WYRDYSM GAMES

We need a pic of that stuffed toy, stat!m

_________________
Realism, seriously? It's a space ship game. Realism was thrown out the window a long time ago.

Okay. It's the day after the battle, repairs are proceeding steadily, the Evangelions have been recovered, etc. A number of people are filling a small auditorium like those found in a college, with the exception of Sakamoto, who held her covers over her head and refused to get up. Sayuri was discharged with a clean bill of health earlier that morning. Various people, politicians, military officers, etc, were in the room, as were technicians and other NERV staff

Pretty much all attention was focused at the center of the room, where Dr. Desai and Lt. Hikari were starting their presentation. Mostly Hikari, given Desireé's reluctance to talk to large groups. "At 1418, a large energy signature was detected beneath the exterior lake. When preliminary results came back Pattern Blue, NERV was mobilized as fast as possible." A click as the next slide came into view, showing the angel.

Sayuri is holding her stuffed toy rabbit in her arms, hugging it idly against her chest, looking about the room briefly and taking in all the people, but otherwise sitting still and remaining silent, sitting the stuffed animal down on her lap and turning her attention back to Dr. Desai and Lt. Hikari.

"The subject, codenamed Angel Gamma, was well within predicted parameters in all but several things. Location foremost among them." A click as the screen showed Evangelion Unit 01 just exiting the launch catapult. "Upon Captain Musashi's orders, Unit 01 was deployed, followed by 02. Gamma was not overly hostile at this time, besides blowing up one cruiser on the way out of the lake."

Katou is listening and watching closely, tapping his reading glasses against the tip of his nose.

Sayuri smiles faintly at the sight of her Unit 01, leaning back in her chair and casting a brief glance over at Katou, before turning her attention back to the debriefing.

Cutting in, Desireé said pointedly, "Altho within predicthonth wath the thpectacular failure of the thtock ithued rifle, which I tried to bring up when we first rethieved thpethificathons. Athide from damaging the community with errant thoth, it contributed nothing to the battle." There was a very clear avoidance of looking at the representative of the manufacturer.

Katou's mouth widens briefly. Those pallet rifles really were rather terrible, they'd have to find a replacement eventually.

Sayuri frowns as she remembers how ineffectual the Pallet Gun had been against the Angel, nodding her head slightly and hugging her stuffed bunny a little tighter, taking a deep breath, trying not to think of what damage her stray shots might have caused.

Chiko resumed, switching to a slide of Unit 01 engaged in combat with Sachiel. "After closing distance, Unit 01 made contact with the Angel, and had its field neutralized." Before the questions could start, Chiko bowed, and continued, "Yes, Unit 01 was neutralized by Gamma. No, it was not predicted. But MAGI reported a weakening of the field regardless, so it remains a vital point to use AT-field combat units." A click showing Unit 01 biting Sachiel.

Sayuri winces slightly at the sight of Unit 01 biting Sachiel, but also feels a faint thrill remembering how she'd been tearing into the angel, even before her Eva went berserk.

"The biggest aberration in the theoretical simulations occurred here. Gamma was being assaulted by Unit 01's jaws in a desperation strike by the pilot, and upon swallowing the flesh of Gamma, Unit 01..." *click* A graph showing numerous technical features, showing a cliff-like dropp in nearly all of them at a certian point. "Unit 01 ceased interfacing with the three MAGI units." Murmuring from the audience.

"Unit 01 continued to draw the aggression of Gamma while Unit 02 closed for combat. Here," *click* "You see Unit 01 trying to rip Gamma to shreds even as Gamma pulverizes the leg, which was recovered later draped across a small mall." *click* "Eventually Gamma went down due to repeated beatings to the torso, where it dislodged the core. The core's behavior," *click, click, click* A progression of shots of the core in motion on ground and air, "was nothing like was predicted."

"But it sure gave us a better understanding of how things work" Katou whispers to himself.

"Eventually, however, the core disabled, and in the process of destroying it, it vaporized the surrounding area, though aboslutely no harm came to either Evangelion."

Sayuri whimpers faintly at the sight of her Eva losing its leg, remembering the pain she'd felt, lowering one hand to her own leg and pressing her fingernails into her own skin, reminding herself that her own leg is still there, listening to the rest of the lecture intently.

*click* A picture of Unit 01 on all three remaining limbs, roaring at Unit 02, which was clearly backing away. "Unit 01, still rejecting all commands, then threatened Unit 02. Unit 02 escaped by submerging itself into the lake, managing to push itself 2 seconds past the predicted independant operation time. Eva 01 shut down a minute later, pushing it 1 minute 14.2 seconds past the theoretical maximum independant operating time. Total operation time was 4 minutes, 22 seconds." *click* A graph, showing hexagons and sine waves.

Sayuri blinks at that. She'd stopped paying any attention to the clock once her Evangelion went Berserk, and hadn't realised that it had operated so long on independant power. How? She leans forward a little, curious to see if they had an explanation.

"One last piece of good news and bad news: Our sensors were horribly inadequate for AT study, but MAGI compiled extraneous data to draw some interesting concepts. We now have an idea of how to build much better sensors to easily detect Pattern and "Form", and possibly more once this is refined. This has also expanded our theories on the internal structure of the AT Field."
The lights came up full, and Chiko put down the remote. "Questions? They may not be answered depending on clearance level, but those with high clearance may submit written queries later."

One General leaned forward. "How did the enemy manage to enter the lake undetected? That's astonishingly bad security to miss something that big."

Sayuri glances to the General who asked the question, nodding her head slightly in agreement, wondering if they'd answer his question.

Desireé and Chiko looked uneasily at each other. "We went back and looked at the satellite data and all proximity sensors. We're 99.45% confident that we did not miss detecting the Angel enter the lake." "Meaning...?" "It wath alwayth there. It jutht wath inactive at the bottom of the lake." Concerned muttering all around, and the two women didn't even bother to hide their unease.

Sayuri blinks at that, biting her lower lip at the implications. That meant that an angel could attack from anywhere, appearing without warning, perhaps even emerging from under the ground in an area believed safe. That thought was pretty scary. She looks around, then leans forward, starting to ask a question before her own nervousness gets the best of her and she closes her mouth before any words come out.

A heavyset, spectacled man wearing a suit spoke up. "About Unit 01, do you have any theories as to why the activation was unlike any prev-" Winters, sitting in the first row, made a cutting motion with her hand to the two women, and Lt Hikari spoke over the man, "Sir, please submit a written query, not everyone here has a sufficient clearance level." The man grunted, but said nothing more.

Sayuri lets out a sigh of relief, nodding her head slightly. Her own question was going to be similar, so now she was doubly relieved she'd not asked. How embarassing!

Katou took a mental note to find out the identity of the man in the suit, just in case.

Sayuri tries to ignore the other question nagging at her, but she's not able to. Finally, she rises from her seat, still hugging her stuffed bunny-rabbit to her chest, "Were... were there any civilian casualties?" She asks, looking terribly nervous, hoping too many people wouldn't turn to stare at her. Doubly hoping that her asking questions wasn't out of line.

Katou glances over at Sayuri with an understanding look on his face. He still hadn't had time to go through the list of casualties from the sunken destroyer.

At a nod from Winters, Chiko sighed. "Fortunately, even though there was little warning of evacuation, there were only about 45 confirmed civilian casualties, and 78 wounded. This is two orders of magnitude lower than the projected worst case for first contact."

Sayuri tenses as she hears the number, giving a short nod of her head and quickly seating herself again, burying her face into her stuffed bunny's head, letting it soak up the tears she's unable to hold back and murmuring, "We'll do better. Next time."

A young individual raised her hand, appearing cleanly dressed in a sort of businessy fashion. "I have an idea if I may, you showed us that the core seperated from the creature when it was badly injured, perhaps it infiltrated into the lake in that manner and ... grew perhaps?"

"Pothible, yeth. However, the chantheth are very low. If it had thuffithent cloaking or other meanth, maybe. But barring some thingth we have no reason to believe about the core currently, it doethn't theem likely. The chantheth of one being here were thmall, and perhapth the lake wath not thcrutinithed hard enough inithally. But, it'th pothible."

The lady nodded and said no more.

Nodding after a pause, Chiko picked up the folder in front of her. "Thank you for your time and support, that's it for the debriefing." The people started slowly filing out, exchanging few remarks.

Sayuri remains in her seat, sitting still as everyone else files out. She hates crowds, and hates even more walking among a crowd. She'll wait.

Katou makes his way towards Chiko and Desireé, slipping his thin fram through the crowd. "My compliments on your performance, Lieutenant, and you as well Dr. Desai"

Desireé raised an eyebrow as Chiko bowed in gratitude. "Thank you, Captain. The Science department is still in absolute chaos going through all the new data, but we were able to put together this."

"I can relate, my own mind is in a rather chaotic state at the moment, as well. Any breakthroughs, so far?" He smiles gently.

Sayuri spots a familiar looking woman in a lab coat exit the room. The odd part is that Sayuri doesn't actually remember ever seeing this woman around, nor can she place exactly who she is.
Chiko shook her head. "Aside from the AT physics, most of the work is updating the information we have with hard data and seeing how that affects our forecasts and predictions."

Sayuri watches the adults speaking together and sighs softly, waiting until the crowds have dispersed some before rising from her chair and turning to leave, not entirely looking forward to returning to her empty apartment. She blinks at the sight of the familiar looking woman, trying to place her in her memory. Failing at that, she quickly hurries after her, trying to catch up.

Sayuri manages to get a glimpse of her turning a corner in a hallway, but unfortunately loses her after she turns it, panting out of breath and staring at the relatively packed slidewalks. She could try to search through random luck, but it's a pretty big base.

Sayuri hunches over and tries to catch her breath, her stuffed bunny held at her side by its ears, hands resting on her knees. Afterwards, she rises to her feet, and despite herself and the futility of it, she does try to continue her search, wanting to know where she'd met that woman before, why she seemed familiar.

"About what I had expected" Katou nods. "Well then, I shouldn't occupy you ladies anymore. Thank you for your time" He turns to leave but stops in his tracks. "By the way, Lieutenant, where would I go if I wanted the contact information of the dead crewmens' families?"

Sayuri makes her way eventually into the science departments of NERV, reflecting on the woman. She seemed Oriental, possibly Japanese. Probably Japanese. Mid to late 20s, probably. Sayuri just felt like...she was SUPPOSED to know the woman. "Excuse me, miss." A man behind her, looking very soldiery except in black, put a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have clearance for this area. Here, I'll help you find your way back." Sayuri has no idea where the woman is by this point, anyway.

Chiko looked disturbed. "Sir, you don't have to handle that, we have people whose job it is to smooth these things over..."

"I'd prefer doing it myself" Katou muses. "When I have the time, of course. After all, they died under my command so it is only fair"

Sayuri sighs as she realises she has no way of finding the woman, silently berating herself over losing her. She allows herself to be escorted out by the soldier, and decides to ask someone about her. Yes, Dr. Desai, or Allen, or even Commander Winters. One of them would have to know who that woman was, surely.

"I'll see if I can get someone to get that information for you, sir," Chiko says with a little sad half-smile of understanding.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. I appreciate it" Katou wanders off.

End of First Battle! 700 XP GET, all characters! 19 collateral inflicted, oh no! 20 Surplus Gained! 5 Surplus Gained! Improved AT Analysis Get!

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer

XP spent, character sheet updated! And here's a Character Journal for Sayuri, 'cause... I'm bored.

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer

"How did the UN take it?"
"Pretty well, actually. I just pointed out Impact and they said the damage was more than acceptable. We're even getting an additional pilot."
"Ah. What are your impressions?"
"I'm mostly bothered that we forgot about Gamma. Granted, we had a lot to deal with, but I just assumed NERV took care of it."

------------

>What do you mean the leg's different?
>The skeletal cross-section is...It's not like Two or Six.
>Is it a defect?
>No. I don't feel comfortable talking about this over commercial encryption. Let's do lunch.
>My place or yours?
>Mine. It's less likely to be bugged by the Old Men and I sweep once a day, anyway.
>Alright. I'll bring sushi.
>As long as it's not curry. Japanese just don't understand what curry actually is.

-----------

"Oh, you'll like this query, Allen."
"Mm?"
"'RE: Designation 'Gamma': "So, what happens when we get to Omega? Do we start working down a list of fraternity houses?'"
"Who sent that?"
"Anderson, one of the wiseasses in Engineering."
"Your response?"
"Oh, I told him to ask you. If we ever get that far, I quit."
"You mean resign. Quitting is for people who get to avoid responsibility."
"Whatever."

Alright. It's now Tuesday of Week 1. The last two days at school have had rumors flying everywhere about the giant monsters. There seems to be several that insist that two of the monsters worked for the government, and the class more or less agrees on that. As the bell for homeroom rings, everyone slowly breaks up their gossiping groups and takes their seat. (Not Victoria, obviously.)

Sayuri claims her usual seat by the window and places Momo-chan on her lap, silently gazing towards the head of her class, though her eyes occasionally flicker towards Mellisa. She's aware of the gossip, but obviously doesn't participate in it.

There's a few whispered jabs of "Hey squirt, nice rabbit," but they die down pretty quickly as the teacher walks in the door, followed by a new girl. "Stand," says the class rep, a boy with thickrimmed glasses. "Bow." After the formalities are completed, everyone sits attentively, stealing glances at the girl.

Sayuri ignores the taunts, knowing them for what they are, following through with the standing and bowing before taking her seat once more. At the entrance of the new student, she turns towards her, curious. Another new student? Could just be a coincidence, but she's uncertain.

Mellisa looks at the new student with interest. She bows like the rest, and sits down on her seat, in the middle of the class.

The teacher clears his throat, nodding. "Well, even though we just met Ms Sakamoto yesterday, we have another new student. This time, it's an international student, visiting us from...America? Please introduce yourself to the class."

Sayuri raises her eyebrows. The girl was obviously not japanese, but from America? That's certainly interesting. Sayuri leans forward a little, curious about the new student.

The new student was a girl of 5 feet and 7 inches of hight with long dark reddish brown hair somewhat moved back by a bright orange headband. Bright green looking over the class as she was introduced before bowing. "My name is Victoria Sabatier, a pleasure to meet you all." She spoke in decent enough Japanese.

Mellisa's eyes widen at the word America. She's from pretty far away. This can't really be a coincidence, or can it. She sits a bit straighter in her chair, focussing more on the new student, taking in her features.

Sayuri tilts her head a little, examining Victoria and giving a slight nod of her head. She's certainly the sort of person she could imagine being an Eva pilot, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Still, she offers the new girl a faint smile and a wave, understanding how difficult it can be to adjust to a new environment.

The teacher nods to an open desk near the rear half of the class. "Please take a seat there, I've recieved word that Takanami's family decided to move away, so you can have his seat. Now, continuing where we left off yesterday class, please open your History text to Chapter 20." On the whiteboard, he writes "Second Impact" and underlines it. "Can anyone tell me what the Second Impact WAS?"

Victoria nodded, not breaking a single smile at all even at Sayuri's, though she did give her a small wave in response, then immediately walked to the empty desk and took a seat.

Sayuri bites down on her lower lip at that question from the teacher and then absently turns to look out the window. What she does know of Second Impact, as far as she knows, doesn't mesh with the official story at all.

Mellisa raised her hand and stood up, knowing deep down it all to be a lie, but deciding to answer anyway. ''A meteorite impact on Antarctica, sensei.''

Sayuri glances to Mellisa, then looks back to the teacher.

Nodding, the teacher drew a quick sketch of earth, with a line straight into antarctica."Yes. A micrometeorite hit the earth at around nine-tenths the speed of light. But that's not what we're going to discuss today. What we're concerned with, is the incredibly chaotic breakdown post-Second Impact."

Victoria's eye twitched slightly at the mention of post 2nd impact events.

Sayuri shifts forward slightly in her seat. History lessons were at least more interesting than mathematics.

Mellisa sat back down and looked briefly outside. She didn't remember much from that period, but what she did remember caused her a lot of pain and nightmares.

Victoria shifted a little in her seat somewhat, seeming a bit uncomfortible with the current topic but raising no protest otherwise, it would've have done any good if she had anyway.

"First, the economy collapsed. Crops failed everywhere, and there was widespread famine. This is probably responsible for 60% or more of the population decrease, and Africa in particular saw a resurgence of cannabilism of the recently dead as a practice. This was followed by desperate governments claiming as much food as they could from others, and retaliation from those attacked."
Writing on the board, he wrote "-Famine -World War III."
"Now...we're not exactly sure how long World War III was. Does anyone know why we're not sure?"

Sayuri shudders at the thought of so many deaths. And a world-war! That just sounds awful. This is the first she'd heard about the war. She glances to the other students, wondering if someone knew the answer.

A girl in the front of the class raised her hand. "Uh, my brother said it was drugs?"

Sayuri blinks, "Drugs?" She asks aloud, surprised by that answer. Then she blushes bright red at her outburst and hugs Momo-chan to her chest, looking away.

Mellisa watched from her chair, looking around, not knowing the answer. She looked at the girl infront of the class, and held in a chuckle. She raised her hand. ''Isn't that a bit idiotic, sensei, why would the whole world be on drugs. I'd think it was because people fought from time to time, and even after the war ended, people still died in all the confusion."

Victoria stared at Mellisa flatly, finding her calling the girl idiotic a bit bold and rude but not commenting due to being the "new person." she just observed for now.

Nodding, the teacher wrote on the board, "-Chemical Warfare", holding up a hand to Mellissa's statement. "This was the first war we know of with extensive use of chemical agents, on miltary and civilian alike. An incredibly potent new class of psychoactive chemicals and hallucinogenics were discovered by several corporations shortly before the war, and they were devistatingly effective at destabilizing the enemy. Most deaths in this war are believed not to have been by bullet or missile, but by heart-attacks induced by fear. They were also metabolized slowly, and the major data centers were hit early on in the war by EMP weaponry."
"As a result, we...don't actually know the timespan, but based on later examinations of the psychoactive chemicals and few remaining records, we estimate that the war lasted a little over 6 months. Maybe."

Sayuri blinks, biting down on her lower lip, before raising her hand, "So does... does nobody remember anything of that time period? Did the chemical weapons affect everyone?"

Victoria turned her attention to Sayuri, finding that idea a bit strange since she sure remembered ... everything past possibly 4 years of age ... lot of shit she didn't want to remember too.

Adding to the list, he wrote "-Data loss -Unification". "People remember things, Ms. Michisio, but much of what's remembered disagrees with other accounts, and while there are pockets that weren't hit by the drug, they didn't have any records past those of the local area."
"There were a few positive side-effects of this. By the time the war was over, none of the survivors wanted to do anything but SURVIVE. There was a general push towards national unification, as most countries were barely left intact. The former United States of America joined with Canada, Mexico absorbed several countries around panama, and the former countries of Brazil and Chile now each hold one of the two capitals of South America."

Sayuri frowns a little and leans back in her seat, mulling this over. Perhaps NERV was responsible for that chemical warfare, to prevent anyone from remembering the truth of what really happened? An interesting theory, but that's all. Perhaps it was a good thing, anyway. "If not for that chemical warfare, the war might have lasted a lot longer too, yes?" She asks, "It's hard to fight when nobody can remember who they're fighting or what they're fighting over..." This whole thing fascinated her. She did love learning new things.

"Exactly. The fighting just stopped due to the fact no one remembered exactly what happened during that time span, and the only records of pre-WWIII being in older books and memories."Likewise, as you know, Africa is administrated by two halves, North and South. European Union was finalized, and the Asian community is split into four: Thailand, India, China, and Japan."

''Didn't they eventually come together under the flag of the UN, seeking mutual protection?'' Mellisa asks, smiling at Sayuri. Clever girl for her age.

Sayuri glances to Mellisa and blushes a little, hugging her stuffed bunny to her chest, suddenly very embarassed at how talkative and inquistive she was being. Still, the approval she felt, and the knowledge that she had been right about something, it made her feel good. Perhaps speaking up once in a while wasn't so bad?

"The UN you know today is almost completely different than pre-Second Impact. The charter was rewritten and reratified. It's less an arbiter of disputes, now, and more an attempt and smoothing over the global economy, and spends 800 billion a year on global humanitarian efforts." Turning to a map on the wall, he pointed at the Middle East. "Officially, the borders of the countries that were here are gone, and no country is in its place, as no country asked to be recognized."

Victoria found the idea of her memories possibly being faulty or fabricated somewhat troubling. She reached into her uniform shirt to pull out a rectangular locket with a even sided and celtic knoted cross printed into both sides of it. She flipped it open and stared at the picture contained within. On one side was a family, a mother, father, and a baby. She closed it soon enough though and refocused her attentions on the class.

"Unofficially, however, aside from pockets of disagreeing peoples, it is more or less governed by a so called "Crescent League," which is based on a religion, Islam. It has the most fighting in the world even now, but the Crescent League is more or less stabilizing the region." Sighing, the teacher turned back to the class. "That's the basic overview you weren't given in previous grades.
Everyone will have a report to write on a part of it due in two weeks, but I'll cover that later. Any questions?"

Sayuri glances around, and then looks back to the teacher and raises her hand, "May I ask... what is the official story regarding the... creature that attacked the city?" She bites her lip nervously, uncertain as to whether this is something she should be asking.

"The official story, Ms Michishio, is that there is no official story yet, and it's still being looked into." At that, the class exploded into conversation about conspiracy theories and guesses, that not even the teacher could stop. In fact, the only thing that stopped it was the lunch bell that soon rang. Half the kids filed out, the other half clustered around their desks, and especially the desks of the two new girls, particularly Victoria. "Hi, nice to meet you." "Are you really from America? But you're not fat!" "Miko! I'm sorry for me friend, she talks too much." "Do you have a boyfriend? Want one?" and so on.

Sayuri looks around at all the students, feeling a little uncomfortable with the crowds, and remains sitting at her desk, somewhat glad that she's not a new student that everyone's so eager to fuss over. Still, once things settle down a bit, she determines to speak with Victoria, stepping up to Mellisa, "Sakamoto-senpai, I... we should talk to Sabatier-senpai, yes? She could be... like us, I think." She says, seeming a little uncomfortable, yet apparently wanting some support, even if it is from Mellisa. She holds Momo-chan at her side, one big fluffy ear held in a slender, frail hand.

Victoria seemed a bit startled by the sudden popularity but answered a few questions. "Yes I'm from America, from the area formerly known as the state of Nevada. No I do not have a boyfriend and I do not want one." She said that last sentance somewhat flatly but rather firmly.

Sayuri stumbled over the name 'Sabatier' a little.

The boy who asked that last question snapped his fingers in disappointment, then wandered off to his friends "I did it, you owe me lunch, Touma." The girls continued to harass Victoria. "Didn't you know about the monster? What made you decide to come here?"

Mellisa nods at Michishio-san. ''Yes, that would be a good idea. Michishio, would you mind waiting for me a moment, I'll call them and ask them about it, anything you want to add or need?'' She looks at Michishio and awaits her answer.
She speaks in a hushed voice, not intent to let the rest listen in.

Sayuri bites her lower lip, glancing around a little before shaking her head, "N-no, nothing else. I'll just... wait... here..." She edges back from the crowds a little and hugs Momo-chan, staring at Victoria intently.

"Sorry" Victoria called after the boy who asked her for a date then turning to the girl who questioned her concerning the monster. "I had heard of such a thing but my arrangements were already made by that time..." she shruged.

''Okay, I'll be back in a bit.'' She walks out of the class, taking a stoll outside, away from any listening ears. She takes her cellphone from her bag and clicks in the earphone. Looking around for any people, seeing and hearing none, she dials her liason at NERV. ''Hello, this is Sakamoto calling, I have a question concerning the number of pilots we have, has by any chance a new pilot arrived?''

Sayuri sighs, feeling awkward just standing there, moving back over to her desk and sitting down again. Perhaps if she weren't so quiet all the time, she could have friends like other people in the class. Perhaps she should try to make friends? Where to even start... she didn't know.

A man's voice that she didn't recognize answered. "You don't have sufficient clearance to access that information, Sakamoto. Need-to-know only." *click*

''Oh great, red tape...'' Mellisa mutters. ''Why can't they even give us info on our classmates.'' She puts her cellphone away and enters class again, going by her desk first, she walks to Michishio afterwards. ''Their being idiots and hiding behind red tape. Don't you have Cmdr Winters or Katou's number, Michishio, or couldn't you try?'' Mellisa waits for her answer and looks at her and her bunny. ''By the way, nice bunny, what's its name?"

Sayuri nods her head slightly, "I could try calling someone, but... perhaps it's better if I don't." She murmurs, then blushes at the question about her stuffed animal, looking down at her bunny, "Momo-chan." She murmurs shyly. Finally she takes a deep breath and rises to her feet, walking over to Victoria's table, "God is in his heaven." She says, looking at the new girl and wondering if she'll understand the meaning behind her words.

Victoria blinked at the sudden approach and line from Sayuri. "... All's right with the world." she responded simply before turning her attentions back to the other girls, trying to downplay this seemingly bit of randomness to them.

Sayuri smiles faintly and nods to Victoria, writing down her cellphone number on a slip of paper and very unobtrusively and subtly slipping it onto Victoria's desk, before taking a deep breath and walking back over to Mellisa, looking terribly embarassed, "Well, that worked, but I kind of feel like an idiot now..." She murmurs quietly.

Mellisa grins at the smart move from Michishio. ''Atleast that's confirmed now, smart move, Michishio, and sorry if I've been a bit of a ass to you, not my intention, would you mind showing me your place later today, I still need to have all the paperwork solved, after what happened last yesterday.''

Victoria in turn grabbed the paper quickly and slipped it into her bag. And wrote down on another piece of paper "Meet outside after school if you're not busy." and folded it into a paper airplane, then threw it at Sakamoto's face while the other girls around her were distracted with eachother's talking.

Sayuri blinks and bites her lower lip at that, feeling a little uncomfortable, "I... suppose... I... yes." She says finally, "That would be nic-ow!" She flinches and raises a hand to her face, looking to the fallen paper plane and leaning down to pick it up, unfolding it and reading the writing on it, before showing it to Sakamoto, "Should we?"

''Why not, we should get to know each other, and we have some free time then, so I don't see why not.'' She looks at Michishio with a smile on her face. ''By the way, afterwards we could go and work on the assignment together, doesn't that sound like a good idea."

Sayuri nods her head slightly and offers Mellisa a shy smile, "I guess so." She says, then looks about, "I um... were you scared? Y'know... during the... attack?"

''You mean yesterday, ofcourse I was. Who wouldn't be with that monster around." Mellisa quickly scribbles something on a piece of paper handing it to Michishio. ''Can't say too much about yesterday, but I was, I was scared for your life and mine.''

Sayuri gives a small nod, "Well, I should be getting back to my desk. The teacher will probably be back soon." She says, folding up the piece of paper and tucking it away in a pocket before returning to her seat, sitting Momo-chan on the desk and starting to talk with it in whispers. She's a little weird, yeah, but hey, stuffed bunny!

The afternoon goes by, filled with math, gossip, etc, but it's all surprisingly normal, all the way until the bell rings signalling the end of the school day

Victoria wasted no time with gathering her things and heading out, though it was less to be early and more to not be late since she expected other kids to probably stop her on route to talk to the "new kid."

Mellisa did practically the same as Victoria, looking at Sayuri for a moment, miming. ''See you outside in a bit.'' She followed moments after Victoria. Walking allong the same way.

Sayuri looks to Mellisa and nods, as she gathers up her things and moves to leave, leaving the classroom and heading outside, waiting under the shade of a tree near the exit.

Mellisa actually lost Victoria's trail in the chaos of afterschool and was there before her, Vic eventually showing up with another random girl whom she parted ways with before walking over to the shaded tree, crossing her arms and staring at the other two girls.

The three almost ran down a quiet, blue-haired girl with red eyes. "Excuse me, I need to see Sensei," she muttered, moving past them.

Vic watched the strange girl move past them curiously before turning her attentions back to the two girls in front of her.

Sayuri blinks and stares at the blue-haired girl, stammering and bowing and murmuring and apology before quickly rushing on her way. Once they're all gathered together, she takes a deep breath, slumping into a sitting position in the shade and looking up at them, uncertain what to say to them.

"So I see I wasn't the only one who saw the strange girl..." Victoria murmured before shaking her head. "Eh it's not important."

Mellisa sits down not too far from Sayuri. Feeling a bit awkward, she looks at the other two. ''I assume you allready know about us, or were'nt you informed about it, much like us 2."

"Err no, I knew there were two pilots but I did not know whom or else I'd have approached you sooner." Victoria tilted her head to the side.

Sayuri takes a deep breath, "I... I'm Sayuri Michishio. Pilot of Unit 01." She says softly, looking up at Victoria, "You are an Eva pilot too, aren't you? I... I knew there was something different about you, and arriving so soon after the Angel attack. It couldn't have been a coincidence. I... s-sorry, I ramble when I'm nervous." She turns her gaze away, fidgeting.

Victoria nodded to Sayuri. "Perhaps it'd have be more appropriate to introduce myself first Michishio-san. I'm pilot of unit 03, from the NERV nevada branch."

Mellisa nods at Victoria. ''I'm the Pilot of Unit 02, Mellisa Sakamoto.'' She extends her hand. ''Nice to meet you, hope we can get allong.'' Mellisa chuckles. ''Has'nt your unit arrived yet, or did they bring it in last night?''

Sayuri notices some rather shady looking men in a car nearby pretending not to watch her.

"I came here ahead of Unit 03, it should be arriving soon but I have no actual idea when." She laid her bag on the ground and sat next to it.

"O-oh, there's no need for that. J-just call me Michishio... or... Sayuri... if you like." She takes a deep breath, "Yes. We're all Eva pilots, so... call me Sayuri." She looks terribly nervous, but smiles at them, not reacting at the slightest to the sight of the car, smiling and pretending that all's fine as she says, "Don't look, but men over there are watching us. They're probably NERV, but I think I should report it just in case."

She didn't ignore Sakamoto's hand though, giving it a quick shake. Victoria looked over towards the men Sayuri pointed out. "Yeah I'd report them just in case... I met General Winters and Colonel Tsien last night"

Sayuri stares at Victoria and stammers a little, lowering her head, "I um... y-yes, I'll just go make that call. Would..." She takes a deep breath, "Would you perhaps... like to come to my apartment? I've already invited Sakamoto-senpai, and it would give us a chance to talk without other... student around."

''Even though the place is probably bugged, no offense, Michishio.'' She smiles at the two of them. flipping through her agenda briefly. ''Mind if I write down both your numbers, could get them from the staff, but they'll probably let me dig through all the red tape again.''

"Sure" Victoria responded to Sayuri while pulling out her cell phone and flipping it open, telling Sakamoto her number "You know you could just enter this into your phone directly rather then writing this down..." she stared at Sakamoto curiously.

"My living quarters are no doubt under constant surveillance. I'm sure all of ours will be." Sayuri says, and doesn't seem the least bit bothered by this, "I'll be right back. Sabatier-senpai has my number." She rises to her feet and walks away from the tree, dialing up Lt. Chiko Hikari on her cell phone.

''Its not all I'm writing down.'' Mellisa mimed, looking at the men from the corner of her eyes. She was writing down their descriptions for if they might not be NERV.

"Hello, Sayuri-chan. What's up?"

Victoria just nodded simply and proceeded to enter in Sayuri's phone number into her contacts list. Her phone of course had a NERV logo on it, not surprising considering how much stuff they liked to slap ther logo on.

Sayuri smiles and takes a deep breath, being quite familiar with most of the Junior Officers, "Good evening, Chiko-san. It's probably nothing to be concerned about, but I saw a pair of men in a car watching me. Us. Sakamoto-senpai and Sabatier-senpai are with me. I know it's probably NERV, but I thought I should report it just in case." She takes a breath, "Did I do the right thing?"

"Eh? Sloppy...Let me get them to confirm." The line went dead for a second, and one of the two men in the car put his hand to his ear, and then gave the girls a wave. Chiko came back on. "They're just there to watch you. Is everything okay now?"

Victoria who was still occasionaly peeking at them noticed them waving and waved back before turning her attentions back to her phone, putting in the last few digets for Sakamoto's number.

Sayuri looks up and smiles, waving back to the men in the car, before nodding, "Yes, yes. I wasn't too concerned, but I thought it would be best to confirm that they're friends. Sorry for troubling you, Chiko-san." She says.

Mellisa put down the notebook and switched to her cellphone, saving Sabatier and Michishio's numbers. "So, have you decided on a place to live yet, Sabatier-san, I myself have'nt yet, wouldn;t it be a great idea if we all could share a apartment, would make thing way more interesting. And I doubt any of us would want to live in one house on their own?''

"No, you did the right thing. You're not supposed to see them, because we don't want you getting used to someone following you. Because we might not always be the only ones watching you. Well, have a nice day, Sayuri-chan. Don't forget to get enough sleep, you have a Syncronization Test tomorrow."

"I have not decided on a place to live yet ... living with others would be far preferible to living on my own for many reasons." She leaned back against the tree sighing. "Haven't had much break time since leaving Nevada."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll be sure to do that." Sayuri says, "You have a good day too, Chiko-san. Goodbye." She hangs up and moves over to stand with Victoria and Mellisa, "I believe NERV handles our living arrangements... I've been living alone in a small apartment since my guardians left Tokyo-3."

''Hmm, maybe we could ask them at the synch test tomorrow, I imagine it would take some time to arrange, that is, if we all agree on it?" Mellisa massagess her neck, laying down on her bag. ''Shouldn't we be heading over to your apartment, Michishio-san?''

"Well I certainly agree to it." Victoria nodded, standing and stretching.

"Please, Sakamoto-senpai... you can just call me Michishio... or Sayuri, if you prefer." She says, then nods her head slightly, sighing, "I suppose we should. It's not too far."

''Not that I don't like it here, but it's getting rather cold, and we'd want to be as fit as we can for tommorows synch test, shouldn't we?'' Mellisa stands up, extending her hand to Michishio. ''And you can just call me Mellisa, Michishio, It's not such a mouthfull.''

"I wonder if they'll have a test pod avalible for me tomorrow or not..." Victoria idly murmured to herself, waiting for Sayuri to lead the way.

Sayuri pushes herself to her feet, picking up her bag and shouldering it, and then plucking up Momo-chan and brushing away dirt and bits of leaves, hugging it to her chest, "Okay then, Sakamoto-senpai, Sabatier-senpai," She smiles at them, "Let's go." With that she leads them on the very uneventful trip from the school to the large apartment building in which she lives, taking the elevator up to the floor her apartment is on.

Victoria was politely quiet for the whole trip though occasionaly humming quietly to herself. She looked about, evaulating the building Sayuri's apartment was in.

''Nice and close to school, Michishio.'' Mellisa says absent mindedly, marking the location into her mind and taking in the building

Sayuri nods her head slightly, "Several emergency exits and not far from one of the entrances to the Geofront, too. If an Angel attacks, I need to be able to get to my Eva quickly." She says, unlocking her front door and pushing it open, flicking on a light switch, "Welcome home, Sayuri." She says to herself with a smile, stepping inside and removing her shoes, looking to Mellisa and Victoria, "Please, come in." She says, bowing. It's a small apartment, and rather sparsely furnished, but clean and well-maintained, with a small table and four chairs in the center of the room that seemed to serve a multi-purpose role as living room, dining room and kitchen, with one door leading to a bathroom and the other, presumably, to her bedroom.

Victoria slipped her shoes off appropriately and stepped inside, placing her bag near the door and ploping down into one of the chairs

Mellisa slips out of her shoe's and walks in slowly, likewise placing her bag near the door and settling herself in the chair oposite to Sabatier-san. ''So, nice and cosy appartment Michishio.''

Sayuri closes the door behind them and takes her bag into her room, setting it and Momo-chan inside the door before moving to claim one of the seats at the table, "It suffices. Can I get you anything? I don't really have much, but... tea?"

"Tea works." victoria stretched her arms above her head and yawned. "I'm not looking forward to this 2nd impact project ... bad memories."

''That would be nice, I'd like some.'' Mellisa looked across the table to Victoria. ''I can't say I disagree, haven't gotten that many good memories from back then.''

"Eh my memories are from further up. Took awhile for some things to become just peachy again ... I don't want to say much more then that."

Sayuri looks at the two of them and bites her lower lip, "I'll just... make tea, then." She says with a faint smile, rising to her feet and moving to brew some tea. This is why she's always felt so awkward around people. She can't even clearly remember events from three years ago, nevermind during the aftermath of second impact.

''I can understand that, Sabatier-san, I only remember bits and pieces from back then, but life wasn't like it is now back then. '' She looks away for a moment as she wipes away a tear. ''By the way, Victoria, what role do you fill as pilot. Since all our eva's are geared to a particulair role.'' She looks at Michishio. ''Oh, Michishio, I forgot to ask, do you have different flavors, or only one kind of tea?"

Victoria watched her go to work on the tea with a somewhat concerned expression on her face. "Hmm ... anyway good job taking out the first angel, I saw some bits of footage from your fight, mostly so I could see what I was going to be up against."
"Role?" she raised an eyebrow.

''Oh, stupid me, you know, are you specialised in something. Like long ranged, melee, AT fields, or perhaps something entirely different.'' Mellisa mentally slapped herself, she should have explained more

"I lean towards more close range combat but I'm somewhat competant with eva scale guns as well. My AT field skills are somewhat lacking but I can at least put up one hah..." She was somewhat hesitant to tell them about her eva stirring once and awhile though.

''Sorry if that was a bit of a awkward question, If it was out of line, just say so. I often ask questions when I shouldn't.'' Mellisa twists her thumbs. She looks over at Sayuri, who is still making tea. She smiles at her and looks back to Victoria

Victoria leaned towards Mellisa now. "Um, which one of you was it that lost their leg? And their eva went ... erm wild?"

Sayuri looks up, "Kind of tea? Uh... well, all I have is Earl Grey." She says, having finally snapped out of whatever daze she was in, pouring three cups of tea and bringing them over to the table, placing them before each girl, "That was me." She says softly.

"A-ah I see..." Victoria seemed somewhat shamed at even asking. "You seem fine now though..." she took a sip from her Tea before setting it down and folding her hands on the table, looking down at them.

Sayuri nods her head slightly and claims her own seat, wrapping her hands around her warm cup of tea and staring into it, "I... I am fine. Perfectly fine." She says after a moment, then quickly changes the subject, "Nevada is a long way away. What was it like there? Do you speak english, then?"

Mellisa looks at Michishio, saying nothing. She picks up her tea and takes a sip. ''Hope it was only a one time occurance, for some reason I believe the angel might have caused it.''

"If you had attended the debriefing instead of sleeping in..." Sayuri murmurs just loud enough for Mellisa to hear, and the faint smile... could the shy girl be teasing Mellisa? No, surely not.

"It's a lot of sand, dirt, and occasionaly some sort of desert plant, unless you're out at white sands, in which case it follows it's namesake. Japan ... or at least what I can see of it from just Tokyo 3 is much nicer ... greener." she then nodded. "Yeah I speak english better then japanese to be honest." She said in english.

If there had been a pillow in reach, Mellisa would have thrown it at Sayuri. ''Oh just you wait little miss, you'll have those times when you turn my age, perhaps even sooner. I was in bed because of that, not because I slept in.'' She took another sip of her tea, and she frowned at Victoria. ''I'm guessing you just said something in English, right Sabatier-san?''

She giggled a bit at Mellisa and Sayuri's antics before switching back to Japanese. "I did. I said I speak english better then I do japanese which is really my 2nd language."

Sayuri blinks at Mellisa and tilts her head slightly, as if not sure what she means, then returns to staring into her teacup. She hasn't so much as sipped from it yet.

Victoria on the other hand took a gulp from hers before setting it down again. "Somthing the matter Michishio-san?"

Sayuri blinks and looks up, shaking her head slightly, "Hm? Oh, no. I'm fine. I uh... don't drink tea." She says with a nervous little laugh, "I just like the smell of it. It reminds me of... the woman who took care of me. She always drank this tea."

"Ah ... any particular reason you won't drink it though? Or am I being too intrusive?"

''So it reminds you of her, that's nice, remembering such things. Then what do you drink, if I might ask, Michishio?''

"Water." She replies simply, then glances up at Victoria, "I uh... don't really like the taste. That's all. But the smell reminds me of... better times." Shaking her head, she stands suddenly, "I uh... I think I need a shower. Y-yes. A shower. I'll um... you just... can I uh... get you anything else? I think I have some crackers... maybe Chiko-san left something in the cupboards when she was last here..." She moves over to start looking through cupboards, mumbling to herself.

"It is good to have things to remind you of better times... I don't need anything in particular though I'd like a nap." Victoria yawned. "Haven't had much chance to get a good rest in awhile..."

''Sayuri calm down please, I understand that your nervous, not used to so many questions, I guess?'' She stands up and walks to the toilet. ''I'll be right back.''

"Um... you can use my futon, if you'd like." Sayuri says, with her head still buried in one of the cupboards, rummaging about in search of snacks for her guests, still, until Mellisa's words make her sigh and give up, hitting herself in the head with the cupboard door as she attempts to close it, "Ow!" She staggers back a bit, clutching her head, closing the cupboard properly and stumbling over to her chair, "Owowow I'm fine..."

"Um ... maybe if having us over is making you nervous I could head back to my current residence for that nap if you'd prefer, seems to me we might be making you uncomfortible." Victoria said looking over Sayuri's head to make sure she didn't hit it on a corner or somthing and was bleeding.

Mellisa walks out after a few minutes. ''Are you two allright, you look exhausted.'' Mellisa chuckles, not feeling that awake herself

Sayuri waves a hand, "It's fine. You can stay here and rest if you like, I don't mind." She says, then looks to Mellisa, "I'm okay. I just... shower." She says, quickly making her way to the bathroom and shutting herself inside. A few moments later the sound of the shower running can be heard.

Victoria watched her hurry to the shower, then looked to Mellisa. "Well ... can't say I'm not worried about her. But I won't let her hospitaltity go to waste. I guess I'll take that nap then." she stretched and yawned, then made her way towards the Futon and set it up for a nap.

''O...Okay, that went well.'' Mellisa walks to her bag by the door, fishes out her cellphone.''Would they mind to deliver 2 futons here, I'd like everyone to be able to sleep confortably, and not have sayuri sleep on the floor, or whatever. Can''t say I feel to much for walking to one of those murky safehouses again, not this late at night.''

The doorbell rang while Mellisa was messing with her cell.

Sayuri is presently occupied in the shower, and doesn't even hear the doorbell ringing. Looks like someone else will have to handle that!

''I'll get it, Michishio.'' Mellisa shouted. ''Hmm, lets see who's visiting this late at night, she said, as she looked through the peephole.

No one is visible.

Victoria was still awake though and sat up. "Who is it?"

''I can't see no one. And I don't feel comfortable opening the door to what might be just some guys playing a prank this late at night'' Mellisa said

"Or worse..." Victoria murmured.

Mellisa shrugs and opens the door.

Outside the door are two futons, two bedrolls, and two backpacks with "Sabatier" and "Sakamoto" written on them with toiletries and a change of underwear inside.

"Well who is it?" Victoria asked.

''Ah, I see they've been listening in, THANKS GUYS.'' Mellisa shouts to the apartment, knowing the mic's will pick her voice up. ''Victoria, want to help me drag these inside?'' She said as she took the two backpacks and placed them inside. ''It's our friendly neigbourhood watchdog with gifts. Thank the guys at NERV.'' Mellisa laughs, as she walks a few times, taking the futons inside, and after that the bedrolls.

Sayuri comes out of the bathroom, drying her hair with a towel, glancing to the futons and other stuff, "Oh. I see. Huh. Well then, I guess you'll be spending the night here." She says.

"Creepy ... but also extremely helpful." She helped Mellisa haul them inside.

Sayuri appears to have forgotten that she's naked. Or perhaps she just doesn't care. Curiously, one might notice that she's lacking a belly-button.

Victoria looked towards Sayuri but quickly looked away blushing. "U-um Michishio-san... perhaps you should cover yourself."

''Y-Yes, please Michishio, please wrap a towel around yourself... O-or something.'' Mellisa begins laying out the futton and bedroll. ''Mind if I use your shower briefly Michishio? I want to wash my hair.''

Sayuri looks down at herself and shrugs, wrapping herself in the towel and moving towards her room, "Not at all, senpai. The towels are in the cabinet under the sink. Enjoy your shower." She says as she steps into her room to finish drying and dressing herself.

''Great, thanks.'' She steps into the bathroom and closes the door behind her. Soon the shower can be heard running.

Victoria rooted through the backpack the provided for some sleeping clothes and quickly changed them, trying to stay out of line of sight of Sayuri while doing so.

Sayuri casually pulls on a clean pair of underwear and a knee-length plain white nightgown, lacking in any fancy frills, just a plain cotton garment that's rather loose on her slender form. Then she wanders over to her desk and sits herself in front of her computer, staring at the screen.

The sound of the shower soon died of, as Mellisa stepped out of the shower a towel around her waist, and another wrapped around her hair.''Ah, really nice, thanks again, Michishio-san.'' She grabs her backpack scurries through it for sleepwear, and after finding it lays down under the futton.

Victoria also laid down and drifted off to sleep rather quickly.

"You're welcome, senpai." Sayuri murmurs, looking over to the other two girls, "Goodnight."

End session, Tuesday, Week 1

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer

"Robert, we need to air this."
"No. No video, no confirmation, no report of anything from the UN or Japanese government..."
"But I know this source! He's never given me bad information. And if it IS a monster attack, we need to air before anyone else."
"...Run it as a report of mass hysteria on the ticker. That's as much as I can give you."
"But-"
"That's as much as I'm going to give without at least a video, Jeanette."

-----------------

From: satyagraha@nerv.jp.mil
To: FrostPrincess@nerv.mil
CC: lethe@termdog.nerv.jp.mil
Re: Samples
Encode: ******
Decode: *******
1 File Attached

78.6% chance that they're from the same source, but #2 seems to be modified using techniques I've never even heard of. I'm not sure how, but I'll keep looking into it. I'd bet my paycheck it's Sachiel, though.

From: FrostPrincess@nerv.mil
To: satyagraha@jp.nerv.mil
CC: lethe@termdog.jp.nerv.mil
Re: Re: Samples
Encode: *******
Decode: ******

What the hell is going on? I know I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but that was when the Eva seemed more or less normal.

And don't use that name, not even with hyperprime encryption. Stick with Gamma for now.

-----------------

"They're actually better than you expected at security."
"Yes. 4 days and barely even rumors."
"Doesn't this interfere with your timetable?"
"No. I'm leaking a video tonight. A poor-quality security camera."
"Eh? But why not the high-res cameras?"
"For one, this seems like anyone could get a hold of it. For another, the low quality will probably generate more discussion than the good footage."

WEEK 1:
Sync Test Results: Sayuri and Victoria are down this week, Melissa is up.

Time Management:

• Sayuri spends the week focused on therapy
• Victoria spends her free time socialising at school
• Mellisa focuses on melee weapons training, makes significant improvement
• Katou ???

Other Events: Pain settings have been lowered so that your Sync Rate stays more constant. Late in the week, world news agencies picked up a grainy image of the Angel fight. NERV is locked down over the weekend while the figure out their press response.

WEEK 2:
Sync Test Results: Apparently your lowered sync rates were just due to the first battle or stress of travelling, everyone seems to be doing pretty well

Time Management:

• Sayuri spends her free time on as-yet-unspecified hobbies.
• Victoria works on her studies.
• Mellisa focuses on melee weapons training again, makes only moderate improvement.
• Katou ???

Other Events: Monday afternoon, there's 'breaking news' updates everywhere for all the news agencies, and they air high quality footage of select parts of the angel fight. According to the news, the UN has identified the threat of the alien creature, and suspects there may be more. The other robot-like creature is revealed to be an "Evangelion," a previously secret form of life for national security interests. There is no mention of them being piloted. Understandably, the gossip and rumors about the fight on Saturday of Week 0 explode, but there's less surprise than expected.

What's the basic reaction of each character to this at school?

Sayuri would not react much to it at all, since she's not really the gossipy sort. At least not yet, anyway. She would listen in on the discussions, but otherwise do little.
Victoria would generally avoiding the gossip topics unless approached about about it, if so she throws out a few mildly wild theories or so to shake up the course of the discussion.
Mellissa'staking it easy and not acting like a gossiping hen, when asked about it, throwing a few theories at the others.

Wednsday, UN announces formation of the "UN Committee on Macrolifeforms" headed by some astronomer who had written a few papers on alien life forms. News media once again brought up the fact that Astronomy seems to be the unluckiest science ever since 2nd impact, but not for him, they joke.

WEEK 3:
Sync Test Results: Victoria and Sayuri are spiking irregularly, and Sakamoto is nice and steady

Time Management:

• Sayuri returns to therapy.
• Victoria works on her studies some more, improves her grades somewhat.
• Mellisa focuses on melee weapons training again, makes only moderate improvement.
• Katou ???

Other Events: You guys are all in a larger flat near the school and a train station. You're not directly supervised by an adult living with you, which you're not sure if you like or dislike.

Sayuri would probably be spending time at school watching Zero and seeing if she has any friends. If not, she'd probably try getting to know her.
Victoria is likely spending home time making the new place more ... well homey. At school she's either spending time with the pilots or trying to find friends in the rest of her classmates.
Mellisa would be at school learning, and apart from looking through catalogues for stuff, she's not doing anything out of the ordinary.

You guys notice the furniture is bolted to the floor, which pretty much confirms any suspicions some of you might have had that the place is bugged. As for Zero, she very noticeably does not have any friends, though the air of "please leave me alone" is off putting


WEEK 4:
Sync Test Results: Victoria continues to fluctuate upwards, which worries Dr. Desai a bit, and Sayuri and Mellissa are privately asked if everything's okay due to dropping cync tests.

Time Management:

• Sayuri continues going to Therapy.
• Victoria spends much of her week training her marksmanship.
• Mellisa returns to her melee combat training.
• Katou ???

Other Events: You guys hear the Commander and Katou discussing the fact that the polar (arctic) icecap has been expanding, and her suggestion that he include training for such a location just in case. The UN Committee on Macrolifeforms releases a preliminary report stating that almost nothing about this creature shares biology common to earth, but that it does appear to have several weaknesses. Habitats, intelligence, purpose, origination still unknown. However, at NERV, if they've found any new weaknesses, you've yet to hear about it. They also announce they're looking into technologies to combat these creatures, just in case.


WEEK 5:
Sync Test Results: Okay, both Sayuri and Melissa apparently can't focus, or are feeling down, or something, but Victoria's doing okay, and no longer peaking randomly.

Time Management:

• Sayuri continues going to Therapy. Is starting to feel a little better.
• Victoria spends time socialising and chilling out.
• Mellisa does the same, becomes a little more outgoing.
• Katou ???

Other Events: On Tuesday, a very well known aerospace defense company, AEUG Technologies, announced that they're in the final stages of development of their anti-macrolifeform weapon, named the JA Project, and they will be holding a test run next week. the Committee on Macrolifeforms is commended for a speedy answer.

Coming home from school Saturday, you find three open briefcases, and 2 pieces of paper each. One is a formal invitation from AEUG inviting you to the trial in east russia, the other is a temporary transfer order to NERV Russia. According to the order, you each have 2 hours to pack before being picked up in front of your building.

Session End (+100 xp)

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer

So, Katou is off on assignment somewhere, and you guys are landing in russia, in a plane that also contains Dr. Desai, Nadia Komansky, Smith Toren, a handful of other Nerv officers, and a few guys who look like they're WAY into the whole "secret service" look. It's getting into winter, so it's rather cold here outside of the ruins of St Petersburg, but there you go. This is probably the first time you've ever been to russia. The plane taxis to a stop, and a rolling staircase is brought to the door.

Sayuri stares out the window out onto the runway, before letting out a small sigh and pushing herself to her feet, "So we're in Russia... so far away from home." She murmurs to herself, "Looks cold outside."

Mellisa wakes up from a unsteady sleep. "Weird how things progress around here." She looks at the landscape.

Victoria was dressed appropriately, wearing a coat and set of orange earmuffs. "Never thought I'd do this much traveling, at least I won't have to settle down here." she zipped up said coat. "I'm surprised we were even invited..."

"I don't think we were invited just for sight seeing." Sayuri murmurs, moving to grab her luggage and looking towards Dr. Desai.

Victoria Tch'd "Not much to see anyway." she grabbed her own luggage.

"I wouldn't know, but we were invited here for a reason." She picked up her belongings and inched after the others

As the door opened, a loud booming voice could be heard coming up the stairs. "WHERE IS SHE? MY LITTLE CUB!" At this, there was a slight groan from nearby the girls. A large, strong looking man wearing a NERV Uniform came up, and Nadia reluctantly went up to him. "Zdravstvuite, Papa. It's nice to see you again." As he hugged her, and she returned the affection embarassedly, Lt. Toren whispers to the girls. "That's Captain Bear, he's the Operations Director of this branch. Also, Nadia's father."

Sayuri looks at Lt. Toren and then back to Nadia and the very large Captain Bear, staring a little, "Wow..." She murmurs quietly.

Victoria giggled a little at the sight though she tried not to do so too loudly and embarass Nadia. "An appropriate name..."

Mellisa didn't really know what to think or say and merely looked at the man.

As they were chatting, Desireé went up to 'Captain Bear' and nodded politely. "Ith nith to thee you again, Captain Thergei. I don't mean to be rude, but not all of uth are uthed to the cold." She got a loud laugh from that. "Haha, of course, Dezi, of course!" A small frown formed on the doctor's face at that, but he continued. "Please, follow me, I'll take you to your accomodations. The dinner isn't until tomorrow night, but there's enough to do." As he talked, he helped everyone down to the ground, where it was cold indeed, and a few armored vehicles lay in wait. Actually, more like 20. And all had their engines running.

Victoria still shivered as she made it to the ground, she had dressed appropriately but the chill still got to her as she shoved her hands into her coat pockets. She stared at the armored vehicles "The life of a soldier..." she murmured to herself.

Sayuri looks around and shivers a little, rubbing her arms. She hadn't quite been prepared for how cold it was, but it didn't seem to bother her too much. She rubbed her hands together, blowing into them for warmth as she follows the Captain and the other staff, looking at the armored vehicles.

Victoria then shook her head and chuckled to herself thinking about how Nevada was quite the opposite in weather last time she was there and probably still now.

Mellisa looks at Sayuri and does the same. "Cold, isn't it." She shivers as the wind streaks across her face.

As Nadia and Captain Bear chatted, they were led between vehicles at random, and told to get in one. People were getting in random vehicles, as some started to drive off in different directions, including some that were empty. "Welcome to Russia," Captain Bear said proudly, while climbing in the drivers seat and starting down the cold, uninviting roads.
Okay, all three of you have been riding around the APC for what seems like an hour driving in circles. You've been driving through the ruins of whatever city I said it was last time, which I think was St Petersburg. There are people living out their lives. Finally you come to a massive steel wall, with a massive steel gate, and get passed on through.

"Ominous" victoria commented simply on the large steel wall and gate.

Sayuri looks over at Victoria and nods her head slightly, then turns her gaze back out the window, rubbing her hands together and pressing them between her legs, trying to keep them warm.

On the other side of the steel wall is a series of large, connected craters, with permanent buildings installed in the bottoms and dug into the sides of them. It's a pretty large facility, and some of the buildings are massive, like a factory plant. Eventually the APC stops on a marked spot, and the APC is lowered into an underground parking bay on an elevator. It parks close to a door, and the pilots are ushered out, into a series of hallways.

''Impressive." Mellisa says, as she steps out of the APC and out into the light.

Sayuri steps out, casting a glance around, observing her surroundings briefly but mostly focusing her attention on where they're being lead, lacing her fingers together behind her back, "I hate hallways." She murmurs quietly to herself.

"Welcome to my base," Captain Bear said. "I'd show you around, but, there's really not much you're allowed to see." He leads them to a door labelled, if you could read russian, "Classified Personnel Dormitories." Inside is a girl bent over some cloth, doing something. "Nadina," Officer Bear said, these girls will be staying with you for a few days. Help them if you can, or call for someone."
Turning to the girls, he says, "You'll spend the rest of today here, call if you need anything. The dinner is tomorrow night, and attendence is mandatory. Any last questions?"

Sayuri simply shakes her head, turning her gaze towards Nadina, tilting her head slightly and wondering what she's doing, before directing her attention back to Captain Bear, "I have no questions, sir." She says.

From behind Sayuri, Mellisa looks to Nadina, glancing towards her quickly, then back to Captain Bear. "I have no questions either, sir."

She thought to herself about where the craters could've come from while following the captain to their desination. She frowned as he said they'd spend the rest of their day there, it sounded boring... which is why she didn't mind the fact attending the dinner manditory a problem, it'd be somthing to do. "No sir." she echo'd the words of her comrads. She did have questions but they were likely on a need to know basis and she didn't feel like embarassing herself.

Nadina makes a mental note of where she stopped and stands up to face the girls, noting their different appearances. "I think I can take care of them just fine, thank you Bear." She grinned at the girls. "My name is Nadina Maletski. Sorry if my Japanese is a little, how you say, poor."

Captain Bear nods, and waves cheerfully. "If you'll excuse me, I must embarass Nadia some more," he says, parting, closing the door.

Victoria shrugged. "Not my native language either so it's okay." and then she giggled slightly at the idea of Bear embarassing Nadia some more.
She also glanced towards whatever the new girl was doing, trying to figure it out.

Sayuri turns her gaze to Nadina, inspecting her curiously, "Hello, Nadina." She says, "I'm Sayuri Michishio. It's a pleasure to meet you." She offers a faint, timid smile, then tilts her head to the side, trying to spy at what Nadina had been doing, curious.

Mellisa frowned at the mention of embarassing Nadia, and she looked at the new girl. "I'm Mellisa Sakamoto. Na.. Nadina, right?" Mellisa says, a blush forming on her face. She in turn tries to figure out what Nadina was doing.

Nadina smirked at Bear as he left, then turned to the girls. "Nice to meet you all. It seems that you are interested in my hobby, so to speak.." She carefully lifts what she had previously set down and presented it to the pilots. "It's kind of embarrassing, but...I like to sew dolls."

Sayuri blinks, "Dolls?" She asks, inspecting the thing Nadina is holding up, her own stuffed animal packed in her luggage. She suddenly realised she missed Momo-chan very much, "Why is that embarassing?" Sayuri asks after a moment, furrowing her brows curiously.

Mellisa nodded, taking note of the odd hobby. "Isn't that supposed to be really relaxing?" Mellisa said, smiling at Nadina, looking at the doll in her hands.

Victoria bent forward slightly to look at the doll closer, inspecting her work. "Nice. So how many have you made?" she didn't seem to bothered by this actually.

Nadina chuckled heartedly. "Well..we all have our own little hobbies that we'd rather not have people know about", she pointed out to Sayuri. "I've made a few dozen in my lifetime..I have a big family, you see, so I like to provide for my sisters. It can be relaxing, yet painful at the same time..." she trailed off, clenching her bandaged fingers together.

She blinked at her bandaged fingers but also frowned at the mention of a big family, suddenly feeling a massive pang of jealousy. She stood up proberly now and attempted to change the subject suddenly. "*Ahem* so... what're we supposed to do with the rest of our day then since we're confined to these quarters."

Sayuri lowers her gaze to Nadina's hands, eyes widening briefly at the bandaged fingers, "It must be nice to have such a large family." She muses, moving to claim any available seat, tilting her head back and staring up at the ceiling. It was very unfamiliar.

Mellisa follows Sayuri's example, taking a seat next to her. "Yes, I'd like to know that too." Mellisa says, adding to what Victoria said.

Nadina thought for a moment. "Well, there's honestly not much to show around here...I suppose we can just relax. Pull up a seat and tell me about yourselves; you Tokyo-3 pilots are the talk of the town around here."

Sayuri returns her gaze to Nadina, blinking in surprise, "We are?" She asks, drawing her legs up onto the chair, hugging her knees to her chest since she lacks her stuffed bunny, "Why?"

Victoria decided to grab a chair herself, straddling it, folding her arms on the top of it and resting her chin on top of said arms. "I'm also curious why."

Nadina stared at Sayuri. "Well...it's not every day that a group of kids gets to fight Sachiel, right?"
Nadina sits down excitedly. "Please tell me..what was it like?"

Victoria's frown deepened slightly. "Sachiel?"

"Sachiel..." Sayuri sounds out each syllable, frowning and furrowing her brows, "I have not heard that name. But you're refering to Angel Gamma, yes? It was terrifying, and exhilirating, and I don't know if I look forward to the next angel attack or if I dread it." She says quietly, staring off into nothing.

Nadina attempted to recover. "err, I'm sorry, I meant Gamma. Haha." Nadina mentally kicked herself.


Victoria sighed. "I haven't fought any angels beyond simulations, so I can't really say anything about it... the tension is annoying."
"Is sachiel russian for gamma or somthing? I don't know any russian..."

Nadina nodded. "It is quite unnerving...hell, the state of the world itself is unnerving." She turned her head to Victoria. "Haha, no. I just happened to overhear the name the other day."

"Its what happened after what got me, with Eva-01 going out of control like that, oh and that stupid core detatching and trying to run away." She looked at the opposite wall in utter concentration for a few second before shaking her head.

Victoria broke out into a laugh at then mention of the core. "Ok mellisa I'm not going to lie, you chasing that core around was hilarious."

"Haha, what?" Nadina leaned forward with an amused grin on her face. "I haven't heard of this."

"Gamma is the third letter in the Greek Alphabet. Gamma is three." She says, leaning back in her chair, "Third Angel. I wonder where the other two are. And why we haven't heard this name Sachiel before," She raises a hand to brush some stray hairs out of her face, "The core. When my Eva... crushed the angel's body, that core tried to float away using its AT Field."

"Heh, what was I supposed to do, body slam it into the ground, causing more damage." She listens to Sayuri before resuming. "It was odd though, a angel coming so close to Tokyo-3 and suddendly deciding to flee."

Nadina raised a hand to her mouth. "Oh my. That sounds, um.." Nadina searched for a polite word. "bothersome."

Victoria blushed slightly, since she WOULD have body slammed the damn thing. "It's not odd that it decided to flee Mellisa, you butchered the damn thing... the gore actually made me a little sick the first time I watched it."

"Without its body it was at a significant disadvantage." Sayuri points out to Mellisa, "My own theory is that it was retreating until it had a chance to rebuild itself... but I have no evidence for this." She frowns, "Neutralising its AT Field was enough to drop it, but against an Angel with a more potent AT Field it would have been harder..."

Victoria raised a eyebrow at Sayuri "That's a pretty reaching theory, what do you base that off of?"

"It took less than a week for my Evas leg to be repaired." The young girl pointed out, "And the Angels displayed abilities that we were never warned about and that NERV never predicted. Wholesale regeneration of its missing body seems possible."

"Yes, I agree, the angel certainly showed abilities we've never seen before, wouldn't be too farfetched to come to such a conclusion, we'd have to confirm it in battle though."

"True... the AT field does seem to do some weird things..." Victoria murmured to herself, staring at the wall.
She then looked to Mellisa "Lets not, I'd rather we just killed it for good and then went home without dying ourselves."

"I'd rather not give an Angel the chance to escape. I'll settle for killing it and letting my theory go unanswered." Sayuri muses.

Victoria stared at Sayuri funny as they both said basicly the same thing.

Sayuri looks to Victoria and lets out a small little laugh, raising a hand to cover her mouth, a faint blush rising on her cheeks.

"Heh, it wasn't like I was proposing to go out there and test it against the next angel." Mellisa says, blushing. She stood up and paced through the room. Suddendly looking up. "what are we going to be doing these next few hours, anyways. "

"Get out of my head Sayuri! Get out of my heaaaaaaaaaad!~" cried out in a silly tone, then giggling.

Sayuri giggles a little and bites down on her lower lip, leaning back in her chair, "I like laughing. It's a good thing." She says with a little smile, glancing to Nadina again, "Are you an Evangelion Pilot too, Nadina-san?"

Victoria blinked at Sayuri's sudden question, turning her attention back to the new girl. "Yeaaaaaah you do look like you're the same age as us... are you another pilot?"

Nadina leans back in her chair, bemused. "Yes, I am. I honestly can't wait to get some action, no matter how dangerous it may be."

"Well look at that... any idea if you're being transfered to Tokyo 3 and if so, when?" she held her fist out for a fist bump "And me too on the combat.. a bit scared though to be honest..."

Nadina held out her fist and properly bumped it, glad that such things like high-fives are universal. "I honestly have no idea if I'm being transferred. I haven't been told of anything of the sort, as far as I know."

"The Angels might not all attack Japan, so they won't necessarily send all the Eva's to Tokyo-3... but it would be nice to have more support." She says, smiling at Nadina, then tilting her head curiously at the fistbump.

"Okay, well nice to see a fellow pilot here, I was wondering about it since we came in here." Mellisa looked at Nadina, then sat back down. "So, do you have any idea what we came here for?" She looked at sayuri and then back at Nadina. "Isn't this a NERV branch too, shouldn't they atleast have one EVA on station?"

"Sayuri does have a point... I wonder if NERV america 2nd is working on another Eva, since I got transfered to T3 they probably don't have Eva coverage anymore." she said this with a sudden hint of worry.

Nadina grinned at Sayuri. "Funny you should say that..I specialize in support."

"Fire support?" Sayuri asks, tilting her head and smiling faintly, "Well, that is good. Most of us seem to have specialised in close-quarters combat. It will be good to have someone with a gun who knows how to use it."

"Yes, this is a NERV branch, Melissa, and it proudly hosts MY EVA." Nadina puffed out her chest.
Nadina carefully thought about whether it would be appropriate to show the girls her unit. She smiled at Sayuri. "Yes, I hope to put my skills to good use someday."

Sayuri giggles at that, "Unit 04?" She asks, curious. Between them they piloted Evas 01 through 03, she wondered if Nadina had 04.

Victoria was suddenly quiet about all the excitement over Evas... she didn't share their pride or joy.

Nadina nodded. "Yes, Unit 04...that must mean that mine was made after all of yours. I'm quite proud of Unit 04, my country worked very hard to make it what it is."

"So you say... unit 03 isn't much to sneeze at either... somthing's off about it though."

"Your Eva was made here. Hm." Sayuri furrows her brows. She knows her own Eva, at least, was not made by anyone at NERV-00, and that its source is a mystery. She certainly has no idea where it came from, only that she is the only person who can pilot it.

"Heh, doesn't everyone, either country or organisation, work hard on its Eva's, there's millions of dollars, billions even, needed to build and operate one, or atleast I think so." Mellisa pulls on the strings of her twintails, adjusting her hair a bit.

Nadina tilted her head. "Unit 03? What's wrong with it?"

She frowned. "Nnnneh It feels like it's watching me every time I go into the plug... it seems more awear then it's letting on. It hasn't really given me any trouble but somting tells me that it might in the future."
"The construction is just fine, great even, I also like the colors" she pulled off her orange earmuffs holding them up. "But ... it's a little spooky."

Sayuri furrows her brows, "I felt something similar when Unit 01 went Berserk. It was like something else was in the entry plug with me... I could feel it in my head." She whispered, shivering a little at the memory and pressing her forehead to her knees.

Nadina chuckled. "Unit 04 has...an interesting color scheme, but on the whole I like it very much. It gives me a strange sense of security."

"Well that's good that you feel that... me well... it keeps me on my toes." she giggled nerviously.
She then looked to Sayuri "You okay?"

Sayuri just gives a little nod of her head, hugging her legs tightly and taking a deep breath, lifting her head and offering Victoria a small smile, "Yes. Sorry..." She murmurs, looking back to Nadia, "Interesting colour scheme? Mine's mustard yellow... it's rather garish... but ultimately it doesn't matter what colour it is, I guess. As long as it does its job, I'm satisfied."

"It is kinda yeah..." she commented on Sayuri's color scheme. "Can't cost that much just to slap some new paint on it... but I'm no technician so what do I know." she shrugged.

Nadina caught herself studying each of the girls' faces. "Ah, um, Victoria? I noticed, you look a bit different than Melissa and Sayuri. Are you foreign to Japan?"
"Yes, it's a bit interesting. Bright red and blue. They're not bad colors, it's just that they try to overpower each other a bit."

She nodded. "I mentioned earlier I was previously stationed in NERV USA Second Branch... so technicly I'm american though my name leads me to believe my ... parents were not."

Nadina looks at Victoria thoughtfully. "Were you born in America?"

"Bright red and blue..." Sayuri murmurs, looking thoughtful and trying to visualise it, "Sounds very colourful."

"I have no idea." Victoria responded. "I guess so... I was raised within it's borders. I dunno what the circumstances of my birth were beyond the world nearly ending."
This line of questioning seemed to be bothering her.

"All the things I've heard about Second Impact and the years following it sound terrible." Sayuri murmurs, getting up off her chair and starting to pace a bit, sighing, "I wish I was outside... but it's so cold here." She mumbles, "I miss home."

"Heh, dark blue and neon orange here, only the orange really stands out." Mellisa suddenly murmurs, looking up, apparently, she was in the proces of falling asleep. She shakes her head to wake herself up. "Nadina, any chance for drinks or tea, I'm getting quite thirsty?"

The door opens without a knock and a soldier pushes in a coatrack on wheels, salutes the pilots, and leaves. They are quite expensive looking, of varied styles and up to 3 colors: One primary, with trimmings of the colors found on the evas. They have tags with names on the hangars.
There is one for Nadina, as well.

Sayuri looks over at the coatrack, spying her own name on one of the tags and moves over to pluck it up. A long light-blue gown with a deep blue trim and intricate embroidery in the same, matching her plugsuit's colour scheme, "Hm." She holds the gown up to herself, looking down, "Hm."
Sayuri looks at the other girl's looking at their clothing, then glances around. Finally, shrugging, she puts the gown aside and strips off her clothing down to her underwear right there, then starts putting on the gown. She may be shy and socially awkward most of the time, but uncomfortable with her body or being seen, she is not. And since there wasn't any immediately obvious place to go change, she saw no reason to not just put the gown on right there.

Victoria blinked at the sudden entry of the soldier... and the massivly expensive looking dresses, greatful for a topic change. She stood up and inspected hers once she found her nametag: A dark charcoal grey dress that went to just above her knees that had spegetti straps and bright orange trimming lace along with a same colored ribbon wrapped around the stomach that tied in a pretty bow in the back. It didn't show too much back but the showing of her shoulders still made her nervious, she did think it was awfully pretty though.

Nadina, just about to offer hot beverages, looks at the coatrack. "Ooh, finally!" Nadina jumps up and grabs a deep red , strapless, form-fitting dress, with off-the-shoulder sleeves. The sleeves have a black-blue ribbon hanging from the shoulder, and the hem of the bust is lined with real fur. Nadina grinned widely. "It's perfect." She began to change right on the spot, not at all uncomfortable with her body.

Mellisa walks up to the rack and browses through the clothing with her name on the tags. "Ah, this looks just fine."She picked a long light green dress, with white accents, and a barely visible pattern on it, the pattern matching her plugsuit colour scheme. She mutters to herself. "Ah, it has matching gloves even." She picks the dress, disliking the others. She followed Sayuri's example and promptly undressed and changed.

Victoria's was also form fitting.
Victoria seemed to be the only one not stripping down and changing immediately, blushing a little bit as she stepped out of the other girls way, taking her dress, acessories, and underwear as she did so.

With a bit of work Sayuri managed to slip on the gown and tie it off properly to it stayed in place, glancing down at her rather flat bust with a bit of disappointment before plucking up a matching set of heels and pale blue stockings to go with her dress, pulling them on and looking down at herself, giving a satisfied nod, "I believe I am presentable." She observes, raising her hands to adjust the dress a little.

"Ah, if you need to change, there's a bathroom in the back of the room." Nadina pointed out to Victoria as she pulled her arms through her sleeves.
Nadina grinned at Sayuri. "You look wonderful! It's a very elegant dress."

She nodded, gulping and blushing, taking off for the bathroom and shutting the door soundly.

Sayuri looks over to Nadina, blushing faintly at the praise, "I-I do? It is a pretty dress..." She murmurs, glancing down at herself again before looking at the other girls, "You look very nice too, Nadina-san. I haven't seen a dress like that before. It's... fluffy." She observes, gazing at the fur lining.

Suddenly Victoria's voice could be heard through the door "The hell is this!?" before she went quiet again.

Nadina giggles. "Yes, it is. Touch it, it's very soft." Nadina strolls over to Sayuri in a floaty manner.
Nadina glances at the bathroom door, confused. "Victoria, is something wrong?" she calls out.

Sayuri blinks and blushes softly, raising a hand to run her fingers over the soft fur, "It is..." She murmurs, jumping slightly in shock as she hears Victoria's exclamation, turning to look at the bathroom door.

"This underwear is weird..." she shouted back through the door. "It's erm..."

Sayuri is now completely confused, "What?" She asks, moving over to the bathroom door, trying the handle, and if it's unlocked, opening it a little and peeking inside, "What's wrong with the underwear?" She asks, completely confused.

Nadina stands up straight. "Do you need help? Make sure to be careful with the fabric." She started to move her way to the door.

It was unlocked, oddly enough, Vic must've had a derp moment, she was naked and blinked in shock as she saw Sayuri peeking in and surpressed a scream "N-no! Don't look!" Sayuri might've caught a glimpse of a large, faded scar under one of Victoria's shoulders as Victoria moved to close the door a little before holding a hand out through it wth the underwear in question. "L-look."

Mellisa finishes tying the laces off her gloves together. She looks at the disturbance at the other end of the room and shrugs,walking slowly towards nadina and the rest at the bathroom door.

Sayuri blinks at Victoria's reaction to being caught naked, stammering and staggering back as the door is closed more, then glancing at the held-out underwear, staring, "... Where's the rest of it?"

"Y-you tell me!" she said through the door.

"Oh my.." Nadina strolled up to the door and held up the underwear. "See the triangle part? That's the, um..front. And the string, well..."
Nadina tried to keep some dignity with the situation, though she herself had never worn such scanty undergarments before.

Sayuri blinks, "That seems like it would be uncomfortable to wear." She murmurs, but otherwise isn't too fazed, looking over to Mellisa, "Oh. You look nice too, Sakamoto-senpai." She says with a faint smile.

There was some silence from Victoria's end before she withdrew her hand back inside and closed the door, murmuring "W-why did they give me one of these..." she sounded a bit defeated, then responded to Sayuri "I'll let you know..." a bit sarcasticly.

Mellisa now being close enough to see the underwear in question, tries to keep in a chuckle. She'd seen that kind of undergarment before, just never worn it. "Thank you, Sayuri-san. You look nice as well."

Nadina put her hands behind her head. "You know, if it makes you that uncomfortable, you can just wear whatever undergarments you're already wearing." Nadina turned around and contemplated to herself about whether she wanted to wear boots or heels...or both!

"They gave me it, I'm wearing it... gotta be greatful for anything I'm given ever." she murmured back, there was shuffling sounds after a minute which indicated she was putting her dress on now.

Nadina finally settled on some black-blue knee-length boots and slipped them on, checking herself out in the room's floor-length mirror.

Soon there was a creeking sound as the bathroom door slowly opened and Victoria stepped out, she had also put on the black stockings and high-heels as well. Along with some simple fig-leaf earings that only dangled a little bit. She hadn't put on any makeup or anything yet though. She walked a bit awkwardly.
She threw her previous clothing onto the chair she claimed.

Nadina turned her gaze to Victoria. "Wow, that dress really suits you. Same to you, Melissa, and you as well, Sayuri." She smiled warmly. "I'm glad everything fits well for everyone."

Sayuri looks to Victoria and smiles faintly, "That dress looks good." She says, turning her gaze to the faded scar on her shoulder but making no comment on it, sensing that it was a touchy subject. Then she steps aside and moves to sit down again.

And so then they changed back and chatted and wasted time, session end. Next one will be more exciting!

Session End (+50 xp)

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer

Let's see, it's about 6pm, and the event starts at 7pm. You are all in a large stretch limo, making the hour or so drive. The limo's occupants are rather surprising - As well as the 4 girls, Captain Katou, Commander Winters, and Dr. Desai are all present. The three latter arrived on a plane in the afternoon, and are presently dressed up - Winters in a tuxedo, and Desai in an ornate red sari.
There are a few cars flanking the limo full of Section 2 agents, and at the moment, Nadina was introducing herself to the three adults.

Katou is wearing a black three-piece suit with a fur-lined overcoat.

"...I'm Nadina Maletski. I'm honored to meet you all." Nadina smiled politely and bowed her head slightly.

Sayuri is trying not to stare at Commander Winters, looking at all of the rest of the girls all dressed up in nice, pretty, elegant outfits, and then back to Winters. In a tux. Fidgeting.

Victoria shifted and fidgeted around uncomfortably in her spot in the limo for various reasons that probably should go without mentioning, though also because Winters, Desai, and the Operations director she had never even met before were sitting in there with her... and that was too close for her comfort.

Sayuri is fidgeting, that is.

And she had only seen Winters once, Desai a few times.

"Pleased to meet you, miss Maletski. Your japanese is quite commendable" Katou nods at Nadina and then sets his eyes on Victoria. "And I'm pleased to meet you as well, miss Sabatier. I've read your dossier, I'd like you to know I have high hopes for you"

"Um thanks..." she blushed and looked off to the side away from him mumuring "No pressure..." quietly.

Sayuri looks to Nadina and Victoria, and then to Katou, biting her lower lip, "I... I haven't seen you in some time, Captain Musashi. I take it NERV had other duties you had to attend to?" She asks, trying not to seem nosy, but she is curious as to where he's been.

Mellisa looked around the limo, looking at the other girls, and the rest of the command staff. Her gaze fixed on Sayuri, who was sitting next to her. She gave a barely noticeable nod to sayuri before looking over her head, outside, at the cars around the limo and the surroundings.

Nadina blushes slightly at Katou's compliment. "Thank you, Mr. Musashi. I honestly haven't studied japanese for very long."

Katou lets out a warm laugh. "That only makes it more commendable" He glances briefly at Winters. "I've been otherwise preoccupied, yes. Some uh, minor assignments"

Winters nodded. Desai was busy adjusting her makeup, which threw the fact that Winters had made no effort to hide her scars with makeup. "Captain Musashi was attending other facilities at the time, since we have no idea where the ...alien life forms could appear. And that reminds me; I'd appreciate it if no one were to mention the words "Angel," "Evangelion," or "AT Field" while at the party.
You're not the only people attending who know, but..." Winters trailed off, tapping her half-shredded ear. "People listen."

"Of course, Commander. I will exercise my usual discretion." She says softly, smiling faintly as she turns her gaze back to Winters. Is that perhaps a twinkle of admiration in her hazel eyes? Could it be? Maybe.

Victoria nodded to winters a little nerviously "understood commander, I'll act like I don't know a thing concerning those subjects if they're even brought up." if just being around winters made her nervious, talking to her was like tempting a paper shreadder with one's hand. she adjusted her dress straps and fidgeted.

Then Sayuri registers the part about more people being there and tries not to have an anxiety attack at the thought of a large croud of important people all staring at her and wondering who this little girl is and why she's there.

Nadina adjusted herself in her dress. "That makes sense." She nodded to Winters and turned her gaze to Dr. Desai, applying quite a bit of makeup...must be a confidence thing.

Sayuri's shifting about even more uncomfortably now, leaning into Mellisa without thinking, resting her head on the older girl's shoulder and wishing she had brought Momo-chan.

Mellisa looks back inside, and turns back to the rest of the limo's occupants. "I will keep my mouth shut, commander." She gave a brief bow to Cmdr Winters, and looked around the limo nervously. "Are we there yet?"

Victoria in her usual style was all alone.

Dr. Desai tried not to roll her eyes, but none of the adults answered that question.

Victoria also was wondering if Desai had not applied any or just didn't think she had enough makeup... she had already done hers hours ago... good thing too, it took that long to get used to.

Alright. You've arrived, shit is very fancy. You get shown to a table near a stage in a large dining hall, full of people in very fancy clothing, and a few famous faces, those of politicians, vice-presidents, etc. There are menus without prices, showing various russian and western dishes. A waiter comes by, shortly. He asks what people would like to eat and drink. Unfortunately, he only speaks russian.
For that matter, the menus are only in english and cyrillic.

"Well this is a predicament" Katou chuckles. "Miss Nadine, there is a russian dish I've heard of that is called... borst, I think? Would this appear to be on the menu?"

Oh god, like Sayuri's anxiety problem could get any worse. She stares at the menu that is completely incomprehensible, then at the waiter who is the same, and then stares very intently at the table, trying to ignore the large number of very important people, "Nadina-san, Victoria-senpai? C-can you read this?"

Victoria could read the english at least and immediately found what she wanted, Chicken cordon bleu with a salad to make up for the lack of vegies in the main dish and a soft drink since she was too young to order anything alcoholic and she didn't want to get their guardians of the hour in trouble for it, informing Nadina of her choice and closing her menu, fidgeting in her seat for some reason or another.
She nodded to Sayuri. "I can help you read if it you like..."

Nadina chuckles. "Yes, borscht is a very common dish here." She looks to the waiter and orders in her native tongue. "I will have the Pelmeni with mushrooms, and the young man in the suit will have a hot bowl of borscht," nodding to Katou.

"Thank you kindly, I apologize for making you order for me" Katou looks almost embarassed.

"Victoria, would you mind helping us both, I had some basic english when I was little, but can't really say I understand it all that well." She blushes, looking at Victoria and Sayuri in turns.

She looked to katou briefly. "Can't help not knowing so many languages... it was hard enough to learn japanese, nevermind also learning russian." she then turned her attentions to Mellisa. "Okay..."

She turns her head to Victoria, addressing the waiter. "And she will have the chicken cordon bleu, with a salad." Nadina thought for a moment. "Oh, and what will we all drink?"

She was somewhat embarassed by the sudden attention she was getting from the two girls.

Sayuri's blushing brightly, "I... j-just order me something healthy. I don't care what. I don't really care if it tastes fancy or not. Just... something... plain." Sayuri is gluing herself to her seat, slouching down and staring very intently at the table still, trying to make herself invisible, "Water."

"Michishio-chan, how about Ukha? It's a very plain fish soup." Nadina smiles at her.

"I guess a coke for me." Victoria responded to Nadina, then looking though her menu again for Sayuri, "nothing particularly plain but grilled chicken with vegitables sounds like it might be close enough for you, and healthy." she looked back to sayuri raising her eyebrows.

"I think I'll just have some ice water" Katou decides and puts his menu away.

She then gestured her head tilt towards Nadina. "or that."

Winters ordered some generic italian dish in Russian, and Desai smiled at Nadina. "Um, could you jutht order me a thalad?"

Sayuri nods very quickly, looking up from the table briefly to offer Nadina a relieved smile, "Yes, that sounds... that sounds perfect. Thank you." She looks to Victoria, "Th-thank you too, Sabatier-senpai, but... soup sounds... better..." She murmurs, turning her gaze back to the table.

She nodded to sayuri. "It's fine." then closing her menu up again, kinda ignoring the hell out of everyone except the girls her age, though she couldn't help but sneak peeks at all the famous and rich people around.

Winters also orders two vodkas for her and the science director, but pretend this line is longer and fancier because big sentences make me feel good about my writing skills.

"I wonder if they have something like... what was it called again... I believe, pea soup." Mellisa looks around. "Or is that too plain for something as high class as this event?" She briefly looks off in the distance, suddenly realizing she was talking to herself. she shrugged.

"It's food, just buy what you want to eat. Ignore what other people think of you, you won't see them past this event anyway." Victoria spat out a bit pessimisticaly.

"Don't worry about it, Sakamoto-san." Nadina relays all the drinks and orders to the waiter, kind of exhausted from being the translator. She glares at Winters, kind of angry that she's technically not old enough to drink vodka yet, though she's had it plenty of times before.

Deep down Victoria was somewhat irratated that alcohol was out of her reach... she could use it to relax...

"Don't be too sure of that, Miss Sabatier. It never hurts to leave a good impression, you might come to regret it later otherwise" Katou says with a cheery smile.

"You're assuming I'll still be alive to regret it." she said right back to katou but in a hushed tone.

Mellisa looked at Victoria with a mix between a eye twitch and a grin. She thought; She might be right, but damn, the package she delivers it in....

"I'm counting on it" Katou retorted decisively.

Well the truth was Victoria herself was nervious as shit because she was worried about what others might think of her at this event for a lot of reasons. She just decided to shut her mouth and slink back to her own verbal corner.

Sayuri has never tasted alcohol, knows little about it except that it's a mind-altering substance that decreases self-control and inhibitions. She does not see the appeal. At this line of conversation she looks up curiously, but then returns her gaze to the table, "I do not even know why we are here." She murmurs.

Nadina sulks to herself. The more she thought about it, the more she missed vodka. And cognac.

Mellisa looked around the large dining hall, and looked at the various other tables, packed with people of who's faces she only recognizes a few, but of those she does, they all seem to be really popular individuals. Facing the others again she mutters "Noblesse oblige."

Victoria just continued to sit quietly at her end, fidgeting and thinking to herself, trying to remain composed.

The food arrives, it's very pretty, etc, etc. Two bottles of vodka are brought, the food is elegantly laid out, and Dr. Desai stares morosely at her salad, then at everyone else's plate, then at her salad again. The waiter tells Nadina and Winters to enjoy their meal, then left. It seems that the company behind this all is going to speak after dinner.

Victoria waited till eveything was set, the waiter was gone, and that everyone was prepared to start eating before she began to set about eating her food, enjoying it greatly but keeping her mouth shut, resisting the urge to giggle at Desai's dispair over her salad.

Katou briefly inhales the scent of his borscht. "Well, this sure seems interesting"

Victoria idly wondered if she was the only one who ordered a soild food with meat.

Sayuri looks at her bowl of Ukha, leans over it, inhaling its scent for a moment, seeming to judge it by the smell alone. Then she nods, finding it acceptable, and starts eating slowly, in no rush and apparently finding no particular satisfaction in the process of eating, except that it helps to fuel her body, so it is deemed necessary.

Nadina gleams at her dish and picks at each dumpling quickly, only stopping to take a drink and breathe occasionally.

Victoria was a bit more deliberate and slow with her eating, chewing each bite completly. The reason for this was rather odd though, any time she was given great food it was... somthing to savor because the next chance she could get at somthing like this would be a long long way off, if never.

Katou sticks his spoon in the borscht and fishes out some broth and a piece of potato and gives it a try. "Well, this is actually really good" He concludes after swallowing. "How was yours, miss Michishio?"

"This is so goooood! Anyone want some?" Nadina looks up from her bowl and offers a dumpling speared on her fork.

"It is acceptable, Captain. You are enjoying your meal?" She asks as she pauses in her eating to take a sip from her glass of cool, plain water, seeming to savour that short sip more than she enjoyed any mouthful of food. She stopped and stared at Nadina and her eagerness over the food, smiling faintly at her enthusiasm, before returning to quietly eating her soup.

"Quite a bit, yes" Katou smiles warmly. "How are you doing, by the way? I haven't had the chance to really talk to you yet"

Victoria was somewhat surprised by Nadina's sudden eagerness... she was however satisfied with her current meal and declined Nadina's offer of a dumpling.

Mellisa looks up from her soup bowl briefly. "Nadina, want to trade, you get the rest of my soup, and I try that dumpling, it sounds delicious, and I'm all most finished with my pea soup anyways, can't really take another spoonfull of it, it was really delicous." She smiles at Nadina, looking into her eyes, wondering what the girls answer would be.

"I am fine, Captain. Thank you for asking." Sayuri says, looking up at him and blushing slightly at that warm smile, looking back down at her bowl, "I have been living with Sakamoto-senpai and Sabatier-senpai in a shared apartment. It's very strange to be living with other people again, but it's nice to have the company..."

"I'm happy to hear that!" Katou exclaims enthusiastically but not too loudly. "I hope you young ladies are all getting along and building some real team spirit"

Nadina smiles. "Sounds good." She hands her plate over in exchange with Melissa's soup. "Dr. Desai, are you enjoying your salad?" she remarked with a hint of witticism. Nadina was positive that Desiree wasn't expecting so much mayo in her salad.

Victoria blinked flatly at Katou.
Then went back to eating her food. She was 3/4th's done already and was about done with her salad, switching between the two now and again.

"Team spirit?" Sayuri asks, blinking slightly at the question and tilting her head, "We have bonded as companions sharing an apartment. I feel comfortable around them. Is that team spirit? I don't know." She furrows her brows, "I like them, though." Then she returned to eating her soup, about half-done with it now, considering her slow eating speed and the way she occasionally just pauses to stare at the table or have some water.

Winters was trying not to laugh, as Desai morosely ate her salad. "It'th jutht perfect, thank you," she said sourly. "You'll have to forgive Desireé, she's on a diet," Winters informed them merrily.

"It sounds like team spirit to me" Katou nods with an encouraging smile and finishes of his borscht.

Victoria was about to snark and say Desai wouldn't have to if she went through the phyisical training that the girls did... but then caught herself before she did, figuring she'd retaliate by making it harder. So she just shut up and ate the last of her food, downing it with some of her drink and then sitting back just a little but not enough to slouch.
Instead she just giggled at that faintly.

Sayuri stops eating with about a quarter of her soup remaining and pushes it forward, "I have ingested an appropriate quantity of calories and nutrients now. I am... full." She says, then turns her gaze to Winters and Desai, and then to Victoria, having no idea what's funny about it at all.

Victoria in turn stared at Sayuri curiously for a moment after she informed the party of ... that information. "Just spare us the details when you need to go to the restroom huh?"

Sayuri blinks at Victoria, biting her lower lip, "S-sorry, I acted weird again, d-didn't I?" She stammers a little nervously, all her previous anxiety suddenly seeming to return as she sinks down into her chair, staring very, very intently at the table.

Victoria now seemed a bit concerned about Sayuri. "Don't worry about it. Just shorten it next time to "I'm full." and you'll be fine."

People are beginning to finish their meals around the dining area, the level of conversation increasing.

Nadina crossed her legs underneath her chair. "Mr. Musashi, how was your borscht? It's very filling." She smiled casually.

"I must say, I enjoyed those dumplings and the soup, thanks again for trading with me, nadina." Mellisa said, placing her plate further away from herself and sitting back in her chair.

"It was very good, in fact I think I'm going to have to find a recipe and try making my own" He chuckled. "I hope I won't ruin it and disgrace the dish, I rarely cook western food"

"Ah, that reminds me, I wonder what eastern food is like." She recalled hearing a lot about tofu. Yech. That isn't anything like real meat.

Sayuri nods her head slightly at Victoria's words, "I will try to do that." She says, then lifts her gaze and looks to Commander Winters, "Did you have a pleasant meal, Commander?" She asked, that faintly admiring glimmer returning to her eye for anyone perceptive enough to spot it.

Victoria might have but if she did she didn't say anything, winters confused her slightly, at some moments she was perfectly nice and personable but ... she still scared the living crap out of her.

"Alot of rice, alot of vegetables. If you want and I ever get the opportunity, I could cook you a basic stir fry?" Katou shakes his head smiling. "I warn you though, I'm not that good of a chef"

Winters was busy looking at the crowd of people, searchingly. "Mm?" She turned and looked at Sayuri. "Oh. Yes, it was fine," she replied distractedly. Just then the lights blinked once, and began to dim slowly.

Once the lights began to dim Victoria turned her attentions to the stage, it was showtime.

Nadina giggled. "Oh, I'd love to try it. I'm sure it'll taste wonderful." She smiled politely, then blinked. That was kind of unexpected. Is it already time?

Mellisa shrugged. "It sure looks like it." Mellisa crossed her legs and put on her gloves again and focused on the stage.

Katou just keeps smiling and turns his attention.

The tension flows from Sayuri as the lights start dimming and everyone starts turning their attention towards whatever is about to happen. She does the same, intrigued to know what all this was for, and why the Commander thought it important for them to be here.

The lights dimmed completely except for a spotlight focused on one man at a podium. "I'm Nathan Weston, President of AEUG Technologies. As everyone in here knows, there has been a large alien lifeform spotted in Japan. Well, multiple. It was stopped by creatures that destroyed much of Tokyo-3 in the process, and then turned on each other. They were captured. However, the threat of both of them, the former we nicknamed "Angel," the latter, "Demons", still hangs. More are expected to appear." A slide projector showed Unit 01 on 3 limbs, chomping at Gamma, and he paused for breath. Winters looked fairly alarmed, but Desireé was in shock, and pouring herself more than a little vodka.

Katou's facial expression turned grim and he nodded slowly to himself.

Sayuri stares wide-eyed as she listens to this, her hands balling into fists at her side as she restrains herself from yelling out. If there is one thing she's sensitive about, it's her role as a protector. To be called a threat to humanity is almost enough to drive her to tears. She stared at the image of Unit 01, "We know better, Shogouki." She whispers, so quietly that even she can barely hear herself, listening intently.

Nadina suddenly felt very uncomfortable to be sitting at this specific table with these specific people. She started to twirl her hair inconspicuously out of habit, putting on a straight face.

Victoria herself began to fume at all this... shit painting of the Eva and by extension her and her comrades but somehow managed to barely keep her composure.

Mellisa continued watching Nathan giving the presentation. Giving no signs of alarm to the outside, internally, she had quite a battle with herself going. she took a deep breath, pinched herself and continued to watch. She mentally recited her earlier said. "Noblesse oblige." and kept her calm.

"So, in order to answer the UN Committee on Macrolife's request for a response against these creatures, we prepared a prototype of a system capable of subduing both. The Jet Alone." The projector switched to two gigantic white tanks, as wide as they are long, and 2-3 stories tall. "They are a bit large, but this is due to over-engineering. Once we're more confident, we can squeeze out the margins."

"Oh? Now this is quite interesting" Katou's face changed into a sly grin. "I really hope we get a demonstration"

"Oh I'll give them a demonstration." Victoria whispered in a hushed whispering tone. "I bet they go crunch real nicely."

Sayuri lets out a breath and starts to relax, staring at the 2-3 story-tall tanks and actually letting out a disdainful snort, "A bit large? Shogouki could put those out of commision by stepping on them." She mumbles to herself, seeming very put off at the notion of such pitiful little toys replacing her and her Eva. This had to be a stunt to try and cover up the Evangelion project.

A pang of fear struck Nadina. Tanks? She had only thought of having to deal with Angels, not even more opposition.

As if they hadn't had enough problems to deal with. Mellisa thought, looking at Winters, Katou and then the rest of the group. Ofcourse we do too.

Victoria also looked at Winters with a bit of a upset expression, sure they had an at field but super tanks could still be a major goddamn annoyance when she had real problems to kill.

"Demonstrations will take place tomorrow morning. This is unprecedented speed in development, and our engineering staff has worked themselves to death producing this in a few weeks." Winters shook her head, obviously not buying it. Slightly flushed, Desireé stood up. "Mr. Weston, it'th recorded that both theth of alienth had a forth field that we don't underthtand. How will you deal with thith?"

Victoria blinked a bit surprised as Desiree jumped up and questioned the man.

Sayuri turns her gaze to Desiree and blink, then looks back to Nathan Weston, wondering if he'd even answer the question. The more she thought about it though, the more she turned it over in her head, it seemed like this had to be a cover for Project Evangelion. Whether Winters and Desai were in on it was another matter. She suspected they probably were, but all of this was idle speculation. Who could honestly have witnessed their battle and not realised conventional weapons are useless against Angels? It's a stunt. Has to be. But it still upsets her.

'Composure, Dr. Desai. Composure is key' The words ran through Katou's head.

Nadina tried to keep her composure, but it was getting more difficult. She looked around at the others. 'Are these tanks really effective against Evangelions? Should I even be worried about this?' she thought to herself.

"We will know once we see what they can do. Before that, there is no reason to feel particularly safe nor worried" Katou smiled reassuringly at Nadina.

Nathan Weston looked at the unexpected interrupter and smiled. "Ah! Ms. Desai!" "Doctor." "My apologies. Dr. Desai. As a matter of fact, the prototypes are merely armed with a test version of a railgun in development, but your concern is addressed by our final version. The UN Committee on Macrolife was kind enough to give us a copy of your paper detailing the...hypothetical interactions between these fields and charged particles." Desireé gaped, before her eyes fired up in anger. Grabbing a glass as if to hurl it at the man, her arm was caught by Winters, who squeezed her wrist until the glass was dropped. Half dragging Desireé out of the room, she gave Katou a glance that clearly meant to stay there.

That interaction made Sayuri throw her entire theory out the window, and suddenly become rather worried.

Katou sighed and shook his head. "Well, that turned out rather terribly. I guess we're on our own for a while, ladies"

The rest of the conference was relatively dull, talking about additional applications of the servitor motors developed, and the computer-linked AI control... It's amazing how little he was saying with so many words. The pilots and Katou found that they could talk to each other in hushed tones unnoticed.

Victoria too seemed extreamly dire. She had no idea what that meant but it sounded like... well that dealing with these things wouldn't be near as simple as she thought. She looked at Winters drag Desiree out of the room, then to katou rather concerned.
"Great... as if the angel's wern't dangerious enough, now we're gona get shot in the ass by other humans. So can I get my grave marked ahead of time?" she whispered to Katou.

Sayuri leans forward towards Katou, "Captain... do you know if our... you know... were brought to NERV?" She asks in a hushed tone, "Computer linked AI control means... we could make tomorrow's demonstration look rather damning without any risk to human life... though I suppose that would be the Commander's decision."

Mellisa blended into her chair, suddendly feeling pretty tired. She frowned at this new piece of information and put it aside for later. "So, whats this theory all about?" Mellisa asked, before giving victoria a tap with her heel under the table, miminemember what not to say in here.

Nadina glanced at Katou with an 'I-told-you-so' look. "Sounds like we're...kind of screwed." She thought it was funny that she referred to the group as 'we', though she really isn't too hot on the idea of engaging other humans right now.

It wasn't like she could say it any lower in volume then she could already, she jammed her heel right back into Mellisa's aggrivatedly. She was quite pissed off.

Sayuri puts on her best innocent face, a little worried expression crossing her features, "Wouldn't it be terrible if four of those awful Demons showed up to the demonstration and smashed apart the Jet Alones like toys? I doubt the AEUG would be able to get any support for their project. How terrible!" All of this in hushed whispers of course. She's trying very hard not to smirk at the thought. Perhaps she's taking this as a challenge.

"Even if they were brought here, they should be kept far far away from those prototypes. 'Demon' is such an ugly word, I'd rather them be referred to as 'Protectors'. That's not a status they'll achieve by taking the offensive" Katou sighs. "Besides, no matter how advanced an AI is it will never replace a human mind"

Victoria nodded at Katou. "And if we destroy them we'll still be marked as demons and someone else will just make different demon killing toys... I don't see a way to work out of this to be honest... pessimistic I know but..." she sighed and just laid her head on her folded arms. "I don't know." she said a bit defeated.

With a half held in yelp of surprise and pain, mellisa pulled up her feet, and placed them back down after a few moments. "Sayuri, I doubt Cmdr Winters would allow that, and it wouldn't really make things better for us." She chuckled and looked around the table for a moment, before resuming her listening to the others.

"Captain. I think you underestimate systems like the MAGI." Sayuri murmurs, "I'm just hoping the AEUG has nothing like that." She lets out a sigh, leaning back in her chair and look frustrated, "We need to do something about this. I suppose I will have to trust the Commander. She will know the right thing to do."

"I'm not underestimating them, Michishio, they simply don't work the same. You girls leave the planning to the commander, just be ready to act in case you're needed. We might just have to pull a publicity stunt before we go back home"

Nadina observed the conversation, staying quiet. She wondered if she would even have the opportunity to fight the angels, or would she be pulled out of NERV? That would certainly be disappointing.

Around this point, the conference was wrapping up, and everyone was applauding.

Everyone except victoria, she kept sulking at her corner of the table. She hadn't even gotten to fight yet and she already had bad PR to deal with... she just ignored katou at this point and desperately wished for the time for them to get the hell out of there.

"So what language do you girls imagine most people in here understand?" Katou asks cheerily. "Japanese, english or russian?"

Sayuri slowly pushes back her chair and rises to her feet, trying to ignore the applauding, "I am suddenly feeling very ill. I think that Ukha might have disagreed with me. I will go join the Commander." She says, turning and starting to walk away in the direction she'd seen Winters and Desai leave in, unless someone stops her.

Everyone was getting up, and socializing, hobnobbing, and shit, and Sayuri's almost run down by an asian girl with bleached hair."Oh! I thought I saw some girls my own age here! Do you speak english?"

"Most definitely Russian, though quite a lot of people here know English as well. They're taught English in primary school." Nadina smiles weakly at Katou, trying to not let the whole predicament bother her.

"English, I think, seems like most of the people here are from other countries, so I'd guess, english, Captain."Mellisa stood up and briefly stretched her legs.

"Russian or english." she murmured back to katou quietly, looking down at the table, nodding as Sayuri left.

"Well then, Nadina" Katou says with a mischievous smile. "Would you be my translator for a bit? Let's see if we can't soften the blow a bit"

Victoria frowned at that. "I guess I'll go back to the car then. I just want to go back to my bunk now..."

Sayuri stares at the bleach-blond asian girl, stammering a little, "I'm sorry, I... I d-don't understand." She stammers in her native japanese, the only language she can speak, shifting nervously.

"Oh! Japanese!" the girl switches fluently. "Eh? Are you leaving already?" she says, disappointed, as Victoria discusses leaving.

Nadina winces for a second. She'd really rather not get involved with the bad publicity, but they are fellow pilots, after all. "Sure, I'll help in whatever way I can."

Sayuri blinks, "I was.. just about to go outside, for some fresh air..." She says slowly, calming just a little now that the girl switches to English, staring at the floor, "I dislike crowds and I think my meal disagreed with me." Then she realises she's being very rude. Sort of. She lifts her eyes, trying to meet this strange girl's gaze, unsure what to do in this situation.

Victoria looked at the girl, apparently having not noticed her presence till now. "Erm... was going to, and you are?" she had already stood up and had gotten her things in order, not really caring if katou approved her decision to leave or not.

Katou stood up, tapping his water glass with a small spoon, attempting to get everyone's attention. "Reidies andu genterrumenu!" He started off, in what could almost pass for english.

The girl quiets for the moment, along with the rest of the room

Sayuri turns and stares at Katou, a faint expression of horror crossing her face. She has no idea what Katou plans to do, but in her book no situation can possibly be helped by drawing the attention of a large crowd of people!

Victoria resisted the urge to groan as Katou had already sprung his plan before she could get the hell out of the way.

Nadina bites her lip, aware that everyone's attention is on Katou.

Katou winks briefly at Nadina before starting. "My name is Katou Musashi, I am not anybody important, but I'd like to raise an issue that has been bothering me about the footage we've been shown"

Mellisa just stands next to her her chair, turning her gaze towards Katou appreciatively, she mutterWhatever he has planned, it must be good."

Nadina felt as if her tongue were made of sandpaper. She echoed Katou's words in her native tongue to the audience, forcing herself to speak up. Surely everything will be okay...surely.

The waiters and a few of the military personnel and the people with AEUG more or less understand Nadina

Victoria just kinda froze in place, slowly sitting back down in her chair after putting some distance between it and katou

Everyone else does not, and looks at them both oddly.

Sayuri just stares, taking a few slow, small steps backwards, hoping to distance herself from this whole thing, hoping none of those attentive eyes will fall on her. Even if she does feel very pretty in her blue gown.

The only thing going through Nadina's mind currently is 'ohgodwhathaveIgottenmyselfintoohgod'.

"I watched rather intently, objectively, trying to form my own opinion of what I was seeing" He gestures at the stage. "I heard mention of 'Angels' and 'Demons' but I can't say any of the creatures I saw fit either description. Giants, is the word I'd use"

There was muttering that yes, they seemed very large

Nadina reluctantly relayed this information to the onlooking crowd.

Sayuri tries not to facepalm, taking a few more steps back, "Oh god, what is he doing?" She mumbles to herself, staring intently. It was almost like watching a car crash.

The other girl watched, puzzled, standing between Sayuri and Victoria

"If I had to use words to differentiate them, I would use the words 'Assailant' and 'Protectors'. This whole scene, to me it look like two children protecting an anthill against a larger opponent. Clumsy children, not completely in control, but trying their best"

Sayuri groans as he even says the word "children", turning and quickly slipping past the new girl, trying to get out to find the Commander and Dr. Desai. They need to intervene before he outright says, "Hey I work for NERV and we are using child soldiers to pilot giant biomechanical monstrosities to protect the earth!"

After the translation, there was some disagreement among the waiters about who was protecting and who was assailing, and generally going on the wrong side; but there didn't seem to be hostility towards Katou yet

Victoria was cringing so hard. "Going from bad to worse..." she kept repeating to herself quietly in her mind, resiting the urge to rock back and forth in her chair.

"I believe that before labelling the unknown as an enemy, you should study it untill you are sure" Katou inhales deeply and shakes his head dramatically. "I haven't seen enough proof here today that these creatures are enemies of humanity, not more than a bear or a wolf or any other kind of large predator. I'm not saying they aren't, I'm just saying they might not be" He tosses his spoon on the table. "Food for thought" He sits back, smiling at the crowd.

A few people nod and shrug, and conversation generally starts up again after the translations float around the room. Congratulations, you have managed not to make a TOTAL ass of yourself in front of half the leaders of the new world!

Victoria didn't even know how to deal with this now but she was compelled to stay since this new girl wished to talk to the girls... but she also had an intense urge to get the fuck out of there now before she further embarassed herself... she fidgeted around like hell.

And we are going to pause there for tonight, since there's quite a bit more shit and RP fatigue is taking its toll.

Session Pause (+150 xp)

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer

"The packages are installed."
"No problems?"
"None. Our agent logged it as replacing a servo control board that was giving bad readings, and a burned out power regulation unit."
"On the day before a public test? Were they real malfunctions?"
"I didn't ask."
"..."
"Is something funny?"
"No. Well, yes. I detest the idea of fate, of course, but...Well, for Jet Alone's debut to be ruined by sabotage again? An amusing coincidence. You did well, dismissed."
"Thank you, I do my best."

-----------------

From: FrostPrincess@nerv.mil
To: skyborn@jp.nerv.mil
CC: lethe@termdog.jp.nerv.mil
Subject: Psych Eval
Encode: ******
Decode: ********

Please have Captain Katou Musashi's psych profile completely updated at the soonest opportunity. I don't know where the hell he came up with an Eva dance routine, and I can't decide if he's unstable or merely unorthodox.

So the commotion has more or less settled down in the way that happens when people try to ignore something they don't understand, and the 'new girl' is pestering you all still. Winters and Desai are still off...somewhere.

Sayuri ran off looking for Winters and Desai.

Let's say she couldn't find them within a minute or so and came back

Victoria is sitting at her chair at their table looking rather mortified and embarassed by both katou's performance and the fact they're probably going to have to fight other people even by proxy of AI controlled tanks, which are apprently bad enough to scare winters and the good doctor.

"Well, that didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped..." Katou sighs. "Thank you, miss Maletski. I apologize if I embarassed you"

Nadina tried to maintain a pleasant composure. "No worries, Mr. Musashi. I'm glad I could help." After all, It -could- have gotten much worse.

Sayuri comes back looking rather uncomfortable, staring down at the floor, hands held behind her back, "I feel so awkward right now..." She mumbles, lifting her head just slightly and trying to sneak a peek at the new girl who she'd bumped into earlier.

"So, what was that all about, anyway?" the teenager with bleached hair asks them.
In japanese, as she's picked up on the fact you're all talking to each other in japanese.

"I think I am going to make it a point to learn english. Possibly russian, as well" Katou shakes his head slowly and turns his attention to the girls.

"I do hope you're not going to ask me to tutor you." she retorted back at Katou before turning her attentions to the girl. "Mr. Musashi here apprently loves to play devils advocate, it'd probably be best to ignore what just happened..." she said flatly.

Sayuri looks up to the bleach-blond teen more intently now, biting her lower lip, "A-ahh... well, Musashi-san is a very opinionated man." She stammers nervously, hoping that would be an acceptable explanation, then nodding in agreement with Victoria. Then she steps up closer to the blond girl and awkwardly holds out her hand, "I'm uh... Sayuri..." She tries to smile, but she honestly looks pretty wrecked with anxiety.

"Don't worry, miss Sabatier, I think I'll stick to books" Katou replies with a bit of amusement. "Regardless, I don't think the message got through to more or less anyone, but that's alright. I think I have a string or two I can pull to get the results I wanted"

"Nice to meet you, Sayuri! I'm Yuuka. But...I mean, why didn't he just come out and say that the ...Wait, what were the terms Mr. Weston used?" Thinking for a moment, she nods, remembering. "Demons were on your side? I mean, you seemed to be all but saying it."

"Well perhaps you should keep that to yourself till later katou, we are in a public place." she said in a hushed tone.
Victoria opened her mouth to respond to the girl concerning more of the footage they didn't see but then stopped herself, figuring she probably shouldn't say a damn thing.

Sayuri bites her lower lip, "Pleased to meet you, Yuuka-san." She murmurs, shifting at the question, "Ahh, Musashi-san is just um... speculating. And..." Sayuri sighs a little, dropping her head, "It's complicated." And classified, probably.

"They really aren't as much of 'Demons' as Mr. Weston believes them to be." Nadina remarks.

Yuuka seemed to get a little angry. "Of course it's complicated! Were you actually invited, or did you just tag along with him?" She says, pointing accusingly at Katou.

Katou gives Victoria a little glare. "You don't need to worry about that, miss Sabatier. Unlike some, I follow proper protocol, like showing proper respect to my superiors" He looks at the new girl. "Yuuka, I have no idea whose side they are on, but to me they didn't seem to be the larger threat. Besides, demon is a word with such bad connotations"

Sayuri seems shocked by that accusation "We were invited!" She exclaims, raising her hands up, holding them in front of her, "I, I r-really don't think it's fair for you to th-throw around accusations like that, Yuuka-san!"

Nadina chuckled and folded her arms. "I'd like to think we have a little more dignity than to sneak into an event like this. Yes, we were invited."

Victoria jumped to her seat actually sending her chair falling back to the floor, her face facing katou's. "For starters sir, you're not wearing your rank pen and for that matter neither am I so pulling rank in this place is inappropriate, and with all due respect it's not appropriate either when it seems to me you're playing fast and loose with our cover."
She said this all very hushed though so the girl wouldn't hear it.

Yuuka seemed smug, like she caught them in a trap. Looking around to see if anyone was listening, she looked satisfied, and spoke. "So you ARE the pilots, and yet you pretend his comments were just 'opinions.' Geez, you girls are confusing."

She turned to the girl then staring at her flatly. "What? What are you talking about?"

Sayuri just stares at Yuuka wide-eyed, "I uh..." She looks to Victoria, then to Nadina, then to Katou, taking a step back and laughing nervously, "P-pilots? I... I th-think you must be mistaken, m-miss. We're just uh... uh..."

Nadina was shocked. How could she come to that conclusion? She smiled weakly. "Are you sure you're not mistaken?"

"Pilots?" Katou raises an eyebrow. "No, no, you must be mistaken. Did you perhaps see the lady we were here with, doctor Desireé Desai? We happen to be on her research team"

"Well either part of it or under guardianship by some who are." she added to katou's explination, putting aside her small grudge with him for now. "And perhaps you should stop being rude and cease putting the screws to poor Michishio-san, she's... akward in social situations and I don't appreciate you tormenting my friend."

Yuuka begins to look hurt. "Tell me, how many kids do you see here? None, except me, and you girls. You have-" She was interrupted by a shattering glass, dropped by Alexa Winters, who was white as a sheet, except for her scars, which stood out as red agasint her face. Desireé was just behind her, but was merely confused. "Who is this girl?" Winters asked quietly.

Katou's face grimmed visibly, but his tone of voice didn't change. "Her name is Yuuka, miss Winters. Have you met before?"

Sayuri closes her eyes and takes a deep, calming breath, "Thank you, Sabatier-senpai, but I'm fine." She mumbles, opening her eyes, looking rather composed and distant, "Yuuka-san, I don't know who you are or how you know what you know, but if you-" She suddenly looses that composure as she hears the shattering glass, and turns to stare at Winters, blinking, "A-ah... is everything all right, Commander?" She asks.

Nadina quickly turned her attemtion to Winters. "Commander, what's wrong?"

Victoria tensed up as the commander appeared and seemed just as moritifed if not more as they were. She just shut her mouth like it was locked with iron, letting the others answer.

"We can't have met, but..." Winters turns to Yuuka herself, her mouth tight. "Miss Yuuka, do you have a last name?" "Yuuka Klaus, it's a pleasure to meet you." Yuuka gave a small unpracticed curtsy as Commander Winters began to laugh to herself with an odd tone, as if there was a joke only she understood. "Would you like to meet my dad? He's the one who invited you," Yuuka asked the girls.

Sayuri blinks and tilts her head, "Your father invited us?" She asks curiously, then looks to Commander Winters, noting her laugh, before looking back to Yuuka, "A-ah... yes, I would like that, Yuuka-san."

Victoria didn't say a damn thing.

"Your father?" Nadina was curious as to who he is, who this girl is, and why is she even here.

"Well, if he invited us then we really can't let him wait to see us, can we?" Katou agrees.

Yuuka led them through the crowd to a secluded booth, while Winters lagged behind to whisper a few things in Desireé's ear, the doctor's eyes widening. In the booth was a 30ish year old man in a wheelchair, german descent, didn't particularly look like Yuuka. "Ah, you found them, Yuuka. Are you friends yet?" He looked up. "Alexa! You look beautiful! I knew this room was more graceful than when
I last visited, it must be your presence." Winters looked slightly angry, but she merely turned a slight shade of red. The man continued. "I am Richter Klaus, head of the UN Committee on Macroscopic Life Forms."

Sayuri stares at Richter Klaus, furrowing her brows, before realising the this was a very important person, and quickly bowing her head, "A-ah... pleasure to meet you, Klaus-sama." She says respectfully, then looks at him a little more seriously, as if wanting to ask something else.

She worked hard to supress a giggle at winter's blush though she still seemed somewhat aggrivated herself by a lot of things. She blinked as the man said he was head of the UN committee on MLF, though not letting her surprise stop her from being respectful and giving him a polite bow herself. "Victoria Sabatier."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, mister Klaus" Katou bowed as well. "Thank you kindly for inviting us"

Nadina glanced at Yuuka. Friends? She then turned to Richter Klaus and respectfully bowed. "It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having us."

Richter waved Katou's comment off. "You needed to see this. The results of your last fight, which unfortunately leaked out, have caused an issue. I know exactly what they are, but at the moment, I am not willing to acknowledge a weapon that we don't even control as ours. However, your funding needs to stay at least as high as it is. I was wondering how, exactly, you were intending to solve this public image problem."

Sayuri blinks at that, tilting her head slightly, "Hm." She looks thoughtful for a moment, "Oh, I don't know. You could say that a barely controllable weapon is better than a flimsy metal one that my Eva could kick around like a toy." She seems rather bitter, and quite willing to express that now that it seems to be out in the open here, "We defeated the angel! We did it well! A-and even though I messed up, we still were able to stop it with... with..." She looks down, raising a hand to swipe furiously at her eyes, "O-only minor casualties."

Nadina looked downward and kept very quiet. The last thing we need is more trouble.

"Were you behind ressurecting the Jet Alone project, Richter?" Alexa cut in accusingly. "Because the last thing we need is our funding to be diverted."

"Miss Michishio here is absolutely right" Katou nods at Sayuri. "If not for her effort the situation would have been much more dire"

Victoria found herself a spot off to the side to stand and resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the question of how to save their public image being directed to their OD who was doing such a WONDERFUL job so far helping it already. she was already in hot water for telling katou to stfu earlier, she wasn't going to say anything more, she didn't have as much experiance as sayuri anyway.

Richter held up a hand. "No, no. Apparently AEUG was leased the blueprints a few years ago and has been working on it in secret. They still, as Sayuri-chan said, not on the level of your units. However, if you destroyed them without provocation, how do you think that would look to the public? And Sayuri-chan, it's not the casualties that made that footage really painful to your image, it's the fact you attacked another unit. But you've doubtlessly been comforted on that regard, already," he finishes smoothly.

"I have to agree with mister klaus here actually. Destroying the tanks would look very bad... but we can't have them shooting us in the back... sir." she said looking to him. "Even if they aren't to our level... it's still bad."

Katou chuckles. "Maybe we should issue a formal challenge to the AEUG? A contest, where their Jet Alone gets to measure itself against us. I imagine that could be amusing"

Nadina nodded to herself. Attacking Jet Alone with little base to do it would be pretty stupid. If they aren't to our caliber, then it shouldn't be a huge problem.

Ricter nods, and looks at Katou. "Is there any circumstance you can think of, that would make you look better than them? Anything that might help soothe-over the idea of relying on uncontrollable weapons?"

"I... I..." Sayuri stares down at the floor, shaking with anger and uncertainty. This man was talking down at her. Like a child. And she was a child, but she didn't appreciate what she interpreted as a condescending tone, "Live combat against an angel would make us look better." She mumbles, "Those tanks would be lucky to last a minute."

"The first time." she said to Sayuri. "I keep hearing vague remarks concerning those tanks eventually getting up to our caliber... though I'm not sure how they plan to do that unless they can make tankes generate a..." she cut herself off then, not sure if she should be talking about the mechanics of a eva or not.

Katou grins. "I just had an idea. The problem here is the apparent lack of control, right?" He sneaks a look around at the girls. "Besides a contest, I just thought of a... demonstration, of sorts, that I think could get us public support. How do you girls feel about a co-ordinated dance performance?"
"Of course, we could do it in direct-connection with a contest design to emphasize on the flexibility and creative thinking that an Eva and it's pilot has as an advantage over a giant tank"

Richter nods. "Victoria is half-right. They're apparently making progress on a weapon system theorized years ago by Dr. Desai here, that will be able to work most of the time. They're working from scratch, more or less, but it will probably be functional within a year, less if they have more of Desai's documents than we think," he finishes. Desireé is busy looking at her shoes.

Sayuri turns and stares at Katou, "A... d-dance performance? C-Captain, have... have you been drinking?" She stammers nervously, biting her lower lip and looking to Richter and then to Dr. Desai, "Um... Doctor, what... what sort of weapon system are we talking about...?"

"A what?" Nadina took a step back and stared at Katou. "I...is that even appropriate?"

Victoria looked to richter first. "Any chance we could get our own hands on somthing like that? What we have currently is rather useless unless they're disarmed rather heavily first..." she also looked to Desai as she said then, then blinked and frowned at Katou. "You're kidding right?"

"No, I'm not kidding. It's actually not a bad idea at all, albeit a little silly" Katou laughs. "It will give us an opportunity to show of your control of your Eva, as well as being family-friendly and an artform. I bet those tanks can't dance at all"

Desai shook her head. "I've been working on positron technology for a while, but my funding is split 12 different ways..." Winters is looking increduously at Katou. "It's...interesting. While it does demonstrate superior agility and finesse, though, it does not undo the fact that one of our units attacked another," she points out quietly.

She blushed at that. "I... can't dance." she murmured looking away.

"I don't think we can undo that, Commander" Katou counter-points out. "But it will give us a push away from looking too dangerous. And don't worry girls, I'm sure NERV can fund you some dance-classes if needed"

"I guess in theory it isn't a bad idea, but..." Nadina tried to put it nicely. "I'm not really a part of your team." She looked to the side. "I'm not sure how appropriate it would be for me to join you guys. I need to think about my own PR."

Sayuri furrows her brows, "But Shogouki never actually attacked Unit 02... it was going to, but... nothing happened. Ah... I... I just can't think of any way to make people comfortable with the fact that our Evas could potentially turn against us. I'm not comfortable with it." She says, but then adds assertively, "But we're still the only option! Jet Alone couldn't stand up to an angel. Better to use an uncontrollable weapon that works than a useless weapon you have total dominance over."

"I'm not trying to put your idea in the ground on purpose katou but the commander is right considering it doesn't quite make up for the fact that one of our units can at some point try to rip into another... and has tried... no offense sayuri..."
Victoria didn't want to admit it but inside she felt a sense of doom considering she didn't see any reliable way to repair their PR.

"We could always adress the control issue formally, and explain what countermeasures we're capable of taking against an out-of-control Eva" Katou shrugs. "From what I understand, large amounts of Bakelite might prove useful"

Sayuri sighs, sitting down and resting her head in her hands for a moment, before lifting her head and looking to Yuuka, "Yuuka-san... are you a pilot?" She asks, "Or are you just here with your father?" She looks back to Richter.

"I suppose... I'm not entirely fond of the idea I'm about to suggest but it'd also probably be good for us to start undergoing training to try to ... well keep it under control in such situations, if at all possible." she then looked to Yuuka, also curious if she was a pilot.

Nadina stretched out her arms behind her back. She didn't like the idea of dealing with this huge problem at all, but these girls (and Katou) were the closest things she had to real companions. She might as well help.

Yuuka shook her head. "No, I'm not a pilot. I'm just nosy and Daddy loves me and spoils me rotten," she grins. Alexa looks at Richter like he's sick, but then asks Katou, "When do you think the optimal time to do this...dance routine would be?"

Victoria blushed even more, rather embarassed that the commander was even considering this silly idea.

Sayuri furrows her brows, seeming a bit frustrated that Winters might actually be considering the dance routine idea, but not arguing against it. She draws her legs up to her chest and hugs them, resting her head on her knees.

"This surely can't be the best option we have..." she murmured to herself quietly.

"It depends a little on how long the girls need to practice. The on-grounds preparation for the demonstration shouldn't be too difficult to whip up quickly, might take some time to get the right media coverage" Katou gazes at the cieling for a second. "Well girls? How long?"

"I am already familiar with Acrobatics." Sayuri mumbles disheartedly, "To my understanding, dancing is not dissimilar. I believe I could learn quickly, sir."

"mmm..." Nadina bit her lip. "I'm honestly probably not as experienced with acrobatics as anyone else, but I suppose I could manage. I'm not as...light on my feet as some others may be, though." Nadina winked at Sayuri.

"I've been planning to take up acrobatics for aiding in fighting but I don't know it yet... I can't say how long it'd take me... a week if I'm confidant, maybe two or more?" Victoria said. "I don't know..." she murmured afterward still blushing slightly.

Richter shakes his head. "I hope for your sake it works. Just try to take a break from practicing tomorrow to watch the JA trials, would you? I'll make sure your base gets a secure feed."

Sayuri looks over at Nadina and blushes a little, then looks back to Richter, furrowing her brows, "I still think showing up to the JA trials in Shogouki would show them up for the mere toys they are..." She mumbles to herself, but sighs and nods.

Alexa grimaces. "I'll get Units 1, 2, and 3 flown in tonight," she says. Richter meets her eye contact and nods once.

"We appreciate it, Mister Klaus" Katou bows slightly. "I don't think the preparations should take more than a month. Just remember that the dancing shouldn't get in the way of your regular training too much, girls"

"We're doing it here commander? or are you planning somthing else..." Victoria inquired curiously, wondering why she'd have them flown there.

"Well," Alexa hesitates for a moment, "There's far more empty space, and far fewer chances of leaks here. We'll keep the carrier planes fueled in case anything is detected at Tokyo-3."

Sayuri pushes herself to her feet, "Commander, may I have permission to go outside, please?" She asks, then looks to Richter again, bowing her head slightly, "It was a pleasure meeting you, sir." She says, then looks to Yuuka, "And you, Yuuka-san."

Victoria nodded and sighed aggrivatedly. "I guess we're really going to do this then... I'm not sure if i should laugh or cry that this is our best option." she murmured to herself bitterly.

Alexa absently nods to Sayuri's request, raising a brief hand to signal to someone.

Victoria opted to remain for the moment for a various number of reasons, mostly to overhear anything else that might be important and possibly also due to the discipline she might get soon.

Sayuri lets out a sigh of relief, turning and stepping out of the booth, heading to make her way out of the building and outside. In spite of the cold air, she takes a deep breath, hugging herself and leaning up against a wall away from any other people that might be outside.

Nadina smiled at Commander Winters. "I'll see to it that I'll be training with all of you for the time you stay here."

Sayuri blows into her hands to warm them up, looks around a little to make sure that there are few people around, then begins stretching and shifting about flexibly.

Winters nodded, and looked at Yuuka. "You're too young to have a teenage daughter, Richter," she says tactically. "I took her in a few years ago, Alexa. She's unusually intelligent and precocious, and since I, too, was so cursed as a child, I decided to give her an upbringing from someone who understood her." Winters snorted. "Plus," he added, indicating his wheelchair, "I can hardly have a daughter the fun way these days."

Victoria blinked curiously and thought over what he meant by the fun way untill she made a blech face to herself quietly. She also seemed somewhat bitter concerning yuuka having been adopted, unlike her. SHe wasn't so fortunate.

At this point Sayuri is climbing the nearest climbable thing. If there are any statues or anything similar, she's climbing those. If not, she's climbing up any street lights there might be. Or the side of the building, if she has to resort to that. She feels the need to climb something.

"Commander, would it be alright if I excused myself as well? I have some things I need to take care of to remedy a mistake on my part" Katou salutes. "It's nothing major, but I think it'd be best if I make no public appearances in the near future"

She nods, and excuses everyone, while her and Richter chat, and Desireé attempts to get mildly drunk. Anyone who wishes to talk to them is free to.

Victoria exhaled slightly as she wasn't on the chopping block yet... she hoped it'd remain that way. She decided to leave the commander alone and sat at a table, probably with Desiree since she didn't know where else to go or who to possibly talk to.

Desireé seemed to be making surprising progress on that vodka, and she offered to Victoria, "Want thome? I look mitherable drinking alone."

At this point, Sayuri is perched on top of a statue, I suppose. She's looking down at the street, her expensive blue gown slightly dirty from the ascent, though she was quite careful not to tear it any, "I miss you, Shogouki," She murmurs, "You and Momo-chan. Is it bad that I want another angel to attack? I want to save people. But in order to save people I need an enemy. This seems contradictory." She sighs, "Dancing sounds stupid. But as long as you're dancing with me, Shogouki, I suppose it will be okay. I hope you get here soon."

Nadina excused herself and sat down at the table that Victoria moved to.

Katou leaves the booth, the party, the building and catches a glimpse of a small girl ontop of something tall. "M- Michishio..? What in the world are you doing up there?"

"Um sure... I'm no stranger to alcohol if you're not gona get in trouble for giving me some." she responded, grabbing the nearest clean glass.

Sayuri looks down at Katou, who can probably see right up her dress at this angle. She appears to either not realise this, or not care, "A-ah... thinking, Captain."

Desireé shrugged, and poured Victoria a glass before offering Nadina some.

"Ah..." Katou responds, dumbstruck in wonder. "But... why up there?"

Nadina smiled and accepted a drink. "Have either of you two had vodka before? It tends to give you a nasty headache."

Victoria took a gulp of it tilting her head to the side as she drunk it down. "Stronger then some of the stuff I've drunk." she murmured. "So... am I the only one depressed that our best option to save our image is to make total fools of ourselves? Or the fact currently humanity also seems to be our enemy? Hell I haven't even gotten to fight the inhuman enemy yet and now I have two combatants to worry about... or 3 if you count berserk evas." she said quietly.
She shook her head at Nadina. "Can't say I have. Just beer that I managed to... aquire."

Two men in suits stood slightly behind Katou, with a fireman's trampoline leaning against an idling van that just pulled up.

Sayuri shrugs her shoulders slightly, "No people up here." She replies, then blinks at the sight of the trampoline, sighing, "Do you think I should come down, Captain?"

Nadina chuckled. "I've forgotten how uptight Americans are about alcohol." She took a swig of vodka. "I'm worried, too, though. I haven't gotten to fight either...the only thing I anticipated were those..'angels'. Why do humans have to worry about each other? Isn't it obvious who the enemy is?"

"Probably, yes" Katou nods while looking over his shoulder. "Just... be careful, alright?"

Victoria frowned at Nadina. "That's not a fair assumption to make about me or else I wouldn't be drinking. I'm hardly american as it is... I'm just... somthing." she murmured taking another gulp. "And it's kinda human nature to be vicious animals and turn on eachother when under duress I think... at least from my experiances with people, thats why this doesn't surprise me as much as it does everyone else..."
"Most of the shock was from ohhhhhh I'm gona save the woooooorld and then bam, turns out the world considers me an enemy also seeking to destroy it, doesn't do well for one's ego..."

"I've had thome," Desireé replied to Nadina. "But you'll excuthe me if I don't have an opinion over danthing. I've only danthed with 5 people, and two of them were family. And one," she says drunkenly, "wath jutht on that thtage and made me look thtupid." The discussion about human nature goes over her head for now.

Sayuri smiles faintly and starts climbing down. Then, about half way down, she springs backwards and lands on her feet in front of Katou, staggering and colliding into him with a little 'oof'. She blushes and looks up at him, "S-sorry, I guess I wasn't careful enough."

Nadina took another swig. "No, you see, I was talking about the alcohol laws that are in place in America. And you're right. I just thought things would be different since the Second Impact. People put aside their differences to survive, y'know."

"Ah fair enough... and yeah I was hoping somthing simmilar, higher society you know... but no people still do stupid shit when they're scared or selfish." Victori said, seeming more more inclined to speek frankly with some alcohol in her. "I'm probably gona get chewed out when we get back to base for speaking frankly to katou despite his rank. I can't wait." she said sarcisticly.

Discussing alcohol seems to make a connection in Desireé's head. "Try not to drink too much, you'll be in trouble if you can't pilot well tomorrow."

"I'll stop after the next glass then. I think I can handle that much just fine." she offered her glass to Desiree for another pour.

Piloting? Tomorrow? Pfffft. Nadina finished off her glass. "No wonder nobody gets anything done here...we just drink our asses off."

"Don't worry about it, I'm just glad you came down alright" Katou replies with a sigh of relief. "You probably shouldn't climb things out in public"

"I suppose not, Captain." Sayuri murmurs with a sigh, then closes her eyes and rests her head against Katou's chest, leaning against him and shaking a little, "It's cold."

Desireeé shrugs, and pours Victoria another glass

"We better get you back inside, or do you want to head back to base?" Katou asks while slipping his suit jacket off and putting it around Sayuri's shoulders.

"I... I'll go wherever you go, Captain." Sayuri murmurs, shivering a little less as the jacket is placed around her shoulders, still leaning in close to Katou and gazing up at him with shy adoration.

"Well, I have some paperwork and other things I need to take care of, I guess you can come with me to my room" He turns around and waves at the S2 guys. "Would you mind giving us a ride? Miss Michishio is feeling rather cold and we can't have her getting sick"

Nadina badgers Desiree for a refill. "HIT ME"

The S2 guys nod, and gets them back to the base, after calling Winters for confirmation. Desireé sighs and pours another glass for Nadina. "Latht one, okay?"

Victoria herself was unsure but decided to take another. "Meh only way katou's gona get me to dance anyway is if I'm tispy enough for it."

Nadina giggles uncontrollably. "Hey, hey Des..did anyone ever tell you you talk funny?" She takes a gulp of her drink and slams it down on the table.

"Heeeeeeeeeey" Victori glared at Nadina. "I thinksh it's cute actuallyyyyyyy" she murmured blushing and leaning back in her chair, drinking her's slowly.

On the way back to base, Sayuri would incospicuously nuzzle in closer and closer to Katou until she's resting with her head on his chest, seeming rather happy and peaceful like that.

Victoria then dropped her hand on Des's shoulder a bit roughly and without grace. "Don't listensh to her doc"

Desireé sighs. "Winterth ith going to kill me for letting you drink thith much." She then grabs the ice-water pitcher, and pours half on Nadina, and the other half on Victoria. "I don't need thith when I jutht found out my exth-boyfriend thtole my rethearch."

"How are you doing, Michishio?" Katou asks warmly. "You seem a bit tired"

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Cold!" Victoria yelled out while giggling slightly. "You can take the boozesh away from us you know... oh he's your exsh? I'm sorry..." she murmured

Nadina shrieked and immediately stood up. "Deeeeeeees! What-what was that for?" She glared at Dr. Desai and grabbed a towel for herself. "Coooooold..." Like her heart, Nadina thought to herself. "And..what was that about your ex? You think it was revenge?" She sat herself back down again.

Victoria grabbed the front of her dress and started tugging on it rapidly to air it out so it could dry.

"Ooh, maybe Des did something naughty and he did it to get back at her!" Nadina's eyes lit up, obviously not sobered yet.

Sayuri smiles and nuzzles her face into Katou's chest, raising her arms and hugging him loosely, "Mmm. Yeah... tired." She mumbles in agreement, letting out a little yawn, "You're warm..." She adds quietly, "And your chest goes thump thump. And you smell nice... it's nice." She seems very happy like that. Peaceful.

Desai stared morosely at the bottle. "Pleathe, naughty thingth were a part of college life. I don't think ith revenge, but...maybe."

"That'sh a bit mean Nadina." Victoria murmured, putting her glass on the other side of the table. "If you getsh in trouble Doc I'll make it up to you somehow kay?" she murmured patting her shoulder again. "Gottash keep yoush happy."

Nadina held her fingers to her forehead. "Why'dya break up anyway?"

Desireé shrugged. "We both found jobth in advanthed rethearch we really couldn't turn down. Unfortunately, they were nowhere near each other."

"+10 dick pointsh to him then for stealing yoursh reserch." Victoria mumbled, sitting back again. "Think you could steal it back?"

Nadina gawked at Desiree. "Tha..that's so saaaad!" Nadina leaned forward, her whole upper half on the table. She was seconds away from bawling. "Y'mean you don't even talk anymore?"

Katou slowly reaches out and pats Sayuri on the head. "I think we're going to have to tuck you in when we get there"

"Maybe after ith finithed. My funding on Pothitron weaponry ith theverely limited. And no, ith been a few yearth."

Nadina set her head down and faced it towards Desiree. "Well...you should get more...more funding. That would be awesome! Because posi-pos...thingies are cool!"

"Can I sleep in your room, Captain?" Sayuri mumbles quietly. She seems to already be dozing off, and she sighs happily at the patting of her head. By the time they got back to base, she'd already be asleep, dozing with her head resting on Katou's chest, cuddled against him.

Desireé shrugs again. "It theemth to be limited on purpoth, which maketh me think they either don't want it to happen, or they think ith a wathte of funds."

"I vote stealing it backsh then." Victoria murmured. "Hey desireeeeeeeee, will you be my moooom, I don't have one." she murmured giggling to herself.

Guessing she's just been feeling lonely lately, Katou carries Sayuri to his bed and tucks her in before sitting down at his desk to fill in various paperwork.

Nadina paused in contemplation. "They are really dangeroussss. But can you imagine?! What if the evas got to use posit..pos..thingies? that would be SOOOOOOOOOO cool!" Nadina sat back in her chair, exhausted.

"Ya don't even know what they are Nadinaaaa." Victoria retorted, giggling again.

Desireé grows very quiet, and an awkward air rises in the silence, Desireé almost seems sober after a few moments of thought. "No, Victoria. I'm thorry, I can't be your mother."

"Aww, well that's okay Desiree, I still got you all as friendsh... sorta, if you're my friends. I don't know." she responded seeming to shrug off her denying her request rather easily, what with being drunk.

Desireé is trying to not think about the report she wrote a few weeks ago estimating Victoria's chance of surviving 36 months assigned to an eva at 11%. "I'm not really a good friend," she finally says.

Nadina attempted to hug Victoria over the table. "Yeaa. We're friends! I mean, I pretty much don't have any! Screw everyone elllse! Who needs family anyway? Bunch of assholes that expect the world of you, that's what." She nodded her head sagely.

Victoria attempted to ward Nadina's attempts at hugs off. "Oh suuuuuure you are doc, don't be all glum like that... gotta be optimistic n' shit if we're gona be saving the world and all I think." she then wriggled around in her chair. "Damn thesesh panties are weeeeeeeird."

"Yeah, panties! Who needs 'em. We can save the world without those things." Nadina began to picture Eva units wearing panties and giggled to herself.

"Then take them off when no one'th looking," Desireé suggested. "Jutht don't let any guyth feel you up."

Katou sits back in his chair and stares at the stack of paper for a while, before slowly getting up and rummaging around his cupboards for a glass and a bottle of scotch, sitting back down on the room's small couch for a drink.

"Eh that's an idea! .. assuming I have to wear a dressh like this again." Victoria mumbled giggling also at Nadina.

Nadina couldn't control her smile. "Your dress is so prettyyy~ Did anyone ever tell you dat?"

Sayuri wakes up at that point, mumbling incoherently and pulling off her dress. Apparently she's not entirely awake. She lets the gown fall down to the floor. She's about to crawl back into bed before she sees Katou, furrowing her brows and stumbling over to sit down on the couch in only her underwear, "Katou?" She mumbles sleepily, "You look sad..."

"Who meee? Nooo becausesh I never dress up like thish... it's the scar." Victoria pointed to the scar on her shoulder then leaning over to hug Desiree. "You looked like you needed a hug..."

"Ah, Michishio..?" Katou pulled his eyes from the glass slowly. "Don't mind me... You should go back to sleep"

In truth it was mutiple scars almost in a claw like formation like a cougar got her or somthing. They were dressed up in makeup and already well faded though so they weren't -entirely- noticable though.

Sayuri looks at the glass and then back to Katou, "Why are you sad?" She whispers quietly, biting her lower lip.

Desireé instantly pours herself another drink, before hugging Victoria back lightly.

"Whoaaaaa!" Nadina's mouth widened. "How'd you get that? That's so cool! You should..wear it proudly! I bet you could score some duuudes with that."

Katou looks at Sayuri with a melancholy smile. "I have my reasons, but I won't burden you with them. Lets just say I wish the world was a brighter place. I'm counting on you for that one"

Victoria frowned at Nadina. "Nothing impressive, task master at the orphanage I spent way to many years at... cruel bitchsh she was, got pisssh at me and hit me with a 2 by 4 with a bunchsh of nails in it... and never gave me any first aid sho it had to heal on it'sh own. Still hurts from time to time actually..."

Sayuri nods her head slowly, "You can count on me, Captain." She says, giving him a hug and planting a kiss on his cheek, "W-would... having company make you feel better? Or do you want me to leave you alone, Captain?" She asks.

"I think it might help if you distracted me" Katou replies. "What were you thinking of, up there on that statue?"

Nadina was shocked. This was WAY cooler than any of the drunkards' sob stories she had heard before. "Whoaaa...so-so does that mean you have like..metal inside of you? Android! You're totally like an android! I bet it'll be a problem later though.." Nadina turned her glass upside down in an effort to obtain whatever alcohol was left in it.

"Naaaaah I pulled whatever dirtsh and metal got into my body out like a real badassh or somthing." she murmured rubbing her shoulder. "So I doubtsh I'm an android but if you wana hear somthing cool, my eva is like... haunted or some shhhhit." she murmured giggling at her desperatly trying to find more booze.

"No. Freaking. Way." Nadina was a total sucker for ghost stories. "Oh my god, why is it haunted?"

Sayuri blinks a little at that question, then looks down, a little embarassed, "Nothing... just... Shogouki. I miss him. When I'm in the entry plug I feel... like I'm me. When I'm not with Shogouki, I'm just... just an awkward, useless girl." Sayuri furrows her brows in thought. Then she reaches out and takes the glass from Katou's hand, assuming he'd let her, setting it aside, and rose up, trying to pull him to his feet, "I was made to protect people, you know that? What will I do when people don't need protecting anymore? I should be happy then, but... then I'll be useless."

"From what I h-hic heard while training in nevada. The first kid theysh put in there got ... absorbed into the LCL or some weird shit. I swear to godsh it feels like it's staring at me somtimes and I thought I heard a voice... though I could justsh be crazy."

Desireé manages to prevent Victoria from obtaining more alcohol by holding a piece of paper over the vodka bottle so Victoria couldn't see it.

"Oh my GOOOOD!" Nadina hugged herself tightly, despair in her eyes. "What did it say?"

Victoria leaned forward looking all dramatic. "It said... I WANT WAFFLES BAHAHAHAH!" she laughed out.

Nadina jumped and fell off of her chair by accident, giggling on the ground. "Vickyyyyyyyyyyyyyy~ That wasn't...funny!" struggling to get the words out in between her giggles and gasps.

"Oh maaaaan can you imaginesh eva sized waffles? Oh god." Victoria continued to snicker and giggle to herself uncontrollably. "You okay down there? Tell the floorsh I said hi."

Katou rose to his feet and unbuttoned his vest. "No, Sayuri. You will never be useless as long as you have a purpose. If you fulfill your purpose, you find a new one"

"Acktually..." Nadina squeezed her cheek on the floor. "It's pretty comfy~" She curled up her body on the floor, okay with the idea of falling asleep then and there. "Mmm...waffles."

Sayuri furrows her brows, "I see..." She murmurs, "I'm not sure I have any other purpose..." She says, but smiles faintly, "Maybe after we've saved the world, you could... help me find one, Katou?" She asks, moving over to sit on the bed, "I don't want to sleep alone..." She blushes a little, "Stay with me?" Sayuri asks, holding out a hand to him.

"I think with time, you'll be able to find your own purpose just fine without my help" Katou smiles, unbuttons his shirt and hangs it with the vest over the back of a chair before grabbing Sayuri's hand and sitting next to her on the bed.

"Oh maaaaaan... Desiree I think we should get backsh to base soon before we end up having the waiters stepping on Nadina." Victoria teased.

"Shut uuuuup.." Nadina complained, looking for something to throw at Victoria, only to give up. "Vickiee, from here..you look like a waffle! Hah!"

Sayuri smiles brightly as he takes her hand, squeezing it and moving to lay down on the bed, resting her head on the pillows and looking up at him, "Katou..." She murmurs, not saying anything else.

A hand reached down and helped Nadina up. The hand belonged to Winters. "Desireé..."
"..."
"You know better than this."
"I warned them."
Alexa looked irritated. "They'd better be able to deploy tomorrow morning. Come on, let's go back to base, they can sleep in the limo."

Victoria waved as she saw the commander. "Oh hey commander!" she stood up wobbling a little but somehow able to stand and possibly walk. "Sorry 'bout this, ain't Desiree's fault, feel free to beat the shit out of me in tha mornin if you feel like, pain might distract me from the embarasment." she mumbled.

"Hey, Commander! You missed out. PS: Vicki is a waffle." She giggled and, after being helped up, moved towards the exit of the building.

Katou puts his head down next to Sayuri's. "Sleep well, Sayuri"

Sayuri blushes a little as Katou's head rests next to hers, but she smiles, closing her eyes, "Goodnight, Katou." She murmurs, sounding very happy indeed, quickly drifting back off to sleep like that.

Everyone gets taken home, goes to bed, sleeps, etc, and Nadina and Victoria will wake up with a 1 fatigue hangover.

Session End (+200xp)

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer

Alright, about a week has passed, and the three girls assigned to Tokyo-3 went back home, leaving Nadina behind. You were gone for about 4 days, and your classmates have been pressing you where you've been, though you've been given orders to keep quiet about Russia. The craze about the monsters hasn't died down, though just yesterday, several media outlets reported that a high unnamed source has told them that some of the beasts belong to the UN, developed as contingency plans. So naturally, today, the school's gone nuts.
It's currently break time in the class, and the kids are chattering. "I told you! I told you they were on our side!" "You still haven't explained those pictures of them attacking each other." "Fake! Or, or maybe they're like pets, and still being trained!"

Victoria was eating her lunch she had prepared for herself (She had also probably prepared the other two girl's lunches as well.). She had earlier explained to her classmates that her absence was due to her taking a short trip back home in AMERICA (FUCK YEAH) and it was just a coincidence that she was gone at the same time as Mellisa and Sayuri.

Sayuri fidgets a little in her seat, catiously avoiding any discussion on the subject of the Evangelions, though she does half-listen to the rumours, just to find out what people are saying. Momo-chan, as usual, sits on her lap. She glances over to Zero-senpai's desk, wondering if she was at class today.

Mellisa sat at her desk, looking outside. Noting the discussion ,she turned to look at the rest of the children, who were talking amongst one another. She didn't really feel like joining in their discussion, fearing she'd accidently spill something she shouldn't." She looked around, spotting victoria and sayuri, she'd just opened her lunch and was starting to eat.

Zero was in fact there, staring off into space. Among the boys, the conversation got a bit intense. "Why didn't they just tell us they had these machines before?" "Machines? Idiot, they're alive. Didn't you see photos of that leg? And that pool filled with blood?" "Oh come on, what would they eat? We don't know of any other monster attacks." To that, one of the boys answered too quietly to hear.
"No, don't be stupid. If it's alive, it needs something besides electricity."

Sayuri smiles faintly as she listens to the boys talking, glancing towards them, before rising from her desk and moving to sit with Zero, opening her own lunch, "Can we eat together again today, Zero-senpai?" She asks with a smile, no longer as nervous around Zero as she had been when they first met, turning to look at Mellisa and Victoria for a moment, wondering if they'd join in the rumour mill.

Victoria kept her aloof nature despite somewhat listening to what the boys were saying, acting like she was paying more attention to either her food or empty space. She was already in hot enough water for that messup with the previous battle and with chewing out the AEUG guy.

Mellisa smiled faintly as she listened in, still eating her lunch. She saw sayuri glancing over at her, sitting with one of the students. She briefly set down her lunch, as she thought back about the incident in russia, the memory of the pain caused that day still haunted her, even now.

Zero nods quietly, her hair oddly seeming brighter blue than usual. The boys were busy teasing the kid who had responding quietly, telling him to stop making things up. "Oh come on, they're probably just trained. There's no such thing as telepathy in the real world, dork."

To that Victoria actually responded, rasing her eyebrow, she just... had to. "Well... as far as I know there isn't... or wasn't giants fighting other giants in the real world either."

Sayuri starts eating her own lunch, picking at the plain rice with her chopsticks and eating quietly, tilting her head as she examine's Zero, noting that her hair seems strangely brighter, "What do you think about all this, Zero-senpai? The monsters and those things that are apparently on our side?" She asks curiously.

"Maybe the Gojira movies were really coverup of a real event, then," one of the boys jests in response to Victoria. Zero continues staring out the window, quietly saying, "A living being created for the sake of mankind's ego."

Sayuri blinks at Zero, leaning back in her chair and staring at her, "Is that just a guess? Or... do you know more about this than the others who are just guessing wildly?" Then she leans back, "And... uh... is it okay if I ask a personal question?"

"It's what I believe." Zero makes a non-committal shrug in response to the request.

Victoria moved closer to the group, leaning in, deciding to throw her lot in anyway, looking for the quiet boy, he had interesting theories. "Which honestly sounds just as rediculious if not moreso then telepathy, so don't go throwing his theories out like that." she responded back.

"Is that your natural hair colour? Are your eyes really red?" Sayuri asks Zero quietly, gazing at her intently, her lunch going ignored for now, "And... why do you always look out the window?"

The boy had more or less been chased back to his desk on the other side of the room. He looked rather pathetic, really, with thick framed glasses. He was busy burying himself in a book, apparently a novel. In response to Sayuri's question, Zero stuck a finger in her eye.
...and pulled it back, holding a red contact lens.

Mellisa looked up from her lunch, she shoved her chair back and stood up, walking outside of class and in the direction of the girl's bathrooms.

"My hair is normally brown, like my eyes," she said quietly. "I'd prefer not having to prove it," she says with what almost looks like a smile.

Victoria raised a eyebrow at the boy having been chased back to his desk, but she was persistant and persued, giving the other boys a slightly disapproving look as she approached him, pulling out a chair from another desk and sliding it over, resting her arms on the back of it. "Hi, what were you saying about the ... things? The giant monsters?" she asked him rather bluntly.

Sayuri blinks in surprise, staring at the red contact lens, then turning her gaze towards the Zero's eye, noting her brown eyes and smiling faintly, biting back a faint giggle at her words, "Can I ask why? Why you wear contacts and dye your hair? It does look very nice... but I think it'd look very nice brown, too."

The boy looks up, stammering for a moment, looking around him to make sure she was talking to him. "I-I was just saying, for example, they obviously run on electricty. In several images you can see some sort of plug and cable, though it's not always there."
Zero puts her contact back in, looking at Sayuri. "I do it because I'm different."

Victoria raised a eyebrow and responded curiously. "Do they? Are you sure it's electricity running up that cable though? I'm not sure what giant creatures would need electricity for. But where does the telepathy come into this?"

Mellisa came back into class quietly, standing in the doorway, she overlooked the rest of the classroom. She looked from Sayuri to Victoria, unsure what to do, in the end she decided going back to her desk and eating the rest of her lunch would be the best idea, she allways liked to take long eating, as to take in all the flavours of what she was eating.

The boy avoided direct eye contact. "They were just ideas."

Sayuri tilts her head slightly, "You are different." She says with a little smile, gazing at Zero, "You're not like anyone else I've ever met. I still don't understand really, but... I really want to get to know you better, Zero-senpai."

"More interesting ideas then I've heard from anyone else today..." Victoria murmured in response somewhat disappointed at him folding so easily... "What're you reading anyway." she pointed at the book.
She had also brought her food along with her, still munching away slowly.

Nadina briskly walked down the school hallway, searching for the correct room number. When she had located it, she adjusted her skirt and then pushed her hand against the door. The door merely clattered in response. Nadina sighed. "Weird Japanese doors.." She awkwardly grabbed the door and slid it open, peeking inside the room to see if a class was taking place.

Zero keeps eye-contact with Sayuri, and says nothing, but her cheeks gradually turned a shade of pink. The boy fumbled with the book, not being able to hide it in time. "Nothing special..." It was an old manga with a silly colorful robot on the front. A tall, black-haired girl wearing glasses sitting by the door looked up at Nadina, curious.

Sayuri looks towards the door as Nadina steps inside, smiling brightly and giving her a brief wave, before turning her gaze back to Zero, biting her lower lip a little as she notices the pinkening of her cheeks, "Am I embarassing you, Zero-senpai?" She asks, reaching over to place a hand on top of Zero's, squeezing it a little.

Victoria stared at the manga, holding her spoon in her mouth before pulling it out "hmm, I gather those... things are relevent to your interests then? Perhaps you've reserched them?" she pressed.

Zero's cheeks turned a little redder. "Yes," she said simply. The boy Victoria was talking to looked like he was way out of his league. "A-a bit, though this is from my father's collection, I swear!"

Mellisa looks up, seeing Nadina enter, she looked at her, a brief smile flashing on her face. Knowing she shouldn't act as if she knew Nadina, as that would place questions at her knowing nadina. Mellisa walked towards the front of the class, and whilst not being class representative, she greeted Nadina. "I'm Mellisa Sakamoto, might I ask who you are, and are you in the right class, I've never seen you here before?"

"I'm sorry." Sayuri murmurs softly, releasing Zero's hand after a moment, still gazing at her with bright hazel eyes, "I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. I just... want to be your friend."

Victoria briefly looked up as she saw Nadina enter, not really smiling due to eating her food and trying to pass as not knowing her, she returned her attentions to the boy. "You know what's the sad thing? If they're biological I doubt they could transform or anything, boring..." she murmured, resting the side of her hand on her palm.

Nadina sighs in relief, entering the classroom. The students all seemed to be busy in discussion. She moved to the front ofclass and began to scan faces until she was suddenly approached by Melissa. "Ah, hello." She raised her eyebrow to Melissa's odd behaviour and caught on to the idea. "I'm Nadina Maletski. Pleased to meet you." She bowed slightly, smiling widely. "I'm an exchange student. I'm late to class because I was moving in this morning."

The blushing receding a bit, Zero tilted her head for a while, and then replied with a simple, "Okay." All the boys in the class were whispering about Nadina, talking about how incredible it was to get two foreign girls in their class - aside from the one Victoria was talking to, who was too busy agreeing that they couldn't transform, though the armor looked mechanical. All the girls sized up Nadina, one or two of them glancing at Victoria, and then at themselves, in a fit of obvious jealousy.

Mellisa did a little bow to Nadina as well."I'm afraid the teachers out, as its lunchtime, did you bring your lunch?" She asked, pointing at hers, still sitting on her table. "You must be hungry after all that moving, I'll be happy to share mine if you didn't bring yours."

Sayuri smiles brightly and suddenly leans forward and wraps her arms around Zero, hugging her with surprising enthusiasm, "I'm so glad." She murmurs happily, before quickly pulling back wide-eyed, blushing herself, "Ah-aha... ha..." She giggles a little nervously, "S-sorry. I was just a little excited."

"More mechanical then regular armor you think? I dunno..." she murmured. "I kinda want to know what those weird... wing things on their shoulders are for though." she ignored the jealious girls in favor of probing the boy's knowledge... she wanted to know what he knew... perhaps there was -too- much of a leak, perhaps not.

Nadina smiled brightly. "Thanks, but I have my own." She swung her bag around her shoulder and opened it up, pointing at her lunchbox. "You wanna eat together, Melissa?..if I can call you that." She paid little attention to the eyes that she was positive were glued to her.

Zero stayed straight as a rod, not reacting, though she looked slightly uncomfortable now. "B-batteries?" the boy ventured. "The rest of it looks like armor, but maybe there's a battery array there."

Sayuri bites her lower lip as she notices Zero's reaction, lowering her gaze and shifting a little awkwardly, "I'm sorry, Zero-senpai." She murmurs again, biting her lower lip, "It was just... I uh... sorry."

Zero blinks. "I don't mind. I was surprised."

"Sure." Mellisa said to Nadina, sounding happy. She let Nadina go first, and after reaching her table pulled out a empty chair from a table nearby for Nadina. She sat down. "And in return, mind if I call you Nadina, Maletski's such a mouthfull." She said, looking at the girl she knew from Russia. Shame she had to play like this infront of her classmates.

Not too far off from the truth, she knew it was possible to install extra batteries there though she had never considered it herself, prefering to have a extra weapon... soon two she hoped. "Perhaps if the armor is mechanical as you say... it would need electricity for that..." she started turning her fork around between her fingers now that she was done eating.

Nadina chuckled. "Yes, of course. Out of all the people in this class, us...friends should be able to call each other what we like." Reaching in her bag, she pulled out her lunchbox that contained sandwiches and potatoes that she had made the night before. "Who's that person over there, with Sayuri?" She indicated with her head towards Sayuri and the person she was talking to.

Victoria idly looked over her shoulder ad Mellisa and Nadina, then back to the boy "So what's your name anyway?"

Sayuri looks up again, letting out a relieved sigh as she hears that Zero didn't mind, "So if I hugged you again, you'd be less surprised?" She asks, with a faint smile, "I'd like it if we could spend some time together outside school some time. So we can get to know each other better. I-if that's not uh... being too forward."

"That's Zero, I believe she's called, strange girl if you ask me." Mellisa said, taking a water bottle out of her bag, and taking a sip. She couldn't shake the feeling of being watched and concentrated on nadina. She took a piece of paper from her table, and wrote on it with her pen, handing it to Nadina. "So whats the deal with being transferred here?" It read.

"M-my name is Kei, Victoria," the boy stammered out, practically squirming. Zero slowly nodded her head, "I'm not very good at friend things, so I apologize ahead of time."

Sayuri smiles faintly, "I'm not either, but I'm trying to learn." She replies to Zero, "I... also wanted to ask... u-um... is Zero your family name? Or your given name? I've... I've never heard you get called anything else."

"Would you prefer if I adress you with a honorific?" Victoria asked taking a sip of her own water which she already had out. "I somtimes forget that part though... my japanese still isn't perfect..." she admited.

Nadina scribbled on the paper in untidy but legible Japanese, "My superiors at NERV thought it best for me to be here to aid you guys, because there isn't much of a need for me to be in Russia right now." She set the pen down and turned it towards Melissa. "Not that you need my help, though."

Zero considered that for a moment. "Neither. But I would prefer to be called Zero." Kei smiled shyly and told Victoria to do whatever she felt appropriate.

Sayuri gives a small nod of her head, "If that's what you prefer to be called, that's what I'll call you then, Zero-senpai." She says with a smile.

Mellisa took a few moment to read the paper, having difficulty deciphering the scriblings.She crumbled the paper, and put it her desk drawer. "Glad you're here though. We left so abruptly, we hardly had time to say goodbye." She sighed. Looking at Nadina, she spoke, with a hint of dissapointment in her voice."That's not true, we 're much better of with you here, we can use all the help we can get, certainly against them."

Victoria nodded. "Okay Kei." She looked over her shoulder at Nadina then turned back to Key, pointing her thumb over her shoulder. "Probably should introduce myself to the new transfer student incase she needs any help with anything, and to give her a bat to beat off the boys with considering the reaction I got when I first got here." she joked standing up "Lemme know if you hear anything new yeah? Or hell, whatever you wana talk about." she shrugged.

Nadina looked down, blushing. "Thanks. Well, now that I'm here, I hope we can become even closer friends. I'm glad we'll all be so close to each other now!" She reached into her lunchbox and popped some potato slices into her mouth.

Mellisa found herself blushing at Nadina's comment. "W-Well, I'm glad you see it that way, I think we'd all like that." She reached into her bag, and ripped off another shred of paper, writing on it. "Come live with us? [y/n]" She added. "We'd still have to ask Katou-san though, But I believe you and he'd find it better with us all close together."

"Ah, uh, sure," Kei managed to stammer, finally remembering to breathe as she moved away.

Nadina smiled warmly. "Of course," she wrote, making a check mark next to the y. "I'm very temporarily housed somewhere else, but I'm sure Katou will let me move in with you guys."

SUDDENLY a wild Victoria appears next to Mellisa and Nadina, pulling up a chair. "Hello." she also idly checked the reactions of the other girls still and also the guys just out of curiousity.

Sayuri furrows her brows a little in thought, "The first time we spoke, you said you don't get lonely. Was that really true?" She asks Zero, picking at her lunch again, though eating very little.

Mellisa looked sideways at Victoria, she was at one end happy the girl had joined them, but another side of her wanted her gone, as she had rather bluntly intruded into their conversation."So, how'd things go after we left?" She asked Nadina. She took her eyes of of her, looking around the class, getting quite irritated by all the prying eyes observing their group.

Victoria turned her attentions to Nadina. "Soooooo... new transfer huh? I recomend for starters you buy somthing you can swing in order to beat off the boys that might be drooling on you." she said rather quietly and a bit teasingly.

Nadina shrugged. "Eh..mostly cleanup and trying to get back into the swing of things. People were still upset over the whole thing, but I'm sure they've gotten over it by now." She blushed at Victoria's suggestion. "I..well..is that really a pr-well, I don't think anyone would drool on-...thank you." Nadina covered her red cheeks with her palms. "...do I really stand out that much?"

Zero nodded silently to Sayuri's question, not thinking much of it.

"A bit, so do I for that matter... you'll figure that one out soon enough..." Victoria said snickering to herself slightly. "It's like the guys here haven't ever seen ... nevermind" she stopped herself before she got too offensive, flipping open her nerv issue phone and writing down her and the other two girl's numbers and pushing the paper towards her.

Sayuri nods her head a little and returns to eating quietly, not wishing to bother Zero with further questions, sitting with her in companionable silence for the rest of lunch.

Mellisa finished her lunch, and placed the bin back in her bag. She said nothing, merely looking from Victoria to Nadina. "Who'd have thought, all four of us here at tokyo-3" She thought to herself.

Nadina took the slip of paper and pocketed it. "I guess you're right. I never really thought of how the boys here...well, nevermind." She halfheartedly laughed and changed the subject. "So, do you guys like living together? How is it with Captain Musashi?"

"Eh it's fine... better then being alone anyway. Somtimes awkward when you remember Nerv's eyes are on you though." Victoria responded.

The schoolbell rang, signalling an end to the lunch break, and the slavery of school continued, sparing not even the pilots. Session end.

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer