2022-11-03: Troubled Youth ~LIFELINE~

• Cast: Asuka Shikinami Langley, Guy Shishioh
• Where: One Of Several Mediocre Cafes In Tsutsujidai
• Date: U.C. 0096 11 03
• Summary: With his faith in himself restored by the miraculous return of a beloved friend, Guy begins his new circuit of visiting Akane's victims by visiting the one he had previously shunned. Stunned by what he learns, he elects to make an offer.

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<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

Asuka doesn't get it. The atmosphere for her was more melancholy than anything when she woke up this morning. However she still feels that pleasant sensation that has to be happiness. It's a strange contrast, and she's not sure what to make of it, having never been happy before in her entire life before coming to Tsutsujidai.

Why does she feel happy when everything sucks?

Is she just that happy to be away from NERV? With Akane? Was her new purpose of loving her just that fulfilling? She's trying her hardest not to question that...

...after all she doesn't really want to let that go, for things to go back to where they were, when she was miserable all the time but unable to admit it.

Right now, someone else has taken a shift of watching over Ouka, which means she's gotta catch up on schoolwork. So she's sitting at a table outside of a Starbows, her pen scrabbling across the paper as she absent mindedly does high school math homework without even thinking about it.

She has a latte in hand from which she takes a sip and...

... well it's coffee alright. "Tck." The Starbows in Tsutsujidai are kinda just mediocre? She's not sure why.

The summer heat beats down on her even discounting the shade of the table's umbrella. The coffee is thoroughly average. Ouka is in bad shape but Akane told her she'd take care of it...

...but she's happy, isn't she?

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

He believes in them. In their courage. And he'll shine on them quietly as long as he has to to remind them of what Mamoru and Mikoto reminded him, when his own nearly failed.

"It's pretty average, huh?" a male voice says, stepping right up like an invited guest. It's Guy Shishioh, but it's not...JUST Guy Shishioh. Oh, it's only him, physically, but he's standing straight and confident, with the charming smile of a hero. He's in full uniform, with the 3G jumpsuit with the Green version of the logo on its high collar, over which he's wearing the sleeveless black ankle-length coat that marks his position as (Acting) Chief. His left hand is sheathed in a curious little piece of tech, a bracer that looks like a lion's head, with eyes that look like they glow, and an armored glove that exposes the back of his hand. That's the one he's holding his own coffee in. "Ever since Renais made some for me, something just feels wrong with the stuff here. Mind if I sit?"

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

Asuka glances up like it's going to be just another guy she needs to tell to buzz off, her pen still moving, but then she straightens, looking at him oddly as her pen just stops. There's something a bit surreal about the King of Braves visiting a Starbows. It's not quite alarm, if he really wanted to come for her, then there's not much she could do. Run maybe? Hope she could get lucky?

It takes her a few seconds but-

-she answers, a bit guarded. "It's like the barristas don't know what real coffee is supposed to taste like."

Her pen twirls within her fingertips, a nervous habit maybe, "Believe it or not, even she hits up this place when she has no other options."

And then she finally answers his question, "Sure, why not? If you've got nothing better to do than sit down at a Starbows. Ruin Apostles really been that quiet lately?" Her skyblue eyes stare across at him, "Or NERV have you here for a reason?"

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

"Might not, with how this place works," Guy says, and seats himself only when invited. He's holding himself confidently, but not smugly. He's not honoring her with his presence, but he does seem certain he's worth hearing. "Six NERV staff retire to the same place at basically the same time with somewhere between radio silence and outright sabotage?" He chuckles. "Frankly even if the Ruin Apostles WERE doing something we could track, I'd have to weigh my priorities."

He sets his coffee down, crossing his legs at the knee, casual and welcoming. He tracks his eyes across her, across her schoolwork.

"What if I told you I just valued you as a person, and wanted to see how you were doing?" He waves his hand. "NERV isn't just Gendo Ikari and Fuyutsuki's show. I'm a Chief of a member organization. Ikari doesn't get to just tell me to jump." He smiles. Calm. Composed. Watching her. Believing in the spark he knows is there.

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

Asuka knows enough about how this place works at least to know Guy's probably right, but is it a slight against Akane if she doesn't know how good coffee tastes then? She decides to blame the barristas in her head, not the goddess.

"And? With how secretive NERV is is it really any surprise that six of us came to a similar conclusion? Not all of us are Evoluders."

Asuka puts her pen back to paper and starts working math while they're talking. "Must be nice not having to be paranoid about Section 2 taking offense if you decided to tender your resignation. The rest of us? It's something we've gotta think about. Whether we know a little too much that they wouldn't be able to let us go."

As he says it's because he values her as a person, a single eyebrow lofts and her pen hitches against the paper, before beginning to scribble down more formulas. "I'd tell you that you don't really know me." She tells him gloomily. That's a bit of an odd response to his question about valuing her as a person, isn't it?

However she doesn't clarify what she means by it, "But I'm fine. Everything's fine. Much happier than I've ever been."

That's a real low bar to clear, however, she then asks suspiciously, "How about you 'Chief'? Sounds like this is more than just a welfare check. What are you really here for?"

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

"You think so?" Guy says, idly. Is that what the world looks like from the inside of Central Dogma? He considers whether and how much to poke this particular demon.

He pulls his coffee to his lips, but that calm, confident posture cracks just a little, eyes peering over his cup at the accusation that a NERV unit might be silencing people permanently. Paranoia...? He knows that these dreamers have had their memories, their thoughts, changed. Alouette justified her actions with a logic that relied on something that was simply untrue. He *watched* Renais stumble over some kind of mental restraint that prevented her from taking an offer she should've jumped at, for reasons that didn't follow.

But it's never invented something completely whole cloth, before. "You really think that happens?" he says, and it's with curiosity, but not mocking. He wants to know. "...then, let me say it like this."

He drinks his coffee, and screws up his face as if only then remembering that even brief exposure to Renais made him realize how mediocre Tsutsujidai coffee can be. He sets his coffee down and looks at her square. He lets her finish. "You're right," he says. "I don't know you that well. When we first met, you were so angry. I'd never dealt with a person like you. I presumed Kaworu would handle it and went about my life."

He folds his hands. "I failed you when I did that. I failed you by believing that just because your body was whole, you didn't have scars. I don't intend to fail you, or my other friends, again."

"And so I'll be honest. Yes, we believe something's altering your perceptions. Your memories, your thoughts. I can prove it without standing up. But it doesn't matter. You're here because you're hurt, and you don't want to be anymore. And it doesn't matter if a Kaiju's psychic attack or a long night with Katsuragi's supply or a chance encounter with your own reflection made you choose to leave."

He reaches for his coffee again. "What am I really here for? To show you that I mean to do right by you. That I'm going to continue believing in you and your choices, Asuka."

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

Is it something that Akane planting logic in her head that's untrue? Or is it simply something she didn't care about before as she never thought she'd leave NERV...? It's hard to say. "You really think it doesn't?" Asuka looks back at him, something challenging in her eyes.

"Tell me you don't think they'd really let one of the maybe eight pilots in the world that can pilot an Eva walk out the door? That BioNet wouldn't love to get their hands on one of us?"

There's a snort as if she were to say 'Keep dreaming' and well - it's not a bad sort of logic is it? It's paranoid, but it makes a certain amount of sense.

However, Guy tells her she's right, and now both of her eyebrows shoot up briefly, as her expression becomes suspicious yet again, steel in her eyes. Still, despite how angry she typically is, she doesn't interrupt him, she hears him out to the end.

"... Mean to do right by me?" Asuka's eyes narrow slightly, "... So what's that supposed to mean then? If you really think I wouldn't have chosen this of my own free will, it means you think I'm in need of rescue right?"

Asuka taps her pen against the homework, obviously agitated as she grabs her mediocre latte and takes a sip, then puts it down, "It wasn't a choice to stop being hurt. I was fine. I took a lot of pride in being an Eva pilot. However, I just realized I didn't have a future at NERV-"

Pause.

"-other than maybe a bullet in the head, once all the Angels were taken care of. So I made a selfish call, sure." Is this what Akane did to her? Made her believe NERV is out to get her? Or did she always believe that NERV was just this way. If she never thought to leave, if she never thought to challenge her place in NERV then what would happen? "And now that that's not hanging over my head. I'm just much happier thinking about what's ahead of me. That's all."

However she then adds, "Also leaving it to Fifth String to 'handle' me was a really bonehead move. In case you didn't realize, we despise each other."

And while Kaworu is professional in their superior/subordinate relationship... he was the opposite of invested in her.

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

His eyes look her up and down. Scanning that posture, those beliefs. It is paranoid. And Guy doesn't want to believe it. Doesn't, really.

But he knows things have been worse than he ever saw, too.

"It means I think someone should reach out to you," Guy says. She challenges him directly, but he doesn't blink at it. "And listen to your story."

And she tells it. He does listen. For Kaworu, he admits simply: "I didn't. Sorry."

The question rolls through him, indeed. Is this what Akane put in her head, or did Akane just make her care about it? Hm. ...

"I'm glad you are," he says, and smiles. "A passionate young woman deserves a bright future. Everyone does. I believe that."

He folds his hands, and seeks her eyes. "I think you think you're in need of rescue more than I do," he says. He pauses, considering his next words. "In GGG, we have a saying. The Oath Sworn through Courage. It's...a lot of things. It's refusing to give up. It's believing in your team."

His lips turn up, a small, tender smile. "But it can just be choosing to live, and fighting with everything you have for that. I believe in that courage, Asuka. And I believe in yours. And I'll prove it to you."

He slips a hand up and holds open his jacket, so she can see what he's doing when he reaches into an inner pocket and produces a white card. It's labeled with the logos of both GGG Blue and GGG Green. He places it on the table and slides it toward her, and seeks her eyes.

"This is the GGG High Priority line. We made it for Mamoru, back in the day, when we might need to defend him on a moment's notice. If you call this, GGG's mobile division will arrive to protect you in less than five minutes."

"If you ever feel like your life is in danger. If you ever feel like you just want to be far away from where you are. Call."

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

She's still bitter about it in many ways. Even now admitting she misjudged Kaworu in some ways - she still reached out her hand to him first and... he slapped it away.

There's something uncertain in those skyblue eyes as he tells her someone should reach out to her and listen to her, like he's getting through to her a little. Just a little. Enough that she doesn't slap this away. "Don't really have a story. Just, a purpose."

He does apologize though for Kaworu... and she looks away from him, with a cluck of her tongue, but, again, she doesn't slap it away. Before she stares at him again and... he truly believes that doesn't he? That she's a person, that she deserves a future.

He doesn't know. And Misato only knows a little more than him.

That fact makes her even more agitated, because while he's exceptionally powerful, she doesn't doubt NERV has been preparing for a contingency where he turns on them. So it's better that he doesn't know. Renais at least she's sure will keep her mouth shut at what little she's told her. She has a feeling that he'd be... loud if he did.

She knows a lot about what GGG has accomplished, but she doesn't really, get the bonds they have together, how they can be how they are despite all they've faced. So she listens, looking at him like she's only barely started to understand what it's like to be part of a team - or at least did.

All he has to say about courage. Her eyes fall to the table after a moment, when he talks to her about choosing to live, and fighting with everything she has towards that. Like something in that statement resonated within her...

... because she's the last one of the Shikinami Series left, and she fought with all she had to be the last one.

Those eyes fall upon the card then back to his as he seeks hers out, and she watches him explain what it is. And what it could do for her.

"I don't really get you. I left, took Eva-02 with me, and you're still acting like we're on the same team."

Her eyes fall back down upon the card, "By the very definition of what I did - I did give up. I didn't believe in my team. Yet you're saying that I'm still doing something your Oath Sworn through Courage respects by making the selfish call - of what's best for myself?"

She just keeps staring at the card, then tells him even softer, "Don't get you at all."

She doesn't touch the card yet, but she's certainly looking at it real intently.

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

When he's placed the card, he retreats into his own space, grabbing his coffee for another regrettable sip. "Yep," he agrees, and nods. "You did, it's true. And maybe I'd have to dock you a few lunches if you were GGG, since that stuff's in the charter for us." He grins. Even in this, he's trying to lighten the mood a little.

But only a little, because it dials soon back down into a more quiet kind of smile. "But it's not really rules you break and it's done. It's not something someone...takes away from you. I believe everyone has that spark of courage in them. And there's people who shun it, or people who trounce on it, that's all true."

"But I believe it never goes out. I believe it's still in you. And I believe you deserve to have it."

He puts his gauntleted hand on the table, the lion-head pointing forward. As if bringing his partner to the table, too. Though maybe Asuka won't know the significance of the item that used to summon Galeon to Guy's side. "Choosing to live on your own terms is absolutely courage. You deserve to hold that courage with both hands. It's yours and only yours."

Which is why he has to end this, he doesn't say. Because that's not the choice she made. But soon, she'll have another chance to choose.

He decides he will defend whichever she makes.

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

'Dock you a few lunches' earns Guy a dumbfounded look for a moment. Just because of the totally different atmosphere between GGG and the Eva pilots. If only he knew how the Third Branch punished security breaches like this one.

However it seems to dawn on her that this is in fact a joke. Right - that's right. Guy used to be human.

He talks about her spark of courage, and how he believes she still has it, and that she deserves to have it. And Asuka just... for a moment wonders if he'd actually understand, the life she had. How she became an Eva pilot. What she had to endure, survive. What all of her other sisters didn't.

However, she then remembers how dangerous that knowledge is... and also that he's so very...

... human. Unlike her. Change what he is, and he's still human. Just like Ouka, whom even the School couldn't smother that spark of humanity and compassion.

She looks at the gauntlet that he uses to summon Galeon, then back at him.

Then slowly her fingertips reach out and she slides the card over to her.

"If you know that much - then you know I'll defend this place, defend my happiness - with everything I have."

She tells him, the resolve in her eyes clear, "Don't think me even for a second that you reaching out in this way - or me just putting this away in my pocket means anything else."

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

Perhaps someone else might mean it as an expression of force, bringing the GaoBrace and his full Chief outfit to Tsutsujidai. But the message Guy wants to send is simply that he speaks with the totality of his strength. That when he says he believes, when he swears to protect, he does so with his partner in his mind, and with his organization in the fray.

His partner, who of course, isn't supposed to be in this universe right now...and even Asuka would've heard about a battle of the scale that would bring Galeon home, if it'd happened. But wearing it seems to have brought him a peace he hasn't had for months.

Well. Perhaps that's not all visible to Asuka. The smile he gives her is very real. "I want you to," he says. "Just consider that as proof that I believe in that, too. We've already got your back, you know? Mobile Division Captain Amami, and both Chiefs, the orders we gave are not to engage here with force. Except to protect it when an actual kaiju shows up, of course. Ikari hasn't said a breath about it. That card is just my promise to you that I will back up that belief even if it means kicking his door in myself."

He reaches for his coffee and then stands, setting his armored hand on the table again. "I mean it, Asuka," he says. "Call, and we'll come. Not just here. Wherever the future takes you. I want to see the incredible person Asuka Shikinami Langley can become."

He moves to walk away, waving calmly over his shoulder. "I should get going. Good luck with homework!"

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

Not all is visible to Asuka at all. After all, she's never known anyone like Guy before. Never had someone like that in her life.

"... I believe you." Asuka says after a moment, after assessing his words. However, she doubts that Ikari will actually sit silent, or Section 2 or the Third Branch even. Eventually they're going to want back their property...

... and by that she doesn't mean Evangelion Unit-02. They'll want her back even if it only means to dispose of her for good.

The card is right there. If they really come for her - really come. Can she survive five minutes? Can she even survive long enough to place the call at all?

Well, she's just going to have to bet that she can.

'I want to see what an incredible person Asuka Shikinami Langley can become.'

She calls out after him, as he leaves. "I've got a Master's Degree in theoretical chemistry you know. Could do this homework in my sleep."

What she doesn't reveal is that she's doing Ouka's homework as well, on top of it, just so she doesn't have to bother while she's resting. It's only once he's out of earshot that the pen finally stills and...

"Shame I can't meet your expectations."

Asuka says, remembering that she can't even figure out a simple thing like... how to love someone, like Akane. As she remembers all the myriad of human interactions she's witnessed, struggled with trying to understand, struggled with trying to pass as human for years.

It's all so easy for everyone else - but it's such hard work for her. She can pass as human...

"Just can't be done."
...but she can never become human.