2010-03-29 - The Second Meal

It's late.

Half the crew is currently asleep aboard the Minerva, the other half tending to their nightshift duties. Johnny Domino, not assigned to the graveyard shift, is asleep. Or rather, he was.

SOME TIME AGO

"Zzz," says Johnny. Having kicked his blanket to the floor, the Agent sleeps, dreaming about lips of mass destruction. "Zzzz--"

And Domino wakes up.

It happens quietly, wakefulness nudging the young man out of dreamland, gently, so gently. Opening his eyes, the Agent twists around to look at the time. "mnrrrr," he exasperates upon discovering he still has hours yet to go before his official return to duty.

Turning the other way in an exhausted huff, the Agent tries going back to sleep. He allows his mind to wander between the worlds of sleep and awake, tasting snippets of daydreams and morsels of subconscious fantasies. Tossing and turning, the young man spends another thirty minutes in this torturous limbo before finally sitting up in bed.

Johnny Domino can't fall asleep. He has a case of the munchies.

NOW

Johnny Domino walks through the Minerva back to his quarters. Having paid a visit to the cafeteria, the Agent got himself a bag of cookies. It's a modest bag of modest quality, and the shiny label proclaims the cookies within to be ENERGY COOKIES full of BRAWN and ENERGY. Domino probably should not have gotten those things, considering his aim is to go back to sleep as soon as possible, but he was groggy and simply got the least disgusting thing he could think of.

Indeed, the cookies are rather charming, in their stale, industrial manner. Producing a cookie from the bag, the Agent nibbles on it absently -- the fact that he can actually nibble on it absently rather than be horribly distracted by the terrible taste is proof enough of this snack's palatability.

SOME TIME AGO

Rei Ayanami's quarters are spartan. Books are arranged neatly between geometrically precise bookends on a desk. Her personal computer console is largely unused, recessed into the wall in sleep mode. No clothes are left out. No decorations or other frivolites speak of any kind of personality. It's like a hotel room.

In bed, Rei Ayanami can't sleep. She doesn't toss or turn. She doesn't check the clock. She just lays there, counting the seconds, her mind a complete blank otherwise. Thus far, she has counted about three hours' worth. Her math is rarely inaccurate.

Still, for whatever reason, Rei has found herself unable to sleep since... well, Sunday, since the Angel attack and the debut of Unit-00X and all of that. For about two days now, she's functioned... like a zombie, which is maybe a poor point of comparison. She sits up, thin single sheet pooling around her waist. Why isn't she sleeping?

Rei Ayanami wonders if it's to do with returning to space. Maybe moving around will help tire her out. The girl climbs out of bed and moves to her dresser unit, a blank and functional design that A-LAWS probably nicked from Space Ikea. Her body is lit by the stars, and nothing else. She pulls on underwear and the A-LAWS designated athletic wear -- a tanktop and a pair of shorts that leave most (nearly all) of her legs exposed. She can't help but be reminded of her gym uniform from school. Rei wonders if she misses school.

After putting on her sneakers, Rei leaves.

NOW

Rei's been roaming the halls of the Minerva like a lonely wraith for about fifteen minutes. It's not helping -- she's not tired. Maybe it's the low gravity, she thinks. Maybe she should have picked a deck where it's higher. As she pushes through a corridor in semi-free-float, she stops when she turns a corner and sees Johnny Domino.

Rei Ayanami, still gripping the handle set into the wall of the corridor, doesn't move. She may or may not be scanning for the presence of cats.

The Minerva's crew is undecided on whether Johnny got rid of the cats yet or not. Some claim the little beasties are hiding in his room, waiting for an opportunity to leap out at unsuspecting visitors. Other claim the cats were kicked out for whatever reason. And then there are those who claim the cats got into the airducts twisting throughout the battleship.

These people tell horror stories about the cats that now haunt the Minerva, forever trapped, forever doomed. The only ones more doomed than the doomed cats were those doomed fools who were caught all alone by the spirits of the demonic felines.

Johnny Domino caught wind of this story, and the young man didn't have the heart to tell anyone he returned the cats to Masaki. It worked out, because none of the crew who cared had the heart to check if the cats were still there, worried that Kuro may kill them. La Gias was a weird and frightening place. Almost as weird and frightening as cats FROM La Gias.

Anyway, point is, there are no cats. Johnny Domino is all alone, just him and the cookies. Unlike Rei, Johnny isn't disturbed by the low gravity. In his groggy state, the lazy, dream-like state of low G is right up his alley.

Rei Ayanami is also right up his alley -- or rather, right up the corridor the Agent is gliding through. Catching sight of the girl well before reaching her, the Agent's mind makes a few flash-associations, digging up memories and sensations relating to the First Child.

About a week ago, Johnny Domino would have avoided eye contact and continued floating right past the First Child, doing his best to ignore a source of great discomfort. But views and opinions can change, and so has Johnny's. Seeing her display emotions and later hearing good things about her from Shinji... Domino's tired mind defaults to a completely new paradigm: be nice to her. /Try/ to be nice to her.

Moving to grab the handle set in the wall next to Ayanami, Johnny Domino comes to a halt, feet brushing the ground. Extending the bag of cookies to the First Child, the young man simply says, "Cookie?"

Rei Ayanami doesn't move from the spot as Johnny Domino approaches. It's a curious take on interacting with others -- experts call it the 'he can't see you if you don't move' approach, although it really only tends to enter into serious discussions when the topic turns to tyrannosaurs. That the cats are gone seems to be of small comfort.

Rei doesn't try to feign ignorance of Johnny's presence, though. She doesn't move her body, but she watches him with that dull-witted crimson gaze of hers, not even trying to hide that she's doing so. It's a curious contradiction in behavior, and the lack of any kind of emotional indicators on Rei's face make it totally up in the air as to what she's trying to put across to him. A challenge? A warning? A message of disinterest?

The most accurate guess, though, would be 'perfectly nothing.'

This changes, though, when Rei is suddenly offered a cookie. Her face takes on an actual expression, rather than a jaded anti-look -- looking down at the bag of cookies, then up at Johnny Domino's face, Rei's brow furrows slightly, and her eyes widen just a bit. The corners of her mouth sag, slightly. It's not a look of displeasure, though. It's a look of confusion, as if Rei didn't understand the language Johnny just spoke.

Rei doesn't say a word. Just looks at Johnny. Confused.

While waiting for Rei to react to his offer, Johnny Domino makes the rather dull observation that the girl is barely wearing anything. This is followed by the slightly less dull question of 'how the hell isn't she freezing?'

Finally, the least dull of all comes the silent judgment: 'so this is what Leo's ex-girlfriend looks like'.

But no, really, isn't she cold? She's so thin. Man, Leo had sex with /that/? She's so small and thin and small and wearing almost nothing and...

Internal thought processes aside, Domino takes note of the girl's shifting expression. Quirking an eyebrow at the First Child, the Agent can feel her himself becoming confused right back. Confusion, it seems, is infectious.

Wondering if something is wrong, Johnny looks away from Ayanami, tilting the bag back in his direction so as to peer inside. All he sees are cookies.

Returning his blue gaze to Rei's red one, Domino can't help but wonder if he ought to beat a strategic retreat at this juncture and call this little rendezvous a failure. But be it the late hour or low gravity, Johnny finds that he can't let this encounter end on such a... baffling note.

"They're pretty okay," he says. "Couldn't sleep, so I went to get some." But enough about Johnny. Pausing for but a moment, the Agent ventures once again, "Would you like any?"

Rei Ayanami is indeed not cold. Or, at least, not visibly cold. Somehow. Maybe she's just built for this kind of climate, her slight, frail body type aside. What's more, she doesn't seem to have any issue with her attire -- that is, she exists nowhere on the spectrum that runs from shame to empowerment to flaunting. If Rei is remotely cognizant of the potential ramifications of her outfit... like most of her thoughts, she keeps it to herself.

Rei looks back down at the bag for a moment when Johnny turns it away from her. She still seems a bit confused, but the expression weakens. Actually, a better choice of word might be 'softens.' As if suddenly, the act of being offered a cookie made sense to her, just as Johnny turned the bag away.

Rei's stare returns to Johnny's eyes when he speaks again. She doesn't blink. She never blinks. And yet, she doesn't seem to suffer for it. Her eyeballs don't look horrifyingly dried out. She doesn't seem to be in constant and acute ocular pain. She just... doesn't blink. After a long, perhaps hesitant moment, Rei reaches out with one of her thin, pale hands and takes a cookie from the bag. Just the one. Holding it for a moment, Rei quickly regards it before returning her eyes to Johnny.

Rei's gaze slips downward, breaking eye contact when she says a quiet "Thank you."

Johnny can't say why, but as Rei takes a cookie and thanks him, the Agent feels so /happy/.

It starts with a brief moment of surprise when the girl reaches out for the bag. Domino didn't realize how little faith he had in Ayanami accepting his offer, and so when she evidently DOES, the young man can't hide the shock from his face.

The shock is short-lived, though. All too soon, it is replaced by excitement at the fact that this tiny bit of connection has been successfully established. And once Rei actually expresses gratitude, Domino smiles.

"You're welcome!"

So that's that. A cookie has been offered, a cookie has been claimed. Johnny Domino may now continue to his quarters and crawl back into bed. Yet for some reason, the Agent does neither. Remaining in place, looking at the First Child, the young man lapses into a silence. A silence that rapidly evolves into an awkward silence.

That fool Domino, he messed up the social rhythm, staying in place and saying nothing for a moment too long. If only he had resumed his trek back to his room after the thanks had been given, his smile wouldn't have vanished. If only he left Rei behind a few seconds ago, he'd still be feeling good. Why is he still standing there? What is he hoping to further achieve out of this freak encounter, if at all?

Soaking in the awkwardness of the moment, Domino fidgets -- a slight shifting of his weight. Is Rei going to eat the cookie? Is she going to say anything more?

The awkward silence is not broken by Rei Ayanami speaking.

Rather, by the quiet sound of Rei Ayanami biting into a cookie. The cookie is the sort of factory-produced stuff that crumbles stiffly when bitten into. A few stray crumbs float away. Rei doesn't notice or doesn't care. Her bite is a small one -- she barely takes anything out of the cookie's total mass. Then, her gaze canted downward, she chews and swallows.

And then the process repeats itself. And again.

These are not big cookies. After all, they're from the mess hall vending machines or something. It's not like the military is famous for spoiling people in that regard. And yet, after three bites, Rei still has about a third of the cookie left. Her eyes slowly turn upward, and once more she locks gazes with the Agent.

Rei's voice is still quiet, a whisper with delusions of volume. "Why did you offer me a cookie?" she asks.

A seed of relief sprouts inside Domino as Ayanami begins eating the cookie. A very very tiny seed of relief, overshadowed by the many weeds of doubt and confusion.

Watching the girl peck the cookie away at a snail's pace, Johnny wishes he knew if this was, how to put it... normal for Ayanami. There's still a palpable sense of being weirded out by the reserved First Child, but Johnny has made the terrible mistake of trying to see Rei as something more than a really creepy fixture in the environment.

Whether by accident or on purpose, now that the Agent thinks of Ayanami is an actual girl, his disturbed feelings have taken on a much more empathic quality.

Following the cookie crumbs with his eyes as they float away, Johnny lets go of the handle in the wall and reaches out, using his cupped palm to shepherd the tiny pieces into a single flock, picking them out of the air. Domino doesn't really care if the Minerva is littered with crumbs. He left some crumbs of his own on the way. But it's something to do while Rei eats. Something to keep himself occupied with as he remains there, waiting for... something.

Alas, Rei's question is not the something Johnny was waiting for.

"Er," the young man is caught off guard, ceasing the collection of cookie crumbs. Looking back at Ayanami, it takes a moment for Domino's brain to come up with the most simple and pure answer: "Because I wanted to."

Wary, he adds, "Should I not have?"

Rei's answer is probably not the one Johnny is waiting for, either. There's another awkward pause added to what has now become a long and healthy lineage of them -- but then, when Rei Ayanami is involved in a conversation, awkwardness and stretches of silence are par for the course. The blue-haired girl seems as wary of answering Johnny Domino's question as he did of hers.

Eye contact is maintained for that long, silent stretch. Finally, after Rei has... thought about it, or remembered how language works, or whatever goes on in that brain of hers, she says, with no real emotion or investment: "I only wanted to know why."

Rei looks back down at the remainder of her cookie. Then, without warning, she kicks off of the wall and begins drifting away. She's not in any rush -- it's not like she's /fleeing/ the Agent -- but she is definitely keen to continue her travels, regardless. The cookie bit remains held in one hand as she floats away.

Johnny Domino blinks once, twice, and then stops. In these uncomfortable and tense situations, blinking is a commodity few can afford. That's how the Agent feels now, staring at Rei, not knowing what to make of the girl.

Although... a tiny voice in the back of Domino's mind is beginning to think the First Child doesn't know what to make of Johnny just as much as Johnny doesn't know what to make of her. It isn't a fully conscious realization just yet, but the abstract notion is there. And even in its unconscious and vague form, the notion is enough to ease some of Johnny's discomfort and help him maintain eye contact with Ayanami all the while.

While the girl's response is indeed not what Domino has expected, he isn't taken aback by it. What causes him to be taken aback is when the girl makes an abrupt departure. Opening his mouth, either in surprise or in order to say yet unformulated words, the Agent can only watch as Rei floats off.

Staring at her back as it becomes smaller and smaller down the corridor, Johnny eventually blurts, "Was nice talking to you."

There's something forced about those words. The brief exchange the two shared could hardly be called 'talking'. And if asked for his true feelings, Domino would admit that it wasn't really nice at all. But mixed in with the artificial tones of these words is also a desperate attempt to create an honest connection with the First Child. To make it feel like an actual, meaningful encounter, and also to give it a proper conclusion. No matter how silly Johnny feels saying the words, he must do it.

"I hope you have a good night!"

Calling out this final admission, Johnny's shoulders slump. What an idiot. Why did he say those things? He barely knows Ayanami, and the girl is still creepy and just... idiot, idiot, idiot! Annoyed with himself, and rather embarrassed, the Agent digs into the bag with a vengeance, stuffing multiple cookies into his mouth at once. That'll keep him from talking for a while. Idiot.