[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

[mortalcoil]

why
did you get something embarrassing

[interstices]

I didn't get anything.

[mortalcoil]

[oh... there's a little pause there.]

?

why not

did you do it right

[interstices]

I haven't done it.

[mortalcoil]

do you want to ?

[interstices]

I don't know. Maybe.

[mortalcoil]

its not so bad

are you on the ship right now or somewhere else

[interstices]

I've been staying on the planet.

You'd go with me?

[mortalcoil]

me too away from the ocean

yes

[interstices]

[Coil, too, huh. Zhas had been weird about the water as well. Asuka purses her lips and nods unseen.]

Yeah, okay.

[She almost wants to thank him just for offering, but that seems like too much. Too uncomfortable. She'll figure out a way to return the favor.]

If I get something stupid, don't laugh at me.

[mortalcoil]

[you know... not even he is above a little bit of self-deprecating humor, on special occasions. he only hesitates a little bit before answering--]

i got a harp

[interstices]

Seriously?

You play?

[When had he learned something as highbrow as that, and why was he so intent on looking like a hobo, if upper-crust trappings were in his background? Weird.]

Let me hear you.

[mortalcoil]

[first dressing up for a fancy dance, and now this. would the wonders never cease?]

maybe

after i see what you get

[interstices]

Yeah. All right.

When are you going to be around?

[mortalcoil]

theres a library north of the biggest dock

ive been there all day

[interstices]

Okay. I'll see you in about twenty minutes.

[mortalcoil]

[he sees no reason to bother responding, so he doesn't. he just heads outside to wait, since the locals here seem to have no problem with rubbing shoulders with him and invading his personal space even in the solace of a library.

so, whenever she shows up, she'll probably find him sitting off to the side about halfway up the grand set of wooden steps leading up to the library.]

[interstices]

[She's there in about fifteen, as it turns out, but spots him more than easily enough. He doesn't blend in. She climbs up the stairs even though there's probably not a need, palm up and extended in a wave.]

Hey.

[No library books. Would they offer temporary library cards to the Fleet? It sounds pretty silly.] You didn't find anything?

[mortalcoil]

[her question confuses him for a second, brows drawing together as she reaches him, before he gestures curiously over his shoulder toward the library. he doesn't wait for her to confirm or deny, however. he just nods and pulls a small notebook out of his sweatshirt pocket.

who needs a stack of heavy books when you can just take notes?]

[interstices]

Oh.

[Notes. Of course. Asuka's not sure what he's been researching, only that he's done it on the ship, too. Coil reminds her of a shadow skulking around, really, with even his signs tending towards being taciturn. It would be irritating if she didn't skulk around, too.]

Ready?

[Holding hands could be unpleasant. Giving Shinji insight into how her mind works, and getting insight into his, had been heavy. Intense. Like syncing with Eva, the weird oneness, the meshing together. And if she and Coil do this... well, Shinji knew already what a mess Asuka is. Coil's just got an idea.]

[But if she doesn't do it, she'll wonder later what the tree would've given her. For that, it better be worth it.]

I went up to it once. I don't think it's far.

[mortalcoil]

[it's a little hilarious how Asuka is the best of both worlds when it comes to communicating with Coil. she's standoffish enough that he doesn't feel the need to fill the gaps with chit-chat and other idle human habits, and she also has no qualms about talking right over his silence and carrying the bulk of conversation herself. he doesn't have to do much more than nod and push himself up to follow along. it's nice--especially with how crowding this world has been.

he does ask one question though. raising an eyebrow when she says that she's already been to the tree, he signs, 'Alone?']

[interstices]

Yeah, alone. Why do you think I hadn't gotten anything?

[Sure, there'd been plenty of people there who would have taken her hand. She'd even extended it a few times, with the hungry expression of a toddler demanding candy, always backing out before anyone could touch her fingers. It's too much. It's just too much.]

[As they head down the library stairs, Asuka manages a less-rhetorical question, curious, though she can hazard a hesitant guess.

Who did you go with? For your harp.

[mortalcoil]

[rhetorical or not, he shrugs at the first question--which is the short version of his various guesses. he could just as easily see her purposefully going to the tree without an escort, as he could see her rejecting someone's offer, or even having her own offer snubbed by someone else.

he wouldn't be all that surprised if she hadn't intended to go alone the first time. if he didn't know her, if he was some other innocent bystander in the Fleet, he absolutely would have refused to take her hand. as it is, he still unconsciously tucks his hands safely into his pockets as they descend.

and to answer her second question, he only forms the sign for "Z." he figures it's pretty obvious beyond that. he doesn't shadow many other people whose names start with that letter, after all.]

[interstices]

I thought so.

[She wonders if Zhas told him she'd thought at first he was his boyfriend from back home. Probably. Not that it matters. Zhas isn't half as much of an asshole as she'd first assumed, and Coil might be the only one on her ship she's ever... ever really talked to. Nobody else on the Red Fish has been privy to what's under her eyepatch.]

[It already feels like a familiar walk, anyway, though she'd only followed a group of tourists just once to the tree. Asuka doesn't have pockets on her dress, so her arms are swinging slightly as she walks-- looser body language than she usually has in public, but over the time spent on this planet, she's found it's a pretty good way to avoid any handholding with strangers.]

You read music?

[mortalcoil]

[after all of the time cooped up and healing in the dungeon of his own medical bay, Coil has been enjoying the open space even more than usual. the frustration and fatigue of it all still has the space around his eyes looking dull and dark like bruises, but he doesn't carry himself with the same strain he had been for the past few weeks. getting out and spending extended time away from the ship--regardless of the handsy, irksome locals here--has been doing him some good.

the fact that he's also walking a familiar path helps as well. the tree and the trail toward it isn't scary to him anymore. he'd followed in Zhas' shadow up to and braved that mystery once all ready. he can pretend to know what he's doing here, mimicking Asuka's relaxed posture as they go. his shoulders aren't quite as hunched and vulturine as they usually are.

and he has to think for a moment, before nodding. reading music is one of those skills he'd gathered years ago and pointedly never puts to use.

'learned when I was small,' he signs.]