nascence [event]

[admin]

She tried to smile back. She wasn't sure why. Neo didn't smile normally, not for politeness. This wasn't quite in earnest, so it was... a gesture? Of what, she wished she knew.

"I--no. No, don't listen to me," she answered. "Just do what you want, what feels right."

Neo took a step back, then a few more. A part of her didn't want to leave, but distance was easier to make once she already started moving.

"I should go," she said, somehow flustered like a teenaged girl, and it felt like an excuse. "I've got stuff to do."

[vertigo]

iskander watched neo answer his question, and he nodded in response. if he had to do what felt right -- he wouldn't be doing this; he would be sitting in his library, in the safety of his juno home, reading great expectations and maybe doing a rereading of 20,000 leagues under the sea. "okay," he said, "i'll try thinking about that."

he watched until she left, waving good-bye to her until she was far away, before shifting his crate closer to him and launching his old rod into the lake to fish.

now, where was he previously? right, the magikarp he'd released into the lake. time to fish it up again; he could've sworn it had a cleft fin. "a cleft fin," he echoed his thoughts, "maybe it'd stay even after evolution, the poor thing. no, wait.

"it could enhance its hydrodynamic capabilities, even with a dent in it? i'd need a lake to study this."

iskander grinned, feeling the end of his rod shudder with weight. gotcha.