[Aerith is right-- Shinji isn't in any of the fancy cars. The arrangement for him to go to Ouran was something his dad set up before he died, part of the whole package of signing your child's life away. It wasn't even him it was made for; Shinji has seen enough of the agreement to know that him benefitting from it was an afterthought. It had been a bribe for other children's parents, something to entice adults who actually loved their children and cared about their futures.]
[But Gendo died in an underground lab along with what was left of Shinji's mother, so he isn't around to point out that Shinji was always meant to be an exception to any benefits of the EVA project. They set him up with a shoebox of a studio apartment and signed him up for one of the most prestigious high schools in the country.]
[He has headphones in as he walks out of the building, head down the whole way. It's been a couple of days since he started attending again, and any attention the long absence had earned him has died down. He's back to his own little bubble, unsure how to talk to Haruhi or Kasanoda, and even less sure if he even wants to. Are they disappointed that they rescued him only for him to refuse to fight? They aren't pressuring him, but it sounds like everyone else they helped signed up right away.]
[It doesn't matter. He can't summon Archangel again. He can't bear Kaworu's face looking at him outside of photographs. The last persona had a piece of his mother in it, and if he's somehow trapped some bit of Kaworu's soul inside of him, well-- he definitely isn't going to use it as a weapon.]
[He's still stewing on it, and likely will for weeks to come. He doesn't notice Aerith as he walks through her line of sight, staring fixedly at the sidewalk, music on.]
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winterfish
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Date: 2021-06-10 05:04 pm (UTC)[But Gendo died in an underground lab along with what was left of Shinji's mother, so he isn't around to point out that Shinji was always meant to be an exception to any benefits of the EVA project. They set him up with a shoebox of a studio apartment and signed him up for one of the most prestigious high schools in the country.]
[He has headphones in as he walks out of the building, head down the whole way. It's been a couple of days since he started attending again, and any attention the long absence had earned him has died down. He's back to his own little bubble, unsure how to talk to Haruhi or Kasanoda, and even less sure if he even wants to. Are they disappointed that they rescued him only for him to refuse to fight? They aren't pressuring him, but it sounds like everyone else they helped signed up right away.]
[It doesn't matter. He can't summon Archangel again. He can't bear Kaworu's face looking at him outside of photographs. The last persona had a piece of his mother in it, and if he's somehow trapped some bit of Kaworu's soul inside of him, well-- he definitely isn't going to use it as a weapon.]
[He's still stewing on it, and likely will for weeks to come. He doesn't notice Aerith as he walks through her line of sight, staring fixedly at the sidewalk, music on.]