2022-06-20: Marking time
- Log: 2022-06-20: Marking time
- Cast: Character :: Rei Ayanami
- Where: A concrete room in Tokyo-3
- Date: June 20, 2022
- Summary: Waiting for-- ?
Rei Ayanami clicked off the phone.
A hateful device. It contained ten thousand voices, all of which spoke nothing in particular. There was an information network that communicated across the world and through the colonies; delayed only by the speed of light, a glittering neural network.
The analogy was not lost on Rei, but every neuron is defined by its connections, and she did not have many.
Rei put the phone on the charger, the NERV logo on its screen shifting to the different hue as it began loyally recharging. It rarely went below ninety-five percent, but that was alright. It would be able to care for itself, Rei understood. There would be decay, inevitable and unstoppable, but it would be... managed.
Rei gazed at the phone's face. Time passed. The digital clock ticked over.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Again.
A thought crossed Rei's mind, too formless to be expressed in words. She turned away from the phone. She adjusted the curtains; stepped onto the balcony, narrow though it was. She and the washing machine took up its majority.
Tokyo-3 remained the same; the view from the side showing the neighboring building, still in the slow stages of disassembly. Rei watched it for a while, and then, satisfied no one lurked, went inside.
Rei checked the closet, which remained laden with school uniforms and her formal outfit for official occasions, along with inclement weather gear, the same as it had been two hours ago. The bathroom retained its usual number of fixtures and strong smell of bleach. The door was still locked. Nothing had changed.
Rei sat down on her bed, not bothering with the light. Some time later, she fell onto her side, head landing approximately upon the pillow. She stared into the darkness as time and fatigue accumulated. Words did form, eventually, at the end, just before that liquid blackness of sleep:
Why them?