2023-01-12: Like Flowers that Grow in the Cracks in the Street
- Log: Like Flowers that Grow in the Cracks in the Street
- Cast: Kaworu Nagisa, Mari Makinami Illustrious, Ennil El
- Where: Tsutsujidai HS Arcade
- OOC - IC Date: 0097 01 12
- Summary: Ennil collides with Kaworu Nagisa and his frequent companion, the one and only Mari Makinami Illustrious, in what can only be a fortuitously coincidental encounter. She has a lot of questions for herself, which the two are only too glad to ask her. Also, karaoke!
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Tsutsujidai is a world that is at once idle and ceaselessly busy. On top of running errands for GGG, helping out with handing out rations, assisting Rikka's Rescue Team in general and also in specific with a special project, Kaworu has been watching over the rainy city and its denizens. The recent opening of The Arcade has made that easier, since many people now congregate here to blow off some steam, and so he's spent a bit of time here. But there's someone he hasn't come here with, even though an arcade is one of the few places they've gone to together.
"...and that," Kaworu says as he turns his gaze to the karaoke booths, "is why I brought you here." He tilts his head slightly to smile at Mari. "Although I wouldn't be surprised to learn you've already made your more on them more than once."
He starts to stroll in, heedless of the dampness of his school clothes. It's believed in various parts of the world that getting caught in the rain will make you sick, but Kaworu is as fit as he's always been no matter how drenched or dry he is. Perhaps his health is naturally robust. "The privacy curtains are quite thick, as you can see," he adds as they get closer. "You could make any manner of noise inside and not be heard."
He smiles again at Mari. There is not a hint of suggestion of anything there. "Precisely what we need."
He'll stop in front of one of the karaoke booths and pull the drape aside to let Mari enter first. There's enough room for four people, technically, but it's a much more comfortable fit with only two. There are things they need to discuss, but... what must a meeting like this look like from the outside?
<Pose Tracker> Mari Makinami Illustrious has posed.
A world that is idle but ceaseless. It's a sort of description that someone might label 'ephemeral,' and really, in a way, it fits the strange nature of Tsutsujidai perfectly... especially in its current status.
Dismal and rainy and so reflective of the crumbling heart that made it, though, Mari Makinami Illustrious thinks that this is all more inescapably, wonderfully real than most anything she's experienced.
Where she's been during this time is an open question; it may just be that she's had similar thoughts as her current companion, though, especially as the two seem to go so perfectly hand-in-hand. Dressed up in her cat-eared pink-and-white-and-black hoodie and her plugsuit ("it matches the hoodie!" she had helpfully explained; but where did she get the hoodie--?), she scopes out the karaoke booths with wide and wondering eyes as her white-haired partner-in-crime(?) explains. If she's been here already, Mari does a marvelous job acting the part of the shocked and excited newcomer: her eyes big as saucers, she lets out a gasp, wiggling with joy as she hugs her trusty steel bat close to her body.
Of course she brought the bat. You never know when you're going to need a bat in a land built on existential dilemmas! It's Just Science.
<3 "Aaah, it's like I've found paradise while paradise is falling~!" <3
enthuses Mari, who can't help but find something beautiful in something grim.
Swinging her bat up to rest across her shoulders, Mari strolls in at a whimsical prowl just a step behind Kaworu as he speaks on privacy curtains and their amazing ability to cancel sound. Mari's brows rise. And rise. And rise.
There is absolutely no hint of suggestion in Kaworu's voice.
"Oh my goodness," Mari exhales breathlessly, face a-flush. She even swings that bat down to pin it to the ground as an impromptu cane to keep her from, presumably, fainting.
"You're so direct with this tender-hearted maiden, Tabby Cat!"
There is EVERY HINT OF SUGGESTION of EVERYTHING there.
How can someone so shameless manage to look so convincingly embarassed--
WHEN Mari is done recovering from her scandalized swoon, though, she moves on, straight into the booth, putting aside any pretense that she's the innocent one of this equation as she declares, "I leave myself in your experienced hands! Please, be gentle~~"
What must a meeting like this look like from the outside, indeed--?
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Technically, this break was mandated - part of her ongoing agreement with the NGJHS, that each and every one of them will agree to a rotation of duties. Ennil's been skirting the rules a bit by taking her 'breaks' at Aya, but Borr caught on and was having none of it.
It also, conveniently, is a good excuse for her to leave Aya with something important in her inner suit pocket, tucked close to her heart - Something not meant for anyone's eyes just yet, and which therefore cannot be left where mischievous miniature Hyper Agents might understand what they were seeing and ruin the surprise.
So, unjustly forced to consider leisure as seriously as she considers the inner workings of a mobile suit's actuators, Ennil had spent a solid forty five minutes locking down the Dozoo Degwa machine in one long solo play before becoming increasingly aware that she was being perceived - moreover, that people were waiting for her to lose.
She'd dragged it out for ten more minutes before conceding to a particularly frustrating arrangement and storming into one of the booths, testing the robustness of those curtains with the most mid-0080s screamy guitar nonsense she could find on the limited set list, and stomping back OUT of the booth:
To find herself staring at Kaworu Nagisa, holding open the curtain to the adjacent booth.
And a companion.
With a troublingly unmistakable voice.
Ennil El backs up slowly, pressing her hand into the thick curtain as if she intends to drag it across herself and disappear, the magician's lovely assistant.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
That steel bat has been quite the fixture with Mari ever since they were all trapped in here. Kaworu hasn't ever questioned it. It's just such a Mari accessory--just like the cat-heared hoodie that matches her plug suit. (Kaworu hadn't questioned the hoodie, but he has complimented it. It truly suits her.) But that's less darling than her gasp and wiggles of joy.
"I knew you'd like it," he says warmly. "Actually, I thought of you as soon as I saw it."
Which might be some more absolute lack of suggestion to feed into Mari's breathless blushing. Kaworu continues to smile at her, simultaneously enjoying and enduring her theatrics. That bat truly is the ultimate accessory for her.
"Oh, no. It's once we're inside that I'll be direct with you. Though, forgive me, but I don't see a particular need to be gentle when it comes to you," he replies, far too matter-of-fact for the tone this conversation has taken on. He's about to step inside after her when--
*FWIP*
The curtain of the second karaoke booth flaps open. Kaworu looks over at Ennil without so much as a twitch in his smile. "Ah, Ennil. What fortuitous timing," he says. He looks inside. "Mary, would you mind waiting a moment? There's something I need to say to this one." And back to Ennil. "I wanted to let you know that I spoke with Guy Shishioh, Mamoru Amami, and Ikumi Kaidou."
He pauses to give Ennil a moment to let this sink in. Which, conveniently, is also a moment for Mari to stick her nose in if she so chooses.
<Pose Tracker> Mari Makinami Illustrious has posed.
A troublingly unmistakable voice is saying
"You're so assertive! And me with a bat instead of a paddle~"
by the time its owner is disappearing behind the curtain.
Or, you know, something like that. It was probably more subtle. Right?
(NARRATOR: it was not.)
Regardless! After she disappears into the booth, Mari is quiet. She doesn't notice Ennil stomping her way out before she slips inside -- or at least, she doesn't seem to. Instead, there's blissful silence in that direction exactly until Kaworu looks within.
'Mary, would you mind waiting a moment?'
As if summoned by the recitation of her (nick)name like some terrifying urban legend, Mari sticks her cat-eared head out just past the curtain's veil as Ennil slowly backs away and Kaworu addresses her -- directly, as he is so known for being.
Mari squints. Considers.
And then a slow, cat-like smile blooms at her lips.
"Oho? What have we here~?"
And, proving that she is at once both terrible at waiting when she does not want to and also terrible at following simple instructions when her whims tell her to do otherwise, Mari sliiiiiides around the edge of the curtain back outside like a cat slinking around a cracked door. Bat still in hand, she approaches Ennil in a casual stalk, all sharp eyes and sharp smiles.
And, as predicted, Mari exploits the pause in the conversation to stick her nose in.
Literally. As in, she looks to lean directly into Ennil's personal space and--
*sniff*
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Kaworu Nagisa." The way she forms the name is... very deliberate. The fabric of the curtain is still clutched between her fingers. "Lucky timing, alright."
That's the sort of thing you say while smiling, right? She... doesn't quite get there, but she does let her shoulders relax a little, and even nods when he continues.
"Oh, right - you were going to take care of that for me. I appreciate it."
Unfortunately, any hopes of whisking herself back into her own bubble and vanishing from the stage -
Well.
The bubble pops. There's a cat touching it, you see. Ennil's eyes widen, fix, and then slowly narrow again. Her posture might look relaxed, but it's also completely, utterly still. She takes a moment to remember to breathe.
"Oh," she says, surprisingly airily.
"It's you, isn't it?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
"Does that make a significant difference?" Kaworu wonders of a bat vs. a paddle. But that conversation cuts short at the sudden appearance of Ennil. He addresses Mari, then her; the way Ennil speaks back, it might be vague whether she's happy or upset to see him, but Kaworu takes it, and her continuation, at face value. "Mamoru Amami and Ikumi Kaidou will be by the Aya to see you when they can. I pray you have the opportunity to speak to one another."
And he would leave it at that--he's already turning towards his booth--when Mari pokes her head out--pokes her whole body out--pokes her nose into Ennil's personal bubble--and sniffs.
Kaworu doesn't react to any of this. This is normal Mari behavior.
"Mary, this is Ennil El. She's the one we fought that day when the kaiju known as Bujack stepped into the waking world," he explains ("explains"). "Ennil, this is Mari Makinami Illustrious, my friend, compatriot, and kindred spirit."
After that, Kaworu lets the two of them say their own hellos. It's enough to know each other's names. After this, they'll be able to speak on their own terms, and Kaworu releases the karaoke curtain to tuck his hands in his pockets and bear witness.
<Pose Tracker> Mari Makinami Illustrious has posed.
Mary, this is Ennil El. She's the one we fought...
"Yep," confirms Mari Makinami Illustrious at the tail end of his introduction, as casually matter-of-fact as can be as if there could be no room at all to doubt. After all--
"I thought there was something familiar here. There's no way I could mistake such an interesting scent~."
That said, the rest of Kaworu's introduction is taken up with another flare of Mari's nostrils; her brows furrow, her expression lapsing towards the thoughtful in the face of Ennil's narrow-eyed stillness.
"Still all that orange sifting around there, huh? But you smell a little different... hm..."
Oh, says Ennil. Mari's gaze tilts up to meet hers. It's you, isn't it?
"Ufu," Mari replies, suffused with delight.
"Who else could I be but marvelous me?"
This humble observation is delivered with a blown kiss as Mari slowly leans back, and back, and back--
--until she is bonelessly flopping backwards against Kaworu like he was her eternal pillar of support.
"Mari Makinami Illustrious! Fighter, lover, artist! It's an honor to officially meet the person who hurt me so deeply~."
Is she...
of course she's serious, she's mari
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Kaworu confirms the thing she was wondering about. And likewise, confirms that the Braves will be visiting sometime soon. Silently, she decides to try and grab Alouette for that chat sooner rather than later - she doesn't like going into things unprepared.
"A kindred spirit to Kaworu..." That makes Ennil curious - you can see it in her eyes - as she thinks about how Kaworu looked at her not that long ago. "You wouldn't know to look at you. Hi, Mari."
Still, she does relax. She still doesn't smile, but her attention on Mari is more casual, her fingers release the curtain, and there's a little sway as her hips shift.
"I guess some things have changed," she admits, without giving much on what they are. The suit is new though! And the earrings! Not that Mari would know from looking, especially after that suit's been put through its paces caring for Tsutsujidai.
Who knows what kinds of things she's sniffing out, though.
Ennil starts to smile through Mari's melodrama, letting a corner tweak up in a little smirk... only for it to fall again as Mari finishes.
"...I - "
She sighs, again.
"I shouldn't say I didn't mean to hurt you." She shrugs a little. "I guess I'll say I hope I don't do it again."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
There are many ways to react to Mari's antics. Kaworu's way is to take them in stride with a smile of genuine amusement. When she drapes herself all over him as if to make him into her pillar of support, he remains standing exactly as he is, not bending one millimeter, so he can live up to her unspoken expectations.
What else are friends for, after all?
Besides which--
'It's an honor to officially meet the person who hurt me so deeply~.'
It's such a Mari thing to say, he can't help but let his affection escape in the form of a chuckle. (Or perhaps it's a Mari thing for it to be said to her? ...Either way.)
He doesn't remark on what Ennil did or didn't mean to do, though. He already told her he'd let her try to forget--though since Mari is fully aware of what she's been infected with, it might be too late for that already.
<Pose Tracker> Mari Makinami Illustrious has posed.
Ennil sighs.
Propped against Kaworu, Mari's head cants to a mathematically owlish angle. Her vivid blue eyes are wide with bemusement.
"You shouldn't?"
Given the teasing tones that seem to follow her as persistently as her shadow, one might rightly assume she's just prodding Ennil, or trying to get a rise out of her. And yet -- from the look in her eye, to the undercurrents of her tone in those two simple words, she seems more than teasing.
She seems genuinely curious.
"If you did or you didn't, it's alright by me," she finally continues breezily. "Not all pain is bad, y'know. Sometimes pain helps us learn more about who we are, and all our consistencies and contradictions. You helped me learn a bit more about myself, and I know I'm even more wonderful now than I was before because of it. So you shouldn't feel bad about it!"
It's exactly like she said to Ennil before. She didn't ruin a single thing.
She enriched it.
But she also said something else. She looks sidelong at Kaworu for a moment. And then, she looks towards Ennil, that honest, damnable interest still there.
"Have you learned something more about yourself, I wonder?"
After all...
She did say she wanted to poke more.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Ennil meets that owlish gaze, tilting her own head to match.
"I don't make a habit of telling lies,"
she says, and Ennil El certainly does not typically lie to other people.
She's rather proud of that, actually.
"Hmm... all the same, I don't enjoy hurting other people. You certainly seem to be doing just fine, though. Honestly, I'm surprised to hear you say you've changed. You seem so... Like you? Not that I know you all that well, haha..."
One of her hands slips into the back of her hair, fingers snagging against a tangle and slowly straightening it out.
"I guess you could say that. I'm... happy, here." She nods in a way that suggests out, that suggests Tsutsujidai at large rather than the moment she is inhabiting right now. "And I should want that. I think I do, even! But... then, the other thing." Another little sigh. It's so annoying to have to talk to people who look at you that way. Kaworu does it too, sometimes.
"Why don't I want to stay?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
That's something that Kaworu appreciates about Ennil, that she doesn't lie. At the same time, he's quite aware that she wants to lie to herself: to believe that she can both be an Apostle of the Dawn and support those who are struggling to live. It's a contradiction that's very human. He truly hopes that Mamoru and Ikumi can do something for her.
Still, he continues to keep his peace as Mari and Ennil talk. Kaworu shares a glance with Mari, his ever-present smile warming a touch for a moment, before he considers Ennil again. Her assessment that Mari is simply herself gets a chuckle out of him.
"It's a keen observation all the same," he remarks.
But then there is that question.
"Why don't you want to stay?" he wonders, echoing her.
<Pose Tracker> Mari Makinami Illustrious has posed.
"I can always learn more about me, and still be me. Even if I lived to the dying gasp of the universe! It's one of the best parts about me~."
Mari proclaims this, as if she has a list of her best qualities.
She does; Kaworu should know this well.
"It's irrefutable proof of a human heart."
Just like Ennil has clear proof of hers as she works through the answer to Mari's question. It -is- like Kaworu, in a way, the way Mari looks at Ennil. There's no judgment there, but there's no real cues for what she expects. Just interest.
Maybe there is good reason why they're kindred spirits.
But as Ennil comes to her conclusion, Mari's expression softens; that wide-eyed gaze hoods behind their glasses, and her smile becomes something that is more quietly appreciative. Why doesn't she want to stay?
Kaworu echoes the question back at Ennil. And Mari waits in quiet consideration, wanting to hear the answer to what was Ennil's own personal wondering, before those lips part again.
"Don't you think you deserve to?"
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Ennil's attention is mostly on Mari. This is only natural - Mari commands attention. So when Kaworu is the one to speak, she has to grind to a halt, let the rhythm break.
It's her turn to look owlish, and ultimately she breaks her gaze, turning over to one of the brightly flashing arcade machines and focusing on the pattern for a moment.
"I want to blame it on the thing that's wrong with me," Ennil starts. She doesn't name it. But she does know the name; This isn't the first time hearing it in someone else's voice has provoked her like this. "But that can't be right, because it was true before then."
She puts a hand up, turns it over, and eventually reaches over to squeeze her other shoulder. Of course, it doesn't take Mari long to join in. That little smirk finds its way onto Ennil's face again - same Mari, same little grin. And it doesn't take her long to get back to that same question, either.
"...even if I do, what if I break it? What if some things just aren't meant for a certain type of..."
Mari is so confident that she's human.
Ennil El doesn't say it.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
"She says it's one of the best parts about her, but the truth is that all of her parts are the best parts," Kaworu says as if in confidence to Ennil. For all that he lowers his voice, though, it's plain given the fact that Mari is still half-draped over him that she's going to hear. He doesn't mind this. It's part of the fun, after all.
It really is a wonder that they never became friends before this time around. But then, they never really had a chance to talk before this time around, either. Both of them had their own focuses.
Kaworu's look of interest turns a bit more sympathetic, just as Mari's becomes more appreciative, when Ennil gives her response. Something more cynical might wonder if she really thinks the T0 energy is something 'wrong' with her, or if she's only saying that because she's trying to play to an audience. Kaworu takes it at face value though, especially since she discards it as a possibility because it's too new.
'What if I break it?' he wonders instead.
Kaworu's smile fades into something more sober, and he shares another glance with Mari. When his gaze returns to Ennil, his smile has returned too, but with a more bittersweet shadow.
"Even so, you are already loved. Once you have entered that state, you simply can't leave without breaking that which you wanted to avoid breaking. Your only choice is to overcome that part of yourself, from wherever it originates. Although it isn't easy," he adds with a soundless, ironic little laugh.
<Pose Tracker> Mari Makinami Illustrious has posed.
Ennil wants to blame it on that persistent stench of metaphysical orange that clings to her.
The levelness of Mari's stare suggests she doesn't accept that possibility anymore than Ennil herself does.
Still, there's no judgment. What could a person like Mari possibly find cause to judge, really? Instead, as the redhead answers her curious query, Mari exhales a soft, little "hummm".
Kaworu looks at her. She looks at Kaworu.
Some things just aren't meant for a certain type of...
"You could break it," Mari admits, which might not be what Ennil wants to here.
"But Kaworu is right. Every human being has the ability to embrace happiness just as much as they do to break it. Especially when all they've known is broken things."
Mari's head tilts, a little smile finding its way to her lips.
"The fact that you're scared to take hold of it just means you deserve to fling your arms around it that much more fully, don't you think?"
A second passes by. Mari looks sidelong, towards the curtains. Her shoulder rolls against Kaworu as she lifts a hand up to tap a finger to her lip.
And then she looks right back at Ennil with a big, blooming smile.
"I've decided! You should sing your heart out with us."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
She's already loved; if she retreats, she'll break it anyway.
She flinches, visibly, and her eyes snap to Kaworu. They narrow so, so tight. She stares at him for a few moments like she's seeing someone else. Arcade lights flicker behind him, panels flicking on and off and on, and she vaguely hears laughter.
But no, it's just Kaworu Nagisa.
And of course Mari is here, and Mari is Mari, and Mari reminds Ennil of something.
Ennil El has spent all her life with broken things.
Ennil El has spent all her life finding reasons to hold them, to remake them, to take them out of places like Aya and find out where they belong in the world.
She can break things, and she can love broken things.
She gives Mari a smile - a different smile, one that looks a lot more like Mari's own, and shrugs.
"Yeah, okay. You asked for it."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
When Ennil flinches and gives him that intense stare, Kaworu only smiles back, never flinching away himself. Can he tell what's running through her mind--that for a moment, she's not there in the present?
It's hard to tell.
But he's perfectly willing to accept who she is right 'now' either way.
He pulls the curtain back anew, just as willing to go along with Mari's impromptu suggestion.
"Shall we, then?" he invites them both. And isn't it convenient that the karaoke booths' song repertoires were both recently expanded?