Chapter 13 - Cards on the Table (with a side of hash browns)
For once, the early morning air in Tokyo-3 was cool and crisp, a feeling not unnoticed by the five people who met up on the same street corner. Misato and Kaji were on one end, with Kaji carrying a small briefcase. Maya and Ritsuko were on the other end, Maya wearing a messenger bag on her left shoulder. Makoto had showed up a minute ago, with a small backpack hanging from his right shoulder. The five nodded to each other and then headed towards the same direction. Eventually, they reached their destination, whose appearance managed to surprise them.
NERV-ous Nellie's was placed in between two taller buildings, and architecturally was based on a typical 1950's American diner. The neon red sign had the NERV logo, followed by the letters o, u, and s, and was above and to the right of the name 'Nellie's', with a neon carhop on roller skates 'quivering' as she carried her tray.
"Huh, never knew this was here before today," Misato noted.
"I'm surprised none of the people from PR have seen this," Makoto said. "One look at the sign alone and they would've taken them to court over copyright infringement."
"Long as it doesn't have a health department notice, they can use our logo for whatever they like," said Maya.
"Come to think of it," Ritsuko began to wonder, "how come I've never seen it written up somewhere?"
"Maybe it sprung up overnight," Kaji surmised. The very idea of that proved to be a bit eerie and unnerving to all of them.
The quintet looked at each other for a moment, shrugged, and then headed to the front door. As Kaji opened it, a little bell rung, and all five took a moment to take in the place. For something that resembled a typical greasy spoon on the outside, it was pretty clean on the inside. A jukebox hung out in the far left corner, right next to the gallery. The people drew mixed reactions from the five newcomers. All the bar stools were filled with customers either ordering or working through their food. Behind the counter, the ladybug manipulated all the tabs on the fountain-with all four of his arms. On the other side of the window separating the counter from the kitchen, they could see an angel with three heads assembling a trio of biscuit sandwiches, while a good few feet from him the bubble dancer-who resembled a man-fish-was scrubbing away on some plates.
"Welcome ta Noiv-ous Nellie's, how many o' you we got fer today?"
The five turned to the source of that question and found a soup jockey-a not-too-attractive-one at that-ready to seat them. Though none of them knew it, their hostess was Beetlejuice in disguise; NERV-ous Nellie's was a creation of his, plus the hiring of some folks from the netherworld to staff it. Against his more unsavory tendencies (and on Naoko's terms), he urged the mugs he hired to maintain the quality and appearance of a 'respectable' dining establishment to provide a fitting, if cliched, atmosphere for these people to compare their notes in peace. (Plus, they'd earn a few bucks feeding them some good grub.)
The five newcomers looked at one another warily, before Kaji finally answered the question.
"Uh, table for five, if you please," he said.
"Make it eight," said a voice coming from behind them. The five turned around and saw Shinji, Asuka, and Rei come in the door, surprising them.
"What're you guys doing here?" Misato asked.
"Rei suggested we go out to breakfast for once, and she recommended this place," Shinji answered.
"More like gushed about it," Asuka added. The Second Child looked a little worn, since she'd had a couple of sleepless nights since the fight with the 15th Angel. Not once since the morning started had she let go of Shinji's hand.
"Hope you don't mind," Rei said. "We won't impose."
"Right dis way, folks, we gotta nice big table in th' back fer ya here," the waitress said as she ushered them to said back room. Sure enough, the table was big enough for all eight people, who took their seats. The waitress handed each of them a menu.
"All'right, I'll top ya off wit' some dog soup," she said as she poured water into each of their glasses. "Word o' warning, the special's eighty-sixed 'cause we ran outta a key ingredient. Anythin' ta drink besides water?" she asked as she held up her notepad and pencil.
Misato was quick to respond. "Coffee for the five of us. What about you three?" she asked as she looked to the pilots.
"Uh...orange juice for me, please," Shinji said.
"I'll have what he's having," Rei added.
"I'll...have some hot tea," said Asuka, in a voice unusually subdued for herself.
"Peppamint or English breakfast?"
"Uh...peppermint, definitely."
The waitress jotted all that down. "I'll be back in a minute wit'cha drinks, gravel train an' cream's on da table fer those o' ya that like their cup o' Joe a bit sweet." She then headed out to the counter to get the drink orders filled. The party at the table then turned to one another, unused to meeting at a time this early in the morning.
"How're you feeling, Asuka?" Kaji asked his former ward. He'd heard about what she'd been through during the fight with the 15th Angel, and that it'd done a number on her. When she'd been examined for any signs of lingering contamination (of which there wasn't, thankfully), it was theorized that she would've come out worse, had she been in the Angel's line of fire longer. It'd been touch-and-go with her for the past 48 hours, but she was lucky she had gotten a lot of support from her friends. (That, and having dealt the killing blow to the Angel itself helped Asuka gain a bit of closure on the matter.) Just by being there for her was enough to help Asuka come to terms with, if not outright overcome, the near-violation of her mind. Continued support would hopefully help her get better as time went on, until she could see a decent therapist.
"...I'm...I'm feeling okay," she hesitantly replied. "Just taking it day by day." Shinji felt the grip on his hand tighten a bit. He in turn put an arm around Asuka's shoulder, while giving her a smile at the same time.
Ritsuko could empathize with Asuka a bit. After all she'd learned about her relationship with Commander Ikari, in hindsight she felt part of herself had been violated for all this time.
The waitress soon returned with the juice glasses, the tea and teapot, a coffeepot, and six mugs. As soon as everyone had their drink on the table, she poured the piping hot brew into five of the mugs.
"So, ev'rybody know what they want?" she asked, holding up her pad and pencil.
Everyone took another look at the menus before they started giving off their orders.
Makoto: "I'll have the...sausage patty melt, side of hash browns."
Misato: "I'm gonna go with the...spicy cheese scramble, two links, and rye toast."
Ritsuko: "Greek omelet, fresh fruit on the side."
Kaji: "Steak and eggs, eggs sunny-side up."
Maya: "I'll have the, uh...eggs Benedict, side of hash browns too."
Shinji: "The cinnamon roll french toast, with a side of bacon."
Asuka: "Belgian waffle, two sausage links."
Rei: "Steel-cut oatmeal, grapefruit on the side."
The waitress jotted it all down with great attention-to-detail. "Be right back witch'er grub in a little bit." She soon headed to the kitchen, where the party of eight could hear her shouting off their orders to the cook in a dialect they couldn't understand. ("Cinnamon biddy board, bacon in th' alley!" "Wreck 'em spicy, on a log, whiskey down!") While that happened, the jukebox came to life with "Kool Kat Walk" by Julee Cruise; a man with an eye patch and a gaudily-colored suit started dancing (badly) as it played. The party then turned to their drinks, as the adults all put what they wanted into their coffee (those that didn't kept it black). Kaji was the first to take a sip of his, and when he did, a small smile popped up on his face.
"You know," he started to say, "this is, excuse me, a damn fine cup of coffee."
"Guess the business card didn't lie," said Ritsuko as she took a drink from hers.
Misato added to the chorus after sipping hers. "SO much better than the dreck we get at HQ."
"Definitely," Maya and Makoto both added.
"Wonder why we keep getting that brand anyway..." Maya said.
"When it comes to EVA upgrades, the Commander's all in," Ritsuko answered her. "Everything else, he's a notorious penny-pincher."
Now they all had another reason to dislike Gendo Ikari immensely.
The pilots all took a sip of their respective drinks, with Asuka blowing on her cup of tea to cool it off a bit.
"The three of you are probably wondering why we're all here..." Kaji said as he looked at the pilots.
"Probably involves the word 'SEELE', I can guess," Rei said nonchalantly. That drew surprised looks from the adults at the table.
"How do you-?" Misato began to ask.
"We'll get to that in a bit," Rei said before she could finish.
"Point is, we know most of it," Shinji said.
"SEELE, the Human Instrumentality Project, the works," Asuka said.
The adults did double-takes at hearing that.
"Seriously, how do you know about all that?" Kaji asked.
The pilots looked to each other before one of them finally answered.
"We found out about this...from your mother, Dr. Akagi," Shinji replied hesitantly.
Ritsuko was stunned. "M-my mother...? How did you...?"
"We contacted her-I can't believe I'm even saying this-via a séance," Asuka answered.
"A séance? Really? Like on TV?" a surprised Maya wondered.
"You mean with the candles, and the crystal ball, and-?" Makoto asked.
"YES," both Shinji and Asuka clarified, getting slightly annoyed by the questioning.
"Trust me, I was HIGHLY skeptical too, until I saw it in action," Asuka said. "Shinji, me, Rei, our friends-we all saw things that would turn you white! This stuff is real, folks, get over it." She then took another sip of her tea. The adults silently agreed with her statement, taking into account everything that'd been going on since before the 11th Angel struck.
Misato and Kaji eyed each other briefly. "So that means they-?" Misato started to ask.
"Yes," Shinji answered. "We all swore them to secrecy. Dr. Akagi-Naoko, that is-warned us of what would happen if they said anything out loud." A small, amused smile crept onto his face. "I think if anything, Kensuke's probably disillusioned over anything NERV or EVA for life."
"Amen to that," Asuka chimed in.
Makoto then cleared his throat. "Uh, mind sharing with the rest of the class here?"
Considering Makoto was the only one at the table not in the know about the full extent of the conspiracy, they indulged him. As they got out some of the materials they'd brought with them in their respective bags, Misato went first.
"It all began the day everyone thought the world ended: Second Impact," she started to say. "My father was in charge of an expedition to Antarctica, to study some strange object that was found in the ice. My mother...reluctantly let him bring me along, thinking it'd be a way for us to spend time together. Unfortunately, once again his work took up nearly all his time. I couldn't stand it. If things were bad enough between us at home, in a frozen wasteland it was worse. The day of Second Impact, I remember arguing with him as I stormed away back to the cabin we shared at base camp."
Kaji took over from there. "Professor Katsuragi had a visitor a minute after you'd locked yourself in: Gendo Ikari. He'd been acting as an auditor for the expedition on behalf of its backers...better known as the Human Instrumentality Committee."
"Aka the backers of GEHIRN, aka the backers of NERV, aka the grand poobahs of SEELE," Asuka added. "We know who they are: a dozen cruel, old, rich guys obsessed with living forever and controlling everything."
"The Illuminatti's Illuminatti," said Rei. Makoto's eyebrows went up; he'd gone to college with a few conspiracy nuts, but never paid much heed to their ramblings. He couldn't believe that there was the possibility that they'd be right about a few things.
Kaji nodded at Rei's statement."Gendo Ikari'd been sent by them to collect every bit of data from the expedition gathered so far," he explained, pointing to a photo of the man entering the main office of the expedition's field leads. Another photo showed him leaving the office, a large briefcase in one hand and something resembling a cooler in the other. "Once he had what he came for, he left the base camp by helicopter. While he was on his way, Professor Katsuragi headed back to where the frozen Adam was being studied. An hour or so after Ikari's chopper was long out of range, that was the moment when everything went to hell."
Unpleasant memories started coming back to Misato at that moment. "Adam's awakening was a disaster unlike anything ever seen before. The cabin I was in was obliterated. Asuka's seen my scar...Despite how fatal his wounds were, my father did one thing he'd hoped would redeem himself. He carried me all the way to a survival capsule, left his cross with me, and sealed me in. My capsule got blown far from the site by the shockwaves. I'd managed to open it up a while later, found myself floating in the water far from the continent, and saw Adam rise up...only to disappear in an explosion of light." She paused somberly for a moment. "I'll never forget that day as long as I live."
Shinji's eyebrows furrowed as he spoke. "And my father got away before it all went down." He looked up at Kaji and Misato. "He knew what'd happen that day. The SEELE council knew this too-since they deliberately caused it to happen."
Now Misato was stunned. "Bastards..." she muttered. "We've been working for murderers this whole time..."
"Add manipulators and blackmailers as well," Ritsuko said. "From what I've learned from speaking with the vice-commander for a while, Ikari had a way of getting what he wanted, even before he was put into varying positions of authority." Ritsuko looked into her coffee mug for a moment before she continued. "According to him, the two first met not long after Fuyutsuki had met Yui Ikari while she was his student at Kyoto U. Gendo went by Rokubungi back then; he'd gotten into a bar fight one night and while he was held at a police station, he asked to be released into the professor's custody." She then pointed to an old mug shot of Gendo from the night of his arrest. "The vice-commander told me it was Gendo's way of wanting to meet him. Not long after, Yui Ikari formally introduced the two of them; on another occasion, the professor learned they'd been dating. Some time after Second Impact occurred, Fuyutsuki had left his position to work as an unlicensed medical doctor in the ruins of Toyohashi, to help compensate for the shortage of medical personnel."
Kaji continued from there. "Fuyutsuki wound up being recruited as part of a UN investigation of Ground Zero at the South Pole; turns out his recommendation was made anonymously by, who else, Gendo Ikari, who'd been appointed director of the UN Artificial Evolution Laboratory at the time. The two men bumped into one another before the expedition left; he'd also learned that your parents were engaged."
"How'd you learn that from him?" Shinji asked.
Misato looked at her charge. "Remember the night you saw me cry into his shoulder?"
Both Shinji and Asuka nodded 'yes'.
"Earlier that day, I'd gone and rescued the vice-commander from a SEELE facility hidden in the city," Kaji explained. "After depositing him at a JDA safehouse, we talked for a while."
He then pointed to some photos of a press gathering that had gone into an uproar over something announced at the UN. "The investigation wound up being cut short, and that action was subject to a cover-up. Fuyutsuki was undeterred and continued investigating on his own; it eventually led to him confronting Ikari with his findings."
Ritsuko took it from there. "Ikari wasn't fazed by his accusations, or his threat of going public with the findings. What he did instead was take him into a place that was then under construction, the future home for the Artificial Evolution Laboratory."
Maya realized what her girlfriend was referring to. "The Geofront."
Ritsuko nodded in affirmation. "He showed the professor the prototype of what would be known as an Evangelion. The professor also discovered a colleague of his working down there: my mother, who was also the lead scientist." She closed her eyes for a moment, while Maya laid her hand on hers reassuringly. "According to the vice-commander, Ikari's exact words of invitation were to join them in 'creating a new genesis for Mankind'. The Artificial Evolution Laboratory was then revealed to him as the public face of the agency called GEHIRN; Ikari revealed himself as its director."
Kaji spoke again. "Fuyutsuki became one of its founding members, with little choice. He'd apparently been threatened by SEELE with being 'erased', since he knew too much. For him, working for the 'enemy' was a means to avoid that."
Shinji then posed a question. "How did my mother get pulled into this?"
Ritsuko answered that. "From what the professor learned, apparently her father had been a longtime member of SEELE, and she'd been led to believe that their motives were altruistic. Her SEELE connection, and her talent, were apparently why your father approached her in the first place. Believe it or not, the two did genuinely fall for each other. She was a skilled bio-engineer by trade; her research was essential for what became Project E. Then came her moment of tragedy."
Shinji knew where this was going immediately. "The contact experiment." Misato looked to her longtime friend in surprise.
Ritsuko nodded. "It was a few years after Fuyutsuki joined GEHIRN. Your mother volunteered to be the test subject for the incomplete Unit-01. She brought you along to see it. Fuyutsuki mentioned she wanted to show you the bright future she wanted for you. She'd been led to believe that the experiment was part of the research into creating artificial souls." She paused for a moment as she looked into Shinji's eyes. "You're familiar with the rest of the story."
Shinji nodded. "We learned from Naoko Akagi about what happened afterwards. Her work on the MAGI, how she started seeing my fa...the Commander..." He tensed for a bit as he continued. "How he manipulated her into killing someone, and then herself afterwards."
Asuka then looked at Ritsuko. "We're...so, so sorry, Doctor." Misato could've sworn that this was the first time she'd ever heard the Second Child apologize for anything.
"She told us that my mother-and Asuka's-have been in our EVAs all along," Shinji. "Whenever Unit-01 went berserk, it was my mom taking control to protect me."
Ritsuko eyed both pilots with guilt. "There's nothing you two need to apologize for," she said. "If anything, I should be the one apologizing to you." She took a moment to look around at the others. "To all of you, for keeping you in the dark for so long. And especially you, Shinji, for not telling you about my relationship with your father."
Shinji seemed to understand Ritsuko's feelings in saying that. "How did you get together with him?"
"It was after my mother had died," she replied. "He comforted me, helped me try to move on from her passing. I thought I was attracted to him...but later on began to realize he was just using me. For so long I was trying to get out of my mother's shadow...But some time ago, I started figuring out that we were definitely more alike than I imagined. To Gendo Ikari, we were nothing more than a means to an end."
"Speaking of," Makoto chimed in, "what exactly is this 'end'?"
Rei took a long sip of her juice, then a deep breath, before she answered his question. "THE end."
"Commander Jerkoff and the Committee haven't been trying to prevent Third Impact," Asuka clarified. "In their own ways, they've been readying the world for when they actually cause it."
Makoto, Misato and Kaji nearly dropped their mugs upon hearing that.
"Wha-what?!" Makoto asked, bewildered.
"What do you know about how they plan to do it?" Ritsuko asked the pilots.
Shinji was the first to hesitantly answer. "Your mother learned about it from whatever limbo she's been in since her death." He took another sip of his drink.
"According to her," Asuka started to explain, "the SEELE creeps, once the remaining Angels are killed, plan to conduct some bizarre 'ritual' involving a part of Adam and Lilith, the Angel imprisoned beneath HQ...(yes, we somehow have the Second Angel living in our basement; don't believe me, ask Kaji and Misato, and the doctor); somehow EVA-01 and the other Mass Production EVAs are part of it too. Once those two are united, all of humanity gets wiped out, and their collective souls get mashed together into some kind of super-being, with the souls of SEELE acting as its brain."
"'Eternal life, at the cost of all human individuality'," Shinji said. "Those were your mother's words."
Maya, Misato, Kaji, and Makoto paled at hearing that. It was pretty clear that the idea of humanity being forcefully fused into a great hive-mind was not too appealing for the members of the fledgling 'resistance' within NERV.
"Some of that paper trail I tracked is starting to make sense now," Makoto said. "They must be allocating funding and materials to speed up the completion of the remaining MP EVAs."
"Even worse," Ritsuko began to add, "I had the MAGI secretly feed me some info on the dummy system. Before the disc containing all the data went missing, a lot of the research had been sent to some of the other branches. My guess is they'll be working to perfect it for the MP EVAs."
"Sounds like they're making drones the size of a ten-story building," Maya said. "Somehow, I don't think a program based on a Jim Carrey movie'll help us this time."
"What I want to know is," Misato started to say, "Ikari's already got Lilith in the waiting, but Adam's a different story. It was supposed to have been destroyed in Second Impact..."
"Except it wasn't," Kaji said. "Not all of it at least."
All eyes turned to the stubble-ridden spy. "As part of my cover for the JDA, I acted as a double-agent for Ikari and for SEELE. An errand Ikari had me handle was smuggling the one surviving sample of Adam out of NERV-3 and bring it to him here." He then looked at Shinji and Asuka, and briefly at Misato. "Believe it or not, the three of you were there when I went to deliver it."
Asuka's eyes went up in surprise when she realized what he'd been talking about. "That briefcase you had-the one with the HAZMAT symbol on it!"
Misato glared at Kaji. "That's why you fled in the VTOL jet while we fought the Sixth Angel," she said.
"Add that to the long list of regrets I've been making," Kaji said. "And to the longer list of mistakes I want to atone for."
"But that's just SEELE's plan," Ritsuko said. "I don't know if they already suspect it or don't, but the Commander's got a plan of his own."
"And that's...?" Kaji asked.
"He wants to take control of Third Impact for himself," Shinji answered. "So he can be with my mother again."
Ritsuko's grip on her mug tightened. "Now I'm glad I'm done with him," she muttered. "It was always about her, wasn't it...?" She then eased up as soon as she saw Shinji's look of concern. "Er, no offense, Shinji."
"None taken," he said in turn. Maya then took Ritsuko's hand in her own, helping her settle down further.
"We all know what needs to be done from this moment on," Misato stated.
"Yes," Ritsuko began to say. "We need to stop both SEELE and Ikari, before it's too late."
The moment she finished her sentence, the waitress popped back in with large trays filled with everyone's food. They all soon dug in right when their respective plates were placed in front of them. Her job done, the waitress headed back out. Out of the corner of Makoto's eyes, he could swear that the same guy with the eye patch was still dancing, the song still going. Even stranger was the sight of some other guy barking at a dog that was barking outside.
Yep, things are really getting weirder, he thought to himself as he took the first bite of his patty melt. Surprisingly, it was delicious. The others had similar reactions to their respective dishes, to the point where they each sampled a bit from one another (with a few exceptions in Rei's case). In no time at all, their plates were cleaned off, with nary a scrap left.
"God, I haven't eaten that well for a long time," Ritsuko admitted.
"Ditto for me," Asuka said. "Think you can make anything better than this, Third?"
"Challenge accepted," Shinji replied, the taste of his french toast still lingering in his mind.
"Lookin' forward to it," Misato added.
The mood then returned to something more serious, as all eight people at the table contemplated their earlier discussion.
"We'll need to keep up appearances around HQ," Misato said. "We've still got two Angels left to deal with." She then turned to Kaji. "In between, we'll work out what we can do to get the drop on both SEELE and the Commander."
Makoto nodded first. "I'll keep going on my end, solidifying the paper trail, build up enough financial evidence."
"I'll see if some probing through the MAGI will bring anything more to the surface," Maya added. "Rits and I know its ins and outs, and ways to get around its tracking programs so we don't draw any attention to ourselves."
Asuka then spoke next. "Shinji and I have been in contact with our mothers," she said. "We'll see if we can glean any insight from them, given their history with the whole thing."
Ritsuko, Maya and Misato expressed some surprise at hearing that.
"You mean, all those recent tests-?" Maya started to wonder.
"Were us catching up with mothers," Shinji finished. "Naoko did tell us that Units-03, 04, and 05 were different, but we're still in the dark about Unit-00 and what's in its core."
Ritsuko looked to the side briefly before turning back to them. "I'll answer that for you, but not now. Once the 16th Angel's taken care of, I'll tell you everything, in the one place best to discuss it."
"Which is-?" Asuka asked, one eyebrow raised.
"...Terminal Dogma," Ritsuko answered hesitantly. "Misato, for that, I'd like you to accompany them when I take you down there."
Misato slowly nodded in agreement. Rei then chose that moment to speak up, raising her glass as she did.
"I guess this calls for a toast then," she said. The others decided to play along and raised their glasses or mugs as well.
"What to?" Makoto asked.
Rei gave it some thought before she answered with a confident smile on her face. "To cancelling the apocalypse."
Everyone else smiled as they all clinked their glasses together. "To cancelling the apocalypse," they all said. They then took one last sip from their drinks and put their cups down. At that moment, the waitress came back in.
"All finished?" she asked. "Now, are ya all together, or is it separate checks?"
The eight people looked at each other dumbstruck, as they hadn't given that detail some thought. Eventually, it was worked out that Ritsuko would handle hers, Maya's and Makoto's, while Kaji took care of the rest. A few minutes later, the waitress had the checks brought back with their respective receipts, along with a delicious-looking cherry pie, whose crust was done in an odd zigzag pattern. All eight looked up at the waitress perplexed.
"On da house," she said, "since yer first-time customers. Wanted ta make ya feel at home. Enjoy!" She then headed out the door. The party of eight looked back at each other, shrugged, and decided they could probably squeeze in a slice or two in addition to their hearty breakfasts. Unsurprisingly, the pie was a hit with them.
"This cherry pie," Ritsuko started to say, "is a miracle."
"Amen to that," Maya added in, savoring her bite.
Rei swallowed her own bite before she spoke. "Mmmm...just call me 'where pies go when they die'."
"Sounds like something Edgar Allen Poe would say," Asuka said.
Soon the group of eight finished off the pie, got up and gathered their materials, and walked out of the back room. Once out, they were a bit perturbed by the sights before them. The eye patch man was still dancing badly to the still-playing "Kool Kat Walk"; a near-giant of a man with a comically-deep voice ordered three cinnamon-sugar doughnuts; a guy wearing a football helmet sitting at the counter was thumping his head against a napkin dispenser; the dishwasher was walking backwards out of the kitchen as he collected dishware from the booths; another waitress shimmied along to the song as she made her way across the floor; and the other guy Makoto had spied in the booth was still barking back at a barking dog outside. The only thing that seemed 'normal' to them was the mustachioed man wearing a blonde wig, a pink angora sweater, and a skirt who had just sat down at the counter, slapped some change onto it, and ordered a shot of Imperial whiskey. The eight people did their best not to stare as they quietly exited the diner and made their way to their respective homes (or in the case of the NERV staff, to HQ).
Long after they'd left the diner, Naoko and Beetlejuice floated above it, discussing the group's conversation.
"Looks like there's no going back for them now," Naoko said solemnly. "Which means we've got the rest of our work cut out for us."
Beetlejuice wasn't fazed. "Ehh, it'll be fine. 'Arc o' justice' and all that jazz," he said reassuringly.
"What're you going to do for the rest of the day?" she asked him.
"Welllll...probably gonna go dig up some dirt on Angel sixteen," he replied, "then put in my 'usual' appearance in yer ex's office."
Naoko smiled a bit, since she'd grown particularly amused by those bits of his. "What'll you do this time?"
Beetlejuice smiled a very sly smile. "Somethin' a little more...artsy."
Gendo's office, late afternoon...
Gendo was dreading the coming meeting with the Committee. Considering the gravity of the situation they were to discuss, of course he would be. He needed to go over the various answers and excuses he and Fuyutsuki had cooked up in anticipation of the third degree they were going to subject him to. He sighed wearily as he reached for his office door. Once again, no matter how many times he'd done it, whatever laid on the other side still found a way to surprise him and unnerve him greatly. This time when he opened the door, he was greeted by a room covered in tarp while Beetlejuice, in a form resembling actor Christoph Waltz, sat behind a canvas, painting away. Noticing his visitor, BeetleWaltz stood up and looked from behind the canvas at Gendo with a smug smile on his face.
"Ah, how fortunate!" he said. "I was juuust putting the finishing touches on. What do you think?" He then held up the canvas and turned it around, revealing a portrait of Gendo with very, very big eyes, that almost seemed to look into one's soul. Gendo, mouth agape and very disturbed by the painting, quickly slammed the door behind him. He took a big, deep breath before he opened it again, revealing his normal, untouched office. Gendo stiltedly walked to his chair after closing the door behind him, sat down, took a deep breath again, and then yelled one thing at the top of his lungs.
"KHAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!"
END Chapter 13.
**Author's Note(s)**
This was a bit of a complex chapter for me to write, considering it focused on everyone doing what else but 'laying their cards on the table'. I picked the diner setting because in a lot of mystery films, it was kind of the usual spot where the detective would chat with either the femme fatale or a suspect as they went about their case. That, and it afforded me to try my hand at using bits of old-fashioned diner lingo (which is italicized). If you're curious as to what the terms mean, I highly recommend checking out .
Also, the setting let me employ a small number of riffs on another non-Burton work, in this case Twin Peaks again. (And its parody from one of my favorite shows, Psych, the episode titled "Dual Spires".)
Doesn't mean there weren't Burton references present. The cross-dressing customer seen towards the end is another nod to Ed Wood, from the scene where he meets Orson Welles at Musso and Frank's. The other comes when Gendo sees his transformed office again in a riff on the 2014 film Big Eyes, Burton's biopic of American artist Margaret Keane and her famous paintings of people with big eyes, which her husband Walter (played by Christoph Waltz) took credit for, leading to a lawsuit and trial that involved the two.