Shopping Trip

[redheadcarrier]

Date & Time: Afternoon on January 08, 2013
Location: The Market
Characters: Asuka; OPEN
Summary: Doing some shopping in the new year. And morbid thoughts because, hey, it's Evangelion.
Warnings: Asuka's a brat and suffers from severe psychological issues. That's about it.

Asuka thought she was going to go nuts if she had to deal with rain for more day. Of course, given that it was always raining here, there wasn't much to do but grin and bear it. With a shiver, she wrapped her coat a bit tighter around her and peered out into the sodden street, watching as refugees and transports (mostly refugees; transports tended to stand out) mill past. Maybe this was what parts of Earth had looked like after Third Impact - ragged communities trying to hold themselves together and endure hunger and hard times.

Not that she was very hungry. The Initiative kept her fed and she could buy food, but she also got special treatment. She was supposed to help them save the world. Or something. She honestly still didn't know what she was supposed to do, but at least the vague objective gave her something to hold onto. She was adjusting, anyway. Life had developed an odd rhythm, where she woke up every morning and went down to the training hall. Then she usually tried to find people to poke over their fake internet. That was entertaining. Usually.

It wasn't much of a life, but it was a life.

Or had been until Shinji had showed up out of nowhere. Why had those idiots had to bring him here? And the Fifth, to boot? She would've been just fine without them to remind her of everything she'd left behind (even if she still kind of wanted Shinji to pay attention to her). Whatever. She dismissed the thoughts with a snort and stepped out into the flow of humanity, elbowing her way through the crowd to a stall selling soap. It wasn't exactly top-of-the-line stuff (really, it was handmade), but Asuka liked being clean. She hunched her shoulders against the steady downpour and toyed with one of the bars. Probably made out of animal fat or something. Eck.

Asuka pulled a face and then fished for her card. Better than being filthy most of the time. Now if only she could find some hair product. Well, maybe she could ask someone. She turned away from the booth, looking for someone who didn't like quite as downtrodden as the rest of them.

Comments

[sayonara_baby]

Every day was a great day when you were Jr. except when it wasn't! He'd gotten himself an umbrella, which was currently propped against his shoulder, and he was whistling what sounded vaguely like the theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly as he made his way down the street.

He stopped a couple people as he went, too, asking about their day, complimenting them on some aspect of their appearance, or requesting recommendations on any good stores in the area. Might as well get people used to seeing him around. Less questions that way when things started to explode.

"Yo!" he said, spotting Asuka. "I'm trying to find out if there's an A.G.W.S. hangar anywhere around here. You know where I could find one?"

[redheadcarrier]

Asuka eyed Jr. for a long moment. Well, he certainly wasn't a local. She shoved her hands deeper into her pockets with a shrug, "I don't even know what A.G.W.S. stands for - and if you hadn't noticed, we kind of lack a lot of things around here. Like hangars."

[sayonara_baby]

"Just got here," he said, unperturbed. "So I'm probably not going to know this place for a little while. Besides, with all that weaponry they flashed me back there, I figured they might have an underground bunker or two stashed somwhere."

You'd think the Initiative could at least afford to outfit a giant robot or two, jeez.

[redheadcarrier]

"What does A.G.W.S. even stand for, anyway?" Asuka grumbled, "If I don't know what you're talking about I can't really help you, can I?"

After another moment of standing in the rain, Asuka shifted back under a tattered awning to avoid getting even more soaked than she already was. The coat kept the rain off but that didn't mean she wanted to stand out in the middle of it.

"And if you hadn't noticed, they're recruiting people from random alternate realities to fight for them. Somehow, I don't think they're the best prepared for this kind of thing."

[sayonara_baby]

"Anti-Gnosis Weapon System. They're more compact version of the A.M.W.S. mechs, scaled for use in starship corridors. But if there really aren't any hangars here, like you said, it's kind of a moot point. Unless, I guess, someone's got access to transfer technology here." Hmm. Something to think about.

Jr. placed a hand on one hip. "Maybe not. But it doesn't hurt to ask around. Besides, with all the people they've been grabbing, maybe someone's got access to similar technology."

[have_hat_will_travel]

Of course, with Asuka's luck, a certain someone was looking around the market, a small backpack on her back.

"Okay, that's... Most of the pieces," she muttered, before she looked towards Asuka. "... You look like you're seeking something."

[redheadcarrier]

"If they don't have my Eva here, then they don't have your stupid mech," Asuka said, hands still firmly tucked into her pockets. She sounded rather grumpy, which was not entirely surprising, all things considered. It was Asuka, after all.

"Look around, moron - you really think these people could build a car, let alone a giant war machine?"

[redheadcarrier]

"Oh, great. It's you," Asuka said. She wasn't going to run away. She was just going to stay right here and finish her shopping. She sniffed and turned to eye whatever happened to be in the stall next to her. Nothing interesting, unfortunately.

"What do you want?"

[have_hat_will_travel]

"Yeah, yeah. What are you looking for, anyways? Perhaps I saw it while I was going around."

[redheadcarrier]

"What do you care?" Asuka shot back, "Going to try and humiliate me again?"

[have_hat_will_travel]

"Maybe I can actually help. I dunno, but I thought people liked that."

[sayonara_baby]

"Hey, easy," Jr. said, putting both hands palm out into the air as if to fend her off. There was a numbered tattoo on one of his hands, a red '666'.

"I know it seems like we don't have that much, but appearances can be deceiving."

[redheadcarrier]

"They can also be exactly what they look like. Have any other pithy remarks you feel like sharing?" Asuka shivered. She hated the cold - mostly because she wasn't used to it. Her eyes darted to the tattoo, then back.

"What's with the number?"

[redheadcarrier]

"I don't need help," Asuka replied, "I'm fine!"

[revolutionized]

There was someone with particularly fabulous hair wandering around the marketplace today. Said hair was pink, and under a military cap, and maybe a little damp at the edges, but the girl it belonged to at least looked like she took good care of it. She seems to be on good terms with most of the downtrodden, tired looking refugees, and a few of them know her by name.

She lingers near the soap stall, and makes small talk with the merchant before spotting Asuka. She gives her a once-over — not intrusive by any means, just curious — and speaks up after a moment.

"Say, have you seen any flowers around here? I figured it's a long shot, but I have a friend who'd be interested. I've been asking around."

[redheadcarrier]

"Why the Hell do they want flowers?" Asuka replies before her brain-to-mouth filter really kicks in, "This whole place is dead. I'm surprised they can grow anything!"

She kicks at the floor with a muted little huff of indignation, "So, sorry, can't help you."

After a moment it finally registers that Utena does indeed have fabulous hair. Very fabulous, in fact. Almost as fabulous as Asuka tends to think her own is.

"Hey, do you know if they have anything remotely resembling hair-care products?"

[revolutionized]

Whoa, rude. Utena briefly looks taken aback, but she recovers after a moment. "She likes flowers. I'm pretty sure if she had seeds, she could grow them anywhere, even in a place like this. Besides, like you said, this place is dead, right?" A tilt of her head, a slight, hesitant smile. "I bet flowers would brighten it up a little."

The question about hair care makes her put a finger to her chin. "It's hard to find," she admits. "Sometimes if you ask the Initiative people, they have some, and there are a few merchants who have stuff that won't make your hair feel like straw. They aren't here every day, though."

[redheadcarrier]

"Some actual sunlight would brighten this place up a little," Asuka muttered sullenly, "Flowers are a distant second."

Asuka took a deep breath. She was sick of rain, sick of feeling damp all the time, sick of the sound it made on her window - she'd adjusted a little, but it was still getting to her. She tugs her hood down for a moment to reveal the expanse of hair she has hidden underneath it.

"Well. Thanks, I guess. I'm trying to keep this under control and it's driving me nuts!"

[bursting]

Rain wasn't something Setsuna was overly accustomed to, either, having been raised in a desert where just a few drops for the year were praised as a miraculous event. And in space, the only weather you could see were the great storms brewing over the surface of vast oceans. No, it had been a very long time since Setsuna had felt any sort of precipitation on his head, anything beyond dust in his eyes, but even still he knew this was a dismal rain, a sad rain, much like the world it fell into. It only took him a few minutes to decide I do not like this rain, and only a few minutes longer to decide I do not like this place at all.

The puddles were damp and dirty beneath the tromp, tromp, tromp of Setsuna's boots, but he didn't pay them much mind, nor the shadowed expressions of those he passed by, just as gloomy as the clouds above. The suffering here was prevalent and made him sick in the stomach, but for now, there were more pressing matters at hand. Finding his friends, establishing communications with home base... and returning to the Ptolemy, to the place that needed (and wanted, so he believed) him.

Wandering through the crowd, a flash of red caught his attention, a flicker of a determined gaze he hadn't seen in the languid faces of others, and so he lifted his head to meet it, studying the girl it belonged to.

Of course, as she would soon discover, someone's knowledge of social etiquette was rather scarce, so he would say nothing—simply stare at her, far longer than was polite, as if she'd grown an extra pair of arms, thoughts wandering.

[redheadcarrier]

Asuka felt the hair prickling up on the back of her neck. She glancedout over the crowd and caught a boy staring at her. Just staring at her, like she was some kind of zoo exhibit. Her cheeks flushed and a moment later, she'd elbowed her way thtrough the crowd to him, staring up at Setsuna through the rain wih a scowl on her features.

"What are you looking at?"

[bursting]

The girl's response came sharper than he'd expected, high and indignant. While not shrinking away from it, his shoulders tensed the slightest bit. This probably wasn't someone he should've been aggravating, though from the looks of things...

Well, it was too late to start the conversation over, so he simply shrugged and said in his usual deadpan, "You."

Setsuna at least had competency enough to realize that wasn't entirely helpful, so after a moment, he added, "You seem different from everyone else, so I was watching. What are you doing here?"

[redheadcarrier]

"Me? Do you have some sort of problem-?"

Asuka cut herself off when she realized that hey, maybe it was sort of a compliment. She huffed indignantly and scuffed a foot over the damp, broken pavement, "Of course I'm different. And what do you think I'm doing? I'm shopping, you moron."

Even if Asuka wasn't in attack mode anymore, she still had bite.

[bursting]

Setsuna had something of an immunity to straightforwardness to the point of insult; being under the command of a woman who was, at times, rather blunt herself, the natural snap to Asuka's tone doesn't bother him as much. He took a moment to consider her response carefully—of course I'm different—of all the different things it could possibly mean. Did people see him as different, too? He guessed so. Maybe that was why they seemed so far away at times.

"No," Setsuna shook his head, disregarding the rest of what she'd said. "That's not what I meant. Why are you here, in Exsilium? Are you also a Transport?"

[redheadcarrier]

Asuka's expression wavered. She was stuck between wanting to demand that he actually listen to her and simply answering him. He seemed relatively immune to her typical bluntness anyway. Asuka took a breath, mouth still fixed in a scowl.

"Yes, I'm a Transport. Do I look like some idiot local to you? Are you new or something?"

[bursting]

Again, Setsuna breezed past the jabs as if they really were just air. To him, they might as well have been; he'd encountered the nastiest mankind had to offer before, and this wasn't it. Pointing with his finger down the street, he replied to something unspoken, "If the rain bothers you, I think they were selling umbrellas a few booths down. Around the corner, under the bright blue banner."

As for her last question, he offered a tilt of his head, slow, deliberate. He was quick to act in battle, but in conversation, he was a much more gradual prod compared to Asuka's rapidfire exchanges. "You're right. I arrived just a few days ago. But that's not why I approached."