2022-07-04 - A Friendly Meeting
- Log: 22 07 03 - A Friendly Meeting
- Cast: Riika Sheder, Shinji Ikari, Asuka Shikinami Langley
- Where: Tsutsujidai
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-07-03
- Summary: Does it count as treason if you're working with your enemies in another world, that may or may not actually exist?
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
When Riika Sheder was a 'guest' of the Federation, she had visitors.
Two of those visitors were Shinji Ikari and Ryoji Kaji, and perhaps counterintuitively to what you'd expect out of a ZAFT military pilot, Riika was cooperative - at least on the topic of kaiju; she hadn't given any information at all about ZAFT's actual plans. Though, to be fair, NERV hadn't asked her about them.
She'd taken a number from Shinji, and memorized it, on the off chance she got a chance to use it. And then, a week or two later, she'd escaped from the Nadesico - rescued by a man in a rabbit suit, though Riika personally doubts that the Nergal crew had announced all the details. She still had trouble believe in it and it had happened to her.
And then... nothing. Not for a little while, anyway. It was hard for Riika to find a time where she could get away with it. Shinji might have thought she'd decided to stay away, and who could blame her? But eventually that number got a message sent to it: a place and a time, and a note:
'If you still want to talk, meet me here.'
'It's a risky place, but I don't know where else we can both get. It should be fine if you don't say his name, because he can hear when he's called. Just call him Cloak.'
The place was a park actually inside Tsutsujidai; Riika could get to it via her own means (Junius Seven, though she wasn't going to tell a Federation officer that if they didn't already know) and so could they. It was a decent meeting ground, she figured.
The time was early afternoon, though for Riika it was uncomfortably early in the morning since she didn't operate on Japan time. Teleportation (or whatever) had downsides. It's already warm. This being Tsutsujidai, where it is always summer, it is probably going to get warmer.
At the moment she was sitting at a bench in the park, dressed in civilian clothes: short skirt over black tights, a green short-sleeved top. She appears to have come alone, and if she's armed with anything more dangerous than the water bottle she's holding it isn't obvious, so she seems to be treating this as the polite meeting it is intended as.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Where Shinji Ikari has been is relatively unimportant. The now is paramount, and the now is making sure someone has the full story of what is going on. So Shinji is back in this cursed town, nodding off on a hell train.
He wakes up with a start, looks at his phone again (a burner Mr. Kaji slipped him, though he has kept that information to himself. Shinji intends to destroy it once the need to talk with Riika is over. He saw this in a movie once.). Park. Lot of parks in this town.
Almost anonymous in a school shirt and slacks, Shinji skulks through the lonely streets of the town, not sure of what he's going to say, if Section Two is tailing him and going to report them all, or if this is even a good idea. But it's an idea, and that's got a better track record than the alternative.
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
~While on the way~
"Hey, Baka Shinji." Asuka holds out her phone, showing a picture of Anti - a short white haired kid with red eyes in what looks vaguely Chuuni-like garb in the scarf that covers his face. It's the same picture that was passed around by her when they were having the radio conversation about Liam. "If we see this kid while we're there. You run back to the train station and climb aboard the next train. Let me take care of it." There's a short pause, as says with this sense of absolute confidence, "I can handle him. And I don't need you getting in my way."
Asuka's wearing a red blouse with the numbers 02 showing as if it were some sports jersey, a short black skirt, and white socks over sneakers. She's got a tote bag with her. Shinji if he's perceptive enough might swear she's had her hand inside that bag far too often, most of the trip really.
As for Riika herself? She doesn't say much, she gives no warning on the train ride over.
~Once here~
Asuka is acting pretty casual for her on the way, though her eyes are scanning for Anti - and Akane both. She is not worried about Section Two herself. She figures the most dangerous things are already there. Plus... Section Two isn't really beholden to the Federation. If anyone wanted to report Shinji it'd have to go through Gendo Ikari first.
Once they arrive at the park, she stops, assessing Riika for a bit from a distance, before stepping forward, arms crossed. "So you're the one this idiot is putting himself out there for." She says, after a moment, not sitting down at first. She's only fourteen max, but she's giving her such a cold look. "How sorry do you feel now?"
It's not impossible that Riika might remember her voice... from Africa. Though the dead giveaway perhaps is what she has to say.
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
Riika really should have expected that Shinji would bring a friend.
This was not the friend she expected. Riika clearly does not recognize Asuka by sight; she rises, politely (and perhaps to talk to them more easily) when the pair approaches. She gets the idea, from looking, that Shinji might not be having a good day, that his partner doesn't really want to be here -
No, scratch that. His partner doesn't want her to be here.
Riika's smile wavers in the face of Asuka being Asuka at her. "Sorry?" she says. "Ikari gave me this number, and I thought this was a good time to call it for coordination. Was I wrong?" She glances over toward Shinji, as if expecting him to say something too, unfocused eyes shifting behind her faintly pink-tinted glasses lenses.
Fun fact: Asuka may be about fourteen, and Riika is 19 (though she looks younger) - but Asuka is the taller of the pair. Though, granted, not by very much.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
~Train train, the lightrail train, where magic ghosts make us fall asleep.~
Shinji raises an eyebrow at the weird guy in the picture. Don't say it. Don't you say it. She will kick your ass. She's probably ARMED the way she's playing with that bag, she might shoot you.
"What did he do to you?" Shinji says instead of the joke, and looks surprised at himself.
~The park, where we think of days gone by that we weren't actually around for, and the beloved duckbill haircut.~
Shinji looks around the park, frowning at how familiar the faded greens and rusty playground equipment feel. This whole place reeks of weaponized nostalgia. Or is it what he's bringing in?
"She's like that with everyone." Shinji says, mildly. "But I trust her with my life."
Shinji pauses realizing that's true. When did that happen.
"This is fine. We're all just a little on edge." Shinji says, holding his hands up as of Riika was about to scatter. "Are we having this talk here, or somewhere more secluded? Then again, everywhere here is kind of secluded."
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
~Back on the Train~
Asuka sideeyes Shinji as he asks what he did to her. "He showed up." Is Asuka's answer. Which doesn't explain anything at all.
~Now~
Asuka's posture doesn't really change all that much, as Shinji says that she's like that with everyone, she just looks his way briefly, annoyed but not denying it as she looks back Riika's way.
"You don't remember? The Kaiju in the OAC - the Red Evangelion that deployed that day. That was me. All you had to say about it was how sorry about it you were." The intensity of that look doesn't increase, as she clucks her tongue, "Tck. Not sorry enough apparently. Wasn't all that long after that you attacked the moon. Wanna tell me I'm wrong? That there's more than one in ZAFT hauling Kaiju around?"
She holds her palm out, "Waste of time, yours and mine. I'm just here to keep an eye on you so you don't dome this idiot for trusting a GINN rat like you. Maybe I'll chime in every now and then, but the ball's in his court."
Asuka stays standing, her eyes mostly scanning the background letting Shinji and Riika decide on the venue.
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
"I didn't realize that was you," Riika admits, which is true; she hadn't exactly been having a two-way conversation with Asuka at the time, and she didn't recognize the voice until she got the clue about the red Evangelion. She looks guilty, momentarily, until she covers it.
A moment of hesitation, then: "I am sorry. I regret what I did with the Cloak," apparently she was serious about not using his name, "and I really am sorry for it. I thanked Shinji for what he did and I'd do it again. But I'm not going to apologize for fighting the Federation." She looks apologetically at Shinji. "Because you're right: It was me. It was just me, as far as I know. If there's someone else, they don't talk about it."
But then again she didn't, for a long time, either.
"But I do have a name. It's Riika. Sheder, if you don't want to be that familiar. You can use it, if you want. What should I call you?" That was directly at Asuka. She knows what to call Shinji.
"I figured here was fine," Riika addresses Shinji again. "I don't know the place all that well, but I did figure out that nobody really bothers you out here. I've come to it a couple times. So as long as we don't cause a fuss - and I didn't come here to do that! - it's fine."
"Actually, I wanted to remind you what I did in the message, first. That he can hear his name, or at least if you call him. So don't use it, because I'd really rather not have him show up and ask me some questions right now." Riika shudders. It's a subtle gesture, but it's there. "I don't think he can find me reliably if I don't mention him."
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Shinji looks at Asuka but does not introduce her, despite his manners gland twitching. Asuka takes names incredibly seriously and she should be the one to decide how Riika can address her. For Shinji, like most social norms, it's a way to get through a conversation faster so he can go back to being alone. People at times mistake this for good manners.
His eyes narrow as he actually invests himself in the conversation. "That's useful to know. We don't know the full extent of the EE's powers, but for now we have to assume it's resting after the attack on Tokyo-03." Otherwise all of this is being monitored and pointless. Shinji takes out a neat little notebook, writing things down in what he thinks is shorthand but is actually just messy script. "And that's outside of here, too? Anywhere in the world?"
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Asuka doesn't say anything as Riika speaks, her expression hardly changes. As she apologizes there's a twitch in her eye, and when she says she won't apologize for fighting the Federation, there's more tension appears in the lines of her jaw. It's like she's trying to bore a hole in her with her eyes. However, she doesn't escalate further than that as Riika takes responsibility at least.
"Langley. Captain Asuka Shikinami Langley of the AEU... joined up after your people made Earthfall. You're not about to get a sorry out of me for anything that happened ever since."
What would that make her? Twelve? Thirteen...? In a mobile suit, on a battlefield, being directed to kill. More evidence perhaps of how awful the Federation can be. However, Asuka just glances sidelong at Shinji as she mentions that he can hear his name. "Fat chance of that happening from me. I sure won't say his name." For perhaps obvious reasons to Shinji, of her never really saying anyone's name except Misato and now his. Everyone else gets a nickname.
"Wouldn't surprise me." With crossed arms, she's scanning the park, though after a moment, she looks sideways at Riika, "... This entity. Who else in Tsutsujidai is in its orbit that you know of? If you can't say their names, describe them."
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
"Wait, you're AEU? Not NERV? I thought - " But she has an Evangelion, right? Riika knows they use teenagers for that; she knows Shinji was drafted. But Shinji isn't military, precisely. And this girl is a captain? She can't tell if she's being pranked somehow, or if the Federation really is that desperate, or what. "...Well, never mind. Langley it is."
She might have to try figuring some things out, later.
Riika heard about the attack on Tokyo-03 in a vague sense, but wasn't involved and doesn't get the detailed news that a Federation soldier might. (Or might not. This is NERV, after all. They like to play things close to their chest.) "Was it him there?" she asks. "Or just someone he sent? Someone ... like me, I guess?"
"It's anywhere," Riika confirms, "but I think he pays more attention to in here. But I sent him an email from Macross City asking to talk to him and he just showed up. Like, showed up in my hotel room without going through the door, and I know, because I was facing the door. And I know you're going to say 'but you emailed him' - and I did, but it was a dead email address that we'd never talked about ahead of time, all he said was 'contact me' with no directions. I sent it to an address that ended 'at tsutsujidai dot net'! That's not even a real provider!" Certainly not on the other side, it isn't.
Riika lets out a puff of air. Who else? "Well, I know he made contact with someone else on the outside, but she's clued in, and she's not going to work with him. She's on a ship, so she's got people watching her. As for in here, there's someone who, ah... I don't think 'takes care of' is accurate, but he 'watches over' a girl here. And I thought it was something else, but apparently he's helping with her dream. She didn't tell me what it was. I'm worried about her, too - that he's using her, somehow."
"Here, can I borrow that for a moment?" Riika tilts her head at Shinji's notebook. If he does let her borrow it, Riika writes two words in it in her annoyingly neat handwriting:
'Akane Shinjo'
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
"Giant monster, but one of the ones from here. ...two, actually, smashed together." Shinji says, looking away, handing Riika the notebook. It's good policy. "So I guess I'm assuming, but who else could it be? I-we find out the Cloak's real name, and suddenly there's an all out blitz on the city. Anyone else who uses those things makes a big loud production out of it."
And at least two attacks on pilots but Riika doesn't need to know how crippled NERV is right now. Shinji takes a swig of the bottled water he brought while Riika writes, wordlessly offering Asuka a sip. Hydration is important.
Taking care of? It sounds a bit similar to some of Gridman's strange prophecy, but Shinji doesn't know enough about it to be sure. Still. Shinji shares the notebook with Asuka, wondering if the name rings a bell for her. He's clueless.
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Asuka just gives this shake of her head. She's too prideful not to answer that question though, "I was transferred to NERV late December. Doesn't mean I'm not still a part of the AEU, just my current assignment takes precedence."
Asuka lets Shinji talk about the attack on Tokyo-03 though, her eyes just, always searching around the park. She has her hand in her bag, but whatever she's got in there she hasn't pointed it at Riika, yet at least. Instead she just listens in, though sideeyes Riika as she mentions she e-mailed him from Macross City, making some mental notes about that. Still, if she's telling the truth about this 'Devil'... "A certain munchkin was scared even at the thought of talking about him here in Tsutsujidai."
Asuka though raises an eyebrow as she mentions someone on a ship, "Just in case, who?" Before she mentions that that he watches over a girl here, and Asuka suddenly looks curious, not like she fully trusts Riika here but still at least wanting to sort through what's possibly truth and what's a lie.
Riika though writes down the name, and Asuka glances at the notebook when Shinji shows it to her... and just freezes...
I think Akane takes things out on him. Their guardian doesn't take care of either of them...
She exhales after a moment, a sense of low level anger returning, "Well that settles it. You see a pink haired girl, then we cut this short." Asuka seems even more tense now, "Her little brother - the one I showed you a picture of earlier - is the one who put the Labrat in the hospital." For once she's not looking around the park, but directly at Shinji, "It's not impossible she's the one who tried to ice Fifth String."
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
"You can combine two of them?" That's something Riika didn't know - well, it never came up, did it? She didn't change Devadadan - didn't even know she could - and Mecha Trembulor was its own thing. And the statuette for it is broken, so she doesn't think it's going to come up again.
Probably.
Riika catches the side-eye. "It was after a concert. In April. He didn't do anything but show up, talk to me, and leave - but he did do all that. The first time I met him wasn't here, either. Actually, I didn't know he was from here until he told me so."
Riika almost adds the second name, but says, instead, "I don't know if I should tell you, but I'll tell you how to find out: ask Ruri Hoshino, on the Nadesico. Tell her Riika told you that she'd know who else Alexis had spoken to other than me, and ask if she's willing to connect you... she might not have anything to say other than it hasn't happened again, though."
The fact that it is Ruri is a little awkward for Riika to say. The slightly confusing two-step is the only way she can think of to do it without violating her privacy. It's a shame Riika can't send her a message herself. "Also, if you tell her I'm sorry for what we did on the way out? That would be nice."
Shinji doesn't recognize the name. Asuka... clearly does. "You know her? - Wait, she has a brother? I didn't know that part. And her brother attacked one of you?" Riika doesn't know who 'Labrat' is, or 'Fifth String' for that matter, and she assumes Asuka is deliberately not telling her by using these names that aren't their actual names, rather than a tendency to not use anyone's.
Riika worries at her lip for a moment, then: "I don't know if she has any kaiju. But I don't know that she doesn't either. And if the Cloak's still involved - "
Worry. Lots of worry. "I think I'd better keep on working with you about this," she finishes, a little awkwardly. "I really want to know what the Cloak is doing... and her, too. She tried to get me to stop asking questions, but I don't think she was very happy. Oh, but don't worry. I'm not the kind of PLANTs citizen that has anything against Earthnoids."
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
"So like some kind of brother sister monster cult?" The way Riika is reacting to this Akane woman, like she is some normal girl caught up in Alexis's shit, and the way Asuka is reacting to Akane, like she is a dangerous operator capable of planning a complex assassination plan, do not match up. But that.
It sinks in. The feeling.
Shinji is not in Evangelion Unit-01 or synchronized to the machine. He is not capable of any of the feats he is within the Evangelion. For just a second, though, Shinji's eyes look.
His hand closes into a fist, veins pulsing as it shakes, and settles, knuckles whitening as the pressure fully exerts itself against his unwitting palm. Otherwise, Shinji seems almost cold, as if he can compose himself so long as one part of his body is emoting properly.
"Alright." Shinji realizes that's super vague. "Good to know."
"I think this adds to our hypothesis. That this Cloak either needs, or benefits from victims. If he has a local pair to menace, and the attacks started here, and they're involved in whatever his plan is, those start to look like relevant facts." Shinji says in a tone entirely alien to the shy young housekeeper.
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
"Remember the one you deployed in Africa? First time we encountered it was in a Tsutsujidai related Kaiju attack." She gives her a sort of accusing look, but now at least Riika knows for sure how Kaworu and her showed up knowing something was wrong. Knowing there was a connection, "A sort of Lizard-Toad the size of a mountain was involved too." Before she adds, "In another adjacent incident we fought a mechanized turtle Kaiju with heavy armaments in Fumo-Fumo land. Those were the two that appeared to be combined in the Tokyo-03 attack."
Asuka is more upset about the fact that ZAFT can get to Macross City for concerts Earthside so easily, but she's not about to clarify that one. After her initial show of distaste, she's trying to remain mostly professional... but that doesn't mean the distaste doesn't remain.
When Riika invotes Ruri though, Asuka looks like she's caught a bad smell, as she clucks her tongue, "Tck." And looks away... not promising to pass along that message in the least. While Riika and Shinji can't know it... she feels bad about her first meeting with Ruri. She wouldn't look forward to another for that reason.
And she's got too much pride to apologize for anything.
Asuka rolls her eyes at Shinji calling it a 'brother sister monster cult' "What are you stupid?" Without saying what for, like she just thinks the comment is stupid on its face. And just picks up her phone though, and shows Riika a picture of Anti in his human form, looking vaguely startled, his mouth half hidden by a Chuuni like scarf. "Him. Someone indicated he's her little brother."
She doesn't give up Marusan, as she knows the girl put a lot on the line telling them, though she finds herself looking at Shinji as he offers his victim hypothesis, "You wouldn't know it by how she treats him though. He goes around town dumpster diving, picking scraps off food court tables." There's a vague undertone where she sounds upset?? However, she doesn't say why. "One time she sent him to Nouvelle Tokyo for 'Tarabaman' without telling him that's a fictional character. The brat ran around like a dog all day trying to find him."
Eventually she puts away the phone, "I asked him to come to Tokyo-03 to inform on... the entity that gave you the Kaiju. Instead he dropped by to attack someone under our protection, a top of the line combat cyborg - the brat put him in the hospital. A couple days later someone hit an Administrator in NERV that was also investigating this place - and acquainted with that girl."
While that doesn't entirely clear up the Labrat/Fifth String issue it probably gives her a better idea of what she means. Asuka loathes giving away all this information to someone in ZAFT, but after giving up Akane's name... she's decided it might be necessary to make some important connections.
Riika however says, that she's not the kind of PLANTs citizen that has anything against Earthnoids, "Feeling isn't mutual." As she seems to verbally slap that sentiment away, "I've got big problems with all of you GINN rats. If I had it my way you'd be behind bars right now - but since you're not... informing on what you know is the next best thing." She gives Riika that cold look anew, "At least that way you're actually doing something useful for a change."
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
Riika doesn't bother to explain how she got to Macross City. It was a lot easier for her to blend in Earthside back before she was actually specifically wanted (as opposed to just generally wanted due to being part of ZAFT). These days she wouldn't even try it - not for a concert anyway.
Shinji's reaction is surprising to her, too. Riika is no Newtype, but she's good with people, and at reading them - and she can tell the anger's there. Whoever those people are... "They must be important to you," Riika says, deliberately using the present tense rather than the past. That reaction is intense. "I'm sorry, I didn't know they'd made a deliberate attack." Is Alexis pushing it? Or... is this one of the others working on their own?
Riika looks over at the pictue of Anti, craning her neck. She hasn't seen him before, but she memorizes the face anyway. "She never said anything about him. I guess, if she treats him like that..." That's more than a little sad. Riika doesn't even know what to say about it.
"...I agree with Ikari. He's getting something out of this. He can't not be. The way he helped me, when it was convenient, but bailed when it wasn't - I never saw him after Ptolemaeus. I didn't want to, but that wouldn't have stopped him from showing up if he had wanted to. I don't know how to keep him out, given he just shows up in rooms. And I want to know what it is. What all of this means. Why Tsutsujidai, even?"
It's connected to Junius Seven, though she has avoided telling the Federation that; she told Shinji she got here through space, but not where. That means she needs to know more. But even beyond the utilitarian knowledge she can bring back to PLANTs, it's personal now. She really wants to know what all this means, how it fits together, and what she can do about it. There's something here she needs to learn.
Asuka tries to needle Riika. Riika's response is to redden, just a bit - she's pretty pale so it's obvious. "I get that," Riika says, "because you haven't exactly been subtle about it. I don't know whether you hate Coordinators, hate the PLANTs or just hate the war - well, I hate that we apparently need a war, and I won't make any apologies for the first two. I'm proud of who am I and where I grew up. But I can leave that at the door if you can. You don't have to be my friend to work with me."
Which is good, because even the gregarious Riika doesn't think she likes Asuka a whole lot, even if she couldn't (or wouldn't) say exactly why.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
For a second Shinji just whirls on Asuka, eyes wild, breathing through his nose, his face close to hers like he's building up a sudden, furious shout. Both hands are bunched into fists, now, and the back of Shinji's neck feels hot.
Shinji might not be a professional at any of this but a group of kids summoning some kind of devil who uses magic dolls to make monsters sounds a lot like a cult to him. Asuka plows on and the absolute misery of Anti takes the wind out of Shinji's sails, especially the mentions of Akane Shinjo's casual cruelty towards her own brother.
To think someone would be lucky enough to have family, real reliable family, to not be utterly alone in the world, abandoned by the one person in this life who is supposed to give a damn, and they just.
"We're clearly missing more of the picture." Shinji states the obvious so he doesn't scream. "But this is a start. We've got some corner pieces."
Asuka and Riika get political and Shinji stays out of it. No one's thrown a punch and it gives him a minute to get his composure back. "We need to learn as much as we can before the Cloak makes another move. Someone's going to get killed and we still have no idea why."
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Asuka sees Shinji's posture, that wild eyed look, and she gives him a challenging look. Though for once she doesn't say anything to try and upset him more. The information on its face is upsetting enough. She's not trying to hurt him, but his feelings are collateral damage sometimes all the same just because of who she is.
"I'm not disagreeing - of course he gets something out of this. Another title I've heard for him is 'The Devil'." A beat, "Ever heard any story about a Devil who does anything for free?"
Riika though turns red, and Asuka listens to her list potential things she hates, as her face twitches. "Oh those are the options are they? And by the way you're talking you think it's more likely that it's one of the first two? That I'm just some Blue Cosmos zealot hopped up on propaganda or something?"
A punch is thrown. However, it's not at Riika. Asuka's hand suddenly contacts the back of the bench so hard the wood just splinters in the spot where her knuckles dig in. Her face a mask of rage. "You self-righteous little shit. You're proud? You don't know the meaning of the word! You know what it's like to keep fighting after your superior officer leaks your personnel file out to their subordinates to let them know you're the same as the GINN pilots that just killed their buddies from basic last week?"
She lets the unspoken implications stay standing there of how people take that in this kind of war. And perhaps Riika might understand from that... in how she was perceived at least, she was a Coordinator alone in an army of Naturals, "Well we're not the same! Because I recognize that we're the elite. With the advantages we have - we have an obligation to be better! Not to just turn our backs on that the moment a tragedy occurs." Asuka exhales the word again, like it's a curse, "Proud."
Asuka raises her hand, if there's a worse injury that simply bloodied and abrased knuckles, then it's hidden in her bag. "I'll work with you long enough to get the job done. This is a mission for NERV, not the AEU. After that... you can go back to doing whatever."
It's then that she looks over to Shinji, as if dismissing Riika entirely, "At this point we've got three names. One we can't speak without drawing his eye. The other two are probably our best leads. We find out who they've met, who they've talked to - and just put it together backwards. If Fifth String pulls through... we go right to him... since he knew this girl... not impossible he was silenced for learning something they didn't want him to."
<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.
Riika legitimately thought Shinji was going to (try to) deck Asuka there for a moment. She takes a half-step away, not sure if she should break them up or just let whatever happens happen; an aggressive move by her might not only interfere with this delicate alliance, it might get her shot by Asuka.
Which, you know, would be bad.
But he drops it, and so she relaxes slightly. "I agree," she says. "Look, this time I'll give you my contact info, we can work together..." She starts writing that in the notebook too if she's allowed, an email address that is definitely not her PLANTs one. It's one of the ones you can just pay to set up, with varying levels of security. If traced, it goes to a Japanese company.
She shouldn't have relaxed.
Asuka punches the bench, and Riika simultaneously flinches and darts away from it. She's fast; not inhumanly so but well above average. Well, she is a Coordinator, so perhaps that wasn't too unexpected. She remains unpunched (not hard given it wasn't aimed at her, but she couldn't be sure when she started to move).
"I don't know a whole lot about you and you seem pretty good at not letting people find out," Riika says. There's a catch in her voice. "I'm sorry that happened. Something like that shouldn't happen. You shouldn't even be fighting if you don't have to! But I think you've misread me. I'm not turning my back on anyone. If this is how I keep the people I grew up with and live with safe, this is what I'm going to do, and I'm happy to do it!"
"I'm good at what I do, and maybe I have some advantages, but I still don't think we're that different. No matter what you say. It's a lot of hard work sometimes, no matter how you were born! But people are people everywhere no matter what they can or can't do. I'm blind, did you know that?" Riika lifts her glasses with a faint catch as a magnetic clip disconnects. Her eyes are grey beneath the pink-tinged lenses - more than grey, watery and oddly colourless. They don't focus, and without her glasses on they don't track movement either. She can't see anything. Not shapes, not colours, not even light and dark blobs.
"I'm not all better because I'm a Coordinator and I'm not all worse because I need these to see," Riika says. "Everybody deserves a chance, not to be treated like trash because of the way they were born - in either direction! - or because they're from space and the government's on Earth. The colonies don't need to be treated like misbehaving kids, or put under a food cap, or anything..." And definitely not bombed. "I'm proud to be a citizen of PLANTs because I fight for that equality. You do it your own way. NERV does fight to protect people, at least."
The citizens of PLANTs are different in some ways, sure. But in more ways than that, they're the same. Riika doesn't think Asuka wants - or would listen to - her entire reasoning, everything she thinks about being a Coordinator, about Naturals, about the world. There's no point talking about the war; it will only get an aggressive response. This is all she can say for now. Details can come another time, if they come at all. But even though she still doesn't really like Asuka, nor does she have her whole story, she feels bad for her.
Riika lowers her glasses, settling them back into place with one practiced finger and shaking her head slightly as vision returns. "I'll do what I can to find out more information. If I find anything, I'll call. If you find out anything, I'd appreciate it if one of you did..." By which she means 'Shinji'.
She sticks out her hand, on the off chance one of them is willing to shake. "Deal?" she asks.
After that, though: "I think I'd better clear out, though. Before we draw more attention." That was pretty loud. "...and you might want a first-aid kit, and I didn't bring one."
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Shinji never quite knows what to do when they lock glares like this. Shouting is the obvious option, one done on multiple occasions, but his hind brain tells him there is an option two he is ignoring-
And then Asuka lays it all out, showing the agony she's only hinted at in all the time he's known her. This shit is part of why it's so hard staying mad at her. She's an animal so used to being kicked she sees boots everywhere. Shinji's teeth grit again and he feels his body move on its own.
"I wish." Shinji says, lowly, his hand touching her shoulder just slightly, "You wouldn't hurt yourself like that."
"That's a good idea, Riika." Shinji says, and data is exchanged. Shinji is the kind of kid to bring disinfectant, at least, places because he's been getting shot at a lot lately. He just sort of takes Asuka's hand, face set serious, and looks her knuckles over. "No splinters, thank god, who knows what these old benches have on them. Come on, we can wash this off at the train, their sink won't actively give you sepsis."
Shinji flashes Riika a little smile like this was just an awkward business meeting, and moves towards the train station, shaking the high end antiseptic gel that's NERV's standard issue.
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
"What? You didn't already know?" Asuka says, as she said it once to her, but now realizes Riika might have already turned her radio off from the emotional distress of the time. "Tck." She clucks her tongue at herself at the realization. "I have to fight. Because I know my purpose." Though as Riika keeps speaking, and for a while she arches an eyebrow as if challenging her to keep going and see what happens.
Riika however takes her glasses off, and some of the coiled spring like tension in Asuka's posture just eases subtly - as she stares at her grey, watery, colorless eyes. If she's shocked, it's difficult to see it through that look on her face - though it doesn't look like she pities her either.
Her life is all about hard work.
Riika saying she values hard work while showing her the disadvantage is something that makes her uncomfortable, gets under her skin a bit. She's certainly not convinced, though it's something that at least pries under the surface.
When she does speak again, it's not quite as angry, it's just a firm refutation. "Equality? ... I don't fight for something like that. I just fight. It's what I'm meant to do. It's the duty of the elite to protect the ignorant masses."
Asuka though doesn't say anything else of her philosophy on the subject, just laying that out. Though as Riika lays out that as she finds out anything, she'll call...
... Asuka finds herself at least admitting to herself that Riika has been useful to connect the dots. "I'll call. So long as it's not classified." That may not be Riika's preference but... on the other hand, she didn't reject it outright. Nor does she shake her hand.
Perhaps because she's concealing one in her bag, as Shinji says that, "You think that hurts? You underestimate me." She says dourly, though she doesn't shrug him off. Asuka however fusses as he brings her hand out. "That can wait." Though she sighs as he insists and examines it. "Look I can flex my fingers just fine." As she does so to show him without so much as a wince, "Don't make a big deal about it." ... However she goes with him to the train station as this place gives her the creeps now and she really doesn't want to outstay her welcome.