The Sound of Silence
Loremaster
This song is about the inability of people to communicate with each other. And not particularly internationally, but especially emotionally. So that, what you see around you is people who are unable to love each other. This is called the Sound of Silence.
-Art Garfunkel
Darkness. Silence. It was comforting. It was familiar. It was safe. It was like an old friend. It aided and allowed one to think, to ponder, to cogitate. It insulated one from the madness of the world, and the pain of being human.
Shinji Ikari desperately needed all of this.
He lay upon his cot, curled up. His eyes were open and staring blankly at some vision in his mind, tears visibly welling in them. His hand cradled his precious S-DAT player, which poured the music of Track 26 gently into his ears. He lay perfectly still.
Asuka, he thought. Why? Why can't you listen? Why can't you speak?
click
Track 25.
The boy continued to weep silently, letting the music flow through his soul as he thought back upon the day's events. Each event served only to jerk more tears from his eyes, but never a sound.
…
12 Hours Prior
Ikari awoke, the dream fresh in his mind. That it was a dream, he had no doubt, for nothing that good could ever happen to him. I'm not that lucky. I'm not that kind of person. I'm weak, worthless…
He slowly rose from his cot, dressed himself, and made his way into the kitchen where he proceeded to make lunch Bentos for Asuka and himself. His bustling must have awoken Asuka, for she soon entered the kitchen, a scowl upon her face.
For a long time, she stood there silently, her ice blue eyes boring into him. Shinji had noticed her entrance, and his demeanor had taken on a decidedly more submissive appearance. He knew what was coming next. I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away…
Then it came.
"Baka! What the hell are you doing? You know today is cooking class, so why are you making us lunch?" she yelled.
"S-s-sorry," Shinji managed, withdrawing his attention from the Bentos. "I-I-I'm just so.."
"So housebroken that you can't think for yourself?" Asuka threw up her arms and heaved a heavy sigh of exasperation. "Beliebte Gott! Shinji, you are the MOST USELESS creature ever created,"
Shinji shrank back even further. "S-s-sor-"
Asuka whirled around, rage visible on her face. "Don't you DARE apologize! Why do you ALWAYS apologize?" With a further huff, she stormed out of the apartment to school.
Shinji looked back down at the Bentos. He'd made hers exactly like it had been in the dream. Asuka…
There was only the sound of silence to reply.
…
Asuka continued to storm off towards school. The sun had not yet rose, and it was dark and lightly drizzling. Baka Shinji, she thought as she turned her shirt collar up to keep the cold rain from her. Why does he always back down? I've seen him rise up, stand and shout to the world "I AM HERE!"… and then he always sits back down, shrinks and says he's sorry. Why?
She continued walking along the streets, turning down one lain with cobblestone. The school was just on the other side of it. I wish he would just stand up and stay up. I wish…
A bright flash of pink light stirred her from her revere and gave her gasp. It was the neon sign for a girly shop, its tubes spelling out the word 'Love'. She stared at it, pondering it.
"Love," she said, disturbing the sound of silence.
…
Slowly, the various children of Tokyo-3 staggered from their classrooms into the school cafeteria for lunch, including those of class 2-A, which included Shinji and Asuka. The two were starving, as it turned out that cooking class was canceled due to problems with the gas lines to the stoves. She looked over at him, wondering if he'd continued to make the lunches that morning, but he refused to make eye contact.Baka… she thought.
A sigh disturbed her. Her friend, Hikari, was eyeing Touji again. "Still set on that Stooge?" she asked of her friend.
Hikari blushed, looking down at her feet. "Well…" she said wistfully.
Asuka rolled her eyes. "Well, go talk to him," she said. Might as well get them together. Either they'll make a lovely pair, or she'll wise up about how much of a dummkopf he is.
Hikari blushed, and dashed off to Touji. Asuka took this moment to look around at the school population. In the raw naked light of the sun she saw what seemed like thousands of people talking, laughing, writing music. She almost ignored it further, but the image of the neon sign reentered her mind. Love… she thought.
She closed her eyes, thought about the sign, and reopened them. She looked at each and every person, listening to what they said. They were talking, but they weren't speaking. Those they talked to heard them, but did not truly listen to them. Those who wrote never truly showed them to anyone, giving half-hearted laughter and meager excuses to anyone who showed even the slightest interest in their works.
She looked back to Hikari and Touji, and saw the same thing. They were talking, but neither was truly saying anything to the other. Idle chat, signifying nothing, accomplishing nothing.
All that truly spoke was the sound of silence, and no-one dared disturb its reign.
…
Asuka recoiled in horror. It was like a mirror. Is this really me? Have I always been this way? Has Shinji….
She shook her head. I don't care! I'm going to do something about this! With that, she strode towards Hikari and Touji.
"Asuka?" Hikari asked, obviously confused. Touji looked at her with a measure of worry. What will the Demon-Girl do to me now? He thought as he gulped in nerves.
"You're wasting time! You fools, don't you see it? You're nuts about each other!" She grasped each others hand and joined them together. "Don't you see it? Stop dancing around the subject and just admit it to each other! This silence isn't helping either of you!"
Touji looked at her with wide eyes, even more nervous than before. Hikari blushed, and ran off, embarrassed beyond belief. "Great going, demon-girl," Touji tossed as he left the table, in a separate direction from Hikari.
Asuka just stood there, her mouth agape. They had heard her words, but they had not listened.
Shinji came up behind her, with the Bento from that morning clutched tightly in his hands, ready. "A-asuka?" he stammered meekly. "I heard what you tried to do. It was a good thing, and I-I-I-I'm proud of you,"
Asuka turned to him. "Shinji, you stupid housebroken male! Stop stammering, stand up and BE A MAN, DAMNIT!" With that, she pushed past him, and ran from school
"Asuka…" Shinji whispered, the Bento from his dream still clutched in his hands.
The words were as silent raindrops, echoing as they fell into a well.
The sound of the silence was deafening.
…
Asuka ran, on and on. She ran out the gates of the school, and back up the cobblestone alleyway she had come from. She continued running until she reached the shop with the neon love sign. The place was very open now, and people bustled inside, perusing the shops wares of romance, especially the novels. Asuka caught a glimpse of the name of the shop, now that it was lighter out: 'The God of Love', a romance novel bookstore.
Asuka looked at the people inside, how they read the books and treated their words as holy. It was as though the sign was the god of some religion of love, promising enlightenment in connection.
It's all right there! She screamed to herself. Can't you fools see it? You only have to speak and listen!
Tears in her eyes, she looked back to the sign, and saw the graffiti written beneath it: 'The prophet has spoken! Look to the Underground!'
Asuka turned and ran. She ran until she was too tired to run anymore. Her stomach gurgled as she realized she had yet to eat that day. I don't wanna walk all that way hungry! I'll have to take the train. She thought as she took out a few train tokens she had. They were all subway tokens. Then she remembered the graffiti. Look to the Underground…
…
The subway station was run down and dirty, covered in graffiti. Asuka was not worried, mainly because she was too busy reading the graffiti. She distantly heard the sound of her train coming, and was about to turn when one piece caught her eye. It simply said one word: 'Listen!'.
Asuka boarded the train, and knew what she must do.
…
Click
Track 26.
Shinji looked over at the Bento he had made for Asuka. It still appeared as it had in his dream. "Asuka…" he whispered through the tears.
Only the sounds of silence answered him.
…
Asuka quietly opened the door to the apartment. "Shinji…?" she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper.
Only the sound of silence reached her ears.
She entered, checking each room in turn, finding them empty. The only room left was Shinji's. "Shinji…?" she said, just as quietly as before.
Once again, only the sound of silence reached her ears.
She opened the door slowly, and saw the boy laying on his cot, his back turned to her. She walked over to him, lightly, and gently tapped him on the shoulder.
He rolled over, and sat up quickly when he saw it was Asuka. "A-A-Asuka… w-w-wh-what are-" He lost his words, and looked over at the Bento box. Deftly he handed it to her.
She opened it, and gasped at it. It was very plainly decorated, with only a single picture placed upon the rice. But that one picture was all that was required.
The neon sign.
She looked to Shinji, smiling.
"I-I-I'm s-"
She placed her finger to his lips. "Don't worry, I'm finally listening. Now let me speak,"
She leaned in towards him, closing her eyes and pursing her lips.
They kissed.
And the sound of silence was overwhelmed.
Author's Notes: Well, I hope you enjoyed that. I certainly enjoyed writing it. Reviews are welcome, praise and constructive criticism both.
For those wondering, yes this IS heavily inspired by the Simon and Garfunkel song. As a matter of fact, this is something of a "Music Story", so I recommend listening to the song in question whilst reading. The version I listened to during the process is from a live concert in the '60's, the video is available on YouTube.
For those of you who remember me from years back [or those of you who have looked up my profile and seen I've written before, let me update you on my intentions.
Firstly, Shackles of Time is dead. I'm not going back to that one, and the only reason I'm leaving that piece of "writing" up is so people can see how I used to write, and how I've grown as an author. The story was crap, the characters involved have been COMPLETELY rewritten during the Warhammer 40,000 campaigns that I've played in the 4 years since that was posted, and frankly I really don't want to write a rather trite action story a la most of the fiction that comes out of the Black Library. At least, not if it involves Evangelion [Straight-up 40K, I just might write such a story in the future.
Secondly, Neon Genesis: Battletech. I WILL return to this [indeed, I already have begun anew upon it!. Rather than pick up where I left off, I am pulling a FULL REWRITE on everything I've done before. I'll leave the old one up, so you can compare. The new one is much darker, but I believe that the characters will be more human and understandable.
When I first began writing it, I wrote the Mechwarriors as rather happy go lucky, 2D characters. It was not very appealing to me, nor to my pre-readers. So I tried to give them some details in their backgrounds that would cause angst, and it seemed good... 4 years ago, anyway. When I decided to go back and rewrite and finish the story, I revisited their flaws, and found that they would not only make them wholly unsympathetic characters, but that the angsty events in question would have seen them bound in shackles and bounced from the unit faster than you can say "STRAVAG!" So I have, once again, shifted the events, and am finally happy with them. Expect the new version to show up in a month or so.