CONGRATULATIONS SHINJI

[failtactical]

[s-s-surprise candle call?!]

Comments

[failtactical]

[and then she actually looks at him and her eyes widen like plates.]




S-Shinji-kun...?

[oedipuswreck]

Mi—

[chokes THIS WAS A BAD IDEA I MADE A MISTAKE I FUCKED UP]



Misato-san . . .

[failtactical]

[BUT SHE'S SO HAPPY]

Shinji-kun! Is that—Is that really you?!

[she slams her hands on the table and leans in real close, as if that would let her get a better look at him]

[oedipuswreck]

[he leans back automatically, even though that's just as useless. he's not dressed like he's from any team, wearing a loose grey sweater over a dark blue shirt. he has a silver key with a little Amethyst charm on it, and there's a Turquoise pin and a Kunzite pin on his lapel. his hair is a little longer, and he looks a little older than she remembers, though perhaps not significantly]

It's—it's sort of me . . .?

[failtactical]

[IT'S SHINJI-KUN IT'S SHINJI-KUN IT'S SHINJI-KUN IT'S SHINJI-KUN IT'S SHINJI-KUN!!!]

Where are you right now? You made it out of the Book?

[oedipuswreck]

[slowly starting to relax out of sheer confusion]

I'm . . . a knight. I don't remember being on a team before. Or being in the Book. Though, Kaworu told me about it.

[failtactical]

[blinks]

A knight?

[oedipuswreck]

[. . . slightly defensively]

Yes.

[failtactical]

[whatever it is she thinks about that, she's not saying it right away]

How long have you been here, Shinji-kun? From the time that you remember?

[oedipuswreck]

Seventy days. About thirty memories.

[failtactical]

Ahh, not bad at all. Sounds like you've been working hard.

[oedipuswreck]

. . . I've remembered a lot.

[failtactical]

[oh boy]

Is that... why you called?

[oedipuswreck]

. . . sort of? . . . I knew Misato-san was here, but I'd been . . .

. . . I wasn't sure if you'd want to talk to me.

[failtactical]

Eh? Why not?

[oedipuswreck]

Uh.


. . . Misato-san, do you know about—[waves his hands a little] . . . timelines?

[failtactical]

. . . Timelines.

[oedipuswreck]

. . . I'll take that as a no . . .

Sort of like—the theory of parallel universes? Where . . . things might have happened one way, once . . . but there was maybe another "version" of events that went slightly differently? Some very different, and some so similar that maybe you remember a lot of the same things, but with a different ending . . .

[failtactical]

[nods as she listens]

Souya—ah, an old knight once told me of memories he got sometimes, where things were very different from the way he remembered and I was part of his world, even.

... I thought that was just Aather or the Personae messing with him.

[oedipuswreck]

Maybe it is, for most people. But Kaworu . . . says he remembers a few different . . . cycles. Not just in Aather. Something like, he's . . . reborn, again and again. I don't really understand it, but—

[he takes a deep breath]

But anyway—Ayanami and I . . . have a different version of events. Than . . . the one Kaworu is "from." Though, he remembered the others, too, eventually. And—I think, different from yours?

[failtactical]

"Cycles"? Wouldn't that imply they aren't different universes, then?

[shakes her head]

Sorry, go on.

[oedipuswreck]

[pauses, then just shakes his head]

I don't know. Like I said . . . I only know what Kaworu's told me, and that's sometimes . . . confusing, at best.

[failtactical]

... What sort of things have you remembered, so far?

[oedipuswreck]

[he'd been brightening a little throughout the conversation, probably more lively than she can remember seeing him—but his eyes go utterly blank as soon as she says that]

. . . I'm not sure where to start?

[failtactical]

... Wherever you think it's easiest. Anywhere is fine, we can work from there.