exsiliumlogs | (no subject) (part 2)

I don't think so, actually. Where are you from, then?

The coasts. Mostly New York City. California. Any other place with a nice breeze. You?

Big fan of beaches? [ shruug ] New York City, originally. I've been travelling for a long time, though.

It just tends to work out that way for some reason, although a fair part of it is probably the view.

Good cities for business, too. I guess that's a big part of it. Did you grow up there?

Like I said, 'for some reason'. I grew up in... New York City and then the outlying areas. I was in Massachusetts for my high school years. Guess I moved to Malibu when I was about nineteen.

I've always liked New York. It's a good city. Strong and tough and a lot of really good shortcuts. [ glancing over ] Why'd you move to Malibu?

Change of scenery. There's more swimsuits in Malibu.

Exsilium must have come as a shock then. I'm not sure there's a swimsuit in the place.

After your first personal space encounter, most other spacey things don't really seem that big a deal. And, honestly, I'm happy about the lack of most swimsuits here. Haven't you seen the other people here?

You've had a spacey encounter? [ Ooooh tell her more she wants to know more about this. Spacey encounters are really interesting.

And with a roll of her eyes ] Snob.

[ no he doesn't think he will, actually it was kind of a big moment and he still tries not to think about it. the life you have after the moment where you accept self-sacrifice is kind of hard to rationalize sometimes. ]

Is 'snob' code for 'exceptional discrimination of aesthetic properties' now and no one bothered to tell me?

[ if she knew that she probably wouldn't be as curious, because yeah, that's not a fun topic. but right now she's just curious because spaaaaace. ]

Sure. Or just 'caring too much what people look like'.

[ well until she asks about it again he's ignoring the question ]

That's what swimsuits are for. It's like being given permission to judge what someone looks like.

[ That's terrible and she totally is going to ask again probably. ]

What? No it's not, it's people wearing swimsuits so they can go swimming, in water. Do you just judge everyone?

You ask me that as though I have so much other stuff I could be doing with my free time. [ He does watch people, very closely, but he watches them like an engineer watches a process with machines, checking out what doesn't work and what needs to be upgraded. He watches people so that he knows what they need and what he can make them. ]

You do, actually. Like telling me about space. Or continuing to work on your own suits, which have significantly less judging involved. [ She has noticed that he pays more attention to people than he lets on, but she's not really sure what for, and she does her best to duck it if possible. ]

[ He grumbles a little bit there, because those are decent points and he doesn't feel like playing it off like they aren't, right now. ] What about space?

You said you'd had a spacey encounter. Which sounds like you've been to space. [ Genuine interest all over here. ] What was it like?

I've been in space for a little bit. It was pretty quiet. There was a big explosion, and then I was back on the ground, mostly. You ever had shawarma?

Shawarma? I don't remember. Maybe, maybe not? Why were you in space?

I had to fly a nuclear missile headed for Manhattan through a portal instead.

Seriously? [ Huh. Well, she doesn't know what she was expecting particularly, but she doesn't think it was that. Interesting. ] So you didn't get to hang out and enjoy it?

I was moderately unconscious after managing to see it explode on impact. We didn't have time to get that close bond, you know how it is with those whirlwind relationships.

Would you ever want to go back? [ Gesturing in the general direction of - well, the ceiling, but clearly intending to bring mind the sky, the space above it. There's something young and excited in her voice. ] More prepared, obviously. But go into the stars.