INBOX - NHD-C12-KRI-248 - IKARI, SHINJI

[forevalone]

ikari.shinji@cdc.org
(0) UNREAD MESSAGES

text message	audio message	voice mail
<span style="font-family:courier;"><B>FROM:</B> lastname.firstname@cdc.org <B>TO:</B> ikari.shinji@cdc.org [[200 max character message here]]</span>	<span style="font-family:courier;"><B>CALLING:</B> LAST NAME, FIRST NAME</span> [[3 minute max message here]]	<span style="font-family:courier;"><B>(1) VOICEMAIL:</B> LAST NAME, FIRST NAME [[3 minute max message here]]

Comments

[alittlemaster]

[Despite himself, the corners of Ciel's lips twitch. Shinji sounds quite strange speaking English. The accent is heavier than he imagined. It's like Lau's, yet not. It's different than Chinese.

He looks away before he can laugh, though it wouldn't be in mocking. He can still hear the music continuing in his other ear.] Do you think you can buy one?

[Then, realizing Shinji may have trouble, he glances back.] That. [He points to the SDAT.] Can you buy one here? [He points down, meaning the rover, meaning the CDC.]

[forevalone]

_{[Ciel he can still understand you okay, you're the one with your earpieces missing...]}

Ano...maybe? I do not know.

[alittlemaster]

[Look, Shinji, he isn't... use to... all this advanced technology.... It just feels natural enough to think Shinji doesn't understand him either.]

Can you buy music? [He brings both hands to tap his ears.] More of this?

[forevalone]

Yes. _{[There's a little nod as Shinji shifts a bit, moving to find where he'd put his blackglass. Once he finds it it only takes him a moment to pull up where he'd saved all his downloaded music from the CDC media library. There's...a lot of it, to be honest, if the number of folders is any indication.]} On here. From CDC library.

[alittlemaster]

[Curious, Ciel leans just far enough over to watch what Shinji is doing. He still isn't all too familiar with the data that goes into the blackglass, so realizing that it can be used similar to the device Shinji already had....

The number of folders is a lot, but Ciel doesn't understand just yet what it means. A lot of music.] How? [He reads over the folders, then lifts his eye to Shinji.]

How do I get what you have?

[forevalone]

_{[And this is where things are going to be a little too technical for Shinji to really explain them in English. There's a small sound of uncertainty before he reaches over to push the pause button on his SDAT, plucking Shinji's earpieces from the mattress to hold them out to him.]}

I will tell.

_{[Please put at least one of them in bro...]}

[alittlemaster]

[Oh...right. The earbuds.

Ciel reaches up to take out the other earpiece of the SDAT, then accepts the offer of the earbuds back. He puts them into his ears, then lifts his eye.

Hey, Shinji's English had been pretty good for a foreigner, at least.]

All right.

[forevalone]

_{[Thank you Ciel.]}

I downloaded them from the CDC Media Library. When the shopping channel becomes available you can buy a Media Pass that lets you access it. It has movies and music and books from all over world...er...universes. You pick the book or song or movie you want and it gets saved to your black glass.

All these folders are different collections of songs by different artists.

[alittlemaster]

[Movies...? The moving drawings from the ship, yes, he remembers. There's more? And music, sure... but... digital music? It still seems so crazy to him. Even the phonograph was a bit strange to consider, but it worked... so....

And books.

Digital books.

Ciel isn't sure how he feels about that information. Why? Why get rid of holding the feeling of a physical book in your hand? He doesn't get it. It's weird. His face bunches.]

What music do you have? [He points at the blackglass.]

[vengeance_driven]

(1) VOICEMAIL: BELLIC, NIKO

Hey, ah... Shinji. I am want you to come by my rover when we are both free. Just shoot me a message and I'll show up there. I want to give you something.

[forevalone]

FROM: ikari.shinji@cdc.org

Hey Niko-san, I got your message. When would you like me to stop by?

[vengeance_driven]

FROM: bellic.niko@cdc.org

I am around now. Come by.

[forevalone]

FROM: ikari.shinji@cdc.org

I'll be there soon then.

_{[And true to his word, Shinji arrives soon enough at Niko's rover to knock awkwardly on the door, curious as to what Niko wanted to give him.]}

[vengeance_driven]

[He feels a little bad about this, mostly because the little animal seems happy to be nestled down in his loosely closed uniform top, between fabric and undershirt. He takes it out before the door is knocked on, though, holding it carefully in both hands.]

[When it's opened, Niko doesn't get all the way out. Instead he sits in the open doorway, feet on the ground, and holds up Šupak for him to take.]

I need you to do a couple of favors, alright? Make sure you make his last name Šupak. His first name is Packie now. After a good friend who had to go away. And make sure he gets some time with Erin and Elena. Erin especially. I think she needs friends that will not judge her.

[He waits for Shinji to take him, before settling his elbows on his legs and folding his hands in front of him.]

[forevalone]

_{[Shinji isn't sure what he was expecting to be given, but it wasn't the little creature he'd been petsitting here and there for Niko. He's a little surprised, automatically holding out his hands to take 'Packie' into his arms. It soon fades to a look of confusion. Niko didn't want him anymore?]}

It's 'Paki-chan' now? _{[A pause.]} You want me to keep him?

[vengeance_driven]

Yes. You're a good person for him. Less big and loomy and scary. [He scratches his scruff in a show of looking apish and ridiculous at Shinji.]

I think you will be much happier with each other. Him and you, too.

[forevalone]

_{[Packie wriggles a bit in his arms, sticking his nose into the crook of his elbow. It's true that the little creature's bonded with Shinji and he does feel happier having him around. Niko's assessment is right on the mark in that regard. There's a little pause before he finds himself smiling. Niko might be the type of person that Shinji would have automatically avoided based on appearance alone, but the first time he'd really met him had been under extremely unfortunate circumstances. There wasn't room in him back then to feel fear when he was overloaded already, not to mention how Niko had treated him that day had forever placed the man in Shinji's good books, regardless of what his past might be.]}

Thank you, Niko-san...I promise I'll take good care of him. _{[Really, he'll do his best.]} ...But you shouldn't say that though - I don't think you're a scary person, Niko-san.

[vengeance_driven]

That's good of you to say. [Though he knows many people wouldn't think the same way- many people that he doesn't want to, especially. He had to intimidate people for a job, he tended to hurt strangers when he was frustrated and angry, and he knows what his role is here, especially when he's wearing the Juggernaut. That's why someone like Shinji being okay around him means a lot.]

You never made me feel like I was scary. Or that I am mean or like an idiot. Or that I am cheap and no good. [There are few good people he's going to meet here, ones with all the qualities that Niko admires in his cousin and mother, and eventually all of them will will have the goodness wrung out of them. Shinji's doing a decent job hanging onto his.]

It turns out he likes fish guts a lot. So... I know he'll eat anything but he had fun with those. [He ruins the sweet moment with that information, and then winces that he had to give it.]

[forevalone]

I don't think you are any of those things, Niko-san.

_{[It's something Shinji feels he needs to say, not just because that's legitimately how he feels, but because he knows how it feels to be told you're no good or that you're an idiot. It doesn't feel good. It feels terrible.]}

I'll try not to spoil him too much. Only sometimes.

[forevalone]

Mostly Japanese or English pop music or classical music.

_{[He may have shit taste in clothes (although thankfully not Kaworu level of style) but at least his taste in music is good...relatively. On the classical side of things, anyway.]}

[vengeance_driven]

[He smiles one of his unfortunate smiles. He knows that Shinji means it, even if so many other people in his recent past haven't. Ray Bulgarin, Dimitri Rascalov, Ray Boccino, Vlad Glebov, Jimmy Pegorino... All people that belittled him.]

[It's nice to have someone genuinely think the best of him, even if, in some ways, he knows better. He just really hopes that Shinji never has to see him be cruel to someone.]

Hey, you go have fun now. While we are having down time. You should use it.

[forevalone]

_{[Everyone's capable of cruelty, Shinji knows this all too well. Even he himself when pushed too hard has a mean streak in him. Packie's tail curls around his wrist as he shifts the creature's weight in his arms, giving Niko a small nod.]}

Okay, Niko-san. Thank you, again.

[alittlemaster]

[Well, he certainly doesn't know what the fuck pop music is, but classical he does.]

Show me.

[forevalone]

Okay...this is a girl group from England.

<sub>[Your people, Ciel. He's...actually a little nervous. He knows that Ciel's never heard anything like pop music. In fact, he'll probably hate it. He seems stuck up like that. Or maybe it'll become his guilty pleasure. Who knows...scrolling down in his list of albums Shinji reaches Spice Girls and taps on the song Stop. It starts up immediately, filtering out from the black glass.

Sure, it's nowhere near the complexity or mindblowing choral work of Beethoven's 9th symphony but it is charming in its own way. If anything, it'll get stuck in Ciel's head for days. Enjoy singing it in the shower. In fact, it takes all of Shinji's willpower to not sing along himself.]</sub>

[forevalone]

_{[He's a terrible person. He's disgusting. A coward. Pathetic. He couldn't even save just one person. A person he cared about at that. Now here he was, throwing himself at his best friend, the person he loved most of all and yet knew very little about relatively. Does it feel good? It does, but he feels guilty. This is something he's wanted so badly but this isn't how he had wanted it to play out. He's just too beside himself to care. It's not a direct answer to Kaworu's question, but it's what he gives him.]}

I love you.

_{[Kaworu is gentle and concerned, everything Shinji wants and needs but he's not perfect. Shinji's been dimly aware of this but he pushes it aside when it doesn't suit him. Like right now. All that matters right now is that Kaworu is someone he can cling to. Someone he can squeeze comfort out of.]}