mk.09 (text)

[paraclete]

Who: Kaworu Nagisa, anyone else
Broadcast: text
Action: For now he's a busybody aboard the Vanquish, unless you'd like to discuss anything else.
When: 6/6, midmorning

They sell candles in packs of 8, 10, 12, 24, 48... and some packages even larger than that. Well, a certain type of candle, the kind that goes into the cake. Initially I needed exactly 16 candles, so the package of 24 would have been reasonable, right? But I thought it might be nice just to use all 24 after all.

Then I thought that a package of 48 might be just as nice as a package of 24. If not even nicer. It seemed worth trying.

Anyway, I have some sets of candles, now, the type specific to the cake, but if each candle represents a year of life, I wondered why I should stop at 16, 24, 48, etc. I have some bigger candles in my sleeping quarters, as well, so that's a few more I can add, but the higher the number of them I have, the less it seems like enough. It would be good to have a table full of them. A room full of them. It would be good to have candles like the sweep of stars.

I'm sure I can repay you, if you'd like to lend me any of your own. I promise I won't melt them all the way.

Comments

Voice;

[servantnotserving]

[STRANGER DANGER, STRANGER DANGER!!!! He's just gonna stick to voice. But if he vanishes in the next 24 hours, you guys look for him with the candle-nut first, okay? Okay/]

...That seems very excessive.

[paraclete]

[Meanwhile, here sits Kaworu, the quality of his voice gentle and spumy with...

Ah, geeze, this is a young man who is head over heels. We'll just get that out in the open right now. It might explain some of his nonsense.]

Is there such a thing as an excess of joy?

[servantnotserving]

[Oh nooo, don't get him with The Power Of Love, it's his weakness. ]

I...suppose there is not, no. Though there can sometimes be an excess of candles. If you want to see stars, there are many outside you know?

[paraclete]

And yet I would say that my heart contains greater even than all that I see outside.

[Pretty words, but this also means that he's a stubborn dork. He's one for becoming fixated on ideas...]

[servantnotserving]

I see. So, is there someone you wish to express this sentiment to, specifically? Or are you just making this grand statement for the joy of it?

text

[touchallthebooks]

[He can't answer without him face contorting into a 'what is wrong with you' kind of expression. And he doesn't want to do that.]

What exactly are you trying to do?

[paraclete]

It's a decoration. It mirrors the interior of the heart. Nice, right?

[This probably doesn't help an already bewildered face, not that Kaworu seems aware.]

[touchallthebooks]

It sounds like you're about to create a severe fire hazard.

[At least he keeps his fire elementals under control.]

[paraclete]

It will be warm at worst, I'd like to think.

[He may be able to withstand, you know, magma or whatever, but not everyone present at his candle party (well, birthday party) can. It's discourteous to discount someone else's physiology.

...]

Besides, they'll all get blown out.

[touchallthebooks]

You know how quickly a large number of candles can ignite anything near them, right?

[He is so concern.]

text

[interstices]

[In this episode of "can Kaworu Nagisa keep a secret or surprise to save his life"...]

Do you want me to bring a fire extinguisher?

[paraclete]

[Erm, with that specific qualifier... Okay, Kaworu's track record is admittedly bad, but he's been known to get carried away.]

They're for blowing out!

[interstices]

[Just when she almost hopes he's improving.]

I know.

Do you even have something to put them in?

[Something like a cake, maybe?]

[paraclete]

Not yet. I'm behind schedule.

[Because he was busy buying........

Yikes. "Carried away" might be generous. Then again, if he was that meticulous about an out-of-date piano during the post-apocalypse, who knows what he's willing to do where something like today is concerned...]

[interstices]

I will in about an hour.

[Asuka's time has been divvied up in a pretty unenviable fashion ever since finally, finally deciding on her gift. Luckily, she figures she has the cake ingredients pretty much on hand.]

I thought you had everything. [It's not exactly a judgment call, even if it comes off one. Last night, he'd listed off so many things he'd gotten for Shinji, so...] You think we can do the party together?

text.

[astrobleme]

[Ah...]

It would take a while to blow out all those candles.

[paraclete]

[!]

I would only ask for a little of someone's time, today.

[astrobleme]

I bet this someone would say you can have as much of their time as you want.

[paraclete]

What a nice someone. What a nice time.

How are you feeling?

[astrobleme]

I feel like today sneaked up on me. Actually, I kind of forgot about it...

Kaworu → Asuka → Shinji

[astrobleme]

[Shinji forgot about the significance of today.

Or then again, maybe it's more like he didn't want to remember it. He read Kaworu's odd message about candles and sweeps of them, and he was struck all at once with all the things he's tried really hard not to think about. His birthday. The manner of his birth. Who knew the truth about him, and who didn't know, and who might've suspected but still didn't let him in on it. Misato-san. Ritsuko-san. His father. Mother. It's just too much to think about, so he stopped thinking about it at all.

But his friends want to celebrate his birthday, of course they do, and he still dumbfounded by that simple fact.] But you didn't have to, [he says, hesitating a little, standing among the rows of flowers in the Iskaulit's gardens. They're blooming cheerfully. His face is already red, much like the petals, and he can't stop fidgeting with his beat-up work gloves.] I mean, I just wasn't expecting... anything... [He looks from Kaworu to Asuka, back to Kaworu, then down to the flowers he nurtured from a handful of seeds. It took almost six months for these to mature. It's an amazing thing, he thinks, to be responsible for new life.]

Kaworu-kun, you didn't really bring enough candles for a whole room, did you?

[paraclete]

[Kaworu's face is so pleased that it carries a feline quality. Sleek, a specialized curvature. Something designed by nature to look exactly as relaxed as this, as great in strength as this. This isn't the cat who got the canary; it's the head of a pride. His clemency is here because it's what he's chosen. Stalling before him, looking awkwardly between love and flowers, is all in the world to whom Kaworu will ever bend the knee.

And Kaworu can't stop thinking, He's so cute. Despite otherwise looking like a well-fed panther, Kaworu has what might be called "googly eyes".]

Not quite so much, [he says smoothly.] Enough for all of us to have a nice time, I think. That's all. Look, I'll show you. [And just as smoothly, he turns, to retrieve one paper bag from a grouping of others. While he goes, his hand raises to touch the top of Asuka's shoulder just for the moment of his passing.] Thanks, Asuka.

[interstices]

Yeah. [The touch is unexpected, but Asuka doesn't really stiffen up. It's gotten perilously hard to do that around him over the last while. Her mouth twitches into what might almost be a smile on anyone else's face, while her heart seems to twitch its way into convulsions in her ribcage.]

[It's right. It's got to be right.]

[The cake isn't as ambitious as she'd wanted it to be-- neither is her gift, for that matter, but from the few scrapes of batter she had, it should taste good. Chocolate with blue icing, with crushed cookies stuck to the icing all around the sides, his name written very carefully on the top. Her contribution doesn't feel as paltry as long as Shinji's standing there.]

Come on, sit. [She'd spread out the picnic before Shinji had arrived, fussed over the placement of the plates and cups as usual. Almost as much as she'd fussed over her hair (hopeless and pigtailed), her dress (red and sleeveless, one he made for her), and bracelet, even. The ensemble's set up on top of a poncho liner, the cake in the middle, covered by a plastic lid that she shyly lifts as soon as Kaworu comes by with the bag.] Here.

[astrobleme]

[Oh man. Last year, Shinji was deliriously happy with everything--just plain overwhelmed with the cake, the presents, the mere presence of his friends. He made a fool of himself, really, gushing over every detail, when he should have been doing more to thank them for it. His father once told him familiarity breeds contempt, so he had this underlying worry that, sooner or later, Kaworu and Asuka would get sick to death of him. He never expected to have a sixteenth birthday, much less to have them there to celebrate it. He looks back up, staring at each of them, almost at a loss...

But he abandons his work gloves and moves over to the picnic spot, only pausing to check out the bag that Kaworu brought to him. There are... quite a few candles in there, more than he can count at a glance; he feels even warmer in the face and deep inside his chest.] That's a lot of wishes, [he says, smiling, recalling the lesson of last year. They didn't have any candles, but Asuka said they were supposed to represent wishes.] Hey, and I just realized Asuka's wish from last year came true, because we're doing this again, right now. Do you guys remember that?

[He touches Kaworu's hand in acknowledgment, then sits down in front of one of the plates. The cake looks delicious, unsurprisingly so, and he reaches for the cutting knife while murmuring thank you.]

[paraclete]

[Kaworu's current busywork amounts to pulling candles out of the bag one by one. Within moments, there's a pretty spread of potential light growing around the picnic. They sit in little glass jars, or slightly bigger glass jars. Some are star-shaped, or specially round, or pastel colored cubes instead. Ultimately, the greater part of them don't "go" together, exactly...

But they don't look bad, scattered in an almost-cluster.]

I remember. Well, since today is a wish come true, so you should take advantage of it and make plenty more.

[He produces some matches. Looks like he really intends to light all of them—the amount of candles isn't completely over-the-top, but it's a reminder that Kaworu is plenty ambitious. He's lighting them, then lighting more, when he says,] Many wishes have come true since then. I'm glad to celebrate that with my friends. [He shakes out the match, lets its smoke curl away.] There was no candle for that particular wish, but let's try these out anyway. After we try Asuka's cake. It sounds nice to have it with all the light.