5K-O 1
S: What if Zeruel got one last hit in on Unit-01 before he went out? Shouldn't change much at all, huh... ahhh, you'd be surprised.
"Somehow, this all feels very wrong." Somehow speaking clearly through the muzzle over his face, one Ikari Shinji lays face-up in his padded cell. "And yet, somehow better than what was gonna happen in the first place. You know what I mean?"
Sitting with her legs crossed next to the only door in or out of the room and dressed in her school uniform, Rei Ayanami blinks, considering what expression she could use that fit this situation. Finally deciding, she cocks her head to one side and scratches a slight itch at the back of her head.
"I believe I understand, Pilot... Shinji-kun," she says with momentary hesitation and what might have been a blush. "However, I do not quite know just what it is that you are referring to."
"Ahhhh? What do you mean by that?" He tries to jackknife into a sitting position for a minute, which would be an impressive feat with his legs bound around the joints, arms in a straitjacket and... well, it would have been the work of a magician had he pulled the trick off in his condition. He settles for resting his chin on his chest and staring at her instead, prompting her to elaborate.
"Well... do you mean Pilot Sor... Asuk... the Second Child recovering from her... condition the way she did? Or Inspector Kaji proposing to Captain Katsuragi? Or Lieutenant Aoba's pre-Apocalyptic musical number? Or-"
"Or how Father supposedly came back from the future to beat himself up, staged my kidnapping, and then got me locked up here claiming I was the crazy one?" Shinji offers, voice flat.
Rei almost immediately shrugs, never one to disappoint. "That too."
"Very good," he nods before he starts rolling towards one side of the room. "I think it's more the part where we're all alive right now. More of a gut feeling than anything, like... like I'm missing something here. You ever get that feeling, Ayanami?"
"Every day," she says quietly as her face twitches to the side before shifting back in a blur. Shinji seems to take no notice.
"Mmmmmmm, yeah, I guess you kinda would with the whole 'fusing with Adam' thing... have you figured out whether or not it's supposed to be a guy yet?" The two of them pointedly ignore the 'thud' from the one-way window at the side of the room. "Because then it would kinda make sense. Once you're a guy for a few years, you notice when you're suddenly missing parts that, uh... you know, make you a guy."
Rei does not 'get' just what it is that Shinji is saying, or if she does, she does not acknowledge it beyond shaking her head.
"No, I do not 'know', Shinji-kun. The last time I checked I was not 'a guy'." She raises an eye brow slowly, then tilts her head forward as she pulls at the collar of her shirt. "... I have checked again, and to my knowledge of human anatomy, I am still very much female."
Shinji takes a moment to face-plant into a wall, possibly by accident, then starts rolling in the other direction as she watches. "That's not what I meant, Ayanami. It's just, Adam sounds more like a boy name than a girl name, doesn't it?"
She blinks.
"He's an Angel. The First Angel. The name and designation may, in some religions, point to him being... male in origin, but..."
"'But' he's an Angel, and Angels don't have to make sense beyond being big and scary." Shinji nods, unknowing that the nephilim girl was nodding with him."Well, not so much 'big' since you're containing him and all, but still pretty scary." They both nod again.
"I think Adam wants to mate with Lilith," she blurts out, and wonders just where the thought came from. Shinji hits the wall a few feet away from her, points his toes and rolls back to the center of the room, nodding all the while.
Another 'thud' from the window.
"I remember something Dr. Akagi said... Angel stuff is a lot like human stuff, just a little different. If Adam's been around as long as they said, he's a lot like I was before, when I first got to NERV. Antisocial. Surrounded by strange people that may or may not try to kill him. Really backed up. Add a few hundred years of ice and an almost-Apocalypse... he's probably wants mad-sex like mad."
Five consecutive 'thuds', almost synchronized, then a 'crack'. Rei stares for a moment, first at the plexiglass window, then at the boy in front of her. She cocks her head to the side, eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"Pil... Shinji-kun?" The girl waits for the Commander's son to come to a complete stop before continuing. She taps her fingers together, remembering how Captain Katsuragi reacted when she'd asked a few days ago. "What is sex?"
Why, yes, I'm going to cut it off there. Why do you as- oh, I see what I did there.