One fish, two fish...

[theboogieman]

Who: Crew of the S.S. Bad At Feelings S.S. Red Fish and visitors!
Broadcast: Optional!
Action: All sorts!
When: Around the Drifting Week.

---

[if the worlds really are watching, they must just be chomping at the bit to find out what's going on aboard this ship full of misfits and sad-sacks! with one crewmate reportedly dead, another recently missing, and now this thing about a hacking device planted in the communications system--what could possibly happen next?

stay tuned, audience!]

Comments

[mortalcoil]

[he can't even sit at a table like a normal person--instead, just sort of slouching down into the chair and pulling one foot up onto the seat. that vulturine look he's mastered is in prime form right now.

and despite all that, he still seems a little surprised by the question, raising his brow in confusion. what is what?]

[interstices]

[Okay. Is this about what happened at the tree? Asuka takes another neat swallow of the chowder, considering. It's possible, sure. She hadn't gone out of her way to avoid him afterwards or anything like that, but maybe what he'd seen, or what she'd seen, or both, had bothered him more than she'd been aware of. It had definitely bothered her. The only thing that helped was knowing the invasion went both ways, and that she hadn't revealed anything half as bad as she'd been afraid of.]

What're you doing here, if you don't want food?

[mortalcoil]

[no, the mess at the tree had been something he could handle. it was a shock, and of course it'd bothered him, but it had also been invited (and yes, not nearly as revealing as he had feared). the thing that is eating at him now, he has even less experience with than mental sharing.

and when she asks him about it... he sort of takes a look at himself and what he's doing, and maybe realizes just how useless he's being. not quite embarrassed about it, but it might have gotten to that point if he'd had the energy for it.

after glancing aside, and looking at the lunch that he is clearly interrupting, he shakes his head.

'I don't know,' he finally signs. and dropping his foot back onto the floor, he pushes himself away from the table again. maybe he should go mope somewhere else.]

[interstices]

Hey, wait.

[It's no good eating alone. She wonders if Coil's noticed that she almost never eats in the ship (almost never eats at all, really), or if it matters. He already knows she's just pretending at being human. He doesn't seem to mind it much.]

[Another swallow, lowering her gaze to the mix of clams (maybe?) and vegetables in the soup, as if to let him save a little bit of face here. Too bad she can't keep her eye off anyone for too long out of force of habit. Her voice is a little less commanding, though.]

You want to talk, right? We can do that.

[mortalcoil]

[he does wait--standing with one hand still on the back of his chair--because he doesn't really want to go retreat somewhere by himself, for once. with people leaving, and turning, and dying, he's actually had enough solitude for a while. he's found that bad things happen when he's upset and left alone for too long.

but being around another person also doesn't make logical sense to him. he doesn't understand why hanging around here seems like the thing to do. it's a new and stupid feeling. he doesn't know what he's supposed to do with this. it feels like something that he shouldn't have, maybe.

he signs simply, 'I don't talk.']

[interstices]

You knew what I meant.

[She gets up, though, to get some water. Two glasses, not that she exactly expects him to drink his, even as she pushes it towards him on the table before sitting back down herself and sipping absently from her own glass.]

You look like you want to tell me something.

[mortalcoil]

[he did know what she meant, and he'd said it anyway. he'd privately meant it to include more than just his missing voice. because mute or not, he just doesn't talk.

so, he accepts the glass of water and shakes his head no. he doesn't have thoughts that he can effectively put into words and say to her. that would be too much like healthy communication.

he knows he's being weird and inexplicable, though. he's probably annoying her. he's behaving out of character when he should really just cloister himself somewhere else until he can behave sensibly again but he doesn't want to go and he doesn't know why...

to explain himself, he just signs 'Slept bad.']

[interstices]

Did you have a nightmare? [Asuka doesn't exactly sound concerned, but she does sound attentive, and not defensive. Definitely not derisive, either. She gets plenty of nightmares herself, which is some of why she barely bothers to sleep. Not that it's hurt her any.]

[With her spoon, she pushes around a potato wedge in circles in her bowl, considering. He can be such a pain sometimes, wandering around the circumference of the truth, but at least she's dealt with slyer.]

Exercise some. It'll distract you.

[mortalcoil]

[he nods absently--possibly to both statements. summing it all up as a nightmare is close enough to the larger truth, and he also knows that exercise is a good idea in theory. he flexes his fingers as he thinks about it, tightening them into a halfhearted fist. he'd tried running a few rounds on the punching bag with fists and his quarterstaff, but it just hadn't been enough. with his strength and energy still low from healing, he just hasn't been able to unleash the sort of violence that would normally make him feel better.

'Still can't sleep.' if he'd been stronger, he could have kept working all of the demons out of his nerves, but he just loses momentum before managing to exhaust himself, now.

it's maddening.]

[interstices]

There's stuff in the med bay. [But the way she says it, barely biting back a grimace, shows just how high she rates that form of help. Remembering Shinji's dependence on sleep aids makes her stomach coil up, and thinking about pills in general makes her sour.]

[That suggestion rejected as soon as it's uttered, at least by her, she surprises herself by pushing her bowl across the counter, towards him, without fanfare. It's not as hot as it was when she'd first pulled it out of the microwave, but it's still plenty warm.]

Then eat. That's supposed to help, too.

[mortalcoil]

[if it makes her feel any better, he does make a face. being the resident medical "expert," he's very aware of what's all contained in the lab, and he pointedly ignores most of it. even if he hadn't had a natural distaste for that sort of thing, his partner's past history with pills turns him off to the idea even more.

and she's not the only surprised as the bowl of food is pushed across the table. he blinks at the offering for a moment, like he's expecting her to take it back just as quickly, before he finally sends a glance toward her face.

he almost seems wary. 'You're being nice.']

[interstices]

I'm not always pissed-off.

[It's as close to a yes as she'll manage. Hopefully Coil isn't too concerned about hygiene, since she's not about to get up a second time for another bowl and spoon. There's a limit.]

It's better than the processed stuff. You can eat soup, right?

[mortalcoil]

[germs are the least of his worries, really. he accepts the bowl and secondhand spoon, if only to just stir and poke the food around for now.

'What is it?' he asks. because though eating might be one of his least favorite subjects of conversation, he'll take just about any easy distraction right now.]

[interstices]

You don't know what soup is? [Oh, come on. Then she realizes she has to be being obtuse, and he just wants the ingredients. It's too bad she's probably far more ignorant than him on everything involving fresh food.]

Fish. I think... clams. And bacon. [A pause that's a bit too embarrassed for what she's discussing. It's been so rare that she's had food that wasn't the equivalent of soylent green.] There's some-- potatoes, I think. I don't know. It's pretty good, all right?

[mortalcoil]

[he pulls a bit of a face over the main ingredient in this being seafood... but he doesn't have much of a tongue, so he can't complain too badly, can he? he and Zhas just have eating habits that resemble those of kindergartners, so fish and vegetables don't take center stage very often in their meals.

his brow quirks up when he notices her getting hung up on... the ingredients? normally he can at least guess at things that are bothering or embarrassing her, but this one totally loses him.

with one finger, he draws a question mark in the air.]

[interstices]

[Asuka still looks a bit ashamed even as she explains. In the restaurant where she and Shinji had worked, it had been hard memorizing the menus-- so she hadn't bothered-- when she didn't really recognize half of what she was serving.]

We don't have very much real food at home. It's like what's usually on the ship.

[mortalcoil]

[at least, out of all the people she could have confessed that too, it would be hard to find someone less appalled by that admission than Coil. he seems surprised, taking a minute to absorb that and add it to the ever-growing collection of tidbits he's learning about her, but then he only nods.

'You're not missing much.']

[interstices]

I am, too. [Runny beige foodstuffs, fortified with vitamins and minerals she didn't need anymore. Cubed monstrosities. Mari used to get a plethora of junk food while on shore leave, avidly downing it in her cockpit, but it was expensive and just as artificial as anything else.] I should have bought more.