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Who: The fine crew of the SS Red Fish!
Broadcast: Probably not so much...
Action: You betcha.
When: Barely forward-dated to Halloween!

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[welcome to the Red Fish, the ship that always looks ready for Halloween anyway.

while today is a popular Earth holiday, it's also Zhas' birthday, and he has probably mentioned it to everyone on board in an unsubtle way over the last few weeks. there are a hilarious number of jack-o-lanterns around the ship, showing off skull-face carvings of... varying quality. thanks, Syeira!

what's in store on this spooky night? HILARITY, probably.]

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Good.

[Asuka looks childishly pleased, taking one of the pencils and scribbling Asuka Shikinami Langley across the skull's forehead in prim cursive, before writing Happy Birthday an inch to the side of an eye socket. She wipes off her name with two fingers a few moments later but leaves the second message, stark against the inky black skull.]

I got it a long time ago. I was gonna give it to you then, but...

[She shrugs, looking mildly embarrassed.]

I didn't get the chance.

[had he been raised like a normal person, he might have had reservations about childishly doodling on a skull... but here he is, following her example and signing a practiced "Ƶ" on the flat plane of the mandible.]

You've been thinking about it...? [he glances up at Asuka, thinking nothing of her embarrassment. he's surprised that she got something so long ago... and flattered that she hadn't just thrown it away before now. he looks a little sheepish himself as he starts scribbling a familiar pattern, something very dia de los muertos on the front of the skull.

but him makes him think (and he's tipsy enough to voice it):] You're... nice to be around. So, thanks... for not getting sick of me yet, I guess...

It's nothing.

[Asuka watches him draw without adding anything else to the skull-- it's his anyway, and she's not particularly artistic, beyond some margin doodles in junior high. The pencil's thoughtlessly lax between her fingers.]

You're not so bad, either. [It sounds a little, no, a lot stupid, at least to her own ears.] You let me have my space.

Mm... [he does, doesn't he? he's never had any space of his own, so it's...] Funny. But you're smart, you don't need me following you around.

[she's not Coil, not by a long shot. he starts to ring an eye with flower petals, but stops short of a full circle to look up at her again.]

...Do you want to go back outside? [he holds his pencil loosely, paused in what he's doing, as he's only just now realized they are still in his room. speaking of Coil, the kid's probably going to come looking for him soon. spoilsport.]

I'm not smart. I'm brilliant.

[That superiority's taken entirely too much alcohol to burst back onto the surface. As a kid, she'd been utterly overbearing and unbearable; as half an adult, she's usually only embittered. It never mattered how smart she was lying in a coffin.]

Yeah, okay. [She starts to walk towards the exit, picking up her doll along the way and tossing it blandly on the bed.] C'mon.

[Zhas only chuckles, ignorant of the many footnotes surrounding her cocky statement. he finds claims of confidence endearing, and doesn't have mind to wonder otherwise.

the doll, though. he suddenly remembers that she has one, for starters, and that she nearly lost her mind when he kept it from her. the basket was one thing, but something about watching her pick up and toss it aside doesn't sit well in his booze-filled head. it sticks and it gums his feet to the floor. she can keep walking, but Zhas hasn't moved a foot when he asks:]

You're not bringing your friend...?

[he points loosely towards the bed.]

She's not my friend.

[The answer is quick and pointed. The doll's not anything except what she wants her to be. Confidant. Support system. Puppet. The doll can't be her friend when she's her. It's there, across her skirt in big blocky letters. Asuka.]

I just keep her around.

[The lie's pretty weak, given the amount of alcohol swimming through her system. She looks at Zhas, suddenly vaguely wary.] What? Are you gonna tease me again?

[that wariness again... the chance of conflict sends his gaze up to the ceiling, has him shoving his hands safely in his pockets.]

Mmo-- M'not supposed to tease girls.

[though that first noise, for a half of a second, could have turned into "momma". that's how you know he's had too much to drink.]

Didn't think you had that many manners. [Asuka's speech isn't exactly slurred, but neither does it have its usual impatient, high cadence, shrill as a piccolo.]

I'm too old for that crap anyway. [Too old for everything. What's thirty going to look like? What's forty? It's incredibly selfish, though, to consider her own birthday on the day of someone else's. Well, whatever.] Way too old. It sucks.

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