PC: Tama 💀

[resumed]

Comments

[resumed]

[ then die in spring. also that's fair.

doubly fair, actually, and he raises an eyebrow like "point taken." ]

Sure, understandable. But you get that this applies to you as well, don't you? [ nico: a strong believer in "literally can someone also take care of the caretaker." ]

[ballies]

[ yeah kill ash. ]

Not so much back home, but— it’s not too bad taking care of myself like this.

[resumed]

[ stinky boy murder only. ]

You've been getting used to it then? [ this is more out of curiosity than anything, considering. ]

[ballies]

[ no we’re misogynistic. also i could be playing a really very good boy in spring who really doesn’t deserve this. ]

Ha. Good question.

[resumed]

[ death pending.

he turns to lean back against a shelf and stare at her. ]

Is that "I have no idea how to answer" or "I don't want to answer so I'm going to be vague until the other person drops it"?

[ballies]

It’s kinda difficult getting used to feeling and experience everything in the same way people usually do. The air tickled for the first week? My feet still hurt?

[ it’s the worst. ]

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Yeah, breathing's weird. [ don't just. say that. but he does look down to see what kind of shoes she's wearing. ] I think that still kind of counts as culture shock. It's just that the culture in this case is being bound to a flesh and bone prison.

[ again. don't just say things. ]

[ballies]

[ ok but the fact she relates??? ]

Yeah, that’s why I passed out that first Sunday — I forgot you have to sleep? I normally just watch youtube and mess up Ryuki’s algorithm while he’s sleeping.

[ don’t just do that. ] And then the breathing thing! You only remember when you’re getting dizzy? It’s weird?

[resumed]

[ the way i forced myself to go to bed instead of tagging you back and thought about this forever. ]

Yeah. Supposedly it's to rest both your body and your brain but you can, technically, go long periods without rest and still keep going. Having to shut down for a minimum of four hours a night shouldn't be a requirement. And breathing is so subconscious that you don't even know you're doing it half the time until you can't breathe and your body's like "hey by the way, oxygen's great."

[ a pause. ]

Then again a lot of people in the Underworld have to do neither of those things so it's conflicting messages all around.

[ballies]

[ i was so proud of you. ]

Yeah, it's like -- these things are so fragile but also like some kind of terminator? Three weeks with no food, three days with no water, which is impressive seeing as that's like 70% of a body. And yeah, you're just minding your own business and then you remember breathing's a thing you're doing and you forget how to do it??

[ awful! ]

I guess if you've been surrounded by people who have left the need to do all that behind, it's a culture shock when you suddenly realise you have to crack on with all that.

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I know. [ this is just kind of distressed, baffled hissing. ] ...I mean I don't even know if I can judge because we're more durable than regular mortals to begin with but still. Even an average person can withstand a lot of damage in so many ways but then quickly be eliminated by something as stupid as forgetting to inhale once in a while.

[ it's hard to say if he really feels this way or he's exaggerating. maybe both. ]

A lot of us can do things like breathe underwater or withstand extreme temperatures or...[ hm. no. ] Things like that. It's bizarre to thing about how I don't know if those apply here either.

[ballies]

I don’t have to deal with any of this — but Ryuki won’t give me piggybacks and I think that’s kinda rude.

[ it’s so rude. ]

Maybe assume they don’t? They were able to entirely change what I am. I’m pretty sure they can get rid of special natural abilities.

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[ it is rude! he looks like he thinks it's rude. ]

Did you actually ask? What was his excuse to say no? [ but he sighs. ] Since all of my powers are a part of my genetics I can only guess that everything's gone. I was just hoping they left even a small part.

[ballies]

He just talked around it. He’s so meeeeaaaan.

[ she adores this man. thinks of that “i hate that look he gets in his eyes when he’s ignoring me” line ]

I wonder if there’s a way to get some of it back? Or is it just evening the playing field for everyone?

[resumed]

[ drops our sunday thread bc that's a good resting place and focuses over here. ]

What if you offered him one in exchange? Then you can tell him why he's so much better at it and get him to constantly give you rides. [ that's not how that works. ]

I've been asking. There's stuff I want back that I think could help us, but Tiger said they can't even get their own stuff back. I don't know if it's impossible or a way just hasn't been found yet.

[ballies]

[ nice. ]

No... he seems like he'd be heavy. Like those guys who look reedy but can bench press, y'know?

[ i hear ryuki is ripped. i hear he has an eight pack. ]

I guess that's something we should look into on our own, then...

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Ryuki? [ he has no reason to sound dubious when nico's a skinny malnourished twig who can still pull his own weight. ]

So much of this is going to be on our own now, I think. As much as I knew it would be and as much as I hate it. But even an idea of where to start would be better than what we have now.

[ballies]

He’s pretty active, you know. [ thinks about him hoisting those goons around in one of the side paths. ] He has to be, for his job.

It’s not too different to an investigation, really. We have starting points — the rules, why they changed, someone mentioned the responses to letters in the paper, Addy? Those have changed over the past couple of weeks. We could try writing something in and adding a code maybe? See if anyone spots it?

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I'm gonna take your word for it, Tama, and not put much thought into it. [ but. yeah. ryuki's a cop (?) so he supposes this makes sense. ]

Yeah...those are different, but I'm not sure what that means. [ but oh. that's an idea. ] You think that'd work? I don't even know what we could write that'd make it to publication or whatever.

[ballies]

If he was an unhealthy cop, he wouldn't be working the field let me tell you. [ running around after criminals takes it out of you. ]

We'd just need a topic to cover. The Addy letters seem to be about anything and everything, so it'd be figuring out what to say and how to slip a code into it. The simplest one I can think of is the one were you use the start of each sentence to spell a short phrase. ARE YOU THERE? Or something?

[resumed]

Alright, alright. [ no more talking about ryuki's health, that's private. but he seems focused on the idea of a letter. ]

We can make up a scenario since it won't matter. Something short's a great idea. [ ... ] Some of the responses sound a little...interesting. You know?

[ the verbiage...is a little specific in some instances. ]

We should have a back-up message, too. Just in case the first isn't clear enough.

[ballies]

[ she was thinking more along the lines of if he wasn't like. active and able to run. he does so much running, i realise. ]

Yeah. I really need to look over them all again, see if I can figure something out. [ hmm. ] Like... two messages to show it's not a coincidence?

[resumed]

Yeah. Once could be a coincidence, twice is a pattern. Or something like that? I think if we make sure the message gets through we have a better chance of something coming back to us. From whoever.

[ballies]

… Man, codes are tough to figure out when you can’t just automatically translate them.

[resumed]

[ pff. ]

Welcome to being mortal. [ it's a joke because fuck, he's there, too. ]