Night 41: M-A Block Hallway

[tartaros-avatar.livejournal.com]

[from here]

Recluse surveyed the hallway as he stepped out into it, looking for Marcus. Nothing. He'd just have to wait and see if he'd turn up, then. He headed for the door to the cell block exit, keeping alert for any monsters that might be lying in wait. They usually seemed to take a few minutes at least to start attacking attacking, but that was no reason to act like a fool.

Comments

[141-12.livejournal.com]

"Huh?" said Otacon, belatedly. For a handful of irrational seconds, it was as if his thoughts of the little girl who called him "Uncle Hal" had summoned her to him. But then Kaworu spoke, and Otacon blinked, and the mop of silver hair and smiling pale face before him sharpened into the image of a teenage boy. A patient, like him.

He took a deep breath, and pushed himself away from the wall. "No. I mean — yes, I'm alone." He lifted his flashlight again, taking a moment to look around them before glancing back at the boy. There was something odd about him... "What about you?" Otacon asked, looking puzzled at how he seemed to be traveling without a light. "It's dangerous out here, you know. Well, so people have told me, but considering who they were, I'm not about to second-guess them."

[moral-liberty.livejournal.com]

"I am not afraid," Kaworu assured him sincerely. His eyes left the face of the human briefly and stared out into the darkened corridor. Despite all of the warnings he had overheard, there was nothing that reached him. His pulse did not quicken, and his mind did not worry. However, the man seemed uneasy. Kaworu was not sure if it was the setting or something inside of this person that made him look so much like he was lost.

"You are kind to worry about someone else in such a situation," he commented, marveling at human selflessness, even in its smallest form.

[141-12.livejournal.com]

Otacon laughed, self-consciously. "Well... compassion is what separates man from beast. Unless you're talking about dogs, I guess. Or dolphins. Wasn't there a news story awhile back about dolphins saving people from a shark?" He tilted his head as he studied the boy, remarking on his composure. Maybe he was a veteran of Landel's Institute. The number of kids in this place was starting to make Otacon feel old.

"I'm Otacon," he introduced himself. It seemed simpler to use the old nickname. "Have you... uh, met a lot of monsters before?"

[moral-liberty.livejournal.com]

"I have only arrived this day, so no, I have not," Kaworu replied thoughtfully. At least, he had never met anything monstrous in this location. And truly, he hadn't met any previously either. Excepting Lilith, perhaps. Humans would likely call her a monster. They might have classified him as one as well, if he didn't share their appearance. He was passively curious to see what it was that qualified as a monster within these walls.

Realizing that the man had introduced himself, Kaworu set his mind back on track. Otacon, he had said. It was an unusual name, and Kaworu wasted a second wondering whether or not it needed any additions. "My name is Kaworu. Nagisa Kaworu," he responded in the meantime. "You are new as well, Otacon... kun?" The suffix was a question within a question, but it seemed to fit well enough, even if Otacon was much older than he was. The adults he had known had insisted on more formality, but he was outside of that circle now, and wanted a different relationship with Otacon.

[141-12.livejournal.com]

"Only today? Oh, somehow I'd thought you were—" Otacon's voice very abruptly died in his throat when the boy spoke his name. Was this going to happen every time he spoke to someone new? Who was next, Char Aznable? Oh god, he really hoped it wasn't Char Aznable.

If Otacon had gawked at Hughes, it was nothing compared to the way he looked at Kaworu now. "Nagisa... Kaworu?" he repeated. "Oh. That's very... Um." How had he ever thought the boy looked like Sunny? Otacon attempted to distract them both from his social ineptitude by fiddling with his glasses. "Y-yeah. I'm new. Just been here a few hours. I can't believe I've only been here a few hours..." he muttered, voice trailing off.

[moral-liberty.livejournal.com]

Kaworu wasn't sure what to make of Otacon's reaction to his name. He had seemed shocked to hear it, but Kaworu didn't recognize him at all. He tried to pull out any memories relating to Otacon or Otacon's face, but it was fruitless. For a moment, he saw a worried scientist who had taken his blood on occasion when he was very young, but it had been so long ago that Kaworu remembered nothing about them besides their glasses and unhappy eyes. The image faded; it was not Otacon. He was new, though just as sad.

The other possibility was that he was an employee of Nerv or Seele that had potentially been informed of the incident. But the fact that he appeared sincerely unnerved to hear Kaworu's name suggested that Otacon was innocent. He was not here to watch Kaworu. Kaworu believed Otacon was was simply unlucky, not deceitful.

"Time is not necessarily relative to the impact of an event. More can transpire in a single moment than in years," Kaworu said, watching Otacon carefully. "Why is your heart heavy?"

[141-12.livejournal.com]

More can transpire in a single moment than in years. Truer words had never been spoken by an anime teenager who was really an angel compelled to destroy humanity. Or something. Otacon might have watched Neon Genesis Evangelion at least eleven times, but that didn't mean the plot was any more comprehensible to him.

He glanced back at Kaworu and smiled slightly, touched by the young man's perceptiveness. Even if Otacon wasn't about to unload all his burdens onto a stranger (sort of stranger, anyway), it was nice to be asked. Was this how Shinji Ikari had felt? Which... actually, was an incredibly inappropriate thought to have, wasn't it, considering Shinji's relationship to Kaworu and their decades of age difference and Kaworu's questionable maturity, not that Otacon was even thinking of the boy that way, just—

Otacon blushed bright red, and pushed his glasses more firmly into place. "I was thinking about home, that's all," he answered shortly. "Er, Kaworu, were you headed somewhere? I don't want to keep you, since I don't think it's a good idea to hang around anywhere for too long..."

[moral-liberty.livejournal.com]

"Yes, but it can wait." Outside, where he knew he would eventually have to go, all that awaited him was death. Either his, or Shinji's. Kaworu wouldn't have minded if he could somehow be assured that he wouldn't succeed, but who could say now. He only knew that he didn't want that destiny, and was no longer sure if he ever had. It was simply an irresistible pull deep within him to keep moving towards it, though he somehow found it easier than ever to push those urges aside. They had once been the feelings that defined him, but his life had since been rearranged for the better.

"I would like to come with you, if you are going somewhere," Kaworu announced, and felt none of the inner conflict he might have expected. He didn't want to find Lilith or Adam... and that was comfortable. Acceptable. Maybe he had been granted freedom after all, even if it was fleeting.

[141-12.livejournal.com]

Otacon blinked in surprise. "Really? Well... sure! I guess we newcomers should stick together. Safety in numbers, and all that." He grinned at Kaworu, feeling inexplicably cheered by the teenager's company. In a day full of confusing and unsettling events, he supposed he could do a lot worse for company than an Eva pilot. Unless that Eva pilot was Asuka, maybe. Otacon winced a little to imagine what the young woman would think of him if she were here instead.

"Come on." He pointed to the patient block exit with his flashlight.

[To here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/631176.html?thread=53569160#t53569160)]