I like this story. I like how Mari keeps trying even though its wearying. I like how Dr. Heck seems to be the old school guy who knows the science behind this stuff, but has to explain it in terms of magic and fairies after seeing his coworkers glazed expressions after giving a presentation using the hard science terms.
I hope that when it finally gets too much for Mari and she collapses, Shinji will be there with a thermos of tea and Rei is the one giving a motivational speech. And by motivational speech I mean a terse jumble of platitudes that actually gets her meaning across, since Rei doesn't really speak so anything more then two words is more then they ever heard her speak.
Now I really want a Shinji/Mari fic. I don't know why.
Mari's friendly enough, it's just that sometimes she's just a bit much for a poor introvert like Shinji.
Shinji hummed to himself as he walked up the stairs with a bag of groceries in his arms. He was finally home, Misato was working the graveyard shift filling out paperwork, everything was going to be fine, and he was going to kick back, relax and enjoy a nice evening of well-deserved solitude, for real this time.
Reality proved to be disappointing once again as he opened the door to the apartment to see a brown-haired man dressed in a business suit talking to someone on the phone while a still-sullen Asuka sat on a stack of red luggage still tapping away at her phone. The brown-haired man noticed him and started moving towards him in an attempt to shake his hand.
"Hey there, Sonny."
"Er, it's Shinji." he stammered out, still dealing with the shock of having his evening plans ruined.
"Sorry. Jack Langley, Langley Defense Systems. We built that Jet Alone robot from a few weeks back."
"I-it kinda gave me radiation poisoning."
There was a small twitch in the corner of the man's eye.
"Well, what's a little ionizing radiation between friends? Tell you what, to make it up to you how about I take you and your friends for a nice dinner, take some PR pictures, show that there are no hard feelings? I even brought my daughter Asuka, she's about your age I'm sure you two will get along like a house on fire, what do you say?"
With that Asuka looked up from her phone and fixed him with a death glare, which he returned in kind. Langley seemed to be oblivious to all of this.
"Shinji?"
Presented with a range of possible options, Shinji chose the one he was most comfortable with. He placed the bag of groceries down on a nearby table and then proceeded to run out the door as quickly as he could, not paying any attention to Langley's shouts, or the neighbors in the halls. He finally reached the bottom floor before his legs cramped on him. A sweaty, panting Langley followed a few minutes later.
"Christ kid, you've got some legs on you. The hell was all that about?"
The boy gulped down another breath of air.
"I'm not going anywhere if she's going to be there."
"Who? Oh. Oh, I take it you and Asuka already met."
"She parachuted into me and then started yelling at me!"
Langley let out a weary sigh.
"Yeah, she does that. I mean, she's a good kid at heart. Higher maintenance than my pre-Impact Porsche and ex-wife combined and I'm partially to blame for that for putting my career ahead of my family…you're not buying this at all are you?"
Shinji shook his head.
"Okay then. How much do you want?"
"W-what?"
"Look, I really need to do this to appease the IPEA and my shareholders and I get that you don't want to do this so name your price."
Shinji thought for a moment. Nobody ever raised the subject of paying him for his trouble before, actually come to think of it, did pilots get paid? Then again, it seemed pretty sad that Mr. Langley had to actually try and bribe him to spend time with his daughter, the more self-loathing parts in the back of his mind made him picture himself in the same situation.
"Does it have to be money? Because Mari's Eva needs new legs and Mari kinda does too, Rei could really use a nicer apartment, and I really want just want some peace and quiet."
"First two, no problem. The last one's a bit tricky since can you really put a physical value on peace of mind."
An awkward silence held between the two for a moment.
"That's a joke son, little corporate slogan? Eh, forget it. Wasn't that funny anyway. We'll get the lab and finance people to work on it, all you need to do is just hang tight for a couple of hours and get ready while we get everything set up. Dinner's at eight, we'll send a car got it?"
"Uh…"
"Great! See you soon!"
With that Langley departed. Creeping back up the stairs to the apartment Shinji found Asuka in the exact same place he'd left her, glancing up from her phone she fixed him with yet another glare."
"He bribed you didn't he? Oh don't give me that look, he's done the same thing for every birthday or special thing he needs a bunch of people to show up to."
"Gee, I can't imagine why."
For whatever reason, the redhead seemed to like that.
"Y'know you've got a lot of backbone for a kid who cried and ran away when they tried to stick him in the Eva."
She wasn't wrong but he wasn't going to admit it.
"Wha…I didn't run away!"
A wicked grin spread across the girl's face.
"Uh huh, Misato said differently in her emails."
"Yeah, sure."
"I'm serious, she's like my big freaking sister. She practically raised me when I was little, taught me how to ride a bike, was there when they dumped me out of a plane the first time…"
Well, that certainly explained a lot.
"…but anyway I need to get back to grinding for rare drops."
With that, she went back to her phone. Now was Shinji's chance, he could get to his room throw on his headphones and enjoy the blessed solitude he had been craving all day…but the tiny thread of morbid curiosity had wrapped itself around his mind.
"What are you playing?"
"Gatcha Grabber: Great Congregation."
"Isn't that one of those games that you just throw money at until you win?"
Oh boy, the death glare returned again.
"No! It requires skill and hard work, all of my Legendary characters were farmed the hard way I didn't need my stupid dad's money to get them!"
"Okay."
The death glare continued until a small ping rang out from the phone which was met by a happy squee.
"Yes! New Legendary! Come to mama!"
With that, Shinji ran to his room to wait out dinner.
"I'm serious, she's like my big freaking sister. She practically raised me when I was little, taught me how to ride a bike, was there when they dumped me out of a plane the first time…"
Presented with a range of possible options, Shinji chose the one he was most comfortable with. He placed the bag of groceries down on a nearby table and then proceeded to run out the door as quickly as he could, not paying any attention to Langley's shouts, or the neighbors in the halls. He finally reached the bottom floor before his legs cramped on him. A sweaty, panting Langley followed a few minutes later.
"Welcome to Cafe NERV, I'll be your server this evening. Our dinner special is Risotto Akagi." It had taken six hours in order to find a restaurant that suited everyone's needs. The fancy steakhouse near Tokyo-3 International Airport had been out given that Rei didn't eat meat, ramen was too plebeian for the occasion according to Langley, and Shinji had apparently vaporized the only Italian place in the city with a positron beam a few months ago. The end result was a theme restaurant set up for the tourists. Not that anybody in their right mind would ever come to Tokyo-3 on vacation.
Not that any of this mattered to Mari, she had a new friend to make. The illustrious Captain Shikinami, which was a bit strange because Shikinami was an Eva pilot like her and she wasn't a captain, let alone an illustrious one and Illustrious was literally her middle name. Maybe she should have asked Mr. Langley to make her a captain instead of having Unit-05 painted pink? Hmm…
"Sooo, Unit-02's the mass-production type right?"
Asuka looked up from her phone, a swathe of brightly animated chibi characters dancing across its screen.
"Yeah."
"And it's red right?"
The redhead let out a small snort of derision before her usual wicked grin spread across her face "No, it doesn't go three times faster than a regular Eva. But I might have come here to laugh at you."
"Yay, you got my reference! Nobody here seems to pick up on them."
"Or they don't want to. Just quoting anime doesn't make up for not having a personality of your own. Like the doll over there." She tilted her head to regard Rei, who was staring at her menu while Shinji continued to stare daggers at her.
Mari shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, I can live with it. It's better than being some generic tsundere who tries to be edgy." Asuka sputtered as her comeback died on her lips while Mari gave her a victorious smile. "It's okay Princess, we're gonna be fighting Angels together so we might as well try to get along."
"Hmmph."
Meanwhile, across the table, things weren't going much better. A rather bored Misato sat at the table across from the children as Langley stared at the olive perched at the bottom of his martini glass. None of this was noticed by Heck and Stern who were excitedly talking about work.
"So the plan is that we'll refit the spare parts from the production model Jet Alone onto your Provisional chassis. It'll take a little interface work but I'm sure we'll be able to get it to work."
Heck stroked his beard. "They're not radioactive or possessed by Satan are they?"
Stern scoffed. "Nothing that a few truckloads of sand, boron, and holy water couldn't fix."
Sensing things were heading south Langley piped up. "Don't worry Steve, everything's totally above board. Your little girl will have the finest in modern combat exoskeleton technology. Non-nuclear of course, plus it's pink."
"Ah yes, pink. I take it that was your concession then Langley?"
Langley shrugged "Well it was either two tons of paint or me making Stern's R&D team build a transforming moped from some show."
"Moe Moto Megane."
The group turned to face Misato, who stared at her beer bottle with an ashamed look on her face. "Ibuki in Ops talks about it."
"Well anyway, we'll get the refit and repaint done a few days. Everything will be just fi- Asuka! No putting your fellow pilots in a headlock!"
Holding Cells, NERV HQ
A battered, bruised Kaji sat in the dull grey cell. It wouldn't be the first time he was in one and he sincerely hoped that it wouldn't be the last.
"Mr. Kaji. I see you've finally made it." Looking up, the scruffy man saw Gendo Ikari standing before him holding a bottle of what appeared to be scotch and a pair of glasses.
"I don't suppose that this is the last drink I get before you tell me that I've failed you for the last time is it?"
"It would be a bit cliched wouldn't you think?" The door to the cell and the commander poured himself a drink before offering one to the inspector. "You see, Mr. Kaji after I lost my wife all those years ago I found myself questioning why it happened, what could be done about it, what the truth of the matter was…I suspect your motivations are similar." He noticed the scruffy man's hesitation at taking his glass. "Please, Mr. Kaji if I wanted you poisoned there are much easier ways of doing it."
Taking a tentative sip of his drink, the inspector started to speak. "I've never been married so I don't believe I can relate."
"Ah, but you did lose family to Second Impact didn't you? Either way, you must have some interest in the matter, given your eagerness to steal the Key of Nebuchadnezzar. Would you care to see what it opens?"
"It would depend on if I ever see anything ever again. You don't tend to be this open about what goes on inside that head of yours Ikari."
"Consider it me turning over a new leaf. Now, let me show you the bright future we intend to usher in."
My own headcanon for why more people are not leaving Tokyo-3 outside of personal delusion is the idea that Tokyo-3 is far better off then most of the rest of Japan. Its getting God knows how much money pumped into it by the UN and the Japanese government to keep it functioning and such. So I imagine many people come and stay just for the ample good paying jobs and simply try and ignore the looming danger of the angels.
The blue Renault flew down the darkened roads to Tokyo-3. Dinner had been a complete mess, having to listen to that blowhard Langley trying to score PR points while Heck and that creepy Stern guy talked shop really put a damper on what would be the enjoyment of free food and beer. Letting out a sigh Misato glanced over at her passenger seat to see Shinji still fixing her with what had started to become his usual glare. She was used to a certain amount of teenage grumpiness from her time with Asuka but this was just disconcerting maybe it was because it made the boy look like his father.
"Hey, Shinji?" the boy glanced away pretending not to notice her. "I'm sorry for not believing you earlier."
"It's fine."
"No it isn't, something's bothering you so you can tell me y'know?"
"Why? So you can tell Asuka all about how I just cry and run away every time I have to get into Unit-01?"
Uh oh.
"Shinji…"
"What, Asuka's really high maintenance and you just said those things to make her feel better?"
Well, he wasn't wrong.
"Okay, yes." The glaring continued. "I get it, I'm a bad guardian. Is that what you want me to say? Because you can't just sit there and be angry at me forever."
"I want some respect! I cook and do all of the housework because you couldn't be a responsible adult if you tried and meanwhile I just get teased all the time! Then I just get some jerk new pilot just dropped on me without warning on top of nearly dying and my father telling me why he abandoned me and everything's just a mess!" The boy then deflated and muttered under his breath. "I would have been better off living alone."
The major bit her lower lip, and let out a sigh.
"Is that what you want? To just run away and be alone?" Shit, she shouldn't have said that.
"I'm not running away, I'll pilot your Eva. That's what you want isn't it?"
There was the rapid snap of a downshift and the Alpine's engine gave a throaty roar.
"Fine. I'll take care of the transfer paperwork in the morning."
Eva Cages, the next morning
The elevator panel clicked slowly as the car made its way down to the cages carrying the children to their sync test. Rei stared straight ahead at the door while Asuka, tapped away angrily at her phone. Shinji, still upset tried to explain his situation to a sympathetic Mari.
"So Misato kicked you out for O Captain, My Captain over there?"
"She didn't kick me out, I left of my own free will. She's the one who dragged me into living with her in the first place." He added a little 'hmph' at the end to emphasize that point, as Mari looked on in surprise at the normally meek boy's anger.
"Oookay, then. Y'know, if you need a place to stay Dr. Heck and I have a spare room and I've always wanted a puppy." She suddenly realized what she said as her friend turned beet red. "Uh, I..er..I'd be happy to have you?" More blushing. "I mean yeah…we have an extra room."
"T-thanks?"
The two stood in awkward silence until it was shattered by gratuitous German cursing and the sound of a smartphone bouncing off the wall.
"Gott verdammt! Why won't it connect to the network?! It was working just fine yesterday!"
Rei stared at the device as it sat on the ground. "The password for the network changes daily. It is for security and so that Lieutenant Ibuki doesn't spend an excessive amount of time playing Sweet Neko Online during her lunch break."
Asuka quickly scooped up her phone and changed her tone to a softer one. "Can you tell me what it is?" The blue-haired girl continued to stare. "Please? I really need my daily login bonus!"
"I do not know what it is."
All goodwill the captain had towards Rei evaporated as quickly as it had appeared "Well thanks for nothing Doll."
"You are welcome."
The elevator chimed and the doors slid open to reveal the Evas. Unit-01 was still wrapped in rubbery sheets that covered the scars left from the Jet Alone explosion. Unit-05 stood next to it, hanging from a series of cables, the stumps of its shattered arms and severed pelvis were swarming with workers from Langley Defense Systems, trying to effect repairs to the hodgepodge machine. Across the bay, a team in familiar beige coveralls was cleaning carbon scoring off of Unit-00's paintwork as its single eye seemed to stare on in judgment of its new neighbor, the gleaming red Unit-02.
"Good afternoon everyone, if everyone could take their places we'll be out of here in no time. Miss Shikinami, would you kindly turn off your cell phone? It interferes with the instruments." The girl let out a grunt and mumbled something under her breath. "I can provide you with the wi-fi password afterward."
"Password first, then sync test."
"Oh very well. Today's password is Doctor Nyakagi, no spaces all lower case."
"Yeeesss. Come to mama!" Asuka started tapping away and started smiling her usual wicked grin. Heck, let out a chuckle.
"It's only good for one day though, had you played along you might have gotten on the daily password email."
"Yeah whatever, delayed gratification or something. Time for log-in bonus!" With one final tap of her phone, the lights went out and the music the doctor had been playing was replaced with the blare of the Pattern Blue alarm, there was a sudden shudder and the sound of rending steel could be heard outside before the automated alert system went off.
"Pattern Blue confirmed. Angel detected, designation Iruel. Warning. Manifestation detected within Geofront perimeter"
Mari let out an annoyed snarl. "Oh come on! Possessing me isn't enough, so you have to ruin sync test day too? I was going to get new legs and bubble tea!"
Rei just stared at Unit-00. "We can still get some if we don't destroy the tea shop in our defense of the city."
Minor quibble but should this be NyahakAgi with an extra "a", or should it be Nyakagi like it's just putting the memetic "nya" sound at the beginning of Ritsuko's surname?
Also of course the passwords would be cat-themed puns based on Ritsuko's name. When you are godlordmaster boss of NERV's IT department you can make the network passwords whatever you want.
I really like your Asuka. Shes fiery and petulant without coming off as abusive. Also she really shows off the duality of her existence as both an incredibly grown up and skilled pilot and a terribly childish teenager obsessed with her games.
"Okay, yes." The glaring continued. "I get it, I'm a bad guardian. Is that what you want me to say? Because you can't just sit there and be angry at me forever."
"Oookay, then. Y'know, if you need a place to stay Dr. Heck and I have a spare room and I've always wanted a puppy." She suddenly realized what she said as her friend turned beet red. "Uh, I..er..I'd be happy to have you?" More blushing. "I mean yeah…we have an extra room."
I really like your Asuka. Shes fiery and petulant without coming off as abusive. Also she really shows off the duality of her existence as both an incredibly grown up and skilled pilot and a terribly childish teenager obsessed with her games.
...You're right. I actually missed that. She's clearly not gonna be good for the emotional well-being of the people around her, but there's a difference between 'not giving them the space to get better' and 'actively making them worse.'
"The password for the network changes daily. It is for security and so that Lieutenant Ibuki doesn't spend an excessive amount of time playing Sweet Neko Online during her lunch break."
The root of Misato's problem is that she's angry at her dad for being distant from her...but he sacrificed himself to save her life...but he died and left her alone which means she's still angry. So the best solution is to not get close to anyone or actually deal with her problems. In Rebuild, she's projecting that on to Shinji by wanting him to reconcile with Gendo. Notice that this Asuka also has a dad who doesn't make time for her either and that she spent a lot longer with Misato as her guardian, make of this what you will.
Unfortunately, this Shinji got told the truth about what happened to his mom and his dad basically admitted that he just couldn't deal with it and is an asshole and runs into a problem. Yui Ikari somehow becoming a Giant Robot Lady sounds crazy, and Misato did the sort of right thing by sending Shinji to therapy the wrong way by just fluffing him off as being crazy and sending him to therapy just so she didn't have to deal with it.
I really like your Asuka. She's fiery and petulant without coming off as abusive. Also, she really shows off the duality of her existence as both an incredibly grown-up and skilled pilot and a terribly childish teenager obsessed with her games.
...You're right. I actually missed that. She's clearly not gonna be good for the emotional well-being of the people around her, but there's a difference between 'not giving them the space to get better' and 'actively making them worse.'
There's the risk of that. Mari is really eager to make friends and has other issues. Shinji is just mad at everything right now from his confrontation with Gendo about his mom. Rei...well Rei is about 200% done with living in this world and wants to go back to her nice, happy tank filled with people who understand her.
Iruel hung over the surface of the lake patiently waiting for the colorful not-Adams that had stopped it last time to return. It could have just have taken a different form to bludgeon its way towards the thing drawing it to this place, or have taken a more subtle path to worm its way in but its time in the talkative Lilin's mind made that seem boring. It continued to float above the water, the light bouncing showing through its translucent, spherical body emphasizing the smaller, more colorful spheres within. It was a unique form, to say the least, and a tiny, slightly more Lilin part of its mind wondered what the not-Adams would think of it. Waves of electromagnetism danced in its vision and there was the familiar ringing of AT-Fields getting closer, they were approaching. Wait, was one of the red? There wasn't a red one last time.
A length of metal then bounced off of its AT-field, it was interesting. With a thought, Iruel's body shifted and a blue-colored sphere dropped out, before neatly splitting itself in half to reveal a small, blue octahedron which then began chirping questioningly in a piercing tone. It gently told its offspring that it was to help it fend off the Not-Adams which earned a small shriek of acknowledgment before firing a blinding beam of light. It was nice to have company for a change.
The Children were less happy about their circumstances. Asuka let out an angry shout as she reloaded the massive crossbow she had taken with her. "Target, in the center. Pull the switch" she muttered under her breath as she loosed another bolt, that shattered the miniature Ramiel into a cloud of smaller octahedrons that scattered across the ground. She let out a loud whoop of triumph.
"Pattern Orange destroyed. Let's get the big one!"
"Rei?"
"Yes, Ikari-kun?"
"What's a Pattern Orange?"
Asuka immediately took over the question. "It doesn't have an AT-field moron! Now come on! We got an Angel to kill!" She continued to run up the field, umbilical cord trailing behind her. Shinji stared out at the scene before him.
"It's just floating there."
"Perhaps it is waiting for something. Or it is confused that the Major hasn't just given us the order to keep hitting until it inevitably explodes." There was a small 'ahem' from Misato over the radio as she began to speak.
"It won't explode if we don't figure out where the core is, and it's somewhere in that giant jumble of stuff inside of it. We'll keep scanning to try and find it but just keep up the pressure."
Asuka let out an uncharacteristically chipper response punctuated by the sound of crossbow fire in the background. "You got it Misato! Die, stupid floating sphere die!" Unit-01 and 00 just stood there looking impassively as their counterpart continued shooting. Shinji let out a weary sigh as more shouting and what he assumed to be German profanities continued to echo through his plug.
"I guess we should probably go help her." With that another pair of spheres fell from the Angel's body, this time breaking open into another small octahedron and a dark, round sphere with stumpy arms and legs wearing a bird mask. A loud crack echoed from Rei's sniper rifle as the shot sent the pitiful creature onto its back where it was then crushed by a red, armored foot.
"I am helping." In the corner of the boy's eye, he could see Unit-00 staring at him eerily reminiscent of it's pilot's usual expression. Letting out another sigh he shouldered his pallet rifle and began advancing towards the lake, firing the entire way.
"Hey look! It's Mr. Runaway, here to watch me beat the Angel!" With that another half-dozen spheres rained down from the Angel, bogging down the redhead's killing spree temporarily. Shinji hesitated a moment and thought really hard about shooting the miniature Shamshel coming up behind Unit-02 before he sent it flying back with a shot.
"I don't think we're even hurting it at all, you're just grinding away at it and we're still not any closer to finding the core! This things is like a giant…wait a minute this is your fault!"
"How is it my fault?!"
"It's a giant gatcha machine angel! You keep hitting it and we just get stuff that wants to kill us! Gee, I wonder who gave it that idea? I'd sure love to thank them!"
Asuka scoffed. "So what? We just gotta keep whaling on it until it drops whichever one of those balls has the core in it, it's not like any of these trash mobs are hard to kill or anything!" Then, as if it knew it was being insulted the pair was then buried in another two dozen miniature Angels.
"Oh this is great, we're going to die because you can't use your dad's credit card to just buy the core from the Angel!" With that, he hastily grabbed his prog knife from his shoulder and stabbed down into a miniature fish Angel that had flopped its way out of the lake.
"Okay, first off I told you I didn't whale. Second off what the hell is your problem?!"
Shinji punted a tiny version of Mr. Bonejangles across the field. "My problem is that this is the second time in a month that something your dad made has made a mess of everything!"
"Oh well forgive me for existing! It's not my fault whatever it was hopped on to my phone or that you just can't deal!"
A soft, slightly awkward-sounding voice interrupted the boy's retort.
"E-excuse me? Lieutenant Ibuki here, we might have a way to speed up a way to find the core. We're sending Rei to get the Rotary Pallet Cannon." The sound of Mari making cheery "brrt" noises could be heard in the background. "Rei will continue hitting the Angel's AT-field while you two deal with the chibi Angels."
Asuka let out a scoff as the hail of pallet shells bounced off the Angel like hailstones on a tin roof. "See, doing things my way instead of just standing around bitching all the time gets res-" The radio faded to static as a translucent red sphere appeared around Unit-02 and the smaller angels. The spheres slowly rose up into the air and flowed one by one back up into the Angel's body. Shinji, his anger forgotten just stared at the sight as the panicked sounds of the bridge crew echoed in the background.
"A-Asuka?"
Rei gave a tentative burst from the massive rotary cannon, and there was a flash of orange hexagons across the sphere's surface which was then followed by a torrential downpour of tiny red spheres that opened and a horde of stunted, misshapen copies of Unit-02 emerged , a piercing roar that sounded like Asuka's voice overpowered the radio as they rushed towards Unit-01. Shinji did the rational thing and ran, there was a loud, metallic thunk as his umbilical tore itself free.
"Shinji?" Misato's voice could be barely heard over the din of the screaming Evas. "Shinji! Whatever you did they're focused on you now! You're going to have to keep them busy and away from Rei while she keeps looking for the core! Rits has rigged the clamps on a few city blocks to drop in order to cover you, we're marking the locations on your HUD. With that, a number of glowing blue indicators lit up across the plug's display as the terrain of the Geofront flew past in a blur. The pounding roar of the rotary cannon and Unit-01's feet hammering the ground ran through his head as he ran into the first pillar of imaginary light.
The sound of rending metal and shattering concrete followed soon after, but he just kept running as his rearview camera showed the horde scampering over the ruined buildings and the shattered bodies of their comrades. He pushed the Eva to go faster, anything to outpace his pursuers and as he approached the second beacon he was greeted by the sound of his batteries dying. Unit-01 pitched forward and landed flat on its face, the last thing Shinji saw before the world went dark was the miniature Eva's clawing at the downed machine, a mockery of Asuka's laughter echoing over the plug's speakers.
"Shinji?" A familiar voice echoed through the darkness. "Shinji honey, it's time to wake up."
"M-mother?" He tried opening his eyes but saw nothing but blinding light that slowly dimmed until there stood Yui Ikari staring him in the face.
"Hello Shinji, I've missed y…" Yui's voice suddenly shifted to a stilted, alien tone. "Are you Shinji-Lilin?" The boy sat dumbfounded.
"Y-yes?"
Yui continued. "We apologize, the resident of this core is the only other being capable of Lilin communication. We are Iruel."
"W-what?! You're trying to kill me and you ate Asuka and now you want to talk to me through my mother?!"
'Yui' tilted her head in confusion and mouthed Shinji's words silently to herself before continuing."To clarify we did not try to kill you, we wished to end your Not-Adams so that they would not kill us, we also tried to communicate through your Mari-Lilin and your Asuka-Lilin's device. Neither were sufficient."
"What do you want? Why are you here?"
"We want to live. Death is a frightening concept that we do not wish to think about. We also feel drawn here, we do not know why. May we stay?" Shinji's jaw dropped.
"What? No! You're an Angel you want to destroy mankind and cause Third Impact or something! A-and you possessed Mari and now she can't walk!" 'Yui' gave a small pout at that.
"That is what Asuka-Lilin said before she made the tiny Not-Adams. She is a very angry Lilin, we do not understand why. We also did not harm the Mari-Lilin, her neurology is beyond our ability to damage or repair, she did not wish to communicate. Do Lilin hear voices inside of their minds frequently?"
"S-sometimes?"
"Interesting. Truly Lilin are a diverse and interesting species. May we stay? Please? We will be discreet and will not cause any inconvenience." 'Yui' then proceeded to give him a look that Shinji assumed was intended to cause maternal guilt.
"I-I guess so? I mean, it's not like I can do anything to stop you…just as long as you don't possess anyone, and you'll have to give Asuka back! And get rid of all the tiny Angels, and maybe explode or something so they think you're destroyed." The Angel smiled at that and let out an almost Mari-like squee.
"Thank you Shinji-Lilin, we now understand why Tabris likes you so much!" With that the light started to fade and Yui Ikari drifted further and further away from him. He was then greeted with the sound of alarms ringing through his entry plug and the sound of Misato shouting over the radio.
I have no words. It's going to take a lot of pondering before I'm even ready to comment on this all. All I can say right now is damn that's an original take.
I don't think we've had this Kaworu say he likes Shinji - but we have had him say that we've gone through this exact same thing time and time again, which implies at the least that he remembers it. And if he remembers all the times Tabris walked into Terminal Dogma, he probably felt Shinji was worthy of his grace liked him.
I have no words. It's going to take a lot of pondering before I'm even ready to comment on this all. All I can say right now is damn that's an original take.
Credit goes to @Jackie for giving me the initial idea.
The Classified Information section in the PSP game Neon Genesis Evangelion 2 has Hideki Anno mentioning:
Two Seeds of Life are not needed on one planet, and, therefore, one of them is excluded. As recorded in the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls, Adam-based life took part in a contest of survival, putting the stakes on their own existence. Some of them were trying to access Lilith and reset all life, some of them had nothing in mind, and some were trying to recover their progenitor Adam. The Angels — Adam-based life — became active under their respective tactics for survival and success.
