[text] your blue walls get in the way of these facts

[interstices]

Who: Asuka Shikinami Langley
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Handholding planet, if you want it.
When: 7/27

[It's not like her to post much, and it's not like her to post with text at all, unless it's as a response to someone else. But if there's one thing Asuka's confident in, it's that people tend to own up to a hell of a lot more on the network than they ever do in person, especially when they're typing it up. Something about the distance. Even Katsuragi always sounded far more imposing over email than in person, except for the last couple years.]

[Plus, she's curious. All those pilgrimages that it seemed as if the whole Fleet had made had to have earned some useful tidbits. Asuka's poor at cloaking her motivations in the best of times, so she barely bothers.]

If we stay here much longer, I'm learning to swim.

What did you get from the tree? Even if it's something crappy like the promo stuff we get sometimes, I still want to know.

Comments

[paraclete]

[She's got a point, but let's maybe avoid that. This is where texting comes in handy, see? He doesn't have to be quite so delicate. Instead: ]

Properly, in water? It was some time ago.

[Even though it's not necessary — you don't need to breathe anyway — he holds his breath. It's moot. But he hopes she doesn't press about the time frame.]

[interstices]

[Asuka doesn't see the point in asking him when on some normal post, despite being curious. God knows when. But without that question, the silence seems to stretch like taffy.]

Have you tried on this planet yet?

[paraclete]

I did go into the ocean. [He's just tactful enough not to mention Shinji in the shallows.] I thought it was very nice. Floating on small waves is a special feeling. Were you really thinking about trying?

[interstices]

I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it.

[God, how can he stand to sound so... he's not even peaceful; it's like he's high. Asuka's not sure if the effect's worse over text or in person.]

Besides, there's not much else to do here besides work.

[paraclete]

Maybe if Shinji-kun sees you doing it, he'll think it's not so bad.

[It's a gamble to bring him up, but everything is a gamble when it comes to Shikinami, and Kaworu's too dependent on hope to fold his cards in early. Maybe, too, this is a way to needle at himself: perhaps she can do what he cannot, even in an area like this.]

[interstices]

He's scared of the water?

[paraclete]

He certainly doesn't think it's fun, going in very far.

[interstices]

He didn't almost drown with you, did he?

[paraclete]

Of course not. I wouldn't have let that happen.

[Kaworu's alarmed just at the thought, and actually offended, for the first time in a very long while.]

[interstices]

[Well, after that falling incident...]

Good.

He'll probably laugh at me.

[paraclete]

[He's too self-righteous to think he could ever make the same mistake twice. (That just means he can make many different mistakes, though.)]

Laughter is a good thing. Wouldn't he be having fun, that way? Besides,

He wants you to have fun, too.

[interstices]

I don't know how to have fun.

[paraclete]

[He doesn't know if she'll tell him, or if she'll tell the truth, but,]

Is it scary?

[interstices]

[She knows what he means.]

The water?

No. It just is.

[paraclete]

[Teetering dangerously on Shikinami's edge is the equivalent of Lilin falling into a volcano. Kaworu can withstand natural heat, but she is someone who could incinerate him. He's not going to force the issue on her.]

Maybe you could spend some time learning about it. There's a lot.

[No, he's not pressing it, but that's applicable to more than water.]

[interstices]

Learning about it.

Learning about having fun? Are you kidding?

[paraclete]

?

That's how a person does any new thing. When something unknown becomes known, that's learning. Sometimes you can learn by doing...

You don't know a nice thing is nice until you experience it for the first time.

[interstices]

You think I'm pathetic, don't you?

[paraclete]

??

It's not pathetic to learn new things.

[...]

Shikinami-san, I had to learn how to have fun, too.

[Is that pathetic?]

[interstices]

That's not a recommendation.

[paraclete]

It's not bad, you know.

[interstices]

Do you think Shinji knows how to have fun?

[paraclete]

I'm certain of it.

[interstices]

I wouldn't count on it.

Hey. Have you been staying on the planet, or what?

[paraclete]

[He's not going to argue. It almost feels better, even, to think of the self-conscious, delicate way in which Shinji has fun, and to know that it's personal between them. That's shameful, though, of course. It's shameful to hoard Shinji like that.

...]

Well, I like it here, so I haven't seen a need to go back to the Vanquish except in passing.