[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

[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.

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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?]

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That's not a recommendation.

[paraclete]

It's not bad, you know.

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Do you think Shinji knows how to have fun?

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I'm certain of it.

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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.

[interstices]

Neither have I.

[paraclete]

[Kaworu usually makes it through conversations with his minimal amount of social knowledge just fine. Even if he does flounder, he doesn't present himself as ashamed of his sheltered self. There's no point in it; this is just how he is.

But now, right now, he really wishes he were better at reading a situation, at understanding words and cues and general intent. What should he say? What does she want to hear from him? ...]

Do you like [...] the way the planet is?

[interstices]

Yeah. The other places we went sucked in comparison. Even with the telepathy. And it's good to get off the ship.

[It's good to be a room away from Shinji.]

[paraclete]

I thought it was a little shocking. But I like it, too.

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I'm surprised you don't already know how everyone else feels.

[paraclete]

I try not to be so intrusive.

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[So he could, if he wanted to. Well. Intrusiveness is an Angelic trait, after all. Her left eye's proof enough of that.]

How strong are you?

[God, as if she didn't know his classification. As if she's expecting a concrete answer instead of some benign bullshit. Asuka's not sure why she wants to know what he'll say, even, but she can't help herself.]

[paraclete]

Not strong enough, apparently.

[That's unusually bitter, coming from him, but — well, she alone knows why he has cause to be bitter to that degree and even greater.]

The choker. You know I took it, right?

[interstices]

Well, yeah. I figured it out when it wasn't on Shinji.

[paraclete]

Right. Well, in that way, it wasn't really an obstacle.

I know WILLE tried its hardest to create a suitable shackle, but it would have been completely negligible, if I had chosen to ignore it. If I'm to answer the question of how strong I am, I'd say that it's my decision not to be strong.

Otherwise, they couldn't do anything.

[interstices]

[Asuka mulls that over for several minutes. It's not the stunner it should be, but it silences her for a bit all the same. This is the enemy she faced once. This is the definition of impossible odds. God knows how many millions WILLE invested in that choker, and it might as well have been a paper napkin.]

[If Shinji's like that, too... just like that, then he's unbeatable. Only done in if he wills it. Only gone if he wills it. But... but...]

Did you think it was over? Is that why you let it happen?

[paraclete]

My mistakes were too critical. Fourth Impact would have fully transpired if I hadn't perished. It seemed like the appropriate course of action...

Although I now know that it was a mistake as well.

[Frankly, he doesn't know what he should have done instead. It's like he was just fated to lose.]

private

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No kidding. [But this is a retread of old ground. There's no point in belittling his decision to die when that won't answer her question.]

Look. Is he as strong as you?

If he is, why wasn't he there all those years? Why did

Why couldn't he have stayed?

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[paraclete]

Cassius put him to sleep. He needed something to wake him.

[That's a non-answer, but honestly, what can you expect.]

private

[interstices]

[Shinji said, that day on the beach, when she'd been making herself suffer, dressed in her old plugsuit in the heat of the afternoon-- he'd said he heard her voice. He'd said she brought him back. That's what he said-- and that's what she still can't believe, but still wants to cling to.]

That doesn't tell me anything!