mk.01 (video, action)

[paraclete]

Who: Kaworu Nagisa, and maybe you!
Broadcast: fleetwide
Action: The Marsiva
When: The evening of 1/26.

[This could be strange, but it looks like the pale youth currently on camera is a leisurely waker. He shifts several times, then pulls himself into a sitting position, slowly... His eyes are closed, and he's running a hand through his hair. Finally, something strikes him. With the lightest crease between his brows, the boy starts breathing (was he not breathing before?) and opens his eyes. The irises are red and clear.]

Again, huh? [he murmurs, but his hands drag down until he's touching first his own waist, his hips, then back up to his shoulders, his arms... The action might be more provocative than he means for it to be, thanks to the space age skintight bodysuit he's wearing. He touches his neck. He frowns.]

I see. Not 'again', but still... [But Kaworu's a fan of being vague, so he'll leave it at that. Instead, he shifts in his seat so that his legs dangle over the side of the cot, and leans forward to reach for the communicator. Now, with a closer look at his face, it's clear that he's confused to the point that it causes him pain — he looks like he's got a pretty bad headache. Regardless, whether he's broadcasting to captors or captives, he wants to put on a gentler face. He exhales, and his expression smooths out considerably, though his eyes still hint at stress.]

Lilin, yes, but non-Lilin among you. This is beyond any experience I would have anticipated. It's as though there are more keys on the piano, but they play in notes I've never heard before. It could take some practice to make a song out of that. But practice is just time and effort, right? [And now he can smile. It's something soft and easy, an expression of reassurance for anyone who can see it.] It would be nice if we could practice together.

[The smile thins into something more grave. He's certain he died, and Shinji was physically fine and accounted for when that happened. Kaworu had no reason to doubt that Shinji would find guidance. Now, though, of course he's wondering about this new place and its captives: if they can harvest a dead child, would they take a living child in close proximity? With Shinji here, it could mean danger beyond what Kaworu is prepared for. But to be without Shinji here is also to be without purpose. Either way, he's got to find out.]

Excuse me, [he says,] but I've lost a friend. I imagine several of you have done the same, in being brought to this place. But, have any of you recovered them? That's what I'd like to know most of all about this situation. [The smile has come back, and it's probably for the best, since it looks so natural on his face. Once Kaworu starts smiling, it's almost hard to believe he'd ever stopped in the first place.] Thanks, [he says sincerely.]

—

[Through the corridors of the Marsiva comes a young man — a boy, with a face easily taken for youthful — and he smells very strongly of blood. His plugsuit, though still clinging to him, has been cleaned, but the scent of blood still rises thick from his hair, his skin. Anyway, he looks curious, so he must be someone new. But it's not the mysterious halls that make him wonder so much as the creatures who inhabit them.

He's walking around with both hands level with his chest, and his fingers stick out at odd angles, some raised, some lowered — it brings to mind the image of someone doing mental math, and really struggling with a problem. When he sees you, it becomes clear that you're a part of the equation. If you're a human, he ticks off one of the fingers of his right hand, like he's counting. If you're not human, he does the same with his left. He seems enthralled.]

Comments

[Action]

[helladoomed]

[His wanderings will bring him across Chloe eventually, she's found a window with a ledge in front of it and is perched on it, one leg folded on it and the other dangling towards the floor, her heading resting on the glass as she looks out at the space station and the ships.]

[There's a half-finished cigarette between her lips, and she doesn't seem to notice anyone approaching.]

[paraclete]

[He'd pass her by and leave her be, if he weren't having so much trouble, and if he had any real sense of propriety. Instead, Kaworu stops just a few feet away, and, completely shameless, says, ] Hello.

[But that's not enough! There's a real point to him asking after her attention. When he holds his hands up in gesture — four fingers raised on the right hand, two on the left — his smile could almost be called self-deprecating — almost. But he's a little too shameless and mild, in his strange suit and peaceful atmosphere, for that to be quite true.

Here's what he's really after: ] You wouldn't happen to have a notepad?

[helladoomed]

[The hello gets her to turn her head, at least, and she kind of eyes him over for a moment. He looked...kind of off, but she couldn't put her finger on why. Maybe it was the expression? Or the fingers? Hrm...]

What? Oh, uh...shit... [She sits up a bit, doing a mental tally of the things she had in her pockets and then shaking her head.]

Sorry man. I'm not much for carrying stuff like that around.

[paraclete]

It's not a problem. [In the scheme of things, it's really not. More than one worse thing has happened today. Yeah, much worse. Kaworu keeps smiling.] I can start from the top. [Though he's done that several times already. Angels don't have a great capacity for complicated things, and Kaworu's already thrown by the events of the day. This isn't his brightest moment. (This isn't his brightest lifetime.)

After a short pause, he admits,] I'm in the middle of figuring out where I am.

[helladoomed]

[Chloe leaned back into her perch and took a drag on her cigarette, pulling it from her lips.]

That's easy. You're on the...uh...[Shit what was the name.] Marsiva.

Till Saturday when we do some kind of ship shuffle. [She shrugged.] Not really clear how that all goes down though.

video.

[truthvalue]

[All that stuff about piano keys goes right over the top of Souji's head, but ... that question. That's something he can definitely answer.]

Yes. I've found two people here from where I was originally taken, actually.

[paraclete]

Is that so? I see. [Kaworu speaks politely, but the tilt of his head is like an old friend, and the softness of his eyes may seem familiar — too familiar to exist between people who are meeting for the first time. Too fond, too, though it's unclear as to whether Kaworu directs that at Souji, or thoughts of whatever friend his question implies. (Maybe both.)

He's got another question, though— ] And were they all right? [He wants to make sure.]

[truthvalue]

[It's kind of a loaded question, one that makes Souji pause for a moment before answering. Neither Yosuke nor Nanako were exactly from the same Inaba he'd known - Yosuke because his Seta was named Narukami, and Nanako because she was alive still. Are they all right? Yosuke had been killed once, in the place he was between Inaba and here, his blood turned black by the revival process. And Nanako ... ]

Yes. [He nods.] They're both fine. Why do you ask?

[paraclete]

If I too am reunited with my friend, I would also like for him to be fine. [Shinji wasn't exactly fine the last time Kaworu saw him, but that was also a moment of great stress and pain, and Kaworu supposes that now that the moment has passed, things will get better. (He is greatly underestimating the trauma watching a best friend's death can incur.) Besides that, Kaworu is understandably mistrustful of this place, and he'd like to know what kind of risks ending up here poses.

Besides that...] Also, it's good to know that people are well, in general. That's a gladdening thing.

[truthvalue]

[... Somehow, Souji finds himself remembering the spacey girl he sometimes spoke with back in Inaba.]

Do you think your friend has also been brought here?

voice;

[bloodbiter]

May I ask what Lilin means?

[paraclete]

When I speak of 'Lilin', I use the word to mean 'human beings'. [Forgive him; he's so used to his own customs. Before, the only humans he was near knew what the word meant, too.]

[bloodbiter]

I see.

[now that her curiosity is sated, she can help him with his question.]

I know there are worlds represented by multiple people here. I hope your friends appear as well.

[paraclete]

Sorry - 'worlds'? [He hasn't really grasped that yet. Kaworu's aware of the concept of multiple worlds, yes — intimately — but he's unused to other people being accustomed to it as well.]

[bloodbiter]

Oh, my apologies. Nearly everyone here was brought from a different universe, or so I've been told.

video

[electrostatics]

I've never heard the term 'Lilin' before, but there's a first time for everything. So that's what you call humans.

[ After a moment, he grins in some kind of vague humour, and raises a hand to tap gently just below his eye. ] Nice colour you've got there. You can correct me if I happen to be wrong, but you're not human, are you?

[paraclete]

[Someone catches on quickly, and while that's new, it isn't a problem for Kaworu. He is, of course, used to spending time with Shinji, someone who didn't question even his most bizarre qualities... but it's not like he's making an effort to conceal what he really is. So, ]

You're right that I'm not human.

[Just from a glance, Kaworu would guess that this person isn't, either. But... He's really...]

You have a very pretty look.

[electrostatics]

You'll fit right in. We- [ He's about to say something else, and then he gets called pretty and he just sort of sputters.

Here is someone who's decidedly not used to hearing something like that, and it shows in how he obviously flounders around. It's kind of funny seeing his expression change from being at least mildly serious to abrupt surprise. ]

I, uh - thanks. Well, that's never happened before.

You... [ He casts around for something to say and settles on the music metaphors. That's familiar territory. ] ...Do you like music?

[paraclete]

[While his new friend flusters (Kaworu has decided, now, that they are friends), Kaworu smiles patiently. A compliment feels nice. A smile feels nice. And, being treated kindly feels really nice.

This familiar territory, though, feels nicest of all. Kaworu goes from smiling to beaming, all bright and soft like a flower petal or the moon.] Music is one of the greatest gifts a person can know. It's one of the truest joys. I love music.

[electrostatics]

[ He'd object to being instant friends, but he can't tell what the other person is thinking, so it's moot.

In turn, his own expression softens more than a little at Kaworu's smile. Music obviously means a lot to him as well. ]

...Music's really good, isn't it? [ He's a lot...stiffer in how he expresses himself, but that doesn't make the words any less sincere. Each word seems to be chosen carefully. ] It's soothing...it's nice.

Do you play at all?

action

[interstices]

[She smells him before she sees him. LCL's impossible to miss, as distinct as cigarette smoke when she's practically bathed in it for half her life. At first she almost thinks it's Shinji again, but she knows better as soon as he comes into view.]

[No. No way.]

[Nagisa. But Nagisa's dead. And yet here he is counting off his fingers like an elementary-schooler during a times-table test. Not even a wound on him. Not even his own blood marring his plugsuit. Seeing Shinji, or the deadened ghost of him, hadn't been a shock. Nagisa is. The Angel, like every other Angel, wasn't indestructible. He shouldn't be here.]

[Asuka stands in utter silence for a second more, eye flickering over his form, not daring, for once, to reach out and touch. Her fingers curl into fists at her sides. He looks so banal and harmless that her aggression looks more out of place than normal, especially because she's not sure what to do. What do you say to the dead?]

You're here.

[Her stomach feels like an iced-over tundra, strange and alien. Haunted. She pushes gloved fingers all the harder against her palm.]

What are you here for?

[paraclete]

[The red of her is unmistakable, bolder than the shade of the Earth. Shikinami isn't the last person Kaworu expected to see here, but she wasn't exactly high up on the list, either. He looks at her, calm as ever — he never flinched during battle, did he? — and slowly curls all his fingers inward, ceasing his count. He doesn't bother to tally her on his right or his left hand.]

I couldn't tell you, [he says at length, but his voice comes easily, like this isn't strange. Shikinami is like a bowstring, a whip, but Kaworu doesn't cow before her. He stands smooth and pristine.] Probably, for the same reasons as you; here we are, together.

[interstices]

[Asuka digests those words silently for all of three seconds. She ought to be deliberating about their captors, about what had motivated them to bring them here. Better yet, what had motivated them to apparently resurrect a corpse. She doesn't notice how she's rubbing her eyepatch, but she does notice that he's stopped his count. Good.]

But you're dead.

[paraclete]

[That stings. Kaworu smiles through the sting, small and gentle, never lashing out — it's the truth, anyway. She's just making an observation. And even if she were trying to hurt him, that's her prerogative. Kaworu lowers his eyes, and the smile is rueful, self-deprecating, and mellow.]

Fate's course has been particularly tumultuous today.

[interstices]

That's it? You're just okay with it?

[He's not reacting normally to being brought back-- it's creepy that he knows he had died, which takes a lot of the wind out of her sails-- but he's less normal than she is, if that's possible. Asuka's tone is demanding, insistent. She wonders if he knows Shinji's here. Probably not. She wonders if Nagisa could coax him into any other incredibly stupid ideas even without Eva to facilitate them. Probably. Getting mixed up with an Angel is the surest path to ruin. Asuka knows that better than anyone. She grits her teeth, feeling weirdly inadequate against his supernatural nonchalance.]

That can't be. What's the matter with you?