maskormenacelogs | the night sky is changing overhead

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the night sky is changing overhead

WHO: Kasumi Goto & Jacob Taylor
WHERE: The movie theater in downtown Heropa where Kasumi works
WHEN: Evening of March 7th
WHAT: A date? Harmless action movie-watching between comrades? Who knows? Kasumi sure doesn't.
WARNINGS: Possible thirst.

[ It had been quite some time now since Kasumi had first asked Jacob if he'd see a movie with her. To this day, she's still surprised that he actually agreed, but that surprise gave way to some cautious excitement on her part. Her attraction to him had, from the beginning, been more physical than anything. It had always been that way, essentially, since she first set foot on the Normandy after Shepard recruited her. Their conversations then were few and far between back then, and almost always directly related to the larger task at hand: the suicide mission. Any other topics, like physical training, the food on board the Normandy, Joker--were even more rare, and still somewhat related to the mission.

Now, she has a chance to actually really get to know the man out of uniform, the man who's now left Cerberus--and, frankly, she's not quite sure what to do with that.

Better take it step by step, she thinks. Anything could happen. Anyway, this is just a harmless outing between friends, right? It's not... a date, or whatever. And--sure, she's flirted with a few people since she's gotten here, but...

In any case, she'd sent Jacob a message a few days prior; a new movie was being released at the theater. Some action movie with lots of cars and lots of guns and lots of foiling an evil organization's plans; Kasumi had hoped for a more suave spy movie, but the "vigilante crime-busters" flavor of this particular film seems to be right up Jacob's alley. They'd decided on Saturday night, which had given Kasumi ample time to really recover from her injuries. Her wounds are closing up, her bruises slowly returning to the color of her skin, although none of it is visible with the civilian outfit she wears--a black turtleneck which covers up her neck (and by extension the bruising on there from Samara trying to crush her throat) underneath a black hooded jacket (of course), black pants, and black boots)--which covers just about as much of her as her tactical suit does. She stands waiting outside the movie theater, fully cloaked to avoid attracting attention until Jacob arrives. ]

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[Jacob isn't dumb. He knows Kasumi's got... something for him. But he is also pretty sure there's a difference between Kasumi being serious about someone and Kasumi just being, well, herself. Her comments about his crunches seem more the second. So he's not worried about this getting weird for either of them. It's not a date- just two crewmates seeing a movie. No reason for any confusion, right? Right.

At least, things should be that simple.

He shows up wearing more light to Kasumi's dark. His pants are tan, his shirt is white, his shoes are brown- only his jacket is black. He looks around the theatre's entrance when he arrives, looking for her. It's not like her to be late- it was her idea to do this. And it's Kasumi, which probably means...]

Kasumi, I know you're around here.

[More a best guess, but whatever.]

[ Kasumi laughs oh, so quietly to herself, because it amuses her to no end that he'd said that. What if she wasn't actually there? Would he have just kept looking like he was talking to himself in public, asking this Kasumi person to come on out?

--Well, she won't be finding out, because amusing as it might be to watch it go on, she doesn't want him to feel like she stood him up. Kasumi hardly ever late to things, after all; to that end, she deactivates her cloak in the shadows cast by the building (the sound of which might be familiar to Jacob from their days together on the Normandy) and quietly approaches him from behind. ]

How'd you know?

[ She asks innocently. She knows the answer is because this isn't the first time she's pulled this kind of thing, though, she just wants to hear him say it. ]

[Okay, he wasn't expecting her to suddenly be right behind him. Jacob can't stop himself from startling visibly as he turns around.]

You've got a style. And I wouldn't have expected you to be late.

[Jacob shrugs and smiles slightly. It's good to be right. Otherwise... yeah, he would have looked pretty strange talking to himself like that.]

Ready for the movie? I've heard it's good.

[Disclaimer: 'good' by the standards of a man who loves Blasto like he loves crunches may not be 'good' by the standards of people with taste.]

Sweet talker.

[ Her lips curl into her signature little grin; it was more of a neutral compliment than anything, she knows, but she's the type to take what she can get. In any case, she turns on her heel at his question, reaching up to let her fingers trail along the back of his shoulders as she walks past him and towards the entrance of the theater. ]

Ready as I'll ever be. We'll see about just how good it is, though I'm sure it'll be fun either way.

[ Mostly because she's seeing a movie! With Jacob! So it's fun by default, obviously. ]

Same here.

[Jacob subtly shifts under her touch as she walks past him, turning away slightly from her fingers. He's not playing that particular game tonight, Kasumi. He doesn't say anything, though, trusting Kasumi's ability to read body language.]

How about you get the seats, I'll get the snacks? Just let me know what you're having.

[ He's right in that regard; she makes a mental note to keep her hands to herself. She may be a thief, but she's not rude--well, maybe she is, but at the very least she'll respect personal boundaries (except if your last name is Shepard). ]

Sounds like a plan. Just get whatever you'd like, Jacob. Popcorn?

Sure. We can split a bag. No butter for me, though.

[Jacob doesn't know about Kasumi's policy of not putting up with lactose's stupid drama. He does know that excessive crunching on snacks can undermine his work on his other crunches.]

I'll find you in the theatre. Don't turn invisible or anything.

[With a smile on that last part.]

Great. Butter is the enemy, anyway.

[ She turns on her heel, glancing at him with a smile over her shoulder as starts to head towards the theater the movie's showing in. ]

Hey, come on. I would never disappear on you like that.

[ ... yes she would. She won't, though. ]

Really? We'll see.

[A few minutes later Jacob enters the theater with a good-sized bag of unbuttered, unsalted popcorn in his hands and a couple drinks (just water for him). He looks around the darkened room for Kasumi, starting with the seats in the absolute back of the theater. She seems like someone who would prefer to sit in the shadows, at least to him.]

[ And you know what? He's absolutely right. She's picked out seats in the back row, away from the majority of the crowd seated closer to the screen or in the middle. But at least she picked seats near the center of the row!

When she spots him, she does a little wave to try and get his attention, although it may or may not be effective given that she's wearing black and everything. ]

[It takes Jacob a few moments while his eyes adjust to the darkness, but he spots her and heads over, plunking down the popcorn between them as he takes a seat.]

Here we are. You don't mind sitting this far back?

I don't mind at all, but if you do, Jacob, we can definitely move. [ she shrugs. ] I hope you aren't surprised that these are the seats I picked.

Not that surprised. And I'm fine with it. [Jacob shrugs right back.] It's not like the screen's too small to see or anything.

[The screen is indeed massive, and has the same futuristic-retro aesthetic as everything else in this universe. There's some kind of holographic 3-D effect popping off the advertisements for the snack lobby currently being displayed, but the screen also flickers as though it was running off an old-fashioned projector.]

[ She chuckles. ] Perfect, then we can settle in.

[ She takes the liberty of grabbing some popcorn from the bag, plopping a few into her mouth. ]

Hmm, no salt, either? That is so like you, Jacob.

Sodium can do some nasty things to your health. Better not to overdo it. Besides, it tastes fine like this.

[Crunch crunch crunch Jacob has his own handful now.]

Ready to sit through half an hour of trailers and drink ads? I've noticed that some things are the same no matter what universe you're in. Advertising's no exception.

I'm so ready for all of that. It's interesting to see what kinds of new things they're coming out with. Some cliched plot lines and tropes stay the same across universes too, apparently.

Like movies about really fancy cars and things exploding.

Thank God for that. I'd hate to end up in a universe with nothing but drama movies. We all get enough of that in real life.

[Jacob smiles a little as he talks, relaxing into his seat. It's nice to do something this low-key after all the drama of the last two months. On the screen, the good people of America are being helpfully informed that popcorn embedded in gelatin cubes (gelcorn) is coming to a theatre near them soon. The anticipation is enough to make one wobble.]

[ She casts him a side-glance as he settles into his seat. ]

Hey, dramas are good once in a while, too. For when you really want to feel things.

[ But then the ads are talking about gelcorn something or other, which honestly sound like an abomination. You either want popcorn or you want gelatin--you can't possibly enjoy both at the same time. That's just wrong. She leans over a little, eyes still fixed ahead at the screen, to speak more quietly. ]

So, no offense to whoever came up with the gelcorn idea, but--no thank you.

[Jacob leans back, folding his arms across his chest. He is not really a judgmental person, but he is judging you now, retro-futuristic neo-50s snack cuisine.]

They've got some weird ideas in this place. Glad our Earth never developed along this path. Some days I wonder if they'll ever make it to the stars.

[ She hums, quietly and thoughtfully, at his statement. She really misses being out there. ]

Funny, you'd think that with flying cars and tech that brings people in from other dimensions, space travel should be no problem, right?

You'd think so. But they haven't even gotten to Mars yet. Too busy sabotaging each other with the Cold War.

[Jacob shakes his head. Last year, Soviet spies thwarted a spaceflight and put several imPort lives in jeopardy. He misses space too, and he also misses not having to deal with this kind of politics.]

Ahh, yes. How could I forget about the Russians?

[ There's a brief pause, here, as Kasumi contemplates just how different this world is from anything she probably could have imagined. She's seen a lot of places by virtue of her profession and how it took her to far-flung corners of the galaxy, but this place was just bizarre because she knows Earth to be a certain way--this is nowhere near that. ]

Have you been caught up in any of that craziness?

Little bit, yeah. Last year they threatened to invade Alaska. A team of imPort volunteers was deployed to hold the line.

[Jacob's speaking softly, more for the sake of not having random audience members eavesdrop than out of consideration for the commercials still playing on the screen. No one really cares about the availability of XXXX-large nacho servings at the snack lobby.]

Shepard decided to participate, and I backed him up. We were lucky. The Russians backed off. I was afraid we were going to see a world war start in front of us, right there on the beach.

Ah. Samara did mention something about Alaska, now that I think about it.

[ If there's one thing she's good at, it's being quiet and subtle, so she speaks in a hushed voice as Jacob does. Also, XXXX-large is way too many X's, Kasumi thinks. ]

Of course they had to back off, though. I can only imagine how menacing a line of imPorts might look, especially if you and Shep and the others were part of that.

I'd say that I'm disappointed I missed an exciting time, but this place has been nothing but exciting since I got here.

[ What with that mess with the Hornets and the mind control voodoo magic and all. ]

[Jacob chuckles softly.]

I appreciate the vote of confidence. Yeah, we were all there. Shepard and the Major were part of the command staff, and Samara helped pull the whole thing off.

[But that's a long story not suited for a movie, so Jacob shifts past it.]

Wish I could say things will be peaceful from here on out. But the Hornets weren't the only problem we have to worry about. There will be more trouble- count on it.

Good. I wouldn't trust this place to bore me for a minute.

[ She pops a few more pieces of popcorn in; the ads and previews seem to be nearing their end. ]

I hope you know I'm always ready to get into trouble if you ever need someone of my expertise, Jacob.

[Jacob smiles at her, then settles in to watch the actual movie which is finally starting up.]

Right back at you, Kasumi. Normandy crew hangs together. We made it through the Collector Base, I'm sure we can make it through this universe.

[ She spares Jacob a smile of her own. ]

Good point. Now, let's save the trouble talk for another time, shall we? Time to watch some cars explode.

[ She pulls her legs up into her seat, her knees close to her chest, and she sits in her seat perched into a little ball much like they would usually find her lounging about in her quarters back on the Normandy. It's just her preferred state of sitting, apparently. ]

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the night sky is changing overhead

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