Though when she said it, it seemed like a joke, but it sounded more like a question. He could still feel this off-ness about her, but decided he was just being paranoid and curious again. They've fought the equivalent of demons together, he'd get over it. Hell, it probably wasn't anything, he might not be use to talking to girls.
"So, what brings you here?"
<spoiler=OOC> You've been reading Ender's Game, haven't you, Asp?[/spoiler]
She pointed over to the ice cream shop and led Pollux there. Inside she bought a Mocha-flavored ice cream scoop held in a sugary waffle cone. It didn't occur to Addison that Pollux might have been getting to "know" her as she was told by the scientists. She had talked with boys before and some did show their feelings towards her but all she did was smile.
"You have a girlfriend?" She asked as she bit into the side of her cone. A little bit of the scoop caught onto the tip of her nose and she just wiped it off with her sleeve.
Alexander had been taking a bite out of his pistachio ice cream with almonds when she asked if he had a girlfriend. She caught him off guard for a sec, causing him to choke on a couple of almonds, but he quickly recovered in the best way possible.
"Nope."
He went back to eating. Why had he freaked out for a second? It then dawned on him that he hadn't actually spoken to a girl or bothered getting in a relationship with a girl since...ever. He'd never thought about girls like that. Huh...
"Well, I kinda want some form of relationship in the future."
He shifted in his seat awkwardly, but told himself to calm down. Whats the problem, she simply asked a question? Shes on your team. You fight together, it's all good. If so, why was he so terrified?
"A couple. Nothing really serious though." Addison she heard her speak.
Addison looked away, avoiding contact with his eyes. With any luck he would catch her lie but it was covered with half-truths. Addison-13 had no such relationships but her past selves did. She went to work on her ice cream cone.
"It was all short though..." Addison said in an attempt to salvage what she had accidentally said.
Damien was back in the Nerv HQ still, still reviewing reports of the latest fight and pilots, checking over every piece and file with speed and dedication of a veteran. His office was relatively large, with a book shelf or two lined with tomes of military, arts, and other things.
Rubbing his eyes as he placed down the report of a rather light damages cost to the Eva's themselves he muttered under his breath....
"Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow..."
Another file tapped to order and put away.
"Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee. From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow..."
The screen flares and an order is made of munitions and research funds.
"And soonest our best men with thee doe goe, Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie. Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well, And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then?..."
Things are shuffled away ad the desk and paper work is cleared and only the dim glow of lamp and screen reflect upon Damien as his reviews the reports on pilots and well being.
"One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die."
Resting his head against his hand, "I need a drink." As his gaze lingers at a dull picture reminding him of what was lost.
Owen looked out the window of black tinted truck, the second of at least a dozen such trucks headed to "Battlefield Alpha". Outside seemed strange. What had once been a forest had become a wasteland, half devoured by the locust like angel of the recent past. Remnants of the crystalline swarm had settled across most of the area in a fine mist that left the area with a strange golden gleam, like the myth of Midas and the golden touch made real or some alien world from some B Sci-fi movie.
Most of the city had escaped the thin painting of gold, which was fortuitous. What effects the angelic remains would have on the environment were anyone?s guess, but had large portions of the population been exposed... he shuddered to think of the paperwork... the medical effects as well he supposed.
Owen was thoroughly bored of the conversation, an homage to their continued survival between two scientists and a soldier. "I still can't believe were alive" said one technician, a woman in her mid-twenties, to the soldier, an older man with a few too many battle scars. "Those kids are something else. I can't believe they stopped that thing." She continued "I man, Can you imagine fighting that... thing. I mean, I could barely look at it, much less fight it, and heaven forbid BEAT it". The soldier, a bit more battle-hardened, seemed more restrained. "Yes, but I don't know how I feel about having kids do the dirty work. It isn't right" he responded, his accent some combination of Spanish and North African. "It's supposed to be the elder's job to protect the young ones. It can't be good for them" he finished, a sense of powerlessness in his voice. "It can't be helped, Only those kids can pilot the Eva's, so only they can fight." The final technician interjected, he a gentleman of similar age to the woman. To soldier looked at him, sighing "I know, but it still seems... unnatural I guess" The woman took her cue and made her final blow "Well, if anything can describe this war, it's the word unnatural".
The conversation continued as such for some time. Owen stayed out of it. He halfheartedly listened to the conversation and watched the change in scenery. Buildings after buildings, crowds after crowds, the small convoy even passed a pair of pilots; Addison and Alexander if his memory served; enjoying their well earned relaxation.
It was then that Owen saw something even stranger than the golden mist upon everything; the returned sense of normality. The city was back to how it was a few days before; full of life and energy; like there had never been an attack, no one had died, and as though all the recent events were a nightmare, gone with the rising sun.
As the caravan passed through another battlefield Owen could make out some of the other scientists collecting samples of the crystals, trying to squeeze every piece of data they could out of the microscopic constructs. Before long, the group had moved on. They had a far more important objective: the half eaten bits of Unit-02's hand and arm.
When the group arrived, several armed patrols stood guard around the cordoned off area, blocked by canvas and caution tape - far more security than necessary if you asked him. After all, the public had plenty of images of the Evangelions and they were even interviewing the pilots.
Owen flashed his security card at the guards and they pulled the canvas back from the arm. Owen could only watch, wide eyed in disbelief, mirroring the faces of the technicians that he accompanied. "No wonder there?s so much extra security"
OOC: I leave it to someone else to determine what is being seen because... well, where would the fun be in that ^_^
Hours passed before the... arm... was finally packed up and ready to ship. It was a long-ass day and Owen was more than ready to call it a night. Only a half hour ride back to his apartment and he would pass into sweet sweet unconsciousness.
The vehicles fellow occupants were no longer conversing about their survival; only an unstated, mutual agreed-upon silence, made bearable by the barely audible radio in the background; a result of the trying day and the unexpected... discovery.
The scenery of the original trip was now obscured by the darkness of night that had settled in, the only illumination being a handful of streetlamps and trucks high beams. Owen was almost ready to pass into unconsciousness in the car when he heard it, at the tip of his hearing.
"How are the suits?" a voice on the radio asked on a rerun of the now famous interview with the pilots. "Confining." He could hear one say, though who escaped him in his sleep-bewildered state. "It is harder to make precise movements, since the suits bent just a bit slower, resisted a bit more than any clothing I had ever worn before." The voice continued. In the back of his mind, Owen could feel the beginnings of an idea growing. It almost came to fruition, before he gave up and surrendered to sleep. "It will come to me tomorrow"
Alexander noticed the off-ness, her scattered nature. She'd said that she had had a couple of relationships, but it sounded like she was talking about someone else. He slightly felt like pursuing it, but decided to try and get off the subject of dating.
"So, you ever think the director sits around making drunken biblical quotes while doing his work?"
Okay, that was one way to change a conversation. Alexander heard another minor chuckle. Rev was here watching Alexander slip over his own tongue. He could simply point him out to Addi, but a part of Alexander just wanted to sit here and talk with her.
"Um...what I meant was, what do you do in your spare time, when we're not training or killing off angels?"
"Um...what I meant was, what do you do in your spare time, when we're not training or killing off angels?"
Before Addison could make a response, both she and Alexander noticed a blur in the corner of their eyes. They turned, to find Mikhael's face shoved in-between them, deadpan as he munched away at the last remnants of his cone.
"Well, that's a good question Pollux. My theory, after much calculation and scientific evaluation, is that she has colossally awkward conversations with teenage boys in front of ice cream parlors. And--"
He leaped over a bar behind their backs, and placed himself squarely between the two. It took all his effort not to laugh himself to death at his professional brand of mood-killing.
"--since I hate to see my buddy Pol here trip up with such a lovely young lady as yourself, I'm here on wingman duty."
Mikhael felt like a complete dick, and by God he was going to enjoy every moment of this conversation.
Addison was quite surprised at Rev's burst into the conversation although deep inside she withheld every ounce of muscle that was meant to deliver a haymaker to his obnoxious face. She smiled though, flattered even that Rev could draw the conclusions so quickly.
Well, at least he'd gotten him out of this slump. Alexander found it quite nice to actually be living a normal teenage life. One that didn't have angels, or evas, or A.T fields, or any of that other crap. What was next, he found himself thinking. Clones? Meanwhile, Addi just shook off Rev's little intrusion. Welp, might as well get on with it.
Mikhael kept a straight face as he smiled and nodded, accepting the compliments and greetings he new fully well only vaguely disguised an intense desire to kill. He would have to remember to apologize to Addison later that day. He decided he would wait a day on Pollux; that seemed funnier to him.
"Nonsense! You both come out to my neck of the woods, it's only right I'm here to greet you, right?"
He held a little pile of crumbs from the cone in his hand, and spied a small bird resting on the pavement in front of him. He tossed the morsels down, and watched with an almost childlike adoration as his new little friend snatched them up with its beak. He heard Pollux sarcastically asking for advice, but he ignored it. For the moment, at least.
"So what brings you both out here? This isn't exactly a hustle-an'-bustle kind of place."
Alexander stared at the eccentric lanky guy for a moment. Rev seemed like a nice buy but he could be a bit tiresome. Alexander fought back the urge to utterly destroy Rev there. That would be childish. He'd trip him in his eva. The mature thing to do. Addison didn't seem to mind Rev's actions, or if she did she didn't show it. Might as well bite his own lip too.
"You know, just wanted some fresh air, see how we saved the world again, relax for a few days away from work. We're free from training and hopefully there won't be another angel anytime soon. Or evil clones, or something"
Though it was a minor, unfunny joke, it made Alexander think. He began to wonder if they had more to fear than just angels. Alexander simply ignored his own intrigue and got on with the conversation.
Addison brought her elbow to the table and she leaned her head on her hand.
"I crashed here so I went to see how it looked like." Addison said plainly. "I was walking and I saw Pollux."
There was nothing too it. Addison was genuinely interested in the extent of damage she caused to this neighborhood. She even wanted to see if her railgun was still on the ground but it looked like NERV was here first. The speed of the reconstruction amazed even her.
"And you, Rev?" Addison didn't find Pollux's joke funny at all and simply let it fly.
"I've been coming here a few times a week for about a month," he told the pair, producing a drink from absolutely nowhere to take a sip. He could pilot a massive bio-mechanic beast with more power than an entire army with almost no training, but sleight of hand was the skill he was most proud of. He stared down at the bird, now within reach. He detested birds. Or at least, that was what he told everyone. He watched the feathered fluff-ball for a moment as it hopped around, and decided that yes, he was definitely not a fan. He threw a few more crumbs off a few feet further away, to get the winged rat away from him.
"I only live a short walk from here. It's a nice hang-out spot. Food, sun... an excellent view," he added, looking in Addison's direction and only making a token effort to appear as if he meant something behind her.
As unfunny as he was to those around him, Mikhael really did crack himself up.
Alexander wonders if Rev can make himself disappear. He ignored Rev's attempt at "flirting" Addi and had to admit that Rev kinda had a point.
"Yeah, this place is pretty great. Good thing the angel had the decency to not destroy it. Plus, I can't believe the guys who own this place actually stayed here working. I would've called it a day honestly. Addi's plan caused a lot of damage below the surface and could've effected the area, yet people still walk around like it was another day, simply because a few guys fixed it fast. It amazes me how regular people can just get on with their lives even with the angels attacking."
He took a bite of his ice cream cone.
"Then again, they weren't the ones fighting back."
"I live deeper in the city. Closer to NERV headquarters." Addison said. She looked at him while with her other hand she reached into her pants to retrieve her phone. She looked down briefly at the screen, quickly scanning over the pixels. She had forgot to phone in with the scientists and she was partly annoyed at the fact that she had to check in once in a while to make sure that she was still there and functional.
"This looks like a nice place." Addison added then she heard what Pollux said about her plan. She felt kind of hurt that he would say that to Rev right in front of her.
"Buildings can be built back. People can't." Addison said concisely even though she was a living testament to that. Her feelings were getting the better of her. Her annoyance and Pollux's statement started to mount.
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