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I thought so. [He couldn't see them as well when they arrived at the base. It came as an afterthought after standing at the observatory for the first few hours, looking down at Earth, wondering if he'd be able to see the nuclear strike from this orbit.

In any case, he came prepared. Shifting his arm, he holds up the poster.]

... I don't know if it'll be any help. But I found a map a few months back...

A star map? [He turns his attention to the poster in Shinji's arms, curiosity peaked. He's never thought about stars, having never looked out the window in the past and having kept his curtains closed since that day.

But this was one of the few times Shinji has expressed interest like this. And that's nice. He nods and motions toward one of the large windows.]

Let's try it.

[He nods, expression brightening a little as he heads over to the window. The map aside from the cello had been one of the few things he looked for right away, but the constant dreary atmosphere of Exsilium prevented the right viewing conditions for the seeing the sky at all, much less stars. So, up until now, he hasn't had the chance to test the map's accuracy.]

The stars won't be in the same position as the map... but I think we can identify some of them and figure it out from there.

Most stars are far away enough, right? I mean, I only know a little bit about astronomy so I can't tell you a whole lot, but it's worth a try. [He follows, hands at his sides and relaxed. Yeah. This is nice. It's a lot nicer than anything else they can do in space.]

It's fine. We'll make it work. [For once, he sounds confident about something. Looking out the window, he sets the map down on a bench and begins setting up the telescope.]

All we need to do is identify the most prominent ones.

[The confidence in Shinji's voice is surprising. He's heard determination and stubbornness from the kid before, but not confidence. It's not a bad sound.]

All right. Tell me anything you want me to do.

Um... [Where to start? Well...] ... we should look for the brightest stars. I think Sirius, Arcturus... they'd be our best bet. [He looks out the window.]

It's not too bad here.

Well, we don't have to worry about clouds at least, right? No atmosphere and all.

[He turns his attention to Shinji's map.] All right, which ones are we looking for?

[He points out on the map where the stars they're looking for are.]

These ones. Visibility is fine, since the observatory's on the moon's dark side. Picking them out will be a little hard, but it's not impossible...

[He tries to remember what little he knows from astronomy articles. What they needed were coordinates, but those would be inaccurate because of their altitude.]

All right. Let's try it -- which way are we facing...?

[The tablet's handy for this purpose--he takes it out and brings up the compass.]

... right now, we're east. So these stars over there... will probably be shifted this way...

[They've determined the direction. Shintaro nods and glances at the compass as well to calculate the degree of the shift, tracing lines with his fingers on the map and doing whatever math is necessary in his head before he points.]

Try pointing the telescope in that direction.

[He nods, trusting Shintaro's judgement as he turns it. Peering into the telescope, he manages to identify the ones he's looking for. With a small smile, he straightens up.]

Here. Do you want to see?

[He's kind of proud of himself that that worked out. He hadn't calculated like that in ages and it's always nice to know you're not out of shape in every way.]

Yeah -- I want to. I haven't looked at stars before.

Never? I guess it's hard to see them in the city...

Yeah. The light pollution makes it pretty hard to see -- I think we might've gone camping or something when I was younger, but it's hard to remember anything from that long ago.

[He moves over to the telescope to peer into it, searching for the star Shinji found. The view from outside the Earth's atmosphere really is incredible -- that much he gathers. So many stars.]

[The star that Shinji's pointed him at is Sirius--one of the brightest ones out of the bunch. He glances down at the map again.]

When I was younger I liked looking at the stars. Whenever I was lonely, they made me feel less alone. I don't know. There was something about them that was soothing.

[Friends more comfortable with each other would tease for that. That's romantic. Cheesy. But it suits you. Shintaro doesn't say those because they're still on a very precarious balance.]

... Yeah. They are pretty impressive, aren't they?

[It's something he's always been a little conscious about. What sort of boy sits around looking at stars all the time instead of more practical things like motors or mathematics? His interest remained strictly as a hobby, too. He never wanted to be an astronaut or anything of that sort, much like how he never wanted to be anything.

(There was one thing he wanted to be, but he never could become it. No matter what he did would never be enough to please his father.)

In the end, it became a fondness he rarely shared unless prompted to by others.]

I used to live in the country with my teacher. You didn't need a telescope to see them out there.

Edited (added a sentence oop) 2013-10-20 07:29 (UTC)

Yeah, I'd bet. That's kind of nice too isn't it?

[He straightens, pulling his face away from the telescope, leaning back, lowering himself down to the floor to sit down and look at the sky from the window instead.]

The countryside, huh...

[Shinji takes the telescope now, looking into it.]

It was my biggest hobby, since there wasn't much to do there. [He wasn't good at making friends. He'd never been close to his teacher. But even though it'd been lonely, it'd been safe and repeating. Days blurred together. He didn't have to worry about the outside world edging in with its responsibilities.] But it was peaceful.

I'd imagine. [He draws his knees up and holds them against his chest with his arm, glancing at Shinji.]

Do you miss it?

[His eyes are fixed on the sky, sorry.]

... even if I could go back, I don't think I would. [They gave him that chance once and he threw it away.] I don't belong there anymore.

... I see.

But you at least have this, huh? That's nice.

Yeah. I wouldn't mind staying up here.

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