TEST DRIVE MEME

[eternitymods]

A. RETRIEVAL Dreams fade slowly, and awareness returns in increments. The hum of machinery, the smell of recycled air, the murmurs of others waking up around you. The interior of the ship has been outfitted with cots for those Biggs and Wedge retrieve from the Dream Width. Outside of the makeshift infirmary, windows set into the walls of the worn lounge area offer a view of space. It’s time to meet your fellow new arrivals who have been brought together on Biggs and Wedge’s airship. None of you know how you came to be here or where you are going, and the door to the cockpit is locked as the pilots focus on navigating the treacherous obstacles of the Dream Width. You might as well take this moment to introduce yourself to your fellow travelers. B. CURTI CENTER There’s an almost overwhelming aura of excitement in the tower as researchers rush to document this unprecedented number of interdimensional travelers. Over the commotion, the leaders of the Center struggle to explain, ‘Welcome to Vaikuntha. We don’t know why you’ve been brought here, but this is your new home.’ The staff will do their best to help the off-worlders settle in. They answer the questions they can, provide maps and pamphlets about the world and the destinations within it, and even guide the arrivals to a neighborhood where housing has been provided for you. Yes, due to the strange influx of arrivals, you’ll be expected to share, but the Curti staff are doing the best they can under the circumstances. Experiences like these bring people together. Perhaps you are the only one here from your world, but at least you are not alone in this experience. Others are right beside you, learning the same information, planning trips to visit the same new cities, checking out these Job things, and settling in to their new (temporary) homes. C. UP IN THE SKY There’s a whole new world to explore. It’s almost enough to distract from the fact that there’s one place you can’t go- home. You are on an Airship, the main mode of transportation between the major cities of Vaikuntha. While the majority are owned by airlines, perhaps you hitched a ride with a friend that has their own. You can go anywhere in a matter of hours — One can only hope you don’t have motion sickness. D. GUILDS Proud representatives of the Guild are lined up, ready to demonstrate their skills for the new initiates. Make sure to stay behind the designated line, this might get dangerous. So you want a new Job? You'll have to first travel to the Guilds, sign the papers, go through the orientation and introductory lectures, and get basic training. Afterwards, you can freely chat and practice with your fellow members, celebrating your new powers, and checking out your new wardrobe. E. LET'S BE ADVENTURERS Separated from all of your material possessions, connections, and everything you know, and really, what you’re left with is time. Better try to make the most of it. Enough expository banter. It's explorin' time. Maybe instead of spending every day in your room, you'd rather spend it living it up in the city of Lavode, or betting on Chocobo Races in Sparks Goldsaucia. Or maybe you'd rather go and explore the caves and ruins near Arito. With Airships and Chocobos at your disposal, you can go nearly anywhere! F. SIDEQUESTS Maybe you’re telling yourself, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ But wait, you did. At least it pays. It all started when you checked the Quest Board.  All you wanted was a few gil to spend, and here you are in the wild, hunting for a Malboro Vine. Or maybe you are in some ancient and decrepit ruins looking for an artifact. Or you could be asked to be janitor for a week. Consider yourself lucky though, at least you don't have to do that alone. G. GET A JOB (THE OTHER KIND) You’ve got a Job, but Claire keeps sighing and muttering about layabout space-people not earning their keep, so it might be time to seek out Employment as well. There are plenty of opportunities to earn some gil in Vaikuntha, no matter where you choose to settle down. Your iMog slate includes listing for employment opportunities. Hopefully you can find something you can live with so that you can start saving up for an airship or the security payment for your permanent housing. H. MOGNET *Ding!* You’ve got Mog-Mail! Thankfully, you can instantaneously chat with your friends around the world thanks to you iMog Slate. And unlike old-fashioned Moogle Letters, you can even send messages to everyone in a blink of an eye! However, despite the change in technology, the old tradition of Mognet Strikes have never gone away. Nobody knows any more whether the Moogles have legitimate reasons to go on strike or if they are just lazy. But today, Mognet is down, and to get information you have no choice but going to the public boards or risk message corruption and mishandling. I. RANDOM ENCOUNTER The ground trembles, and out of nowhere, something hostile appears! Is that battle music playing? You were minding your own business walking around, and suddenly monsters attacked you! Time to put to use the skills you've learned with your Jobs! Will you try to fight on your own or seek help? And remember, you die in random battle, you die FOR REAL. There’s no shame from running from enemies that are a higher level than you! J. WILD CARD Feeling inspired to create your own prompt? The power is yours!

Comments

B.

[for_yui]

[He hadn't walked but only a few feet from his exit before he he was struck by the young boy, abruptly interrupted from his path by the unobservant and ill-focused youth that now stands in front of him.

He stood still, for but a moment, looking towards the First Child behind the reflection of frames that shrouded his eyes. Not an ounce of his expression changed, nor did a fragment of his body hint at anything more than it always had. Even in this world he was dismissive of the young boy that shared his name. He peered down, brought a hand up to his front, adjusted his clothing, and that was that.

His feet once again moved as he walked past the former pilot, stepping to the side while not uttering a single word. The only sound he leaves is that of his footsteps as he walks to retrieve himself a pamphlet of his own, plucking it up and unfolding it to read its contents silently.]

[lastnerv]

[And just like that every emotional defense he's spent the last few years away from his world building up falls apart.

For a second he thinks it's an illusion. It wouldn't be the first time another world tried to mess with his head, but in the end he realizes that's only the conclusion he wants because it will hurt less than the reality.

He stares straight ahead into empty space as his father that man walks past him. His hand opens and closes before curling into a fist so tight he can feel his nails digging into his skin.

This is stupid. This is idiotic. This is pathetic. He's not this person anymore. He shouldn't care. Move on. Don't look back. Don't let him have this power over you. It doesn't matter that you never got to speak to him again before you ended it all everything fell apart.

Instead, he does the dumb thing and speaks.]

Why are you here?

[He knows the answer. Maybe it's aimed more at the universe for allowing this.]

[for_yui]

[In any other man there would exist a complication of emotions and motivations. Other men were mindful of goals and dreams that pushed them to achieve great things. Most men were a long-line of different traits, like a ball of yarn wound too tightly, covering the innards of a simple knot that need only patience and hard work to unwind. The knot at this man's soul was the loss of his one and only love in this world, and the string that covered his soul was bound to the fate of the world. In it, there existed no thread for Shinji, a tie he himself had sought to cut long ago.

He looked toward the boy in a manner that someone might give to an invasive insect or a disgusting pest on a table of food. There was an entire world of dedicated Fathers, both in the one that he had left behind and the world they were now refugees of. Despite the change in scenery, Gendou's knot would forever remain undone, and his heart remained cold and distant just the same.]

To continue my work.

[He says it as if it makes perfect sense, as if Shinji should know what it is that he was trying to accomplish. Assumptions made callously, selfishly, all for the sake of seeing his beloved Yui again.]

Don't come looking for me. Stay out of my way and survive on your own.. If you wish to make it out of this place, of course.

[lastnerv]

[Shinji can barely hear the warning over the sound of his own heartbeat reverberating in his ears. His fist trembles. Suddenly he's three years younger, in his home world, vividly remembering the day Touji died and Kaji barely kept him from trying to strike the commander. He knows now that would mean nothing to this man. There was nothing to prove. No way to reach his heart. Maybe if he'd learned that lesson earlier his life would be different, but there's a certain kind of clarity that only comes with...well, with what Shinji has done.

He tries to think of what Mother would say, but he can't. His memories of her are still too scattered, too brief, and more importantly Shinji simply isn't her.

But he'd be damned if he'd be Gendou either.]

Your work? [His voice is still shaking, but he's trying to put every bit of confidence he's gathered the last few years into his words.] What work? NERV isn't here. The Evas aren't here.

[Shinji stares straight ahead, not willing to look back at him.]

Mother isn't here.

[for_yui]

[There's a well of thoughts and emotions he knew one could exhibit in such an altercation. Anger, frustration, contempt? Any number of expressions and attitudes would properly convey where his heart sat, but he was Gendou Ikari: the head of NERV and the key director of the Human Instrumentality Project. Despite his current location, it would betray everything he had done up until this moment to act differently, betray the very reason for why he'd shunned his son and focused solely on the project.

Yui..

His cold, uncaring and unsympathetic face remained devoid of emotion, looking to the young boy who had so coldly spoken out of place and turn.]

Fool. Such baseless, ignorant assumptions. You've truly no use for me, not even here.[He dipped his head for a moment, taking in a long breath of air before continuing.] This is a world of many Gods, and I need only one to finish what I started.

[He clenched his glove-less hands, flexing the joints and muscles of his fingers as he felt the pull of callused skin of burn-formed scars of long ago.]

Do you have anything else to say to further waste my time?

[lastnerv]

[This second reunion was different from their first. Not just because of the passage or time or because Shinji had been through even more pain and joy and understanding since the last time they spoke - the day of Third Impact for him, who knows when for Gendou. This time there was nothing this man had to left hold over his head. No Ayanami. No Evangelion. Not even the idea of respect or approval or love that Shinji once wanted so much he was willing to nearly die for it again and again, a desire that died the same night Touji did.

Maybe this thought, that there was nothing left to expect from Gendou, gave him the push to voice what he really wanted to.]

Yeah. One more thing.

[Living for a few years in a world full of superheroes gave Shinji examples of how things like "self-confidence" worked beyond Asuka's own attempts to hide her true self. He still didn't have much (or really any) of that as far as he knew, but he could try to imitate. Try to make it real.

He looks back at his father.]

If you try to hurt anyone here, I will stop you. I won't let things turn out like before.

[for_yui]

[There was a tinge of difference, a flavor in the boy's voice he had never heard before. It is then that he finally begins to step back towards the boy, feet carrying the weight of years upon years of searching and plotting.. feet that had walked the hundreds or so miles of trepidation and hope in seeing the one thing that ever brought him joy or comfort. Here before him, his own flesh and blood, was now ironically opposing him just as he, a child of Adam, had been seeking to destroy the Father that he created him.]

You will stop me? And just how do you plan on doing so? Will you run away to the countryside here? Find a new Aunt and Uncle?

[Fingers pluck the glasses which cover his eyesight, the need to obstruct his vision no longer necessary as there's no reason to hide behind the curtain any longer.]

What can a boy hope to do? You are nothing but a petulant child that's forgotten himself.

[His eyes remain fixated on Shinji. Gendou doesn't blink, nor does he waver away or look to his peripherals, not while the one thing that could topple everything he's ever dreamed and worked for was vocally opposing him.]

I do not need the Evangelion units, nor do I need the comforts of NERV to accomplish things. Ask yourself; what are you without EVA Unit-01? Do you truly believe that you've some part in anything here? That this world will some day know change simply because Shinji Ikari now exists here?

There is more importance to the motes of dust which float in the morning air here than there is to you.

You are a child, without purpose, without placement. Do not waste your time thinking otherwise. You cannot stop the march of progress when the wheels have been turning for ages, long before you were even a thought.

[He stands a mere foot or so from him now, looking down upon the boy as verses from scripture pass through his thoughts.]

If you are to hold onto any memories of me, than let my final words with you sink in.. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."