2023-10-30: Company
- Log: Company
- Cast: Eight Orlodhari, Shinji Ikari
- Where: Eight's Apartment, Magallanica
- OOC - IC Date: October 30, 0097
- Summary: Shinji arrives to bring Eight lunch that she just can't get off the Ra Mari II. There's a misunderstanding, but it clears up, and then the two talk for a little while.
<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.
Given the departure of many of the employees of the Vist Foundation, the apartments in which they lived have a lot of open space. Since it seemed a waste to try to worry about building an entire new house for a temporary stay, Eight Orlodhari has occupied a few of the apartments in question between herself, her new family, and her parents. Even her grandmother has come to visit, with an assistant of course.
It's a tall building, smooth and and painted metal and concrete. Eight's apartment is on the lower floor, next door to her parents'.
Shinji has been deputized to bring Eight more katsudon, because as a matter of fact she rather liked it at that meeting the other day, and she doesn't really have the time or energy to cook it for herself at the moment.
Eight herself is in her apartment, waiting by the door, a baby in her arms. (This one's Zaress; it's easy to tell because he has a more human skintone than Aarmi, who is green. Still pointed ears, though. They both have those.) Zaress is quiet as Eight feeds him.
"Hm hm hm..." Eight hums a little tune for her baby, as she waits.
Aarmi is already snoozing, as is Lavhi, in the other room. The door's unlocked.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Shinji hasn't actually gone to Magallanica much, despite technically living there, he guesses. As far as he's concerned, he really lives on the Ra Mari II, and if the Ra Mari II is part of Magallanica, well, that doesn't matter very much to him. He's kind of nervous about heading out there, actually, after all he heard about infamous criminal Yuliana Kafim being caught skulking around out there.
But, well, Eight sent a request for katsudon, and it's the end of his shift anyway, so the head chef asked him to deliver it, so... When Shinji tried to refuse, he was asked what other plans he had. Knowing his other plans were 'lie in bed and mope,' Shinji skipped ahead to caving.
If anyone's been following him since he left, he hasn't noticed. He glances around nervously every so often, but he genuinely doesn't expect Section 2 to care about him as long as he keeps his mouth shut about NERV stuff.
Shinji isn't necessarily wrong, either. He just hasn't considered that Section 2 would need to monitor him to know he's keeping his mouth shut in the first place.
So Shinji arrives at the apartment building where Eight lives. He pauses in front of the building, looking down at the address written down for him (his Osanshoo-san phone blobs on his shoulder and sings to him through his earbuds, but he still has not managed to figure out how to make it work as a phone), then back up.
"I guess this is the place..." he murmurs to himself. He adjusts his grip on the delivery bag he's carrying to make sure nothing spills, tucks the brim of his cap down, and heads inside.
Once he reaches the appropriate number, he tucks away his earbuds and knocks on the door politely. It might not be locked, but it's just not Shinji's instinct to try a door first. When Eight bids him enter, then he walks in.
"Eight-san, I've brought your--WAUGH!!" he yelps, eyes bulging under his cap when he sees the state of dress, or lack thereof, she's in. He whirls around, his entire face turning red. "Wh-wh-wh-why didn't you warn me you weren't--Eight-san!!" he half-yells, half-whines.
He might want to consider that the door's still open if he's going to make that much of a fuss about it...
<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.
Eight in turn hasn't been back to the ship that many times since the birth; she'd like to, but too much walking around still makes her sore, and she has the twins to account for. Lavhi hasn't been back much, either; he's as busy with them as she is.
She does have a security detail, though, and they are watching as surely as Section 2 is.
"Come in! Door's open!"
And then poor Shinji waughs. Eight blinks--and then realizes as he goes red and sputters what the problem is, embarrassed herself that she didn't think about it. Her nursing bra means only the one boob is out, but even so, she can understand his being embarrassed...
"Sorry," Eight says, apologetic. "Zaress was hungry while I was waiting, and I'm tired enough that I've stopped thinking about it. But he's about done anyway..." She pulls gently, and with her free hand replaces the flap before she stands up.
Zaress makes a few discontent noises at all the noise, "Shhh. It's okay. It's all right..."
Hmmm.
"Here," Eight says, "Turn around." She has an idea. There's also a table she gestures to for him to put the food on, and, "Come on in and close the door. I think I hear my mother laughing..."
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
And there is a baby on that boob, so it's not like her nipple is visible, but... Shinji's a teenage boy! Even when you take his lack of growth spurt into account, he's still a teenage boy.
At least Eight can give an apology and an explanation. He grimaces, shoulders hunching as his expression turns sullen. Still, there's nothing left to actually complain about without giving a first-time mom a lot of trouble, so he holds out the delivery bag stiffly.
But Eight's clothes rustle as she puts them back in place, and she soothes her baby before he gets too cranky, and then...
"Um," Shinji utters. He's pretty sure she's adjusted her shirt by now, but he hesitates to actually turn around all the same. The suggestion to close the door gets another blush, though, because he's pretty sure he can hear someone laughing, too. He takes a couple backwards steps in and shuts the door, scowling through his embarrassment. Carefully, he peeks over his shoulder; when he's sure he's not in for another round of embarrassment, he heaves a sigh and brings the delivery to the table as requested.
Then he just sort of stands there awkwardly. He was planning on leaving right away, but given that he went out of his way to shut the door, it suddenly feels weird to do that.
<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.
Eight is chagrined about it, at least. She does notice his sullenness... But maybe a little shock is good for him, given how down he's been. But indeed when he turns around her shirt is buttoned, or at least buttoned well enough not to show anything. "Thanks," Eight says. "I appreciate the delivery!"
Then, now that Shinji's hands are free, she holds out her baby. "I desperately need a trip to the other room," she says, "Here--hold him a moment. You can show him you're not so scary, right?"
She takes the time to show him exactly how to hold the baby, "Like this. Just make sure to support his head. Thanks, Shinji--I'll be right back."
Eight does not take 'no' for an answer this time, no matter how much Shinji might protest. And Zaress looks up curiously at Shinji, eyes big.
Eight scurries out of the room, though presumably not for long.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
"You're welcome," Shinji replies, because it's the polite thing to say, and while he might be ruffled and sullen, he's not, generally speaking, ungrateful to her. It was an honest mistake, and she didn't tease him.
But that doesn't actually erase the awkwardness, and it certainly doesn't prepare him for what happens next, which is that she hands off her baby to him. He's too surprised to refuse at first, eyes wide and baffled as she shows him how to support the baby's head. He obeys without thinking, until she says she'll be right back.
"W-wait, but I--"
And she's already gone.
Shinji stares down at the baby. It's only thanks to Eight correcting his hold that he's holding him at all right. Zaress stares back at him with the wide-eyed innocence of a--two-week-old? Is he even two weeks old yet? Shinji looks around the room in a growing panic, but he has no idea what he's looking for and, accordingly, doesn't find it.
"U-um..." he utters weakly. He remains rooted to the spot. Have babies always been this heavy...?! He tries to shift his grip, but unable to find something that would let him also keep supporting Zaress' head, the one thing Eight told him to make sure to do, he just stands where he is.
"...so what's it like, being a baby...?" he asks Zaress faintly, out of desperation for anything to distract him from the reality he's currently in.
<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.
Zaress stares up at Shinji. His eyes seem to focus a little, and when Shinji talks to him, he makes a little noise. "Mmmaaaa..." Shinji may not find anything, but it seems Zaress has. He then yawns, and starts to close his little eyes.
Eight returns, her shirt buttoned properly this time, and smiles. She watches Shinji a moment before she speaks up about her presence.
"It's a good question," Eight says. "It'd be easier to raise them if we could understand what it's like, wouldn't it? But I sure don't remember..."
Eight lifts her hands, to gently accept Zaress back from Shinji, if he'll give him back.
"But I think he likes you. Sometimes he cries when other people hold him, but not you."
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
It's a relief that Zaress doesn't start to cry or anything. If the worst he does is babble a little and start to doze off, Shinji's honestly quite lucky.
That doesn't mean he's eager to hang onto him, though. Shinji is more than happy to return Zaress to his mother, and even breathes a sigh of relief once he's gone, relaxing a bit. He heard the toilet flush; he knows what Eight needed to do; he still was not at all prepared to hold a baby out of the blue, even if Eight did show him how to do it right.
"Me neither," he says. "I don't remember anything before I was three or four, honestly." And he barely remembers things from that age. One of the clearest things he does remember is hearing about the 30 Bunch Incident, and, well--that isn't a happy memory. He doesn't even remember when his mother died...
His eyebrows droop as he thinks of that. Before he can start getting good and depressed, though, Eight tells him she thinks her baby likes him. "What?" he utters, cheeks turning pink for a different reason now. "I didn't do anything, I just stood there..."
...It does feel kind of nice to be told that, though. Shinji stares back at Zaress for a few seconds; then he hesitantly offers him a finger.
<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.
Zaress reawakens when Eight takes him back, and she smiles down at him, cooing softly. "I'm back," she tells him, the adoration in her red eyes plain to see if Shinji so much as looks.
But, "Me, either. I don't remember more than flashes of anything before ten or so." When she was rescued.
But Shinji is surprised, and Eight smiles more widely. "That's all you have to do. He likes looking at faces," Eight explains. "So if you keep him close enough to see your face, that's a good start."
When Shinji offers a finger, Zaress's eyes follow it, and his head turns slightly towards him. But that seems to be about all he's got in him, because he yawns again.
"There you go," Eight says. "This is Shinji. I hope you can be friends." She's still smiling, rocking Zaress gently, before she says, "Let me set him down, he looks tired."
She gestures for Shinji to come along with her head, and moves for the bassinet by the wall.
"A little talking won't bother him if we don't raise our voices. Lavhi and Aarmi are still napping, so I'll keep him out here for now."
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Shinji does look, and it is plain to see. It's nice, but it also makes him feel a little lonely. Because...
I wonder if Mother looked at me like that.
...some things you just can't know. Not under normal circumstances.
"Before ten?" he utters, eyes widening again. That's so old! He knows the broad strokes of her background, but if she told him specifically when she was rescued, he's forgotten. However... because he knows the broad strokes of her background, he doesn't press her on it. ...Some things you're better off not remembering, anyway.
"Oh... I see," he replies, looking back at Zaress. Zaress in turn watches his finger, then starts to drift off again. Shinji uses that finger to scratch his own cheek. Friends, huh... Can you really be friends with someone that much younger than yourself...?
"Sure," he says aloud, and follows after her. It's a little surprising to hear that Lavhi and Aarmi are in the other room, napping, but it makes sense. Shinji's momentarily mortified, but if they slept through his screaming earlier, then that's good... He takes a moment to glance around and actually take in the apartment, but that only lasts until Eight suggests he stay so they can chat.
"Oh, um," he utters, blinking at her. "I should get going, honestly... You still need to eat, right?" He might not have anything to do after this, but he doesn't want to keep Eight from her meal, either.
He looks back at Zaress. He seems like a really chill baby. Shinji's eyes lid. Asuka didn't seem like the type to like babies, but Rei probably would have been good with him too... She always had a sort of maternal vibe to her, somehow.
Shinji lowers his gaze. "..."
<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.
There's no way to know.
His eyes widen though, and Eight nods. "That's when my parents rescued me from the lab," she explains. "...I didn't really have much of a personality, back then. I had to build my own identity, almost from scratch. Rena and Annie... They did a lot for me."
Her partner, and her partner's partner--two of her best friends.
Eight would say that it's possible. If nothing else, that you can be a good friend to someone younger than you, even if it's not the same as a similar-aged friendship.
Eight sets Zaress down, and turns to Shinji. "I do," she allows, and then she watches him for a moment. The way his eyes lid, the general feeling she gets from him...
"But I'd appreciate the company," she says. "I only see the same few people day to day lately. It's nice to see someone else."
She starts to walk back to the table, where she can pick up her lunch, and gestures to a seat for Shinji. "If you do have something else to do I understand. But it would be nice."
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
"Oh," Shinji says simply. It's not a surprise--he was just thinking it--but, god... ten years old... That's so old to be a human experiment.
But then--
I didn't really have much of a personality, back then. I had to build my own identity, almost from scratch.
...He can't help but think of Rei again. She, too, was very subdued at first... He looks again at Eight, with her blonde hair and her red eyes.
...was Rei also...?
...there's no way to know that now. And even if he could, it doesn't matter.
She's gone.
"Oh...?" Shinji shuffles on his feet a bit. Eight's really sociable now. It must be hard on her to see so many few people compared to before. He thinks again of Rei--if she'd lived, would she've grown up to be a mother one day too? Would she have married Kaworu, or maybe Gridman? Would they've had a child together?
Would he have eventually had a child with Asuka...?
It's no less unpleasant to think about now than it was before. But the unpleasantness is for a different reason now.
"...I can stick around a little while, then," he murmurs. He casts his gaze around again, this time for something to do, and he spots a teakettle in the kitchen. "I'll make tea for both of us while you eat," he suggests, and starts to head over that way--though he won't actually start looking for tea and brewing it until she actually gives him permission.
After that, though, it's something to busy his hands with. He's no Nellens Sitara, but he has gotten quite good at making it over the past couple years.
<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.
"Mm-hm."
Eight didn't know Rei. But she heaard about what happened to those two Eva pilots. And she did know Asuka, even if not very well...
But right now, she's here with Shinji. And she smiles at his acceptance. "Thanks," Eight says sincerely, and then when he suggests making tea... "That's a good idea," she says. "Please do." There's a few varieties there, most of them low-caffeine because of Eight's needs, but there should be something nice to make.
"Mm. This smells delicious, though. I appreciate you bringing it for me. I've been craving it since the other day..."
Eight gets to her meal. As it happens, she's learned to eat quickly--first as a military officer, then again now as a mother of newborns. She'll probably be finished by the time he runs out of something to do.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Green tea is the type Shinji knows how best to make, but it does have a decent amount of caffeine. He ends up making an herbal tea instead, something light and fruity. It smells nice, especially with a bit of sweetener.
"You're welcome," he says of the meal. "The head chef made it, not me." Something worth clarifying. "I just brought it over."
By the time the water has finished boiling and the tea has finished brewing and Shinji has stirred in the sweetener, Eight's nearly done her meal. He brings the mugs over and sits perpendicular to her, hands cupping around his mug. He doesn't speak, though, and he doesn't drink more than a sip. One might reasonably guess that he's just waiting for it to cool, but there's something about the haunted look on his face that would tell Eight--even without Newtype intuition--that his thoughts are somewhere else.
(Is having red eyes a sign of being an experiment...? Ouka had red eyes too. Did Rei and Kaworu both go through things like what Eight did? But, no, Asuka's a Coordinator and her eyes were blue. Seolla has blue eyes too. Is he just jumping to stupid conclusions? Maybe it's better not to think about it at all...)
<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.
Eight likes green tea, but she's cut back on her caffeine signiicantly since she became pregnant. Just in case, she's still avoiding it... which can make the sleepless nights a little harder.
"Oh, I see!" Eight smiles. "Well, thank you for bringing it, then."
She makes a point of finishing before she speaks up, but she does notice the way that Shinji is looking, that haunted aspect to his gaze. And she can sense where those thoughts are, for the moment, can sense the question...
But since Ruri, she's been a lot more delicate about the insights she gets as a Newtype. So she has the time to finish her meal and think about what to say to that.
"Did you know?" she asks. "A baby's eyes can change color. They usually settle at about three or six months. I'm looking forward to seeing what color the twins' eyes settle on," she decides to say, "But I suspect it'll be red or brown or in that neighborhood, since that's mine and Lavhi's. Not that I know what color my birth parents had, but my grandmother's are red, like mine."
She considers Shinji a moment, and brings the mug up to inhale the aroma of the tea. "This smells nice," she tells him.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
"Oh--I didn't know that," Shinji utters, of babies' eyes changing color. He hadn't really taken in what Zaress's eyes were earlier, thinking on it... They were kind of brown-ish, he thinks? He thinks. If Eight's grandmother also had red eyes... and that's right, Lavhi also has red eyes... though in his case, he's also a Zentraedi...
...Either way, he's definitely overthinking it.
"Red eyes feel like they should be unusual, but there's a lot of people with them, huh," he comments. "Kaworu-kun too..."
He doesn't mention Rei.
"Mm," he mumbles, of the tea's scent. But then: "Tea's good to just breathe in. It's kind of relaxing..." Which is good, considering where his thoughts are wandering around to right now. But rather than bring up Rei, he murmurs, "I wonder what Kaworu-kun's doing right now... I wonder if the expedition's made it to Jupiter yet..."
He might have cut ties in disgust with NERV, but a lot of his friends are on that expedition--friends who tried their best to save Rei and Asuka. Friends who don't deserve whatever's going to happen with the King of Ruin. Friends he won't see again, no matter how that expedition goes...
Shinji covers a sigh with another sip of tea.
<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.
Eight can't be sure! But she's happy to share that factoid... and to use it as a segue to discussing something with Shinji. It seems to have helped, at least.
"They do, huh?" Eight asks. She smiles, first. Kaworu is nice to think about. But, for the tea... Yes. "I could stand for some relaxation," Eight admits on the tea. "It's nice for that."
Then...
"I know they were stopping off at Mars first," Eight says. "So I couldn't really say." She considers it, for a moment. She has friends--crew, even--on that expedition.
"I wonder how Liam and Lucine are doing," she reflects too. "Kaworu, though..." She nods. "Probably being his usual self. He doesn't seem to change no matter where you put him. To me, he always seems gentle and more than a little mysterious."
"I'm sure that whatever he's doing, the people on the expedition are lucky to have him around, though."
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Eight probably could use some relaxation, huh? Shinji knows very little about babies, but he does know they're a lot of work. He can't imagine how much more work twins would be. Eight has a lot of support, so it's probably fine, but...
"Yeah," he murmurs, of Mars. He remembers that radio conversation, about Kaworu recommending some Martians to help out, and Liam saying he'd talk to Lucine about coming along too.
"Same," he says of those two; he'd just been thinking of them, after all. Eight's take on what Kaworu's done gets a very, very slight--but nonetheless genuine--smile out of him. "...That's true. Kaworu-kun's so unflappable. He takes everything in stride..."
...would he take Rei's death in stride? Does he even know? He must know, right? There's no way everyone would keep it a secret from him. At the very least, Mari must have told him. Shinji bows his head, smile fading.
"...Yeah," he murmurs.
He wishes Kaworu were here. Shinji knows he suffers too--that he must be suffering now--so it's not like Kaworu could just take away all his pain for him, but... at least they'd be able to share their pain. Make it easier for both of them.
At least Kaworu isn't alone. He has Mari. Shinji's sure she'll keep her promise...
He thinks of the copy of The Happy Prince and Other Tales in his room that he still hasn't cracked open and sighs a little, shoulders slumping.
<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.
Eight doesn't seem to mind the difficulty, at least. She's just willing to acknowledge that it exists. Really, she treasures it. This was a dream of hers that she's living now.
Well, the 'two of them' part was a surprise.
They can share wondering about Liam and Lucine, and to Kaworu, too. "He does," Eight agrees, and sees that small smile. It may not last, but it's clear how much he cares about Kaworu.
"...It's hard," Eight says. "To be away from the people you care about. It hasn't been as long for me, but I still wonder how Rena is doing, when she's out there and I'm not. It's been a long time since I've spent much time away from her. So even a little while like this feels like a long time."
She focuses her eyes, considers Shinji. "...Shinji," she says. "I'd like it if you came by more often, when you have the chance. Think about it, all right?"
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Kaworu is his best friend, after all. Shinji also cares a lot about Tohji and Kensuke, his first friends, and his best friends before he got close with Kaworu--really, they're all his best friends, but... Kaworu's just special.
Maybe more special than Shinji's willing to admit. But even before all this, they were going to talk things through...
He wonders if he'll still get a chance. He feels like he will, though. As long as Kaworu comes back alive, they'll meet again... That's what it feels like. That much makes him feel a little better, even after wallowing in thoughts about Rei and Asuka.
For now, though, it's still pretty miserable. He looks up at Eight as she talks about her own loneliness... How even with all the people around her, she still craves more company. No, not 'more' company; specific company. The company of someone special. He knows he can't fill that hole, even if she's asking him to come by more, but...
...Shinji has to admit, he misses someone specific too. It's not just his fellow--his former fellow Eva pilots he misses, either. Eight's a different person from Misato, but...
"...All right," he concedes quietly.