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[ the feed begins in audio, and on the opposite end of the communicator, hayley chews on her bottom lip. the pause only lengthens after she clears her throat, and discovers that she's managed to find the video function. the lens remains pointed at her knee for one beat, then another- before the image is righted, and she turns an apologetic smile to the feed. ]

Sorry. I'm not really used to the. You know, [ cue the demonstrative finger wiggles ] future stuff yet.

[ a small crease appears in her brow, but softens as soon as the communicator is set on the table, so she can settle down to look into the feed directly. her shoulders hunch, and she plays with her fingers anxiously as she begins again. ]

Anyway um, so I know I should be really freaked out about the dimension hopping spaceship thing, and the mutiny thing, and I will be. Once it like, processes. And I don't mean to sound super insensitive or anything? But um, I don't suppose anybody's managed to find like, some books or anything just hanging around, have they?

I'm pretty desperate for anything at this point, especially since it's only a matter of time before we get back into the jell-o baths, you know? And I know that all you super cool space heroes are like, up to your eyeballs in shenanigans, but there's just not a whole lot of stuff for- kids around here.

The whole, no tv, no internet, no ipods thing is kindof like, [ a sheepish laugh ] hell on earth for a teenager. Or. Not earth. Since we're in. Space now.

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No.

[ He inhales sharply, and there's a long pause. ]

Yes. No. It's complicated.

Then how about- how about neither one of us try to force it one way or the other. Then if I like you, I'll just like you. And if I don't, then I don't.

Then it won't be your fault either way.

No -- No, that's not what I meant --

[ He takes in a hard breath again and shakes his head, not visible on the audio feed. ]

I never expected -- I never thought it would be a problem.

[ somehow, she gets that impression even without the visual. the filter slots into place beat later. it's less for herself, and more- well. yoite has always struck her as a private person. ]

What? That you might be liked?

[ He doesn't even sound EMBARRASSED by it, is the tragic part of it, or insulted or anything. He just sounds distressed by this whole situation, like an unknown variable has just been introduced. ]

Yes.

[ in all likelihood, it is for precisely that reason that she's so taken with speaking to him in the first place. nothing, nothing lines up the way it does with other people. and every time she thinks she understands something, he shifts just a fraction, and shows her something else.

her head cants, open curiosity on her face. ]

Why?

[ And his voice dips a moment, sifting into confusion more than anything. Not particularly hurt. He's used to this sensation. It's nothing new. ]

Well -- Nobody has before. In all likelihood the pattern should have continued.

[ she blinks once, then shakes her head. as if trying to slot the thought into place. ]

That's the only reason?
Because nobody has before?

Tolerance, at best. I'm a necessity. Was a necessity.

[ He hesitates. ]

One exception. Unable to decipher his feelings on the matter.

Feelings aren't- [ she pauses, fingers drumming quietly, just one line, across the desk. this isn't a subject she touches on. not if she can avoid it. not with people who know where girlhayley ends, and becomes the something else. ]

They aren't really things that can be deciphered.
They might never make sense to you. Probably the way yours can't make sense to other people.

Does that mean you have them? [ He furrows his eyebrows at her, curiously, and when he says the word, it's foreign on his tongue. ] "Feelings". For me.

[ Which causes a whole new situation. He doesn't know Hayley very well at all, but with his erasure -- there was a reason he didn't want to get close to anybody. He never thought it would be a problem. To Yukimi, he was just a brat. To Miharu, just a job. To Hattori, just a tool, just a... plaything. Never anything beyond an object. A thing. ]

[ 'That child.' ]

He never should have given me that name, [ he murmurs, cryptically, but he's lost in thought, about the hole that his erasure would leave in Hayley once he's gone. He's not sure how big it is, and he doubts it's an impressive one at all. But it's still there. ] Why couldn't I have just kept being a thing?

[ her hands lift, and for a long while, hayley says nothing. only rests her elbows on the table, and settles her chin in the curve of her palms. she can't know for sure, but the things he says, has said, want to line up. want to order themselves in her head. yoite is something new then. and sora, that was a thing. something wrong. ]

I don't know.

[ the words finally come out as something of a sigh, and the edge of her mouth presses together. ] I might, I guess. But I don't know for sure.

But I don't think being Yoite or being a thing would've made all that much of a difference. People get feelings for things too.

Things can be replaced. A chopstick breaks and you fish out a new one. A television wire frays and you replace the television. A weapon is rendered asunder and you keep a backup in case the first fails you so completely.

[ He shakes his head, jerkily. ]

They're just things. Some of them aren't even necessary.

Maybe not.

But some things become favorite things. And I mean, if you're really going to look at it that way, then the truth is that nothing is really necessary, because nobody is really necessary.

Say there was a bomb strapped to a man's chest, that could take out an entire city block. Say something that dangerous existed. Would you like it to?

Yoite.

Bombs are going to exist whether I want them to or not.

But if you could stop it from existing, and you could save lives. A lot of lives. Wouldn't you?

Maybe.

Would you stop it from existing if it was a person, not a bomb?

Yes.

No.

Yes.

It depends on the damage inflicted.

How so?

Who have they killed? Why have they killed? Were they willing or not? How dangerous are they? Can they be rehabilitated? There are too many factors with human beings.

But things are just things. They have one function.

Things can be used. By anyone.

Until they're gone.

Until they were never there.

I dunno...

[ her head tilts back, one hand lifting as her thumb scratches the bridge of her nose. ]

Objects can't think for themselves. They're at the mercy of whoever uses them. They can do all kinds of terrible things.

[ There's the ghost of a wince on Yoite's face, but he doesn't answer right away. ]

That's probably why it's important to get rid of them. Humans aren't ever what they say they are. They say, "I'll help," and then they never specify the price. They promise things and then they don't follow through. Humans are unpredictable factors.

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