2022-10-03: A Choice I Don't Recognize
- Cast: Ako Furuma, Kaworu Nagisa
- Where: Tsutsujidai High School
- Date: U.C. 0096 10 03
- Summary: Ako returns Kaworu's backdated homework. Kaworu thanks her with a choice that'll change her future forever.
<Pose Tracker> Ako Furuma has posed.
Ako Furuma has had a very confusing week. First, she met with Leina Ashta and got a job offer - and a discussion about her place in the world and her future. That was still hitting her. The other should have been forgotten - another teenager, Ujico, helping her rescue a cat from a tree. But something about the words 'I *want* to be a kind person' when told she was kind stuck with her.
This is why, on the way to the hall outside the dance clubroom, Ako nearly bumps into the wall. She's holding a binder full of homework - not hers - and almost clumsily drops it when she rights herself. Brushing behind her ear, she waits for the clubroom to get out...she needs to sit down, and there's a bench nearby, but first, she needs to give these to someone.
So, she waits. Except she's not waiting for Marusan, as one might suspect. When Kaworu Nagisa inevitably leaves the club room, she approaches him. "Nagisa, uh, do you have a moment? I have your homework, and I'm supposed to be explaining which classes it's from..." She's pacing while standing, jumping from one foot to another subconsciously.
What a pain. Nagisa is nice, and worth helping out, but why is she always saddled with these tasks? If they're trying to get her to socialize with people...why does she have to fit their mold?
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
This time around has truly given Kaworu a greater appreciation of dance. He's always had the highest respect for music, and dance is often closely interrelated with it, but it's a different experience to play music for a still and silent audience, and another to play music for someone to move their body to. He may not dance himself, but watching others dance to his piano is truly delightful.
After bidding good-night to the rest of the Dance Club, he picks up his bookbag, slings it over his shoulder, and tucks his hands into his pockets as he heads out of the room. Ako is waiting there for him, approaching with an armful of papers.
"Ako Furuma. It's been some time," he says, smiling at her in greeting. He considers the papers in her arms as she explains it's his backed-up homework, and then nods. In contrast to Ako's nervous energy, he's still until he's ready to walk with her to wherever she'd please. "Certainly. Would you like to go somewhere to sit down?"
<Pose Tracker> Ako Furuma has posed.
"Yeah." Ako responds without hesitation. She leads him to the bench, taking a seat, as she starts listing a few classes and assignments from her phone notes, before pausing. "-actually, I still don't know why they assigned me, but this is probably pretty boring. Marusan could have done it, you were at her club." Despite her statement, she's absolutely not upset at Kaworu. She's mad at the teachers.
"Have you been sick? You don't attend that frequently. Or are you a ditcher?" Another pause, as her fingers tap at the bench handle.
"I don't judge. I wish I could, too, but my parents would kill me, and I'd see Marusan far less anyways."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Kaworu sits next to Ako, close enough to accept the documents once she hands them over but far enough away to give her space. He listens to her explanations with quiet attention, until she brings up her complaint about the teachers. That prompts a brief smile and a breath of a chuckle. She's right; Marusan could have done it instead. But the way her soul has brightened so much since the first time they met back in January...
"Perhaps they sent you because you were the one who showed me around when I first transferred in," he muses. In other words, perhaps they were guided by the budding connection between them. "It doesn't matter much either way. For them, the point is getting someone else to do it. I expect it doesn't really matter who."
It's a deeply cynical thing to say, but he says it with his usual easygoing calm, no sign of any irritation or bitterness. Likewise, her question about why his attendance is so spotty doesn't get so much as the bat of an eyelash.
"I attend two schools at once, and have other duties on top of those, so I only have so much time I can spend attending class," he explains with serenely brutal honesty. "I came here to keep an eye on this city, and on Akane Shinjo in particular. You and Ramo Marusa are such close friends of hers, I'm sure you've noticed something amiss with her... especially of late."
It's not normally something he would bother to share, but the way her spirit is just on the edge... Perhaps just a little nudge would help her out--and help Akane out in turn.
<Pose Tracker> Ako Furuma has posed.
"Probably." Ako sighs, listening to his calm. Is it the cadence of his voice or the mellowness that makes her comfortable around him?
"Two schools? Really? That sounds- wait, what?"
A pause. "Why do you care about a PLANT? I mean, Akane's just my good friend..." She wants to help him, because she knows there's something amiss, but she can't possibly know what.
"I guess...she misses school when she's down, like after the Sheryl Nome concert, which is understandable, but she's also been distancing herself a bit. She's still Akane, but lately, she seems...kinda like you."
It doesn't mean to be rude, but the follow-up could be parsed that way by anyone without extreme empathy.
"You both seem...barely human, in a lot of ways. Like, something more, not less." She doesn't explain herself, but her brain is racing. The tapping on the bench increases, rhythmically.
"Why do you care about her?"
Suspicion of an abnormal boy. Trust in him nonetheless. Furthermore, a path to a way to change things.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
"It isn't about that. This wasn't a PLANT when I transferred in," Kaworu replies, a smile rising faintly on his lips as he regards her. Akane is hardly just her good friend, but he doesn't press. Not for now, not on that. It wouldn't be good to rush her too fast. Encouragement is fine, but she should take that last step on her own.
He hums in quiet contemplation as Ako describes Ako as being like him likely--as barely human, but in the sense that he's more than human. Kaworu isn't offended. After all, she's exactly right. It might well be telling to Ako that Kaworu takes it wholly in stride--not confused, not angry, not upset--despite it being something that would normally be a strange thing at best to hear.
Why does he care about her, though? Kaworu raises his gaze to the ceiling in thought.
"Because she's like me," he decides. "Not exactly. But enough, in the ways that matter."
Then he looks back at her, his red gaze seeming to peer all the way to her core. "You're quite astute," he remarks. "You're exactly right."
<Pose Tracker> Ako Furuma has posed.
"This wasn't-" Ako blinks. A bit owlishly. Pieces are starting to click into place. But she can't piece them all. Not in one day. But as he says she's right, piercing into her core, she shudders briefly and then decides to share something not even Marusan knows.
"I...don't get what you mean. But things have been...weird for me, since the field trip to the mountains. I have this nightmare."
Ako stops fidgeting, sitting up straight. "I'm helping evacuate. But it's because there's a monster in the distance. And it's fighting...another one, but I think this one is a protector." She reaches into her bag, grabbing a doodle. "The protector gets injured. But instead of sparking...it rains blood. And I get doused. Drowning, drenched, but I make it out. A man saves my life. I don't remember what he looked like."
Ako shudders again, for a different reason. "It was foggy at first. But it became more vivid every month since, as things get weirder. I remember the protector." She hands the paper to Kaworu. It's doodled with 'dream' lens on, not quite accurate but close enough to know what it truly is.
Evangelion.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Kaworu watches as realization dawns across Ako's face. But it's a muddy, hazy sort of dawn; fingers of light reach out towards her, but she can't quite see their true form yet. She shudders and shares something he already knows. He knows, because he was there.
"That was on March 31st," he states, even as she hands the paper of her doodle over. Without looking at it, he continues, "Your protector was painted in orange, black and white. She's known as Unit-00." He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his smartphone. As it operates by itself, he holds the paper and his phone up next to each other. He regards them as a certain photo comes up. Then he turns them both around and shows them back to Ako.
Her doodle, and a photo of the real deal. Just as both of them described it.
"You've been made," he says, calm and quiet, "to forget. But you aren't someone who can forget. Not entirely."
He holds both out for her to accept them if she wishes. If she does, he tucks his hands bac in his pockets.
"Only a little further, and you'll forget no longer, Ako Furuma," he concludes. "But it's your choice. You still have a chance to turn away, if that's your wish."
<Pose Tracker> Ako Furuma has posed.
Ako listens. Kaworu knows what it is before he even would look. She thtinks. "Yeah. March 31st. Unit-00...you know them? You..." She hesitates as he holds objects out. She could live in ignorance. She knows, deep down, if she makes this choice, it's going to be difficult and scary.
"I want...to help Akane. You wouldn't be investigating her if something wasn't wrong. People like her, like...me...the world wants us to fit in. But...why can't it ever just accept us for who we are?"
She grabs her doodle, first, before grabbing the phone to compare. Kaworu can see it. Something just unlocked as she made that choice. She won't see the Venora tonight, but tomorrow...
After a good, long look, she returns the phone to Kaworu. "...it's a mobile suit? That bleeds? I won't...ask for details, if you'd even give them to me. It's too overwhelming. But...if there was a pilot...please thank them for me, should I never get the chance."
"You really aren't human, huh. But...that's okay. I don't judge Zents, either."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Kaworu nods once. "She's a compatriot of mine," he says when she hesitates. The drawing and the phone wait for her to take them; when she does, he watches her and that last step her essence takes to awakening. Everything will be different for her from now on.
Ako wonders why the world can't simply accept them. Kaworu doesn't reply. He has no answer for her, any more than she herself does.
At length, she offers his phone bac, and he accepts it. "Her pilot's name is Rei Ayanami. She knows Akane, too. I'm sure she'll come by again, so when you see her, you can thank her yourself." He smiles anew. "I'm sure you'll have the chance. Our fates have become so deeply intertwined this time."
Her comment about Zents gets her a brief, low chuckle. "Thank you. Still, I'd appreciate it if you kept it to yourself for now, please. It's not commonly known."
It's known by hardly anyone, really. But this is a decision he made, just as he made it for Anti. It's an expression of trust. And he has faith that she won't betray it.
"If you need some time to yourself, I'll take that paperwork from you," he offers then. "Thank you for coming by, Ako Furuma. It was good to see you again. I hope we'll meet again soon."
<Pose Tracker> Ako Furuma has posed.
"Yeah. I promise I'll be quiet." Ako says. She won't even tell Marusan. She hands Kaworu the paperwork, but doesn't stand up.
"I hope we do, too." She'll sit there for a while. She needs to think.