[ imeeji inbox ]

[at_heart]

You called me, so my guess is you know who I am. But I'm busy, so leave a message, or whatever.

Comments

[featherbeaned]

You bet it is.

One! I love fashion. Two! You're a gorgeous model. Three! I love shopping.

Four ...

I've got points to burn.

[at_heart]

[ Flustering a little again. ]

...yeah, well...

[ Might remember the points to burn comment later, but it makes sense to him in the moment. ]

[featherbeaned]

Well, what?

[ making a beeline for sportswear first ]

[at_heart]

[ Watching her go. He hangs back a tiny bit, shifting from foot to foot, then follows her in. ]

Calling me a model. [ Tiniest wry. ] Dunno. Feels less silly than it would've when I first got here, but...

[ Only because he's been Living That Hell Idol Life. ]

[featherbeaned]

But ...?

[ she's already picking through the selection ]

[at_heart]

[ ...Rubs the back of his neck. ]

Still feels kind of silly. It shouldn't, right? Heh. It's not like I'm not trying to look more like an 'idol', whatever that means. Even got Venti to do something with my hair for the weddings.

[ And now he's thinking about the more recent wedding again, and there's a tiny frown on his face as he slumps forward onto the nearest rack of clothing. ]

Comes more naturally to some people than others, I guess.

[featherbeaned]

Huh? Weddings?

[ ??? ]

[at_heart]

[ Stiffens a tiny bit. Right, talking out loud with his mouth. People can hear that. ]

—Yeah, the. Graduation weddings. One for my unit, one for Heart.

[ And he was calling it HSS for months without issue but sometimes things happen and then an acronym seems kinda impersonal and also HSS is harder to say which matters if you might be saying it more and look this isn't an important shift he doesn't even say the name of the unit that often. ]

[featherbeaned]

[ turns fully away from the sports gear now ]

Lupine, are you okay?

1/2

[at_heart]

[ who said he wasn't okay why wouldn't he be okay ] [ okay even he knows that would Not Work ]

[at_heart]

I'm—

[ But what else does he even say, this is such a...

Weird, stupid situation to be in, maybe, but in Imeeji it's probably happened before.

And it would feel — so good just to tell someone...

Pushing out a breath that stirs his bangs, Lupine sinks more of his weight onto the rack of clothes until all she can see of his face is his eyes. ]

I don't know. [ Warningly: ] It might sound ridiculous.

[featherbeaned]

Whatever you think it might sound like, it obviously means something to you. So, spill. Can't promise I'll be able to help, but I can promise to listen.

[ sometimes that's all the "help" somebody needs ]

1/2

[at_heart]

[ Doesn't say anything else for a few seconds, just — looking at her.

...Honestly, of the people he even could talk to about this, she's — probably the best option.

And Kit was here for a while, wasn't he? On Wild City or something. So — she might really know what this specific dumb thing is like. ]

[at_heart]

—Yeah, so. You remember a couple weeks back? When Heart got like four newbies overnight?

[featherbeaned]

When they went from one of the smallest units to one of the biggest? Yeah.

[at_heart]

Right. Well. I recognized one of their newbies.

[ happens every day right right ]

[featherbeaned]

[ ! ]

They're someone important to you.

[at_heart]

[ VISIBLY HAS TO WORK NOT TO ARGUE ]

I — well — maybe?

[ congratulate him that was so hard ]

[featherbeaned]

[ she manages to restrain herself from laughing. somehow. miraculously. ]

[ instead she finds the nearest display table to perch on ]

Right. Lay it all out for me. As much as you can, as far as you're comfy.

1/

[at_heart]

[ Just gonna keep leaning his weight on this rack of clothes which miraculously supports him fine. ]

Had two memories with a kid who looked kinda like him in them. We talked, I showed them to him, [ half his unit played peanut gallery, ] and we figured we might as well get some memories together...

[ The floomp becomes slightly more pronounced. ]

One of the ones we bought was the same thing, so it's definitely him, but I—

[at_heart]

[ and up OFF the rack abruptly, all open agitation now ]

How can I still not know who he is?!

[featherbeaned]

Who he is to you, or ...

[at_heart]

[ Doesn't love hearing it put like that. Drags a hand down his face. ]

...Yeah. I mean, one memory when we were like four years old, one memory when we're five, one when we're more like fifteen — so, hey, I've known him a long time...

[ Gesturing fluidly. ]

The one we bought together was some sorta reunion, hadn't seen him in a while, and I—

It should've helped a little, shouldn't it?

[featherbeaned]

Well …

Okay, so. Stop me if I'm coming at this from the wrong angle. [ Hum. Brings one leg up to her chest, loosely draping an arm around it and plopping her chin down on her knee. ]

With all the stops and starts you get with memory regains here, it can be kinda hard to definitively say, "Overall, I feel this way about this person." You're still missing a lot of the context and nuance. And, like ... You've always seemed to me like the type of person who could tie himself up in knots when there's feelings involved. You think so much. So much.

[at_heart]

[ Mostly what he's feeling right now is the heat crawling up the back of his neck. Arms start to cross over his chest, then stop and cross under again. ]

—I just...

[ Okay, he's going to pace. ]

The little-kid memories are simple. Met in some kinda orphanage, moved out of it and in together somehow.

[ Is this actually not simple? He doesn't seem to notice, pushing on. ]

The teen memory, I think we were friends. I was baking — something, it doesn't matter, and he...

[ Pauses, frowning. ]

—Do you wanna see? Maybe it'd be easier if you saw 'em.