Libuscha IV System Mingle (no. 1)

[necromanswers]

Who: Everyone! OTA!
Broadcast: sure why not
Action: yeahhhhhh
When: 11/12 to 1/4 (minus 12/26)


It's Candlenights! Or Christmas! Or whatever! It's festive! Go celebrate, explore, go get free stuff from a tree!!

More importantly it's a mingle!

--SYSTEM INFORMATION--

Comments

[paraclete]

[The receptionist with the candy canes must be mistaken. This water is undoubtedly special. First off, it's beautiful, and that's always a special thing; aside from that, its warmth is so particular. To seek this warmth, Kaworu thinks, would be the most natural thing to do. Kaworu slipped out of his own fluffy towel as if he were destined for it. It fell away from him in the middle of his stride, and the heap it makes beyond the water is almost whimsical for how earnestly it was cast aside. Kaworu let himself in up to his calves, then his thighs, then his waist. He did a little turn to face Shinji, to grin at him, and then he slid down even lower. His shoulders dipped into the water, and then even his chin...

He does look like he was born to swim around. His eyes are half-closed.]

It's the right thing, [he announces, which, though a positive proclamation, completely neglects what's strange vs. what's not.]

[astrobleme]

[After all the years--god, has it really been that long?--he's spent living with his person, you'd think Shinji would have a better grasp on Kaworu's enigmatic nature. You'd think. But Kaworu will say something totally inscrutable and Shinji will spend the next few nights unable to sleep, wondering what the heck it means. It's the right thing. All right, then. Shinji sighs to himself, tightening his hold on the knot of the towel. It isn't like the receptionist asked him to sign a liability waiver or anything. There aren't any warning signs posted anywhere...]

Just tell me if you start feeling weird, okay? [What does "feeling weird" even mean for someone like Kaworu? Never mind. Shinji decides he can't just spend all night tiptoeing around the water's edge like a scaredy-cat. Slowly, then, he lifts up one foot... and then he dips just one of his big toes into the glowing water. Tingly! It's weird. Biting at his bottom lip, he finds the courage to lower his whole foot into the shallows. The bottom of the hot springs is solid, and slick, more slippery than he imagined, but he holds on to his balance on the way to being knee-deep. It's so weird.

He flicks at the bright surface with a few fingers. They're tingling, too.]

What do you think's making it do this?

[paraclete]

[Kaworu bats his eyelashes, but only because there are flecks of water clinging to them. It wouldn't be so noticeable in a normal spring, probably just coy. But, here, the little dewy beads near his eyes are aglow. He keeps blinking them away, and then he tilts his head. It brings the side of his face closer to the water, and his hair is fanning out against its surface, too.]

Well, what makes you glow? For me, it's life. It means I have enough life in me to thrive and glow. So, maybe, here as well...

[One of his hands raises back toward the surface of the water. His fingertips poke out into the air, and he wiggles them a bit, not quite splashing. It's like a response to Shinji's.]

Livelihood?

[astrobleme]

[Livelihood, huh. There are probably tons of bioluminescent microbes infesting this water, and they're going to invade Shinji's mucous membranes at the first opportunity. They could conquer the whole of him before he even gets off this planet. He'd become just a carrier of whatever pathogens they have, like a character in a horror movie. Nasty as hell. Super gross.

But Kaworu's perpetual calm is having a sort of calming effect on Shinji. It's hard to get worked up about something when Kaworu himself couldn't be further from stressing out. Kaworu accepts the world for what it is, the water for what it is, and that's good enough. Shinji shakes his head once or twice, but not because he's denying what Kaworu just said.]

Yeah, maybe. Maybe it's something like that. I was just thinking--we've seen a lot of crazy things, but nothing close to this. It's kind of overwhelming to think about how many crazy things might be out there waiting for us. [How many more planets they'll get to visit, and dream of colonizing, and...

Oh, jeez.

Quickly, but awkwardly, Shinji casts aside the towel and sinks down in the water, only stopping when it's about even with his rickety shoulders. The heat of the water is nostalgic, if nothing else. A little too nostalgic.]

I think I'm doing too much thinking lately.

[paraclete]

[It's only a piece. A fraction. Only a thin tendon running through Kaworu. But that tendon invites the hangers-on, the wriggling jump-starts at cellular life that might seep into him at any moment. He could breathe in a lungful of insidious air; he could soak himself in water that wants to thrive. And life could board him, and...

He could almost welcome it, only for the justice of his own body. Only for his body's ability to oust anything weaker than it. And let him tell you, as quiet as he is--everything is weaker than it. Perhaps surviving for so long, away from Earth, has gone to his head...

His eyes fall shut completely while he says, resting in the water, resting against the surface of the water, and then he opens just one eye to watch Shinji, and Shinji's nerves. His smile is slow, and steady. Above all it's steady.]

Is the future feeling fuller than the night sky felt? [Shinji always did look along toward voids.]

[astrobleme]

[The tingling sensation is everywhere now. Shinji doesn't know what to compare it to--pins and needles, maybe. A lack of circulation. The resolution thereof. His entire body is trying to wake up, it feels like, which doesn't make all that much sense. He's already awake, but there's no denying this sort of revitalization of his senses. The otherwise natural mineral scent of the water is more noticeable now. The color of Kaworu's eyes is more saturated than before, both as a warning and a promise of abundance. Shinji stares at him for an overly long moment, hearing his question with perfect clarity and also getting distracted by the texture of his smile. When Shinji licks his lips, he can really taste the eons within this planet's crust.]

Fuller...?

[That word choice, though... It's giving Shinji an uneasy feeling, but it's unlike white rooms, unlike getting his blood drawn; it has nothing to do with his guardian telling him to sit still and be quiet. It's more like getting a package in the mail and wondering if all its delicate parts have survived the journey from wherever. His first(?) telescope, from a mail-order catalog, changed his life for good. He did always look along toward voids, knowing he could count on them to keep him steady. Recently, he's allowed himself to think Kaworu could be another anchor.]

It feels like something big is going to happen. [His eyebrows push together, as if he's confused by what he himself is saying.] Or, uh... [...] Just, just something is going to happen, in general, and I need to be there to see it happen. Like it's really important that I'll be there for it. So, that's like having something to look forward to, probably...

[paraclete]

[And Shinji tastes the eons, and Kaworu opens his mouth--and Kaworu tastes it, and his breath comes slowly, shallow, all quiet. He closes his mouth again while Shinji talks to him. He's blinking slowly, his countenance gone to syrup as he pays lush attention. He can feel it, too: revitalization, a waking during his waking hours.

He licks his own lips, and his tongue catches the corner of his mouth, which is lain against the water. Yeah, the eons.]

Probably, [he agrees.] I want you to look forward to it. I want you to see it. [The edge of his mouth, the one opposite the water, lifts up like the unveiling of a well-cut jewel.] A part of it feels pretty good. What a relief. [Usually he's the one breathing grace into a moment, but he seems to be drinking of it for himself right now. Nagisa Kaworu at rest is a different sort of peace--it's tentative, which means the peace is unlike him, but it's also more thorough. It's the finest tremor throughout the whole of the body. An exertion, an exhilaration, but when he says that he's relieved, he says it carefully.]

[astrobleme]

[Shinji felt exposed before, but now it's something undeniable. The sunset wasn't very impressive when they arrived, but now it's glaring. Those colors, like Kaworu's eyes, could not be brighter or deeper: red, red, more red, and orange, and a shade of hot pink that can't be real, and there's a melting ribbon of yellow, too. He sinks beneath the sky's insistence, and soon enough the water is up to his chin, teasing the bottom of his bottom lip. Still, he hasn't really taken his eyes off of Kaworu. This isn't magnetism. It isn't even gravity. It's an inevitability, but it's one that can't be described in human terms...]

Do you know what I'm talking about?

[He isn't trying to be coy. He isn't trying to beat around the well-beaten bush, either. He's asking because it--it, both abstract and intuitive--has been looming ahead of him for a while now. It would be good to know that Kaworu knows what he's talking about. That doesn't mean they have to talk about it, just that it'd be good for Kaworu to confirm that he knows what he knows...

Shinji's hair is long enough that it's fanning out across the water. The glow is adhering to it, and to him, in droplets of water, giving the impression that he's adorned in fairy lights.]

Kaworu-kun...

[paraclete]

[The blinking of Kaworu's eyes--inevitable. The movement of his mouth--inevitable. The surprise in his face, perhaps... Yes, even that... Nagisa Kaworu can be surprised, right? At times, most times, it seems impossible, but Shinji has seen it. He sees it now--he will undoubtedly see a soft slip of it at Kaworu's bottom lip--but it isn't pushing either of them toward destruction. No, it really isn't that. It's the opposite of that.]

I know. [He picks up his head. The water glistens and glows and runs down his cheek.] Of course I know, Shinji-kun. Since I met you, I knew what could happen. I knew what it could be. [And Shinji is so lovely, and he has always been this lovely, and the glow of him, reflecting in Kaworu's eyes--inevitable. The sight of him always was.] I knew how much it could be.