Shinji Ikari Raising Project

[Dartz]

And pop....

Hopefully I amn't squashing anything anyone wanted to say or do with Shinj.

Shinji stopped outside the control room door. Servos whined extending the stabilisers before it full came to a halt. The turbine shut down a moment later to save fuel.

Shinji sat in the saddle, taking big deep breaths.

The electronics still hummed, displays happily informing him that the Judy was idle, waiting for him to do more, to go further. Heat soaked up through his legs from the engine below. His fingers tingled with excitement.

It wouldn’t hurt just to keep going, would it?

When he was riding, he wasn’t thinking about other things. His head was clear. Shinji decided that the Judy was the greatest thing on planet Earth, before remembering a few moments later that he really wasn’t on planet Earth.

Tears began to well up again, the beginnings of another sob rising up his throat. He screwed his eyes shut and swallowed hard, forcing it down to the pit of his stomach. What he thought was his stomach.

He slumped down, his momentary good feelings dissolving away once more. Shinji sat there quietly whimpering and sniffling to himself for longer than he could tell. It was long enough that the Judy’s own computer decided it’d been left running by mistake and shut itself down to save power.

Shinji flipped the faceplate of his helmet open and did his best to dry his eyes again with the back of his gloves. His skin sure felt normal. Everything felt perfectly normal. He still felt absolutely like himself...

“Oh, you made it Shinji,”

The voice snapped him right out of it. He blinked to clear his blurred visio, the blob beside hims slowly coalescing into the form of Anika standing in the open doorway wearing a welcoming smile and that cute short-skirted operators uniform Shinji added to things he actually liked about Frigga.

“Y’know... you actually look kinda cute on that thing,” she said to him. “Even if that jacket is a bit big on you.”

He felt his cheeks heat with a blush.

“I was told to come here, for a message.”

“Well, they’re inside if you want it. Come on in.” She beckoned him with a nod from her head.. “I could use the company.”

Shinji barely managed to nod. “Alright.’

Smiling despite himself, he dismounted from the bike, leaving it parked up outside where he was certain there was nobody to steal it anyway. It was dark inside, the only light coming from the green-text and wireframe graphics on the monitor displays. Various lights flickered on control panels, annunciator lights winking on and off to their own rhythms.

The monitor to his right displayed a map of Frigga itself, again all laid out anachronistic wireframe graphics. It was a spaghetti of information in blue, red, green and yellow, with numerical readouts at each junction.

“It’s on the top of that console there, plugged in for you to read. I’ve set up a login for our system, you just have to choose a new password for yourself.”

“unh,” he nodded.

He took a seat, watching Anika do the same at what was obviously her workstation - there were so many stickers and photographs taped to the console around her it couldn’t be anything else.

“You work here?” he asked.

“Mostly. I do spend a lot of time here because I like playing around with the computers.” She, crossed her legs, sitting there frame by monitors printing out reams of text data. “I’m lucky that my hobby’s actually my paid job.”

“Heh,” Shinji offered a weak smile.

The monitor told him to hit any key to log in. He picked ‘a’. Something over on Anika’s console chirruped. All he had were green letters onscreen and a blinking cursor, prompting him to enter his username.

“Now just type in your name. No spaces. Western order.”

He did so, keyboard clattering under his fingers.

“And whatever password you want. So long as it isn’t something stupid.”

Shinji reused his old NERV server login. The computer seemed happy enough with that, not spitting out any warnings about it being insecure or unsafe somehow. NERV knew security. Moments later, the computer spewed out his profile.

It had a name. A quick physical description, and not much else. Everything else was blank, or set to default.

“You can fill that out later. Just navigate to the drone and activate it. I’ll forward the messages to your inbox.”

Shinji stared at the hardware in front of him, trying to figure out how to actually go about doing that. It was so deliberately old fashioned it wasn’t even funny. He tabbed around through tiled displays trying to figure out where the device was through a combination of trial and error.

It chirped as it came online, a small compartment in the top opening to reveal some sort of crystal mounted in a cradle. A light flickered within, coalescing into a flame inside the crystal, before a three dimensional image poofed into being right in front of him.

“Wark!WARK!”

Shinji came close to falling off his seat,

“A.. P... A... Pe......” He stuttured, stabbing at the hologram with his finger.“It’s Pen-Pen!”

“Wark!”

‘Pen to the Penth,’ appeared in a speech bubble beside the beak.

More ‘animated’ than the real thing, but still easily recognisable. The feather eyebrows and silver collar were dead giveaways, despite the cartoony colourscheme.

“Ooh that’s so cu~ute” Anika squealed, making a beeline for him.

The bird looked right at her. Green eyes glared. “Wark!” it barked.

‘This message is for R. IKARI SHINJI only.”

It stood there, flippers folded across its chest. Shinji gawked.... his jaw hanging wide open. “It’s Pen-Pen.”

“Wark!”

‘Pen to the Penth!”

“Sorry,” Shinji murmured. “I’m Shinji Ikari.”

The hologram’s eyes flickered and it’s flippers unfolded. “Wark!” Holowindow displays poppped into being at the tops of its outstretched flippers, claws quickly giving a demonstration of how the interface worked.

Shinji continued to stare open-mouthed at it.

“It came from Prometheus,” Anika explained “They’re a few tech-levels above us here.”

Judging by the hardware surrounding him, Shinji wondered for a moment if that wasn’t an understatement. “I can see,” he said mildly.

Anika glared at him. “Well, we’re working on some new things that might surprise a few people.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Your Judy, for one thing. That’s a rather special piece of kit.”

“Sorry.”

Anika took a breath. “It’s okay. Anyway, it’s your letter... and I’ve work to do. Somebody has to keep the computers in the place from sinking.”

Shinji missed the joke behind her smile.

He poked at the holowindow with his fingers, quickly getting the knack of using it. He swept his fingers through it, bringing up the original message. He thumbed through it, finding a soft smile growing across this lips.

“So, what is it?”

Anika’s eyes had a demanding gleam in them.

“A collection of Cello music,” he said. A very big collection. Audio and sheet.

“And?”

His smile grew embarrassed.

“I’m not sure how to say this but........ I don’t really like this sort music. It's fine and all...but...”

“But,” Anika began with a puzzled expression on her face, “Don’t you play the Cello?”

Shinji winced. That explained it. It explained a lot of things. If he was just a doppel or whatever.... and these people were going by what they saw in some television program. Which meant...

Tears started to flow as he choked up again.

“Dammit, Dammit,” he whimpered, clenching his shaking hand into a fist.

“Shinji...” Anika probed, her tone soft.

The cartoon image of Pen-Pen waited patiently for him. Shinji glanced at it, then over at Anika who was watching him from her seat, a genuinely concerned look on her face. She really was worried about him.

You are not alone, Shinji.

Rei’s voice echoed in his mind. There was the proof. Ford had echoed the sentiment. The others had tried to be nice. The hologram of the penguin was proof positive that there were people beyond the rock who were interested in his wellbeing.

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath in through his nose, holding it. He could feel his body begin to grow warm, his thoughts slowing down as the heat built.

He exhaled a hot breath through his mouth, slowling opening his eyes again. He dabbed his eyes dry with the back of his hands again. Anika was still watching.

“Are you okay?” she asked him.

“Yeah,” he forced himself to say. He meant it. His throat took a few moments to clear. Shinji swallowed anyway, before taking another cold breath “I’m artificial. This is the real world. And I’ve been programmed by this handwavium to think I’m a character from a program. This is the real world...”

“And it’s okay for you to be here.” Anika finished for him

Shinji nodded. “I still feel like I’m Shinji Ikari. I remember everything..... I can remember it all. But, Mackie told me he remembered growing up with Jet.... and.” He stopped, looking at the penguin hologram. “Is it okay for me to miss people who never really existed. Or would that just be living in a fantasy?”

Anika looked at her feet. “I don’t know.”

Shinji decided he could wait until Mackie came back to find out.

Anika changed the subject. “Rei is coming, you know.”

“A copy of Rei?”

“Maybe. Nobody really knows about her. But as soon as she heard about you, she demanded to come.”

“I’d like to meet her,” he said, feeling his confidence grow. “I’d like to know how she got through it.”

Anika’s smile returned. “Before that, a friend of mine’s coming. Nené Romanova.”

Shinji’s mouth dropped open “From Bubblegum Crisis?”

Anika confirmed that with a nod. “She’s like you. So is Yayoi Fujisawa, who’s coming with Rei. She’s based on a character from an animé called Stellvia. And then there’s Gina.” A grin spread across her face. “You’re going to want to meet her too.”

“They’re all coming to see me?”

Again, Anika confirmed it with a nod. “We needed help. We needed people who had experience with this. Especially after last night,” she added quietly.

Shinji swallowed another lump. That was a memory could’ve done without.

“And that was..... a design flaw.”

“No. Flint did it on purpose. It’s a misfeature But...” he grin spread once more. “Alongside that message were details of a way to fix it.”

Shinji couldn’t help but look uncomfortable. “I...” he began, and then had absolutely no idea how to finish it.

“Your mindset is still human,” Anika said. “Even if I can’t help you with all the existential stuffs.... I can show you some of the cool things we can do that humans can’t. It’s easier now that you’re aware of what you are.”

Shinji offered her a genuine.... if nervous … smile.

“Oh, and check your inbox. They should’ve all forwarded by now.”

Shinji's jaw fell open again. That was a big number.

Well. I suppose it's a technicality. But while Shinji does play the Cello.... it isn't what he chooses to listen to. For whatever reason.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?