That made it easier for her to take a cup from the counter and hand it to the man sitting at her kitchen table. "Here you go. Hope you like coffee."
"If my wife's to be believed, I live on the stuff," Togusa joked as he took the cup and steaming liquid. "But still.... You might have picked something else...."
"It is what most of the other wives serve. Besides, remember what they say about cops and coffee."
"How many people from how many worlds are on this planet, and we still go by that? And weren't you a cop too?" he drawled, giving her a pointed look.
"The important part is 'was'. I gave that all up a long time ago, back when I found that there were other things for me to do. More important things."
"You haven't thought of going back?"
"It's not about 'thought'," she murmured, sitting down and rolling her own cup of coffee between her hands. "I have a life that I love, and a family to match. So, even if I do wonder about what it would be like to be a cop again once in a while, I never even really consider it."
"Other stuff's too important."
"You know those women who want to leave the force when they get married, or something like that? I never expected to be one of them, but here we are. Between getting shot at by a delirious junkie and attending my daughter's school fair, I'll pick the latter."
A small chuckle passed his lips. "I can see what you mean. Trying to get to my daughter's school play can be something of a challenge."
"Pretty much."
"It had to be something... different though, since you weren't brought up with the sort of thing me or your husband were.... Which does make me wonder about what it was like to be a cop when you were a...."
"'Robot'? Is that what you were going to say?" Naomi asked, her expression oddly bland.
"No... not exactly. I don't quite see you as a robot...."
"Oh, really."
"When I think of robots, I think of assembly lines, or those little machines that they use to clean floors. You're more of a... an android," he finished, looking rather like he was still trying to figure out what he meant. "Not that I know much about the difference between you and others. Where I come from, the best that we get are general units like our operators. Great if you need the typing done, or want someone to set up equipment, but not exactly the best talkers."
"Ah, I know what you mean. We had the 'Seconds' on Mars. Lots of people, 'human' people hated them simply because they were there, I suppose. They claimed that the Seconds were 'unnatural', or that they were taking jobs from the 'rightful' human workers, but the thing was that they tended to do things that most people would find boring or useless. And they sure as hell would keep the cost down for a company."
"Excuse me if I seem rude, but aren't they sort of like... your... relatives or something?"
This time it was Naomi who laughed. "Come on now. Those dolls? Much as I didn't like seeing them trashed, or having to deal with perverts, the fact is that dealing with them was like trying to discuss a problem with my toaster. You only get frustrated, and the problem's still there."
"And you are...."
"A 'Third', and happy to be one... sort of. Oh, it's a bother when you realize that you're different than a lot of people, but still.... We can think for ourselves, act on our own, and feel. Which is what got me here."
"Then you must be happy that you and the other Thirds are here...." he commented, looking sympathetic.
"You didn't dig deep into my background, did you?" she asked, giving him a droll look.
"No, not really. I didn't want to intrude...."
Stretching her arms over her head, the gynoid clearly tried to work some stress out of her small frame. "We weren't created to be workers, or as some sort of science experiment. No, they wanted to create us to be brood mares. Or just basically walking artificial wombs."
"Then the ones here...."
"Most of them came from after we were brought here, either made by those... guys who transported everyone to this planet, or by the companies and government. Or they were simply hiding out when things turned bad for us."
"'Bad'?"
"The government, the Mars government, had created us to help with the underpopulation of the colony. You know, create a bunch of babes, let them contribute to society, get some lucky shmuck to knock them up. Only thing was that Earth, the one that I knew, went and made a treaty with Mars so that they'd send new settlers. Only catch was that us 'Thirds' had to go. And that meant permanently."
"Ouch. Guess they didn't particularly care...."
"Not really. In fact, we came off of a project that created assassin units. Bunch of guys based off a scientist from the group that made them, all of which were as nutty as could be. Nasty jerkoffs too. The government sent them in to cause a big stink so that it'd be easy to get rid of them."
"Only they had you to deal with," the detective murmured.
"Pretty much. Messed up their plans but good. See, the others were made for arts and stuff, but me? I was made able to fight. And so I did."
"And now you've settled down to a nice life, where you don't have to tell me anything that I couldn't have found out already."
"Glad you understand. Though it's too bad that I'll never get to be with some of the others...." Naomi sighed, taking a moment to let herself feel a bit down.
It wasn't what one would call a 'facility', as there wasn't exactly much to it. In a cave far from the bustle of civilization on the planet, there was a single clear tube with monitoring equipment attached to it. Within that tube floated a single female form, but it was clearly not a 'natural' one. Rather, exposed bits of her flesh showed an electronic nature for her, with synthetic tissue seeming to grow slowly over artificial bones in the areas that were not already showing soft and perfectly smooth hair.
And on a plate on the tube were words, including one in particular, 'Armitage'.
Hanging around the sinks off of the school's sports fields was not something that Asuka normally did, but then she didn't feel like rushing off to go and run the track. She'd have much rather relaxed, and she could do that perfectly well right were she was. It wasn't the most comfortable place around, but she didn't mind.
Besides, Shinji still wasn't done wiping off his hands, and she didn't want to have him drag his feet in getting back to class.
"Man, how long does it take to clear off a bit of dirt?" she asked, holding her arms behind her back in a pose that would have interested more than a few boys in the school.
Shinji merely continued with his washing. "I had to really dig into the mud to get that stuff out, so it'll take a bit more than normal."
"Great. Guess we'll be stuck her for a lot of the period then."
"You could get back to class."
"What?" she scoffed, turning her head to look down her nose at him. "And leave you here to idle around like some loser?"
"I can handle myself, you know."
"But why should you, when I'm around?"
"Because I'll have to do it when you're not around?" came his return question, something stubborn coming up in his tone.
"What would you do where I wouldn't be around?"
"I don't know.... But I'm thinking about it."
Hearing that made her stop in her tracks, and her surprise showed as she turned to look at him with wide eyes. "You... what?"
"There's plenty of things that I can do here, and I can pick now, so.... I've been wondering if I should do that."
"Do what? You haven't said... though you might want to think about...."
"You know, I figure that I've done nothing except for thinking. And I have been feeling interested in doing one thing...."
"Really?" Asuka asked, looking hopeful. "What is it? Working on your cello?"
"No. Not that I have much talent in anything."
"Oh, come on! Don't start with that stuff! I'm sure that there are going to be plenty of jobs that you can do...."
"About the only thing that I have done is be a pilot. And that's what I've been thinking of doing...." he trailed off.
"What?"
"I've been thinking about taking some lessons in piloting mechs. Like labors or Valkyries, or something like that."
The redhead planted her hands on her hips and sent him a look of confused questioning. "But why would you want to do that?"
"It's just... I was supposed to make everyone in the world into an orange jam! What would that really mean for me? I mean, everyone knows what my future was going to be, and so that's all that I'll be known for."
"And that's why you want to pilot? Just to avoid being known as a patsy?!"
"No!" he barked, and squeezed the soap for a bit before sighing. "It's just.... My friends are all here. Rei, Toji, Kensuke, Hikari, Misato.... I want to do something to help them, and piloting is all that I know."
"Humph. And so you just want to get into a fight, is that it?"
"Of course not. But.... I've just been thinking that I might see if I really could do it. Or if I should have been doing it in the first place."
"How stupid. If you're going to try this trick, then you should do it because you have a calling or something! Not simply because you have something to prove, idiot!"
"You don't get it."
"Is that so? Then why don't you explain it to me?"
"Argh! How can I protect you if I don't do something to be ready to do something?!" the teenaged boy snapped, glaring at her for one long moment before turning away. "Anyway, we'd better get back to class before the teacher gets mad."
"Shinji...."
"I'm... done washing my hands."
She watched him walk away, but Asuka couldn't make herself do anything to stop him. Confusion made it hard to know what would be the best course of action, as she didn't know what to make of his behavior. Instead, she wondered if she'd missed something other than a simple overreaction to what they'd learned about the 'truth' of what the 'Third Impact' would have been.
Whatever it was, she knew that it was important, while:
(Posted Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:57)
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