Chapter 2: Hostage Situation

Sicarius07 · 3:59am

Chloe O'Rourke

Dark080matterHe knew! It was something that was supposed to be a secret, and yet he knew. The NERV people would be so mad if they found out, especially if they thought Chloe was the one who spilled the beans! She blushed a bit as he got close to her, like he might at any minute ask her out. She backed up a little more. "Sorry...what?" She tried her best to feign ignorance.

Samaelryn · 3:59am

=Amanda Loup-Archambault=

Samaelryn
"Who's the pretentious one now? English is still a new language to me, fool. Get lost." Amanda turned her chair to roll off and find something more interesting to read about where, hopefully, she wouldn't have to put up with this nuisance.

Ekman · 3:59am

Jack

dark080matter
"What? Nah, I said he was creepy. She. Whatever."

He looks around awkwardly when she collapses in despair. "You, uh, need somethin'? You seem pretty down."

Dark080matter · 4:00am

Sicarius07The boy adopts a nervous expression and sits back a bit.

"So, uh... sure. Probably just a misunderstanding, haha. I saw some of those crazy underground videos on, uh, Youtube, right before they got censored or whatever, and I just kind of figured..."

He seems at a loss of how to continue the conversation. After a moment he furiously grabs a cellphone (a dingy-looking grey slider model) and begins texting somebody, probably out of embarrassment.

EkmanThe girl ceased shaking and relaxed, although her gaze was still directed at the floor.

"I guess I'm just so bad with crowds, it's all really overwhelming at times. It's nice... just to know that you're here."

Cryptic. Before you can begin to sort through the meaning of the unusual comment, she shudders and grabs out wildly with a hand, gaining a valiant hold on your sleeve.

"They're coming toward us! I don't care what you have to say, just make them... please make them leave..."

Mask_De_H; EkmanGoing off the assumption that you do indeed mean to walk towards Jack and the mystery girl.

As Renton approaches the bench where Jack and the girl are sitting, he can see that there is some kind of situation at play here. The plainly-dressed girl, whose face is partially hidden from you by her long dark hair and the fact that she's staring at Jack's shoes, abruptly reaches out and grabs his sleeve to whisper something to him. Tough to say what Jack's reaction is from this angle...[/private]
[private=Samaelryn]The weird girl continues to giggle to herself as you wheel away, pausing only for one last quick jab.

"Ah, the première dame is too cool to stay and talk, huh? A big je m'en fous to you too!"

Her ensuing hyena-like laughter rings in your ears as you roll away. Over in a distant corner of the Egyptian exhibit, you can see Jack standing near a bench through some intervening crowd. Looks like he might be accompanied by someone. In another direction Pala stands talking to some kid you've never seen before who is wearing jeans and a long-sleeve dark shirt.

Ambon · 4:00am

Paul

Sicarius07 · 4:00am

Chloe

dark080matter
"It's ok. I'll take the phone and just say I found it left on a sink in the bathroom. I never saw you." Thankful to dodge the issue, but now she got curious. "Er, um...what videos?"

Samaelryn · 4:01am

=Amanda Loup-Archambault=

Dark080Matter
Jack was still an unknown to her, and at least he wasn't as much of a nuisance as that weird kid, Renton. So she'd roll in his direction, trying to see who he was talking to before she would approach them. If it was Renton, she would wheel around and head the other way, not wanting to deal with his attitude right now any more than she had wanted to deal with the girl she'd just gotten away from.

Dark080matter · 4:02am

Sicarius07The kid at the table brightened further.

"Yeah, that's cool. Here you go."

He hands you the Nerv cell phone. It is a bit scratched up and the battery is dead, but otherwise it doesn't look too bad off.

"Oh, yeah, you never saw those? So cool! Hang on, I saved one of the best ones on my other phone. Good thing too, they got removed the next day."

He produces a model with a wide touch screen and navigates to a media player, then offers it to you as the brief (3 minutes and change long, it appears) video plays. Due to proximity to collapsing buildings or some other unnamed hazard, the cameraman's focus was obviously less on framing and composing his scene well and more on mere survival.

The action of the video is blurry and indistinct, but you think you recognize the closing moments of your battle with Zuriel. The poor resolution of the home video does little justice to your memories of the other Evas and the monstrous polyhedral arrangement of malign geometry that you battled. In fact on this screen Zuriel looks like nothing so much as a weird hazy blur in the air that might easily be missed for all of the shaking and grainy video compression artifacts of the rest of the footage. Intervening buildings and the constant lunging and motion of the combatants means that the camera stays focused on any individual EVA for no longer then 2 seconds at most, and half of the time it is out of focus. There is no accompanying sound.

The kid watches along with you for the first half a minute, making no editorial comments and instead observing Chloe's reactions with surreptitious side-glances, before becoming involved in a furious text-messaging war with his earlier cell-phone, leaving the video to you.

Samaelryn, Ekman, Mask_De_HAs Amanda wheeled closer to Jack she could see that he was accompanied. Sitting at a bench in front of him was a taller girl roughly your age, with long unkempt dark hair and wearing a slightly rough navy-blue sweater. Her gaze is directed at the ground, and she seems to have grabbed Jack's sleeve in a plaintive hand-hold.

Meanwhile from the opposite direction, just winding his way around a preserved fragment of the Sphinx's face, comes Renton, obviously intent on approaching the two as well. Suddenly he stops, his hand digging nonchalantly into a pocket. Then he retrieved his cell phone and took a phone call, pacing around the foot of the display out of your hearing distance.

Mask_De_HI'll let you decide who is important enough to warrant Renton's attention in a brief phone conversation, as well as the substance of the call and it's duration (ie. how long before you return to the scene). Doctor MacShea or Renny (assuming that the fragments of her distaff personality in Renton's head don't have some weird psychic link to her separate physical body and 'soul', which only makes sense) are two likely candidates

Samaelryn · 4:02am

=Amanda Loup-Archambault=

Dark080MatterPausing to look at the display next to her, Amanda soon turned back around to avoid having to deal with Renton and headed off in a random direction, not caring where she ended up as long as it wasn't near that baboon.

Ekman · 4:02am

Jack

dark080matter, Samaelryn, Ekman

The girl is starting to seriously weird him out now, but she did have a point - that clone kid was creepy and pretty annoying, so he was all for ditching the scene while the distraction lasted.

"Alright, let's go then." Hauling her up with his sleeve, he starts leading her in the opposite direction. But he immediately bumps into another acquaintance. The bossy one who speeds around angrily.

"Uh, hi." He says, hesitating. He isn't sure if he should stop or if Amanda is just as bad as Renton and he should keep walking.