Inbox (Etraya)

[cantilevers]

Text | Voice | Video | Action

Comments

[cantilevers]

Oh, threats now, hmm? You did that once when you were little and I thought your tongue was going to choke you right after.

[He said that to prove that she hadn't changed as much as she thought she had. He believed she was just like the rest of them: a person who had been molded by the terrible tragedies of her life.]

Sorry kid, the exhaustion only gets worse once you're forty.

cw .... i guess talking like dying like its nothing....

[jinxs]

Hmmm. It's not choking me now - I'm serious, Vander.

(confident, even!)

Hah! Like I'm gonna make it till I'm forty.

[cantilevers]

Are you? Well, consider me thoroughly threatened, Jinx.

[He sounded amused, playful even.]

I thought the same thing when I was... wait, how old are you now? Eighteen?

[jinxs]

(take her seriously!!! man!!! ugh, dads.)

Yeah. Well, let's see. Ah, since you're definitely gonna ask me - everyone else is alive, too. I mean, kinda. Probably. Everyone else you cared for, at least. Like Ekko.

[cantilevers]

Kinda? Probably? You are not filling me with confidence here.

[jinxs]

Give me a list.

[cantilevers]

What kind of list?

[jinxs]

Of who you cared for. I'll tell you.

... I'll just tell you everything, now.

(she held back because she didn't want vander to know what she had done. there's no reason not to, anymore. she's deeply saddened, afraid, but she's breathing.)

[cantilevers]

Jinx that's... that's an impossible list. I cared for everyone in the Lanes. I had work buddies from the mines. I could list their names, but I'm not certain you'd know them all.

[Vander was a social person, he liked having friends or at least acquaintances. The list would be long.]

[jinxs]

(oh, yeah. vander was popular as hell. it's no wonder he has a statue and everything.)

Who do I know, from that time? Sevika, Silco, the stupid Chembarons, Ekko, that idiot, good for nothing Marcus, and... Vi, but I told you that last part, and the first two, you can ask yourself.

[cantilevers]

I expect the Chembarons have changed heads since I was around. [He did pause to think.] Babine, Jericho, Howard, Gert, Huck... [It should be obvious he's ticking people off on his fingers because the list goes on and on and on of business owners, regulars to the bar, street gang kids. If she doesn't interrupt him, he'll be at it for a few minutes straight.]

[jinxs]

(she's just listening - does she even know these people? maybe she does, probably so, but not enough to make an impression on her. damn, he was popular. she can say she knows like, 5 people, tops, that she is around.)

Nope, none of those.

[cantilevers]

As in none of them are alive or you don't know who any of them are?

[jinxs]

No idea who these people are, Vander. Or I don't remember, I don't go out a whole lot. Really live to work, you know? Super workaholic, that's me.

Also, get here. I'm tired at not looking at your face. This thing is annoying.

[cantilevers]

So the list you do know is actually the people you already listed out to me.

[That was... well, he supposed he was going to assume most of them were alive and just miserable or at least living afraid under Silco's rulership.]

Are you asking me to your apartment?

[Please do NOT ask him to figure out video function, Jinx. He managed text to voice, but it's asking a lot for another jump in format.]

[jinxs]

... Yeah, pretty much, though Ekko and I are definitely not friends anymore.

(to say the very least.)

Yeah, just come. Ugh, apartment, I hate this place. Miss my place. It was great. Had all my shit in it, was up and high, and now I'm like a jailed bird in this style-less room. I hate it.

[cantilevers]

What are you and Ekko now then?

[They had always seemed to get along. Ekko fit right in with his little horde of kids anyway.

At the offer, he was doubtful.]

Are you sure that won't cause problems for you if I do?

[jinxs]

... Great question.

(now? now, now? she hasn't seen him in a good while, not since he broke the hell out of her nose. he probably hates her even more, considering the explosion attempt.)

Enemies. He hates my guts.

(and he also made her life so damn difficult.)

I'm never in trouble, Vander.

[cantilevers]

Hmmm, I'm not sure I believe that, but you've seen him more recently than I have.

[He squinted and yeah he might be bringing himself to feet, but that reply was... oh Janna, this was the parenting style was it?]

You know that's problematic, right? You're not expecting 'unexpected' company today?

[He had no idea how often Silco came around to Jinx's place. If he was found there, he knew it would land him in trouble but as long as it was him and not Jinx, well, he'd risk it. He made his way down to her room and knocked on the door.]

[jinxs]

(she only gets 'unexpected company' when she's up to some shit, and lately, she hasn't been, so, it's fine, on all sides.

her room has been decorated the only way she knows how, grafitti and several dooddles, the smell of paint and crayon stuck to the walls, and she's doing some more monkeys and names to the wall when she hears the knock.)

Yeah, yeah. Get in.

[cantilevers]

[Vander slowly opened the door and peered inside. The room looked similar to his own in that it was sparse, but she had clearly started some decorating. He walked in a moment after, promptly shutting the door so that there was limited opportunity for someone to view him entering the place. They both knew who.

He walked further inside, examining all the doodles on the walls. She had a particular art style he noted, different and matured since she had been scribbling in a book at the Drop.]

I hate how white everything is in these places.

[jinxs]

Don't like here either. Lacks style, lacks everything. Eery, like they're watching us through the walls. Hope they don't like monkeys.

(but he gets an invitation, a gentle pat to the bed next to her, and a crayon that she picks right after to give him. it's easier to talk if she can focus on something else.)

[cantilevers]

[In the city of iron and glass, white was not a colour that was easily found. Everything had a film of grime or grit on it. This amount of constant white was an eyesore, and even now, he wasn't used to it despite having lived in the apartments since leaving the Kiramman mansion.

He slowly made his way over to the bed at her offer, awkwardly sitting on the edge of it like it might buckle under his weight. His bed was considerably larger, actually able to accommodate his height and width. That was a rare thing.]

It's hard to tell what they like and don't like. The fact there's not currency, no obvious crime, nothing to do but wait and fill the time... [He trailed off, taking the crayon that she offered and turning it over in his hands. How many time had he lay on the floor with her just scribbling and telling her silly stories with made up voices?] It's uncomfortable.

[jinxs]

(it's the tidiness that does it for her. nothing that she was ever around was this clean, this lackluster, missing the brightness of neon blue and pink that decorate all the spaces where she can be found. it's easily irritating, and it pushes her need to fill the space to the point that, very soon, the ceiling might too be drawn on.

once he sits, she can feel the bed sink with his weight - if anything, it's entertaining, and if he breaks her bed, at least she can say it's got some personality to it now.)

... Yeah. And there's a lot of people, and I don't know what to do with that-- and the freaking robots. They're weird, too.

[cantilevers]

[The robots, yes. Vander had never been exposed to robots. Yes, they had machines, but he couldn't say that any of them were sentient or even able to speak. Speakers were as close as they could come to that, and in such a case, it required a human voice on the other side. He was curious but wary of them, but he was also confident that he could break them if they became aggressive.]

Have you taken one of the robots apart yet?

[He turned his other hand over and scrubbed the tip of the crayon across his nail.]

People I can handle just fine. [People allowed him to throw himself into a sense of normal again, to build connections, alliances, friendships all the while hiding how deeply pained he was with his previous life burning down around him. He needed a sense of normal to hold things together.]