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[imusntrunaway]

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[Beeeeeeeeeeeep.]

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[imusntrunaway]

[Oh. That's. Sorta awkward. His voice dwindles in embarrassment he's being rude right now isn't he.]

... oh. Um... were you homeschooled?

[substitutable]

Nah. I went to middle school, but I quit after that. [Not that he had many friends back then, anyway.]

[imusntrunaway]

[This was a touchy subject wasn't it? He shouldn't have asked that question in the first place. His gaze slides down.]

Sorry. For bringing it up.

[substitutable]

[Shintaro looks at him with a nonchalant air though. Not going to high school was a thing people did, and he doesn't have to tell Shinji the why anyway -- he waves a hand dismissively.]

You don't have to apologize. It's not a big deal. Ah, but you should keep up with school. You're still in middle school, right?

[imusntrunaway]

[School had always been a secondary concern for pilots, even though he diligently attended all classes. It's slipped off his list of priorities once he got here.]

Yeah. I'm... I haven't studied in a while. [It's admitted with some guilt.]

[substitutable]

[!!!]

... Do you need some help? I don't mind, and there were some textbook-sorta things at the library.

[imusntrunaway]

[He didn't expect help to be offered in the first place.]

I'm fine... I don't think it's important in a place like this anyway...

[substitutable]

Are you sure? If you go back and you end up being like, way behind...

[imusntrunaway]

[That earns a pause. Then, an emotionless answer:]

That's okay. My world is gone.

[substitutable]

[He jumps, drops his spoon.

He suddenly wonders if "Elmer C. Albatross" and "Shinji Ikari" might be from the same world.]

I-Ikari...?

[imusntrunaway]

[He looks up at that. Did he deliver it too bluntly...?]

It's fine. I knew when I got here.

[substitutable]

... You're not from that place, a few days ago, are you?

[imusntrunaway]

[Ah. That's what he assumed. He shakes his head.]

That wasn't my Earth.

[substitutable]

[Shintaro looks a little shaky anyway as he picks his spoon back up.]

I see. Then, your earth..?

[imusntrunaway]

[He notices that.]

... it wasn't yours. You don't have to [act] be sorry.

[substitutable]

... Not really. I'm not sorry about it, unless you wanted me to be.

I was just thinking, how'd I feel if that happened to mine.

[imusntrunaway]

[He shakes his head at the first statement. He hates faked sympathy.]

I can't go back to mine because... something happened. [A clarification:] It wasn't because of the UE.

[substitutable]

[He won't be getting much of it from Shintaro.]

... I see.

[He looks away for a few seconds, clearing his thoughts. He doesn't have to think about that world around Shinji, then. Stop, stop, he tells himself. Then he looks back at Shinji.]

I won't ask any more. Sorry.

[imusntrunaway]

[He's glad the conversation topic's moving away from his home. Some of the tension in his shoulders ease and his gaze softens. If he thinks about it too much... if the topic was brought up again... he might start wondering and never stop.]

It's fine. I shouldn't have brought it up.

[substitutable]

... Aah, but it would suck if you stop studying for so long that you get dumb. So make sure you at least read books.

[back to square one, hopefully in another direction.]

[imusntrunaway]

I do read... what about you? [It's not meant to be a challenge. It's to see if Shin's been keeping up too, while he's lecturing him about this.]

[substitutable]

High school drops outs don't need to study.

Kidding. I go to the library every week.

[imusntrunaway]

I've been there a few times... [He can't say it's out of curiosity. It's more out of boredom--even someone as withdrawn as him can't live completely shut in with only a music player.] What sort of books do you usually read?

[substitutable]

Anything. The history of this world, anything from other worlds, sometimes I find something similar to what I see in mine.

[Knowing the history of Exsilium doesn't change his powerlessness in doing anything in this war. Knowing about the history of other worlds, the mechanics of their technology and magic, don't have any merits to him either. So what's the point? What's it got to do with him? What can he do with all this knowledge? He tries to shove them away into a drawer in the back of his mind as he continues.]

It's just to kill time, so it doesn't matter what I read.

[imusntrunaway]

... there's books from other worlds, too?

[That was something he didn't know. And it actually stirs Shinji's interest, if only for a selfish reason. If there was a history of other worlds, would there be a history of his? Could he maybe pull a book from a shelf, flip a page and see his name--Shinji Ikari, the Third Child, murderer coward pilot of Evangelion Unit 01--scrawled in there as a footnote? Did they finally give him the praise he desperately craved...?

... no, it's ridiculous to think that in the first place. His world ended. He's supposed to focus on drowning those thoughts.]