![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
okay! see you soon
[ and maybe he an impeccable talent at brushing off haru's abrasiveness like it's inconsequential, he's expedient about buying the tuna, alongside the rest of the groceries, since chances are horribly skewed in the favor of haru padding off toward the municipal gym for a few hours of swimming.
the train ride isn't that long to begin with, but he takes off running as soon as the door opens, startling pedestrians into making a wide swath around him as he settles into a brisk jog, plastic grocery bags in both hands (and some piled into his backpack) when he flits through street blocks until he's close enough to his workplace that he lapses into a lighthearted walking pace.
hopefully, haru isn't making friends with the abandoned cybuddy felines that keep collecting at his workplace ever since that one time his best friend showed up to take haku back home. ]
[ and maybe he an impeccable talent at brushing off haru's abrasiveness like it's inconsequential, he's expedient about buying the tuna, alongside the rest of the groceries, since chances are horribly skewed in the favor of haru padding off toward the municipal gym for a few hours of swimming.
the train ride isn't that long to begin with, but he takes off running as soon as the door opens, startling pedestrians into making a wide swath around him as he settles into a brisk jog, plastic grocery bags in both hands (and some piled into his backpack) when he flits through street blocks until he's close enough to his workplace that he lapses into a lighthearted walking pace.
hopefully, haru isn't making friends with the abandoned cybuddy felines that keep collecting at his workplace ever since that one time his best friend showed up to take haku back home. ]
[the cybuddies remind him of the strays back home, and the fact that no amount of fish bought will really make them the same doesn't escape him; they'll use it either way. but haru copes in the small ways he needs to -- the indirect, almost invisible ways that equate to not having to face anything head-on. rin would criticize, he knows; or suspects, and often wonders as he walks to and from the rail or work or school what became of him. kisumi too. though mostly rin. the gray, gold-eyed creature has that subtle unnatural edge to its movements, indicative of what it really is -- what they are all supposed to be.
rather than say hello he simply looks up. makoto is there, well, almost, and haru dusts his knees off as he stands, blinking at the bag in hand. ]
You didn't have to hurry.
[as ever his tone borderlines on neutral despite the intent, but the subtle presence of something softer is a ripple in the silence. without asking, haru reaches for the bag and tugs: let me.]
rather than say hello he simply looks up. makoto is there, well, almost, and haru dusts his knees off as he stands, blinking at the bag in hand. ]
You didn't have to hurry.
[as ever his tone borderlines on neutral despite the intent, but the subtle presence of something softer is a ripple in the silence. without asking, haru reaches for the bag and tugs: let me.]
[ there's some things they don't talk about home, for one. the animals, for other; it seems like only the plants are real, every else manifested in forms of artificiality. he doesn't mention that, too. and still, haru never begrudges him for anything.
it reminds him that it used to point of heated contention between kisumi and rin — whether all of this was just some glorified simulation meant to keep them marginally content, sated enough not to question a single thing, investigate any further than they should.
makoto doesn't like to think about it. ]
I didn't want to keep you waiting!
[ he smiles even wider, insouciant and wide, when haru reaches for one bag. in response, he hands in the lighter bag in a way that brooks no argument, turning on his heel to lead him back. if haru prefers to walk home instead, that's fine, too. ]
By the way, how was your day?
[ so maybe it is escapism, after all. ]
it reminds him that it used to point of heated contention between kisumi and rin — whether all of this was just some glorified simulation meant to keep them marginally content, sated enough not to question a single thing, investigate any further than they should.
makoto doesn't like to think about it. ]
I didn't want to keep you waiting!
[ he smiles even wider, insouciant and wide, when haru reaches for one bag. in response, he hands in the lighter bag in a way that brooks no argument, turning on his heel to lead him back. if haru prefers to walk home instead, that's fine, too. ]
By the way, how was your day?
[ so maybe it is escapism, after all. ]
[escapism or just survival, it would be up for debate at any given time if they were different people, if for example they were rin and kisumi. but they aren't and while haru's mind flits fairly often in the direction of disbelief, it is never enough of an active part of his thoughts to pursue it whole-heartedly. sometimes, unable to sleep, he wonders if it even matters, if they are indeed gathered data whether it would matter if he slept ever again or ate or drank but it doesn't matter in the end. haru eats. haru sleeps. haru swims. haru watches his best friend like a hawk both short and long distance and he's not sure what it means when he worries, why it aches more than he thought it should.
when makoto hands him the lighter bag, he notices but doesn't argue, just falling into step beside him. if the ocean was on his other side, this could be home.]
Got stuck in my suit.
[the mascot one that is...but he seems......maybe disturbingly unconcerned, though certainly it takes no close inspection to see how haru's hair plasters to his nape and his scalp alike, a slightly wet brush of his bangs in blue eyes from simply overheating in that stupid outfit and head for an unprecedented window of time. he probably smells, needs a shower, so on and so forth....walking might be better really.]
Yours?
[he'd rather hear about makoto's day, if it comes to that.]
when makoto hands him the lighter bag, he notices but doesn't argue, just falling into step beside him. if the ocean was on his other side, this could be home.]
Got stuck in my suit.
[the mascot one that is...but he seems......maybe disturbingly unconcerned, though certainly it takes no close inspection to see how haru's hair plasters to his nape and his scalp alike, a slightly wet brush of his bangs in blue eyes from simply overheating in that stupid outfit and head for an unprecedented window of time. he probably smells, needs a shower, so on and so forth....walking might be better really.]
Yours?
[he'd rather hear about makoto's day, if it comes to that.]
[ the possibility kisumi and rin might've gone missing for probing too deeply for an answer goes unspoken today, too.
afraid of falsified convention and afraid of deviation from the routine, makoto exists in a strangely dispassionate manner, always heading off to school and shift and home with the same placid mildness. it's occurred to him, the nights he can't sleep and briefly regrets not asking if he could camp out on haru's floor for the night with their spare guest cot because he's scared he might wake up and find haru gone like all the others.
it's disheartening. ]
They really should give you a bigger size. Have you told your boss yet? It's getting warmer, so soon it'll be hard for you to be stuck in it all day like that.
[ he takes haru's silence as they trek past the steps leading up to the metro rail station as confirmation they'll be walking home, so he makes a mental note to save enough money for a fan before giving haru a sideways glance. ]
Just the usual. I did get that same customer again today, though. The one I was telling you about yesterday, the one with the sunhat. She always spends so long for the same kind of saltwater taffy she regularly buys, even though I already have some out on display in preparation. It's a little weird ... and sometimes I think she's watching me? But every time I look, she isn't staring at me at all, so maybe it's just my imagination.
afraid of falsified convention and afraid of deviation from the routine, makoto exists in a strangely dispassionate manner, always heading off to school and shift and home with the same placid mildness. it's occurred to him, the nights he can't sleep and briefly regrets not asking if he could camp out on haru's floor for the night with their spare guest cot because he's scared he might wake up and find haru gone like all the others.
it's disheartening. ]
They really should give you a bigger size. Have you told your boss yet? It's getting warmer, so soon it'll be hard for you to be stuck in it all day like that.
[ he takes haru's silence as they trek past the steps leading up to the metro rail station as confirmation they'll be walking home, so he makes a mental note to save enough money for a fan before giving haru a sideways glance. ]
Just the usual. I did get that same customer again today, though. The one I was telling you about yesterday, the one with the sunhat. She always spends so long for the same kind of saltwater taffy she regularly buys, even though I already have some out on display in preparation. It's a little weird ... and sometimes I think she's watching me? But every time I look, she isn't staring at me at all, so maybe it's just my imagination.
They don't seem to come in sizes.
[barring child or adult and one guess as to which haru gets, of course. vaguely, haru wonders if the person that makoto refers to in fact really is a person. it's the sort of truly unsettling question that -- again -- he doesn't let himself investigate too closely. call it cowardly, call it evasive, call it whatever; in his own way, haru is replete with the sense of what he's capable of ...and what he's not. so far in their time in tellus, it amounts to simply staying afloat. as they pass the metro rail, haru's eyes flicker sidelong just briefly, alighting on makoto's shoulder. strange to think of his best friend as nothing but data rejoined and formed; startling.
frightening.
for haru, people like rin, people like makoto, these are truths and not to be tampered with.
sometimes when he closes his eyes he's back in iwatobi, the rain pattering down and rin asking them what they'll do after graduation, the silence circling in like slow waves, the pink of the cherry blossoms at odds with the peach-red of the setting sun. most times his eyes are open though, and haru isn't home except for when he's next to the person he knows best in any world or reality.
co-dependency. but if it works, it works.]
Weird.
[he comments and what he is really thinking is: is she human? is she real? are you safe? but these get buried. haru's grip on the bag adjusts.]
You could change jobs.
[severe? not his intention. it's just haru's way: you could ____ instead of _____ -- avoidance. circumvention. so on. so forth. if haru could swim his way around unease or trouble, the world knows he would. well, knew. he doesn't mean to be a bad influence either, but his advice is lacking regardless.]
[barring child or adult and one guess as to which haru gets, of course. vaguely, haru wonders if the person that makoto refers to in fact really is a person. it's the sort of truly unsettling question that -- again -- he doesn't let himself investigate too closely. call it cowardly, call it evasive, call it whatever; in his own way, haru is replete with the sense of what he's capable of ...and what he's not. so far in their time in tellus, it amounts to simply staying afloat. as they pass the metro rail, haru's eyes flicker sidelong just briefly, alighting on makoto's shoulder. strange to think of his best friend as nothing but data rejoined and formed; startling.
frightening.
for haru, people like rin, people like makoto, these are truths and not to be tampered with.
sometimes when he closes his eyes he's back in iwatobi, the rain pattering down and rin asking them what they'll do after graduation, the silence circling in like slow waves, the pink of the cherry blossoms at odds with the peach-red of the setting sun. most times his eyes are open though, and haru isn't home except for when he's next to the person he knows best in any world or reality.
co-dependency. but if it works, it works.]
Weird.
[he comments and what he is really thinking is: is she human? is she real? are you safe? but these get buried. haru's grip on the bag adjusts.]
You could change jobs.
[severe? not his intention. it's just haru's way: you could ____ instead of _____ -- avoidance. circumvention. so on. so forth. if haru could swim his way around unease or trouble, the world knows he would. well, knew. he doesn't mean to be a bad influence either, but his advice is lacking regardless.]
[ he thinks better of it. it's like 3:52am in the morning....though...and he's somehow at the municipal gym, not even in his jammers but in a t-shirt and shorts feeling rather cold, presumably because he walked all the way there in just that...though apparently he had the sense of mind to at least toe on his sandals. haruka nanase does not recall ever sleepwalking not even once in his life, though he's had plenty of nights where he could not sleep at all. he thinks it would be less strange if it happened when they first 'arrived' here. but this is a weird development only now, months later, unprecedented as it is.
curling and uncurling his fingers, he sighs and exits out of his aborted message through the cerevice. his instinct had been to ask makoto where he is, if he's awake, but that's....stupid. he's at home surely. well 'home' where they both live. no need to bother him. haru will just head back....and thaw out in the shower probably.
though not without one last longing glance backward at the pool.]
curling and uncurling his fingers, he sighs and exits out of his aborted message through the cerevice. his instinct had been to ask makoto where he is, if he's awake, but that's....stupid. he's at home surely. well 'home' where they both live. no need to bother him. haru will just head back....and thaw out in the shower probably.
though not without one last longing glance backward at the pool.]
Are you content with your job? If you aren't, a change might be nice. Is there anything else you want to do?
[ it is essential for both of them to work. they could probably get by on makoto's paycheck alone along as supplemented with their auxiliary student benefits, but he's not really asking about their means of sustenance. in two months, it's the first time he realizes that it's nearing valentine's day as per the calendar hung in their loft. they arrived around christmas with new year's day cursorily ticked off, passed without comment. there wasn't a reason to celebrate then, but he managed to string haru along in a party regardless. even with all three of them (makoto, kisumi, rin) inebriated and trying to deep-six what couldn't be forgotten, haru remained painfully sober. he couldn't have slept that night; he'd been too wired, too conscious, too alive.
for a long while he's silent, walking down the sloping intersection. they pass through the outskirts of the shopping center, proceeding further into the entertainment district. eventually, makoto readjusts his hold on one grocery bag, resettling his grip. ]
She wasn't doing any harm. I wasn't really scared of her, I just felt ... a little sad. I keep thinking she was looking for something — possibly someone — who wasn't there anymore. The person who worked before me, maybe? ... The next time she comes in, do you think I should ask? I don't want to impose.
[ circumlocution for just handful of tiny, fragile words: i didn't know what to say to make it alright.
and it's always like this, that even if makoto finds loopholes and contradictions between what he says and how he reacts, he's always been afraid to say what he really means.
but haru understands, and that's enough. ]
We should take a day off and do something different tomorrow. That'd be fun, right?
[ it is essential for both of them to work. they could probably get by on makoto's paycheck alone along as supplemented with their auxiliary student benefits, but he's not really asking about their means of sustenance. in two months, it's the first time he realizes that it's nearing valentine's day as per the calendar hung in their loft. they arrived around christmas with new year's day cursorily ticked off, passed without comment. there wasn't a reason to celebrate then, but he managed to string haru along in a party regardless. even with all three of them (makoto, kisumi, rin) inebriated and trying to deep-six what couldn't be forgotten, haru remained painfully sober. he couldn't have slept that night; he'd been too wired, too conscious, too alive.
for a long while he's silent, walking down the sloping intersection. they pass through the outskirts of the shopping center, proceeding further into the entertainment district. eventually, makoto readjusts his hold on one grocery bag, resettling his grip. ]
She wasn't doing any harm. I wasn't really scared of her, I just felt ... a little sad. I keep thinking she was looking for something — possibly someone — who wasn't there anymore. The person who worked before me, maybe? ... The next time she comes in, do you think I should ask? I don't want to impose.
[ circumlocution for just handful of tiny, fragile words: i didn't know what to say to make it alright.
and it's always like this, that even if makoto finds loopholes and contradictions between what he says and how he reacts, he's always been afraid to say what he really means.
but haru understands, and that's enough. ]
We should take a day off and do something different tomorrow. That'd be fun, right?
[ it's just shy of four and the morning when he hears the cerevice chime, momentarily flash filament-bright by his bedside. eyelids bleary with sleep, he rolls over to the other side of the thin mattress, go grasping past house keys and various personal effects situated on his nightstand to flick open the screen. profiled against the amorphous dark, it's that much more strange, trying to decipher the sender's intent before realizing it's just a single word.
are?
makoto doesn't suspect that haru's just plodded all the way to the gym, motor control warped into motion by some rare instance of somnambulism, which is precisely why he digs a fist into one sleep-heavy socket and attempts mild coherence. ]
what's wrong? can't sleep?
[ he half-considers rolling out from underneath his pile of duvets and (unfeasibly) continuing the conversation in haru's room, but he remains tucked down beneath the sheets a while longer, awaiting a response. ]
are?
makoto doesn't suspect that haru's just plodded all the way to the gym, motor control warped into motion by some rare instance of somnambulism, which is precisely why he digs a fist into one sleep-heavy socket and attempts mild coherence. ]
what's wrong? can't sleep?
[ he half-considers rolling out from underneath his pile of duvets and (unfeasibly) continuing the conversation in haru's room, but he remains tucked down beneath the sheets a while longer, awaiting a response. ]
[ plunged headfirst in books, it takes him a while to see the notif, actually.
makoto dials back eventually, though (in complete opposition of rin's request for a return text), only managing to stifle his morbid distress by virtue of being in the academy library instead of some other miscellaneous public venue. it doesn't dismiss technically being in the residential district, however. ]
I'm at school right now. Where are you? Are you okay?
[ replete with worries as always, he lowers his tone a notch. ]
Don't be reckless, Rin.
makoto dials back eventually, though (in complete opposition of rin's request for a return text), only managing to stifle his morbid distress by virtue of being in the academy library instead of some other miscellaneous public venue. it doesn't dismiss technically being in the residential district, however. ]
I'm at school right now. Where are you? Are you okay?
[ replete with worries as always, he lowers his tone a notch. ]
Don't be reckless, Rin.
Stay there. Tell your classmates, too. I'll let you know when this has all blown over.
[ he hadn't been, an hour ago. but korra had seen to his injuries and everyone he'd contacted had been prompt in contacting him in return -- only the realization that makoto must have been in the middle of class had prevented rin from burning the whole town down in search of him.
(there's a niggling suspicion that he's missing someone but it's easy enough to quash. he hasn't been here long enough to make lasting connections.) ]
And I'm fine. Trust me a little.
[ it's a little too sharp, but there's a reason rin had asked for a text rather than making the call himself. he's been off-kilter all morning. ]
[ he hadn't been, an hour ago. but korra had seen to his injuries and everyone he'd contacted had been prompt in contacting him in return -- only the realization that makoto must have been in the middle of class had prevented rin from burning the whole town down in search of him.
(there's a niggling suspicion that he's missing someone but it's easy enough to quash. he hasn't been here long enough to make lasting connections.) ]
And I'm fine. Trust me a little.
[ it's a little too sharp, but there's a reason rin had asked for a text rather than making the call himself. he's been off-kilter all morning. ]
[ not exactly. he's been a little preoccupied with disappearing, actually — he couldn't type if he wanted to, poring over manuscripts pooling and upended around and through him in search of an answer — some kind of rationale for his affliction after he'd gone and intruded on vietnam, found himself fading away fast. there's a ringing chill in his voice, but he speaks slow and clear, hoping that rin doesn't notice the biting, vitriolic cold emanating through his breath. ]
I ... yeah. I will. Once you set your mind on something, I know you stick to it. I just want you to be careful. Promise you'll stay safe in the meantime, alright?
[ scrunched up at the back of the library for several hours, it's occurred that rin hasn't mentioned the most important thing yet.
or, rather: one of the most important people in their lives, period. ]
... Rin. Have you already told Haru?
I ... yeah. I will. Once you set your mind on something, I know you stick to it. I just want you to be careful. Promise you'll stay safe in the meantime, alright?
[ scrunched up at the back of the library for several hours, it's occurred that rin hasn't mentioned the most important thing yet.
or, rather: one of the most important people in their lives, period. ]
... Rin. Have you already told Haru?
Yeah. Fine. Stop worrying.
[ his voice softens. it's makoto, who worries about the stray cats on his street. he hadn't meant to question rin's capabilities, hadn't meant to dig the truth of his lack of utility value into a wound. he's fine. they're all fine. zack and korra and all the others took care of it.
and then makoto continues, and the frustration rears its head again.
the silence on his end is a living thing. it breathes. its heart beats a rhythm between rin's ears. haru, he thinks, and wonders if the hours spent within the pages of a textbook have set makoto wrong, maybe it's the hours spent alone on another world alone with the knowledge that their home is gone. he's never had the best memory, has he? it's a tiny thing. not worth losing hold of his temper.
rin breathes out, corralling his frustration before it can poison his tone. ]
Text me a list of names if you want me to look around for your friends. I don't think anyone has been seriously hurt, but -- just in case, I'll make that the priority.
[ his voice softens. it's makoto, who worries about the stray cats on his street. he hadn't meant to question rin's capabilities, hadn't meant to dig the truth of his lack of utility value into a wound. he's fine. they're all fine. zack and korra and all the others took care of it.
and then makoto continues, and the frustration rears its head again.
the silence on his end is a living thing. it breathes. its heart beats a rhythm between rin's ears. haru, he thinks, and wonders if the hours spent within the pages of a textbook have set makoto wrong, maybe it's the hours spent alone on another world alone with the knowledge that their home is gone. he's never had the best memory, has he? it's a tiny thing. not worth losing hold of his temper.
rin breathes out, corralling his frustration before it can poison his tone. ]
Text me a list of names if you want me to look around for your friends. I don't think anyone has been seriously hurt, but -- just in case, I'll make that the priority.
[ he can't really hold rin's ire against him.
he'd only just returned, in the wake of trepidation and paranoia and the conversations that rin couldn't remember — kisumi with his eyes turned refulgent in the settling night, asking him to dance, kisumi's presence in tellus at all, wiped clean from the database.
makoto doesn't pick fights. he prides himself on non-confrontation, pacifism its own ideology, but the silence is more disconcerting than his anger — because rin is nothing without the fire that keeps him alight, the push-pull tension that'd brought him to iwatobi all those years ago, chasing after the boy they both deeply admired. ]
You're joking, right? I'm serious, Rin, call Haru. He needs to know, and I think he'd take it best from you.
[ a partial lie. ]
Please. I'm just asking for a few minutes of your time. I'd do it myself, but I —
[ i can't. ]
... anyways, he'll listen to you. I know he will.
he'd only just returned, in the wake of trepidation and paranoia and the conversations that rin couldn't remember — kisumi with his eyes turned refulgent in the settling night, asking him to dance, kisumi's presence in tellus at all, wiped clean from the database.
makoto doesn't pick fights. he prides himself on non-confrontation, pacifism its own ideology, but the silence is more disconcerting than his anger — because rin is nothing without the fire that keeps him alight, the push-pull tension that'd brought him to iwatobi all those years ago, chasing after the boy they both deeply admired. ]
You're joking, right? I'm serious, Rin, call Haru. He needs to know, and I think he'd take it best from you.
[ a partial lie. ]
Please. I'm just asking for a few minutes of your time. I'd do it myself, but I —
[ i can't. ]
... anyways, he'll listen to you. I know he will.
[ he was a popular upperclassman -- he dealt with more than a few loopy underclassmen, each worse than the last. he had to give one particular freshman the puberty talk. he can handle a little bit of tachibana-style irrationality.
rin listens to the odd lilt of makoto's voice, the deception that he can't hide, and he doesn't understand.
but he's hiding behind a building with smoke in his lungs and a newly-healed wound in his shoulder, and he understands that even less. this isn't the time for pettiness; he's bigger than this. ]
I get it, alright? We're all stressed. This megalomaniac just finished ranting about puny humans like he popped straight out of this week's issue of Jump.
[ an audible sigh; rin hunkers down, back to the concrete wall. this deserves his full attention -- makoto is his only real connection to home, after all. ]
Maybe you told me about him, you know, the last time I was here, but this time around I have no idea who Haru is. Text me his last name and - like I said - I'll make sure he's okay.
rin listens to the odd lilt of makoto's voice, the deception that he can't hide, and he doesn't understand.
but he's hiding behind a building with smoke in his lungs and a newly-healed wound in his shoulder, and he understands that even less. this isn't the time for pettiness; he's bigger than this. ]
I get it, alright? We're all stressed. This megalomaniac just finished ranting about puny humans like he popped straight out of this week's issue of Jump.
[ an audible sigh; rin hunkers down, back to the concrete wall. this deserves his full attention -- makoto is his only real connection to home, after all. ]
Maybe you told me about him, you know, the last time I was here, but this time around I have no idea who Haru is. Text me his last name and - like I said - I'll make sure he's okay.
[ the room is suddenly very cold.
it was cold before when he first arrived, glacial frigidity with his breath coming out in penitent wisps, but it's like rin's words have the capacity to drop the temperature a full fifteen degrees celsius because he can't feel his face or his hands or his legs anymore. however, he can feel the sickening, lopsided psychosis within himself, a sort of ghosting, apparitional horror while rin speaks, diaphanous and full of inarticulate misunderstandings.
makoto drops the cerevice.
it hits the floor, thunks with a reverberating clatter, and it takes him yet another minute or two to grab it, to manually pry it from the floor with clawing fingers and hope it sticks solid to his hands, unlike everything else.
at some point, he's bitten his lip. his mouth is warm with blood. ]
Did something happen to you? Were you injured? You know better than to walk around in a condition like that.
[ his voice is a little more vacant now, heedless as he abandons the arduous endeavor of carefully stacking away the books. deserting the library entirely without so much as a backwards glance, he treks out into the hall, taking the staircase over the nebulous risk of falling clear through an elevator shaft. ]
Can we meet up somewhere? I need to see you for myself.
it was cold before when he first arrived, glacial frigidity with his breath coming out in penitent wisps, but it's like rin's words have the capacity to drop the temperature a full fifteen degrees celsius because he can't feel his face or his hands or his legs anymore. however, he can feel the sickening, lopsided psychosis within himself, a sort of ghosting, apparitional horror while rin speaks, diaphanous and full of inarticulate misunderstandings.
makoto drops the cerevice.
it hits the floor, thunks with a reverberating clatter, and it takes him yet another minute or two to grab it, to manually pry it from the floor with clawing fingers and hope it sticks solid to his hands, unlike everything else.
at some point, he's bitten his lip. his mouth is warm with blood. ]
Did something happen to you? Were you injured? You know better than to walk around in a condition like that.
[ his voice is a little more vacant now, heedless as he abandons the arduous endeavor of carefully stacking away the books. deserting the library entirely without so much as a backwards glance, he treks out into the hall, taking the staircase over the nebulous risk of falling clear through an elevator shaft. ]
Can we meet up somewhere? I need to see you for myself.
Edited 2015-08-04 04:08 (UTC)
[ the clatter of sound has rin cursing and jerking his cerevice away from his ear, his heart shattering his ribcage. after a morning spent in the midst of exploding buildings, for a moment he'd believed that it had all started up again, that he had to get out, raise the alert all over again --
and then makoto's voice rises above the churning of his blood and rin forces himself to listen. the meaning of makoto's words coagulates before rin can make himself understand.
he forces himself to count to ten. tries again. ]
Told you I was fine, Makoto.
[ it's softer than it should have been, rin falling short of irritation. he's tired, an exhaustion that goes beyond the simple desire for sleep. he doesn't have time for this. ]
There's a lot of stuff I need to be doing out here. I'll call later. Keep your phone on you and text me if anything comes up.
[ it's not anger that has rin cutting the line, but necessity. it's (pathetic, weak, idiotic) to be so affected by a clatter of a phone hitting the ground, but rin has no control over the rabbit-skitter of his pulse. he tucks his phone away, grateful for the distance between makoto and himself.
besides, the search team had planned on sending a message to the school once everything cleared up. makoto - and his friend, too - would be fine. ]
and then makoto's voice rises above the churning of his blood and rin forces himself to listen. the meaning of makoto's words coagulates before rin can make himself understand.
he forces himself to count to ten. tries again. ]
Told you I was fine, Makoto.
[ it's softer than it should have been, rin falling short of irritation. he's tired, an exhaustion that goes beyond the simple desire for sleep. he doesn't have time for this. ]
There's a lot of stuff I need to be doing out here. I'll call later. Keep your phone on you and text me if anything comes up.
[ it's not anger that has rin cutting the line, but necessity. it's (pathetic, weak, idiotic) to be so affected by a clatter of a phone hitting the ground, but rin has no control over the rabbit-skitter of his pulse. he tucks his phone away, grateful for the distance between makoto and himself.
besides, the search team had planned on sending a message to the school once everything cleared up. makoto - and his friend, too - would be fine. ]
[ attached is a photograph of haru, taken at an angle. or half of haru, at least: he looks to be fading, the lake visible through his incorporeal body. ]
this the friend you were talking about? he's disappearing.
[ a moment later -- ]
think he has a problem with me
this the friend you were talking about? he's disappearing.
[ a moment later -- ]
think he has a problem with me
[ it's roughly been an hour since his return, and makoto's still rattled by the glassy lights and strung-up bodies. in the end, he hadn't encountered either rin nor haru there, only kisumi held above in lifeless catatonia and slipping through his fingers. the gradual corruption, the slow, slow fade — and then broaching awareness, back in tellus with incorporeality swapped out for exhaustion.
dully lit by his cerevice, rin's mind games are still as unintelligible as ever. having previously been afflicted with the same effects haru sustained, however, makoto doesn't mind taking a shot in the dark this time. ]
you've always been at odds with him, remember?
dully lit by his cerevice, rin's mind games are still as unintelligible as ever. having previously been afflicted with the same effects haru sustained, however, makoto doesn't mind taking a shot in the dark this time. ]
you've always been at odds with him, remember?
[ this place just keeps getting better and better.
rin is at the pool, sitting at its edge and staring across its placid surface, lulled into quiet by the ripples that begin and begin and begin and never quite end. he nearly jumps out of his skin when his cerevice notifies him of the new message. it's a moment of blank reading and rereading until the words solidify into meaning.
i messed up is what he types out, then deletes the message with a few violent jabs of his thumbs. it's an odd reversal of the first conversation he'd had with makoto, tellus's reality making truth and fiction the same. ]
that's not fair
it's not like i wanted to forget him
[ he doesn't know how much makoto has figured out. doesn't know where haru is. doesn't know whether he should go searching for him in the first place -- he'd seen that spark of genuine fear in haru's eyes. maybe it makes him a coward, but he's not ready to face it again. ]
rin is at the pool, sitting at its edge and staring across its placid surface, lulled into quiet by the ripples that begin and begin and begin and never quite end. he nearly jumps out of his skin when his cerevice notifies him of the new message. it's a moment of blank reading and rereading until the words solidify into meaning.
i messed up is what he types out, then deletes the message with a few violent jabs of his thumbs. it's an odd reversal of the first conversation he'd had with makoto, tellus's reality making truth and fiction the same. ]
that's not fair
it's not like i wanted to forget him
[ he doesn't know how much makoto has figured out. doesn't know where haru is. doesn't know whether he should go searching for him in the first place -- he'd seen that spark of genuine fear in haru's eyes. maybe it makes him a coward, but he's not ready to face it again. ]
[Here is the thing, Makoto. Jack is super grateful for that free candy. No, really, he is! But that doesn't equal a free pass. Nobody is safe from a prankster's plan, alright. So hopefully, he'll appreciate the drawings on his door, with the words "Chairman Meow" written on top of them.]
Page 6 of 10