2010-04-06 - The Third Meal

OUTER SPACE

THE EXELION

NOW

Johnny Domino isn't here.

MORE OUTER SPACE

THE MINEVA

NOW

She's playing with her dolls. Johnny Domino isn't here either.

OTHER OUTER SPACE

THE MINERVA

NOW

Johnny Domino doesn't like military space food. That crap they keep the vending machines stocked with is one of the greatest affronts to human people, and Domino, being a human person, is greatly affronted. With his foster parents running a chain of cafes with delicious food, Johnny has known the taste of bliss. He has delighted on the nectar of the gods, bathed in the sweet essence of life. He was no stranger to the sins of the tongue.

Whenever the Minerva stops somewhere and the Agent is allowed off the ship, Johnny Domino leaps on the opportunity. Drawing upon his skills as a goddamn Agent of the Earth Sphere, Domino buys food that is neither industrial nor canned. Paying in cash, leaving no trace, the young man sneaks it back onto the Minerva, stashing his loot where no man, woman or child would dream of searching. Even Johnny Domino wouldn't suspect Johnny Domino!

Currently, Johnny Domino's stash holds a cake. The Agent planned on gorging himself silly with the sweet trophy, sharing it with no one else... but that was before.

Ayanami Rei, the Child First, is fucked up. Johnny can't help but feel compelled to do something. If only she had not shown any emotions when Kuro insulted her, Domino would still consider the girl a one-dimensional creep that is best kept at a distance... but Rei did show an emotion. And from that point on, Domino's imagination did the rest.

The Agent gave Rei a cookie not too long ago. It was a crap space food cookie. This time he would give her a REAL treat. Which is why Johnny walked into the infirmary earlier, grabbed the bandaged and pathetic Rei in his arms and deposited her most decisively in a wheelchair. Covering her skinny shoulders with the heavy jacket of his uniform, the Agent started pushing.

His destination? One of the lower-most levels of the Minerva, the section affectionately dubbed by the technicians as 'The Meat Locker'. It is one of the coldest places on the ship. It is also full of pipes.

Rei Ayanami was not actually awake when Johnny Domino began picking her up out of her bed and putting her in a wheelchair. This act did, in fact, wake her up, but with no real fanfare or protest in the process. Her one visible eye opened, and she glanced around, and then silently resigned herself to whatever was going on.

Though the medicine of the future (and also space) is indeed vast and terrible, the girl still wears a cast on one arm transforming her limb from a fragile little stick into a fragile little stick with a huge mallet at the end. Her other arm is wrapped in bandages as well. Her ribs, too, and most of her torso. And a large portion of her legs. This is all easy to determine, because aside from these bandages, Rei isn't actually /wearing/ anything other than her teal A-LAWS hospital gown, which Johnny Domino may or may not have realized too late in picking her up.

Rei's head is kept in position by a chunky brace that keeps her chin tipped up, which tends to make her vacant expression look even more ponderously stoned. Bandages wrap around her head and cover much of the right side of her face, leaving her just the one eye to gaze outward with.

Through the trek, Rei has not made a single sound. She also hasn't moved, keeping her hands in her lap and letting Johnny -- or whoever it is behind her -- wheel her wherever he pleases. If, in her flimsy gown and wrappings, she notices how absolutely freezing the Meat Locker is, she makes no protest. Her skin doesn't even seem to raise into goosebumps. It's as if she were just -- separate from everything that's happening.

Of course Rei wears absolutely nothing. That's why Johnny draped his thick A-LAWS jacket around her body! It's a rough, wooly thing, quite different from whatever sissy version girls were given to wear. Really, the fact Rei is nigh-naked doesn't seem to impact Domino, as any state of undress is vastly overshadowed by all those bandages.

Having spirited Ayanami away from the infirmary, Johnny spends most of their journey in silence. He was not given permission to take Rei anywhere. If the doctors found out, he'd get a-scoldin'. And so the Agent plays the dangerous game of trying to get to the Meat Locker as fast as possible - but not too fast! Because if anyone spots him, Johnny must make sure he appears as nonchalant as possible, so suspicions aren't raised. And speaking of being spotted...

A random communications operator greets Johnny around a bend.

"Oy, Domino," the man says. "Whacha doing?"

"Taking her for a walk," is Johnny's response.

"Ahh," nods the operator. "Just like a crippled puppy, innit? Ahahaha!"

"Ahahaha!"

"Hahaha!"

"Hahaha!"

"Ahahahaha!"

"Ahahahaha!"

And once Domino has resumed his trek, he mumbles, "Jerk."

Arriving at the Meat Locker, Domino looks behind him to make sure no one has followed them. Then he looks around the large room to make sure no one is inside. There are indeed pipes everywhere, snaking across the ceiling and bending between walls. An eerie blue light keeps the room illuminated in a misty atmosphere of winter wonderland.

Vapor escapes out of Domino's mouth as he sighs in relief. Looking down at the back of Rei's neck, the Agent begins, "Okay, Rei," and then he stops. He eyes the girl's exposed legs. Geez, he should've taken a blanket. Maneuvering himself to the front of the wheelchair, the young man crouches and begins rearranging the skirt-like flaps of his A-LAWS jacket. He wraps them around the girl's legs as best he can.

After dressing C.C. on the train, this is really child's play.

"Right, okay, Rei," the Agent starts anew. He looks up at the girl's face. "I heard you were feeling better." She... uh, she IS feeling better, right? "But I think we need to let your body know it should speed things along a bit. How about we try a new kind of medicine? What do you say?"

Rei offers no reaction to the exchange with the comm operator whatsoever, even as he and Johnny exchange a laugh -- even as she's insulted to her face. It just drifts over her head, further cementing her reputation as a space case.

It doesn't help this image that Rei is so small. She barely weighs anything -- Johnny likely didn't even have any trouble scooping her up and dumping her in the chair. The chair is built to accommodate a variety of builds, from the tall and thin to the short and stout, but Rei just looks... smaller than usual in it, like a child placed into equipment meant for an adult. Which is sort of the case, really.

Breath escapes Rei's nostrils, but she doesn't leave much of a vapor trail -- the warmer breath comes from her mouth, which remains steadfastly shut, pressed into that flat little line. As Johnny fusses with her legs, she stares off at some random point, wherever her head happens to be facing. It's not like she can really move it right now.

Then, finally, he addresses her, and she looks him direct in the eye, with that uncompromising stare of hers. With only the one eye available, Rei's gaze is even more of an alien thing, and she takes a long few moments to react to his words. When she does, it's just a simple question, delivered without any emotional impact whatsoever, which is probably what makes it such a horrifying question:

"Are you going to rape me?"

Johnny Domino stares. His eyebrows shoot upward in an immediate display of surprise as every other muscle in his face grows slack. There's a moment's pause, the silence filled with a low humming reverbrating from deep behind the frozen walls.

The Agent's mind struggles to recover from the unexpected inquiry, his eyes blinking with each attempt to reboot his mental processes. How the hell..? What..? Why on earth..? HOW DID SHE GET THE IMPRESSION HE WAS GOING TO RAPE HER?! All he did was steal her away from the infirmary in the middle of her sleep and bring her to a secluded part of the ship and ask her if she wanted to try a new kind of medicine and--

Johnny Domino looks down, bringing his right hand up to cup his face in a meaningful facepalm. He slowly shakes his head from side to side.

Is that really your type, Leo? Really?!

"No," comes the firm response. Johnny looks back at Rei, cheeks slightly flushed in the chill. "No, I am not going to ... to rape you. Look, what you're going to see here should remain our little secret and--"

Domino cuts himself off. This is really not helping his case, is it.

"I am NOT going to rape you!" Standing up tall and proud, Johnny Domino glares down at Ayanami in sheer embarrassment. God, he's an idiot.

"Just... just you stay there, okay?", said Johnny Domino to the wheelchair-bound girl.

Yup, an idiot.

Giving up on verbal communication, the Agent spins on his heels and marches to the far end of the room. Crouching down near a vent, the young man produces a mini-screwdriver from his pocket. Removing the screws from each corner of the grating and prying the panel open, Domino next gets down on his stomach and reaches deep into the opening.

Rei will be able to follow his every move from her perch.

Acquiring something from the hole in the wall, the Agent returns to his knees and moves to face Ayanami once more. He holds up his most prized possession for the girl to see: a cake!

Rei's reaction to Johnny's protests is notable in that it fails to manifest as any kind of detectable human behavior. She continues to meet his eyes, but doesn't even quicken the pace of her breath. If she's scared, she makes no attempt to show it -- if she's relieved when he denies it, likewise. 'Resigned' is a good all-purpose adjective for Rei. What happens happens. Unless it doesn't, in which case it doesn't.

This attitude continues when Johnny's flabbergastedness reaches critical mass and he huffs off to go play with the wall. Even when Johnny raises his voice and looms over her and finally collapses into realizing that denying intent to rape is always a no-win proposition with Rei Ayanami, the blue-haired girl sits there, motionless, a prop.

Then, when Domino returns with cake, Rei lets her gaze lower, the most movement she's exhibited since coming in. Her chin won't move, her head won't tilt down -- but her eye rolls, red iris sinking as she examines the sweet she's being presented with. That blue hair of hers hangs in her eye a bit, but she doesn't seem to mind. (Does she mind anything?)

Once again, Rei's blank expression becomes tricky. It's easy to imagine her feelings when she offers no clue as to them, just as it's easy to anthropomorphize a doll. Rei's eye stays on the cake for a long moment, and then her gaze slowly drifts back upward, toward Johnny. Though her expression stays neutral, it's easy to grasp her confusion -- if that's what she's feeling, anyway. Still, her lack of verbal response lends to a general sense of failure to understand.

'What is this?' her gaze might be asking.

But it could just as well be asking 'Why?'

Having returned to Rei with his ceremonial sacrifice, Johnny Domino waits for a reaction. Granted, the young man likes to think he has already gotten used to Rei to the point where he wouldn't be disappointed by her minimal behavior -- it's still weird, but human beings are quick to adapt.

But, you know, just this once it would be really nice of Rei gave him a reaction. Any reaction. Just... just do SOMETHING and Johnny will be pleased, come on!

Unfortunately, as the seconds tick by, Johnny Domino is becoming increasingly aware that what Rei gives, or doesn't give, is all he will ever get. Or... not get, as the case may be. Is that confusion? Surprise? Apathy? Harsh judgment? Would Rei have preferred the rape?

Johnny grunts, his shoulders sagging. Rei is such a disappointment. With an irritated edge invading his voice, the Agent makes the introductions: "Cake, Rei. Rei, cake. I'll leave you two to get acquainted."

Placing the cake at Rei's feet, Johnny climbs back to his feet and returns to the vent, intent on procuring further treasures. In his absense, the cake derides Rei with the same silent and apathetic treatment that Ayanami gives the cake. Cold and unfeeling, the sweet treat sits on its tray, large and round and delicious and moist.

White frosting covers it from top to bottom, hiding the brown dough from view. Shredded almonds are spread in a circle near the edge, and every few inches there is an outcropping of rich cream, their shape like that of flower petals, closed and not yet in bloom. A slice of strawberry graces the center of each of these cream-drops, their deep red color standing in deep contrast to the white substance embracing the cake from all sides.

Isn't it the most tempting thing Rei has ever seen in her life? Isn't it?

Johnny Domino returns, holding a knife in one hand and a stack of napkins in the other. "So," he says, crouching by the cake and moving to make the first cut. "Are you two friends yet?"

Rei surveys the cake. In a month of being alive, she certainly has never eaten cake. In fact, the cookie Johnny Domino gave her last week is probably the beginning and end of her total consumption of sugary baked goods. She looks through her memory -- that is, someone else's memory, that someone else who just happens to be her. She's sure she's eaten cake before. Maybe. She can't remember if she likes it.

But then, Rei doesn't seem like the type to let 'not liking something' stop her from anything. Her gaze goes down toward the cake set at her feet, but her view is really more of her feet than anything else, lacking the mobility to adjust the position of her head, and apparently unwilling to hunch her whole body forward. She doesn't object to the cake, at least. But then -- But then, Rei's entire process of being is a long chain of 'but thens.'

Rei understands humor. She's not really a funny person by any stretch of the imagination, but she's not so withdrawn from reality that she can't grasp when someone is being sarcastic, especially in circumstances like 'telling her to get acquainted with a cake.' She just /looks/ like she's that withdrawn, and really, that's the most insight anyone ever gets. But all the same, she doesn't respond to Johnny's question as if it were meant to be taken literally, which is a step in /some/ direction.

"Are you doing this because you want to?" It's a weird question, for sure, and coming out of Rei Ayanami, it sounds even stranger -- the way her accent seems to both soften and sharpen her English pronunciation at odd angles, the monotone of her delivery, the phrasing. But it's all she really has to go on, because that's the only explanation she got last time Johnny tried to feed her.

So that much has stuck with her, if nothing else.

Johnny Domino's motions slow down as Rei asks her question. The knife remains stuck inside the cake longer than the Agent planned, blade brushing against the tray at the bottom. Although he doesn't turn to give Ayanami a direct look, Domino does tilt his head.

He isn't sure if he should be smiling because Rei remembered their previous discourse, or if he should be frustrated that she is even asking this.

"Yes," he answers. "I am doing this because I want to."

The knife slices its way out of the cake. Johnny moves to make the second cut. "Nobody knows I keep it here. Nobody knows I keep /anything/ here. You're the only one who does, now." Time will tell if bringing Rei to this room and revealing to her Domino's dirty secret was a horrible mistake.

Grabbing one of the napkins, Johnny slides the knife underneath the piece of cake he created, wriggling it free of its sweet confines. In doing so, the cake reveals itself to be a two-layer thing of wonder. In the middle, a generous serving of milk caramel has been administrated, keeping the cake's top and bottom glued together.

Domino deposits the slice onto the napkin in his palm, thin wisps of gooy caramel stretching out in the direction opposite of where the Agent had pulled. God, this looks delicious. Does Johnny really plan on giving up the first bite of this heavenly thing to Ayanami? Is the young man REALLY so full of compassion that he is willing to allow Rei first dibs on his own cake?

No, of course not.

"Just making sure it isn't poisoned," he mumbles, more to himself than to Ayanami. Nicking off the very tip of the slice, Johnny pops the strip of dough and frosting into his mouth. OH. DEAR. GOD. The food on the Minerva doesn't even /begin/ to hold a candle to this thing.

Oh joy. Oh salvation. Oh orgasmic noises of appreciation.

"..Man. Okay." Johnny Domino stands up. He steps closer to Ayanami, slice in hand. Leaning towards her face, the Agent says in a low voice: "This next part especially... should remain our secret." What is this 'next part'? It's the part where Domino brings the slice up to Rei's mouth, intent on feeding her.

Hi. Mi. Tsu.

Well, Rei Ayanami might be thinking: at least it's not poisoned!

As ever, Rei Ayanami remains inscrutable. Her thoughts on the cake are kept to herself. It might look good, it might not. She might be excited, she might not. She might be bored. She might not. It's anyone's guess, but the fact is that Rei is, at least, paying attention, watching Johnny cut the cake and savor his own taste.

If one's looking for that sort of detail, it could prove somewhat encouraging. Likewise, his secret is met with eye contact -- Rei says nothing, but it seems like this means she /won't/ say anything to anyone else, too, so that's gotta be some kind of sideways assurance. Maybe.

This is all but prelude to the moment of truth, though. Rei at least doesn't ruin the moment with commentary, especially in light of the second 'secret' comment. She eyes the cake coming toward her, red eye tracking Johnny's hand. Her lips stay closed.

Then, though, Rei moves her eye, focusing instead on the eyes of the purple-haired man looming over her with a treat. There's a moment of eye contact, one of those moments that's clearly a decision-making moment because it lasts roughly half of forever despite barely existing.

And then, slowly, Rei Ayanami opens her mouth to accept cake.