Or, an odd plotbunny that needs to be let out to breath. Something may come of this. Maybe nothing.
Shinji.... there's an explanation I have in story.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Quote:He opened his eyes for the first time.
“Unfamiliar Ceiling,”
A familiar sentence for Shinji Ikari. For a moment, he hoped it might’ve all been a dream but as his mind threw off the fog of sleep, the dream refused to decay.
He glanced around, trying to make sense of where he was. He lay on a cot-bed, under a lightweight space-blanket of the sort he was reasonably familiar with. The ceiling above was dirtier than the hospital he was used to. The air smelled of dry dust and a woman’s perfume.
To his left, an empty nightstand with a single lamp.
It didn’t work when he tried to switch it on. The bulb flickered once, popped, then went dark forever. He cursed it under his breath. Still, there was enough light to see by.
He checked himself. All present and accounted for. Naked, so someone had undressed him. It was a pleasant surprise to note that the stigmata scars on his palms had disappeared.
As had the calluses on his finger-tips. Odd, he mused, rubbing them against his thumb in turn. They should’ve been thick from his cello strings.
The wall opposite him was blank. In the gloom he guessed it was painted blue. He could make out the outlines of furniture ghosts as brighter patches in the paint. There’d been something there once... and it’d been taken away.
He thought for a moment, that maybe they’d been rescued by other survivors. Other people had come back! He felt a thrill run through his body.
No more loneliness. He was alive!. People were alive! Asuka had to be somewhere here too... maybe. He looked out the bay window to his right.
And saw the blackest night sky he’d ever seen in his life, filled with the brightest stars, cresting over a star-lit rocky plain so desolate and lifeless, it made him pause and think for a moment.
No trees. No burned stumps and broken telegraph poles. No cross nailed to a makeshift memorial he’d taken days to construct. No streak of blood. Days alone. With all of humanity in one red tide overseen by a decaying face the size of a mountain. He felt himself sicken as the memory struck him hard. It was a brick to the mind.
He had been there. With her. She’d come back. And..... something....
Then he woke up here. In a starkly empty room, looking out over an equally impossible wasteland, which could easily have been the surface of the moon.
“Where am I?” he wondered aloud.
There was no answer except the distant whirr of a ventilation system blowing through ducts in the ceiling. It was dry, industrially tainted air. There was something reassuring about it. It reminded him of the Geofront for a moment.
Craning his ears, he thought he could hear movement outside, through a door. Shuffling feet.
“Hello!” he called out. “Hey!”
The shuffling stopped.
Life!
The door opened a moment later. The lock snapped. The hinges squawked and harsh light flooded the room. The windows turned immediately to an opaque black mirror, shining with the reflected light.
A woman’s figure stood silhoutted in the light.
“Misato?” he murmured.
No, he realised a moment later. She wasn’t as.... big.
“I’m sorry,” she answered in perfect Japanese. “My name is Kotono Ito. I’m glad to see you’re awake,”
“Ikari Shinji,” he answered, feeling his voice strain.
A snap of a switch, and the lights overhead fizzed to life. His eyes didn’t even need to adjust. He saw her face first, youthful and smiling at him, framed by jet-black bangs. Hazel eyes were full of cheer. For a moment, he though of his guardian... but she was much thinner than Misato.... and far more athletic.
And he doubted Misato ever dressed like that. Seriously.... a pink blouse and white trousers?
She giggled behind her hand. “I think you should get dressed. There’re clothes at the end of the bed.”
Shinji took a few moments to process for a moment. Dressed?
A cold draft tickling around very private areas informed him that yes, he was naked. And yes, she could probably see everything. The silvered mylar blanket had pooled around his legs as he sat up.
“Sorry!” he yelp
She chuckled. “Come outside when you’re dressed,”
She stepped back, closing the door behind her. Shinji swore she heard her laughing at him.
The concret floor was cold and gritty under his feet. He could feel the heat being sucked out of the soles of his feet.
It wasn’t uncomfortable, just a little bit strange. He padded about a little, testing his body. No aches and pains. He didn’t feel as hungry as he normally did when he woke up. He didn’t feel thirsty. He didn’t feel a need to use the bathroom.
He felt fine.
His reflection in the glass looked perfectly healthy. Well fed. Not dirty and starved after days grubbling around on a beach for dead fish and barely-fresh water.
Maybe it had all been a dream. The rock just beyond was illuminated
A pile of clothes waited on the floor for him. What was there, was a few sizes to big for him, well worn. Jeans and a basic blue t-shirt, which told the whole world in plain English that he’d attended something called ‘Republicon’. A belt kept the trousers from falling, but the sneakers were for larger feet and slipped as he tried to walk. He guessed it’d been borrowed at short notice.
He took a deep breath, steeled himself, and opened the door.
And was greeted by the soothing scent of dinner being cooked. Kotono stood over the range, puts bubbling in front of her. She turned and smiled at him.
“Welcome to my humble home,” She raised a spatula. “I thought you might be hungry, so I cooked up something quick,”
He wasn’t. He blinked. “This place is huge,”
It was. Just the living area alone was easily bigger that Misato’s apartment. There was a kitchen area over by the front door, spaciously appointed with everything possibly needed. There was a table, set ready for a meal for two.
There was a meticulously neat living area, couches centered around a huge flatscreen television, easily larger than the pre-impact model jealously guarded by Touji’s father. It must’ve cost..... Shinj’s mind boggled at the numbers. Then at the collection of books and movies and electronic hardware underneath it.
And still those jet-black windows looking out onto the lunar surface beyond. Above, an open-sided staircase lead to some sort of mezzanine level, while opposite him were more doors, leading to rooms he guessed were like his own.
“Thanks,” said Kotono, “About the one thing we have a lot of out here is space. Might aswell use it to get comfortable,”
How could they justify using living space fit for a family, for just one person? He banished the thought as rude.... maybe she’d earned it somehow. Or maybe she didn’t live alone.
A thought occurred to him
“Is Asuka here?”
Kotono looked at him, with what he felt might almost have been pity.
“She has red hair. About my age. She’s hurt,”
Again, the image in his mind made him sick to his throat. And how would she feel about him if she found out what he’d done to her?
“She isn’t here right now,” the woman said, keeping her voice as soft and soothing as she could manage. “It’s just you here.”
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.” She stopped. He was about to say something before she spoke again “It’s complicated. You just woke up. You’ve been through a lot. I’ll answer any questions you have when the time comes, but for now, I just need you to take time to get your bearings,”
She was looking right at him, still wearing that soft sister smile in a way that forced him to think about Misato. He licked his lips, remembering the taste of blood in her mouth.... and that sad smile on her face as he’d been pushed back into the lift car. She was still smiling when the door shut.
Ten seconds later, he’d heard the blast.
If Asuka survived somehow, maybe she did? Yes.... He swallowed the lump in his throat, and feigned scratching at his eyes to hide the tears before they became too obvious.
Something lit the room up, a brilliant, hot light flooding in in an instent. Blinking, he stared at a white magnesium flare rising up above what seemed to be a distant horizon, illuminating the cold, barren world beyond the windows for the first time.
It was an ancient, pock-marked surface, mottled in shades of brown black and grey. Deep black shadows were cast like voids in craters. It was a perfect darkness, beside perfect light with no shades inbetween.
The sky above was still black as ink. And the flare was quickly rising up above distant mountains. A half second later, he knew he was looking at the sun. The windows darkened themselves automatically, enough to make staring comfortable at least.
How?
“Where.... where am I?” he forced out.
He could feel a thousand caterpillars crawling across his back.
Kotono set down her spatula. He could see her reflection in the window in front of him, crossing the floor behind him. He still started as she placed a warm hand on his should.
““Shinji.” she said, looking right into his eyes. “You’re in my apartment. On 77 Frigga. We’re deep in the main belt.”
What? His mind whirled for a moment, trying to make sense.
“Main belt? As in..... “
“We’re on an asteroid. In outer space.” she clarified. It was the truth. He was certain. There was something about her voice, a flat, dead certainty in her tone that was irrefutable.
I’m in Space.
His mouth hung open for what felt like an eternity, before the connection between brain and mouth was made.
“What?” he managed to say.
------
The dome was in darkness, lit only by the lights on the house behind, and the headlights of an automated lawnmower still puttering around going about it’s duties.
“Does he know yet?” Jet asked her.
Kotono took a deep breath of fresh air, drinking in the scent of fresh cut grass. “I told him where we are. He’s still taking time to assimilate that. He also asked me if Asuka, or Misato or Ayanami were here. Then he asked about his father,”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him that I’d answer his questions when the time came, but for now, just to get used to being here,” She paused. “I don’t want to lie to him. He’s going to have to be told everything eventuallly. ”
She was there solely because she was the least likely to spook him
“We need to do this gently. He needs to get used to the idea of being alive, and being in space with us before we tell him the truth.”
Kotono nodded. “I’ll give him a tour of Frigga tomorrow. But he’s going to ask difficult questions. And I don’t think I can explain where he is, without explaining what he is,”
“Right, right.” Jet seemed to stare at her feet, before taking a long deep breath. “That’s the 64 million credit question right there. How do we tell Shinji Ikari that he’s really an android, based on a fictional TV show?” A pause. “And not have him collapse into an existential black hole,”
“I don’t know yet.” Kotono admitted. “He’s a real sweet boy. Cute, polite, considerate.... the exact opposite of Mackie,” She gave an alto chuckle. Jet smirked in amusement. “But I kind of feel sorry for him. I know he won’t take it well.”
“I knew this was a bad idea. Anika’s going to pay for this.” That was a promise. “Please, try wake the frame. It deserves the chance at life. What’s the worst that could happen?”
There was a curse under her breath which Kotono couldn’t make out.
“Are we going to tell anyone else about this?” she enquired.
“Fuck no! Not yet.” She took a moment to actually think. “I’ll send a message out, see if anybody has any advice on handling this. I won’t tell them exactly who we have, that’s asking for trouble. Just that we have a new android.”
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Shinji.... there's an explanation I have in story.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?