September 20:
***
“What are these,” Shinji asked as he picked up one of the cigarette pack sized pieces of plastic. James had cooked steaks for everyone but Rei who he had made a large salad for and apologized for not having any tofu or other vegetarian meal ingredients handy. Apparently he had gone back out the night before after everyone else had gone to their rooms and acquired these things for them because there was enough for each of them to have one.
“Good morning Shinji,” James replied with his attention mostly on the grill pit that he had cooked the steaks on the night before. He was apparently getting the fire started again so breakfast could be made if she was judging the ingredients on the table correctly. “Those are portable phones, each one a prepaid model so that you can all stay in contact no matter where you are. They flip open and one should have your picture on its screen indicating that it belongs to you.”
Finally the man got the fire going and hung a pot of water over it after settling the grill grid in place. “Each of them has all the numbers of the others already programmed into them plus my own number so that you can reach everyone in case of an emergency or something. Now, I could really use your help with breakfast because I have no idea how to cook things like tofu or miso. I can do a western style breakfast which I’m sure Asuka, Kaji, Misato, and Ritsuko would probably eat, but I don’t have a clue how to do an Eastern style breakfast so I have nothing for you Rei or Maya.”
“Let’s see what you have to work with,” Shinji answered and then set to working on something that he could do well.
***
Misato and Kaji were the next ones down, and James was apparently glad about this, “Misato, Kaji, there is something I need to explain to you that I think you don’t realize quite yet, and unfortunately I have very little to prove it. However, I need to tell the adults before I tell the kids because it’s going to tougher for you to believe, maybe Asuka will be a bit difficult to convince, but that’s mostly because she never paid attention to her teacher’s lectures.”
The pair looked at James a bit skeptically and then Misato shrugged, “We’re not on our Earth, or at least not in one that followed our original timeline.” Misato said flatly causing James to look at her with surprise apparent on his face.
“Alright maybe it won’t be so difficult to explain,” James muttered half to himself before shaking his head. “Alright then, you’re right in that aspect at least, this world never saw second impact, there was never a Gehrin prodject, never a Human Instrumentality Project, no U.N. Council on the matter.” Looking at the pair and the astonished looks on their faces he continued, “The fact of the matter is that to this world, your world is nothing more than a story written by a clinically depressed man who had a vision that was tragically cut short by idiot television producers when they forced him to wrap what should have been the third season up in a two-hour movie using minimum resources. It wasn’t the first and it won’t be the last unfortunately.”
“So what happened?” Kaji asked as Misato stood there with a shocked look on her face.
“I’ll loan you the DVD set I have of both the original and the remake,” James responded. “Greed of course won out on the producers and because the fandom has been building over the years they decided a few years ago to go back and redo the series in a series of movies. I haven’t even watched the remake, it hasn’t been finished yet, however the fan arguments that started not long after the third movie came out haven’t been giving me hope.”
Kaji nodded to this but Misato finally managed to get her brain back into gear to ask a simple question, “So who was responsible?”
“Depends on what they were supposed to be responsible for,” James responded. “SEELE, who you knew as the U.N.’s Instrumentality Project council was responsible for your father’s death and partially responsible for Yui Ikari’s intentional absorption during her contact experiment, you could also connect them to Kyoko Zepplin’s partial absorption during her contact experiment. They are nothing but a bunch of old men who want to be gods of their own world.”
Turning around James saw that they had drawn a small crowd of the remaining tenants during his answering session which caused him to sigh. “Alright folks,” he said catching everyone’s attention. “Shinji and I have most of breakfast prepared, if you want a traditional Japanese breakfast speak to Shinji and he will set you up, if you want a western style breakfast tell me how you want your eggs and grab your extras while I fix them. Once everyone is eating I will hand out your phones and explain somewhat what has happened.
***
Asuka grimaced as she listened to the entirety of James’s explanation of why they were here and then Misato got up from having eaten her breakfast and explained why it was likely true. She poked at her eggs for a minute before shrugging and eating them anyway. No point worrying over things on an empty stomach after all. Toast she recognized, and eggs were eggs everywhere in the world. The hash browns were scattered instead of in a clump like she was used to but filled with ham and onions they were quite good, the only thing she didn’t recognize was something James called grits, and with a bit of butter, some salt and pepper, they were edible and filling. Now though, now she had nothing to do until they all piled into the shuttle to go prowl the local mall except play with the portable phone that James had handed her. Settling in with the device she poked at the buttons for a few minutes with her thumbs until the screen popped up with a screen that she didn’t quite understand. “Hey James,” she called out the question clear in her tone.
“Yes Asuka, what’s wrong?” he called back from somewhere in what she could only guess was his apartment.
“What is Google?”
***
“What are these,” Shinji asked as he picked up one of the cigarette pack sized pieces of plastic. James had cooked steaks for everyone but Rei who he had made a large salad for and apologized for not having any tofu or other vegetarian meal ingredients handy. Apparently he had gone back out the night before after everyone else had gone to their rooms and acquired these things for them because there was enough for each of them to have one.
“Good morning Shinji,” James replied with his attention mostly on the grill pit that he had cooked the steaks on the night before. He was apparently getting the fire started again so breakfast could be made if she was judging the ingredients on the table correctly. “Those are portable phones, each one a prepaid model so that you can all stay in contact no matter where you are. They flip open and one should have your picture on its screen indicating that it belongs to you.”
Finally the man got the fire going and hung a pot of water over it after settling the grill grid in place. “Each of them has all the numbers of the others already programmed into them plus my own number so that you can reach everyone in case of an emergency or something. Now, I could really use your help with breakfast because I have no idea how to cook things like tofu or miso. I can do a western style breakfast which I’m sure Asuka, Kaji, Misato, and Ritsuko would probably eat, but I don’t have a clue how to do an Eastern style breakfast so I have nothing for you Rei or Maya.”
“Let’s see what you have to work with,” Shinji answered and then set to working on something that he could do well.
***
Misato and Kaji were the next ones down, and James was apparently glad about this, “Misato, Kaji, there is something I need to explain to you that I think you don’t realize quite yet, and unfortunately I have very little to prove it. However, I need to tell the adults before I tell the kids because it’s going to tougher for you to believe, maybe Asuka will be a bit difficult to convince, but that’s mostly because she never paid attention to her teacher’s lectures.”
The pair looked at James a bit skeptically and then Misato shrugged, “We’re not on our Earth, or at least not in one that followed our original timeline.” Misato said flatly causing James to look at her with surprise apparent on his face.
“Alright maybe it won’t be so difficult to explain,” James muttered half to himself before shaking his head. “Alright then, you’re right in that aspect at least, this world never saw second impact, there was never a Gehrin prodject, never a Human Instrumentality Project, no U.N. Council on the matter.” Looking at the pair and the astonished looks on their faces he continued, “The fact of the matter is that to this world, your world is nothing more than a story written by a clinically depressed man who had a vision that was tragically cut short by idiot television producers when they forced him to wrap what should have been the third season up in a two-hour movie using minimum resources. It wasn’t the first and it won’t be the last unfortunately.”
“So what happened?” Kaji asked as Misato stood there with a shocked look on her face.
“I’ll loan you the DVD set I have of both the original and the remake,” James responded. “Greed of course won out on the producers and because the fandom has been building over the years they decided a few years ago to go back and redo the series in a series of movies. I haven’t even watched the remake, it hasn’t been finished yet, however the fan arguments that started not long after the third movie came out haven’t been giving me hope.”
Kaji nodded to this but Misato finally managed to get her brain back into gear to ask a simple question, “So who was responsible?”
“Depends on what they were supposed to be responsible for,” James responded. “SEELE, who you knew as the U.N.’s Instrumentality Project council was responsible for your father’s death and partially responsible for Yui Ikari’s intentional absorption during her contact experiment, you could also connect them to Kyoko Zepplin’s partial absorption during her contact experiment. They are nothing but a bunch of old men who want to be gods of their own world.”
Turning around James saw that they had drawn a small crowd of the remaining tenants during his answering session which caused him to sigh. “Alright folks,” he said catching everyone’s attention. “Shinji and I have most of breakfast prepared, if you want a traditional Japanese breakfast speak to Shinji and he will set you up, if you want a western style breakfast tell me how you want your eggs and grab your extras while I fix them. Once everyone is eating I will hand out your phones and explain somewhat what has happened.
***
Asuka grimaced as she listened to the entirety of James’s explanation of why they were here and then Misato got up from having eaten her breakfast and explained why it was likely true. She poked at her eggs for a minute before shrugging and eating them anyway. No point worrying over things on an empty stomach after all. Toast she recognized, and eggs were eggs everywhere in the world. The hash browns were scattered instead of in a clump like she was used to but filled with ham and onions they were quite good, the only thing she didn’t recognize was something James called grits, and with a bit of butter, some salt and pepper, they were edible and filling. Now though, now she had nothing to do until they all piled into the shuttle to go prowl the local mall except play with the portable phone that James had handed her. Settling in with the device she poked at the buttons for a few minutes with her thumbs until the screen popped up with a screen that she didn’t quite understand. “Hey James,” she called out the question clear in her tone.
“Yes Asuka, what’s wrong?” he called back from somewhere in what she could only guess was his apartment.
“What is Google?”