driftfleet | 004. video + action.

Who: Shinji Ikari and you?!
Broadcast: Fleetwide.
Action: Any ship in the Fleet, beginning with the Heron.
When: Throughout the week.

[network.]

[Shinji has felt like total crap for weeks and weeks now, after that unexpected attack on the Fleet's ships... but the curtain of despair suddenly lifts one morning, for no apparent reason at all. He's a little bewildered about feeling okay, if not good, if not great, and he spends the first day catching up on the laundry that he's been neglecting.

But then it kind of maybe spirals out of control. He's filled with determination to clean--not just his own clothes or his own room, but every unwashed pile of clothes and every messy room he comes across. He doesn't really notice his own hyperactivity; he just wants to clean and clean and clean until not a speck of dust or engine grease remains. He sweeps through the Heron, to begin with, and then he branches out...]

Hey, [he says, coming into view on the feed. He's a little blurry at first, with softly glowing lights all around him, which soon resolve into... fireflies?] Have you seen these things yet? They're called cleaning bugs! And they're freaking awesome. The Co'kal made them--they can deep-clean anything, no problem, and... [Shinji is practically ranting and raving about these inventions he found in his quest to clean everything.]

If there's something you need me to clean, let me know, okay? I'll take care of it right away. Or my new friends will.

[action, aboard various ships in the Fleet.]

[Needless to say, Shinji can be found pretty much anywhere in the Fleet, on any crew's ship or the Iskaulit, waging war against uncleanliness. Don't mind him if he decides your kitchen needs a good scrub down, or your bunks, or your bathrooms, or even the engine room. He's constantly accompanied by a halo of cleaning bugs that change colors depending on the amount of dirt nearby.

They may even decide to target a person that they've deemed a little too dirty...]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah. [Then, almost apologetically:] It always sounds stupid when I say it out loud like that. [He could tell Asuka all sorts of things that she might not have known before. There were plenty of rumors throughout NERV with regards to the Third Child being estranged from his father, but...

It doesn't matter. It shouldn't matter. They have a new life here. Completely brand-new. At some point, he tells himself, he's going to have to shed all of this useless baggage. He'll be so light that he'll feel like floating away.]

You've been pretty dependable, too, you know... when you didn't have to be...

It's not stupid.

[She's quiet again, remembering. They never have had too many quiet times together. She's been too barbed and he's been too withdrawn. It's only just lately they've been more open. More... more grown.]

I want to be. [It's bad of her, really bad, but the times when he was most vulnerable, some awful part of her almost... almost enjoyed it. Him leaning on her. Her being his protector against everything. It made her feel strong.] You have been, too.

[Shinji resents being weak, and useless, and largely a burden... but that doesn't mean he resents Asuka for propping him up. He used to daydream about somebody, anybody, coming along and rescuing him from the painful circumstances of his childhood. Maybe Asuka would have done just that, had she been older and actually capable of it. Maybe...

He coughs out a bit of laughter.]

Oh, just you wait. I'll forget about your birthday sooner or later, and that'll be the end of that.

No, you won't. I won't let you.

[She reaches over, landing a light blow on the top of his head. He remembered once, and that's an improvement over her own mother. If he ever finds that out, she'll...]

You make me want things like that.

That kind of sounds like a threat, [Shinji says, smiling, and he draws the nearest blanket up and around them both. His head isn't throbbing so persistently anymore. He's still a little queasy, though, so he's just going to turn inward and nestle against Asuka, for as long as she's willing to shelter him.

He's quiet for a moment, just thinking to himself. Asuka was visibly overwhelmed during her weak excuse for a birthday party. Next time, he'll have to find ways to make it better. So much better. For her sake.]

... If we keep doing things like that, does that mean we're normal?

[A soft but fateful question.]

Do you want to be?

[Asuka hates answering questions with questions. It's obnoxious and circular. People should just say what they mean and be done with it instead of moan about their own hypocrisy. But here she is. Laying down almost like a long, long time ago, almost on the border of telling him things he never needs to hear. Asking him all the things she never would've dared.]

You haven't made cake in awhile. It's a good excuse.

[If Asuka had asked him that a year ago--or, really, not even that long ago--Shinji would have readily agreed. Of course he wants to be normal. Of course he does. He wants absolutely nothing to do with Eva or Angels, much less being an Angel himself. If he could go back home to a stack of textbooks, a telescope, and an uncertain but still mundane future, he'd take up that offer in a heartbeat...

So the fact he hasn't responded yet says a lot more than any response could.]

I don't know anymore.

[He's more like a dumb little kid than a fearsome Angel when he turns over and clings to Asuka, in need of reassurance.]

I'll make a cake for you, then... You could've just asked if you wanted one.

[The air feels a little heavier. Almost portentous. Asuka isn't sure if him not knowing is good or bad. If he's really and truly accepting all of himself, and by extension accepting her, too. If he's willing to leave normal behind. If he's okay with that.]

[Asuka lets him cling. In fact, she pulls him in tighter.]

Stupid. You know that wasn't the important part.

[But Shinji thinks of their respective situations as completely different. It frightened him, maybe, a little, when she cracked that thick glass wall in front of his face, but he never nursed a hatred for her like he did with the Angels. It's his fault that she even ended up like this. He wouldn't hold it against her in a million years...

But a spree of self-pity isn't going to make him feel better. Now that he's known happiness, he's less eager to step backward into sorrow. Still, it can be slow-going at times, trying to put one foot in front of the other. It can be exhausting.]

Mmm... you're going to be so spoiled if I throw you too many parties.

[Not the worst outcome. Not by a long shot.]

Let's do it when I finish your new dress?

[Asuka is probably running out of room with all the outfits he's foisted on her.]

Yeah. Okay.

[She hasn't bought an outfit in a long time because he's sewn so many for her. She's pleased every time she looks at her closet-- maybe it's immature, but it feels so good to see so many clothes there, so much evidence of how he cares for her in every careful stitch. She hasn't put on her plugsuit in months and months. She's even gotten back into makeup and styling her hair, though she doesn't stray too often from pigtails. She wouldn't argue if he doubled her wardrobe.]

You've been making them shorter lately, you know.

[It's soothing, so that's why he does it. It's like a form of meditation. Shinji can lose hours to just working on a new outfit for her, from sketching out an idea to tying off the last stitch. He wouldn't say he's creative or anything, but visiting all these different planets, with their own ideas of fashion, has been a boon for him. By this point, Asuka should have clothes to wear for pretty much every kind of situation or occasion, and he's still making more for her.

But she noticed the fact he isn't trying to hide her knees anymore.

Ah, well. His face is getting warmer, but...

It isn't because he's trying to ogle her bare skin like a pervert. The truth is actually a bit uncomfortable, almost underhanded: he just wants to get her back to when she wasn't hesitant about showing herself to the world. She's much more relaxed now, for sure, but she's still wearing that damn eyepatch. She still thinks of herself as contaminated--an aberration, unwanted. If he can alter her frame of mind through the act of sewing, that would be a worthwhile endeavor.]

You don't seem to mind, [he says, on a cautious note.] But if you don't like it, you can tell me what you'd rather wear...

[But that's the thing. She does like it. She'd thought her days of wearing cute clothes and thinking nothing of it weren't ever coming back. Convinced herself she liked the shell of her plugsuit, the comfort of never allowing anyone else to so much as see her skin.]

[She doesn't think she would've graduated from plugsuits to dresses and leggings so quickly without him. Maybe not ever.]

If I minded, I wouldn't wear them. [Her outfit today is one he's made, in fact, a sleeveless striped top and a red pencil skirt with buttons down the front.] You know that.

004. video + action.

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