[video] no sign of your flawed design

[interstices]

Who: Asuka Shikinami Langley and... you.
Broadcast: Video
Action: Red Fish, if you want it
When: 4/29 (today)

[And here's a sight typically reserved for sore eyes-- Asuka flopped on her half-made bed, hair in braids on either side of her head, wearing a t-shirt and a pair of baggy pants. The overall effect leaves her much less intimidating-looking than usual, but really, she's just about to go to bed.]

I've been thinking about augment glitches.

[Not the most profound statement, but she presses on.]

Everyone gets them. Sometimes it's sort of an epidemic of them, other times it's just a handful of people. I know people in the Fleet keep track of all the planets and stations we end up at, but I don't think anyone's kept up with glitches. [An eyeroll, and then--] Probably because everyone wants to forget they happened. But I think it might be good to have a record and see what comes up most often or if there's any sort of pattern.

If you want to talk about any augment malfunctions you've had, go ahead right here. Even if they're really screwed-up. It might help somebody else out.

Comments

[interstices]

Really?

Why do you like them so much?

[paraclete]

[There's some dead air from his end. Not quite pensive, but not really pleasant, either.

At last:]

They're quite good. I was taught otherwise, [though he's never talked too much about that,] but they're quite good. When I learned that, I... [He's never really talked about this, either. She always gets his stupidest confessions. He tries to have a little self-control, this time.] I was pretty charmed.

[interstices]

Charmed?

[It's Asuka's turn to let the silence hang in the air, more bitter now, even though it's not really directed at him. He's got all the reason in the world to hate Lilin. Humans. It's been more than half her life now since she could honestly say she was really one of them.]

How can you even say that?

[paraclete]

Well, they're cool, right?

[He could sound boyish, for a second.]

[interstices]

You're like a kid with a crush.

[paraclete]

What do you mean? Joy is youthful?

[interstices]

What? No. I mean you're enamored.

I don't get that about you.

[paraclete]

[He laughs quietly, softly—quiet and soft, qualities separate from each other, rounded at the edges and with a lot of give to it.]

I'd be really tired if I didn't love. Right?

—Ahh, no. I just mean it's a kinder feeling.

[interstices]

You're pretty tired as it is.

Is it like how you'd feel for a pet, then?

[paraclete]

[One of those pauses, which could last forever if he let it.] ...I am, aren't I.

Not like a pet. I don't consider myself above them. Admiration? You might call it that.

[interstices]

[Sometimes talking to him is like trying to pluck a single hair out with tweezers. Asuka can try to be precise and careful all she wants, but in the end she's still yanking and tugging away. Never getting anything by the root at all.]

What's there to admire? All you've ever seen is how much got screwed up.