sighsqueen | INBOX (noctium)

So uhhhh. Question for you, Hapi.

Can you, uh. Feel me through your gem? Like when I feel things. You ever feel them too?

you're going to need to be more specific, B. i've not felt, i dunno, an unusual need to punch someone, get punched, or give anyone piggyback rides. nothing that screams you.

No, I mean like

All right, well, look. Remember when you were up on the Sky Station, and I showed up to get you? You must've figured, "how did he know to be up there", right? Well, the thing is

These gems, it's like they're tuned in to each other. When you're close to somebody, I mean, you can kind of...you can tell where they are. And stuff like that.

oh. huh.

to be honest, i hadn't really wondered that much. you've always had a knack for just, you know. showing up when you're needed. a few weeks before i showed up here i fucked up and sighed and bam, turns out you'd chosen that exact day to head back to abyss to lie low.

Aw, really? Heh, good to know I've still got it, even years in my future.

Anyway, uh, I was just wondering. Yuri knew when I got here. He came running and everything, really bailed me out. I was in pretty bad shape, as you can probably guess, coming from the middle of that damn ritual and all.

i uh.
don't take this the wrong way, okay? i mean, it's you. so i know you won't. but still.

i havn't. felt that you guys were around, i mean. i try not to think about people if they're not right there. tends to lead to worrying about them and- you know. feeling things recklessly. it's not that i don't care. just. gotta be careful about how active i am about caring.

but it sounds cool. i want to try it out. look at something, okay? i'll try to guess what it is.

Oh. Oh, yeah, I get what you're saying. Like if I were feeling something powerful and you felt it too, you might get tempted to sigh about it, and

Yeah, I get you. Uh, if that ever starts to become a problem, make sure to tell me, okay?

Okay, I'm looking at something!

i'll let you know. just didn't want you thinking that i don't like you guys enough to think about you.

not your arm. something i wouldn't guess.

Aw, c'mon, I wouldn't be THAT obvious!

[he says, as he casually looks away from his arm]

Anyway, like I said, I'm looking.

just making sure.

let's see. i'm trying to picture it now. i don't feel hungry-by-proxy, so it's probably not food. and. -it has to be a thing and not a person or an animal. if it was an animal i'd be feeling like 'aww'. and if it was a person i'd be feeling all not great about listening to me call it an 'it'.

so it's an object. and it's smallish, because it feels like you can see all of it at once and- i think you like looking at it. it doesn't feel like you're getting bored of it.

am I right so far?

[That's...actually a startlingly accurate description of the piece of driftwood he'd decided to focus on, where it sits on the table in his front room. She's right that he likes looking at it, too, though it is admittedly kind of boring, as decor goes.

Still, there's a lot of memories wrapped up in it, so it's really not surprising.]

Yeah. Yeah, you're right on track.

heck yeah, this isn't so hard after all.

...okay, maybe it is a little hard now i've used up all the obvious things to look for. i don't think its expensive? expensive-looking things have a feeling like- even if they're nice to look at you have to think about making sure people don't take them away and it's a pain. and. it doesn't make me feel like i want to do anything.

not that anything ever does, but you know. if you saw a pen and paper you'd have a writing-ish feeling. or a cleaning-ish feeling if you were looking at a brush.

oh, i know what it feels like. it feels like looking at a little figurine of an animal. not a fancy one, but one someone made.

That's what it feels like, huh? A little figure of an animal?

So is that what you think it is, or just what it feels like?

technically it feels like one of those rocks with a snail shell print in it. but i think that that's how i feel about those, not you. i'm trying to figure out what you'd feel rock-snail about.

so yeah, that's my guess. a little figure of an animal. not a good one. just one someone made for practice or because they were bored.

Pretty close! I don't keep stuff like that around my place, really, buuuuuuuuuuut I was looking at something with, what do you call it, sentimental value.

Is that like a rock with a snail shell print, to you?

yeah. i used to go looking for them, before everything. i only ever found one or two, but they're. i don't know. neat. like footprints you can keep.

it's a shame. everyone here is emeralds and sapphires and rubies and diamonds and all that, but none of them are snail rocks.

Haha, and let me guess. You'd rather be one of those, yeah?

my gut says yes, but my gut says all kinds of things. if i think about it- my gem's on my head, right? like a little horn.

it'd look weird to have a horn with a snail in it.

Yeah, I noticed that! Pretty flashy, if you ask me. At least mine's easy to cover up.

...Of course, yours is a lot less...uh, complicated, than mine is. So I guess it's a trade-off.

hot damn, you got a fancy one?

wait, darnit, we were meant to be talking about being telepathetic with gems, right? i went and got off-topic.

Oh, yeah! It's shaped like my Crest. You know, the circle with seven points, it looks like that.

[and he will never ever in one million years show it to her unless she asks]

Yuri's is on his back. I wonder what it means that yours is on your head? Well, besides that I bet it'd really hurt if you headbutted somebody with it.

Hey, so Yuri's birthday is next moon. Next one's Verdant Rain, I think.

I'm kinda resigned to the fact that there's no way I'm gonna be able to come close to what the guy did for me this moon when it was my turn, but still, we oughta do something for him anyway. What do you think?

oh heck, it's that time already?

it'd be a bad idea to make a big fuss out of it where people can see, right? i don't know what's going on, but it sounds like there's all kinds of trouble down in the underground. wouldn't want to catch the wrong kind of attention. buuuuuut that doesn't mean we can't do something where people can't see.

Sure enough! Just about the time of year I remember it being, actually...

I think you're right, though. Besides, I doubt he'd like being the one fussed over all public like that. In private, sure, but he's not the type for a spectacle unless he's the one making it.

it's a little later in the year than I remember it being. or earlier. earlier. it's hard to tell with winter but earlier. because it was coming up on the monastery's establishment day and that's before the end of the year and

oh right, yuri-bird's birthday

he likes that horse game, right? the one with all the different kinds of wooden soldiers where two of them are horses. [ ........chess. She means chess. ] we could try to find someone who could give him a good challenge at it, like he found people to try to beat the heck out of you. but maybe he wouldn't want us brining in someone who he doesn't know.

And we're sure as hell not good enough at it to stand a chance against him. Constance could, maybe, but...

[Aw, he just made himself sad, hang on.]

Well, if not that game, what about a different one? They must have a bunch of games here that we've never heard of, yeah?

coco's good at it. kind of. she's better than me. and when she loses, she does this thing where she clicks her fingers and all the taken pieces climb back onto the board and then keeps doing that until she wins. it's

i miss her, too.

[ ... ]

so we need a game where he can think things through to win. but one that doesn't need us to think to give him a proper challenge. i get all sigh-y if i think too hard.

how do you even find out what games there are? all the ones I know, I learned from yuri-bird. there must be a shop for it

We'd all have to take care of her, y'know, if she ever got around to showing up. She'd...take this place the hardest, y'know? Of any of us.

I think most people just go ask the whole world on these devices when they want to know something like that. Seems that way, anyway, with all the questions that go up on the public network. Somebody'd gotta be able to tell us, I think you're right about that.

she would. maybe she'd let me get touchy with her but
like it'd hurt her chances at
ugh. how does anyone deal with this nobility business

i'm going to ask around. there has to be some kind of game that would work.

Yeah. She wouldn't let anything get in the way of her chances at getting her house back. And she'd hide it. How bad it got for her.

You just get used to it, though, I guess. Being used to having stuff set out for you. Other people making plans for you. Having one of your names be more important than the other.

Well, anyway.

Let me know what you find out, all right? I know this bakery with sweet stuff that he likes. I'll handle his stomach if you want to handle his brain.

oh, right.
it's easy to forget, without all the bounty hunters. that you're not just ours and your mom's.

probably best we do it that way. i'd be way more tempted by the grub. don't want him to find big old bites in all his desserts, right?

Hey, if I'm my dad's any longer, it's not by much. The family made it pretty clear I wasn't wanted, Crest or not.

Aw, Hapi, you know I'll bring something for you too. That's what I got a budget for.

their loss. it's not like there's any less of you, so if they don't want you that just means you're more ours.
or something.
i don't know.

we want you. so you're wanted.

Hey, now. Don't you start worrying about me. You take all of me you want, there's more than enough to go around.

Listen. That taking care of people thing, that doesn't just go for Constance, okay? If you need me, you've got me too. You get me?

you can't just say one of those things and then say the other, b. if you're taking care of us, we have to take care of you, too.

wait. not if.
because.

because you're taking care of us.

And not "have to", either.

I don't take care of you guys 'cause I have to, you know that, right?

want to, then. want to and because.

you have a budget now, huh?

Hell yeah, I do! You want to see?

BUDGET

• FOOD — 30%
• CLOTHES — 10%
• SPECIAL FOOD — 5%
• HOUSE — 30%
• YURI — 5%
• EMERGENCIES — 15%
• OTHER STUFF — 5%

= 100%

Oh, uhhh. I wrote this up before you got here, so I guess maybe HOUSE can go down to 25%? So then there's 5% for you too!

shit, it's a real budget and everything? i thought you just meant that you were being careful with money but oh man you have numbers that add up and

what the heck, you got so good at this while i wasn't looking

Hell yeah, it is! It's really all because of Ashe, he helped me figure it out.

Well, and Yuri, a little bit. Since he's the one who wanted me to go straight and be respectable to begin with.

i'm really happy for you, you know. i figured you were going to have people chasing you back down under the monastery for the rest of your life. or wherever it is that people get chased to here. all the debt collectors live underground already. it'd be kind of useless hiding from them there.

hey, you'll be okay with it if it's a game with dice, right?

Sure, why not? I'm great with dice. What kind of game did you come up with?

you remember those training exercises from back home? where we had to think like we were protecting a fortress and figure out what to do? it sounds a little like that. except nobody gives you a lecture for deciding that the other guys can have the fortress if they stop fighting and let your soldiers go.

so there's a story. like one of freckles' stories. and you decide what to do. then you roll a dice to see if it works. then you decide what to do about whatever the dice decide happened and roll 'em again.

Oh, man, I was always so bad at those! I never could figure out why it wasn't the right answer to just go out and hit 'em.

That...sounds like the kind of thing that'd be right up the boss's alley, though. Stories and plans and schemes and rolling dice on chances. He loves all of that.

[A letter and a small package arrives! The package contains some cookies.

The letter is as follows:]

Hapi,

Wow I feel like I got carried away with these cookies. They were meant to be kind of sexy but also tasty? Did I succeed? I'm a little embarrassed, but I definitely think you'll appreciate these. Please enjoy them!

Warmly,
Ashe

[With no warning whatsoever, this monstrosity appears inside Hapi's apartment. It's not even wrapped. Why would he bother with wrapping it. It's just fully set-up and ready for use, precisely as god intended.

There is, however, a note pinned to the outside.]

Sweet dreams! — B

INBOX (noctium)

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