And We Danced (Masquerade Overflow!)

[thespaceopera]

The Captcha is upon us, but the party isn't over! Feel free to continue your threads here, start new ones, and continue the dance party!

- Original Mingle
- OOC Post

[[OOC: Wait for Sections! Sections are up! Feel free to use the section prompts or make your own! We'd also advise against just linking back to your original mingle post for the sake of players with slower computers.]]

Comments

[interstices]

I was hoping you could tell me. It's not like I ask it any questions.

[Asuka lets out a breath. No help there, either, as far as she can see. She despises that she's disappointed at all. Or maybe she's more disappointed that she fessed up to it and he didn't seem to take it as significant. Every time she tries to edge closer, he backs up again, and vice versa. Perpetually contrary, perpetually at cross purposes.]

[paraclete]

[There's something wry at the edge of his mouth. He's smiling, yeah, but it's vague as ever or maybe even moreso; and it's faint, faded like the glimmer of his tired red eyes. He's still not looking at her.]

Why don't you? [Just a second, and then he lets out a breath, and presses gently,] What do you think it wants? Whether or not I can tell you. [He's not saying he can't.]

[interstices]

It's an eye, idiot. [However mutated it might be, it's a part of her, and Asuka's more than a little reluctant to discuss anything with body parts. The fact that it won't work correctly and has to be contained with hex glyphs is bad enough. Shinji might as well have turned into a magnet for the way that damn eye starts glow--]

I don't know what it-- [That's bullshit. He could call her out on it, but she doesn't think he will, all distant and stupidly apart, above those sorts of woes.] -- Recognition. It recognizes Angels, all right?

[paraclete]

[Kaworu nods once, looking up and to the left. His mouth is a line, barely curved, and secretive in a way that's probably familiar by now.]

Maybe, if I were like that, I would be feeling lonely. What about you?

[interstices]

I care more about how I feel than how it feels.

[He's no help, as usual. Her own fault for allowing herself to confide that in him. Then again, he's probably noticed it himself.]

I don't want it to get any worse. It bothers him.

[paraclete]

That may be so, but I remember Bardiel being particularly needy. [His voice is very hushed when he says this, as if whatever memory he has can barely be spoken aloud. But he's too disapproving to be nostalgic; if it's problematic for Shinji, it needs to be dealt with.

He finally looks at Asuka's face.]

I could talk to it.

[It's a proposition more than a suggestion. He doesn't often assert himself.]

[interstices]

How? [She doesn't exactly sound scornful so much as just disbelieving.] I can't talk to it. [Granted, she's never tried. Bardiel's attempt to communicate with her led to all this disaster in the first place. At this point, as far as she's concerned, her eye's almost equivalent to an ex-football player's bum knee that aches whenever it rains. It's her that's important, not what's infected her.]

[She hasn't gotten a bite to eat in a few minutes now. She's tense.]

You didn't act like you could do anything.

[paraclete]

[Maybe he's a little too self-assured about whether or not he can communicate with Bardiel's remnants... but it's also true that, like Asuka says, he's not otherwise displaying any great ability. Antsy, and not wanting to show it, he reaches for some other bite-sized snack — an olive or something like that. It doesn't matter what it is; he just wants an arbitrary thing to focus on.]

It came from the heart of my kin, which is not unlike my own.

[interstices]

[Of course it isn't. All you Angels are alike. She thinks that, but she doesn't say it. Besides, it isn't true. Shinji isn't like that. Asuka's tired of eating, and getting occasional sideways glances each time she's reached for yet another piece of cheese like an anxious rat, so her hands just rest expectantly on the table now.]

You'd want me to take it off, wouldn't you?