2010-07-15 - Cutscene: Be Pure, Be Vigilant, Behave

There is a group called SEELE.

In your lifetime, if you are particularly unlucky, you will find out that much; the bad luck comes in when it stands as the last thing you ever learn. SEELE is a secret society amongst secret societies. Even the Machiavellian elites, the ruling class upon whose shoulders countless conspiracies rest, only know of this thing as a ghost story -- a Chinese whisper -- a word that should never be spoken too loudly, just in case...

Those who've skirted dangerously close to the truth are generally too afraid to speak about them, though, and with good reason. The concept of an illuminati above all others -- one in whose shadow all other such cabals unknowingly sit -- is a frightening concept in a world like this.

A ring of dark stone monoliths sit in absolute elsewhere. Twelve of them, in a perfect circle. On their faces, their numbers a printed -- SEELE 01, and so on -- and the text 'SOUND ONLY.'

"Then Ikari has betrayed us," booms the raspy, grim voice of SEELE 01, tinged slightly with a German accent.

"Unsurprising," SEELE 05 concurs.

"Mm," agrees SEELE 03.

"I have no reason to doubt my source," SEELE 11 states, its voice smooth, rich, masculine and yet effete, bringing up the point before anyone else can assail it. "Despite the, shall we say, dubious condition of his--"

"Quiet," SEELE 01 states, and all the stone tablets comply.

This silence lingers for just a moment before SEELE 01 speaks again. "We will undertake Instrumentality by our own hands. God, man, all life shall be united as one... but in due time. The fate of destruction is also the joy... of rebirth."

The other stones know better than to let out a discontented murmur. As if to drive the point home, SEELE 01 adds: "And that time has now come."

SEELE 02 speaks, now. "Only one thing remains. A task that cannot be left undone." There is a beat before the puzzle is given away, as if any member of the group ever had any doubt: "Gendo Ikari. He defied us. He schemes for his own Instrumentality."

The last words of the conference come from SEELE 02. "Let us have him atone with death."

The meeting ends and the members go back to their lives. SEELE 11 disengages the video conferencing software -- specialized, encrypted beyond the capacity of even A-LAWS' top scientists -- and sits back in his chair, feeling a bad taste in his mouth and a vague pressure in the back of his cerebellum, the seed of a headache beginning to form. His role in this is clear to him, and he knows that despite his power, should he even hesitate, his fate would be the same as Ikari's.

A pity, SEELE 11 thinks, as he goes into a secure file locker and withdraws a dossier stamped 'DECISIVE ALL-PURPOSE HUMANOID WEAPON EVANGELION: MASS PRODUCTION.'

SEELE 11 then reaches out for the intercom button on his desk. "No calls," he tells his secretary. "Understood, Admiral," the woman replies.

And then Paptimus Scirocco opens the dossier and gets to work.