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Post by Mizagium on Jan 11, 2011 21:19:56 GMT -5
“Asuka, allow me to introduce you to the Supreme Commander of NERV. Commander, this is Asuka Langley Soryu, the Second Child.” Asuka clicked her heels and snapped to attention with a smart salute; the Germans were always good at discipline.
Kratos Aurion spun his chair around and interlaced his fingers.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Asuka. I heard you and my son took down the Sixth Angel out on the Pacific Ocean.”
“Your son?”
“Yes,” Kratos said slowly. “Lloyd is my son.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
“Well, the name on your desk says “Aurion”. Isn’t Lloyd’s last name “Irving”?”
Sheena stiffened. No one mouthed off to the Supreme Commander. The adrenaline pumping through her system now cleared out most of the impurities she had accumulated over the past week. Well, removed them from her blood stream. She suddenly had to piss like a racehorse.
Asuka did all she could to keep from cowering. The look he gave her was enough to cut diamond. “Read what’s written on the name plate, please, Asuka.”
Shaking, she squinted at the name. “It says, “Supreme Commander of NERV, Master of Tokyo-3, Lord of Welgaia, Protector of the Land, Great Hunk of Man, Prince of Personality, The Diamond Swordsman, Great Almighty Dancer, Chiseled Stone of Perfection, and Golden Leader: You know, you love, you can’t resist him: The Love Machine with 20,000 RPM…Kratooooooooooooos! Aurioooooooooooooooooooon!”
Sheena leaned forward. “Is that really on the name plate?”
Kratos smiled. “Thank you. Dismissed.”
He likes it when others recite his titles.
-
The next person Sheena introduced Asuka to was Doctor Raine Sage. After meeting Lloyd and his father, Asuka was hoping for someone that was, well, normal. For a while, she thought Raine was this.
“Well, look at you!”
“Have I met you before, Dr. Sage?”
“A long time ago. I knew your mother back during GEHIRN’s early days. Last time I saw you, you were just a baby. Now you’ve grown into a fine young woman. A very…beautiful young lady.” Raine’s voice seemed to slow down and smooth out with that last sentence. “And you’ve…filled out quite well.”
Now Asuka was uncomfortable.
“Laying it on a little thick there, aren’t you, Raine?”
Raine didn’t seem to hear her, instead she was focused on Asuka, massaging the neckline of her orange lab coat…thing. It slowly moved south. “Tell me, Asuka, do you have a boyfriend?”
“No,” she gulped.
“A girlfriend?” Raine’s hand was now overtop her own breasts.
“Oooookay.” Sheena took Asuka by the shoulders, leaving Raine alone with herself.
“Aw, c’mon, Sheena! Let me have this one!”
“Heh heh, sorry about her, Asuka. She gets a little…lonely.”
And that’s when Asuka Langely Soryu, of all the people in the world, said to Sheena, “She has some SERIOUS issues.”
What could she do but agree?
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Post by Mizagium on Jan 11, 2011 22:58:20 GMT -5
Ignoring that.
“Of course,” Kuchinawa replied, as if it were complexly obvious. “How else would I have nearly 24/7 access to Sheena?”
Were it not for the previous assassination attempt, Asuka would have taken that line as being extremely unsettling. Like hell! Now that she knew he was actually trying to murder her guardian, it was actually a lot worse. Well, revenge kill was the term he used.
Asuka was about to say something when she noticed that the next two panels were shots of Sheena’s and Kuchinawa’s eyes. While it only took two seconds to read, the animator made the scene last around five minutes. He even got the seiyu to add in some grunts. All in all, the scene ended up resembling two constipated adults racing to the finish. Whoever won, she lost.
No words were spoken. The anger that passed between them was palpable.
While Asuka shifted uncomfortably on her feet, Colette got to hers. “Omigosh! A girl pilot! We’re going to be best friends forever!”
At least one of them was friendly. “Um…sure?” Asuka was unable to determine what her feelings should be. So far it had swung from excitement to fear to uncomfortable to even more fear to uncomfortable again. Now that someone was actually being friendly (no, that’s not a good word; Raine was being “friendly”) to her, it was all she could do to not slip into her default Anger Mode.
Anger Mode was always active. Except when it wasn’t. Right now it wasn’t.
“Yay!” Colette made a strange gesture by which she pumped her closed fists up and down while they were pulled close to her sides. It was cute, sort of. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about then play the damn game! It’s a weird gesture that Colette makes and it’s hard to describe. Watch it on YouTube. She makes it every other sentence.) Without waiting for any further confirmation, Colette turned and hurried back to her seat. She tripped and flew face first into the console. Whatever combination of buttons she pressed, the big screen blinked to life.
It displayed the Windows logo with the number 10 superimposed over it. “Thank you for upgrading to Windows 10.”
Sheena snorted. “Huh. Last time that happened, she nearly sank Great Britain. I mean, I remember the Berlin news saying the British Isles had been swallowed by the sea.”
Silence.
“Oh yeah. I think I got plastered for a full week after that.”
“Ow,” Colette peeled herself off of the keyboard, her face now resembling a periodic table.
“And out last technitian is Richter Abend.”
The red-haired half-elf spun his chair around and uttered a single sentence. “Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.” And then he spun around.
And that’s enough of that.
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Post by Mizagium on Jan 12, 2011 0:29:07 GMT -5
By the time Sheena got around to introducing Asuka to the Sub-Commander of NERV, the Second Child had given up on anyone who works for NERV having any semblance of sanity. Then she met Yuan Ka-Fai. He stood up straight, didn’t say anything odd, didn’t have any sort of honor-grudge with another member of the organization. No, he was an honest-to-goodness normal person.
“Hello,” he greeted the women. “I am Yuna Ka-Fai, Sub-Commander of NERV. I serve directly under Kratos. I presume you are Asuka?”
“Y-Yes, sir!” Asuka was nearly shaking with joy. Finally! Someone normal! For a long time, a LOOOOOONG time there, she was certain she was going to have to work in a place full of insanity, where she (she of all people) was the most stable mentally.
“Pilot of Unit 02, huh? I saw the recording of what happened onboard the Over the Rainbow. You fought very well. I have to admit that I was a little surprised at your abilities.”
Because he was so nice, so approachable, so normal, she felt compelled to tell him the truth. “Sir, I have to confess, that plan wasn’t my idea; it was Lloyd’s. He was in the Entry Plug with me.”
“I know,” he said with a straight face. “Hm, let me say that again. I was very impressed with your abilities, especially since Lloyd was in there with you.”
Her eyes lit up like supernovas, he mood lifted to a new high. All of a sudden, the world seemed like a much better place. Maybe working with those jerkwads wouldn’t be so bad if there was just one man like Sub-Commander Ka-Fai there with her.
Too bad for her.
-
As Sheena was walking Asuka towards the exit, she stopped. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about one person.”
“Who?”
“The First Child.” There was a noticeable smile on the ninja’s face.
“Who, Wondergirl?” Asuka’s mood darkened. She had hoped to go the entire flashback visit without running into the favorite child of NERV. Asuka didn’t like competition. Ok, that’s not entirely true. She liked competition, but only when they lost and made her look good. The First Child…she had yet to determine what sort of competition she was going to be: the kind that improved Asuka’s image, or the kind that made her seethe with jealousy.
“Come on. The Commander and Raine wanted me to introduce you two.” Sheena cheerfully took Asuka by the arm and led her away. Something about the way she smiled made Asuka nervous, and considering what she had experienced so far, it was probably far less than she should be feeling.
They found her out in the gardens, you know, the part that put the Geo in Geofront. She was seated on the stump on a felled tree, which was strange, considering that there were no other tree stumps around. Also, there were no other trees around. Also, it was in the middle of the beach area. She was whittling, he small hand moving deftly as she used the knife to shape the hunk of wood into a sculpture.
Have you guess who it is yet? Come I know you know. I’ll give you a hint: pigtails. Wait for it…wait for it…there it is!
Presea looked up from her carving, a strange figure. Sheena recognized it as the Third Angel, Sachiel. “Yes? Can I help you?” Her voice was toneless, mechanical, like a doll. It made Asuka furious.
“Presea Combatir, Asuka Langley Soryu.” Sheena introduced them. Smiling.
Both girls narrowed their eyes at one another, an instant dislike forming. Asuka stoically extended her hand. Presea mechanically met it. Each tightened their grip in steady increments, refusing to blink or say uncle. Sheena imagined that each of them had an aura of power and that they were steadily increasing in power. Asuka’s was red. Presea’s was pink. Her own was purple. She liked being included.
Presea glanced down at their hands. The amount of force each was applying should have broken their hands. “I do not know why we are engaging in this show of force.”
And Asuka answered, “Because I don’t like you.”
And that’s when Presea flipped her ass.
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Post by Mizagium on Jan 12, 2011 0:51:23 GMT -5
Good lord we’ve been stuck in the past for a long time.
-
“Hey! Are you ok? Professor Raine is gone now, so we’re allowed to move.”
Asuka snapped back to the present. A girl with sandy blonde hair has rested her chin on Asuka’s desk and is staring at her. It is Marta Lualdi, Class Representative.
“Hm? Oh, sorry, Marta. I zoned out for a while.”
“Mhm. You and everyone else in the class. Half of the kids have welts on their foreheads from where she threw the chalk at them, even though they didn’t say a word. She said something about keeping us on our toes.”
For Asuka, that carried an entirely different connotation.
With a sigh, she gathered her school things, and joined the group that had gathered around her, consisting of Lloyd, Genis, Emil, and Marta. Presea was nowhere to be found. The five of them made their way towards the exit. Asuka noticed that both Emil and Genis had red welts on their foreheads. Neither wished to speak of it.
“Tomorrow’s the weekend,” Marta observed. “What are you guys doing?”
“Lloyd and I have a sync test Saturday morning, but after that we’re free.”
“We should do something!”
“Like what?” Genis shot her a skeptical look.
“Dunno. We’ll think of it later.” They all shared a collective groan.
They parted ways as they left school grounds, Emil, Genis, and Marta going south while Asuka and Lloyd headed east towards Sheena’s apartment. “Come on, Emil,” Marta squealed, “You can walk me home!” She seized him by the arm and led him away. He wasn’t walking her home so much as being dragged along.
Genis sighed. “Guess I’ll head home and cook dinner before Raine tries to.” He shudders. “I couldn’t leave the toilet for days last time.”
It was just the two of them, which made Asuka think back to –
“No,” she growled.
What?
“No. Not another flashback. I’m tired of them. They didn’t even have anything to do with what was going on in the present.”
But I said –
“No.”
…Okay. She scares me.
She turned her thoughts back to (Calm down!) the other three kids. As much as she hated to say it, she actually considered that bunch of idiots her friends. And Lloyd, too, she guessed.
-
“Sheena! The kids have returned!” Corrine raced around the rim of the kitchen table in a state of panic. Not for the first time, Sheena reflected on how adorable the little squirrel thing was. “Run away, run away!”
“Wark!” Pen Pen waddled in and hopped up into the empty chair. The sounds of fighting soon filled the apartment. Sheena cracked a beer and poured half of it into Pen Pen’s dish. They drank deeply.
“Chill out, Corrine. I’m sure Lloyd won’t try to – “
“No!” The little mouse thing stared her straight in the face. “NEVER. SPEAK. OF THAT. AGAIN.”
“Aw, aren’t you jus the cutest thing!” She gathered him up in one hand and nuzzled him against her cheek; much to the artificial summon spirit’s humiliation. He squirmed free of her grip and vanished in a puff of smoke.
“He’ll be back,” she observed. “He always comes back.” Pen Pen shook his head in distain. She ignored him. Can poised on her lips for a drink, Sheena strained her ears above the squabbling. “I know you’re there, Kuchinawa.”
From somewhere unseen came a single word, “Damn.”
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Post by TEAM_DERRICK on Jan 12, 2011 14:09:24 GMT -5
“I wouldn’t disturb him if I were you,” Genis Sage offered the advice offhandedly as he bit into his sandwich. Sitting beside him on the bench was Emil Castangier, who munched slowly on an apple. Neither one wore their school uniforms. Genis remain garbed in his silver-blue elf pajamas and Emil in his purple…stuff. To Asuka, the latter looked like an exercise in gay pride. But she wasn’t focused on the blonde right now. No, as had become the norm, the object of her disbelief was, currently, Lloyd Irving.
He had fallen asleep. In the middle of eating a sandwich. While standing up.
Like the other two, he was not dressed in the school uniform. No, he picked red as his color. A red train conductor outfit, it appeared. It was red, red. Asuka liked red. She didn’t like Lloyd.
“Why shouldn’t I bother him, pointy-ears?” A half-chewed bit of food dangled precariously out of the corner of his mouth. Asuka had half a mind to see if he would choke on it. At the very least it might shut him up; he was snoring like beast.
At her feet lay the remnants of her lunch, a distinctly Japanese style lunch of riceballs and sushi. She kicked it out of her way as she stepped closer to the sleeping bozo, fists firmly planted on her hips.
“The last guy who messed with Lloyd while he was sleeping ended up in a full body cast,” Genis explained, spraying chunks of food everywhere.
“It was…horrible,” Emil shuddered.
“This idiot?” Asuka scoffed. “He can barely hold a stick the right way. Do you expect me to believe he beat somebody up?”
“Not beat up,” Genis corrected, raising one finger. “Mangled. Destroyed. Tore apart. Take you pick.”
“Even less likely.”
The twelve-year old half-elf shrugged. “Well, whatever. You do whatever you want, but hey, we warned you.”
Obviously, Asuka didn’t believe him. She had a very difficult time believing that Lloyd could injure anybody, much less destroy three Angels virtually unassisted. And yet the records were there. Hm. Well, for the sake of safety, Asuka reached up and snapped a branch off the tree. A good sized branch. Three of four feet long. One a nineteenth century teacher would use to whip a disobedient student. Very carefully she poked at the sandwich bit until it tipped into his mouth. She waited.
Genis and Emil leaned forward, quite literally on the edge of their seats.
The snoring stopped abruptly, as though something got caught in his throat. They waited. After fifteen seconds or so, Lloyd’s jaw began moving up and down slowly. Then he swallowed and raised the sandwich to his mouth.
“Is…is he sleep eating?”
“You’ve been living with him for two weeks now. Is this really the strangest thing you’ve seen him do?”
“I made it a point to stay as far away from the fool, Emil, so I don’t what strange things he does in his own time.” Asuka continued to watch Lloyd with the sort of fascination you get from watching a gorilla at the zoo. A gorilla that is inspecting its own feces. You wonder why it is doing that, but at same time don’t really want to know.
The bell rang for the end of lunch. Genis and Emil stood and started walking back to class. Without Lloyd. Surprised, Asuka called after them, “Are you just going to leave him?”
They shared a look and a shrug. “If we keep waking him up, he won’t learn anything,” Genis explained and kept on walking.
Asuka followed suit.
Two weeks earlier…
“What do you mean I have to live with this idiot!”
Asuka’s scream could be heard for several blocks. A flock of pigeons feeding in the park took flight in fear while the pedestrians on their way to work ducked their heads down and pretended they were a flock of pigeons. Several flapped their arms and tried to fly away. It was a very odd sight.
Er…what was I talking about? Oh right. Asuka.
She faced a cross-armed Sheena, the former seething with bitchy rage; the latter keeping her eyes firmly shut, for two reasons: 1. To keep Asuka from seeing the fear in her eyes and 2. Her eyes were bloodshot. We’re not going to go into why.
“That’s right, Asuka. You and Lloyd are going to be roommates. So you’re both going to have to learn to get along with one another.”
“But why can’t I stay with Zelos?” she whined.
Steadfastly keeping her eyes shut, Sheena replied, “Do you really want to go back to living with Zelos?”
The Second Child thought about that for a moment. Her mind was something of a floodgate, or a dam, by this point her life; it held back a lot of suppressed and painful memories. Some of them involved her mother, but those were buried deep, DEEP, into her psyche, and likely wouldn’t surface until she was thirty. The more recent ones involved Zelos. For just an instant, the dam cracked and a few memories trickled out. All of them involved walking down to breakfast to find a strange woman wearing nothing but a pink button up shirt that belong to Zelos. Seven different women in one week.
Asuka shuddered.
“On second thought…”
“I thought as much. Trust me, Asuka, I know how he is.”
Asuka’s anger tapered off rather quickly. “As long as I’m not sharing a room with him.”
“Oh, hell no! I don’t want you two sleeping together. That’s my job.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing.” She turned away quickly, hiding her blush. “Why don’t you get Lloyd to help you move your things? I’ve got to sleep this off.”
“Sleep what off?” Secretly, Asuka knew she didn’t really want to knw.
“Medicine that makes grown-ups relax.”
“Is it legal?”
No response. Sheena made her exit at that time, carefully putting one foot in front of the other. It was a good thing she had the layout of the apartment memorized because if her eyes were open, she would be on the floor puking her guts out. Just how often did she get like that if she can navigate her apartment blind? I don’t think even I want to know.
Asuka watched her new guardian (whom she doubted would be any better than Kaji – although, as long as she didn’t bring home strange women every day, it was an improvement…why did the thought of Sheena and other women excite her? Cause I'm a dirty bastard, that's why.) stumble off to bed –a t 11:00 a.m. – and sighed. Lloyd wasn’t even home. How wacked out was Sheena?
Resigned, she picked up the first box of stuff – no, seriously, the label said “Stuff” – and carried it down to her room. It was directly across from Lloyd’s room, separated by a sliding door. Slightly peeved, she dropped the box and closed the door angrily.
“What the hell? The door doesn’t even lock!” She opened and closed it a few times to emphasize her point. “There’s no way Sheena could stop me if I wanted to fool around with the idiot.” Pause. Turn to the audience. “No. Not ever.” She returned to opening and closing the door. “I mean, what? Do the Japanese not believe in privacy or something?”
On the twelfth time she opened the door, she found herself face-to-face with a man garbed in red cloth. His face was obscured and a katana was strapped to his back. Every fiber of her being screamed HOLYFUCKINGSHITHTERESAGODDAMNNINJAINTHEHOUSE. Her reaction? To remain perfectly still. Ninjas are like dinosaurs right? If you don’t move they can’t see you?
Not only is that completely wrong, but it’s backwards. If a ninja doesn’t move, you can’t see it. Actually, even if it does move, you still can’t see it. If you ever see a ninja, you’re already dead.
But Asuka wasn’t dead, nor was there a katana protruding from her chest, nor kunai from her skull.
“You aren’t Sheena,” the ninja said, slightly confused.
“Uh-uh,” Asuka shook her head slowly.
“Where is she, then?”
“Sleeping…?” Hopefully not dead from an overdose.
“I see. I cannot avenge my village on a sleeping woman.” He crouched down and rubbed his chin. “Such an act would bring dishonor to myself, my family, my cow – Will you permit me to wait here until she awakens?”
A goddamned ninja just asked if he could stay in the house.
Not wanting to die in the next few seconds, Asuka nodded fearfully.
“Many thanks,” the ninja bowed his head respectfully.
It took Asuka a long time to recover her sense from that encounter. She simply stared off into space for a good forty-five minutes before shakily getting to her feet and walking to the kitchen. There sat the ninja, reclining in the chair, a half-empty can of beer in his hand. He raised the can in salute.
“Ah, I was beginning to wonder where you had gone.”
“Um…who exactly are you?”
He sipped though his cloth. “My apologies, I have not introduced myself. I am Kuchinawa, a ninja who hails from the same clan as Sheena.”
Thought process: Shit, a ninja. A polite ninja. What? I’m not dead. Sheena’s a ninja? Wait, I knew that. Beer? I could really use one right now.
“Um, ok, but why are you in her home?”
He was on his feet faster than humanly (but not ninja-ly) possibly, the chair falling back behind him, and table embedding itself in the fridge. Somehow the can landed on the counter without incident. “My name is Kuchinawa! She had (I think that the broken English here actually makes it funnier.) killed my village! She must prepare to die!”
“Um, you know, the Princess Bride reference really didn’t work out that time,” she pointed out.
Kuchinawa sighed. “Yeah, I know, but it was sticking (Same here.)in my head; I had to say it.” Sipping the beer, he pondered. “I like that movie.”
He flipped the chair back and dislodged the kitchen table from the fridge, henceforth referred to as the “beer dispenser” because that’s really all it is. With the kitchen roughly in order, aside from the dent in the beer dispenser (about two inches deep across the whole thing) Kuchinawa and resumed his seat.
“So…you’re here to kill Sheena?”
“That is correct. For the honor of my village.”
Asuka blinked. “Whatever. Just don’t get her blood on my things, ok?”
“Ninja’s are masters of stealth and killing and hopscotch; we do not make messes.”
Ignoring the fact that those two sentences did not deserve to be linked by a semicolon, Asuka returned to moving her things into her new room. She had moved all of the boxes and was busy arranging her things when the shouting began.
“Halt! My name is Kuchinawa! You killed my – “
“Dammit, Kuchinawa, I know who you are, now get the fuck out of my apartment!”
“Not until I have sl- hey Woah!” Several minutes of smashing, crashing, grunts, girlish screams, and the whirring of an electric toothbrush later, a window smashed outward, accompanied by the steadily diminishing sound of Kuchinawa’s scream.
“And don’t come back!” Sheena slammed the window shut, which shattered the remaining panes. Then she collapsed. In Lloyd’s room.
Once Asuka had finished arranging her room, she decided to go check on her new guardian. Sheena had found Lloyd’s pillow and had it pressed tightly against her chest. It was then that Asuka noticed Sheena’s shirt laying several feet away.
“Mmmm…Lloyd,” she muttered in her sleep.
Asuka shut the door quickly and wished she could bleach that out of her mind. But she couldn’t. It was there. Behind her eyelids. Burned into her mind.
-
As she took her seat in class, Asuka shuddered. What the fuck was the point of that flashback?
-
The sound of snoring caused to her to nearly fall out of her chair. There was Lloyd. In his seat. Asleep.
Genis sat in front of Asuka. He leaned back and said, casually, “Oh yeah: he sleepwalks.”
“That’s great and all, but how did he get to his seat? I can see the door from here!”
Genis shrugged.
That seemed to be the answer people liked to give when Lloyd did things that didn’t quite add up. Asuka sighed, what with the pointless flashback, and Lloyd being…Lloyd, it was shaping up to be a stressful day.
And then Raine Sage walked into the room.
“Good morning, class,” she said. “Your previous teacher isn’t here anymore; I am.”
One student asked, “What happened to him?” and was answered with a piece of chalk to the head, hurled around twenty miles an hour. He was out before he hit the ground, which he did. Hard.
“Are there any more stupid questions?” She bounced another piece of chalk in her palm, surveying the class. Not a soul dared to speak.
Hold up. Isn’t this the future? Every student has a laptop with them. And a cell phone. Why the hell does the teacher still use chalk? I mean, is the school’s budget that low that they can’t afford a freaking projector? Seriously. I live in 2011, roughly four years before this story, and we have Smartboards and shit. Come on Japan, I thought you were better than this.
-
And that’s when the giant fighting robot crashes through my dorm room and kills me.
-
Lloyd snored. Loudly. Quick as a whip, Raine hurled the chalk at Lloyd. Asuka could swear she heard bone crack. He was lifted out of his seat and thrown onto the student behind him, unconscious, as the chalk rebounded back into the teacher’s hand.
Calmly, she began writing her name on the board.
It must have been her imagination, but Asuka was sure that the first few letters of “Professor Raine” were tinted with red.
She resisted looking back.
-
One week ago…
-
Asuka groaned.
-
…
One week ago
Asuka shifts in her seat as the elevator takes them deep into the Geofront. Lloyd is laid out across the back seat without a seatbelt. Up until the point when Sheena touched the keys, she might have assumed he was sleeping. Now she wasn’t entirely sure he was breathing. Beside her, Sheena adjusts her kimono and bra, having utilized her god-given resources to avoid several traffic tickets.
“I still don’t know how you convinced that officer to let you go,” she remarks.
“Hey, I work for NERV. We get some special treatment.” She flipped down the visor mirror and examined her face.
“You almost got arrested for manslaughter!”
“Yeah, but he got back up, didn’t he?”
“With the help of the paramedics.”
“Still counts. How bloodshot are my eyes?” She turned to the girl on her right. Er, left. Do Japanese cars have the driver on the left or right? I’ve seen both.
“Not very.”
“Awesome. I’ll just say I haven’t slept in a while.”
Asuka was in no mood to disagree with her.
-
“Asuka, allow me to introduce you to the Supreme Commander of NERV. Commander, this is Asuka Langley Soryu, the Second Child.” Asuka clicked her heels and snapped to attention with a smart salute; the Germans were always good at discipline.
Kratos Aurion spun his chair around and interlaced his fingers.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Asuka. I heard you and my son took down the Sixth Angel out on the Pacific Ocean.”
“Your son?”
“Yes,” Kratos said slowly. “Lloyd is my son.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
“Well, the name on your desk says “Aurion”. Isn’t Lloyd’s last name “Irving”?”
Sheena stiffened. No one mouthed off to the Supreme Commander. The adrenaline pumping through her system now cleared out most of the impurities she had accumulated over the past week. Well, removed them from her blood stream. She suddenly had to piss like a racehorse.
Asuka did all she could to keep from cowering. The look he gave her was enough to cut diamond. “Read what’s written on the name plate, please, Asuka.”
Shaking, she squinted at the name. “It says, “Supreme Commander of NERV, Master of Tokyo-3, Lord of Welgaia, Protector of the Land, Great Hunk of Man, Prince of Personality, The Diamond Swordsman, Great Almighty Dancer, Chiseled Stone of Perfection, and Golden Leader: You know, you love, you can’t resist him: The Love Machine with 20,000 RPM…Kratooooooooooooos! Aurioooooooooooooooooooon!”
Sheena leaned forward. “Is that really on the name plate?”
Kratos smiled. “Thank you. Dismissed.”
He likes it when others recite his titles.
-
The next person Sheena introduced Asuka to was Doctor Raine Sage. After meeting Lloyd and his father, Asuka was hoping for someone that was, well, normal. For a while, she thought Raine was this.
“Well, look at you!”
“Have I met you before, Dr. Sage?”
“A long time ago. I knew your mother back during GEHIRN’s early days. Last time I saw you, you were just a baby. Now you’ve grown into a fine young woman. A very…beautiful young lady.” Raine’s voice seemed to slow down and smooth out with that last sentence. “And you’ve…filled out quite well.”
Now Asuka was uncomfortable.
“Laying it on a little thick there, aren’t you, Raine?”
Raine didn’t seem to hear her, instead she was focused on Asuka, massaging the neckline of her orange lab coat…thing. It slowly moved south. “Tell me, Asuka, do you have a boyfriend?”
“No,” she gulped.
“A girlfriend?” Raine’s hand was now overtop her own breasts.
“Oooookay.” Sheena took Asuka by the shoulders, leaving Raine alone with herself.
“Aw, c’mon, Sheena! Let me have this one!”
“Heh heh, sorry about her, Asuka. She gets a little…lonely.”
And that’s when Asuka Langely Soryu, of all the people in the world, said to Sheena, “She has some SERIOUS issues.”
What could she do but agree?
-
Asuka was grasping at the thin hope that the Bridge crew would be normal. She was begging. She was praying. She was threatening God to send her some normal people. Maybe it’s because He doesn’t like being threatened, or because He finds her suffering enjoyable, or the more likely option is that He simply just doesn’t care – in any case, the Bridge Crew was just as unhinged as the rest of NERV. They…you know what? I’m gonna come right out and say it.
The Bridge Crew were Kuchinawa, Colette Brunel, and Richter Abend.
What’s that? You didn’t play Dawn of the New World? Well screw you. I liked it. It wasn’t great or anything, but hey, how could you actually follow Tales of Symphonia, anyway? I meant the game was damn near perfect! And if you haven’t played the game, then you don’t know who Emil is anyway.
So why the hell are you still here?
Obviously, Asuka first noticed the man dressed up as a ninja. It was the same one who had tried to assassinate Sheena a week before. Rather, she assumed it was the same one. Ninja’s wear the same uniform to confuse the enemy. And she was pretty sure no one could survive being tossed out a window, but she never saw the body. Ninjas retrieve their dead to make their enemies think that they can’t be killed.
No wait, that’s the Persian Immortals.
“You’re…a member of NERV?” She sputtered, somewhere between fear and fury. How could someone so obviously dangerous be part of the team that was supposed to keep her alive during an Angel battle?
Now that she thought about it, where was the Third Child Anyway?
-
“You’re…a member of NERV?” She sputtered, somewhere between fear and fury. How could someone so obviously dangerous be part of the team that was supposed to keep her alive during an Angel battle?
Now that she thought about it, where was the Third Child Anyway?
-
Let’s find out
“Avast, ye scurvy dog!”
…Um
Lloyd stood at the bow of the boat, an arm extended, grasping a sword. He points his crew forward. There is much booty to plunder from the Imperial vessel just ahead. He imagines the piles of treasure awaiting to be taken, hidden away in the deepest part of the craft. Even though his crew is only two men, he is sure they can rob them blind; a smaller strike force is easier to sneak about.
The boat is an old dinghy.
His crew is Emil and Genis.
The treasure does not exist.
“How in the hell did we get roped into this?” Genis asked, pumping the oar.
Emil considered this. “You know, I honestly have no idea.” He dipped the oar into the LCL and propelled the craft forward.
Lloyd brandished the blade, a real one this time. “Row faster men! She be getting’ away!”
Evangelion 01 is not amused.
…Riiiiight
-
Ignoring that.
“Of course,” Kuchinawa replied, as if it were complexly obvious. “How else would I have nearly 24/7 access to Sheena?”
Were it not for the previous assassination attempt, Asuka would have taken that line as being extremely unsettling. Like hell! Now that she knew he was actually trying to murder her guardian, it was actually a lot worse. Well, revenge kill was the term he used.
Asuka was about to say something when she noticed that the next two panels were shots of Sheena’s and Kuchinawa’s eyes. While it only took two seconds to read, the animator made the scene last around five minutes. He even got the seiyu to add in some grunts. All in all, the scene ended up resembling two constipated adults racing to the finish. Whoever won, she lost.
No words were spoken. The anger that passed between them was palpable.
While Asuka shifted uncomfortably on her feet, Colette got to hers. “Omigosh! A girl pilot! We’re going to be best friends forever!”
At least one of them was friendly. “Um…sure?” Asuka was unable to determine what her feelings should be. So far it had swung from excitement to fear to uncomfortable to even more fear to uncomfortable again. Now that someone was actually being friendly (no, that’s not a good word; Raine was being “friendly”) to her, it was all she could do to not slip into her default Anger Mode.
Anger Mode was always active. Except when it wasn’t. Right now it wasn’t.
“Yay!” Colette made a strange gesture by which she pumped her closed fists up and down while they were pulled close to her sides. It was cute, sort of. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about then play the damn game! It’s a weird gesture that Colette makes and it’s hard to describe. Watch it on YouTube. She does it like every other sentence.) Without waiting for any further confirmation, Colette turned and hurried back to her seat. She tripped and flew face first into the console. Whatever combination of buttons she pressed, the big screen blinked to life.
It displayed the Windows logo with the number 10 superimposed over it. “Thank you for upgrading to Windows 10.”
Sheena snorted. “Huh. Last time that happened, she nearly sank Great Britain... I mean, I remember the Berlin news saying the British Isles had been swallowed by the sea?”
Silence.
“Oh yeah. I think I got plastered for a full week after that.”
“Ow,” Colette peeled herself off of the keyboard, her face now resembling a periodic table.
“And out last technitian is Richter Abend.”
The red-haired half-elf spun his chair around and uttered a single sentence. “Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.” And then he spun around.
And that’s enough of that.
-
By the time Sheena got around to introducing Asuka to the Sub-Commander of NERV, the Second Child had given up on anyone who works for NERV having any semblance of sanity. Then she met Yuan Ka-Fai. He stood up straight, didn’t say anything odd, didn’t have any sort of honor-grudge with another member of the organization. No, he was an honest-to-goodness normal person.
“Hello,” he greeted the women. “I am Yuan Ka-Fai, Sub-Commander of NERV. I serve directly under Kratos. I presume you are Asuka?”
“Y-Yes, sir!” Asuka was nearly shaking with joy. Finally! Someone normal! For a long time, a LOOOOOONG time there, she was certain she was going to have to work in a place full of insanity, where she (she of all people) was the most stable mentally.
“Pilot of Unit 02, huh? I saw the recording of what happened onboard the Over the Rainbow. You fought very well. I have to admit that I was a little surprised at your abilities.”
Because he was so nice, so approachable, so normal, she felt compelled to tell him the truth. “Sir, I have to confess, that plan wasn’t my idea; it was Lloyd’s. He was in the Entry Plug with me.”
“I know,” he said with a straight face. “Hm, let me say that again. I was very impressed with your abilities, especially since Lloyd was in there with you.”
Her eyes lit up like supernovas, he mood lifted to a new high. All of a sudden, the world seemed like a much better place. Maybe working with those jerkwads wouldn’t be so bad if there was just one man like Sub-Commander Ka-Fai there with her.
Too bad for her.
-
As Sheena was walking Asuka towards the exit, she stopped. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about one person.”
“Who?”
“The First Child.” There was a noticeable smile on the ninja’s face.
“Who, Wondergirl?” Asuka’s mood darkened. She had hoped to go the entire flashback visit without running into the favorite child of NERV. Asuka didn’t like competition. Ok, that’s not entirely true. She liked competition, but only when they lost and made her look good. The First Child…she had yet to determine what sort of competition she was going to be: the kind that improved Asuka’s image, or the kind that made her seethe with jealousy.
“Come on. The Commander and Raine wanted me to introduce you two.” Sheena cheerfully took Asuka by the arm and led her away. Something about the way she smiled made Asuka nervous, and considering what she had experienced so far, it was probably far less than she should be feeling.
They found her out in the gardens, you know, the part that put the Geo in Geofront. She was seated on the stump on a felled tree, which was strange, considering that there were no other tree stumps around. Also, there were no other trees around. Also, it was in the middle of the beach area. She was whittling, he small hand moving deftly as she used the knife to shape the hunk of wood into a sculpture.
Have you guess who it is yet? Come I know you know. I’ll give you a hint: pigtails. Wait for it…wait for it…there it is!
Presea looked up from her carving, a strange figure. Sheena recognized it as the Third Angel, Sachiel. “Yes? Can I help you?” Her voice was toneless, mechanical, like a doll. It made Asuka furious.
“Presea Combatir, Asuka Langley Soryu.” Sheena introduced them. Smiling.
Both girls narrowed their eyes at one another, an instant dislike forming. Asuka stoically extended her hand. Presea mechanically met it. Each tightened their grip in steady increments, refusing to blink or say uncle. Sheena imagined that each of them had an aura of power and that they were steadily increasing in power. Asuka’s was red. Presea’s was pink. Her own was purple. She liked being included.
Presea glanced down at their hands. The amount of force each was applying should have broken their hands. “I do not know why we are engaging in this show of force.”
And Asuka answered, “Because I don’t like you.”
And that’s when Presea flipped her ass.
-
Good lord we’ve been stuck in the past for a long time.
-
“Hey! Are you ok? Professor Raine is gone now, so we’re allowed to move.”
Asuka snapped back to the present. A girl with sandy blonde hair has rested her chin on Asuka’s desk and is staring at her. It's Marta Lualdi, Class Representative.
“Hm? Oh, sorry, Marta. I zoned out for a while.”
“Mhm. You and everyone else in the class. Half of the kids have welts on their foreheads from where she threw the chalk at them, even though they didn’t say a word. She said something about keeping us on our toes.”
For Asuka, that carried an entirely different connotation.
With a sigh, she gathered her school things, and joined the group that had gathered around her, consisting of Lloyd, Genis, Emil, and Marta. Presea was nowhere to be found. The five of them made their way towards the exit. Asuka noticed that both Emil and Genis had red welts on their foreheads. Neither wished to speak of it.
“Tomorrow’s the weekend,” Marta observed. “What are you guys doing?”
“Lloyd and I have a sync test Saturday morning, but after that we’re free.”
“We should do something!”
“Like what?” Genis shot her a skeptical look.
“Dunno. We’ll think of it later.” They all shared a collective groan.
They parted ways as they left school grounds, Emil, Genis, and Marta going south while Asuka and Lloyd headed east towards Sheena’s apartment. “Come on, Emil,” Marta squealed, “You can walk me home!” She seized him by the arm and led him away. He wasn’t walking her home so much as being dragged along.
Genis sighed. “Guess I’ll head home and cook dinner before Raine tries to.” He shudders. “I couldn’t leave the toilet for days last time.”
It was just the two of them, which made Asuka think back to –
“No,” she growled.
What?
“No. Not another flashback. I’m tired of them. They didn’t even have anything to do with what was going on in the present.”
But I said –
“No.”
…Okay. She scares me.
She turned her thoughts back to (Calm down!) the other three kids. As much as she hated to say it, she actually considered that bunch of idiots her friends. And Lloyd, too, she guessed.
-
“Sheena! The kids have returned!” Corrine raced around the rim of the kitchen table in a state of panic. Not for the first time, Sheena reflected on how adorable the little squirrel thing was. “Run away, run away!”
“Wark!” Pen Pen waddled in and hopped up into the empty chair. Yeah, I just can't throw out Pen Pen.The sounds of fighting soon filled the apartment. Sheena cracked a beer and poured half of it into Pen Pen’s dish. They drank deeply.
“Chill out, Corrine. I’m sure Lloyd won’t try to – “
“No!” The little mouse thing stared her straight in the face. “NEVER. SPEAK. OF THAT. AGAIN.”
“Aw, aren’t you jus the cutest thing!” She gathered him up in one hand and nuzzled him against her cheek; much to the artificial summon spirit’s humiliation. He squirmed free of her grip and vanished in a puff of smoke.
“He’ll be back,” she observed. “He always comes back.” Pen Pen shook his head in distain. She ignored him. Can poised on her lips for a drink, Sheena strained her ears above the squabbling. “I know you’re there, Kuchinawa.”
From somewhere unseen came a single word, “Damn.”
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