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

[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.

[interstices]

The cake before the candles? [Asuka looks a bit surprised, but nods anyway. The scattered lights remind her almost of some kind of shrine. Something sacrosanct. There's the pleasant, gentle scent of vanilla wafting from a couple of the candles. Asuka really hopes he didn't get too much more creative with the aromatic candles than that....]

[It's the same place as last year. Still a homemade cake and presents. The passage of time hasn't seemed any more evident than over the last decade and a half. But the feel is different. Warmer. More complete. She doesn't feel like she's competing any more. Doesn't feel like she's intruding. All that's gone. She's celebrating Shinji with Kaworu, not just alongside.] You think there's enough for all our wishes? [She asks that as she cuts into her piece, giving in for once to childish impulses. There's a glob of chocolate-cookie crumbles and frosting on her fork, rather than too much cake just yet.]

[astrobleme]

Yeah, [Shinji says.] It's going to take forever to blow out all those candles, so we should eat first. I'm getting pretty hungry, anyway. [That's something of a little white lie on his part. Shinji can't recall the last time he was genuinely hungry, with a stomach demanding sustenance. Any desire he has to eat these days is kind of an abstraction that sets in at weird times. But that's neither here nor there...

He pauses right before he cuts into the cake.] I know what will make this even better. Hold on. [Instead of standing up and going over to the room's control panel, he just looks at it and concentrates hard for a few seconds. The bright lights overhead flicker, then dim, then shimmer all over, before finally going out all at once, leaving just the collection of candles to see by. He giggles under his breath, inwardly nervous about his own Angelic abilities. Crazy stuff.

Asuka's dress--of course he noticed she's wearing one of the dresses he made--looks even more elegant in the flickering candlelight. It's almost romantic, if he's being honest, but it's a novelty, too. And Kaworu's profile is just as attractive. He feels like a featureless block of tofu in comparison to them.]

If there aren't enough candles, we can just relight them and do it all over again. I don't think that's against any rules. Come to think of it, that's a massive loophole, huh...

[paraclete]

[Kaworu, for his part, hasn't yet gone after some cake for himself. Once he's lit every candle, he settles, half seated, half sprawling—one knee is bent, and his arm rests atop it. His other hand is situated behind himself, steady against the floor, propping himself up.

He tilts his head back. When Shinji shuts off the lights, Kaworu's eyes are closed. It's a good feeling, the outreach of Shinji's soul, and being surrounded by the effects of it. It's like being scooped up in someone's hands, coming to rest at a set of warm palms. He doesn't want to slip out through any cracks; he wants to stay here, like this, in the aura of a person who can give light or take it away.

As Kaworu opens his eyes again, to get his first glimpse at the candles in the dark, his head is tilted toward his shoulder. He says, gently,] There are no rules about what you wish. But we'll do it again if you'd like to. There will be enough for all of us.

[Which is magnanimous in a very specific way.]

[interstices]

[Asuka isn't sure what to expect when Shinji tells them to hold on. She gasps just slightly when the lights start to flicker and then eventually go out. Verification of who he really is. Warm somehow, not frightening. Her left eye twitches behind the patch. If they were on the Wunder right now, every sensor would be going berserk.]

[It's amazing how she hasn't thought about the Wunder in months.]

All of us.

[She feels a little silly repeating that, but it's almost as if she's making sure of it herself. They've never had an us before, not any of them, for all the groups and factions vying for their allegiance. Real unity feels good.]

I like that.

[Another bite of mostly-frosting, and then she steels herself up for something that sounds casual but isn't at all.] You've been practicing since you showed me.