SIRENSPULL - contact.

[reassures]

[Cue mechanical answering machine voice.]

"You have dialed the number for N-I-L-L. This person is unavailable. Please leave a message after the beep."

[...BEEP]

Comments

[inthejunk]

[Another long pause. At least his breathing is starting to even out a little bit?]

No...no, it's okay. I was. Um. I just hoped I wasn't interrupting.

[reassures]

[It's definitely a good sign - as far as she can tell, anyway.]

No, you aren't. It's okay.

[inthejunk]

...Do you like tea?

[Rustling sounds as he starts trying to wipe his face off.]

[reassures]

Yes-- I do. I like it a lot.

[inthejunk]

[Shaky exhale.]

Yeah...um. I'll buy you some. A-and probably talk too much. But you like that, right? Remember when you said so? So, it'll be nice.

[reassures]

I like it a lot.

Would you like to do that now? Or sometime soon?

[inthejunk]

Okay.

[Yes or no questions probably have a higher success rate right now.]

[reassures]

--You're still living with Uryuu, right?

I can come see you, if you'd like. And we could go get tea.

[inthejunk]

...Yeah. Okay.

[reassures]

I'll come by to see you soon, then. I won't take too long.

[inthejunk]

Thanks. I'll. Um. I'll go find my wallet.

psssst where did you want to do this thing, if at all?

[reassures]

Take care.

We can action it up or log it, whatever works best for you?

[inthejunk]

Yeah...

Action logging ftw! I'm too lazy for logs 90% of the time

[reassures]

[It'll be maybe 15 to 20 minutes at most - either with walking time, or subway travel time, who knows - but eventually, Yosuke should hear a light knocking on Uryuu's door.

See? She told you it wouldn't be long.]

AWESOME I'm short on time for the next few days anyway! /wink

[inthejunk]

[He's washed his face by then, and changed out of the shirt he'd been wiping his nose on. He's pretty sure he looks considerably better, at any rate.]

...Hey. Uh, I should probably use 'yes' or 'no' questions, right? Hmm, okay. Do you have a favorite place for tea? I know where a few are if you don't.

Same here really. Take care!!

[reassures]

[Nill offers him a small and polite smile, albeit a slightly concerned one. He looks better, but his thoughts aren't a great improvement as far as she can tell. She shakes her head, no, no favorites, before pulling her NV out of the pocket of her coat. She quickly types on it and holds it up for him to see.]

More than 'yes' or 'no questions is fine.

u2 shorty

[inthejunk]

[He reads the message and nods, almost vaguely. And he's quieter than usual as he starts to tug on his shoes.]

To tell you the truth I don't know what to ask you anyway.

[Yosuke steps out the door, and locks it behind himself. He forgot to grab his jacket, but it's not worth going back in for, so he just puts his hands in his pockets when they get to the stair well and hunches his shoulders a bit against the slight chill. He smiles at her anyway, trying already to play the whole thing off like a joke.]

I feel terrible.

thanks, scrawny

[reassures]

[Another slight smile, reassuring this time. That was fine - she didn't mind if he didn't, although it was odd that he was already so quiet. Just as long as he didn't think he couldn't say anymore than that.

He must know that won't work, though. This, a joke? As if she could ever consider it one. And if Yosuke ever thought of it as one, she'd probably be furious with him.

She hesitates a moment, before typing on her NV and lifting it up again. This was the easiest way, if she didn't want to use her abilities. Which she didn't.]

It was someone from your world-- right?

[inthejunk]

[He reads it and his eyes slide away to the nearest blank space almost instantly. He probably should keep staring at his shoes, or he's going to walk into someone going the opposite way. But it's easier than looking at her, at the moment.]

Yeah. A-

[Classmate he tries to say, though it's not the right word to describe Chie at all. Teammate is closer. Friend is hopeful, maybe even stupid at this point, but it's there. Either way he chokes on the word and has to try again, shaking his head, furious with himself. He's in customer service! Honestly, he should be better at this by now. He usually is.]

Um, we lived in the same town. I sat in the row behind her at school.

[reassures]

[It isn't hard to glean Chie's meaning; Nill doesn't even had to try to read his thoughts, they come pouring to the surface, pushing themselves in front of her thoughts like spray paint against a wall.

And for one, small moment, that horribly jealous and angry thing inside her flares up. This is one of the people that Yosuke had wanted to leave her for. This is one of the people that would have taken her senpai away.

But she looks at the boy beside her, and that angry, vicious thing shrivels and backs away; and Nill reminds herself for the hundredth time that it doesn't matter anymore because her Yosuke is dead.]

She sounds more important than that.

[inthejunk]

[It's lucky he can't hear her thoughts the way she can hear his, or this tentative attempt at repairing some irreparably broken thing would be over long before it began. As it is, he's still just thinking about himself, and his own woes. It hasn't even occurred to him that this conversation must be really hard for her, too.]

It was too soon to tell, I guess.

[That's not entirely true, but it's what falls out when he opens his mouth, anyway.]

[reassures]

[She doesn't expect him to think of her - outside of the acts of kindness that Yosuke performed for her (taking her in, being her senpai, introducing her to everyone she would come to care about in the future), she's certain that he never thought of her much before, either. It's just... how he is.

But Nill tilts her head at him, trying to look inquisitive. Why was it too soon? She can tell he doesn't exactly think so, but just why that is is a bit difficult for her to tell.]

[inthejunk]

[He glances up and sees that head tilt, then glances away again. He doesn't know how much she knows -probably more than he's comfortable with- but he doesn't think he can tell her about the little team they were starting to form and the hopes he had for it to be something like friendship, maybe. Something that no one tried to give him bad directions to, because hey, he belonged there. They wanted him there.

Or, at least, he likes to hope that they someday would have.]

Do you like milk tea? I, uh. I found a place that does that...

[reassures]

[He doesn't need to tell her. She'd known sparse details about Yosuke's world and his friends, the things they did together, but she knew enough to know that Yosuke loved his friends and his world more than her, and Naruto, and Shika, and everyone else. Enough to know that this Yosuke would get exactly what he wanted in those people, or would have if he'd been permitted to stay there with them.

This Yosuke is too young, she thinks. Too young because he doesn't even have the reasons that her Yosuke was going to leave them for yet.

Maybe if her Yosuke had been that young, they would have been important enough for him to want to stay.

Nill smiles very lightly however, and nods her head, even if she isn't looking at him. Milk tea was fine - any tea was, she wasn't picky after all.

Just keep smiling.]

[inthejunk]

[He glances at her again, opening his mouth to say something (though he isn't sure what) but something catches his shoe lace and instead he ends up wide-eyed, and open-mouthed, flailing and then tumbling headfirst onto the landing. He skids a few feet on his side, then thrashes to try and right himself or break the momentum, and realizes too late there's another set of stairs behind him, which he slides down on his ass with a series of pained yelps and thumps. When he hits the next landing he skids to a halt against the wall, still vibrating a little from the aftershocks of that last ride.]

[OW, fuck! Ow!]