Mask or Menace | IC Contact

[mycrosstobear]

"...This is Wolfwood. Leave a message, I guess."


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Comments

[justlittle]

Oh.
That.

It's not like no one in this world knows about Bean's past. Magnus had saved him from the ghost of Poke, and Bean had told him the whole story after. But the knowledge that a relative stranger saw an entire snippet of his life like that... It's unsettling.

Eh. That's why I'm called Bean. It was the first name I ever had.
I have a different one, now. But Bean feels more like me.

[adamantlyardent]

[oh.

oh, that's kind of embarrassing! and weird? Cece's knee-jerk recollection is just powder and paint, not the tears and whining he actually saw, so to her it seems...odd that a memory so feminine would reach him of all people.

time to play it cool:]

I see. Well, as far as memories go, not the worst thing one could see. Kindly delete it.

[mycrosstobear]

[He does hand the shawl over, since that is the point of being over here in the first place. But he doesn't move from his spot at the door.]

Are you hurt?

[He has to say that's a pretty odd form of bandaging, if so.]

[mycrosstobear]

it'd be hard not to feel more at home with it

(Says the man who barely lets anyone call him 'Nicholas' anymore.)

[mycrosstobear]

[there's a delay as he really, genuinely tries.]

can't

[adamantlyardent]

[quickly, but without eye contact:] Don't be silly. I just--have a, a condition. That's all. Yes. I'm...quite sick. Yes. So, for fear of impacting you, if you don't mind--

[this door is going to get pushed closed the moment she can finagle the shawl through the crack.]

[adamantlyardent]

[.....................................what.]

May I ask why?

[justlittle]

How much of my childhood did you see?

(Says the boy who is still technically a child.)

[mycrosstobear]

[How inconvenient that six feet of lanky muscle happens to be leaning against the door.]

I thought imPorts couldn’t get that sick

[mycrosstobear]

I keep deleting it but it doesn’t go away

[mycrosstobear]

just that

you got out?

[justlittle]

I got out. I got about as far out as it's possible to get.

The girl
Poke
She was killed not long after what you saw.

[adamantlyardent]

[omigawds why. it's cute in movies but right now it's obnoxious!!]

Wellllllnowwwww...now you learned something! Congratulations! Please, move away so I may close the door? Wouldn't want you getting infected and otherwise detained.

[adamantlyardent]

There has to be a trick to it somehow.
But in any case, please resolve to never look at it ever again.

as promised

[adamantlyardent]

Greetings.
Are you busy?

yesssssss

[mycrosstobear]

not right now

why?

Muscle emoji

[adamantlyardent]

Come to the window, please. I’d like to talk.

[mycrosstobear]

[That seems ominous.

He gets the deep sigh over with before opening the window.]

Yeah?

[adamantlyardent]

[behold! she’s already waiting on the balcony, sitting by the flowers.

she perks up at the sound of the squeaky window and straightens up, blinking.]

Oh! That was. That was fast!

...Hi.

[mycrosstobear]

[He could only be so far from the window.]

Hi.

[...This is awkward.]

[adamantlyardent]

...

[gods, this is awkward.

she fidgets, clears her throat, then...hesitates a bit more.

then:] So! Um.

I...wanted to ask.

[......,,,,]

Are we friends?

[mycrosstobear]

[...Whatever he was expecting, it sure wasn't that.] Huh?

[Where did that come from?

...And, actually, how does he answer? At least half the time she's annoyed with him, or afraid for some reason, and it's not like he isn't annoyed with her a lot of the time...

(Though it's also not that he isn't often annoyed with his friends.)

What makes someone friends, really? Just spending a lot of time around each other? Helping out? Letting them find out things about you? He was out of practice with this for a long time.]

...Yes?

[adamantlyardent]

[gods, if he had taken any longer, she’d have just thrown herself off the balcony out of shame. she winces at the questioning inflection in his tone — a knife in his gut of another kind.]

Y-you don’t have to lie if it’s not true, you know! I’m not gonna. Like. Set you on fire of anything! I just! [withering.] Just...wanted to know for sure if. I don’t know.

Better than just assuming, one way the other, okay!

[mycrosstobear]

[Well, he managed to stick his foot in it. Though in his defense, getting asked point-blank about friendship by your argumentative neighbor isn't exactly a typical social situation.]

I'm not lying, I just didn't expect that!

[Could she not just jump to a conclusion like that for once?

...Maybe asking this was trying not to jump to a conclusion, actually. He deflates a little, shoulders softening.

(He remembers that memory of hers, how she'd been even more insecure as a kid. Maybe she's out of practice, too.)]

[adamantlyardent]

Okay sorry! Sorry. [she’s making a conscious effort to not tighten up with defensiveness and it’s hard — it shows.

gods. things like this shouldn’t make your heart pound so much!

she exhales in a huff, fussing with hair behind her ear.]

Just. Just like. Tell me if that changes. Okay?

That’s...really all I wanted to ask.