「Destroy」she said ; closed to massproduced

[imitationsoul]

[ It's not unusual to be back here and Miach doesn't feel any particular discomfort at the sight of the rundown bunker now. It's smaller than it is in her memories, even in the world of her dreams. She's grown past being hurt by it, she thinks. For a moment she considers going inside, but then she thinks better of it and climbs to the roof. It's easy in a dream, though even then the hard facade of the building hurts her bare feet. Why are they bare...? Oh, Miach thinks and smiles. She's wearing rags, of course she is. It gives an experience of being alive that's lost in her waking world.

From the roof, she has a good view on the valley below, on an ending battle. The freedom fighters that had saved her in reality seem to be losing here. They're bleeding, there's blood and dirt, and dirt and blood and dirt again. Miach's own feet are bloody as well, she notices with a mixture of disgust and amusement, and kicks them in the air as she watches the carnage. ]

Comments

[massproduced]

[From overhead, Eva Unit 00 lands on the ground, creating a giant cloud of dust from the ground. Rei's objective here is clear: neutralize the ground forces in order to create a new base of operations for NERV.

Secure the area. Whatever it takes. Commander Ikari's words.

Unit 00 was made to withstand the power of Angels. Ordinary humans could never stand a chance. A bomb detonates, and soon the sound of gunfire and men shouting is replaced with an eerie silence. Rei breathes out. Mission accomplished with... ah. The display on Unit 00's internal battery is not functional and the nature of the mission had made umbilical cables impractical. So then...?

A dream. Rei blinks as she surveys the area, like she's seeing it for the first time. And then she spots it: a girl standing on the rooftop of a dilapidated building. She navigates Unit 00 closer and steps out of the hull of her Evangelion.]

[imitationsoul]

[ ... ah. But that's unusual. Unrealistic. Biotechnological warfare objects are always based on animals, never on humans. Warbirds, planes, the travel goats... animals, animals, animals. But this is humanoid. Humanoid and super effective. What an interesting dream...

Miach already thinks that when she's only seen Eva 00 fighting, but when a girl steps out she actually looks puzzled. Most war machines are unmanned, to reduce casualties as far as possible. It's only the non-admedistrative countries that can't afford those machines and have to pay with blood. They're here now, but this is no Russian force nor a Chechen freedom fighter...

Curious, Miach leans a bit over the edge of the roof and gives a shout to the other girl in Chechen. ]

That was a cruel performance!

[massproduced]

[For a moment, Rei appears just as confused. This is unexpectedly interactive for a dream. She's so used to static images, the feeling of being a captive audience to her unconscious thoughts. Strange. She didn't think she craved interaction with strangers so much that she would artificially create it for herself.

was it cruel?

The question seems functionally irrelevant if this was nothing but a dream, in the end, so Rei does't dwell on the matter for long. Being that she isn't a loud person in nature, her reply is in soft Japanese. She figures this being a dream, she doesn't need to raise her voice in order to be heard.]

Who are you?

[imitationsoul]

[ Well, that's a forward response. Miach tilts her head and chuckles as if Rei had made a joke, then switches language to Japanese as well as the responds. ]

Names won't really mean anything to you, would they?

Maybe... I'm an unfortunate victim of the war? [ She touches her chin with her index finger as if thinking about it. The performance fades fast. ]

Call me Miach.

[massproduced]

[Odd. This girl is nothing like Eva Unit 02's pilot who would have found the irrelevance of her name enraging. This girl seems to find something funny instead, but whatever it is... it's going right over Rei's head. It's a different kind of perplexing than usual, and if for only that reason, Rei steps out of Unit 00 and over the roof's barricade. Her movements are neat, cat-like in precision.

She merely nods at Miach's name, and seeing as the girl has already pointed out Rei's tendency not to commit names of unimportant people to memory, she doesn't provide her own.]

You don't seem very unfortunate.

[But then again.]

Your feet are bleeding.

[imitationsoul]

[ Miach steps closer to take a good look at the other girl. She doesn't look like anybody she's seen before, but her eyes... detached and empty. The expression reminds Miach of herself and that makes it a little easier to understand why this stranger would show up. ]

They are.

[ She confirms without any positive or negative feelings about it. Rather, she seems to wait how Rei will react further. ]

[massproduced]

[Her glance shifts from Miach's feet back to her face. Is this where she's supposed to say "it looks painful, let me help you?"
Unit 02's pilot would have certainly thought so.

But Rei....? Rei simply changes the subject. If the girl were in pain, she would not be laughing on a rooftop.]

Why are you here?

[imitationsoul]

[ The swift disregard of her injury would have been a pleasant surprise in the waking world. now it is just a reaffirmation that this isn't a totally worthless byproduct of her mind. ]

Maybe my mind longs to go back from the boring hell to the fearsome one. Who knows.

I could ask you the same, though. You're not with either front, are you?

[massproduced]

[Rei ponders this in silence for a moment. A dream as a form of an escape. This seems novel and quite unlike herself. When she isn't awake, her existence as an individual who exists isn't validated. Dreams can't give Rei what she wants.

So who is this girl who yearns for fantasy? A part of herself or... something other.]

My orders were to secure these coordinates. That was my only purpose.

[A short pause.]

I don't know why there was fighting.

[imitationsoul]

[ Huh. ]

Neither did I, while I was still in the middle of it. Your little operation seems to have proven a little more successful.

[ But Miach is not the kind of person for this specific brand of power fantasy... ]

It's an independence war between Chechnya and Russia that's being continued under the guise of lifeism and trying to bring the correct and healthy way of life to others. Russia's an old style government though, not an administration.

[ The other girl should know as much, technically. ]

For what were you securing it?

[massproduced]

[Rei stares, her eyebrow raised a touch incredulously. If dreams can only consist of ideas adn concepts that are pre-existent in the human mind, then this is not an ordinary dream. Then... could it be that this girl is an Angel and they are currently withina a pocket dimension?]

To create a new base of operation to withstand the advent of the angels.

[Her eyes watch Miach carefully as she explains.]

How come you don't know that?

[imitationsoul]

[ ... angels. Miach raises an eyebrow, clearly skeptical. Christianity was still somewhat present in the current world and of course Miach would know about angels, but to dream them up as an enemy...? Dreams may be bizarre, but this is throwing her off. ]

Because it's not real. It's either a product of my subconscious during REM sleep, or something fishy is happening.

I'd prefer the latter, truthfully, but we may have a hard time confirming as much.

[massproduced]

[Not an angel then. Rei's eyes shift from Miach to the surrounding war zone. The dead lying on the ground, the smell of iron in the air. Rei takes this all in with dispassion.]

I am not a product of your subconscious.

[Though quiet, it's the firmest she's sounded so far. It's a sentiment that, like many of her questions so far have been, can be reversed on Rei herself.]

If you are not an enemy, then that is all I need to know.

[And with that, she sits on the edge of the roof, and breathes out.]

[imitationsoul]

[ It's not really hard to imagine Miach dreaming up someone who insists they aren't a dream, but it's never happened before either.
Miach decides there's no harm in going along with it for now - she's in her own brain's privacy, so the worst than can happen is waking up while headshaking at herself.

Without hesitation, she comes to sit close to Rei. ]

What happened to the good old "do not be afraid"?

[massproduced]

[Persistent. Rei doesn't acknowledge Miach's proximity but continues to look at supposed Chechnya.]

The angels of the old testament were said to have brought fire and destruction to Sodom and Gomorrah causing a mass genocide.

[Her tone is utterly apathetic as she points it. She's never wondered about literary contradictions like that before. Angels have always been the enemy - the ultimate threat to humanity. The notion that angels could be kind, merciful and beautiful simply came later.]

Real angels are like this as well.

[imitationsoul]

[ Considering it's still her own dream, Miach shouldn't be terribly surprised to have people fire knowledge back at her that otherwise she'd definitely have to explain, but it still catches her pleasantly off-guard. ]

'When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city." '

The angel's from the scripture were very... selective in whom to save. The right path of life is already decided from above and so.

But I can't say any reliable source has ever reported angel sightings since those times.

[massproduced]

Then you have been asleep for a very long time.

[She comments a little dryly, though she doesn't fully believe that's the totality of what's going on at the moment. It would be impossible to exist in her world without knowledge of the angels, even as an ordinary civilian and she doesn't fully buy into the idea that her own subconscious would be questioning the existence of these dangerous beings.]

Perhaps you are someone else entirely.

[imitationsoul]

How long would I have had to have been asleep for, in your opinion?

[ She's entirely certain that's not the case, but she wonders how specific the requirements here can get. Angels... If that had been a codename for the various effects of nuclear destruction during the Maelstrom, she'd know about it. She'd know about giant robots as well.

No, this is different, it's not something books can simply decode for her as it seems. ]