ic inbox ( balance )

[protegge]

[the chorus of blondie's CALL ME, sung extremely poorly but with great enthusiasm]

( text | voice | video | action )

Comments

two days before the dance i guess...?

[bu773rfly]

[Erika's room isn't a very decorated one. Half of it is Futayo's, so, well, uh, hmm. The personal touches to the other half are tightly contained - ornaments from New Aspen laid out in a row on the desk, pillow creatures guarding the end of the bed, Hudie-logo hoodie hanging like a flag on the wall.

She's the messiest thing in here right now, running a fever and still wearing pajamas and feeling poorly equipped to be awake. Sleep came and went and left her groggy and clumsy and bored, and left her butterflies strewn limply around the room, lying out like someone tripped and spilled them across the bed and the floor.

She's pouring her discontent into messily dissecting a Potatostation when noise arrives at the door, and putting it down and getting there is slow, achy business that etches a grouchy frown onto her face.

(Not that you can see it behind the surgical mask. Sick she may be, but a disease vector? No way.)]

[protegge]

[The truth of the matter is that he'd have jiggled the door open with his elbow if he had to. He was halfway expecting that anyway. He's used to two kinds of sick people: the Narancias of the world, aka normal people, who lie in bed and whine about how shitty they feel, and the Fugos of the world who would rather die than admit they're sick and need some help.]

[His instinct is that Erika's the latter. That's why he's here. And even if he's wrong, it's not like anybody sane in the world is gonna say no to chicken soup and crackers when they're sick.]

[So he's in the process of juggling the tray he's carrying into one hand so he can reach for the handle himself when Erika opens the door. He blinks, nonplussed, and then waggles the tray around dangerously.]

Room service! [At least he's pitched his voice down to something approaching normal. He's gotten kicked in the shins too many times for yelling while somebody's sick not to know better by now.] You didn't hafta get up. You look like a goddamn bus hit you. [Could you not.]

2/14; BACKDATED....

[gotyourbach]

Oh, Mista-kun!! There you are!

[Kaede's voice rings loud and clear as she catches sight of her target walking on the other side of the street and immediately starts jogging toward him. Could she just walk? Yes. Will she? Not this time.]

I was starting to get worried I wouldn't find you... I have something for you!

[protegge]

[Sometimes, you just have to jog everywhere you go. Sometimes, you act genki even when you're not. Mista, for his part, is performing a grade-A stroll, hands in his pockets and humming tunelessly to what he remembers from Stylosa's latest song, when . . . suddenly there's a girl hollering at him.]

[So he stops. Duh. Even if he is a little (visibly) surprised as he turns towards her.]

You wha? [A genius...... The World's Smartest Man.]

hi mom!

[oculusriffs]

[you know how sometimes you try to fight a pirate and the pirate's got a goddamn universal cheat code of a sword, and all you've got is a universal embarrassment of a sword, and then you kind of fall off the face of the earth for two weeks while your mother from another universe was scolding you for getting possessed]

[it really is like that sometimes]

[anyway, hi Mista! here's a text after said two weeks:]

hey

SON

[protegge]

[It's been a rough couple weeks. A busy couple, fortunately, but that doesn't mean worries aren't still worrying. So it's a good thing the bracers aren't even remotely removable because Mista sure would drop his at this text otherwise.]

DAVE

[oh he must be forgiven then]

are you ok???

text;

[parfaitgirl]

[ We'll say this is a few days after Mista's network post, sometime during the day ]

where are you right now?

[protegge]

[THIS IS TERRIFYING]

who wants to




oh its you
uh just in the quad why

sometime before mission briefing

[hxppythxughts]

[It was pretty cool to feel normal for a few days, and then Ogata had to go and do that thing he was doing and now she's got all kinds of gross emotional gunk inside of her. Writing helped a little but she still feels restless and frustrated in a way she's not sure how to process.

So she gears up and shoots Mista a text. He'll know how she's feeling anyway but she thinks he would appreciate an invitation.]

hey cutie (⌒▽⌒)♡ im gonna go try out that monster challenge thing!!! i got a cool book from the gachapon and i wanna try it out (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و its almost like target practice so i thought id invite u if u want to come check it out!!!

[Maybe surprisingly to some people, but surely not Mista, she does pretty well! She's very winded but also very pleased with herself as she finds him in the stands afterwards.]

[protegge]

[Oh boy, this has all sucked a bunch! You know what doesn't suck? Sayori calling him cute. That is so much nicer than the other things that are happening that he hates. Thank god for her.]

hey princess ｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡

[Why did she teach him this awful skill.]

(((o(*°▽°*)o))) oh HELL yeah i wanna see you kick some ass
ill be there

[And he is, in fact, there. With figurative bells on, because he can be both seen and heard up in the stands, hollering expletive-laden support and waving a hastily-scrawled sign. The sign says, simply:]

SAYORI DESTROYS!!!

[With a bunch of explosions going off around it, for some reason.]

[When she wins, because of course she wins, he meets her halfway, managing to pick her up and spin her around without whacking her ankles against the stands, because he is talented.]

Hell yeah! Hell yeah yeah yeah!

[YEAH!!!!!]

text; ogatagate. u know.

[hxppythxughts]

[She's been dealing with her own conversations and internal chaos related to this turn of events, but Mista's anger is like a warning siren over all that. She really doubts the timing is a coincidence, considering his protective nature and his friendship with Alex.

She fires off a text when it doesn't subside after a few moments.]

hey are you gonna be okay? if you need anything lmk
sry to text instead of calling btw just didnt want to interrupt
but yeah
let me know

[She types an L and then thinks better of it. Deletes it. Not a good time.]

i kno.

[protegge]

[This is a good part of the Oath. But it's also a very bad part of the Oath, because he's just worrying her when really he's fine.]

[The irony is lost on him, frankly.]

im ok
just pissed off at alex

[So, you know, par for the course for everyone right now.]

voice; ogatagate 2

[feytality]

[ the main disadvantage to being oathed to two empathetic girls: they notice when he's upset, and attack w feelings, one after another. ]

[ like sayori, maya's also noticed the spike in mista's emotions after the network post --- it's not hard to put two and two together, especially since it turns out so few people knew about it. maya was surprised that sayori didn't know, but it wasn't like she found out from alex telling her. she just took it for granted that alex or wash or will would have shared. ]

[ something obviously went down with mista though, past just the network post. this is angrier than she's ever seen-- well, felt him. she's worried. ]

Mista? What happened?

[ she knows he's not okay so it's pointless to ask. ]

[protegge]

[There are a lot of advantages to the Oath and he wouldn't take it back, but also, it kind of sucks to know Maya's on the other end of this. It seems like an unpleasant thing to expose her to, even if there's no way to avoid it.]

[He mostly sounds tired when he answers.]

Alex.

[Just Alex.]

text; 6:25 Many Loops In

[petsthedog]

[Shinjiro probably should be doing something more productive, but he's feeling the fatalism in this Chili's tonight and he's just been staring at the ceiling at the Willow Inn for a few hours trying to get some sleep before the reset, which has been a complete failure.

His thoughts have been running on a bit of a loop themselves, various reflections and misgivings he can't seem to silence, and they only seem to get louder after the earthquake. Almost time to die again.

There's a few minutes of hesitation, then he opens up his contacts list on his bracer, and sends a message.]

hey
busy?

[protegge]

[In fairness, it's kind of hard not to feel the fatalism in this Chili's tonight. It's been a long, long, long few . . . periods of time that are starting to stop making sense, and Mista, for his part, has long sunk into the kind of no-sleep survival mode he's only lived in this long one time before.]

[He doesn't even know it. That's what sucks. It'll hit him in the back of the head later.]

[For now, he's walking back from the shrines again. They're comforting, just a little. And when he gets the message — look, he's still new to texting but he knows what that kind of text means. Something serious. Almost definitely.]

nah
heading back to the inn
meet you there?

dec 3, happy bday stinky boy

[hxppythxughts]

hi sweetheart!!! ( ˘ ³˘)♥
come find me at the inn ive got a surprise for you!!! (ﾉ≧▽≦)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

[Does she realize how this sounds?

That will neither be confirmed nor denied.

But she doesn't clarify. She'll just let him follow the Oath GPS to her room in the Sleepy Willow. And she whips the door open with a bright grin once he's close—no need to knock!

She holds out a card, or at least a piece of paper that has been turned into a card.] Happy birthday!

[protegge]

[Sayori is, quite literally, the cutest girl on earth. He feels thoroughly gutted by this message, even putting the weird horny energy of it aside for a moment. So, after the swell of almost painful affection, he hurries to her.]

[Here's the thing: with how everything's been going, he absolutely doesn't remember that it's his birthday. Hasn't even registered that November has become December, in the same way that the blur of trauma — or its echo — always disorients him. So when the door flies open and Sayori holds out a piece of paper—]

[He's dumbfounded for a second. Takes it in his hand obediently, reads it and then reads it again, more carefully the second time. The pictures are . . . of him, and her, and the Pistols. And she said . . . happy birthday. Didn't she?]

[It's a solid fifteen seconds later that Mista reacts. By starting to sniffle a little. Oops.]

forward dated to the 25th

[dialetheism]

[ Late on the 25th, well after everyone else has gotten their festivities over with, there is a present waiting outside Mista's door. It's wrapped in tacky Fantasy Costco paper, and addressed to him with a note in a precise, neat hand.

Inside is a satchel containing various gardening tools - a trowel, hand rake, and so on - and a small watering can. Each item has a different vibrant colour of leather for the handle, and the watering can is hand-painted in the most awfully garish way imaginable. Accompanying this is a pair of thick, dark blue gardening gloves.

The note is simple, formal, and unsigned.

"I hope this helps. Happy Candlenights, Mista-san." ]

[protegge]

[So fucking Lion makes him cry again on Christmas of all days. The bastard.]

[Living in decently close quarters with someone for over a year means he recognizes Lion's handwriting anyway, but reading the note, he has to kind of laugh. Signed or not signed, how many people does Lion think call him Mista-san? Not very anonymous.]

[But then he opens the package and looks through what he's received, which are shockingly not whatever the rich person equivalent of a whoopie cushion would be (gold whoopie cushion?), and proceeds to just sit there for a while. Thinking. And sniffling. Ferran's not here, which is good. And Sayori and Maya can't feel him, which is good.]

[It's good.]

[After a while, he gets up and lopes down the hall to Lion's door, which he proceeds to bang on. Heavily.]

a few days before the 25th

[eudaimonikos]

[It was tempting to get Mista an entire tailored suit, honestly. A good one. With a decent fit and normal-ass colors.

But that's a little more of an expense than Michael's budgeted for everybody's gifts, not to mention it seems like a real pain to try and acquire all his measurements without his knowledge. So maybe he can go in just a slightly different direction here. Two wrapped gifts turn up outside Mista's door, along with a note:]

Hope you like these. This was an interesting experience for me.

Happy holidays.

- Michael

[Inside the first is just absolutely the worst, most ugly hat Michael could find. It is hideous. Why.

The second gift contains a blazer that is actually appropriate formalwear. Maybe this will make up for his sin.]

late evening before candlenights

[petsthedog]

[There's a pair of immaculately wrapped gifts in extremely gaudy wrapping paper left at Mista's door when it is gently ding-dong-ditched in the evening.

One of these is a gag gift; it looks and feels like a gun, but whenever Mista gets around to trying to fire it, a banner will pop out instead, along with some pre-loaded confetti. The banner? Just reads "Bang!"

The other, meanwhile, is a really nice gun cleaning kit. Notably, there were slots for four bronze brushes. One of them has been removed.

The card that comes with it has Mista's name on it, and a note in scrawled, somewhat messy handwriting:

happy candlenights
thanks for everything

Below it is ... well, a bit of a mess, where he wrote his name and scratched it out and then wrote it again. Like he waffled on whether to identify himself for a while and then just left it before he lost his nerve.]

on the 25th

[ribticklers]

[There's a box in front of Mista's door. Inside is one (1) hat with Sayori's face on it from Lyrabar and one (1) outfit designed to be the same kind of style as the clothes Mista lost that one time. Everyone on the moon base is welcome.

There's no tag on it, just a red bow.]

present!

[feytality]

[ mista will receive the following: daifuku of all the bullets and mista's hat, a samurai crop top pajamas (yes, maya cut the crop top herself), a handmade plushie of sayori, handmade moon bracelet (part of a matching set; maya has a handmade stars bracelet and sayori has a sun bracelet), and a card from maya wishing him happy candlenights! the card is full of doodles of him (and the sex pistols, and sayori) in various poses, such as: holding hands with mista and maya, being a mom to the sex pistols, being a mista samurai, mista werewolf, mista punching ogata in the face, noogieing alex, there are so many. the card thanks him for being so kind to her from the beginning -- she admits she felt very alone and scared at first, but he was her first friend and helped her when she was overwhelmed. the card also details how happy and lucky maya is to have him -- and had him from the beginning - and how he's smart and funny and strong and amazing and she's sorry if she ever made him feel like he wasn't. the card tells him that she always believed he was a good person even if she was clumsy when he admitted his past to her, and believes it more strongly every day, and other such mushy things. she still might disagree on his and giorno's approach to things back home, but if mista believes in him, that's enough for maya. the card thanks him for everything he's done for her and assures him that nothing will keep him and the sex pistols apart. the card reminds also tells him that he's the only boy good enough for sayori in her books. it then wishes him happiness, safety, and good luck only -- and ends on a doodle of him, sayori, and maya holding hands. ]

[ there's also a bullet-shaped 'protection from bad luck' omamori, blessed by both mia and maya. ]

giftmas

[doubledsofjustice]

[From shsl bigsis Mista will receive a plant. Don't worry: it is almost impossible for even Mista to kill an aloe plant. There's a ribbon tied around its pot, and the pot is even festively painted by Maya.

Among the aloe branches is a second omamori for mista, shaped like a golden gun. Inscribed on it is "true aim".

Mia's small note reads-

Mista

because she definitely made sure Maya confirmed his name was right before she sent this

Take care of this plant even just a little, and it'll take care of you, too. Aloe's great for helping wounds repair, and good for the face and body as well. This good luck charm is meant to steady your wrist, and the other to protect you from ill luck. Omamori are meant to be worn as often as possible, so keep them close!
I don't think I've ever thanked you for helping to take such good care of my sister, so along with a happy candlenights; thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

May the New Year bring us all success.

-Mia]

present

[wrightingwrongs]

[Mista seems like he'd be the kind of person who enjoys gag gifts. So here's his.

It's a hat. It's a beanie he got from Fantasy Costco, and while you can see some of the color (a deep purple) on the band, the rest is obscured.

That's because Phoenix has painstakingly made sure the entire outside of the hat is lined with the most neatly folded tinfoil he could possibly get away with.]

25th

[hxppythxughts]

[A messily-wrapped box, with Mista's name written directly on the colorful paper. There's a handmade card on top, decorated with stickers and doodles of wintry images like snow, gingerbread men, etc. It's not properly signed, but the signature isn't necessary. On one side of the interior:]

Tall green trees in lights twinkling bright,
Sparkling strands of tinsel and snow pure white,
The smell of hot cocoa and apple cider too,
A very merry Candlenights, from Sayori to you!
[And then on the other side:]

I was looking into plants that might be nice for your garden and I learned that a lot of them symbolize different things! The long purple flower is heather and it means "protection." The cluster of pink ones is phlox and it means "our souls are united." The orange one is a type of lily that means "devotion." Maya and I have pins that match the heather and phlox, but the lily is just for you because you're the most devoted person I know! I hope you can get them to grow. I think they'll be pretty!

I was gonna write a lot more in this card but I think the gifts say everything I want to say. I love you!

[Inside the box is a gift set of salami and cheese, an awful sweater, pouches of seeds for the flowers described, a handmade book, and a pin depicting a string of heather halfway encircling a cluster of phlox, while the blossom of an orange Peruvian lily is centered inside.]

text

[hxppythxughts]

[This text arrives within the day after the network comes back up.]

hey so we definitely super duper were 1000% dating before i think!!!

[Pause.]

wait
this is sayori if u dont remember my network un yet sry

[protegge]

heh no i remember
its cute
sunshiney

uhhh how do you know tho
like it makes sense but

un: sidewalkends | text (private)

[myliteratureclub]

Mista!
Sorry this is so out of the blue, but are you free for a little bit?
I have something I want to give you!

[protegge]

what seriously?

yea im free im not doing anything [after his DROPPING GIRLS SHAME]
im on the beach
whats the thing

[Present? Present?]

oct 7; action

[hxppythxughts]

[What a day. What a day! It's a very special day; and every day she gets to spend with him is special, but this one is extra special.

Even so, for being a special day, a lot of the daylight hours were spent goofing off the way they usually do. Eat way too much street food, dance with the Animalians, play in the daily 5 o'clock rain. And tell a bunch of people that it's their anniversary to get extra little treats thrown in, of course. The Baislans sure do love love! Sayori can't complain. Being congratulated for it is embarrassing, but she loves food and she loves Mista, so what's she gonna do, not tell people? Ridiculous.

She's wearing the dress he got her for Candlenights, and a ridiculously fancy hair bow to go with it. Which both got wet in the rain, but which she cleaned up pretty easily with Prestidigitation. Aces. The shoe situation is simple black sandals with a couple cute straps, because that's just how it is on a beachy island. Plus, her various Friendship Adornments. The pendant he gave her is ever-present.

That was the day, though. The sun is setting, casting the sky in warm streaks of orange and pink that reflect off the rolling surface of the sea. It's really pretty; a perfect backdrop for their boat ride over to the third "toe" of Baisla's foot. Which is a perfect place to find some privacy from the bustling market and the shared cabanas, as they've discovered. It's pretty much the only place, unless they want to picnic in the Foggy Forest.

It's a pretty noisy boat ride, because they're a pair of idiots who shouldn't be trusted to row their own boat anywhere, but it's fun. Setting up camp is also a noisy process, because they're not Rangers. It's fine. There's a blanket, there are bedrolls, there's food. There's a fire, eventually. She even remembered to bring soap and toothpaste tablets. It's fine!

Sayori remains sprawled obnoxiously out on their big blanket while Mista asserts himself over the campsite to his content. When he finally comes to join her on the blanket, she sits up, alert and excited again.] Hey, so— I know there's a bunch of stuff we wanna do, but first—

[She drags the Bag of Holding over and buries her arm down to her shoulder in it, rummaging around while she speaks.] —I have some presents for you, and it's been killing me to wait all day! So let me give them to you now, okay?

[protegge]

[All of this still kind of feels like a dream. Not that he doesn’t believe it — one of the things about Sayori is how real she is, which is ironic, he guesses, but nevertheless true. The part that feels surreal is that he would have a one-year anniversary at all, let alone with a girl who doesn’t remember half of her own past right along with him and his patchy memory, on an island made of animal creatures in a world that’s at best a temporary refuge from his devoured home.]

[It’s a lot to deal with. They deal with it the way they deal with everything: by enjoying the moment, by making a mess and laughing about it, by luxuriating in each other’s company. They don’t sink the boat, and that’s good. He doesn’t kill the fire, and that’s good too. When he flops down on the blanket, exhausted by his desperate attempts at competence, Sayori’s already arms-deep in her bag, saying something about presents.]

[He kisses her anyway, because he hasn’t in a few minutes, and he wants to, and he loves her.]

Okay. [He offers her a quirked grin.] I have a couple for you, too, but you can go first.

[As Mista does not have a Bag of Holding, these presents are in his pack. One of them fell out onto the bottom of the boat on the way over, and he made her solemnly promise that she didn’t see anything. It was wrapped, but still.]