lavanya_six | Taking Sights - Deleted Scenes (well, deleted chapter)

Deleted Scenes: This was how chapter 13 was originally supposed to kick off. Instead of diving into Asuka's mental problems and the volcano the chapter was going to be a funny aside into the Maya/Ritsuko and Gendo/Fuyutsuki relationships. Long story short, all four of them were going to take the day off and, through a torturous series of events, end up drunk together at a high end strip club. So... Yeah.

I vetoed all this stuff I'd written for two reasons. The first was that I'm already planning a light-hearted chapter with "Apple Peel-Off". The second was that I had trouble coming up with enough material to make a chapter out of the premise.

So consider this a glimpse into what would have been Chapter 13 of Taking Sights.

Warning: It's un-beta'ed and unfinished.

Lieutenant Maya Ibuki, M.I.T.-certified PhD of Genetic Engineering, hummed happily as the elevator she rode descended into the bowels of Terminal Dogma.

In her hands she held two cups of premium roast coffee purchased from a respectable chain up topside (what the 'locals' of NERV headquarters called the city they rarely saw nowadays). Her own coffee was a complex confection of sugars, syrups, and foam. The cup she bought for her sempai was pitch black goodness, coffee made from the finest imported beans available in the post-Impact world – Red Hill Roast, harvested by hand in Alabama.

"Sempai?"

Ritsuko Akagi stared off into the distance, the ruin of a cigarette dangling from the corner of her lips.

"Sorry," said Ritsuko, her voice throaty from hours of chain-smoking. She gulped down half her coffee without blinking. She spoke more clearly afterwards. "I've been thinking about something. A special project."

Maya understood. This wasn't the first time she'd found her mentor brooding over one of NERV's unethical projects, though such occasions were rare. They had certainly never taken Sempai this deeply into her own mind. "I have my report on Ireul's harmonics finished."

"Good. Great. Thanks." Ritsuko ran a hand through her dyed locks. "Find anything interesting?"

"Um, no," sheepishly admitted Maya. "It's what you thought."

"Fuck," said Dr. Akagi. "Another dead end. Perfect." The blonde dug into her lab coat with yellowed fingers and fished out her lighter and a crumpled up pack of smokes. Her disappointment at finding the pack empty was audible. Ritsuko Akagi stared at the deformed box of cardboard for several seconds and then, with absolute certainty in her voice, she said, "This S2 Engine is going to be the death of us, Maya."

The young lieutenant didn't know what to say to that.

Dr. Akagi glanced at her wristwatch, an analogue piece set on a slim gold band. "My watch has stopped," she said. Looking up at Maya she asked, "What time's it in the real world?"

The brown-haired woman glanced at her own, less-expensive digital wristwatch. "It's… 0742 Hours, ma'am."

"Daylight, huh?" she mused. "I don't suppose you know any bars that are serving right now?"

Maya blinked. "You… want to get a drink? T-together?"

"Unlike Captain Katsuragi, I prefer not to drink to excess alone."

"Um, I don't think any place would be open at this time of day, Sempai."

Ritsuko arched an eyebrow. "Really? When I was in college in Germany they never—"

The two women stared at one another.

The blonde abruptly snorted. "God, I'm getting old."

"You're not old," insisted Maya. Only years of finely-honed self-control kept her from reaching out to touch the blonde woman's shoulder. There are limits, she reminded herself. There are always limits. "You're only thirty!"

"Only thirty, huh?"

"Sempai—"

"Forget it. It's fine." Ritsuko shrugged and looked around Lab 333, the containment and control facility for research into NERV's third captive Angel. "You know," she said, "one day you wake up and without really thinking about it you've got God nailed up in your basement, His Heavenly Host vivisected in your lab, and you've done things in the name of science that make Mengele look like a humanitarian." She sat in silence for a moment, swishing her coffee around in its cup. "I wonder if they'll give tours of this place to schoolchildren. Tell them, yes, Ritsuko Akagi wasn't some fiend they made up to scare them, that she really did do all those things."

Maya rested a hand on her sempai's nearest shoulder. It was a heartfelt move, one made without contemplation. For a terrifying half-second Lieutenant Ibuki waited for her superior to yell at her for the violation of personal space, or, worse, brush off her hand dismissively. When it didn't happen she said, "Ritsuko, what happened?"

The other woman drained the last of her coffee. "What else? A man." She stood up. "Come on. Let's get out of here. I need food, cigarettes, and a shower. My treat. Well, not the shower. You'll have to get your own."

"R-right." Maya glanced aside at Iruel's status chamber. "But what about—"

"The Commander gave me the day off," said the thirty year old. "I intend to take advantage of my under-used bank account and splurge on myself." She squinted. "Maybe a massage. I've never had one of those. Not professionally."

"But our work—"

"Will be here tomorrow. Come on, Maya, let’s book.”

# # # presenting # # #

TAKING SIGHTS

Chapter 12 – Marry, Fuck, Kill

Written by: Lavanya Six

(please don’t sue)

# # # another installment in a continuing series # # #

The hardest thing about saving humanity's undeserving collective ass, Gendo Ikari decided, was that you still had to do paperwork before you could get on with the assassinations, explosions, and mass murdering. Case in point: going over the minutiae of NERV's quarterly budget report with Fuyutsuki and a host of lesser minions. Department by department. Line by line. For five hours.

The fact he hadn't eaten breakfast due to a stomach ache didn't help matters. Sitting still for so long, being intellectually unengaged, only made him dwell on his own hunger. He was almost ready to eat his left shoe by the time Hour 3 rolled around. Almost. Gendo had a strict "No Eating or Drinking In Front of the Plebes" rule. He liked to think it added to his mystique.

Still, NERV wouldn't run itself. So he forced aside his body's needs and concentrated on the urgent matter of Technical Division Seven's share of the Day Care Center funding.

"Blah blah blah," some nobody lieutenant went on and on.

Gendo grunted and signed on the dotted line.

(meeting ends, Gendo and Kozo leave)

The elevator doors closed.

Fuyutsuki took out a small package of animal crackers from his jacket pocket and handed it over to his superior officer. "I want the elephants."

Gendo shook out several crackers for himself. "You can have your elephants," he said coolly, despite already nibbling on one, "but the lions and tigers are mine."

Both men fell silent. A few moments passed where the only sounds in the elevator were the clicking of the car's floor indicator and the thoughtful munching of its occupants.

"Just so you know," said the Commander, handing off the empty snack bag to his inferior, "I told Ritsuko everything last night."

"…what?"

"Well, not everything everything. I edited a few details out." He glanced aside at his old friend. "Her murder, for one."

"I can't imagine why." Fuyutsuki crumpled up the bag and stuffed it back into his uniform jacket. He took a deep breath, held it, then exhaled. "You weren't drinking at the time, were you?"

Gendo snorted. "Unlike our Operations Director, I know when and where not to indulge myself."

"Could have fooled me."

"You weren't always this snarky, Professor. I miss the old man who used to occasionally warm my seat and grumble about ethics and morality while still sending children to the slaughter."

The Sub-Commander, who was holding his hands behind his back as he was prone to, said, "You can't see it, Rokubungi, but I'm making a rude hand gesture towards you right now."

Ikari leaned backwards and glanced at the elderly man's backside. "My. You are."

The elevator doors opened. Wearing blank faces, the two men walked out into the hallway beyond. Flanked by a silent Section-2 detail, they said nothing until they were safely enclosed within the cavernous walls of the Commander's Office.

"Just so we have the story straight," Fuyutsuki said as they hiked across the room to the desk at the far end, "what tale did you spin for Akagi?"

"I neglected to mention her breakdown, her destruction of the Dummy Plug clones, and her feeble attempt at destroying this instillation."

"And you murdering her."

Gendo pulled out his desk chair and sat down. "Correct."

Fuyutsuki took up position beside his superior. "So… anything else I should know about?"

"I had some time to think on my flight back," he said, drumming his fingers on his desk, "and I've been thinking about all the things I'll miss when they line us up for the firing squad."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the UN prefers hanging for war criminals."

The Commander waved off Fuyutsuki's concern with semantics. "All this thinking has left me to conclude that, should my schedule allow it, I ought to indulge myself on occasion."

"Isn't that what Doctor Akagi is for?"

"Lunch, Professor," said Gendo. "Let's take the afternoon off for lunch, because if I have to read another itemized budget request people will die."

"So sushi again?"

"No, no. I know someplace with better atmosphere."

########3###########

The Operations Director stared at the mat on the floor of the Commander’s Office. "Twister?"

"That is correct." Gendo adjusted his glasses. "The Vice-Commander and I were indulging in a game earlier."

Misato shivered. The word 'indulge' will never be clean again for me.

############3######################################

"I've seen you ass, Ikari," he slurred, poking his friend in the ribs. "Hell! I've seen a lot more than your ass!"

Gendo shuddered as he flicked the foyer's lights on. "Don't remind me. I only agreed to that since it was Yui's birthday."

Very solemnly, Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki declared, "Threesomes really aren't so bad once you get started; they're just a liiiittle more awkward than what you see in the pink films."

"Yeah, there are usually more women too," grunted Commander Ikari, trying to keep his friend from tripping as he shuffled forward. When he saw that Fuyutsuki's apartment had two floors to it and that the master bedroom was at the top of a staircase he groaned. "Fuck this, old man. I'm dumping you on the sofa."

"Do… do you think Yui liked it?"

I do NOT want to talk about this. "She certainly seemed happy at the time."

Fuyutsuki hiccupped. "I don't have much, Ikari, but I do have a bigger dick than you. I mean, we both saw, right? I just thought you should know."

"I think we can both agree you've always been the bigger dick."

"Exactly!"

"Easy does it." Gendo lowered his friend down onto the leather couch, then helped him settle in by taking his shoes off. "You have blankets someplace, right?"

Fuyutsuki had already closed his eyes. "No. 'm fine."

Commander Ikari sighed.