(no subject)
WHO: Coop Kaplowski, Amuro Ray, Shinji Ikari, Haman Karn, Yzak Joule, Mint Blancmanche
WHEN: Last night
WHERE: Paranormal New Jersey, at Habib's Taco Emporium, and later in Paris
WHAT: Coop invites some of the sheep out for Eat 100 Tacos, Get 100 Free Night. Things start out pretty normal, and then he shows them the MEGAS. And then it gets less normal.
WATCH FOR: Lacus Haman, the dangers of not wearing a seatbelt, a stowaway passenger, and soda.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "Oh, right, tacos. I'll m-meet you guys there. Wanna come, Asuka?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "...Y-you can take yours around town?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray is either horrified, jealous, or both.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Uh, yeah! What're they gonna do, gimme a ticket?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Koji Kabuto says, "I like that way of thinking."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Toji Suzuhara says, "What, does it turn into a car?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Naw. My car's on top."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Toji Suzuhara says, "Oh. Neat."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "I try to bring Megas with me, though, just in case something attacks when I'm eating."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "D-does that happen a lot?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Yeah, pretty much."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Wow."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "...you seem kind of, I don't know, calm about that."
Welcome to Coop's hometown in Jersey (official motto: Giant Monster/Robot Attack-Free Since Saturday), where men are men and women are fawned over. The giant blue mecha known as Megas is currently standing in the parking lot of a little strip mall just down the street from a DMV, wedged neatly in between a Volkswagen Bug and currently crushing a Ford Explorer.
Coop Kaplowski is currently esconced at a table in Habib's Taco, accompanied by both a pale, heavily-clothed slacker and a smoking hot redhead in futuristic gear. There is a large pile of tacos sitting on the table in front of Coop - Jamie and Kiva have each taken two, and are currently working on them.
"What're you waiting for, Coop?" Jamie asks through a mouthful of meat. "this isn't like you."
"Ah," he says, waving it off. "I wanna meet the new guys. besides, I got another 100 coming after these ones right? I don't mind waiting."
Kiva rolls her eyes. "There's also the fact that you stopped for a chili dog on the way."
Coop raises an eyebrow. "What? You have something against chili?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "You know how I just kind of go 'oh crap, launching!' whenever a battalion of armed soldiers in giant robots attack our understaffed ship base nowadays? I bet it's like that."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Well...I dunno if it's like that. I mean, if they show up and start destroying the store, usually I don't have to pay."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Toji Suzuhara says, "......."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "And then I get to trash them for it. It's a sweet deal."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "...maybe I /am/ the only one who angsts about it..."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Angsts about what?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Toji Suzuhara says, "Don't worry about it, man."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "n-nothing. Sorry."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Anyway, if you're coming, hurry up - these things are getting cold."
It wasn't too hard to find the right taco place. Amuro was told to find a giant blue robot, and the robot that he stood staring at in the parking lot for about ten minutes was in fact big, blue, and a robot. And he had to keep himself from staring at it not because it was so out-of-place, not because it was squishing other cars, but because it was a tricked-out machine in a way that made his little engineer heart flutter a little.
But tacos call, so he does drag himself into the resturaunt, glancing around. "Uh, hey, we're looking for Coop, I think it was?" This will mean that a boy in a jacket and oil-patched jeans with remarkably 70s-style curly hair is standing in the doorway.
Shinji Ikari feels vaguely depressed. In other words, normal, with a light dash of annoyed thanks to the big old road map of Jersey he's trying to read while walking along the road. "Man, you w-wouldn't think switching sides of the road-aah!" Shinji hops back away from the road as a car swerves a little too broadly, promptly trips over a Big Mac carton, slips for a few seconds as he vainly tries to get his balance, stops as he almost has it, waving his arms just a little...
"Waugh!" And falls flat on his ass. Glad he's wearing his long shorts and yellow-with-a-black-squiggly-stripe shirt, as they provide a lot more padding than his school uniform, Shinji rubs his hip and looks a little balefuly at Captain Fro over there. And then he looks up at the giant blue robot he somehow missed.
Sighing lightly, Ikari the Younger carefuly folds up the road map, stuffs it in his pocket, and hurries after his friend. "S-sorry, I got a little, um, lost."
Coop Kaplowski beams a grin and stands up, raising a hand. "Yo!" he bellows as he moves forward toward the other two Black Sheep. Kiva also stands up, being polite. Jaime steals one of Coop's tacos.
"Hey, boys. You must be Ray and, uh, I didn't catch your name, guy. I'm Coop!" he holds out a hand.
*BWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
Smiling, happy face.
*BWEEEEeeeee*
Torn sleeves.
*bweeeee*
Jeans and wallet chain.
*bweee....eeee....eeeeee.....*
Huge gut.
"Come on, let's sit down!" Coop moves back toward the table. "Pull up a chair. This is Kiva, and Jaime." Jaime waves, but Kiva smiles politely. "I'm Kiva," she says evenly. "It's nice to meet you both."
Amuro blinks in a little bit of surprise, but then, Coop did look kind of fat in the visual. And Ryu Jose was fat, but he's a competent soldier! So it doesn't...mean anything how someone looks or dresses, it's their spirit! This is what he tells himself as he offers a handshake and a grin, and then grabs a chair. "Amuro Ray, from the Earth Federation Forces. Nice to meet all three of yooohmygosh that is a lot of tacos."
He stares for a second at the table.
"I have seriously never seen that many tacos in one place."
Shinji Ikari's eyes widen and his left hand falls to the side, starting to softly squeeze a little. Maybe its a nervous twitch. Swollowing, Shinji takes the precious seconds Amuro speaking first gives to try and formulate a reply that won't be completly humiliating. Meanwhile, in the train of thought running through the Third's mind...
"That. Guy. Looks." begins Action! Shinji, the psychopomp wearing Unit-01's plug suit with a dashingly red NERV Operations jacket and sporting a mild set of sideburns, "AWESOME! All-RIGHT, we're in a tournament, we've got FIGHTING TEAM, and now we have the fat guy! We're well on our way to being a SHINING force for justice! DA HA HA HA-houff!"
This houff is a reply to Housebroken Shinji, a meek looking man wearing jeans and an oversized sweater that both are rolled in a way to make him look vaguely femminine-the green apron helps, elbowing Action! Shinji in the guy. "Tsk. I think that man's /made/ of grease...between the recluse and the two delinquents at school...tsk tsk, you really can't find anyone decent who'll put up with you..."
Ignoring Housebroken Shinji's nagging, Lil'Shinji, who was in the show so I'm not describing him, peeks a little closer. "Tacos." he mutters, vaguely.
Shinji's eyes roll a little at the sheer wall of indicesion that just hit him. 'Maybe my stomach's still upset from...' Shinji eyes the small army of meaty tacos and feels a little sick, 'not...gonna think about that.' "Um..." instead, he offers his hand to Coup, smiling a little. "Shinji Ikari. T-third Child...I, ah, p-pilot Evangelion Unit-01. N-nice to meet you all."
Coop Kaplowski shakes hands with each in turn, firm handgrip and one pump and then down. He laughs a little at Amuro. "Naah," he says as he sits down. "This is just the first hundred. C'mon, guys, siddown. Dig in."
The big jersey boy unwraps his first taco and takes a large bite - comprising half the taco - out of it, chewing noisily, a bit of beef grease dripping down toward his chinbeard. Coop wipes the grease away with a thumb and then puts the rest into his mouth, crunching happily.
"So," Kiva says, leaning in toward Shinji with interest, speaking in her warm contralto voice. "You're a robot pilot as well? That's really quite impressive for someone of such a young age. Where did you learn to do it?"
"First hundred, huh." Amuro decides not to worry too much about it, even if he is a little astonished, and just starts on one of the tacos. It isn't bad, a little too much tomato for his taste, and he finds he can eat and concentrate on the conversation just fine as long as he ignores how Coop is eating. "Well, I'm in the military," he explains, "and they're standard-issue for us, though mine's a little different. Shinji's...eh, I'll let him explain." He doesn't want to put his friend on the spot, but NERV still confuses him.
"But what about you? The Commander hasn't told me much 'bout you guys. Do all three of you pilot the, uh, Megas? -Oh, uh, pass the hotsauce."
Shinji Ikari, being a red blooded 15 year old boy with abandonment issues, very naturaly thinks 'g-gulp' and 'gawrsh, ma'am' and then she brings up EVA and Amuro passes him the buck. Shinji makes a mental note to continue to not help with Haro. Actualy gulping, Shinji puts a little hot sauce on his taco-
"Go ooooon." A green eyes, red lipped Shinji mutters, "Tell her! Its a great story for the dinner table."
Swollowing a little, Shinji says, "Well, um, w-we're...the only ones who can." Shinji pauses. "Oh, s-sorry. In my plane...Ayanami, Asuka, Toji, and I are the o-only ones who can p-pilot. I think it h-has something to do with being b-born right after Second Impact, but..." Shinji shrugs a little. "..a-anyway, its kind of a b-boring story. H-how about you guys?"
Jaime reaches across the table to hand Amuro a couple of packets as Kiva nods at Shinji. "Well, I'm a soldier from the future of this world, which was taken over by the Glorft. We built a machine to send back in time to a crucial battle, only it ended up in this world. Unfortunately, the Time Circuit was damaged, and Coop had already stolen it."
"Hey!" Coop says, pointing half a taco at Kiva accusingly. "I didn't steal nothin' - Two bucks, anythin' in the pile."
"Yeah, Kiva," Jamie says, smirking. "If Megas was all that important, you shouldn't have lost it int he first place. Anyway, Coop beat you for it, fair and square."
Coop and Jamie exchange a series of fist-punches, because their friendship is just that metal.
"Anyhow," Kiva says, rolling here eyes, "I'm stuck here until the Time Circuit can be repaired. And Coop is the only one who can pilot Megas with all of the modifications he's put in."
Amuro swallows, considering this for a second. One the one hand, that's pretty rotten in a way; he's from what /would/ be the war-torn future, minus aliens, and he'd be pretty miffed if his world-saving tech got yoinked.
On the other hand, that's a really sweet big robot.
So he just nods a little, not wanting to piss off Coop or Kiva. "Well, if what I've heard is right, you do a good job with it. I kinda wish I could do that with the Gundam, you know, modify it. I can modify it a /little,/ but only as much as the military allows. It's been a pain, especially lately..."
Shinji Ikari blinks. Hrm. "We've g-got an alien problem ourselves." Shinji /thinks/ they're aliens, at least. He hopes they are. "Its n-not like it could g-go back anyway, until the time...thing's repaired, so, um, I'm s-sore Mister Kaplowski will help f-fight them once you guys get back?"
He actualy looks a little more comfortable, and smiles a little at Coop. "Unit-01's kind of f-finnicky like that too." Its an understatement, but, 'Gee, Mister, its such a relief to hear someone else is going through that, does yours tell you to kill things too?' is sort of a heavy topic for taco night, Shinji decides. "I, um, didn't really get much training, though, Miss Kiva-I was kind of d-drafted. You'd w-want to ask Asuka or Ayanami about t-that...they've been training since they were, like, five."
It was supposed to be a simple reconassaince mission. She told Lt. Cello to go in, find out more about these alternative universe Gundam pilots and report back to her. He did and brought back evidence of a woman vaguely similar to herself... but of a much different sort. Where she is a military leader and advocate of Newtype rights (if not out and out Newtype supremacy) her 'counterpart' is merely a former idol singer and current peace activist. Still, apparently she has started a fashion trend and there appears to already be one girl parading around, looking like this Lacus Clyne person so Haman figures, why not try it herself? At least dressing in those filmy, purple, white and pink gowns no one will suspect who and what she truly is.
So, slipping the yellow barette/tracking device and link to her fleet into her pink hair, Haman strides out of the little girl's room near the taco shop in the center of the Paranormal square. She puts a happy smile on her face, trying as hard as she can to look friendly and not at all sinister. Too bad for her she's walking past a table where someone might just recognize her, even as she strolls by in a long putple skirt, white top with floofy sleeves and a low-cut collar. It's the latest from the Clyne line of clothes, ask for them by name anywhere in Orb.
Coop Kaplowski smirks. "It's Coop, kid. I ain't Mister nothin'. And hey, I been trainin' since I was about four myself!" He polishes off another taco, then starts ticking off on his fingers. "Started on Pong, then went up to the Italian Bros. games, then Double Ninja Ninja Force, and from there it was pretty much every game I could put my hands on." He beams. "You're lookin' at the Tri-State high score holder for Meteorites, kid. I done plenty of trainin'."
Kiva chews slowly and bows her head, trying her best not to throw up. Or murder Coop.
"Anyway, Ray, if yer worried that much, why don'tcha just quit the military?" Coop grins. "Or, hell, just do whatever you want with it. You're the pilot, right? Hey, I could show you some neat tricks." He looks up at Habib. "Hey! Can we get these to go? I gotta take these guys for a ride." Habib gives a noncommital grunt, picks up a large bag, walking over piling the 40-odd remaining tacos into it.
"Come on!" Coop says, pulling his keys out of his pocket and walking toward the door, slinging the Bag o' Tacos over one shoulder. "Let's go see Megas."
"Weeell," Amuro notes as he finishes off his taco and quietly ponders whether or not video games are actually training or not, considering his own geeky history, "I can't really do that right now. I can't quit, because they need me to--"
Once the Pink Haired Girl who is No One Special walks by, he doesn't even need to turn around and see her face. Strong Newtypes have a pretty familiar 'presence,' and in Haman Karn's case, it sets off the psychic part of the young pilot's brain like a camera flash. Dammit dammit dammit not now want to see the robot go away bitchy Zeon lady! But he does stands, trying to hide his sudden and seemingly inexplicable shocked expression. "Uhhh, you guys go on ahead, I'll be right there! Just gonna get a Cherry Dr. Pibb to go real quick!"
Why is he glaring in the direction of the pink-haired girl?
Shinji Ikari blinks. Video games? Shinji then thinks for a second about every third word out of Asuka's mouth. That actualy makes sense. Then he pictures Rei playing Super Space Pong, and nearly snorts his drink out of his nose. He tries not to be mean about Rei's Reiness, but come on now, that's just funny. "Um, your r-robot? S-sure..."
Shinji does blink when Amuro gets That Look. That Look has been directed at /him/ before, as well as pasted on the young psychic's face when he's talked about his various archrivals. "Um, y-yeah, I need to u-use the bathroom, be right there..."
"Amuro," Shinji taps what he learned from Mr. Kaji when his evil dad had him infiltrate the Syndicate, muttering softly while looking at the menu and standing hunched over at the ground as if he were trapped in a oppressive cloud of gloom and self-loathing. He does this a lot, so it looks pretty natural, "Why are you glaring at the pink-haired girl?"
Haman Karn feels the sudden psychic shock of contact with another Newtype. She stops in her tracks and turns, eyes narrowing again for a second as she sees who it is. Letting them widen again and a happy, bubbly smile to slip over her face, the young woman waves to Amuro outwardly, while at the same time using her own psychic skills to make him feel her warning him not to make a scene. It's not verbal, just an edgy feeling, an unspoken promise of BAD THINGS(tm) to come if he spoils her disguise this early in the game.
"Hi there boys!" She says in her chirpy voice. "Oh and lady," she waves to Kiva. "Did I say someone say something about a robot? I love robots! You should see my home, lots and lots of robots back there." She is going to have to do something to counterract being so chirpy right now, maybe kick a puppy when she gets back to Axis, or attack the Argama.
Coop Kaplowski frowns at....well, pretty much everyone except Kiva and Jamie. Boy, they're acting weird. "Uh...yeah, robot," he says, making his way toward a red hot rod parked beside a gigantic blue mecha.
The car itself is a candy-apple red 1970 Plymouth Hemi Barracuda Convertible, complete with the classic Shaker hood scoop. Various joysticks, buttons and levers takes up most of the dash, topped by a little hula girl in a grass skirt. Coop pops the locks and starts to clamber inside. Jamie takes shotgun wordlessly, as Kiva slides into the back.
"I'd give ya a ride, lady, but I've only got room for three in the back."
Jamie snorts, rolling down his window. "I ain't staying. She ain't hot enough for that."
Amuro, for the record, really does grab a 32 oz. Cherry Dr. Pibb. He also coughs at Shinji in a way that sounds a little like 'hmman khnn,' and then flashes a happy and fake grin at the mysterious girl. "Oh, yeah, robots are great, aren't they? Do you wanna the outside of it, at least? See, it's right there!" He does a slightly exaggerated point at the Megas and oh god that car is a convertible isn't it NO CONCENRATE AMURO CONCENTRATE. Instead, he hops over the door and into the backseat of hot rod, drink in hand, looking up at the mecha. "Yeah, it is something..."
Meanwhile, he responds with his mind directed at Haman in something that still can't be defined in real words, but is more like the psionic equivalent of 'words cannot describe how much I hate you, you realize that, right.'
Shinji Ikari blinks. It takes him a minute because of Amuro's FILTHY Canadian accent, but Shinji has the benefit of knowing only one bad guy who's 1) A girl. 2) Makes Amuro go all "Woah dude I can SEE TIME and it looks like one of my girl comics." and 3) Well, okay, she sounds way to perky but...
'Run.'
'Yeah, run, dude.'
'Oh man oh man ohmanohmanohman'
'I bet we could beat her to death with a chair and no one would notice just pick it up and start /swinging/ oooooh yeah that'd be awesome man just swing and swing and-'
Shinji holds his left arm, says, "E-e-e-excuse me." and heads to the Little Boy's Room.
Haman Karn blinks and pouts a little, putting her hands on her hips and sighing. "Fine, I'll just watch from here." She feels Amuro's projected hatred, it's kind of off-putting considering she really doesn't hate him. If she did, well, she'd have shot him in the back of the head waaaaay back when instead of just pistol-whipping him into unconsciousness. See, she's not -ALL- bad.
She looks over to see Shinji duck into the Little Coward's Room and sighs. She actually has NO idea who he is, not being up on her Syndicate files (Shadow will be disappointed) but she wonders if he's some kind of fake Newtype like those Coordinator freaks and just reacting to her superior existence in a negative manner. "Well," she says to Coop and friends, "I'll be here when you get back. Just, show me what it can do! I wanna see!"
Coop Kaplowski shrugs. "Uh, sure thing, lady!" he says, rolling his eyes. After all, it's not like he's going to keep Megas on the ground for long.....and then Shinji runs into the bathroom. "Aw, man! Jamie, his bladder's small than yours is!"
"Shut up!" Jamie frowns. "It's glandular!"
Coop rolls his eyes and starts honking the horn. "HEY! HURRY UP!"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari sounds sick, "s-suh-sorry. be out in a s-sec."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "The, uh, the pink-haired girl."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "She's, um. Haman Karn. She's a bitch."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Okay, so we wonh't take her with us."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Luke Skywalker says, "Is everything alright?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Yeah. Also, if you could...not /step/ on her but you know, miss a little close by total accident?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Toji Suzuhara says, "....what's going on?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "i'm fuh-f-fine."
Amuro blinks. Either Shinji is more disturbed by Haman Karn's presence than he thought, or he really did have to go to the bathroom.
He takes a sip of his soda, watching Shinji run off and shuffling a little. "Uh, sorry about that! He's, uh," excuse excuse excuse "diabetic." That's not an excuse, that's a lie and now he's never going to get Haro back.
Haman gets another Nice Smile Which is Not Fake and Totally Nice Really So Damn Freaking Nice.
Shinji Ikari cleans his mouth off, and flushes the toilet. When did he eat that much-ugh, its just his head playing tricks again. Weakly, Shinji gargles a little, hoping to wash the taste out of his mouth. He briefly considers talking to NERV command about seeing a councilor for stuff like this...and has to gargle again. "I'm so pathetic..."
Weakly coming out of the bathroom, Shinji keeps his head low, grabs a drink, nods politely at whatever other human-esque people are between him and the door, and gets the hell away from the psycho hosebeast who's successfuly triggered a Berserker attack /twice/.
Trying to recompose himself, Shinji manages to get in the car(When you live with Asuka, you have a lot of experience with suddenly needing to get in the car.), and tries to keep a respectable distance from whoever is unfortunate enough to be sitting next to him. That's the depression talking, he doesn't smell or anything. "Sorry for the wait."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Luke Skywalker says nothing, but uses the Force.
Haman Karn waves to the group, actually blowing Amuro a kiss for good measure. It's almost physically painful to be this perky, happy and chipper. It's making her want to just throw up... or kill someone. Still, dressed as she is, she's not doing too badly. "Have fun! Come back soon!"
Once everybody is in the car, Coop starts the engine, which immediately begins revving mightily. "Aaaaah," Coop says, reaching over to pick up an Atari controller - high above them, Megas's arm begins to reach down. Coop moves the joystick back and forth, finally pressing a button. The mecha's arm picks up the car, lifts it into the air, and places it atop the Megas. There are several metal-sounding clunks, and then poof! Giant robot.
"All right!" Coop says, rubbing his hands together - Megas does the same. "Who wants to go see...oh, I dunno. Paris." Coop grips the wheel of the car and jams on the gas.
Megas's engines immediately blast as the engine revs, creating all sorts of wind and force blasting outward, probably not making Haman Karn like Coop very much as it soars into the air.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Hey, uh, you okay?" Amuro is a bit concerned for his friend, even if he hasn't been able to pick up on any Green Bar vibes thanks to the presence of a powerful Newtype being a little distracting and distorting. It's like every so often, his brain screams to remind him HEY, NEWTYPE OVER THERE! LIKE YOU! GOLLY GOSH! Kind of stinks, especially when said Newtype stole his mecha once.
He glances over at the controls, amused but unconcerned that a giant robot is picking up the car. "Hey, is that a joystick? I think I saw once in an antique store oooowwwoooooooooooooooooooooooAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Gundam's engines DON'T DO THAT
Shinji shoulders up his beat up old duffle bag(He got it the first time he ran away from home, and just sort of likes to use it when going off-plane.), idly hoping he remembered to get a new thing of asprin. "This is nice. Are these bucket seats?" Shinji murmurs, giving Amuro a 'I'm never okay but I'm about as close as I get.' look. The little whiner.
"N-never been to ParIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" Shinji yelps, his voice cracking and his eyes widening as they BLAST OFF TO THE FUTURE. He also smiles, a little, wondering if Haman Karn got knocked on her boney, evil rear end. Heh heh heh.
"M-man...can everyone's robot but the Evas fly?" Shinji mutters appreciativly, moving his hand to unzip his duffle bag. "I've g-got some, uh, asprin in here I think..."
Haman Karn is knocked backwards, her frilly skirt flipping up from the sudden backwash of Megas' engines, revealing that yes, indeed all of her clothes are from the Clyne line. Pushing down her skirt, she presses the yellow hair ornament on her head. From somewhere nearby, her Mobile Suit rises, exploding out of the fake rock it was hidden within and moves to her. "Oh, you don't get away THAT easily!"
(Flashback)
"Aaah! Wait! Get back here! And stay... /still/!!" Mint Blancmanche growls, lunging forward with her arms outstretched. Her conversational partner, a jar of what seems to be simple and innocuous mayonnaise, titters and leaps out of the way just in time, causing the telepath to hit the ground face-first with a cut-off squeal. "Oww..." she whines, sitting up and rubbing her sore nose. "Such a stubborn piece of Lost Technology... WHY did that lost civilization give this jar an AI?! Now..." Mint smiles as reassuringly as she can at her target. "I don't intend to harm you in any way; I just want to reunite you with other relics of Lost Technology! So please, don't run away?"
The living jar raspberries Mint and continues hopping forward- before jumping into a semi-opened duffel bag. Mint blinks, scrambles to her feet, and continues giving chase. "H-hey! Don't jump into other peoples' bags!" she protests, kneeling in front of the bag and opening it back up, revealing a jar that rapidly fills her visio-
CLONK. Rustlerustlerustlestuffstuffstuff... ziiiiiiip.
Five minutes later, the Lost Jar of Mayonnaise hops back around the corner, whistling innocently to itself. Mint is nowhere to be found.
(/Flashback)
When Shinji unzips his bag, he might be somewhat surprised (though perhaps not as surprised as everyone else) that it contains an unconscious Mint. The part about her being unconscious can probably be explained by the lump on her head; as to the rest of it, well, Shinji, you're on your own.
"This is actually...really really fast for a 20th century vehicle," Amuro comments as he tries to keep his soda from spilling. It is precious precious soda. "I mean, you'd think we were time-traveling or something!" He glances out the window, watching the Everything whiz by.
Then he glances at the dufflebag, and spots a Mint. "...Hey, what's she doing here...? Shinji, didja bring Mint along and not tell us or something?"
Then he glances at the pilot. Hey, Coop drives with his eyes closed! Cool!
Wait.
"Yipe!" Shinji boggle-eyes at the bag full of little bunny girl, looking back and forth in a panicked, somewhat suspicious manner. Maybe the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree after all? Then it sort of sets in. "Yes Amuro." Shinji says, indulging in a "rare" moment of sarcasim, "I was smuggling her across the border, payback for that whole fist-sized lollipop thing."
Frowning a little, Ikari the Younger puts a finger on Mint's wrist, checking for a pulse. Okay, that's there..."Something m-must have knocked her out." Shinji picks his own soda up, and presses it up against Blancmanche's forehead. Its cold, son! Hopefuly enough to wake her up, so then she'll be okay and he can flip out and all will be right with the world. 'Somehow', Shinji reflects, 'This is Misato's fault. Or Asuka's. Or Father's. Yeah, Father's.' He looks up at Coop, "Um, this r-really isn't...are you allright, Mister C-coop?"
And then the freefall begins. Shinji's kind of glad he took that trip to the restroom after all.
Mint's face twitches. In fact, it twitches into a slight grimace, possibly a reaction to the cold soda against her forehead. "Nnn...." she whimpers, trying to stretch inside the confines of the bag, her eyelids flutteri-
- snap open as she realizes where she is and tries to sit up. "P... Pilot Ikari? What am I doing /here/?!" Mint stammers, her face going beet red for a moment. "More importantly, did anyone see a jar of mayonnaise thaaaAAAAAAAHH!!" Hey, freefall! The telepath quickly and instictively flaps her ears. Shinji might find that his duffel bag's trying to lift off. "Where ARE we?!"
The Paranormal Sector is probably the last place you'd expect to find ZAFT forces, but desperation can cause strange things. The Coopmobile happens to fly over what appears to be a small outpost in a deserted mountain range consisting of mobile suits and tents; the kind of operation that can be packed up and moved on practically a moment's notice.
One of the mobile suits just so happens to be a white-painted GOUF Ignited, and its pilot is, at the moment, cloud-watching. Rank hath its priviledges after all, which can include having your underlings do work for you! Yay. Plus Yzak has a lot to think about. He's so lost in thought that, when a flying and increasingly unstable /car/ passes overhead, he almost doesn't notice.
Then he jumps to his feet in alarm. First thought: they've been spotted by the locals and need to move out. Then he stops for a second. Flying machines aren't the kind of thing you'd see around here anyway. And furthermore, it was a /car/. What the hell, man. That's just freaky. This bears investigation!
"Change of plans! Giro, Hana, start breaking this place down; we're moving two kilometers to the east. I don't know if we've been spotted, but I'm not taking chances!" By the time he's finished shouting, he's already standing in the GOUF's hand with his helmet in tow. "I'm going to go track that flying car!" Of course the other soldiers are confused, but they don't get a chance to object because by the time the shock has worn off, Yzak's already closed the hatch and begun the startup sequence. The GOUF rises from its kneeling position with surprising agility for a sixty foot killing machine, the wings on its back fanning out as it boosts up into the air and after the runaway automobile.
Amuro did not stop at the bathroom. He had a few tacos with spicy sauce. In the freefall, he is starting to regret this.
"Okay, uh, um, one second!" Hoping he won't regret this, too, he crawls towards the front seat and then grabs ahold of the controls. Okay, okay, it's a steering wheel and this button and that button and steel yourself, man, you've driven a robot with no experience before! And with a lot of jerking, pressing of random buttons, and an accidental activation of the XLR's huge boom speakers thundering out Bruce Springsteen, he manages to at least steer the thing into a survivable crash into the center of Paris.
Well, at least it's intact. "Every'ne okaaay?" asks a dizzied Gundam pilot, unaware that he is BEING FOLLOWED DUN DUN DUUUN.
The speakers are still playing Born to Run.
"Y-you don't have to say it like that..." Shinji mutters, looking a little glum. Glum /er/, maybe. And it is about this time that Shinji realizes that he (sort of) has a girl in his lap.
Dude, his brain says, she's, like, ten.
Well yeah but /human/...or rabbit alien...contact is still terrifing and oh God she's gonna think the wrong thing and Shinji's face flushes as more than three quarters of his anxieties flare up all at once, leaving Ikari blushing, stammering, rubbing the back of his head and looking /away/. "I'm s-sorry I didn't I mean I thought it was j-j-just my duffle bag and I didn't mean to and I respect you as a /person/ even if you are kinda bossy but most of the girls I know are come to think of it maybe its a thing um not that I mean that was kinda sexist sorry but I'm a little socialy akward as you p-p-probably know so what I mean to say is that I'm sorry I'm really not a pervert I mean I'm a guy but I really don't think about that kind of stuff a lot these things just sort of /happen/ to me maybe I deserve it or its karma or something and-"
SMASH.
"Ow." Shinji mutters, not entierly sure where he's laying. He looks, cautiously, outside of the Megas. Oh, there's Yzak Joule in his GOUF. He /would/ come when I don't have my robot the backstabbing jerk, a small part of Shinji thinks. The rest of him is a little crash-shocked and goes, "Oh, there's Yzak. Heeeey Yzak!" Shinji also waves, because he is a polite young man.
Throughout Shinji's entire rant, Mint just sort of /stares/ at him, the blood draining from her face, mostly because they're falling and falling and falling and falling and they're going to blow up and possibly die and wait a second what's Shinji talking about hold on a second he's probably getting the wrong idea but why is she even thinking about this because--
One crash later, Mint is still in the duffel bag, which is likely lying on /top/ of Shinji. "I... I believe so," comes her shaky reply, still trying to take mental stock of her current condition (i.e. still alive?).
Yzak Joule is able to see, upon closer inspection, that it's some kind of robot /attached/ to a car. This doesn't make it any weirder. Fortunately for our heroes Yzak doesn't bother to zoom in on the windows or he might just decide to let them crash...but as it is he moves the GOUF closer to the Megas with arms spread wide, attempting to bear-hug the machine and then pull up. Maybe the thing won't crash so hard this way! Or maybe they'll both be blown into smithereens. It's kind of hard to tell, really.
"Oh, great." Shinji mutters, "He's hugging us."
This does, in fact, slow the machine's descent to 'WHAMskhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrr rrrrr stop.' Which may not be so much fun for the Gouf, but it keeps the passengers inside from dying.
Of course, Amuro, who had crawled forth to try to work the controls, is not wearing his seatbelt! So as sometimes happens in crashes, he careens forward, smashing right over the dashboard and accidentally hitting the 'Fire Missiles,' 'Big Shiny Ray,' and 'Cheese Wiz Dispenser' activation buttons before sliding right out of the convertible and over the hood.
It's a miracle of physics that when the world stops spinning, the Newtype notices that he is hanging off the front of Megas, dangling precariously over the edge and stuck between two big robots.
Wait, that's not good.
"This is what happens when you don't wear your seat belt!" Shinji calls out. This is a bad habit of his, just ask Ayanami-sometimes its either the jokes or going catatonic. Still being a little punch drunk helps-and is probably why Shinji fings himself clinging to the passenger seat, working his way around a knocked out Jamie to get after Amuro.
This, Shinji thinks, is really really stupid. And I'm not going to be able to do it if I keep thinking about it. Closing his eyes, Shinji shoves himself forward slowly, only taking time to give the GOUF a 'You jerk.' glare before returning to his task. "Mint! G-grab the controls!" Shinji shouts out, hands shaking and pupals dilating...
As, finally, he manages to get to the edge of the convertible, sticking his arm out. "AMURO!" Shinji shouts, hoping he can even be heard over the Oh Shit Robot Freefall, "GRAB MY HAND!" OhGodohGodohGodohGodI'mgoingtodieohGod-
"R... right!" Mint, still stuck in the duffel bag and looking like a kid participating in a sleeping bag slumber party, starts flapping her ears, rendering her airborne in a matter of seconds; she flits over, settles down in the pilot's seat, and pops her arms out of the bag to grasp at the controls-
And pause. "What in the world am I supposed to /do/?" Mint murmurs helplessly, staring at the steering wheel and the array of buttons in front of her. Her eyes flicker over to Amuro and Shinji's predicament for a moment, before she once again grabs the controls, doing her level best to keep the robot-car as still as possib-
The engine suddenly sputters to life again.
Yzak Joule is, luckily, using a fairly well-armored machine...and not cooincidently he's using the bigger robot as a shield while trying to slow its descent.
That doesn't mean it isn't a hairy ride, however. When the dust clears he quickly scans the area and happens to notice Amuro's predicament. He's about to help when he hears the rumble of Megas' engines starting up again, and quickly draws back; the GOUF rises to its feet and takes a step away from the erstwhile super robot, so as not to get caught up in whatever happens next. If nothing else, Yzak does have a self-preservation instinct.
Okay, okay, focus, Amuro. If you fall right now, you'll be Newtype jam. You might be able to climb back up, or at least you might have been able to if you'd spent less shore leave time in the arcade and gaming shops and more in the weight room. Aren't soldiers supposed to have a buff build? Tatsuki would like a buff build, I bet. NOT THE TIME RIGHT NOW.
He starts sliding just a little, blue eyes widening at Shinji's approach. The older pilot grits his teeth, shooting out one hand to grab at Shinji's while the other claws for dear life and starts, or at least tries, to scramble back up.
Is that the engine starting up again? He can't hear it yet, thanks to those stupid speakers.
Almost there almost there you're going to die Ikari almost there "Hold on Amuro!" oh that REALLY helps, Ikari, face it you're going to fall and you're going to die and they're going to forget you were even there after a week and that's probably for the best because otherwise they'd remember you as 'the squad psycho with the crazy eye' and who wants that-
Then the engine starts up again, and Shinji nearly topples over. He actualy juts forward, but his feet clamp around the door, basicly saving his life. Shinji doesn't even take a second to breathe, clamping his hand around Amuro's and suddenly realizing, 'Crap, I am a skinny Japanese kid and Amuro's a giant lumberjack warrior.'
"So, um, nice speakers Coop's got here!" Shinji shouts, because you sort of have to, and then /tugs/ with all of his strength. It would be awesome if someone were to grab his legs or something, though. Hint hint.
Beads of sweat start collecting on Mint's forehead as she desperately fiddles with the Megas' controls- given that the only things she's piloted beforehand fall into the super-high-tech, links-with-your-mind-and-emotions category, the shift to Coop's hot rod is like throwing some sort of monstrous, horse-drawn, triple stick shift and six-pedal car to someone who's driven automatic for their entire life. Mint takes a breath and squirms in her duffel bag. Is it THIS button?
After spritzing over about fifty channels in three seconds at high volume, the speakers start blaring 'Baby Got Back'. Okay, no, maybe this lever might help to EVEN LOUDER AUUUGH. Mint's ears flatten against her head, and she twists it down- okay fine just BREAK in her hands! With a scowl, she leaves the music as it is and looks to the other buttons, thinking for a moment that Milfeulle's luck would be incredibly useful in a situation like this. She reaches over to gun one lever-
With a roar, the mech rears up, the front of the car rising up into the air like some angry animal, nearly perpendicular to the ground.
Yzak Joule frowns as he watches the other robot fumble around. He's about to move in to help again when he gets an incoming transmission.
"Hello? .... What do you /mean/ you found a dragon? You're sure it's not just a really big lizard? ...it's flying around and attacking?" He lets out a long-suffering sigh. "...I hate this plane. Okay, fine, I'll be right there."
Not being entirely without a heart, he /does/ key up the external loudspeaker and address the Megas before leaving. "Sorry kids, looks like you're going to have to sort this out on your own. You want my advice, you should shut the thing down and get someone else to retrieve it." And with that said, the GOUF turns away and jets back into the air. Looks like the missing Sheep are on their own!
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Hey guys, I'm back. Did you ever figure out when and where you were going to hold that thing?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Thing?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari over the sounds of freefall, "We, um, f-found something else to worry about." Pause. "Ayanami, if I fall to my death, feed Pen-Pen please? He's g-got a sensitive stomach."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Oh. Uh, I don't think I can help, it's not really up to speed yet."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Yes."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami adds, "Do not die."
Amuro's heart is beating fast as he holds onto Shinji's arm for dear life. That part of his brain that thinks about dumb, irrelevant things while his life is at stake notes that hey, Shinji's arm is a lot skinnier than his. Maybe the soldier lifestyle is giving him a workout after all. And the rest of his brain goes OH GOD OH GOD DON'T DROP ME JUST PULL UP.
And with Shinji's burst of Shounen True Moment Strength, he manages to get himself all the way back up! There's only a brief second of relief because...crap. The car is /moving./
Gravity does its thing, and he starts sliding down the other end of the car as it rears back. "SHINJI, MINT, ONE OF YOU! TRY TO GRAB THE RIGHT LEVER BEFORE IT FALLS OVER!"
If he dies, Koji better feel bad about not saying it like 'Mazinger Zed.'
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Vanilla H says, "If you die, I am going to post embarrasing pictures of you onto the internet."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche is just sort of eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'ing in a scared, high-pitched manner at this point.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "BEFORE I DIE, I WANT TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT CANADIANS ARE SAYING 'ZED' RIGHT OKAY!?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche says, "/THAT'S/ WHAT YOU'RE WORRYING ABOUT?!"
You paged Rei Ayanami with 'It would make sense! Well, we'd need to work it out with the other admin how we will implement it. Plus it can be kind of funny to see mingling if people wanna mingle.'
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "What are you doing...?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari helpfully. "Falling."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Why are you falling?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Vanilla H says, "Try to keep yourself alive. I shall put your bones and organs back together later, if you are still alive."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche babbles, "Wrestling with the controls of some sort of hellish car robot after waking up with a headache and stuffed in Shinji's duffel bag and thank you Vanilla that's a very comforting thought."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Lead with your legs."
You paged Rei Ayanami with 'It makes sense!'
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, helpfully, "Pull up!"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche, calmer, "... I'll try."
Shinji Ikari did it! He didn't screw up! He...
He's got a whole lot of Amuro on top of him. "Jeze, w-what are they feeding y-OOOOUUUU!" Stupid vertigo. Shinji turns to Mint, struggling as he's smacked to the side with Amuro, "BLANCMANCHE, /STEER/. THE WHEEL! WE CAN'T DIE BECAUSE...um, r-reasons. Good reasons." Shinji pauses from his sudden stammer as Radio happens and, for the first time in his life, he gets to answer /Rei's/ question with a cryptic, monosyllabic answer. Heh heh heh.
Suddenly, he feels a little better about his impending death. He does flick Amuro's ear for the 'Zed' thing, though.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Gradually pull back. You do not want to stall."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche says, increasingly higher in pitch, "That's not a very good idea because we're already perpendicular to the grooooooound--"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "If you had worn your /seatbelt/, Amuro, we'd beeeeeeeee--"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami, having used up her advice from one attempt to play Flight Simulator, falls silent.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "I wanted to steer because Coop was--"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Oh, God, you took Coop's thing? Apparently it's hard to steer. Uh, I don't know, maybe there's an eject...are you guys still listening?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami remains numbly silent.
"Grab the right lever, grab the right lever..." Mint's hazel eyes flicker at both the radio chatter and Shinji's pointers. "Given our current trajectory, I'm not entirely sure if the wheel is a good idea!!" she yells back. Without any better ideas, she desperately grips onto the aforementioned lever, pushing it in the other direction while spinning the wheel i--
The mecha doesn't change position. It does, however, rock up and down and then JUMP while hopping on one leg- before tilting FORWARDS, quickly passing critical mass, with all the gravity of a giant that's going to take close to ten minutes to fall to its knees.
"ENSIGN RAY! PILOT IKARI!" Mint's ears start beating furiously, and the duffel bag-wearing telepath flits forth, her arms lashing out in an attempt to drag Shinji and Amuro's likely falling forms back towards the car-mech's seats.
Now, one might wonder where are the sleeping Coop and the curiously silent Jaime and Kiva? They are in their seats, and safe, and the only reason why they are not fixing everything is 'hax.'
But back to our heroes. Amuro gets shifted again in his fall, but is still /falling,/ and quietly winces at the ear-thwap but does not respond otherwise because he is falling. Something goes FLASH in his head, he reaches up, he grabs Mint's hand!
He is kind of heavy, actually. At least, probably for someone as small as Mint.
And as she shifts them towards the seats, he holds on and then lets go, landing in a heap in the backseat. Face-down. "Hrkd, Mdrxx cnn fxx whidthr rrrs."
(Translation: Hey, Mint can fly with her ears.)
"@##$ing hax." Shinji mutters under his breath. His less than pleasent personality aspects are a little more out in the open what with the impending doom and all. Fortunately, someone thought to tranqualize Berserker Shinji when Haman Karn first showed her skanky face.
Shinji is also not a Newtype, but dumb luck is fine too. Snapping his hand out, he catches Mint's other offered hand...and blinks. "M-man...do you work out or something? That's k-kind of impressive." He is then gently flung back into his seat, landing in the same heap as Amuro.
He doesn't say anything, because he doesn't have anything to say to ear-flight.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "...T-thanks, Mint."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Better now?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Are you safe?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Notdead."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari mmph.
And with a yell of effort, Mint hurls her fellow Sheep back into the car! Though, she isn't able to answer either Amuro or Shinji's statements, mostly because the counterforce of one small semi-airborne girl pulling two pilots has, in turn, pulled /her/ in the other direction.
Namely, out the car. "Aaiiee!!" the blue-haired girl screams as she falls out of sight, her ears still flapping wildly.
Ten seconds later, a still-flapping Mint (pikupikupikupikupikupiku) flies back into view, gasping from both the effort and the adrenaline rush. "Are... you two... alright?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche eartwitches madly. *Pikupikupikupikupikupikupikupikupiku*
After another moment, Amuro pokes out from the backseat. His fro is a mess. Moreso than usual.
"...Uh, yeah, I'm fine. That was-that was really impressive! I didn't know you had such strong, uh, ears."
Production note: Ear-flap-flight for Haro. Implement it somehow.
He's still catching his breath, looking around. "Are we-uh-um-safe, finally?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami continues with the distressed silence.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "...those ears are cool."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "So, uh, you landed OK?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche gasps from the effort of /flying with her ears/. "Why, thank you, Ensign Ray."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche says, "It's nothing compared to Milfeulle's helicopter-spinning flower headband, however. -- and yes, we are mostly in one piece."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "-Helicopter-flower?"
Shinji Ikari's head is stuck between the seats. "Mmmph!" His legs twitch a little, as if trying to grab at-oh, good, that annoying ear twitch thing. She's okay.
With a TUG, Shinji pulls his head out, breating heavily and looking in faint horror at the contents of a convienance store that have made their home in his hair. "Um..." Shinji says, blinking. "I'm o-okay, t-thanks." Shinji pauses.
And blinks at his soda-perfectly allright, somehow. Sighing, slightly, he picks it up and offers it to Mint. "Here. You, um, look like you need this."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari TUUUUG. Pant. Pant. "Oh man what is /between/ those seat cushins..."
Amuro's soda was in the cupholder. It's also intact, probably because Coop built the thing that way somewhere. He offers his, too. An OFFERING.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Did you crash?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "-There's a piece of Slim Jim in your hair."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari consolingly dry, "N-not into anything expensive, Ayanami."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Where are you?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "What'd you hit?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Yzak's Gouf. It flew off, though."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "T-the street. Um...Paris, I think. J-joule threw us off course."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "I'd suggest a cafe, but my stomach's churning from the tacos and the crash and the falling."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Are you injured?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "We're mostly fine."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "Mint's kind of, um, exhausted...and was in my duffle bag for some reason...but we're okay."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari pause. "...thanks, though."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche says, "... I /am/ still mildly curious about how I got in here."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "I will alert the recovery teams."
The duffel-bag-wearing-Mint plops down next to Amro in the back seat, sweat mussing her hair; her ears continue twitching, but it's the involuntary sort of fatigued twitching rather than its usual cute version. "Thank you! The ears... it's part hereditary, part training," she gasps, still a little punch-drunk and getting her breathing under control. "If not for my father's insistence..." Mint clams up.
And she blinks at the offering. The multiple offerings. "No, it's... it's alright, I'll be fine after some rest," she reassures them, smiling faintly. Even though those drinks look /really really good/ at the moment.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "D-don't go to any trouble...and I don't know, Blancmanche. All I k-keep in there's my books and a s-stuffed giraffe."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari pause. "Um, f-forget the last bit.":
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Right, forgot about a stuffed giraffe."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami ignores the giraffe-related news to say, "They have already been told. Is the damage great?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche says, "..."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche rummages.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Wait, hold on, giraffe?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche "..."'s again as she stares at something that might or might not be that giraffe. Audible sparkles can be heard.
"...Well, if you insist." Amuro slumps in the seat again, taking a long drink of soda. The ice melted a little. "It's still impressive, though! And, uh, thanks for pulling me up too, Shinji! That was also pretty impressive."
He eyebrow-twitches just a little as he pauses for a soda-sip. "But what do you mean, 'what are they feeding me?'"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari weakly, "Its, um, a g-gift..." Cough. "Um, from what I read on Mister Coop's file, we actualy are under par for this plane."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Yeah, apparently this place is like...like Koji's home."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "I don't understand..."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Like how?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "They're u-used to this kind of thing, Ayanami. ...sort of like how we g-got used to Asuka's friendly choke holds, you k-know?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Oh."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "You put up with being choke-holded?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Or like how we're used to wrecked cities."
"You're obviously hearing things, Amuro. Maybe Yzak was t-thinking about eating some delicious ham." Shinji smoothly says, while stubbornly sticking his soda by Mint's side. He's used to people who need things refusing help in getting them, after all, since basicly his entire peer group has self-reliance issues. Seriously, he doesn't even like to think about what he had to do to get Misato to admit she needed help with the laundry. Brrr.
Shinji then leans against the seat, glad that the falling is /done/. He lets out a breath. "...ugh. Hopefuly this doesn't end up on our r-records, or my evil dad-umm, I mean the C-commander'll...well he's already probably m-mad about the other thing.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami sounds very faintly uncomfortable. "If they are used to it, there is nothing to worry about."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Held. Whatever."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "I'm k-kidding." muttered, "mostly..."
After staring at the stuffed giraffe for perhaps longer than she should, Mint carefully struggles out of Shinji's duffel bag, kicking her legs free and sighing in relief at the chance to /stretch/ them. And then she stares at the offered soda for a long, long moment, nearly expressionless- before giving in and plucking it from Shinji's hand. "Thank you," the telepath murmurs quietly, not looking at the Third Child's face as she pops it open and takes a swig.
"If what I've heard about this plane is true, then there shouldn't be any worries..." Mint says, perking up a bit as she starts counting off her fingers. "Given that we haven't caused damage to any structures or other robots- or THIS particular robot- or came into undue contact with anyone from the Syndicate-" Clearly, she did not see Yzak. Or Haman. "-we should be fine."
Amuro exhales a little, feeling slightly like a heel as he glances down at his own soda. But he keeps the thought to himself, unless Mint think-overhears it. "Haman was there earlier, and Yzak showed up, but it looks like he wasn't interested in a fight. I think we should be fine, at least. Maybe if your dad starts bothering you, I can make up an excuse for you. Say that it was because we forced you to go out for tacos."
The little wry smile indicates that he is probably kidding. "And about the other thing, that isn't your fault, so he shouldn't blame you for it."
Shinji Ikari shakes his head, smiling a little as Mint takes the drink. He will regret not taking Amuro's offer later, when he comes to his senses but for right now...
Right now, screw Gendo Ikari. Shinji is not dead from falling and bumping into two of his least favorte people at once. "I've g-got to deal with him sooner or later." Shinji sighs. "Becides, he won't r-really care, as long as I still p-pilot and the EVA isn't d-damaged." This could be depressed exagerating, but something about Shinji's resigned tone implies that it probably isn't.
Nrrmph. "Can we just, like, s-sit here for a bit? Ayanami probably did call the recovery teams, and I don't feel like c-climbing out."
Perhaps Mint DID overhear Amuro's thought. That would at least explain why she suddenly glances over to him with a smile and a wink- 'please don't worry about it'. Clearly, the drink HAS helped the telepath's state of mind. She sobers up at Shinji's words, however. "I see..." Mint murmurs, thinking back to her own father for a moment. She doesn't comment, however, feeling that even this is out of her league. "-- that's alright with me," the telepath replies diplomatically, sipping daintily at her/Shinji's/etc. drink.
Amuro gives a little smile back to Mint, not entirely surprised if she did 'overhear' him. He glances over at Shinji, and completely fails to tell him that no, it's not fair the way his father treats him, there has to be another way than to put him in that scary monster of a mobile suit that turns its pilots into monsters.
Instead, he leans back and sips more Cherry Dr. Pibb. "...Sure, let's do that."
WHEN: Last night
WHERE: Paranormal New Jersey, at Habib's Taco Emporium, and later in Paris
WHAT: Coop invites some of the sheep out for Eat 100 Tacos, Get 100 Free Night. Things start out pretty normal, and then he shows them the MEGAS. And then it gets less normal.
WATCH FOR: Lacus Haman, the dangers of not wearing a seatbelt, a stowaway passenger, and soda.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "Oh, right, tacos. I'll m-meet you guys there. Wanna come, Asuka?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "...Y-you can take yours around town?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray is either horrified, jealous, or both.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Uh, yeah! What're they gonna do, gimme a ticket?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Koji Kabuto says, "I like that way of thinking."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Toji Suzuhara says, "What, does it turn into a car?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Naw. My car's on top."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Toji Suzuhara says, "Oh. Neat."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "I try to bring Megas with me, though, just in case something attacks when I'm eating."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "D-does that happen a lot?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Yeah, pretty much."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Wow."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "...you seem kind of, I don't know, calm about that."
Welcome to Coop's hometown in Jersey (official motto: Giant Monster/Robot Attack-Free Since Saturday), where men are men and women are fawned over. The giant blue mecha known as Megas is currently standing in the parking lot of a little strip mall just down the street from a DMV, wedged neatly in between a Volkswagen Bug and currently crushing a Ford Explorer.
Coop Kaplowski is currently esconced at a table in Habib's Taco, accompanied by both a pale, heavily-clothed slacker and a smoking hot redhead in futuristic gear. There is a large pile of tacos sitting on the table in front of Coop - Jamie and Kiva have each taken two, and are currently working on them.
"What're you waiting for, Coop?" Jamie asks through a mouthful of meat. "this isn't like you."
"Ah," he says, waving it off. "I wanna meet the new guys. besides, I got another 100 coming after these ones right? I don't mind waiting."
Kiva rolls her eyes. "There's also the fact that you stopped for a chili dog on the way."
Coop raises an eyebrow. "What? You have something against chili?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "You know how I just kind of go 'oh crap, launching!' whenever a battalion of armed soldiers in giant robots attack our understaffed ship base nowadays? I bet it's like that."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Well...I dunno if it's like that. I mean, if they show up and start destroying the store, usually I don't have to pay."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Toji Suzuhara says, "......."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "And then I get to trash them for it. It's a sweet deal."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "...maybe I /am/ the only one who angsts about it..."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Angsts about what?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Toji Suzuhara says, "Don't worry about it, man."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "n-nothing. Sorry."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Anyway, if you're coming, hurry up - these things are getting cold."
It wasn't too hard to find the right taco place. Amuro was told to find a giant blue robot, and the robot that he stood staring at in the parking lot for about ten minutes was in fact big, blue, and a robot. And he had to keep himself from staring at it not because it was so out-of-place, not because it was squishing other cars, but because it was a tricked-out machine in a way that made his little engineer heart flutter a little.
But tacos call, so he does drag himself into the resturaunt, glancing around. "Uh, hey, we're looking for Coop, I think it was?" This will mean that a boy in a jacket and oil-patched jeans with remarkably 70s-style curly hair is standing in the doorway.
Shinji Ikari feels vaguely depressed. In other words, normal, with a light dash of annoyed thanks to the big old road map of Jersey he's trying to read while walking along the road. "Man, you w-wouldn't think switching sides of the road-aah!" Shinji hops back away from the road as a car swerves a little too broadly, promptly trips over a Big Mac carton, slips for a few seconds as he vainly tries to get his balance, stops as he almost has it, waving his arms just a little...
"Waugh!" And falls flat on his ass. Glad he's wearing his long shorts and yellow-with-a-black-squiggly-stripe shirt, as they provide a lot more padding than his school uniform, Shinji rubs his hip and looks a little balefuly at Captain Fro over there. And then he looks up at the giant blue robot he somehow missed.
Sighing lightly, Ikari the Younger carefuly folds up the road map, stuffs it in his pocket, and hurries after his friend. "S-sorry, I got a little, um, lost."
Coop Kaplowski beams a grin and stands up, raising a hand. "Yo!" he bellows as he moves forward toward the other two Black Sheep. Kiva also stands up, being polite. Jaime steals one of Coop's tacos.
"Hey, boys. You must be Ray and, uh, I didn't catch your name, guy. I'm Coop!" he holds out a hand.
*BWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
Smiling, happy face.
*BWEEEEeeeee*
Torn sleeves.
*bweeeee*
Jeans and wallet chain.
*bweee....eeee....eeeeee.....*
Huge gut.
"Come on, let's sit down!" Coop moves back toward the table. "Pull up a chair. This is Kiva, and Jaime." Jaime waves, but Kiva smiles politely. "I'm Kiva," she says evenly. "It's nice to meet you both."
Amuro blinks in a little bit of surprise, but then, Coop did look kind of fat in the visual. And Ryu Jose was fat, but he's a competent soldier! So it doesn't...mean anything how someone looks or dresses, it's their spirit! This is what he tells himself as he offers a handshake and a grin, and then grabs a chair. "Amuro Ray, from the Earth Federation Forces. Nice to meet all three of yooohmygosh that is a lot of tacos."
He stares for a second at the table.
"I have seriously never seen that many tacos in one place."
Shinji Ikari's eyes widen and his left hand falls to the side, starting to softly squeeze a little. Maybe its a nervous twitch. Swollowing, Shinji takes the precious seconds Amuro speaking first gives to try and formulate a reply that won't be completly humiliating. Meanwhile, in the train of thought running through the Third's mind...
"That. Guy. Looks." begins Action! Shinji, the psychopomp wearing Unit-01's plug suit with a dashingly red NERV Operations jacket and sporting a mild set of sideburns, "AWESOME! All-RIGHT, we're in a tournament, we've got FIGHTING TEAM, and now we have the fat guy! We're well on our way to being a SHINING force for justice! DA HA HA HA-houff!"
This houff is a reply to Housebroken Shinji, a meek looking man wearing jeans and an oversized sweater that both are rolled in a way to make him look vaguely femminine-the green apron helps, elbowing Action! Shinji in the guy. "Tsk. I think that man's /made/ of grease...between the recluse and the two delinquents at school...tsk tsk, you really can't find anyone decent who'll put up with you..."
Ignoring Housebroken Shinji's nagging, Lil'Shinji, who was in the show so I'm not describing him, peeks a little closer. "Tacos." he mutters, vaguely.
Shinji's eyes roll a little at the sheer wall of indicesion that just hit him. 'Maybe my stomach's still upset from...' Shinji eyes the small army of meaty tacos and feels a little sick, 'not...gonna think about that.' "Um..." instead, he offers his hand to Coup, smiling a little. "Shinji Ikari. T-third Child...I, ah, p-pilot Evangelion Unit-01. N-nice to meet you all."
Coop Kaplowski shakes hands with each in turn, firm handgrip and one pump and then down. He laughs a little at Amuro. "Naah," he says as he sits down. "This is just the first hundred. C'mon, guys, siddown. Dig in."
The big jersey boy unwraps his first taco and takes a large bite - comprising half the taco - out of it, chewing noisily, a bit of beef grease dripping down toward his chinbeard. Coop wipes the grease away with a thumb and then puts the rest into his mouth, crunching happily.
"So," Kiva says, leaning in toward Shinji with interest, speaking in her warm contralto voice. "You're a robot pilot as well? That's really quite impressive for someone of such a young age. Where did you learn to do it?"
"First hundred, huh." Amuro decides not to worry too much about it, even if he is a little astonished, and just starts on one of the tacos. It isn't bad, a little too much tomato for his taste, and he finds he can eat and concentrate on the conversation just fine as long as he ignores how Coop is eating. "Well, I'm in the military," he explains, "and they're standard-issue for us, though mine's a little different. Shinji's...eh, I'll let him explain." He doesn't want to put his friend on the spot, but NERV still confuses him.
"But what about you? The Commander hasn't told me much 'bout you guys. Do all three of you pilot the, uh, Megas? -Oh, uh, pass the hotsauce."
Shinji Ikari, being a red blooded 15 year old boy with abandonment issues, very naturaly thinks 'g-gulp' and 'gawrsh, ma'am' and then she brings up EVA and Amuro passes him the buck. Shinji makes a mental note to continue to not help with Haro. Actualy gulping, Shinji puts a little hot sauce on his taco-
"Go ooooon." A green eyes, red lipped Shinji mutters, "Tell her! Its a great story for the dinner table."
Swollowing a little, Shinji says, "Well, um, w-we're...the only ones who can." Shinji pauses. "Oh, s-sorry. In my plane...Ayanami, Asuka, Toji, and I are the o-only ones who can p-pilot. I think it h-has something to do with being b-born right after Second Impact, but..." Shinji shrugs a little. "..a-anyway, its kind of a b-boring story. H-how about you guys?"
Jaime reaches across the table to hand Amuro a couple of packets as Kiva nods at Shinji. "Well, I'm a soldier from the future of this world, which was taken over by the Glorft. We built a machine to send back in time to a crucial battle, only it ended up in this world. Unfortunately, the Time Circuit was damaged, and Coop had already stolen it."
"Hey!" Coop says, pointing half a taco at Kiva accusingly. "I didn't steal nothin' - Two bucks, anythin' in the pile."
"Yeah, Kiva," Jamie says, smirking. "If Megas was all that important, you shouldn't have lost it int he first place. Anyway, Coop beat you for it, fair and square."
Coop and Jamie exchange a series of fist-punches, because their friendship is just that metal.
"Anyhow," Kiva says, rolling here eyes, "I'm stuck here until the Time Circuit can be repaired. And Coop is the only one who can pilot Megas with all of the modifications he's put in."
Amuro swallows, considering this for a second. One the one hand, that's pretty rotten in a way; he's from what /would/ be the war-torn future, minus aliens, and he'd be pretty miffed if his world-saving tech got yoinked.
On the other hand, that's a really sweet big robot.
So he just nods a little, not wanting to piss off Coop or Kiva. "Well, if what I've heard is right, you do a good job with it. I kinda wish I could do that with the Gundam, you know, modify it. I can modify it a /little,/ but only as much as the military allows. It's been a pain, especially lately..."
Shinji Ikari blinks. Hrm. "We've g-got an alien problem ourselves." Shinji /thinks/ they're aliens, at least. He hopes they are. "Its n-not like it could g-go back anyway, until the time...thing's repaired, so, um, I'm s-sore Mister Kaplowski will help f-fight them once you guys get back?"
He actualy looks a little more comfortable, and smiles a little at Coop. "Unit-01's kind of f-finnicky like that too." Its an understatement, but, 'Gee, Mister, its such a relief to hear someone else is going through that, does yours tell you to kill things too?' is sort of a heavy topic for taco night, Shinji decides. "I, um, didn't really get much training, though, Miss Kiva-I was kind of d-drafted. You'd w-want to ask Asuka or Ayanami about t-that...they've been training since they were, like, five."
It was supposed to be a simple reconassaince mission. She told Lt. Cello to go in, find out more about these alternative universe Gundam pilots and report back to her. He did and brought back evidence of a woman vaguely similar to herself... but of a much different sort. Where she is a military leader and advocate of Newtype rights (if not out and out Newtype supremacy) her 'counterpart' is merely a former idol singer and current peace activist. Still, apparently she has started a fashion trend and there appears to already be one girl parading around, looking like this Lacus Clyne person so Haman figures, why not try it herself? At least dressing in those filmy, purple, white and pink gowns no one will suspect who and what she truly is.
So, slipping the yellow barette/tracking device and link to her fleet into her pink hair, Haman strides out of the little girl's room near the taco shop in the center of the Paranormal square. She puts a happy smile on her face, trying as hard as she can to look friendly and not at all sinister. Too bad for her she's walking past a table where someone might just recognize her, even as she strolls by in a long putple skirt, white top with floofy sleeves and a low-cut collar. It's the latest from the Clyne line of clothes, ask for them by name anywhere in Orb.
Coop Kaplowski smirks. "It's Coop, kid. I ain't Mister nothin'. And hey, I been trainin' since I was about four myself!" He polishes off another taco, then starts ticking off on his fingers. "Started on Pong, then went up to the Italian Bros. games, then Double Ninja Ninja Force, and from there it was pretty much every game I could put my hands on." He beams. "You're lookin' at the Tri-State high score holder for Meteorites, kid. I done plenty of trainin'."
Kiva chews slowly and bows her head, trying her best not to throw up. Or murder Coop.
"Anyway, Ray, if yer worried that much, why don'tcha just quit the military?" Coop grins. "Or, hell, just do whatever you want with it. You're the pilot, right? Hey, I could show you some neat tricks." He looks up at Habib. "Hey! Can we get these to go? I gotta take these guys for a ride." Habib gives a noncommital grunt, picks up a large bag, walking over piling the 40-odd remaining tacos into it.
"Come on!" Coop says, pulling his keys out of his pocket and walking toward the door, slinging the Bag o' Tacos over one shoulder. "Let's go see Megas."
"Weeell," Amuro notes as he finishes off his taco and quietly ponders whether or not video games are actually training or not, considering his own geeky history, "I can't really do that right now. I can't quit, because they need me to--"
Once the Pink Haired Girl who is No One Special walks by, he doesn't even need to turn around and see her face. Strong Newtypes have a pretty familiar 'presence,' and in Haman Karn's case, it sets off the psychic part of the young pilot's brain like a camera flash. Dammit dammit dammit not now want to see the robot go away bitchy Zeon lady! But he does stands, trying to hide his sudden and seemingly inexplicable shocked expression. "Uhhh, you guys go on ahead, I'll be right there! Just gonna get a Cherry Dr. Pibb to go real quick!"
Why is he glaring in the direction of the pink-haired girl?
Shinji Ikari blinks. Video games? Shinji then thinks for a second about every third word out of Asuka's mouth. That actualy makes sense. Then he pictures Rei playing Super Space Pong, and nearly snorts his drink out of his nose. He tries not to be mean about Rei's Reiness, but come on now, that's just funny. "Um, your r-robot? S-sure..."
Shinji does blink when Amuro gets That Look. That Look has been directed at /him/ before, as well as pasted on the young psychic's face when he's talked about his various archrivals. "Um, y-yeah, I need to u-use the bathroom, be right there..."
"Amuro," Shinji taps what he learned from Mr. Kaji when his evil dad had him infiltrate the Syndicate, muttering softly while looking at the menu and standing hunched over at the ground as if he were trapped in a oppressive cloud of gloom and self-loathing. He does this a lot, so it looks pretty natural, "Why are you glaring at the pink-haired girl?"
Haman Karn feels the sudden psychic shock of contact with another Newtype. She stops in her tracks and turns, eyes narrowing again for a second as she sees who it is. Letting them widen again and a happy, bubbly smile to slip over her face, the young woman waves to Amuro outwardly, while at the same time using her own psychic skills to make him feel her warning him not to make a scene. It's not verbal, just an edgy feeling, an unspoken promise of BAD THINGS(tm) to come if he spoils her disguise this early in the game.
"Hi there boys!" She says in her chirpy voice. "Oh and lady," she waves to Kiva. "Did I say someone say something about a robot? I love robots! You should see my home, lots and lots of robots back there." She is going to have to do something to counterract being so chirpy right now, maybe kick a puppy when she gets back to Axis, or attack the Argama.
Coop Kaplowski frowns at....well, pretty much everyone except Kiva and Jamie. Boy, they're acting weird. "Uh...yeah, robot," he says, making his way toward a red hot rod parked beside a gigantic blue mecha.
The car itself is a candy-apple red 1970 Plymouth Hemi Barracuda Convertible, complete with the classic Shaker hood scoop. Various joysticks, buttons and levers takes up most of the dash, topped by a little hula girl in a grass skirt. Coop pops the locks and starts to clamber inside. Jamie takes shotgun wordlessly, as Kiva slides into the back.
"I'd give ya a ride, lady, but I've only got room for three in the back."
Jamie snorts, rolling down his window. "I ain't staying. She ain't hot enough for that."
Amuro, for the record, really does grab a 32 oz. Cherry Dr. Pibb. He also coughs at Shinji in a way that sounds a little like 'hmman khnn,' and then flashes a happy and fake grin at the mysterious girl. "Oh, yeah, robots are great, aren't they? Do you wanna the outside of it, at least? See, it's right there!" He does a slightly exaggerated point at the Megas and oh god that car is a convertible isn't it NO CONCENRATE AMURO CONCENTRATE. Instead, he hops over the door and into the backseat of hot rod, drink in hand, looking up at the mecha. "Yeah, it is something..."
Meanwhile, he responds with his mind directed at Haman in something that still can't be defined in real words, but is more like the psionic equivalent of 'words cannot describe how much I hate you, you realize that, right.'
Shinji Ikari blinks. It takes him a minute because of Amuro's FILTHY Canadian accent, but Shinji has the benefit of knowing only one bad guy who's 1) A girl. 2) Makes Amuro go all "Woah dude I can SEE TIME and it looks like one of my girl comics." and 3) Well, okay, she sounds way to perky but...
'Run.'
'Yeah, run, dude.'
'Oh man oh man ohmanohmanohman'
'I bet we could beat her to death with a chair and no one would notice just pick it up and start /swinging/ oooooh yeah that'd be awesome man just swing and swing and-'
Shinji holds his left arm, says, "E-e-e-excuse me." and heads to the Little Boy's Room.
Haman Karn blinks and pouts a little, putting her hands on her hips and sighing. "Fine, I'll just watch from here." She feels Amuro's projected hatred, it's kind of off-putting considering she really doesn't hate him. If she did, well, she'd have shot him in the back of the head waaaaay back when instead of just pistol-whipping him into unconsciousness. See, she's not -ALL- bad.
She looks over to see Shinji duck into the Little Coward's Room and sighs. She actually has NO idea who he is, not being up on her Syndicate files (Shadow will be disappointed) but she wonders if he's some kind of fake Newtype like those Coordinator freaks and just reacting to her superior existence in a negative manner. "Well," she says to Coop and friends, "I'll be here when you get back. Just, show me what it can do! I wanna see!"
Coop Kaplowski shrugs. "Uh, sure thing, lady!" he says, rolling his eyes. After all, it's not like he's going to keep Megas on the ground for long.....and then Shinji runs into the bathroom. "Aw, man! Jamie, his bladder's small than yours is!"
"Shut up!" Jamie frowns. "It's glandular!"
Coop rolls his eyes and starts honking the horn. "HEY! HURRY UP!"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari sounds sick, "s-suh-sorry. be out in a s-sec."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "The, uh, the pink-haired girl."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "She's, um. Haman Karn. She's a bitch."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Coop Kaplowski says, "Okay, so we wonh't take her with us."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Luke Skywalker says, "Is everything alright?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Yeah. Also, if you could...not /step/ on her but you know, miss a little close by total accident?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Toji Suzuhara says, "....what's going on?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "i'm fuh-f-fine."
Amuro blinks. Either Shinji is more disturbed by Haman Karn's presence than he thought, or he really did have to go to the bathroom.
He takes a sip of his soda, watching Shinji run off and shuffling a little. "Uh, sorry about that! He's, uh," excuse excuse excuse "diabetic." That's not an excuse, that's a lie and now he's never going to get Haro back.
Haman gets another Nice Smile Which is Not Fake and Totally Nice Really So Damn Freaking Nice.
Shinji Ikari cleans his mouth off, and flushes the toilet. When did he eat that much-ugh, its just his head playing tricks again. Weakly, Shinji gargles a little, hoping to wash the taste out of his mouth. He briefly considers talking to NERV command about seeing a councilor for stuff like this...and has to gargle again. "I'm so pathetic..."
Weakly coming out of the bathroom, Shinji keeps his head low, grabs a drink, nods politely at whatever other human-esque people are between him and the door, and gets the hell away from the psycho hosebeast who's successfuly triggered a Berserker attack /twice/.
Trying to recompose himself, Shinji manages to get in the car(When you live with Asuka, you have a lot of experience with suddenly needing to get in the car.), and tries to keep a respectable distance from whoever is unfortunate enough to be sitting next to him. That's the depression talking, he doesn't smell or anything. "Sorry for the wait."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Luke Skywalker says nothing, but uses the Force.
Haman Karn waves to the group, actually blowing Amuro a kiss for good measure. It's almost physically painful to be this perky, happy and chipper. It's making her want to just throw up... or kill someone. Still, dressed as she is, she's not doing too badly. "Have fun! Come back soon!"
Once everybody is in the car, Coop starts the engine, which immediately begins revving mightily. "Aaaaah," Coop says, reaching over to pick up an Atari controller - high above them, Megas's arm begins to reach down. Coop moves the joystick back and forth, finally pressing a button. The mecha's arm picks up the car, lifts it into the air, and places it atop the Megas. There are several metal-sounding clunks, and then poof! Giant robot.
"All right!" Coop says, rubbing his hands together - Megas does the same. "Who wants to go see...oh, I dunno. Paris." Coop grips the wheel of the car and jams on the gas.
Megas's engines immediately blast as the engine revs, creating all sorts of wind and force blasting outward, probably not making Haman Karn like Coop very much as it soars into the air.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Hey, uh, you okay?" Amuro is a bit concerned for his friend, even if he hasn't been able to pick up on any Green Bar vibes thanks to the presence of a powerful Newtype being a little distracting and distorting. It's like every so often, his brain screams to remind him HEY, NEWTYPE OVER THERE! LIKE YOU! GOLLY GOSH! Kind of stinks, especially when said Newtype stole his mecha once.
He glances over at the controls, amused but unconcerned that a giant robot is picking up the car. "Hey, is that a joystick? I think I saw once in an antique store oooowwwoooooooooooooooooooooooAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Gundam's engines DON'T DO THAT
Shinji shoulders up his beat up old duffle bag(He got it the first time he ran away from home, and just sort of likes to use it when going off-plane.), idly hoping he remembered to get a new thing of asprin. "This is nice. Are these bucket seats?" Shinji murmurs, giving Amuro a 'I'm never okay but I'm about as close as I get.' look. The little whiner.
"N-never been to ParIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" Shinji yelps, his voice cracking and his eyes widening as they BLAST OFF TO THE FUTURE. He also smiles, a little, wondering if Haman Karn got knocked on her boney, evil rear end. Heh heh heh.
"M-man...can everyone's robot but the Evas fly?" Shinji mutters appreciativly, moving his hand to unzip his duffle bag. "I've g-got some, uh, asprin in here I think..."
Haman Karn is knocked backwards, her frilly skirt flipping up from the sudden backwash of Megas' engines, revealing that yes, indeed all of her clothes are from the Clyne line. Pushing down her skirt, she presses the yellow hair ornament on her head. From somewhere nearby, her Mobile Suit rises, exploding out of the fake rock it was hidden within and moves to her. "Oh, you don't get away THAT easily!"
(Flashback)
"Aaah! Wait! Get back here! And stay... /still/!!" Mint Blancmanche growls, lunging forward with her arms outstretched. Her conversational partner, a jar of what seems to be simple and innocuous mayonnaise, titters and leaps out of the way just in time, causing the telepath to hit the ground face-first with a cut-off squeal. "Oww..." she whines, sitting up and rubbing her sore nose. "Such a stubborn piece of Lost Technology... WHY did that lost civilization give this jar an AI?! Now..." Mint smiles as reassuringly as she can at her target. "I don't intend to harm you in any way; I just want to reunite you with other relics of Lost Technology! So please, don't run away?"
The living jar raspberries Mint and continues hopping forward- before jumping into a semi-opened duffel bag. Mint blinks, scrambles to her feet, and continues giving chase. "H-hey! Don't jump into other peoples' bags!" she protests, kneeling in front of the bag and opening it back up, revealing a jar that rapidly fills her visio-
CLONK. Rustlerustlerustlestuffstuffstuff... ziiiiiiip.
Five minutes later, the Lost Jar of Mayonnaise hops back around the corner, whistling innocently to itself. Mint is nowhere to be found.
(/Flashback)
When Shinji unzips his bag, he might be somewhat surprised (though perhaps not as surprised as everyone else) that it contains an unconscious Mint. The part about her being unconscious can probably be explained by the lump on her head; as to the rest of it, well, Shinji, you're on your own.
"This is actually...really really fast for a 20th century vehicle," Amuro comments as he tries to keep his soda from spilling. It is precious precious soda. "I mean, you'd think we were time-traveling or something!" He glances out the window, watching the Everything whiz by.
Then he glances at the dufflebag, and spots a Mint. "...Hey, what's she doing here...? Shinji, didja bring Mint along and not tell us or something?"
Then he glances at the pilot. Hey, Coop drives with his eyes closed! Cool!
Wait.
"Yipe!" Shinji boggle-eyes at the bag full of little bunny girl, looking back and forth in a panicked, somewhat suspicious manner. Maybe the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree after all? Then it sort of sets in. "Yes Amuro." Shinji says, indulging in a "rare" moment of sarcasim, "I was smuggling her across the border, payback for that whole fist-sized lollipop thing."
Frowning a little, Ikari the Younger puts a finger on Mint's wrist, checking for a pulse. Okay, that's there..."Something m-must have knocked her out." Shinji picks his own soda up, and presses it up against Blancmanche's forehead. Its cold, son! Hopefuly enough to wake her up, so then she'll be okay and he can flip out and all will be right with the world. 'Somehow', Shinji reflects, 'This is Misato's fault. Or Asuka's. Or Father's. Yeah, Father's.' He looks up at Coop, "Um, this r-really isn't...are you allright, Mister C-coop?"
And then the freefall begins. Shinji's kind of glad he took that trip to the restroom after all.
Mint's face twitches. In fact, it twitches into a slight grimace, possibly a reaction to the cold soda against her forehead. "Nnn...." she whimpers, trying to stretch inside the confines of the bag, her eyelids flutteri-
- snap open as she realizes where she is and tries to sit up. "P... Pilot Ikari? What am I doing /here/?!" Mint stammers, her face going beet red for a moment. "More importantly, did anyone see a jar of mayonnaise thaaaAAAAAAAHH!!" Hey, freefall! The telepath quickly and instictively flaps her ears. Shinji might find that his duffel bag's trying to lift off. "Where ARE we?!"
The Paranormal Sector is probably the last place you'd expect to find ZAFT forces, but desperation can cause strange things. The Coopmobile happens to fly over what appears to be a small outpost in a deserted mountain range consisting of mobile suits and tents; the kind of operation that can be packed up and moved on practically a moment's notice.
One of the mobile suits just so happens to be a white-painted GOUF Ignited, and its pilot is, at the moment, cloud-watching. Rank hath its priviledges after all, which can include having your underlings do work for you! Yay. Plus Yzak has a lot to think about. He's so lost in thought that, when a flying and increasingly unstable /car/ passes overhead, he almost doesn't notice.
Then he jumps to his feet in alarm. First thought: they've been spotted by the locals and need to move out. Then he stops for a second. Flying machines aren't the kind of thing you'd see around here anyway. And furthermore, it was a /car/. What the hell, man. That's just freaky. This bears investigation!
"Change of plans! Giro, Hana, start breaking this place down; we're moving two kilometers to the east. I don't know if we've been spotted, but I'm not taking chances!" By the time he's finished shouting, he's already standing in the GOUF's hand with his helmet in tow. "I'm going to go track that flying car!" Of course the other soldiers are confused, but they don't get a chance to object because by the time the shock has worn off, Yzak's already closed the hatch and begun the startup sequence. The GOUF rises from its kneeling position with surprising agility for a sixty foot killing machine, the wings on its back fanning out as it boosts up into the air and after the runaway automobile.
Amuro did not stop at the bathroom. He had a few tacos with spicy sauce. In the freefall, he is starting to regret this.
"Okay, uh, um, one second!" Hoping he won't regret this, too, he crawls towards the front seat and then grabs ahold of the controls. Okay, okay, it's a steering wheel and this button and that button and steel yourself, man, you've driven a robot with no experience before! And with a lot of jerking, pressing of random buttons, and an accidental activation of the XLR's huge boom speakers thundering out Bruce Springsteen, he manages to at least steer the thing into a survivable crash into the center of Paris.
Well, at least it's intact. "Every'ne okaaay?" asks a dizzied Gundam pilot, unaware that he is BEING FOLLOWED DUN DUN DUUUN.
The speakers are still playing Born to Run.
"Y-you don't have to say it like that..." Shinji mutters, looking a little glum. Glum /er/, maybe. And it is about this time that Shinji realizes that he (sort of) has a girl in his lap.
Dude, his brain says, she's, like, ten.
Well yeah but /human/...or rabbit alien...contact is still terrifing and oh God she's gonna think the wrong thing and Shinji's face flushes as more than three quarters of his anxieties flare up all at once, leaving Ikari blushing, stammering, rubbing the back of his head and looking /away/. "I'm s-sorry I didn't I mean I thought it was j-j-just my duffle bag and I didn't mean to and I respect you as a /person/ even if you are kinda bossy but most of the girls I know are come to think of it maybe its a thing um not that I mean that was kinda sexist sorry but I'm a little socialy akward as you p-p-probably know so what I mean to say is that I'm sorry I'm really not a pervert I mean I'm a guy but I really don't think about that kind of stuff a lot these things just sort of /happen/ to me maybe I deserve it or its karma or something and-"
SMASH.
"Ow." Shinji mutters, not entierly sure where he's laying. He looks, cautiously, outside of the Megas. Oh, there's Yzak Joule in his GOUF. He /would/ come when I don't have my robot the backstabbing jerk, a small part of Shinji thinks. The rest of him is a little crash-shocked and goes, "Oh, there's Yzak. Heeeey Yzak!" Shinji also waves, because he is a polite young man.
Throughout Shinji's entire rant, Mint just sort of /stares/ at him, the blood draining from her face, mostly because they're falling and falling and falling and falling and they're going to blow up and possibly die and wait a second what's Shinji talking about hold on a second he's probably getting the wrong idea but why is she even thinking about this because--
One crash later, Mint is still in the duffel bag, which is likely lying on /top/ of Shinji. "I... I believe so," comes her shaky reply, still trying to take mental stock of her current condition (i.e. still alive?).
Yzak Joule is able to see, upon closer inspection, that it's some kind of robot /attached/ to a car. This doesn't make it any weirder. Fortunately for our heroes Yzak doesn't bother to zoom in on the windows or he might just decide to let them crash...but as it is he moves the GOUF closer to the Megas with arms spread wide, attempting to bear-hug the machine and then pull up. Maybe the thing won't crash so hard this way! Or maybe they'll both be blown into smithereens. It's kind of hard to tell, really.
"Oh, great." Shinji mutters, "He's hugging us."
This does, in fact, slow the machine's descent to 'WHAMskhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrr rrrrr stop.' Which may not be so much fun for the Gouf, but it keeps the passengers inside from dying.
Of course, Amuro, who had crawled forth to try to work the controls, is not wearing his seatbelt! So as sometimes happens in crashes, he careens forward, smashing right over the dashboard and accidentally hitting the 'Fire Missiles,' 'Big Shiny Ray,' and 'Cheese Wiz Dispenser' activation buttons before sliding right out of the convertible and over the hood.
It's a miracle of physics that when the world stops spinning, the Newtype notices that he is hanging off the front of Megas, dangling precariously over the edge and stuck between two big robots.
Wait, that's not good.
"This is what happens when you don't wear your seat belt!" Shinji calls out. This is a bad habit of his, just ask Ayanami-sometimes its either the jokes or going catatonic. Still being a little punch drunk helps-and is probably why Shinji fings himself clinging to the passenger seat, working his way around a knocked out Jamie to get after Amuro.
This, Shinji thinks, is really really stupid. And I'm not going to be able to do it if I keep thinking about it. Closing his eyes, Shinji shoves himself forward slowly, only taking time to give the GOUF a 'You jerk.' glare before returning to his task. "Mint! G-grab the controls!" Shinji shouts out, hands shaking and pupals dilating...
As, finally, he manages to get to the edge of the convertible, sticking his arm out. "AMURO!" Shinji shouts, hoping he can even be heard over the Oh Shit Robot Freefall, "GRAB MY HAND!" OhGodohGodohGodohGodI'mgoingtodieohGod-
"R... right!" Mint, still stuck in the duffel bag and looking like a kid participating in a sleeping bag slumber party, starts flapping her ears, rendering her airborne in a matter of seconds; she flits over, settles down in the pilot's seat, and pops her arms out of the bag to grasp at the controls-
And pause. "What in the world am I supposed to /do/?" Mint murmurs helplessly, staring at the steering wheel and the array of buttons in front of her. Her eyes flicker over to Amuro and Shinji's predicament for a moment, before she once again grabs the controls, doing her level best to keep the robot-car as still as possib-
The engine suddenly sputters to life again.
Yzak Joule is, luckily, using a fairly well-armored machine...and not cooincidently he's using the bigger robot as a shield while trying to slow its descent.
That doesn't mean it isn't a hairy ride, however. When the dust clears he quickly scans the area and happens to notice Amuro's predicament. He's about to help when he hears the rumble of Megas' engines starting up again, and quickly draws back; the GOUF rises to its feet and takes a step away from the erstwhile super robot, so as not to get caught up in whatever happens next. If nothing else, Yzak does have a self-preservation instinct.
Okay, okay, focus, Amuro. If you fall right now, you'll be Newtype jam. You might be able to climb back up, or at least you might have been able to if you'd spent less shore leave time in the arcade and gaming shops and more in the weight room. Aren't soldiers supposed to have a buff build? Tatsuki would like a buff build, I bet. NOT THE TIME RIGHT NOW.
He starts sliding just a little, blue eyes widening at Shinji's approach. The older pilot grits his teeth, shooting out one hand to grab at Shinji's while the other claws for dear life and starts, or at least tries, to scramble back up.
Is that the engine starting up again? He can't hear it yet, thanks to those stupid speakers.
Almost there almost there you're going to die Ikari almost there "Hold on Amuro!" oh that REALLY helps, Ikari, face it you're going to fall and you're going to die and they're going to forget you were even there after a week and that's probably for the best because otherwise they'd remember you as 'the squad psycho with the crazy eye' and who wants that-
Then the engine starts up again, and Shinji nearly topples over. He actualy juts forward, but his feet clamp around the door, basicly saving his life. Shinji doesn't even take a second to breathe, clamping his hand around Amuro's and suddenly realizing, 'Crap, I am a skinny Japanese kid and Amuro's a giant lumberjack warrior.'
"So, um, nice speakers Coop's got here!" Shinji shouts, because you sort of have to, and then /tugs/ with all of his strength. It would be awesome if someone were to grab his legs or something, though. Hint hint.
Beads of sweat start collecting on Mint's forehead as she desperately fiddles with the Megas' controls- given that the only things she's piloted beforehand fall into the super-high-tech, links-with-your-mind-and-emotions category, the shift to Coop's hot rod is like throwing some sort of monstrous, horse-drawn, triple stick shift and six-pedal car to someone who's driven automatic for their entire life. Mint takes a breath and squirms in her duffel bag. Is it THIS button?
After spritzing over about fifty channels in three seconds at high volume, the speakers start blaring 'Baby Got Back'. Okay, no, maybe this lever might help to EVEN LOUDER AUUUGH. Mint's ears flatten against her head, and she twists it down- okay fine just BREAK in her hands! With a scowl, she leaves the music as it is and looks to the other buttons, thinking for a moment that Milfeulle's luck would be incredibly useful in a situation like this. She reaches over to gun one lever-
With a roar, the mech rears up, the front of the car rising up into the air like some angry animal, nearly perpendicular to the ground.
Yzak Joule frowns as he watches the other robot fumble around. He's about to move in to help again when he gets an incoming transmission.
"Hello? .... What do you /mean/ you found a dragon? You're sure it's not just a really big lizard? ...it's flying around and attacking?" He lets out a long-suffering sigh. "...I hate this plane. Okay, fine, I'll be right there."
Not being entirely without a heart, he /does/ key up the external loudspeaker and address the Megas before leaving. "Sorry kids, looks like you're going to have to sort this out on your own. You want my advice, you should shut the thing down and get someone else to retrieve it." And with that said, the GOUF turns away and jets back into the air. Looks like the missing Sheep are on their own!
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Hey guys, I'm back. Did you ever figure out when and where you were going to hold that thing?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Thing?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari over the sounds of freefall, "We, um, f-found something else to worry about." Pause. "Ayanami, if I fall to my death, feed Pen-Pen please? He's g-got a sensitive stomach."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Oh. Uh, I don't think I can help, it's not really up to speed yet."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Yes."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami adds, "Do not die."
Amuro's heart is beating fast as he holds onto Shinji's arm for dear life. That part of his brain that thinks about dumb, irrelevant things while his life is at stake notes that hey, Shinji's arm is a lot skinnier than his. Maybe the soldier lifestyle is giving him a workout after all. And the rest of his brain goes OH GOD OH GOD DON'T DROP ME JUST PULL UP.
And with Shinji's burst of Shounen True Moment Strength, he manages to get himself all the way back up! There's only a brief second of relief because...crap. The car is /moving./
Gravity does its thing, and he starts sliding down the other end of the car as it rears back. "SHINJI, MINT, ONE OF YOU! TRY TO GRAB THE RIGHT LEVER BEFORE IT FALLS OVER!"
If he dies, Koji better feel bad about not saying it like 'Mazinger Zed.'
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Vanilla H says, "If you die, I am going to post embarrasing pictures of you onto the internet."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche is just sort of eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'ing in a scared, high-pitched manner at this point.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "BEFORE I DIE, I WANT TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT CANADIANS ARE SAYING 'ZED' RIGHT OKAY!?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche says, "/THAT'S/ WHAT YOU'RE WORRYING ABOUT?!"
You paged Rei Ayanami with 'It would make sense! Well, we'd need to work it out with the other admin how we will implement it. Plus it can be kind of funny to see mingling if people wanna mingle.'
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "What are you doing...?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari helpfully. "Falling."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Why are you falling?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Vanilla H says, "Try to keep yourself alive. I shall put your bones and organs back together later, if you are still alive."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche babbles, "Wrestling with the controls of some sort of hellish car robot after waking up with a headache and stuffed in Shinji's duffel bag and thank you Vanilla that's a very comforting thought."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Lead with your legs."
You paged Rei Ayanami with 'It makes sense!'
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, helpfully, "Pull up!"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche, calmer, "... I'll try."
Shinji Ikari did it! He didn't screw up! He...
He's got a whole lot of Amuro on top of him. "Jeze, w-what are they feeding y-OOOOUUUU!" Stupid vertigo. Shinji turns to Mint, struggling as he's smacked to the side with Amuro, "BLANCMANCHE, /STEER/. THE WHEEL! WE CAN'T DIE BECAUSE...um, r-reasons. Good reasons." Shinji pauses from his sudden stammer as Radio happens and, for the first time in his life, he gets to answer /Rei's/ question with a cryptic, monosyllabic answer. Heh heh heh.
Suddenly, he feels a little better about his impending death. He does flick Amuro's ear for the 'Zed' thing, though.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Gradually pull back. You do not want to stall."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche says, increasingly higher in pitch, "That's not a very good idea because we're already perpendicular to the grooooooound--"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "If you had worn your /seatbelt/, Amuro, we'd beeeeeeeee--"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami, having used up her advice from one attempt to play Flight Simulator, falls silent.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "I wanted to steer because Coop was--"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Oh, God, you took Coop's thing? Apparently it's hard to steer. Uh, I don't know, maybe there's an eject...are you guys still listening?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami remains numbly silent.
"Grab the right lever, grab the right lever..." Mint's hazel eyes flicker at both the radio chatter and Shinji's pointers. "Given our current trajectory, I'm not entirely sure if the wheel is a good idea!!" she yells back. Without any better ideas, she desperately grips onto the aforementioned lever, pushing it in the other direction while spinning the wheel i--
The mecha doesn't change position. It does, however, rock up and down and then JUMP while hopping on one leg- before tilting FORWARDS, quickly passing critical mass, with all the gravity of a giant that's going to take close to ten minutes to fall to its knees.
"ENSIGN RAY! PILOT IKARI!" Mint's ears start beating furiously, and the duffel bag-wearing telepath flits forth, her arms lashing out in an attempt to drag Shinji and Amuro's likely falling forms back towards the car-mech's seats.
Now, one might wonder where are the sleeping Coop and the curiously silent Jaime and Kiva? They are in their seats, and safe, and the only reason why they are not fixing everything is 'hax.'
But back to our heroes. Amuro gets shifted again in his fall, but is still /falling,/ and quietly winces at the ear-thwap but does not respond otherwise because he is falling. Something goes FLASH in his head, he reaches up, he grabs Mint's hand!
He is kind of heavy, actually. At least, probably for someone as small as Mint.
And as she shifts them towards the seats, he holds on and then lets go, landing in a heap in the backseat. Face-down. "Hrkd, Mdrxx cnn fxx whidthr rrrs."
(Translation: Hey, Mint can fly with her ears.)
"@##$ing hax." Shinji mutters under his breath. His less than pleasent personality aspects are a little more out in the open what with the impending doom and all. Fortunately, someone thought to tranqualize Berserker Shinji when Haman Karn first showed her skanky face.
Shinji is also not a Newtype, but dumb luck is fine too. Snapping his hand out, he catches Mint's other offered hand...and blinks. "M-man...do you work out or something? That's k-kind of impressive." He is then gently flung back into his seat, landing in the same heap as Amuro.
He doesn't say anything, because he doesn't have anything to say to ear-flight.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "...T-thanks, Mint."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Better now?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Are you safe?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Notdead."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari mmph.
And with a yell of effort, Mint hurls her fellow Sheep back into the car! Though, she isn't able to answer either Amuro or Shinji's statements, mostly because the counterforce of one small semi-airborne girl pulling two pilots has, in turn, pulled /her/ in the other direction.
Namely, out the car. "Aaiiee!!" the blue-haired girl screams as she falls out of sight, her ears still flapping wildly.
Ten seconds later, a still-flapping Mint (pikupikupikupikupikupiku) flies back into view, gasping from both the effort and the adrenaline rush. "Are... you two... alright?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche eartwitches madly. *Pikupikupikupikupikupikupikupikupiku*
After another moment, Amuro pokes out from the backseat. His fro is a mess. Moreso than usual.
"...Uh, yeah, I'm fine. That was-that was really impressive! I didn't know you had such strong, uh, ears."
Production note: Ear-flap-flight for Haro. Implement it somehow.
He's still catching his breath, looking around. "Are we-uh-um-safe, finally?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami continues with the distressed silence.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "...those ears are cool."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "So, uh, you landed OK?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche gasps from the effort of /flying with her ears/. "Why, thank you, Ensign Ray."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche says, "It's nothing compared to Milfeulle's helicopter-spinning flower headband, however. -- and yes, we are mostly in one piece."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "-Helicopter-flower?"
Shinji Ikari's head is stuck between the seats. "Mmmph!" His legs twitch a little, as if trying to grab at-oh, good, that annoying ear twitch thing. She's okay.
With a TUG, Shinji pulls his head out, breating heavily and looking in faint horror at the contents of a convienance store that have made their home in his hair. "Um..." Shinji says, blinking. "I'm o-okay, t-thanks." Shinji pauses.
And blinks at his soda-perfectly allright, somehow. Sighing, slightly, he picks it up and offers it to Mint. "Here. You, um, look like you need this."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari TUUUUG. Pant. Pant. "Oh man what is /between/ those seat cushins..."
Amuro's soda was in the cupholder. It's also intact, probably because Coop built the thing that way somewhere. He offers his, too. An OFFERING.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Did you crash?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "-There's a piece of Slim Jim in your hair."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari consolingly dry, "N-not into anything expensive, Ayanami."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Where are you?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "What'd you hit?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Yzak's Gouf. It flew off, though."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "T-the street. Um...Paris, I think. J-joule threw us off course."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "I'd suggest a cafe, but my stomach's churning from the tacos and the crash and the falling."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Are you injured?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "We're mostly fine."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "Mint's kind of, um, exhausted...and was in my duffle bag for some reason...but we're okay."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari pause. "...thanks, though."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche says, "... I /am/ still mildly curious about how I got in here."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "I will alert the recovery teams."
The duffel-bag-wearing-Mint plops down next to Amro in the back seat, sweat mussing her hair; her ears continue twitching, but it's the involuntary sort of fatigued twitching rather than its usual cute version. "Thank you! The ears... it's part hereditary, part training," she gasps, still a little punch-drunk and getting her breathing under control. "If not for my father's insistence..." Mint clams up.
And she blinks at the offering. The multiple offerings. "No, it's... it's alright, I'll be fine after some rest," she reassures them, smiling faintly. Even though those drinks look /really really good/ at the moment.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "D-don't go to any trouble...and I don't know, Blancmanche. All I k-keep in there's my books and a s-stuffed giraffe."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari pause. "Um, f-forget the last bit.":
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Right, forgot about a stuffed giraffe."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami ignores the giraffe-related news to say, "They have already been told. Is the damage great?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche says, "..."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche rummages.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Wait, hold on, giraffe?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Mint Blancmanche "..."'s again as she stares at something that might or might not be that giraffe. Audible sparkles can be heard.
"...Well, if you insist." Amuro slumps in the seat again, taking a long drink of soda. The ice melted a little. "It's still impressive, though! And, uh, thanks for pulling me up too, Shinji! That was also pretty impressive."
He eyebrow-twitches just a little as he pauses for a soda-sip. "But what do you mean, 'what are they feeding me?'"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari weakly, "Its, um, a g-gift..." Cough. "Um, from what I read on Mister Coop's file, we actualy are under par for this plane."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Yeah, apparently this place is like...like Koji's home."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "I don't understand..."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Like how?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "They're u-used to this kind of thing, Ayanami. ...sort of like how we g-got used to Asuka's friendly choke holds, you k-know?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami says, "Oh."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "You put up with being choke-holded?"
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Amuro Ray says, "Or like how we're used to wrecked cities."
"You're obviously hearing things, Amuro. Maybe Yzak was t-thinking about eating some delicious ham." Shinji smoothly says, while stubbornly sticking his soda by Mint's side. He's used to people who need things refusing help in getting them, after all, since basicly his entire peer group has self-reliance issues. Seriously, he doesn't even like to think about what he had to do to get Misato to admit she needed help with the laundry. Brrr.
Shinji then leans against the seat, glad that the falling is /done/. He lets out a breath. "...ugh. Hopefuly this doesn't end up on our r-records, or my evil dad-umm, I mean the C-commander'll...well he's already probably m-mad about the other thing.
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Rei Ayanami sounds very faintly uncomfortable. "If they are used to it, there is nothing to worry about."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Lily Davies says, "Held. Whatever."
(Y-Black Sheep Squadron) Shinji Ikari says, "I'm k-kidding." muttered, "mostly..."
After staring at the stuffed giraffe for perhaps longer than she should, Mint carefully struggles out of Shinji's duffel bag, kicking her legs free and sighing in relief at the chance to /stretch/ them. And then she stares at the offered soda for a long, long moment, nearly expressionless- before giving in and plucking it from Shinji's hand. "Thank you," the telepath murmurs quietly, not looking at the Third Child's face as she pops it open and takes a swig.
"If what I've heard about this plane is true, then there shouldn't be any worries..." Mint says, perking up a bit as she starts counting off her fingers. "Given that we haven't caused damage to any structures or other robots- or THIS particular robot- or came into undue contact with anyone from the Syndicate-" Clearly, she did not see Yzak. Or Haman. "-we should be fine."
Amuro exhales a little, feeling slightly like a heel as he glances down at his own soda. But he keeps the thought to himself, unless Mint think-overhears it. "Haman was there earlier, and Yzak showed up, but it looks like he wasn't interested in a fight. I think we should be fine, at least. Maybe if your dad starts bothering you, I can make up an excuse for you. Say that it was because we forced you to go out for tacos."
The little wry smile indicates that he is probably kidding. "And about the other thing, that isn't your fault, so he shouldn't blame you for it."
Shinji Ikari shakes his head, smiling a little as Mint takes the drink. He will regret not taking Amuro's offer later, when he comes to his senses but for right now...
Right now, screw Gendo Ikari. Shinji is not dead from falling and bumping into two of his least favorte people at once. "I've g-got to deal with him sooner or later." Shinji sighs. "Becides, he won't r-really care, as long as I still p-pilot and the EVA isn't d-damaged." This could be depressed exagerating, but something about Shinji's resigned tone implies that it probably isn't.
Nrrmph. "Can we just, like, s-sit here for a bit? Ayanami probably did call the recovery teams, and I don't feel like c-climbing out."
Perhaps Mint DID overhear Amuro's thought. That would at least explain why she suddenly glances over to him with a smile and a wink- 'please don't worry about it'. Clearly, the drink HAS helped the telepath's state of mind. She sobers up at Shinji's words, however. "I see..." Mint murmurs, thinking back to her own father for a moment. She doesn't comment, however, feeling that even this is out of her league. "-- that's alright with me," the telepath replies diplomatically, sipping daintily at her/Shinji's/etc. drink.
Amuro gives a little smile back to Mint, not entirely surprised if she did 'overhear' him. He glances over at Shinji, and completely fails to tell him that no, it's not fair the way his father treats him, there has to be another way than to put him in that scary monster of a mobile suit that turns its pilots into monsters.
Instead, he leans back and sips more Cherry Dr. Pibb. "...Sure, let's do that."