Red Fishies

[mortalcoil]

Who: SS Red Fish crew and visitors
Broadcast: No
Action: Aboard the SS Red Fish
When: Around the drifting week (and probably a backtag party!)

[watch the newest episodes (and catch up on a few reruns) of your favorite dysfunctional fish in the fleet! what kind of drama will they create next? you can find out right here, right now!]

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[interstices]

[That nod is sort of gratifying, but it doesn't make her relax. Asuka still looks for all the world like a rabid cat ready to pounce at the first sign of provocation. He won't touch Shinji again, but that's no guarantee he won't bother him again. Definitely no guarantee he'll apologize to him like she wants. Shinji won't set foot on her ship anymore, that's what Coil's deprived her of. He's taken one more place from Shinji's dwindling lists of spots he feels comfortable in. Asuka grits her teeth irritably, but says nothing for awhile.]

Well? What else do you want?

[mortalcoil]

[he takes a minute to search once she speaks up again, like he hadn't quite realized that he was still standing there in silence.

eventually, he just signs, 'I didn't know.' which is a frustratingly tiny, vague statement for all of the different ways he means it. he didn't know if he could trust Shinji, he didn't know that fact didn't actually matter, he didn't know just how much the other boy was imbedded in everything--like broken bone shards in injured tissue. one little phrase can't possibly get all of that across, but the point is that if he had known, it would have gone differently. it's the closest thing to an apology to her that he can probably get.]

[interstices]

No, you didn't.

[She gets it. He regrets it, even, probably, but not for the right reasons. He ought to care more about what Shinji felt than what Asuka felt. But it's a grudging sort of start. Asuka lets the silence hang for a bit before putting her eyepatch back on, the slight snap of elastic almost like the close of a door, shutting him and everyone else out again. That eye's still gleaming slightly through the patch.]

Everybody's treated him like shit his whole life. [Even me. Especially me.] He was crying when he told me about it. He said he must've done something wrong. [Maybe it's too much to reveal-- Shinji would die if he knew she'd told Coil any of that, but she has to let it out.] He was just trying to visit me like normal. Now he won't come back at all.

[mortalcoil]

[finally, tension that he hadn't noticed he'd been holding begins to hesitantly leave his shoulders. her eyepatch has been returned to its place; his fingers loosen out of fists.

yes, it's a start. and in respect of that, he tries his best to hide his surprise and disdain over the bits she's revealing. to picture the boy he'd met crying... his face wants to twist into the sneer that Shinji had showed him first. and he wants to say something about it, but he's smart enough not to touch it until this whole thing has had a long time to cool off. maybe not even then.

he also wants to fold his arms and pretend he doesn't have to respond to her last comment. but he's sure he doesn't actually have that option right now.

'Plenty of other places to visit.']

[interstices]

Asshole.

[God, he doesn't understand after all. He's being every bit the rude, insufferable brat he accused Shinji of being. Not letting him on the ship like a child refusing to let go of a toy. Fine. Asuka's got nothing else to do except dig her heels in.]

Don't expect to ever talk to me again until you've given him an apology. I'm done here.

[mortalcoil]

[Coil is very good at being a hypocrite, and sometimes, he even knows it.

so, he takes a moment to lift his gaze toward the ceiling and sigh, but it's not to end in an eyeroll. he's steeling himself; biting the bullet and swallowing some of his pride. it takes him a minute. it's an effort he very rarely puts himself through--not that Asuka is in any place to feel flattered over it.

'That will even matter? Make a difference?' he asks, taking it slow while he picks out the signs that will actually get the meanings across. 'You would stop being angry?']

[interstices]

[Asuka's hands dig at the covers on her bed, her gaze dropping from his face and onto the wall beyond him.] I said I'm done here.

[mortalcoil]

[he takes half a step forward, like he's trying to get into her line of vision again, even though she's still technically looking at him.

'Answer me,' he signs, because they were questions that he meant. he's not going to consider doing something so loathsome as apologizing if it's not actually going to make a difference. if she's not going to forgive him either way, there's no point.]

[interstices]

I wouldn't say it if it didn't matter. [She snaps the words out like little firecrackers. He's trying to get her attention again, but she's determined, focusing her eye on one particular, newly-dented part of the wall. He gets an agitated sigh, and then--]

I'll let it go then, all right?

[mortalcoil]

[that will do. with her verbal confirmation, he steps forward across the little distance between them so he can shove his communicator in her direction, along with the sign for 'number.'

give him Shinji's number, and he will end this.]

[interstices]

[Asuka offers up a tight nod and types the number in for him. She's about to leave it at that, handing it back to him, but as soon as she's returned the communicator, with a little grudging hesitation, she makes the sign for thank you.]