2016
Misato Katsuragi's Apartment
Month 1
August 3rd
Second Stage
Shinji sat down at the dinner table, getting ready to eat his meal. A nice helping of actually edible rice and curry that he made.
As soon as he was about to take a bit from his delicious dinner, he suddenly remembered something that had slipped his mind completely!
Hopping up from his chair, he stepped over to the fridge and looked for a can of fish. Searching for a good minute or two, he couldn't find anything.
Confused, he called out to the other occupants of the apartment.
"Hey, Uh, Asuka, do you know where the cans of fish are?"
A loud groan could be heard from her room before the door slammed open.
"It's in the other fridge."
Her expression portrayed true annoyance, as she stared down the confused boy. Groaning even more, she points towards the little fridge next to Pen Pen's room.
"Oh! Yeah, must've slipped my mind."
He gave a weak chuckle as Asuka simply rolled her eyes and headed back to her room, slamming the door again.
Shinji shuffled over to the small fridge and pulled out a can of premium sardines, perfect for the hungry housemate.
Opening the can and dumping its contents into the small pet food bowl that he placed on the table.
"Hey uh…"
Shinji thought to himself for a moment, trying to come up with the flightless bird's name…
"Penguin?"
"It's Pen Pen you idiot!"
Asuka called out from her room, sounding even more annoyed now.
"Oh. Hey Pen Pen, dinner is ready!"
Silence reigned for a moment, before a tired Wark broke it. The quick hiss of the small freezer door opening up, allowed the very hungry bird to rush out and hop up onto the table.
"You're really hungry today Pen Pen. What's got your appetite up?"
The bird stopped eating for a moment to glare at Shinji, who only got more confused.
"Wark."
"Jeez, I'm sorry I was late today!"
…
"Wark…"
"Sorry…"
Shinji went back to eating his meal despite the death threat from the penguin.
Meanwhile
"Yeah, I mean, he's been a bit klutzy lately, but I don't know what could that even be from. Asuka doesn't know anything. He seems alright…"
…
"Well… If he left his SDAT there then something must be on his mind that is messing with him…"
…
"I can't just ask him!"
…
"Well uh… Asuka doesn't want to ask either!"
…
"Fine! Fine! I'll ask him or something!"
Misato slammed the phone down back onto the receiver and sighed. These past few days have been stressful enough with the UN meeting. And Asuka bitching about Shinji and his "Shenanigans", didn't help.
He wasn't even involved in the meetings and Ritsuko suggested he might be stressed out over them.
Which is obviously bullshit according to Misato!
Rolling onto her back and hopping on up, she padded over to her bedroom door and opened it, seeing that both Shinji and Pen Pen were eating normally and calmly, Albeit with Pen Pen looking annoyed and Shinji sad.
"How are the two most important men in my life doing?"
Shinji finished taking a bite and gave a small smile.
"Yeah I'm ok, Just forgot to feed Pen Pen his dinner, that's all."
Misato gave a nervous chuckle and scratched the back of her head.
"Well you uh… Forgot to feed him several dinners…"
…
"I did?"
Medical Center
Same day
"So Shinji, you've also complained about headaches, is that correct?"
"Yes ma'am. It comes and goes, but it's not that big of a deal."
Ritsuko scribbled down some words onto a notepad before sighing.
"Shinji, you should report anything about your health to me. Any sickness, any pains, even if you sniffle a bit. Come talk to me."
Standing up, Ritsuko picked up her pad and gestured to Shinji to follow her. Trailing behind her, they soon entered a large room with a large white machine in the center.
It had a torus-like shape with a table sticking out of it.
"Get undressed and into that gown and we will do a CT scan on you. It may sound extreme, but I want to rule out anything in your head first."
A small blush formed on Shinji's face, but he didn't didn't care at this point. He's used to being in medical scrubs.
Changing out of his normal everyday clothes, he got fitted into the gown and sat down on the sterile CT machine bed.
Ritsuko was in a small booth across from him, watching him through a window. Pressing a button, she spoke.
"Alright Shinji, just lie down and put your head in the rest. Make sure not to move too much when I start."
Shinji looked back, there was indeed a headrest in the top of the bed.
Seeing no reason not to comply, he laid down and secured his head into it. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it wasn't exactly comfortable either.
"Just get comfy… This will take a bit…"
The bed slid into the torus ring and locked into place. His head is directly inline with several red lasers.
"Starting now."
The sounds of machinery began to swirl around him. Complex technology doing its purpose to take a scan of his body, his brain in this case.
This would indeed take a bit.
Ten minutes later.
"I don't get it…"
Ritsuko stared intensely at the digital scans. Her mind was trying to make out what exactly just showed up. She knew what it was, but she didn't know why it was.
"This shouldn't even be possible at his age… Unless?..."
Reaching for the phone next to her, she punched in a number and waited for the line to connect.
Ring
Ring
Rin-
"Katsuragi here, What's wrong?"
Sighing a heavy sigh, Ritsuko spoke.
"Misato, can you bring Asuka and Rei here? I found something on Shinji that I want to check on the rest of the pilots…"
A pause
"Is it contagious?"
Looking back down at the test results, she gave a closer look, only to shake her head no.
"No, but it's something that might be related to them piloting the Evangelions."
Another pause.
"I'll gather them up quickly."
Misato hung up, leaving Ritsuko to her worried thoughts. Her foot tapped on the ground anxiously. She wanted to smoke a cigarette, but she couldn't.
"Ms Ritsuko, is everything alright?"
Shinji asked. He was waiting for her to give him his results. He sat there on the bed, waiting patiently, curiosity and slight worry on his face.
"Just doing some analysis. Misato is bringing in Asuka and Rei to do some tests. I just want to get a scan of all of you."
…
…
"Oh ok…"
40 minutes later
2 CT scans later
"Misato, Something is very wrong with Shinji."
Ritsuko stated bluntly. There was no reason to beat around the bush for this, she needed to hear the full force of truth.
"W-What do you mean?"
Misato was already worried enough for him, but just the tone of Ritsuko's voice made this even worse.
Pulling up some scans, she pulled up both Asuka and Shinji's results. Misato gave it a look over.
Confused, Misato just shrugged, not really understanding what this really meant.
"The one on the left is Asuka. Her CT scan shows a healthy brain for a 15 year old girl. Now I don't have a scan for a boy to really compare, but Shinji's CT scan shows something very different."
She points to the odd colorations on the photos.
"A normal and healthy 15 year old boy's brain should look somewhat similar to her's. That's not the case here with Shinji."
"Just get to the point, damnit."
…
"Misato… Shinji's brain is damaged, And I think it's from the heavy strain from piloting the Evangelion."
…
…
"W-What does that even mean?..."
…
"It means his brain is beginning to fail. It will only get worse from here if we don't help stop it."
…
"Can we even stop it?"
…
…
"I don't know."
Terminal Lucidity Redone
By DerpymanMT
Chapter 1
"Discovery"
I took down the original Terminal Lucidity, because I felt after a while that it wasn't up to par with the rest of my work, and I felt it wasn't… Done well.
I've been meaning to redo it for a long while and here it is.
It's going to be rather short. No grand journey or anything. Just the rapid decline.
Until the Next Chapter.
-DerpymanMT
Deus