem to maintain their status...excuse me."
I brought it close to my lips and drank.
Coffee~~
Coffee~~
Coffee~~
I feel like a schoolgirl trying to act all nyah~ with the tiny tilde~ at the end of the word~ but coffee~ is good~ good coffee~.
I exhaled in relief.
And then I tried to pull the chain once more through the object.
Nothing happened.
"Uh," I said. "A one time thing," I remarked. "Does the cup appear any different to you, Shinji?"
Shinji frowned, and looked at the cup. "No."
"Touch it?"
Shinji hesitantly obeyed, and nothing happened.
"Uhm..." I remarked, licking my lips. "No other way around it then."
I looked at Shinji. "Brew me another."
"But it was a whole pot," Shinji tried to say.
"Shinji," I said with an amiable smile. "I am sure you understand. I've been left without coffee for at least three days. I need my fix. Please, pretty please...a cup isn't enough."
Shinji complied.
He was such a good boy.
Just like Tobi.
Only he wasn't a murderous psychopath.
The first cup ended up drained down the sink, as did the other after I drank it.
It was an American brand of sorts of grounded beans -Misato treated herself well, I suspected.
"Ah. Thank you Shinji," I said lazily. "Now that hit the spot," I said and closed my eyes. "Sorry for waking you up like that...have pleasant dreams."
And then I waited. I didn't feel sleepy, but I didn't need that. Eyes closed, I just had to start 'dreaming with my eyes open'.
I wasn't going to get rest -I didn't feel tired. And I wasn't going to sleep, but it would help conserve the battery until I found a charger for my Ipod...
And then I frowned.
Was I going to need also an electrical socket?
Could I even pull an electrical socket on the 'other' side to begin with?
Early in the morning, I heard the shower running but paid no attention to it.
Afterwards, the sound of wet footsteps and of a phone being dialed made me open my eyes.
"Damn it," I grumbled.
I had missed Misato showering.
So she showered early in the morning, uh? Nice to know.
"Hey Ritsuko, I have a question," the way she asked it, it seemed something trivial.
I neared my ear on the other side of the phone, so that I could catch the conversation of both sides.
"You had to phone me at this hour of the morning, Misato?"
"Come on! It's important. It concerns Shinji!"
"What of the first child?" Ritsuko asked with a sigh.
"I think he has an imaginary friend," Misato said. "Last night, I heard him scream," you did even though you were drunk off your horse? What sort of Valkyrie are you, Misato Katsuragi? "but by the time I reached the door he was in the kitchen talking to himself and brewing coffee."
"Really?" Ritsuko asked. "It is normal for children his age to let their imagination help them when they're under stress. It's nothing to worry about, Misato."
"But the way he spoke, it was like he was really getting answers back."
Stop. Being. Sharp. Misato.
I eyed my chain. "I might just need to end you if you're so sharp, Miss Katsuragi," I drawled in perfect Evil James Bond style.
Not that I was going to.
Although I could try to get her on 'our' side by showing her who I was.
Misato would do the right thing.
I was sure of it.
Once the conversation was over, I nodded to myself and took action.
It wouldn't be hard.
Just...
Pull!
And the chain passed through Misato without affecting her.
I looked at the chain dumbfounded for a moment, and then repeated it once more.
Nope.
Nada.
Nein.
...
Oh, of course, insufferable bastard.
I began to scribble it down on my bloc notes.
1) I am Super-Imposed on another reality.
2) My only contact is through the Chained One.
3) I cannot contact anyone else.
4) The chain can pull through objects and animals, but not humans.
5) The chain pulls through copies of objects, but souls of animals. Animals 'go in coma' (maybe they die after a while) if I take their souls.
6) SuperImposed copies...oh damn.
Oh God.
Super-Imposed.
S.I.
"I. Hate. You." I snarled. "Hate you. Hate you. Hate you!"
I closed my block notes, and then proceeded to hang around Misato as she headed to her room to dress.
Don't judge me.
Shinji was still sleeping.
Still, as I floated near I grimaced and sighed, before turning around and heading out through the door.
What can I say? For all of my bravado, I'm still a gentleman at heart. And frankly, there are better ways of seeing naked ladies.
I wondered if the 'Magi' computer could be pulled over and used to find porn on the internet.
Or to download and play games.
Was there even a bay of pirates in this world?
Once Shinji woke up -the Chain tinkled slightly- I returned in the apartment and grinned. The next moment, I sat down at the table and used the chain to 'pull' a perfect copy of his breakfast in front of me.
I wasn't hungry. I wasn't thirsty.
But I really loved being able to go through the usual, mechanical, everyday motions...
And it was my first time eating a Japanese breakfast anyway.
"You know," I said offhandedly, "I usually have breakfast with coffee, but this will do. Just brew me a cup when you're free."
Shinji bobbed his head in affirmation, but remained quiet as Misato seemed to be looking at him.
"Did you have a nightmare last night, Shinji?" Misato asked suddenly.
Shinji's eyes widened.
"N-N-"
"Say yes," I said. "She heard you scream."
"Yeah," Shinji acquiesced, and then clamped up.
"I know it's hard, transferring to a new place, piloting the Eva...but it's going to be fine," Misato continued with a smile. "I'm sure if everyone pulls its weight, we're going to kick the Angels right in the balls and send them back where they came from!"
"She must be one of those 'chirping' morning people," I grumbled as Shinji quietly nodded to her words.
"So, for today, since you still don't have school, I thought we could go around Tokyo-Three and I'd show you around, what do you say?"
"Uhm...I..."
"It's your call," I shrugged. "This week, I've got nothing."
Shinji nodded. "I'd like that."
Tokyo-Three had surprisingly little of interest to offer. There were some convenience stores, a few parks, a couple of shrines and little in the form of entertainment. Misato drove by recklessly, and the streets were half-empty in the morning. The few times she stopped and asked what Shinji felt about the place, Shinji answered with half-smiles and a tired expression.
"She's really trying hard, uh," I said. "A pity you don't like it." I remarked as I floated behind Shinji, as he and Misato walked the final steps to a hill that overlooked the city.
"Ah...ah..." Shinji panted.
"You'd rather read a book or sleep than go outside," I continued with a shrug. "Isn't that right? This entire thing's draining you."
Shinji looked at me, his eyes sideways.
"I know the feeling," I shrugged.
"Hey," Shinji said suddenly, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," Misato said.
I had the feeling the question was for me, however, and I nodded.
"Why did my father call me?"
"Well Shinji, he's your father, I'd think he'd choose you because he knows you," Misato said, half-nervous.
"Well," I sighed. "If you really want to know...the first pilot to synchronize with Unit Eva One was your mother."
Shinji froze and closed his eyes as he blanched.
"But you know that," I continued. "You were there when it happened."
Shinji's hands trembled.
"If you want the true story of what happened, then her Personal AT-Field was destroyed through the Blood of Lilith, which is another term for the 'LCL' that is used," Shinji's eyes snapped up to meet mine, and I continued. "Just like Unit Eva Number Two has the soul of Asuka's Sohryu's mother, or a piece of it anyway, so does yours have your mother's. But don't misunderstand. The concept of soul is too vague to tell you outright 'Your mother's soul is inside the Eva'. Because that's not true and true at the same time. Your mother's dead. She died synchronizing with the Eva. And yet she lives inside the Eva, but she's no longer 'simply' your mother. She's also a part of Lilith. The concept of AT-Field..." I turned thoughtful. "It is the 'Self'. I am Shade. You are Shinji. Our personal AT-Field are what defines us. The moment they collapse, I stop being 'Only Shade' and you stop being 'Only Shinji'."
I narrowed my eyes.
"A world without AT-Fields is a world made by the weak, for the weak. It is a pathetic excuse of running away from reality and facing one's own nightmares. Remember this, Shinji. To become a man, one must face adversities, and turn fear into courage. If you run away...you're wounding yourself with wounds that will never heal."
Shinji swallowed thickly, and nodded.
There were tears in his eyes.
"I'm sure your father wanted to use this occasion to grow closer to you," Misato continued, "There's nothing to be sad about this, is there?"
And Shinji looked at me, rather than at Misato.
"Your father's a coward," I said calmly. "He's the definition of cowardice. He wants to initiate a thing that is called...oh damn...it's a central point of the entire plot and I can't remember the name. 'Last Contact'? 'First Contact'? Anyway, once that happens, all AT-Fields in the world will collapse, and humanity will become a single entity. In that way...the Evangelion's AT field will collapse too, and he'll be reunited with his wife. At least...that was his motif, I think," I began to scratch the sides of my head. "Yes. yes, I think it was that! He didn't want to live in a world without his wife, and so he did everything, even lying to the guys of SEELE, in order to achieve that."
I took a deep breath. "And that makes him the king of Cowards."
I looked firmly at Shinji. "What hurts us is painful, but it is through pain, that we grow." I patted my chest, where my heart was. "The wounds hurt when they're made, but they heal, and make us stronger."
I hummed. "You want to become an adult, don't you? You want to leave behind your childhood, and you think that being an adult will make people look at you differently, but..." I sighed, "That's not how it works. You don't suddenly 'become an adult'. You are one the moment you stop crying over spilled milk, accept responsibility for its fall, and muster your strength in order to make sure it doesn't happen again."
There was no 'Ka-chink'.
Definitely, after this last Pep-Talk, it was pretty obvious the way to go past this world wasn't through forging a spine or helping Shinji get over loss and stuff like that.
...
What could it be then?
Still, he was taking the news surprisingly well.
I half-expected him to shatter into tiny fragments of glass after learning about his mother, but maybe it just hadn't sunk in.
Well...
I flipped my Ipod on.
"Another ringer with the slick trigger finger
For Her Majesty
Another one with the golden tongue
Poisoning your fantasy..."
"Another way to die, uh," I mumbled. "Was it because I drawled like a James Bond Evil guy?"
The sky was clear.
There were pretty clouds.
It was the mood for a happy picnic, not a tragedy-filled day.
I wondered...
Maybe the answer wasn't Angst?
// You can (not) Repair. You must (not) Correct. You will (not) Smile.
Shinji did passable coffee at midnight, even after being scared out of his wits. I 'took' the cup with the warm liquid and made extra caution not to let it topple over, and Shinji watched with curiosity as I did my 'double' trick.
"What happened?" Shinji asked.
"You can't see it?"
"No...what did you do?"
"I apparently can 'pull' over to my super-imposed dimension objects that I can 'pull' with my chain and the things they contain. And..." I touched the cup, it was still warm. "They seem to maintain their status...excuse me."
I brought it close to my lips and drank.
Coffee~~
Coffee~~
Coffee~~
I feel like a schoolgirl trying to act all nyah~ with the tiny tilde~ at the end of the word~ but coffee~ is good~ good coffee~.
I exhaled in relief.
And then I tried to pull the chain once more through the object.
Nothing happened.
"Uh," I said. "A one time thing," I remarked. "Does the cup appear any different to you, Shinji?"
Shinji frowned, and looked at the cup. "No."
"Touch it?"
Shinji hesitantly obeyed, and nothing happened.
"Uhm..." I remarked, licking my lips. "No other way around it then."
I looked at Shinji. "Brew me another."
"But it was a whole pot," Shinji tried to say.
"Shinji," I said with an amiable smile. "I am sure you understand. I've been left without coffee for at least three days. I need my fix. Please, pretty please...a cup isn't enough."
Shinji complied.
He was such a good boy.
Just like Tobi.
Only he wasn't a murderous psychopath.
The first cup ended up drained down the sink, as did the other after I drank it.
It was an American brand of sorts of grounded beans -Misato treated herself well, I suspected.
"Ah. Thank you Shinji," I said lazily. "Now that hit the spot," I said and closed my eyes. "Sorry for waking you up like that...have pleasant dreams."
And then I waited. I didn't feel sleepy, but I didn't need that. Eyes closed, I just had to start 'dreaming with my eyes open'.
I wasn't going to get rest -I didn't feel tired. And I wasn't going to sleep, but it would help conserve the battery until I found a charger for my Ipod...
And then I frowned.
Was I going to need also an electrical socket?
Could I even pull an electrical socket on the 'other' side to begin with?
Early in the morning, I heard the shower running but paid no attention to it.
Afterwards, the sound of wet footsteps and of a phone being dialed made me open my eyes.
"Damn it," I grumbled.
I had missed Misato showering.
So she showered early in the morning, uh? Nice to know.
"Hey Ritsuko, I have a question," the way she asked it, it seemed something trivial.
I neared my ear on the other side of the phone, so that I could catch the conversation of both sides.
"You had to phone me at this hour of the morning, Misato?"
"Come on! It's important. It concerns Shinji!"
"What of the first child?" Ritsuko asked with a sigh.
"I think he has an imaginary friend," Misato said. "Last night, I heard him scream," you did even though you were drunk off your horse? What sort of Valkyrie are you, Misato Katsuragi? "but by the time I reached the door he was in the kitchen talking to himself and brewing coffee."
"Really?" Ritsuko asked. "It is normal for children his age to let their imagination help them when they're under stress. It's nothing to worry about, Misato."
"But the way he spoke, it was like he was really getting answers back."
Stop. Being. Sharp. Misato.
I eyed my chain. "I might just need to end you if you're so sharp, Miss Katsuragi," I drawled in perfect Evil James Bond style.
Not that I was going to.
Although I could try to get her on 'our' side by showing her who I was.
Misato would do the right thing.
I was sure of it.
Once the conversation was over, I nodded to myself and took action.
It wouldn't be hard.
Just...
Pull!
And the chain passed through Misato without affecting her.
I looked at the chain dumbfounded for a moment, and then repeated it once more.
Nope.
Nada.
Nein.
...
Oh, of course, insufferable bastard.
I began to scribble it down on my bloc notes.
1) I am Super-Imposed on another reality.
2) My only contact is through the Chained One.
3) I cannot contact anyone else.
4) The chain can pull through objects and animals, but not humans.
5) The chain pulls through copies of objects, but souls of animals. Animals 'go in coma' (maybe they die after a while) if I take their souls.
6) SuperImposed copies...oh damn.
Oh God.
Super-Imposed.
S.I.
"I. Hate. You." I snarled. "Hate you. Hate you. Hate you!"
I closed my block notes, and then proceeded to hang around Misato as she headed to her room to dress.
Don't judge me.
Shinji was still sleeping.
Still, as I floated near I grimaced and sighed, before turning around and heading out through the door.
What can I say? For all of my bravado, I'm still a gentleman at heart. And frankly, there are better ways of seeing naked ladies.
I wondered if the 'Magi' computer could be pulled over and used to find porn on the internet.
Or to download and play games.
Was there even a bay of pirates in this world?
Once Shinji woke up -the Chain tinkled slightly- I returned in the apartment and grinned. The next moment, I sat down at the table and used the chain to 'pull' a perfect copy of his breakfast in front of me.
I wasn't hungry. I wasn't thirsty.
But I really loved being able to go through the usual, mechanical, everyday motions...
And it was my first time eating a Japanese breakfast anyway.
"You know," I said offhandedly, "I usually have breakfast with coffee, but this will do. Just brew me a cup when you're free."
Shinji bobbed his head in affirmation, but remained quiet as Misato seemed to be looking at him.
"Did you have a nightmare last night, Shinji?" Misato asked suddenly.
Shinji's eyes widened.
"N-N-"
"Say yes," I said. "She heard you scream."
"Yeah," Shinji acquiesced, and then clamped up.
"I know it's hard, transferring to a new place, piloting the Eva...but it's going to be fine," Misato continued with a smile. "I'm sure if everyone pulls its weight, we're going to kick the Angels right in the balls and send them back where they came from!"
"She must be one of those 'chirping' morning people," I grumbled as Shinji quietly nodded to her words.
"So, for today, since you still don't have school, I thought we could go around Tokyo-Three and I'd show you around, what do you say?"
"Uhm...I..."
"It's your call," I shrugged. "This week, I've got nothing."
Shinji nodded. "I'd like that."
Tokyo-Three had surprisingly little of interest to offer. There were some convenience stores, a few parks, a couple of shrines and little in the form of entertainment. Misato drove by recklessly, and the streets were half-empty in the morning. The few times she stopped and asked what Shinji felt about the place, Shinji answered with half-smiles and a tired expression.
"She's really trying hard, uh," I said. "A pity you don't like it." I remarked as I floated behind Shinji, as he and Misato walked the final steps to a hill that overlooked the city.
"Ah...ah..." Shinji panted.
"You'd rather read a book or sleep than go outside," I continued with a shrug. "Isn't that right? This entire thing's draining you."
Shinji looked at me, his eyes sideways.
"I know the feeling," I shrugged.
"Hey," Shinji said suddenly, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," Misato said.
I had the feeling the question was for me, however, and I nodded.
"Why did my father call me?"
"Well Shinji, he's your father, I'd think he'd choose you because he knows you," Misato said, half-nervous.
"Well," I sighed. "If you really want to know...the first pilot to synchronize with Unit Eva One was your mother."
Shinji froze and closed his eyes as he blanched.
"But you know that," I continued. "You were there when it happened."
Shinji's hands trembled.
"If you want the true story of what happened, then her Personal AT-Field was destroyed through the Blood of Lilith, which is another term for the 'LCL' that is used," Shinji's eyes snapped up to meet mine, and I continued. "Just like Unit Eva Number Two has the soul of Asuka's Sohryu's mother, or a piece of it anyway, so does yours have your mother's. But don't misunderstand. The concept of soul is too vague to tell you outright 'Your mother's soul is inside the Eva'. Because that's not true and true at the same time. Your mother's dead. She died synchronizing with the Eva. And yet she lives inside the Eva, but she's no longer 'simply' your mother. She's also a part of Lilith. The concept of AT-Field..." I turned thoughtful. "It is the 'Self'. I am Shade. You are Shinji. Our personal AT-Field are what defines us. The moment they collapse, I stop being 'Only Shade' and you stop being 'Only Shinji'."
I narrowed my eyes.
"A world without AT-Fields is a world made by the weak, for the weak. It is a pathetic excuse of running away from reality and facing one's own nightmares. Remember this, Shinji. To become a man, one must face adversities, and turn fear into courage. If you run away...you're wounding yourself with wounds that will never heal."
Shinji swallowed thickly, and nodded.
There were tears in his eyes.
"I'm sure your father wanted to use this occasion to grow closer to you," Misato continued, "There's nothing to be sad about this, is there?"
And Shinji looked at me, rather than at Misato.
"Your father's a coward," I said calmly. "He's the definition of cowardice. He wants to initiate a thing that is called...oh damn...it's a central point of the entire plot and I can't remember the name. 'Last Contact'? 'First Contact'? Anyway, once that happens, all AT-Fields in the world will collapse, and humanity will become a single entity. In that way...the Evangelion's AT field will collapse too, and he'll be reunited with his wife. At least...that was his motif, I think," I began to scratch the sides of my head. "Yes. yes, I think it was that! He didn't want to live in a world without his wife, and so he did everything, even lying to the guys of SEELE, in order to achieve that."
I took a deep breath. "And that makes him the king of Cowards."
I looked firmly at Shinji. "What hurts us is painful, but it is through pain, that we grow." I patted my chest, where my heart was. "The wounds hurt when they're made, but they heal, and make us stronger."
I hummed. "You want to become an adult, don't you? You want to leave behind your childhood, and you think that being an adult will make people look at you differently, but..." I sighed, "That's not how it works. You don't suddenly 'become an adult'. You are one the moment you stop crying over spilled milk, accept responsibility for its fall, and muster your strength in order to make sure it doesn't happen again."
There was no 'Ka-chink'.
Definitely, after this last Pep-Talk, it was pretty obvious the way to go past this world wasn't through forging a spine or helping Shinji get over loss and stuff like that.
...
What could it be then?
Still, he was taking the news surprisingly well.
I half-expected him to shatter into tiny fragments of glass after learning about his mother, but maybe it just hadn't sunk in.
Well...
I flipped my Ipod on.
"Another ringer with the slick trigger finger
For Her Majesty
Another one with the golden tongue
Poisoning your fantasy..."
"Another way to die, uh," I mumbled. "Was it because I drawled like a James Bond Evil guy?"
The sky was clear.
There were pretty clouds.
It was the mood for a happy picnic, not a tragedy-filled day.
I wondered...
Maybe the answer wasn't Angst?
// You can (not) Repair. You must (not) Correct. You will (not) Smile.
Ohhh. Being the wise mentor figure now, hmm?
And Shade has become surprisingly reasonable once he got some coffee.
Shinji's bonds...
Hurting Naruto involves giving him a friend, and ripping that away from him subsequently.
Shinji wants to be loved by his father. Maybe Shade's replacing Gendo as a father figure?
Delicious suffering.
And Shade has become surprisingly reasonable once he got some coffee.
Shinji's bonds...
Hurting Naruto involves giving him a friend, and ripping that away from him subsequently.
Shinji wants to be loved by his father. Maybe Shade's replacing Gendo as a father figure?
Delicious suffering.
Fluffy
Destroyer of.......most worlds
- Location
- High Earth Orbit
If this is how the authors going, then this will break shinji. I'm sure of it, I mean the poor guy has had (through the course of the series)more parental figures ripped from his life than is reasonable for a human.Ohhh. Being the wise mentor figure now, hmm?
And Shade has become surprisingly reasonable once he got some coffee.
Shinji's bonds...
Hurting Naruto involves giving him a friend, and ripping that away from him subsequently.
Shinji wants to be loved by his father. Maybe Shade's replacing Gendo as a father figure?
Delicious suffering.
15
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Fourteen
Tokyo three's exploration ended after lunch, and as I floated by amused, the afternoon was spent at Nerv for some 'physical checkup'.
"It's so funny. They give you a physical check up after they've already had you fight the thing...and I doubt they're going to give you psychological therapy. What is it, with you Japanese and the lack of therapy? Seeking help isn't a weakness, you know. It's not like you're still in the era of the Samurai."
Shinji said nothing, but shivered as Ritsuko applied the stethoscope to his chest.
"Take deep breaths," the blond woman said.
"You know," I remarked, "I wonder what's in her head," I turned thoughtful as I hovered right next to her. "What is she thinking right now? This is the son of Commander Ikari? This is Gendo's son? This is Yui's son? This is the first child? Should I tell him what I think about his father? It's so strange..." I hummed. "We can never know what the other humans around us think, and so we must trust in them not to hold a knife behind their back to stab us when we're least expecting it."
I brought my head through Ritsuko's own, and Shinji gasped -although he masked it because of the stethoscope moving position. "Only blackness inside," I said. "There's no light inside our skulls, where our brain is," I emerged out of Ritsuko's head. "We're such pathetic creatures...do we even harbor souls? Where are they then? In our flesh? In our bones? In our brains? In our spines?"
I hummed and began to float upside down. "This woman right here. She's in love with your father, you know? Such a strange thing. There shouldn't be a valid reason for it, and yet there is. Love...ah, the most bullshit excuse of the world for madness. Sociopaths deny it, love-philosophers ascend it...scientists claim it's a mere hormonal thing...the question's stuck in the wall of 'The Questions a living being will never answer'. Only the dead know the answers to the fundamental questions of life. Funny, isn't it?"
Shinji looked sideways.
"Very well," Ritsuko said in the end. "You can dress up. You're perfectly healthy."
"Not that it would matter for piloting the Eva," I drawled. "Psychological status is what matters the most for that."
Shinji stepped outside the office, and whispered.
"Didn't you say my mother's soul was inside the Eva?"
"Yes. But that's because the concept of 'soul' is different for your world than it is for mine."
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked.
"Well...what do you want to believe in, Shinji? A world where souls and a heaven exist, or one where souls give birth to ghosts? Do you want a world where Souls can be broken, shattered, mutilated? Do you want a world that denies souls? A world where they rise and are eaten to strengthen others? You see...there are infinite worlds, and infinite answers. That's the problem," I shrugged. "There isn't one correct answer. There are infinitely correct answers...which means that there are none. Infinite is equal to zero. Zero is equal to infinite...because if you can't find the correct answer for your specific world, then it's meaningless."
I grumbled. "Theology now? I'm starting to hate this world. I dislike going all philosophical-bullshit, but apparently it's a requirement of this world's speech."
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked.
"You know how in comedies, there is the 'straight-man'?" I asked.
Shinji nodded softly.
"That's a 'law'. Just like in slapstick, someone gets hurt and someone hurts. Well, this world has a fundamental law that is 'Symbolism' apparently, and I am not excluded from it."
"Oh," Shinji blinked. "Really?"
"Eva, the daughter of God, birthed from Adam's rib. The Angels, striking Tokyo..." I rolled my eyes. "The lance of Longinus, deep within Central Dogma, and you know what a 'Dogma' is?"
Shinji shook his head.
"It is something that you must believe, even without proof. 'God exists' the church says, and it is a Dogma. Because you cannot physically prove, or disprove, its existence. So you must 'believe' it is."
I shrugged. "I'm not going to smash the hornet's nest with what I personally believe, but you see, that's the problem. Everyone 'believes' his own version. Everyone justifies his own version of the world. And sometimes, they clash. What is right for you can be wrong for another."
Shinji began to walk in the direction of the Eva hangars.
I floated behind him.
"Why are the angels attacking Tokyo?" Shinji asked.
"They found Lilith," I replied. "Deep in the bowels of the Nerv, there lies Lilith. She is the progenitor of the human race, as when she fell on Earth her blood later 'evolved' and gave birth to humans. Unfortunately, humanity missed a page on the evolution step or something like that, and they became an Anathema to Lilith. She has an 'Anti-AT' field, which, if she were to wake up if an Angel reached her, would mean the complete annihilation of mankind."
I sighed. "Everything and everyone would turn into LCL, and then Lilith would probably leave and...OH! NOW I REMEMBER!" I exclaimed clapping my hands together. "It's not first contact, but Impact! Gendo Ikari wants to cause another Impact! AH-Ha! I knew I would remember, eventually!"
Shinji's hand trembled.
"H-How can I stop him?" he asked.
And I smiled.
"If I'm not wrong, it's very simple...love this world."
Shinji blinked. "What."
"Gendo...he'll make you suffer. I think that was a part of it. He'll give you things, and then rip them away. He'll make you crack, he'll shatter you, and yet he'll make sure you get on the Eva. The Eva will then...I think 'Evolve' again, and it will cause the Impact once more. So...don't let the losses get to you. Grow stronger from them."
"W-What do you mean?" Shinji asked.
We arrived at the Eva Terminal, and Unit Zero One was there.
"You will make friends with people, and then you will lose them," I said calmly. "The bonds you'll make will shatter, crack, break, and you'll scream that injustice to the world, and the world won't listen...but the Eva will. And it will attempt to stop your pain by giving you what you desire through the Impact. Everyone, together again, forever...a normal life, if only in a dream, a hideout from reality!" I snarled, looking at him. "At the end, you will want to run, Shinji, and you will run. You will ask for praise and dream of it...but dreams are just that! Dreams!" I hissed.
Shinji took a step back.
I was probably scaring him.
"If you let dreams take over, if you renounce reality...there, in that moment...you will have failed. You mustn't run away," I whispered and smiled. "That's the point. That's the entire point. Gendo will try to make you run. You must not allow it. Stand your ground."
Shinji clenched his right fist.
"But it's going to hurt, right?" he asked.
"Oh yes, it will." I nodded. "I don't know how long I'll stay with you, but it will hurt. And when I leave, it will hurt you. But if you take the hurt and you do nothing, it will be meaningless. If you take the hurt, and you use it to grow...then pain will have a meaning."
I inclined my head to the side. "And if you're ever in doubt, Shinji, know that I believe in you. You are a human being, just like I am. And humans...we have infinite potential. We just need to find some way to utilize it."
And Shinji looked up at me.
There was no 'Ka-chink' yet again, but at least he looked determined enough.
And that was when the Eva Unit Zero One opened its red eyes and roared.
I was startled, just the same as Shinji was, and I turned to look at the Eva roaring and twitching its body.
And then its arms came down, followed by its hands, around Shinji.
Shinji screamed, but the hands stopped moving soon enough.
I looked with surprise.
"It seems," I drawled in the end, "That your mother felt your hurt all the way from there."
Shinji's arms were covering his head, and he was on his knees, but he slowly opened his eyes and looked around him. The hands hadn't meant to crush him, but to envelop him.
"Well," I remarked. "It appears this is what passes for a 'comforting' hug if you're an Eva-Mother."
Shinji huddled himself against the palm of the Eva, and hugged his knees.
His face pressed against his thighs, he remained silent for a long while.
"My father hates me," Shinji muttered in the end.
"Yep," I acquiesced.
Shinji looked up at me. "Why?"
"Why not?" I asked.
"I'm...I'm his son."
"That...means absolutely nothing. You know how many mothers drown their children? How many parents beat theirs? Do you think that simply because he's 'Your Father' he must automatically love you? No. He doesn't." I shrug. "Just like Misato doesn't need a reason to like you, or your mother needs a reason to protect you. Humans...we are hardly creatures of reason most of the time."
"I don't want to run away," Shinji said.
"Then don't. Nobody can make you do something you don't want to do."
"But father's..."
"Shinji," I said calmly. "Could you lift your right hand?"
Shinji looked at me, and then obeyed.
"Why did you lift it?"
"You...told me to."
"But you lifted it, right?"
Shinji nodded.
"Shinji...lift your left hand."
Shinji obeyed.
"Did I lift your left hand?"
Shinji frowned.
"You...told me to."
"But did I lift your left hand?"
Shinji shook his head, and lowered both hands. "Shinji...you can choose. We have choice. We are free. The fact there are 'chains' shackling us is a lie. Nothing stops you from going on a rampage through Tokyo, nothing but yourself and the knowledge the people at Nerv might stop you, but you see...you aren't constricted. You have 'Free Will'. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You are free. You can only be enslaved if you choose to."
Shinji nodded, and I floated out of the 'embrace' of the Evangelion.
This...hadn't happened, I suspected, before.
Then again, Shinji's emotions had been probably running high from my words, and the Eva had felt them.
The desire to protect one's spawn.
Basic instinct of animals, that humans had learned from long ago to repress when they had to actually 'kill' them out of...stupid reasons, spite, madness...
I looked at the shocked technicians, at Misato barking orders to pry the hands open of the Eva, at Doctor Akagi...was it her surname? And at Gendo, watching from the window up above.
I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed.
Why couldn't school just come out sooner? Why did it have to be...
So long?
Really, if only this followed Anime-Conventions...
Fade to Black-Back in and bam! Story Time!
...
I was so totally going to try get a Magi into 'Super-Imposed Verse'.
SIV for short.
I nodded sagely.
"From this day hence, I name this land Super-Imposed Verse, as 'SIV'."
And then I raised my fist in the air. "First objective: Acquire Internet...somehow."
The Magi could probably help.
Probably.
If only I knew where the hell they were.
...
// You Shall (Not) Pass. You Can (Not) Win. All Your Base (Are) Belong To Us.
Tokyo three's exploration ended after lunch, and as I floated by amused, the afternoon was spent at Nerv for some 'physical checkup'.
"It's so funny. They give you a physical check up after they've already had you fight the thing...and I doubt they're going to give you psychological therapy. What is it, with you Japanese and the lack of therapy? Seeking help isn't a weakness, you know. It's not like you're still in the era of the Samurai."
Shinji said nothing, but shivered as Ritsuko applied the stethoscope to his chest.
"Take deep breaths," the blond woman said.
"You know," I remarked, "I wonder what's in her head," I turned thoughtful as I hovered right next to her. "What is she thinking right now? This is the son of Commander Ikari? This is Gendo's son? This is Yui's son? This is the first child? Should I tell him what I think about his father? It's so strange..." I hummed. "We can never know what the other humans around us think, and so we must trust in them not to hold a knife behind their back to stab us when we're least expecting it."
I brought my head through Ritsuko's own, and Shinji gasped -although he masked it because of the stethoscope moving position. "Only blackness inside," I said. "There's no light inside our skulls, where our brain is," I emerged out of Ritsuko's head. "We're such pathetic creatures...do we even harbor souls? Where are they then? In our flesh? In our bones? In our brains? In our spines?"
I hummed and began to float upside down. "This woman right here. She's in love with your father, you know? Such a strange thing. There shouldn't be a valid reason for it, and yet there is. Love...ah, the most bullshit excuse of the world for madness. Sociopaths deny it, love-philosophers ascend it...scientists claim it's a mere hormonal thing...the question's stuck in the wall of 'The Questions a living being will never answer'. Only the dead know the answers to the fundamental questions of life. Funny, isn't it?"
Shinji looked sideways.
"Very well," Ritsuko said in the end. "You can dress up. You're perfectly healthy."
"Not that it would matter for piloting the Eva," I drawled. "Psychological status is what matters the most for that."
Shinji stepped outside the office, and whispered.
"Didn't you say my mother's soul was inside the Eva?"
"Yes. But that's because the concept of 'soul' is different for your world than it is for mine."
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked.
"Well...what do you want to believe in, Shinji? A world where souls and a heaven exist, or one where souls give birth to ghosts? Do you want a world where Souls can be broken, shattered, mutilated? Do you want a world that denies souls? A world where they rise and are eaten to strengthen others? You see...there are infinite worlds, and infinite answers. That's the problem," I shrugged. "There isn't one correct answer. There are infinitely correct answers...which means that there are none. Infinite is equal to zero. Zero is equal to infinite...because if you can't find the correct answer for your specific world, then it's meaningless."
I grumbled. "Theology now? I'm starting to hate this world. I dislike going all philosophical-bullshit, but apparently it's a requirement of this world's speech."
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked.
"You know how in comedies, there is the 'straight-man'?" I asked.
Shinji nodded softly.
"That's a 'law'. Just like in slapstick, someone gets hurt and someone hurts. Well, this world has a fundamental law that is 'Symbolism' apparently, and I am not excluded from it."
"Oh," Shinji blinked. "Really?"
"Eva, the daughter of God, birthed from Adam's rib. The Angels, striking Tokyo..." I rolled my eyes. "The lance of Longinus, deep within Central Dogma, and you know what a 'Dogma' is?"
Shinji shook his head.
"It is something that you must believe, even without proof. 'God exists' the church says, and it is a Dogma. Because you cannot physically prove, or disprove, its existence. So you must 'believe' it is."
I shrugged. "I'm not going to smash the hornet's nest with what I personally believe, but you see, that's the problem. Everyone 'believes' his own version. Everyone justifies his own version of the world. And sometimes, they clash. What is right for you can be wrong for another."
Shinji began to walk in the direction of the Eva hangars.
I floated behind him.
"Why are the angels attacking Tokyo?" Shinji asked.
"They found Lilith," I replied. "Deep in the bowels of the Nerv, there lies Lilith. She is the progenitor of the human race, as when she fell on Earth her blood later 'evolved' and gave birth to humans. Unfortunately, humanity missed a page on the evolution step or something like that, and they became an Anathema to Lilith. She has an 'Anti-AT' field, which, if she were to wake up if an Angel reached her, would mean the complete annihilation of mankind."
I sighed. "Everything and everyone would turn into LCL, and then Lilith would probably leave and...OH! NOW I REMEMBER!" I exclaimed clapping my hands together. "It's not first contact, but Impact! Gendo Ikari wants to cause another Impact! AH-Ha! I knew I would remember, eventually!"
Shinji's hand trembled.
"H-How can I stop him?" he asked.
And I smiled.
"If I'm not wrong, it's very simple...love this world."
Shinji blinked. "What."
"Gendo...he'll make you suffer. I think that was a part of it. He'll give you things, and then rip them away. He'll make you crack, he'll shatter you, and yet he'll make sure you get on the Eva. The Eva will then...I think 'Evolve' again, and it will cause the Impact once more. So...don't let the losses get to you. Grow stronger from them."
"W-What do you mean?" Shinji asked.
We arrived at the Eva Terminal, and Unit Zero One was there.
"You will make friends with people, and then you will lose them," I said calmly. "The bonds you'll make will shatter, crack, break, and you'll scream that injustice to the world, and the world won't listen...but the Eva will. And it will attempt to stop your pain by giving you what you desire through the Impact. Everyone, together again, forever...a normal life, if only in a dream, a hideout from reality!" I snarled, looking at him. "At the end, you will want to run, Shinji, and you will run. You will ask for praise and dream of it...but dreams are just that! Dreams!" I hissed.
Shinji took a step back.
I was probably scaring him.
"If you let dreams take over, if you renounce reality...there, in that moment...you will have failed. You mustn't run away," I whispered and smiled. "That's the point. That's the entire point. Gendo will try to make you run. You must not allow it. Stand your ground."
Shinji clenched his right fist.
"But it's going to hurt, right?" he asked.
"Oh yes, it will." I nodded. "I don't know how long I'll stay with you, but it will hurt. And when I leave, it will hurt you. But if you take the hurt and you do nothing, it will be meaningless. If you take the hurt, and you use it to grow...then pain will have a meaning."
I inclined my head to the side. "And if you're ever in doubt, Shinji, know that I believe in you. You are a human being, just like I am. And humans...we have infinite potential. We just need to find some way to utilize it."
And Shinji looked up at me.
There was no 'Ka-chink' yet again, but at least he looked determined enough.
And that was when the Eva Unit Zero One opened its red eyes and roared.
I was startled, just the same as Shinji was, and I turned to look at the Eva roaring and twitching its body.
And then its arms came down, followed by its hands, around Shinji.
Shinji screamed, but the hands stopped moving soon enough.
I looked with surprise.
"It seems," I drawled in the end, "That your mother felt your hurt all the way from there."
Shinji's arms were covering his head, and he was on his knees, but he slowly opened his eyes and looked around him. The hands hadn't meant to crush him, but to envelop him.
"Well," I remarked. "It appears this is what passes for a 'comforting' hug if you're an Eva-Mother."
Shinji huddled himself against the palm of the Eva, and hugged his knees.
His face pressed against his thighs, he remained silent for a long while.
"My father hates me," Shinji muttered in the end.
"Yep," I acquiesced.
Shinji looked up at me. "Why?"
"Why not?" I asked.
"I'm...I'm his son."
"That...means absolutely nothing. You know how many mothers drown their children? How many parents beat theirs? Do you think that simply because he's 'Your Father' he must automatically love you? No. He doesn't." I shrug. "Just like Misato doesn't need a reason to like you, or your mother needs a reason to protect you. Humans...we are hardly creatures of reason most of the time."
"I don't want to run away," Shinji said.
"Then don't. Nobody can make you do something you don't want to do."
"But father's..."
"Shinji," I said calmly. "Could you lift your right hand?"
Shinji looked at me, and then obeyed.
"Why did you lift it?"
"You...told me to."
"But you lifted it, right?"
Shinji nodded.
"Shinji...lift your left hand."
Shinji obeyed.
"Did I lift your left hand?"
Shinji frowned.
"You...told me to."
"But did I lift your left hand?"
Shinji shook his head, and lowered both hands. "Shinji...you can choose. We have choice. We are free. The fact there are 'chains' shackling us is a lie. Nothing stops you from going on a rampage through Tokyo, nothing but yourself and the knowledge the people at Nerv might stop you, but you see...you aren't constricted. You have 'Free Will'. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You are free. You can only be enslaved if you choose to."
Shinji nodded, and I floated out of the 'embrace' of the Evangelion.
This...hadn't happened, I suspected, before.
Then again, Shinji's emotions had been probably running high from my words, and the Eva had felt them.
The desire to protect one's spawn.
Basic instinct of animals, that humans had learned from long ago to repress when they had to actually 'kill' them out of...stupid reasons, spite, madness...
I looked at the shocked technicians, at Misato barking orders to pry the hands open of the Eva, at Doctor Akagi...was it her surname? And at Gendo, watching from the window up above.
I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed.
Why couldn't school just come out sooner? Why did it have to be...
So long?
Really, if only this followed Anime-Conventions...
Fade to Black-Back in and bam! Story Time!
...
I was so totally going to try get a Magi into 'Super-Imposed Verse'.
SIV for short.
I nodded sagely.
"From this day hence, I name this land Super-Imposed Verse, as 'SIV'."
And then I raised my fist in the air. "First objective: Acquire Internet...somehow."
The Magi could probably help.
Probably.
If only I knew where the hell they were.
...
// You Shall (Not) Pass. You Can (Not) Win. All Your Base (Are) Belong To Us.
You think this is cynical and depressing?
He's being uplifting! Nobody died horribly yet and the only victim so far is Naruto.
Besides, this is Evangelion. He has to conform to the theme.
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
The fun fact is that I am an Optimist.
But I speak as if I were the king of Pessimists.
Everything is going to be fine...but better tell the guys we're all going to die! In that way, when we make it, they'll be twice as happy!
"Guys, I think we're screwed."
"Oh for the love of-"
But I speak as if I were the king of Pessimists.
Everything is going to be fine...but better tell the guys we're all going to die! In that way, when we make it, they'll be twice as happy!
"Guys, I think we're screwed."
"Oh for the love of-"
Dimensionist
Grandmaster of Apologism, Keeper of the Faith
- Location
- Bangalore, India
I'm mostly annoyed by his breaking out into amateur philosophy, and depressing amateur philosophy at that.
I could rant for a long time on how a lot of what was said in the chapter is bullshit, but to be honest, I'm not that invested in this whole thing. The whole thing's just making me skip most of the chapter, though, which is not a good thing.
I'd rather read a story then be forcefed philosophy and someone's random musing on How Things AreTM.
Sorry if this is harsh, but those are basically me feelings on this.:/
RazorBlaxe
Just another transient being
- Location
- Earth
Hey! I also think like that! Why tell people that everything is going to be alright when you can tell them that shit gone to hell and we are all going to die horrible horrible deaths. And when we are proven wrong we can go join to others in doing the happy dance! Twice as happy!
Also, random philosophy is random.