And crunch like a bade gearshift
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Quote:"What about NERV?"________________________________
Kotono's question lingered in the air, hungry for an answer.
"I.... sort of filtered messages from there out," answered Anika.
"A few of them caused problems for me," Gina answered with a sigh. But yes, she was clearly impervious to them and above all that. "But it's something he's going to have to deal with. There're a lot of evageeks out there. He doesn't even know how popular it is, or how well known he's going to be."
"He hasn't seen Eva yet," Jet confirmed.
Kotono shrunk back, but decided not to let everyone know she'd forgotten to lock the files on her media server.
"Some of them called me a bitch for what I did to Shinji, or asked me what it was like to pilot Eva, or worse" Gina continues. "He's going to have to deal with the fangeeks eventually. That guy in the V costume wouldn't stop pestering me..."
A visible shudder ran through her body.
"It is a fact of life. There will always be people unable to understand he is anything more than a fictional construct made real. He will have to adapt to being famous," added Rei with a soft nod.
"The blessing of a small fandom." Yayoi smiled at them.
"Or he could take a different identity." Kotono suggested, looking right at Gina. "No really. He isn't as 'obvious' as other people. He looks pretty ordinary actually. We thought he was an original until he started to murmur in a dream before waking up. That was when we learned who he was."
"Changing my name was like shedding a burden that wasn't even mine to carry."
"A little bit late since everyone knows he exists now," said Anika, twiddling her thumbs while trying not to obviously accuse anyone.. "We really hoped playing this quietly would make it easier for him to do stuff like that."
"He can't really leave here anyway for at least another two weeks. I've already arranged an appointment on the Forge.... that right there's his acclimatisation time. And I'm going to make sure he doesn't leave here without knowing just how big the Evangelion fandom is."
"You're doing it again Jet..." Marsden warned, tapping a pen on the desk.
"I'm his parent.... sort of.... And what's the point in having a choice if he can't make an informed one? Someone's got to have to tell him all this."
Jets eyes scanned the room.
"You're his 'parent' aren't you..."
"Right" Her shoulders fell "He's with Ben on the bikes. He'll be here in ten minutes."
------
"Hey, what is it Shinji.... you cut off in mid-sentence there"
Shinji heard Ben's voice the old-fashioned way, over his helmet earpice. It was almost a relief, compared to the un-ignorable immediacy of direct-wired comm's.
"Anika gave some sort of radio that works inside my head."
It still felt wrong to admit that on so many levels.
"Oh, and...."
And just as startling that Benjamin didn't even seem to blink at the idea.
"She wants to see me up in the grey room."
"You don't exactly sound to thrilled about that," said Ben, flatly.
"I said I'd be there in ten minutes..."
Shinji knew it was an obvious dodge, but he wasn't going to say anything bad about a person in front of their friend's face.
"Well, you can tell her I said I'd kick her metal ass if she does anything to hurt you then."
He could hear Ben chuckling over his earpiece. It brought a faint smile to his face as he blasted ahead. This wasn't going to be fun, but at least getting there would be.
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?