- Location
- The Midlands.
I may try to work that joke in.Literal AT-Field damage?
Proper update should be up soonish, the last scene's been fighting me. In the meantime, however...
[Evangelion] Doing It Right This Time
Proper update should be up soonish, the last scene's been fighting me. In the meantime, however...
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
It's the Dokis.
I think they're wearing the uniform of whichever school they have in Tokyo 3.
- Location
- Wherever I feel like being
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Doki Doki Literature Club characters.
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
and that explains why i recognize them, but don't, have the OST at the house but haven't watched the anime
- Location
- Colombia
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
What are you talking about? They're not from an anime.
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Doki Doki Literature Club is a visual novel, not an anime.
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
thought it was an anime, my apologies, and would explain why i haven't been able to find a copy to watch. That said, i think we're getting a bit derailed here
Not really, since the last snippet introduced Monika and Sayori, officially making this fic a DDLC crossover.
Mari and the Literature Club, Part 2
- Location
- The Midlands.
She'd had the nightmare again. She was trapped in a game, or a book, or a visual novel. Everyone around her wasn't real, except the boy who was playing: Sometimes it was Taiku, sometimes it was just a random person playing/reading/whatever... But she was a minor character, so no matter what she did she couldn't get his attention until she started messing with the text/code and getting rid of the other girls... But then he got angry, or scared, and deleted her... And then she woke up.
There was probably some kind of symbolic meaning to all that: Anxiety about being a gaijin girl in an almost 100% Japanese school. The sense of dislocation from having no family, no identity except what she'd carved out for herself since arriving here. The constant nagging worry that nobody really saw her as one of us... And yet it was so weirdly specific, and vivid, and consistent. What did any of that mean?
"Monika? You awake in there? Your alarm's been going off for ten minutes!"
Monika Salvato shook herself, mentally, and silenced the alarm. "I'm alright, Ms Zhang. Just a little distracted."
"Alright," her caretaker replied, a little uncertainly. "But don't hang about, breakfast's about to be served."
"On my way." Monika swung her legs out of bed. "Coffee now, existential crisis later," she told herself.
A cup of coffee and a slightly ecclectic breakfast of miso soup and a toasted bagel and cream cheese helped her ground herself. Twenty minutes later, a much more clear-headed Monika shut her bedroom door behind her and finished towelling off her hair. The used towel went to the laundry basket, her dressing gown to its hook behind the door, and she sat down at the dresser to... well, to dress. White blouse, teal pinafore dress, a red ribbon at her collar (which helped shed the persistent feeling she should be putting on an Argyle sweater, a fawn blazer and a dress skirt instead) and her favourite hairbow, then some nice sensible tights...
"Fuck!" she hissed, quietly. as the seam that had been threatening to rip for a while finally let go. "Guess today's a zettai day."
Having achieved just enough thigh-gap to be noticeable if Taiku was paying attention but not so blatant that Sayori would pick up on it (she hoped!), Monika made sure her books and laptop were in her bag along with her inside shoes and headed out of the front door just ahead of the rush.
If there had been one small upside to Second Impact, it had been a substantial boost in funding and respect for Japan's social and child welfare system. Once upon a time the idea of needing such a thing had been considered vaguely improper, and anyone who found themselves a client of it... Well, they were never officially treated differently but somehow they often seemed to coincidentally get picked last for university places or office jobs along with ethnic Koreans and burakumin and anyone else who could be grouped under "people who aren't really our sort of people". But with the global climate and the global economy in a race to see which could collapse first and wars kicking off over the remaining sources of fuel and water and good farmland, that sort of thing came to matter a lot less to most people. (And rather a lot more to a few, but thankfully the Diet had taken a lesson from the parts of Japan's history they tried not to talk about and come down hard on that before it could get started.) Who your ancestors were was suddenly a lot less relevant than what you could contribute to doing something about the country being thoroughly wrecked, partially flooded and slightly on fire. And one of the things that needed doing was looking after all these orphans, whose circumstances not even the "traditional family values" lobby could blame on their parents. It was rather inspiring if you didn't think too hard about what it had cost.
The upshot of all that being that the Tokyo-3 Municipal Child Welfare Residential Care Facility (no, the staff didn't know why they couldn't just call it an orphanage either) was an elegant, well-maintained building in a quite desirable residential neighbourhood within walking distance of the school, where Monika and a hundred or so children between the ages of four and seventeen lived in modest but comfortable conditions with a team of well trained and highly motivated carers and support staff. If Shinji or Rei were to visit her at home they would have been more than slightly jealous.
Sayori's house was a couple of streets away, about half-way between the orphanage and the school, and Taiku lived a bit further up the same street, so the three of them usually ran into each other in the mornings. Normally that was a good thing, but lately... Well, suddenly noticing that Taiku Tsuna really didn't live up to his name in more than one way had made things a bit complicated.
The exotic foreign girl and the childhood friend, both with a crush on the likeable regular guy. And I wonder why I have nightmares about being trapped in a dating sim, Monika thought wryly, as the other two rounded the corner and stepped onto the street she was walking along. "Hi you two!" she called out.
"Hi Monika," Taiku replied. "You look nice today." Yep, he'd noticed her thigh gap.
Sayori just mumbled something noncommittal, and started tugging Taiku away by his arm. Monika firmly quashed a stab of jealousy, partly because she didn't want Taiku to see it but also because the other girl actually looked pretty dazed. "Are you alright, Sayori?"
"Fine! I'm fine," she replied, a bit too hastily. "Just slept too long. Need a coffee."
Monika was suddenly struck by a vision of Sayori walking a way from Taiku towards her house, then of Taiku gently opening her bedroom door, and... "What the hell?"
And then he starts a new game, but instead of his quirky childhood friend Sayuri it's Monika, the pretty and popular girl from the athletics team who wants him to join her club...
"Monika? You spaced out for a sec there." Taiku looked concerned.
"Huh? Oh, sorry. Sayori's not the only one who's not woken up properly, I guess."
Monika let the others pull ahead of her so they wouldn't see just how rattled she was. That was how things started to go off the rails in the dreams. Sayori began sleeping in more, losing interest in her hobbies, generally acting lethargic and out of it... Everyone in the orphanage got the talk about those warning signs and what to do about them, even without the nightmares she'd be a little concerned. But with the nightmares? Yeah, that was just downright spooky.
Not that she had any evidence that Sayori wasn't simply having a bit of a slow morning, of course. But if it developed into a pattern... Well, it was something to keep an eye on in her capacity as President of the Creative Writing Club (not the Literature Club, that had already been taken, and it was a better name for a club about writing your own stuff rather than pure literary appreciation so suck it intrusive thoughts!) and as one of Sayori's best friends.
And that little voice at the back of her mind saying, You're not really hurting anyone, just editing a .chr file in a VN..., it could go be fruitful and multiply with itself. Doing awful things to NPCs was one thing but Sayori was most definitely a person, and hoping Taiku picked her instead of Sayori was also one thing but no way in hell was she going to let her get hurt.
The rest of Monika's rather small circle of friends was waiting under one of the shade trees in the playground. Yuri was almost disappearing behind a large hardback book with a cover design that was trying to look like it would be at home in the library of a scholar of forbidden eldritch lore, and Natsuki was scowling fiercely at her sketchbook trying to tune out Kensuke, who was obliviously rambling about something or other.
"Hi Monika," Natsuki called out, sounding as exasperated as she looked. "Guess what? Ken's bringing a friend to the club tonight."
Monika smiled. "Great! Anyone we know?"
"Nah, she's just moved to Japan. Still goes to an online school, but I think she's considering coming here once she works things out with her guardian. He works for NERV, but he's not here yet, which is a long story I probably shouldn't go into unless she okays it. But anyway!" said Kensuke, with a level of enthusiasm he rarely showed for anything that wasn't featured in a Jane's Guide to something, "her name is Mari, and she's great. Loves photography, writes awesome fanfiction-"
"Very attractive?" Natsuki suggested archly.
"What's the matter, Nats, jealous?" Kensuke replied.
"Of the first 3D girl you took an interest in? Hell no."
"Hey, now that was just mean. Not necessarily untrue, but still mean," Kensuke replied, declining to share the fact that Shinji had made much the same joke. Everyone shared a laugh at that, with the notable exception of Natsuki herself. Instead, she made an irritated noise and shoved her sketchbook and pencil back in her bag.
"Something bothering you, Natsuki?" Taiku asked, looking a bit concerned.
"I'm fine," she replied, just a bit too quickly. "Dad was just in one of his moods this morning, that's all."
Sayori frowned. "Is he ever not in one of his moods?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Natsuki replied, in a tone that brooked no argument. The others exchanged a worried look, but allowed the matter to drop.
Monika, however, allowed herself a brief moment to think about exactly what she'd do to Natsuki's dad if she ever got read/write access to his .chr file.
The rest of the school day passed without incident, unless one counted Megumi Aihara finally losing her temper and yelling at the fifth concerned classmate that Chihiro was not cheating on her, that was just so her dad didn't start asking awkward questions. Monika added "fake dating" to the club's ever-growing list of Trope of the Week candidates.
And then, at long last, it was time to set up in a little-used classroom in the Japanese Literature wing and hold the meeting.
"I'm not going to do any assignments or anything tonight," Monika told the others. "You're still welcome to read something out if you were looking forward to sharing it, but for tonight I just want to get to know our new member..." The door swung open. "And right on cue. Welcome to the club."
Monika wasn't quite sure what she was expecting, but a tall and willowy girl with reddish-black hair of a shade that she was sure was only naturally occurring in Lauren K. Hamilton novels, wearing a hoodie with a multi-coloured Celtic knot logo and a tartan skirt over Hufflepuff House leggings was not it. "Hi guys. I'm Mari Makinami. Ken's told me a lot about you," she said cheerfully, in fluent but rather oddly-accented Japanese.
"Welcome to the club. I'm Monika and that's Natsuki, Taiku and Sayori. Yuri went to grab some more teabags. So, do take a seat..." Monika trailed off as Mari pulled her hoodie over her head, revealing a t-shirt emblazoned with the words "Give Geeks A Chance!" in a jaunty font. "Oh, my," she said softly.
"Great. I could do with a brew. Um, should I pop to the shops to get milk and sugar or are we having green?"
Natsuki snorted. "Ah, so that's why you sound like that guy who played Dr Who before the one who looks like that guy off Top Gear."
There was a moment of bemused silence, then Mari burst out laughing. "Why, the audacity!" she cried in mock-outrage.
"For saying you sound like you're from Manchester or for saying David Tennant looks like Richard Hammond?" said Kensuke.
"Both!"
"Yeah, I don't see it either," Taiku replied. "So, what team do you support?"
Kensuke tried not to look crestfallen, while Monika's eyes narrowed dangerously. Sayori just sighed. "You two had better not be planning to talk about football all evening," she grumped.
"No, but I might bore her about my Captain Tsubasa fanfiction. That's still on-topic, right?" There was a collective groan. "Alright, alright. Honestly, it's not that bad..."
"It's unmitigated crack! And your OC bangs a girl called freakin' Chardonnay!" Natsuki retorted.
Mari facepalmed. "Oh my God you did a crossover with Footballers Wives. It's a soap opera," she added, seeing the blank looks the girls and Kensuke were giving her. "It's allegedly about a fictional professional football team and their families, and it was the trashiest thing on Sky One when it was still airing, and that is seriously saying something! And there really was a girl called Chardonnay in it!"
"She's canon?" Sayori exclaimed in horror.
"Okay, I'm feeling a little attacked here," Taiku complained.
"You made me beta it, so you can just deal."
Yuri chose this moment to enter the room, carrying a shopping bag and a large box of doughnuts. "Uh, hi guys. What did I miss?"
"Terrible dark secrets. Things it would be better not to know," Kensuke intoned grimly, only half-joking.
"Awww, you couldn't have waited for me?" she quipped.
The meeting almost overran, and Natsuki had to take off in a big hurry when she glanced at the clock. "Same time next week?" Mari asked, snagging the last doughnut.
"Sure thing," Monika replied. "If you want to bring some stuff to read out then feel free. And we'll probably be a bit more formal and stuff, but..."
"It's fine. I'm really glad Kensuke invited me." Mari paused. "Hey... Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." Something in her tone made Monika... not wary, exactly, but a touch concerned.
"Is Natsuki alright? When she realised she might be late getting home, she looked really worried."
"You'd have to ask Natsuki about that," Yuri cut in hastily, before Monika could say anything. "She wouldn't like us talking about it behind her back."
"That'd be a 'no', then." Mari picked up a pen and a scrap of paper from the table and scribbled her phone number down. "If she needs help, or a place to hang out for a few hours or anything else then call me, okay? And the same goes for the rest of you."
Yuri pocketed the note. "That's... generous. Thank you."
Mari shrugged. "What can I say? It's a Hufflepuff thing. Anyway, I'd better go or we'll miss the bus. See you round."
"Well, she was certainly something," Sayori remarked to nobody in particular, as the remaining club members started gathering up the empty cups and other detritus. "And what did her t-shirt say that made Kensuke's eyes bug out like that?"
Monika translated it as best she could. "The pun doesn't work in Japanese and it's not really that funny in English, but what it actually means is that Kensuke might just have a shot."
"Well, good for him. Nice to know someone's idea to invite their crush to the club is working out for them," Sayori muttered, shoving a chair back under a desk with more force than neccessary.
If Taiku overheard that, he very sensibly chose not to comment.
There was probably some kind of symbolic meaning to all that: Anxiety about being a gaijin girl in an almost 100% Japanese school. The sense of dislocation from having no family, no identity except what she'd carved out for herself since arriving here. The constant nagging worry that nobody really saw her as one of us... And yet it was so weirdly specific, and vivid, and consistent. What did any of that mean?
"Monika? You awake in there? Your alarm's been going off for ten minutes!"
Monika Salvato shook herself, mentally, and silenced the alarm. "I'm alright, Ms Zhang. Just a little distracted."
"Alright," her caretaker replied, a little uncertainly. "But don't hang about, breakfast's about to be served."
"On my way." Monika swung her legs out of bed. "Coffee now, existential crisis later," she told herself.
A cup of coffee and a slightly ecclectic breakfast of miso soup and a toasted bagel and cream cheese helped her ground herself. Twenty minutes later, a much more clear-headed Monika shut her bedroom door behind her and finished towelling off her hair. The used towel went to the laundry basket, her dressing gown to its hook behind the door, and she sat down at the dresser to... well, to dress. White blouse, teal pinafore dress, a red ribbon at her collar (which helped shed the persistent feeling she should be putting on an Argyle sweater, a fawn blazer and a dress skirt instead) and her favourite hairbow, then some nice sensible tights...
"Fuck!" she hissed, quietly. as the seam that had been threatening to rip for a while finally let go. "Guess today's a zettai day."
Having achieved just enough thigh-gap to be noticeable if Taiku was paying attention but not so blatant that Sayori would pick up on it (she hoped!), Monika made sure her books and laptop were in her bag along with her inside shoes and headed out of the front door just ahead of the rush.
If there had been one small upside to Second Impact, it had been a substantial boost in funding and respect for Japan's social and child welfare system. Once upon a time the idea of needing such a thing had been considered vaguely improper, and anyone who found themselves a client of it... Well, they were never officially treated differently but somehow they often seemed to coincidentally get picked last for university places or office jobs along with ethnic Koreans and burakumin and anyone else who could be grouped under "people who aren't really our sort of people". But with the global climate and the global economy in a race to see which could collapse first and wars kicking off over the remaining sources of fuel and water and good farmland, that sort of thing came to matter a lot less to most people. (And rather a lot more to a few, but thankfully the Diet had taken a lesson from the parts of Japan's history they tried not to talk about and come down hard on that before it could get started.) Who your ancestors were was suddenly a lot less relevant than what you could contribute to doing something about the country being thoroughly wrecked, partially flooded and slightly on fire. And one of the things that needed doing was looking after all these orphans, whose circumstances not even the "traditional family values" lobby could blame on their parents. It was rather inspiring if you didn't think too hard about what it had cost.
The upshot of all that being that the Tokyo-3 Municipal Child Welfare Residential Care Facility (no, the staff didn't know why they couldn't just call it an orphanage either) was an elegant, well-maintained building in a quite desirable residential neighbourhood within walking distance of the school, where Monika and a hundred or so children between the ages of four and seventeen lived in modest but comfortable conditions with a team of well trained and highly motivated carers and support staff. If Shinji or Rei were to visit her at home they would have been more than slightly jealous.
Sayori's house was a couple of streets away, about half-way between the orphanage and the school, and Taiku lived a bit further up the same street, so the three of them usually ran into each other in the mornings. Normally that was a good thing, but lately... Well, suddenly noticing that Taiku Tsuna really didn't live up to his name in more than one way had made things a bit complicated.
The exotic foreign girl and the childhood friend, both with a crush on the likeable regular guy. And I wonder why I have nightmares about being trapped in a dating sim, Monika thought wryly, as the other two rounded the corner and stepped onto the street she was walking along. "Hi you two!" she called out.
"Hi Monika," Taiku replied. "You look nice today." Yep, he'd noticed her thigh gap.
Sayori just mumbled something noncommittal, and started tugging Taiku away by his arm. Monika firmly quashed a stab of jealousy, partly because she didn't want Taiku to see it but also because the other girl actually looked pretty dazed. "Are you alright, Sayori?"
"Fine! I'm fine," she replied, a bit too hastily. "Just slept too long. Need a coffee."
Monika was suddenly struck by a vision of Sayori walking a way from Taiku towards her house, then of Taiku gently opening her bedroom door, and... "What the hell?"
And then he starts a new game, but instead of his quirky childhood friend Sayuri it's Monika, the pretty and popular girl from the athletics team who wants him to join her club...
"Monika? You spaced out for a sec there." Taiku looked concerned.
"Huh? Oh, sorry. Sayori's not the only one who's not woken up properly, I guess."
Monika let the others pull ahead of her so they wouldn't see just how rattled she was. That was how things started to go off the rails in the dreams. Sayori began sleeping in more, losing interest in her hobbies, generally acting lethargic and out of it... Everyone in the orphanage got the talk about those warning signs and what to do about them, even without the nightmares she'd be a little concerned. But with the nightmares? Yeah, that was just downright spooky.
Not that she had any evidence that Sayori wasn't simply having a bit of a slow morning, of course. But if it developed into a pattern... Well, it was something to keep an eye on in her capacity as President of the Creative Writing Club (not the Literature Club, that had already been taken, and it was a better name for a club about writing your own stuff rather than pure literary appreciation so suck it intrusive thoughts!) and as one of Sayori's best friends.
And that little voice at the back of her mind saying, You're not really hurting anyone, just editing a .chr file in a VN..., it could go be fruitful and multiply with itself. Doing awful things to NPCs was one thing but Sayori was most definitely a person, and hoping Taiku picked her instead of Sayori was also one thing but no way in hell was she going to let her get hurt.
The rest of Monika's rather small circle of friends was waiting under one of the shade trees in the playground. Yuri was almost disappearing behind a large hardback book with a cover design that was trying to look like it would be at home in the library of a scholar of forbidden eldritch lore, and Natsuki was scowling fiercely at her sketchbook trying to tune out Kensuke, who was obliviously rambling about something or other.
"Hi Monika," Natsuki called out, sounding as exasperated as she looked. "Guess what? Ken's bringing a friend to the club tonight."
Monika smiled. "Great! Anyone we know?"
"Nah, she's just moved to Japan. Still goes to an online school, but I think she's considering coming here once she works things out with her guardian. He works for NERV, but he's not here yet, which is a long story I probably shouldn't go into unless she okays it. But anyway!" said Kensuke, with a level of enthusiasm he rarely showed for anything that wasn't featured in a Jane's Guide to something, "her name is Mari, and she's great. Loves photography, writes awesome fanfiction-"
"Very attractive?" Natsuki suggested archly.
"What's the matter, Nats, jealous?" Kensuke replied.
"Of the first 3D girl you took an interest in? Hell no."
"Hey, now that was just mean. Not necessarily untrue, but still mean," Kensuke replied, declining to share the fact that Shinji had made much the same joke. Everyone shared a laugh at that, with the notable exception of Natsuki herself. Instead, she made an irritated noise and shoved her sketchbook and pencil back in her bag.
"Something bothering you, Natsuki?" Taiku asked, looking a bit concerned.
"I'm fine," she replied, just a bit too quickly. "Dad was just in one of his moods this morning, that's all."
Sayori frowned. "Is he ever not in one of his moods?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Natsuki replied, in a tone that brooked no argument. The others exchanged a worried look, but allowed the matter to drop.
Monika, however, allowed herself a brief moment to think about exactly what she'd do to Natsuki's dad if she ever got read/write access to his .chr file.
The rest of the school day passed without incident, unless one counted Megumi Aihara finally losing her temper and yelling at the fifth concerned classmate that Chihiro was not cheating on her, that was just so her dad didn't start asking awkward questions. Monika added "fake dating" to the club's ever-growing list of Trope of the Week candidates.
And then, at long last, it was time to set up in a little-used classroom in the Japanese Literature wing and hold the meeting.
"I'm not going to do any assignments or anything tonight," Monika told the others. "You're still welcome to read something out if you were looking forward to sharing it, but for tonight I just want to get to know our new member..." The door swung open. "And right on cue. Welcome to the club."
Monika wasn't quite sure what she was expecting, but a tall and willowy girl with reddish-black hair of a shade that she was sure was only naturally occurring in Lauren K. Hamilton novels, wearing a hoodie with a multi-coloured Celtic knot logo and a tartan skirt over Hufflepuff House leggings was not it. "Hi guys. I'm Mari Makinami. Ken's told me a lot about you," she said cheerfully, in fluent but rather oddly-accented Japanese.
"Welcome to the club. I'm Monika and that's Natsuki, Taiku and Sayori. Yuri went to grab some more teabags. So, do take a seat..." Monika trailed off as Mari pulled her hoodie over her head, revealing a t-shirt emblazoned with the words "Give Geeks A Chance!" in a jaunty font. "Oh, my," she said softly.
"Great. I could do with a brew. Um, should I pop to the shops to get milk and sugar or are we having green?"
Natsuki snorted. "Ah, so that's why you sound like that guy who played Dr Who before the one who looks like that guy off Top Gear."
There was a moment of bemused silence, then Mari burst out laughing. "Why, the audacity!" she cried in mock-outrage.
"For saying you sound like you're from Manchester or for saying David Tennant looks like Richard Hammond?" said Kensuke.
"Both!"
"Yeah, I don't see it either," Taiku replied. "So, what team do you support?"
Kensuke tried not to look crestfallen, while Monika's eyes narrowed dangerously. Sayori just sighed. "You two had better not be planning to talk about football all evening," she grumped.
"No, but I might bore her about my Captain Tsubasa fanfiction. That's still on-topic, right?" There was a collective groan. "Alright, alright. Honestly, it's not that bad..."
"It's unmitigated crack! And your OC bangs a girl called freakin' Chardonnay!" Natsuki retorted.
Mari facepalmed. "Oh my God you did a crossover with Footballers Wives. It's a soap opera," she added, seeing the blank looks the girls and Kensuke were giving her. "It's allegedly about a fictional professional football team and their families, and it was the trashiest thing on Sky One when it was still airing, and that is seriously saying something! And there really was a girl called Chardonnay in it!"
"She's canon?" Sayori exclaimed in horror.
"Okay, I'm feeling a little attacked here," Taiku complained.
"You made me beta it, so you can just deal."
Yuri chose this moment to enter the room, carrying a shopping bag and a large box of doughnuts. "Uh, hi guys. What did I miss?"
"Terrible dark secrets. Things it would be better not to know," Kensuke intoned grimly, only half-joking.
"Awww, you couldn't have waited for me?" she quipped.
The meeting almost overran, and Natsuki had to take off in a big hurry when she glanced at the clock. "Same time next week?" Mari asked, snagging the last doughnut.
"Sure thing," Monika replied. "If you want to bring some stuff to read out then feel free. And we'll probably be a bit more formal and stuff, but..."
"It's fine. I'm really glad Kensuke invited me." Mari paused. "Hey... Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." Something in her tone made Monika... not wary, exactly, but a touch concerned.
"Is Natsuki alright? When she realised she might be late getting home, she looked really worried."
"You'd have to ask Natsuki about that," Yuri cut in hastily, before Monika could say anything. "She wouldn't like us talking about it behind her back."
"That'd be a 'no', then." Mari picked up a pen and a scrap of paper from the table and scribbled her phone number down. "If she needs help, or a place to hang out for a few hours or anything else then call me, okay? And the same goes for the rest of you."
Yuri pocketed the note. "That's... generous. Thank you."
Mari shrugged. "What can I say? It's a Hufflepuff thing. Anyway, I'd better go or we'll miss the bus. See you round."
"Well, she was certainly something," Sayori remarked to nobody in particular, as the remaining club members started gathering up the empty cups and other detritus. "And what did her t-shirt say that made Kensuke's eyes bug out like that?"
Monika translated it as best she could. "The pun doesn't work in Japanese and it's not really that funny in English, but what it actually means is that Kensuke might just have a shot."
"Well, good for him. Nice to know someone's idea to invite their crush to the club is working out for them," Sayori muttered, shoving a chair back under a desk with more force than neccessary.
If Taiku overheard that, he very sensibly chose not to comment.
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Ariel borked the formatting.
Well, sounds to me like Monika might want to take up Mari on her offer. Probably the other Dokis, too.
- Location
- One Step Behind
Love it! You might want to make the speaker of the 'Captain Tsubasa' infamy a little more clear. I'm not sure who's speaking/being referred to.
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- Location
- The Midlands.
Good point. I'll fix that in a bit.
Oh, and in case anyone's wondering, that soap opera Mari mentions? It's real. Footballers' Wives - Wikipedia
- Location
- One Step Behind
That's horrifying. 😳 I mean, I'm not surprised; just horrified.
- Location
- One Step Behind
Really. You know it's bad when an NGE character is a source of refuge...
- Location
- The Midlands.
Quite. And I don't know all that much about Captain Tsubasa beyond the basic concept, but a crossover between it and that is probably more cursed than The Portrait of Markov.
But hey, I've certainly succeeded in giving "MC" some distinctive character traits...
Yeah, there's really only one reaction to knowing that the Evangelion pilot is comparatively sane and well-adjusted.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgaCZBIYZjU
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgaCZBIYZjU
- Location
- The Midlands.
Mari's not thrilled about being in this position either.
Chapter 7 Part 4
- Location
- The Midlands.
It's a bit short and doesn't do much to advance the plot, but it's about time I posted something, don't you think? Also, I think Megumi's surname and nickname are the most convoluted and obscure shout-out I've ever come up with. I wonder if anyone will get it?
The container ship that Unit-02 was travelling on (whose name Asuka had eventually learned was the MV Helena Palanquis) wasn't supplied with very many amenities, but it did have a sort of sun-deck behind the superstructure with some weathered but comfy patio furniture and a propane grill that the crew used for the occasional barbecue night when the weather was good enough. Asuka had taken to spending most of her free time there to read or mess with her laptop, and had also found that it was the best place on the ship other than the roof of the bridge to get some bars on her phone via the Over The Rainbow's pico-cell.
"... I had never even heard of this show, and who the hell would bother fansubbing it is beyond me, but now neither of them will shut up about this fanfic of Taiku's. It's kind of endearing, in a very weird way."
Asuka shook her head in amused wonder. "I'm not sure what's weirder, Kensuke having the self-awareness to think of taking an interest in his crush's hobbies or the fact it might get him somewhere."
"That's... Actually, I can't really think of an objection to that," Shinji admitted. "But hey, if it works then good for him... Oh, yeah, latest development on the Chihiro thing: Megumi kind of yelled at someone for trying to gently break the news that her girlfriend was cheating on her, because apparently I am in fact the only person in the whole school who didn't know they were a thing."
"Hah. Wait... What's Rei blackmailing her into playing nice with, then?"
"Well, there's having everyone know you're dating another girl and there's having everyone knowing you snuck into a bathroom stall together and... Well, yeah."
"That'd do it," Asuka agreed, wincing at the thought. "She should ask Hikari for a list of all the best local love hotels."
Shinji laughed. "I'd pay real money to be a witness to that conversation." If he was about to say anything further, he was interrupted by a muffled curse in English and a long burst of angry typing in the background. "Do I want to know?" he said, slightly muffled as if he'd turned away from his phone.
"Just some mates of mine being boys, don't worry about it," Mari called back.
"Huh. Visiting Specs again, then?" Asuka remarked.
"Yep. Misato's at work, and when it's just me and Rei at home... it's too quiet without you."
More emotions than Asuka could begin to catalogue hit her all at once. "Miss you too, Shinji," she said, once she found her voice. "And tell Rei I miss her as well."
"Thank you. I will." They settled into a slightly awkward silence, that was broken when a nearby hatch swung open and David came out onto the deck, triumphantly clutching a two-pint carton of milk and a box of teabags. Asuka wondered briefly if the ship's crew was still unaware of the presence of three stowaways, being paid to pretend they were unaware of them, or merely reasoned that as long as the owners had been paid the applicable fees to take this particular shipping container to its destination then what -or who- it contained wasn't their business unless it became a problem.
"Fancy a brew?" he asked in passing.
"Sure. But before you do, you might wanna check on Mari, I can hear her keysmashing from here. Shinji, can you put us on speakerphone for a sec?"
"Sure. Mari? David's on the phone for you."
"Hi Mari, everything okay? Asuka said something about keysmashing."
"Hi David. Nothing to worry about, Tim's just about to have one of his Moments and James is egging him on because he thinks it's funny. Men!"
"Business as usual, then. I'll leave them in your capable hands. Anyway, I'm dying for a cuppa so speak to you when we dock, okay?"
"Sure. See you soon! And Asuka? Don't diss Taiku's fanfic 'til you read it, it's much better than it sounds."
"If that bar was any lower it'd be a tripping hazard," Asuka replied.
"My first fanfic had General Woundwort laying seige to Salamandastron, who am I to judge?" There was a faint buzzing noise in the background. "That's our takeaway. Catch you later!" The call disconnected.
"That actually sounds kinda cool," Asuka remarked to nobody in particular.
"I liked it, personally," David agreed, handing her an enamel mug of tea. "I'd send you the link if I didn't think it'd embarrass her."
Asuka sipped her tea cautiously, and was not particularly surprised to discover that David made it much the way his young ward did, very strong with a generous splash of milk. "So, what's gonna happen with you once we get to Japan? Are you still on NERV's payroll?"
"Surprisingly, yes. The official story is that I'm on a leave of absence to put my affairs in order before I ship out to Japan to continue as her guardian. How well that holds up to scrutiny depends on how the three of us are in convincing the future Mrs Ryouji that I'd be a valuable addition to the team. If not I guess I'll try and pick up a job teaching English as a second language or something."
"Future Mrs Kaji. 'Ryouji' is his first name, or would be in Europe."
David's palm met his forehead with some force. "You realise I've been travelling with him for, what, a month and a half and it never occurred to me to actually check that? Although it would've been kind of awkward to ask after a while..."
"Get used to being on the other end of it after we arrive. And if you call Misato that where she can hear you then you'll regret it."
"Wasn't planning on it." David drained his mug and flicked the dregs over the side. "But so far as I know I still have custody, if only because her mum's not in a position to take over and her dad... Well, that's not my story to tell but suffice to say he's got other things on his mind. Which should be... interesting, since she currently has an address and an income and I the allegedly responsible adult don't even have a proper entry visa yet. Good Lord I'm glad I don't have to explain all this to Child Services."
"NERV outrank them. And I guess it's you who'll be giving Kensuke the shovel talk."
David shook his head. "I wouldn't do Mari the insult of implying she needed me to deal with him if he wrongs her. Besides, anyone who teaches himself fluent English in order to properly enjoy the works of Terry Pratchett must have something going for him."
"Heh. All we are saying," Asuka sang softly, "is give geeks a chance..."
David burst out laughing. "Would you believe she has a t-shirt that says that?"
"You are incorrect, by the way," Rei remarked, as the three of them sat down to eat. "I am fairly confident the rest of the school has already pieced together the likeliest explanation for how I know what Chihiro sounds like when she and Megumi are intimate."
"Yeah, now you mention it that probably wasn't hard to guess," Shinji replied. "So are you even blackmailing her at this point?"
"I am not actually sure. I think Chihiro and I have... come to an understanding." Rei smiled slightly. "But if we have not, then one thing the school does not yet know is that they address each other as 'Chi-Chi' and 'little Umi-cakes' when they think they are alone."
Shinji groaned. "Did you have to tell me that? I have to keep a straight face when I see them in class!"
"You know, I'm really glad I don't have to deal with all this drama," said Mari, who really should have known better than to tempt fate like that.
The container ship that Unit-02 was travelling on (whose name Asuka had eventually learned was the MV Helena Palanquis) wasn't supplied with very many amenities, but it did have a sort of sun-deck behind the superstructure with some weathered but comfy patio furniture and a propane grill that the crew used for the occasional barbecue night when the weather was good enough. Asuka had taken to spending most of her free time there to read or mess with her laptop, and had also found that it was the best place on the ship other than the roof of the bridge to get some bars on her phone via the Over The Rainbow's pico-cell.
"... I had never even heard of this show, and who the hell would bother fansubbing it is beyond me, but now neither of them will shut up about this fanfic of Taiku's. It's kind of endearing, in a very weird way."
Asuka shook her head in amused wonder. "I'm not sure what's weirder, Kensuke having the self-awareness to think of taking an interest in his crush's hobbies or the fact it might get him somewhere."
"That's... Actually, I can't really think of an objection to that," Shinji admitted. "But hey, if it works then good for him... Oh, yeah, latest development on the Chihiro thing: Megumi kind of yelled at someone for trying to gently break the news that her girlfriend was cheating on her, because apparently I am in fact the only person in the whole school who didn't know they were a thing."
"Hah. Wait... What's Rei blackmailing her into playing nice with, then?"
"Well, there's having everyone know you're dating another girl and there's having everyone knowing you snuck into a bathroom stall together and... Well, yeah."
"That'd do it," Asuka agreed, wincing at the thought. "She should ask Hikari for a list of all the best local love hotels."
Shinji laughed. "I'd pay real money to be a witness to that conversation." If he was about to say anything further, he was interrupted by a muffled curse in English and a long burst of angry typing in the background. "Do I want to know?" he said, slightly muffled as if he'd turned away from his phone.
"Just some mates of mine being boys, don't worry about it," Mari called back.
"Huh. Visiting Specs again, then?" Asuka remarked.
"Yep. Misato's at work, and when it's just me and Rei at home... it's too quiet without you."
More emotions than Asuka could begin to catalogue hit her all at once. "Miss you too, Shinji," she said, once she found her voice. "And tell Rei I miss her as well."
"Thank you. I will." They settled into a slightly awkward silence, that was broken when a nearby hatch swung open and David came out onto the deck, triumphantly clutching a two-pint carton of milk and a box of teabags. Asuka wondered briefly if the ship's crew was still unaware of the presence of three stowaways, being paid to pretend they were unaware of them, or merely reasoned that as long as the owners had been paid the applicable fees to take this particular shipping container to its destination then what -or who- it contained wasn't their business unless it became a problem.
"Fancy a brew?" he asked in passing.
"Sure. But before you do, you might wanna check on Mari, I can hear her keysmashing from here. Shinji, can you put us on speakerphone for a sec?"
"Sure. Mari? David's on the phone for you."
"Hi Mari, everything okay? Asuka said something about keysmashing."
"Hi David. Nothing to worry about, Tim's just about to have one of his Moments and James is egging him on because he thinks it's funny. Men!"
"Business as usual, then. I'll leave them in your capable hands. Anyway, I'm dying for a cuppa so speak to you when we dock, okay?"
"Sure. See you soon! And Asuka? Don't diss Taiku's fanfic 'til you read it, it's much better than it sounds."
"If that bar was any lower it'd be a tripping hazard," Asuka replied.
"My first fanfic had General Woundwort laying seige to Salamandastron, who am I to judge?" There was a faint buzzing noise in the background. "That's our takeaway. Catch you later!" The call disconnected.
"That actually sounds kinda cool," Asuka remarked to nobody in particular.
"I liked it, personally," David agreed, handing her an enamel mug of tea. "I'd send you the link if I didn't think it'd embarrass her."
Asuka sipped her tea cautiously, and was not particularly surprised to discover that David made it much the way his young ward did, very strong with a generous splash of milk. "So, what's gonna happen with you once we get to Japan? Are you still on NERV's payroll?"
"Surprisingly, yes. The official story is that I'm on a leave of absence to put my affairs in order before I ship out to Japan to continue as her guardian. How well that holds up to scrutiny depends on how the three of us are in convincing the future Mrs Ryouji that I'd be a valuable addition to the team. If not I guess I'll try and pick up a job teaching English as a second language or something."
"Future Mrs Kaji. 'Ryouji' is his first name, or would be in Europe."
David's palm met his forehead with some force. "You realise I've been travelling with him for, what, a month and a half and it never occurred to me to actually check that? Although it would've been kind of awkward to ask after a while..."
"Get used to being on the other end of it after we arrive. And if you call Misato that where she can hear you then you'll regret it."
"Wasn't planning on it." David drained his mug and flicked the dregs over the side. "But so far as I know I still have custody, if only because her mum's not in a position to take over and her dad... Well, that's not my story to tell but suffice to say he's got other things on his mind. Which should be... interesting, since she currently has an address and an income and I the allegedly responsible adult don't even have a proper entry visa yet. Good Lord I'm glad I don't have to explain all this to Child Services."
"NERV outrank them. And I guess it's you who'll be giving Kensuke the shovel talk."
David shook his head. "I wouldn't do Mari the insult of implying she needed me to deal with him if he wrongs her. Besides, anyone who teaches himself fluent English in order to properly enjoy the works of Terry Pratchett must have something going for him."
"Heh. All we are saying," Asuka sang softly, "is give geeks a chance..."
David burst out laughing. "Would you believe she has a t-shirt that says that?"
"You are incorrect, by the way," Rei remarked, as the three of them sat down to eat. "I am fairly confident the rest of the school has already pieced together the likeliest explanation for how I know what Chihiro sounds like when she and Megumi are intimate."
"Yeah, now you mention it that probably wasn't hard to guess," Shinji replied. "So are you even blackmailing her at this point?"
"I am not actually sure. I think Chihiro and I have... come to an understanding." Rei smiled slightly. "But if we have not, then one thing the school does not yet know is that they address each other as 'Chi-Chi' and 'little Umi-cakes' when they think they are alone."
Shinji groaned. "Did you have to tell me that? I have to keep a straight face when I see them in class!"
"You know, I'm really glad I don't have to deal with all this drama," said Mari, who really should have known better than to tempt fate like that.
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Borked formatting.
Is that a
- Location
- The Midlands.
Oops. Fixed.
Yes. As well as a Watership Down reference.
And this is probably a good time to insert a quick disclaimer: No, I am not making Mari a furry.
Astray Spiral
Potential Evil Incarnate
- Location
- C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Don't worry about that, ANIMA already has that covered. Just do what you want with Mari.
sunergos
Failed the Turing test.
Redwall x Watership Downs crossover? I think the scouser is my new favorite.
AustSakuraKyzor
Confused Librarian
- Location
- Bhaile
Who in their right mind thinks that Redwall or Watership Down is a gateway drug to being a furry?
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
Do you have any idea how many people are not in their right minds?