2023-07-13: Can You 'Not' Approach?
- Log: Can You 'Not' Approach?
- Cast: Kaworu Nagisa, Shinji Ikari, Ruri Hoshino
- Where: The Nadesico, Orb Union
- Date: 2023-07-13
- Summary: Shinji and Kaworu come to visit Ruri, after her harrowing experiences inside Chaos Jirak. Ruri gets to know Shinji a little better, while Kaworu already knows her quite well. She trusts them to take her out on the town to go sightseeing in Orb!
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
It's a good thing it's summer vacation in Japan; while school means little to Kaworu Nagisa, it's still very relevant for Shinji Ikari, and the vacation means that both of them have the space to be sent back to Orb to check in on Ruri, see how things have been going since the Chaos Jirak incident. Without Unit-01 getting sent with them, it's an actually quite reasonable expenses.
But why is Shinji coming too if they aren't actually deploying? Kaworu's plenty by himself, and he and Ruri are hardly close. Well... He helped save her. And she reminds him of Rei. He'd like to see for himself how she's doing.
With them not being here to pilot anything, and not needing to worry about going directly to school once they're back, they've come in regular clothes: Shinji in a mid-sleeved shirt, sky blue from the shoulders up and white the rest of the way down, and yellow cargo shorts, with a beige travel backpack strapped across his chest; Kaworu in a white V-necked shirt, a black-and-white striped sweater with the black thickening into solid on his shoulders and the white thickening at his waist, and blue jeans. Both of them wear the same style of sneakers, though Shinji's are white and worn normally while Kaworu's are cream-colored and have popped tops. No one has ever managed to figure out how Kaworu can pop the tops of sneakers, but not only has he done it, it's his normal look when it comes to shoes.
After getting let on the Nadesico, the two of them are directed to wait for Ruri (and Omoikane) at the Observation Deck. Today, it's set to 'transparent,' giving the two Children a fantastic view of the city.
Shinji wanders closer in wonder--he's been here before, but back then, the view was set to Japanese festival booths, and when he was actually in the city, he was a little busy piloting. "Wow... It's actually a really nice city," he says, eyes wide as he clutches the strap across his chest. "Do you think we'd have some time to look around before we have to leave, Kaworu-kun? I know we can't go far, but still..."
Kaworu strolls up next to him, hands tucked in his jeans pockets as he smiles out at the view. "I'm sure we can make some time."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Shinji isn't a stranger to Ruri, by the same token; she welcomes him as a visitor, when she's alerted to the both of them coming. She has started working again, by now, but her duties are still pretty light -- so it's not that difficult for her to put Break Tanuki in her seat, leave it to Omoikane, and make the walk down to the Observation Deck.
Ruri, of course, is in Nergal's operations uniform -- with a blue and pink tie instead of a black one, now, to indicate the Nadesico's Alliance with the Three Ships. (She also has green Haro hair-ties instead of her normal red orbs. Apparently there's a knife hidden in there, but they're a cute gift anyway.) A few communication windows helpfully pop up, when Shinji asks if they can look around, with all the local public transport options by their berth and a dotted map of where they take them around the city. And the estimated time for a round trip.
One of the windows has a thumbs-up graphic, instead.
Omoikane is helping!
He's also helping to keep them engaged before Ruri gets here, walking with her short little legs (Ruri still hasn't had a growth spurt, which is abjectly criminal). Luckily, soon she arrives, stepping onto the fake grass of the Observation Deck with her hands folded in front of her. "Hello, Kaworu-san," she says, dipping her head in a nod, "Mr. Ikari. Thanks for coming to visit me today." Ruri is now... one of the more proper 14-year-olds they know! If not, perhaps, the most proper.
One day, Ruri will meet Rei, and something exciting will happen.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
"Oh!" Shinji utters, startled, when his request for a little sight-seeing is responded to not just by Kaworu but the ship itself.
Kaworu of course takes it in stride. "Thank you, Omoikane. A bus ride would be a nice way of taking in the sights in a short amount of time," he says, smiling.
Shinji looks at him, then back at the thumbs-up graphic, and bows his head. "Th...ank you," he echoes, a little uncertain... but not in a bad way.
At least Ruri isn't the only one who hasn't had a growth spurt yet; Shinji is still more or less the same height as he was two years ago. Kaworu isn't much taller, either, though he's still a good bit taller than he is. It's a little vexing. Shinji can only assume he's a late bloomer, because of course he is.
Both of them turn when Ruri arrives, Kaworu relaxed, Shinji a bit nervous but glad to see her just the same. She looks like she's in good shape--maybe better now.
"Hello, Ruri-san. You have a different look today," Kaworu observes. "Are those new accessories?"
"Ah, hi there, Hoshino-san," Shinji says, bobbing his head in greeting. "Um... I'm glad to see you're doing okay. You haven't gotten--I mean--everything is okay after all that stuff happened, right? No other problems?"
She really is Rei-like--but this isn't a new observation for either youth.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
< NO PROB ! >
Another window pops up, to cheerfully respond to Shinji. To respond, to Shinji. It must be a very advanced computer.
(He is very advanced, being fair.)
Ruri at least doesn't have look up too high, to find Shinji. (A little, still. She's four-foot-even; it takes real work to be smaller.) They are, of course, just late bloomers. And so --
"Yes," Ruri nods, on the subject of her accessories. "Gary-san gave them to me for my birthday." And indeed, Kaworu may recall that they have hidden prizes, reminded of who they came from. Also interesting: it's Gary, now, not Mr. Biaggi.
That's probably fine.
She was given some makeup, too, but -- she's waiting a little while to apply that. Not that she's nervous, or anything. She's saved from the fate of learning that Kaworu is also a beast with a blush brush, though, by her attention turning to Shinji instead. "I'm okay," she assures him, mildly. "Nergal-san insisted on fumigating the Nadesico after something like that, but they didn't find any other kaiju hidden about, so I'm not in any more danger."
She bows at the waist, a little as she adds: "But, thank you for your help back then. I'm happy that you came to save me, too." She kind of has to explain that she's happy, given that her face is still quite flat when she straightens up, but -- there are little flickers of happiness and gratitude there. Her stoic expression's just a little gentler, a little warmer.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
It's not so much of a shock this time--Shinji has met Super AI like Zan before--but he's used to those Super AI having their own bodies. He has not yet wrapped his mind around the concept that the Super AI this time might be the entire ship, and that they might be crawling around Omoikane's insides like some kind of gut flora. As a result, he gives the pop-up window a bit of a nonplussed smile, but otherwise leaves it at that.
It is awfully casual for a computer, though.
"Oh, so they're birthday presents! They look really nice on you," Shinji says, relaxing a little. They have Ruri's birthday in common, after all, so he won't have to starve for a conversation topic. (Not that they haven't met before, but it's been a while.)
Kaworu does note that it's 'Gary' rather than 'Mr. Biaggi,' but he doesn't remark on that. He's not actually familiar with Gary--at least, not under that name--and he did come to Ruri's aid too during the battle with Chaos Jirak. The make-up will have to wait another day.
It's okay that Ruri's affect is flat, though. Shinji's used to it. "I'm glad to hear that. I'm really glad I was able to help you out," Shinji replies, relief suffusing his smile. "You're welcome, really, Hoshino-san. It must've been a scary experience, huh?"
"So the Nadesico has been searched... That's good. Nergal is wise to be cautious," Kaworu comments. His smile is warm; he does see the little subtle differences in Ruri's expression. "It's fortunate that Alexis Kerib showed his hand early. It could have been a very different outcome had he not."
Shinji's expression darkens, his smile wiping away, at the mention of the Hyper Devil. "He's a creep," he mutters. "Pretending to act nice and then doing horrible things to people... I can't stand him."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
It's fine, Shinji. Omoikane doesn't have a gut, because he doesn't eat. It's more like you're all living in his bones!
Ruri's called Shinji a fool before, of course -- but that's quite a normal thing, with Ruri. Normal, too, are all the friends Ruri has; it's even reasonably normal for some of her friends to arm her. Why, Asuka sent her a handgun for her birthday!
(Goat Hoary has taken custody of the gun, and thank God for that.)
"It was," Ruri says, with an animation gap between the words to pan out over the Observation Deck's viewing windows instead of her face, "confronting. Well, I don't remember it all, but when I woke up I saw you were handling the confrontation, so that's good." It was scariest when she woke up, too, but never mind that.
She's thoughtful, for a moment, thinking of Nergal's caution, before she speaks on Alexis too. "It didn't feel like he was pretending," she says. "It felt like he was trying, even if he wasn't very good at it. But Riika-san told me that someone like that knows how to get under people's skin, so I think that maybe he meant to seem that way." Ruri sighs, a hand reaching up to rub at her opposite arm.
"... I wanted to get through to him," she admits. "I thought we were both alienated, so maybe I could help him be a better person. I wondered, what kind of bad guy acts so worried? But... I guess he was taking advantage of that."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Oh, well, that's MUCH better, then.
Classic Asuka, too, giving someone a gun for a present. The last time Shinji went on a date for her, they went to a junkyard to smash things. It actually turned out to be a good date--it relieved a lot of stress for Shinji, and he genuinely did feel closer to Asuka afterwards--except for the awkward parts, like... well, let's not get into the details. Suffice to say that Shinji gets it. He's gotten weaponry for his birthday before, too. He even carried that knife around for a while until he decided it was better not to have something that dangerous on hand.
Shinji might be a fool, and even more of a fool with Tohji and Kensuke around to encourage him to get out of his own head, but he does... eventually... learn his lessons.
Of course, he's also still an emotional teenager, so--take that with a grain of dead sea salt.
"Confronting..." he echoes. He looks over at Kaworu, who smiles back at him. Shinji knows that Kaworu and some of the others did something to reach out to Ruri, but he's not really sure what. Kaworu hasn't offered that information, and he hasn't asked. It seems to him like it would be prying if he did--both of Kaworu and of Ruri. He looks back to Ruri and gives her a nod. "Yeah. You have a lot of people who really care about you."
He can't break his scowl at the topic of Alexis Kerib, though, even as Ruri admits she was trying to help him be a better person. However, he manages to not mutter a bitter comment about it, either. Lately, he's been mulling over the idea that terrible people maybe may not be as terrible as they seem--that they might be trying to do better. Even if Shinji must admit even Gendo Ikari is a far cry from someone like Alexis Kerib on a lot of levels...
"I see," Kaworu says instead. "It's difficult to say. Alexis Kerib has become very good at 'acting.'" Shinji looks up at him at his use of the word, but Kaworu presses on, "It may be true that he really is lonely. But it's also true that he was taking advantage of you. The fact that you can't tell where one aspect of him ends and the other begins only makes him more dangerous."
"...Yeah," Shinji murmurs. "You can't trust a guy like that, Hoshino-san. He'll just betray you."
Now it's Kaworu's turn to glance at Shinji and say nothing.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri wears a frown, too, though it's a bare meagre shadow of Shinji's scowl -- a slight dip of her brow, a little thinning of her lips. She, too, is an emotional teenager these days; she just doesn't express those emotions very well.
(Though she did nod, more pleased, when Shinji pointed out that people care about her. She's grateful for that.)
"Was he...? I guess he was faking it, but he didn't really take action that much." Ruri is operating on so many literary levels. So many! "He did save me from a Zentradi separatist once... but mostly, he visited me when he didn't have to move much. Well, I guess that's just another clue he wasn't too good."
Kaworu's subtle emphasis invites Ruri to unspool things herself, but Shinji, it seems, is much more direct. She tilts her head, as her gold eyes come to him, again. "Do you know a lot of men like that, Mr. Ikari?" Ruri asks, and she, too, is direct.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Maybe one day Shinji and Ruri can be sullen teenagers together. These days, even with this current cloud on his mood, he's been a little too optimistic to do a really proper sulk--and it seems like Ruri's on the same wavelength, too.
He does hesitate as Ruri recounts some good things that Alexis has done for him--but then he shakes his head. "That's how he got Shinjo-senpai, you know. He pretended to be her friend and made her trust him. I don't know all the details, but I know that much, at least," Shinji says quietly. He pauses when she asks that direct question back, a little startled--but only a little. This, too, makes her like Rei.
"Not... a lot of men. I just don't like people who pretend to be one thing when they're really another," he says quietly. He offers her a little smile. "I like people who're honest, even if they aren't always nice about it."
"You'd rather not be treated kindly?" Kaworu wonders, just as quietly.
"Well--no, I didn't say that. I'd still rather people be nice to me," Shinji protests. "But I don't want people to be nice because they want to trick me. If someone's a terrible person, I'd rather know they're a terrible person." He frowns anew. "Someone like Alexis Kerib, who acts nice even when he knows you know about the awful things he's done... I hate that. When I--" He swallows hard, but stops.
He'd been about to say something very personal, after all, and Ruri doesn't deserve that.
"...Never mind. Anyway, that's why I don't like that guy. On top of hurting you and Shinjo-senpai and Kaworu-kun and who knows who all else, he has the nerve to act like it's all just--one big misunderstanding," he concludes, heated. "Even though he knows what he's doing. Right, Kaworu-kun?"
"...Yes," Kaworu replies, smile sunken. "He fooled me at first that way, too. But... he also fooled me because I, too, know he's capable of being a better person."
Shinji gawks at him for a moment. This might be an opportunity for Ruri and possibly Omoikane to weigh in.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"It's strange to think we're alike," Ruri reflects, thinking of Akane. "Since Mr. Kerib made it so that I was competing against Ms. Shinjo, even though I'd never met her. Well, even when I did meet her... I never measured up, but I guess he was measuring me up, anyway. So I wonder who Ms. Shinjo was competing against, when Mr. Kerib came to adopt her." It's a mild sort of wondering, disaffected pattern recognition; indirectly, an acknowledgement of just how alike they are.
She listens, though, when Shinji tells her about what he doesn't like, and what he does. "So you're an honest person," she concludes, blinking owlishly. "You're like Omoikane, that way." It's a positive association! Perhaps the MOST positive association. Ruri likes honest people entirely because they remind her of her best friend.
"Though..." Ruri pauses, letting her arms drop back down, and swing, a little, beside her. "I guess we're alike, too, Kaworu-san. I feel better knowing I wasn't the only one who was fooled that way. Since you say you know, I guess you knew about him, right?" She tilts her head, again, just so. "I think you were trying to warn me in small ways, but it must have been hard just to say to give up on him, if we both felt that way." It's... a good analysis of Kaworu's behaviour with the facts which Ruri has, anyway.
< SET KAWORU = HELP >
A communication window pipes up, and Ruri's expression gentles, looking to it. "But you supported Omoikane, too, when he didn't trust Mr. Kerib," Ruri explains his shorthand, perhaps for Shinji's benefit. "I'm happy for that, now." If Alexis had kept going, he might have even tried to drive a wedge between Ruri and her best friend, and that's the scariest part.
"Well," she sighs, shaking her head, "it's not that I think it's bad to hate what he did, either. It's not the worst thing he's done, but I guess I feel betrayed, too. And foolish... mostly foolish, really."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Now that Ruri mentions it, Shinji wonders too.
Kaworu does not wonder. Kaworu knows.
"Like the god?" Shinji wonders, baffled and blinking at the comparison. The mythology behind the name is more familiar to him than the Super AI.
"The Nadesico's AI is called Omoikane," Kaworu explains gently. "He and Ruri-san are close friends."
"Oh!" Shinji's lips unfurl into a smile as a bit of pink rises in his cheeks. If they're close, then it's a good thing for him to be compared to him. "...Thank you. And--I try."
Shinji has things he hides too, after all. But... so does Kaworu. He knows Kaworu has to hide things because of his jobs. It doesn't mean he isn't honest, and it certainly doesn't mean he isn't trustworthy. Maybe he can start to believe that about himself, too.
But... it is hard to hear him talk again about Alexis. Alexis had implied some nasty things about him, so to hear Kaworu say he'd been tricked by him... it just makes Shinji dislike the Hyper Devil even more.
Over time, he's found he really, really hates people who hurt Kaworu... like the 'Earth.'
"Yes," Kaworu says, sadness tinging the corners of his eyes. It remains a little bit even as he smiles at Omoikane, then at Ruri. "We both understood he didn't mean well for you, and I didn't want you to end up like Akane."
Shinji breaks his curious stare at Omoikane's communication window to give Ruri a small frown. "You're not the fool, Hoshino-san. You didn't do anything wrong," he insists, low but heated. "He's the fool for taking advantage when you wanted to think better of him. You wanted to believe in him, and he blew that." With a touch of venom: "It serves him right."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"Omoikane is Omoikane," Ruri explains, more or less helpfully. "When he became curious, he wasn't sure who he was, but data on Shinto was in his system, too. So he thought Omoikane was a good symbol, since he was wondering, too."
Omoikane helpfully flashes up a communication window with the stamp of a heavy bell emblazoned there. It's his signature!
(And Omoikane isn't exactly public knowledge himself, but since Kaworu trusts Shinji, they'll trust Shinji, too. Sometimes things are simple! Besides, Shinji might know of Omoikane anyway, if vaguely, given the way he and Ruri helped the MAGI that one time.)
... Omoikane doesn't like people who hurt Kaworu, either.
"Thank you for that," Ruri says, to Kaworu. It's a simple gratitude, for the effort he put into keeping her safe... but just as some things are simple, simple things aren't bad.
But Shinji, too, underlines that Ruri isn't to blame. She blinks, looking back to him. "Oh... you're right," she agrees, with a dip of a nod, a moment later. "Everyone says it's his fault, and I think it's a reasonable evaluation. It's been hard for me to be objective about it... but I guess that's reasonable, too. Since he was talking to me for a long time, so I guess it will take a while to get him out of my head, too."
Ruri reaches up, brushing at one of those twin-tails. "At least... I can do that without feeling bad, now. Not only was Mr. Kerib willing to use me to make a kaiju... he must have been planning this for over a year, since that's the last time he was in my bedroom." Her own frown is a light shadow against the stone wall of her face. "I don't know if it was just insurance, or if he never intended to know me for very long in the first place, but... unfortunately, I guess Mr. Kerib really didn't care about me at all."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
"Oh... I think I get it," Shinji says.
And while the obvious gag would be to say that he doesn't get it, he actually does. If Omoikane's an AI who thinks, then basically he's a Super AI after all, right? And as previously mentioned, he knows about them through Zan, so while society might say they're bad, Shinji thinks they're pretty nice, actually. Omoikane in particular has been nothing but nice to him so far, and just as Ruri and Omoikane have decided to trust him based on his relationship with Kaworu, he's decided to trust them based on their relationship with Kaworu.
And while he had seen Ruri helping out that time the MAGI were attacked by Triple Zero, there had been a lot else going on at the time--Shinji honestly didn't remember Omoikane from back then, so they could've gotten away with pretending otherwise. It's nice to be treated like a friend instead. Shinji even smiles at the symbol of the heavy bell.
"You're welcome," Kaworu tells Ruri graciously, and just as simply. No, simple things aren't bad at all.
But while Ruri has accepted that it isn't her fault, what happened--Shinji's expression falls when she muses that Alexis must not have cared about her all along. That's the right takeaway, right? That's what she should be thinking, so he doesn't take advantage of her again. But... somehow, seeing her say so so matter-of-factly breaks his heart.
"...I'm sorry," he offers quietly. "It must hurt a lot, thinking... someone who you thought cared--didn't. I wish... I wish it were different for you."
"It already is. One poor relationship doesn't erase all the love she otherwise receives," Kaworu says.
And for some reason, this makes Shinji feel better, and he breaks out into a new smile. Because this is about Ruri and not him, he doesn't say what he thinks--but he thinks, You always know what to say.
To Ruri, he instead says, "Say, Hoshino-san... Have you ever met Ayanami? Rei Ayanami, the pilot of Unit-00? I've thought this for a while, but the two of you are a lot alike. I think you could be good friends."
"I agree," Kaworu says. "Both of you have very gentle, beautiful souls."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"I wish it were different, too," Ruri says, to Shinji, direct again. "But Kaworu-san isn't wrong, either. Mr. Kerib betrayed me, but a lot of people fought to save me, when he did that. Even Ranka-san was singing, though fighting scares her a lot... and Eight-san is pregnant, so she's taken a break from fighting, but she smashed Jirak's vessel so he would stop possessing my dreams too. Everyone did their best for my sake... I'm happy about that."
She lifts her fingers to her chin, thinking, as she goes over the name Shinji offers then. "Ms. Ayanami...? I think we must have crossed paths, now and then." She was there to defend the MAGI, as well, after all -- and Ruri remembers her from when the Nadesico helped with an Angel attack. "But I haven't spoken with her too much, really. I'll have to see if I can."
If Kaworu agrees with the suggestion, after all, Ruri's willing to give it a shot.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Ranka was singing... Shinji remembers hearing her and feeling inspired by her--and thinking back then that if that song represented how Ruri felt, they probably have more in common than he'd thought. And-- "Captain Eight is pregnant?!" he blurts out. "That's--that's great! Congratuations to her!"
Though that really isn't the point, either. The point is that it's as Kaworu says. Shinji looks over at his dear friend, who smiles at him like he always does, and he pays it forward to Ruri. "And I'm happy for you, Hoshino-san."
He helped save her. And because of him and everyone else, Ruri's here to be glad that everyone did their best for her sake.
Shinji doesn't really enjoy piloting, but between this and Sahaquiel, he's finally starting to feel glad he became a pilot.
It sounds like Ruri might go talk to Rei, too. Another good thing. But that's in the future; right now, Shinji looks over his shoulder at the route Omoikane plotted for them.
"Say, Kaworu-kun, Hoshino-san--and Omoikane-san too, if it's possible for you--if you all want, how about we all take a look around the city together?" he offers. It's a lot bolder than he usually is, but... he feels comfortable enough with this group to be bold enough for such a simple request.
Even if Ruri isn't up for it, it'll be a great opportunity to just hang out with Kaworu in a place that's new to both of them. Maybe he'll even have time to pick up souvenirs...!
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"Fool," Ruri responds to Shinji's surprise. "Did you just think she put on so much weight all at once?" There's no real malice behind it, though. Ruri just says what she thinks. "Well, it's good that she was able to find a place where she could start a family without regrets. Something good's happened, even though we've got so many problems, these days."
Which is to say: congratulations to her. Translated through a few layers of Ruriness. And, "Thank you," she dips her head to Shinji, too.
Ruri tilts her head, and says: "If I brought my communicator, we could do it." Bring Omoikane, in a sense. Well, he'd be able to send messages, anyway. A moment's pause, as she wonders whether it's safe, before... "Okay," Ruri nods. "Just please bring me back afterwards. I don't want to be outside the Nadesico alone, since that's when Mr. Kerib visited, after a while."
Which means that Ruri's putting quite some trust in Kaworu -- and Shinji -- venturing out there, but she gets the sense she's able to place her trust in them, that way.
Souvenirs..!!