rockymountaindie: (life is old thereβ€š older than the trees)
Alex Browning ([personal profile] rockymountaindie) wrote2019-05-08 06:07 pm
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dialetheism: (🌠 to the great unknown)

forward dated to the 25th

[personal profile] dialetheism 2019-12-21 03:16 am (UTC)(link)
[ Alex's gift was... tricky. Their first impulse was impossible - magic doesn't work anymore, so that's all out. But they had enough time to work on something else. So on the morning of the 25th, there is a odd package sitting outside his door. It's clearly labelled, with "FOR ALEX, FROM LION" neatly printed on the side, in an attempt to avoid any potential deathtrap problems.

The majority of the box is taken up by a thoroughly overstuffed first-aid kit, full of any possible thing one could need on a road trip to hell adventure. A field suture kit, way too many bandages, sterilising alcohol - if it exists, it's probably in here. Carefully resting ontop is a small, stuffed raven doll, and a sturdy leather notebook.

The majority of the book is blank, waiting to be written in. But the inside cover is covered in a two-page painting - a rough thing, messy but full of heart, picturing Clear. She's sitting in a dusty old record store on some long-forgotten afternoon, smiling.

Next to the book is a note, in painfully neat handwriting.

"To help you remember, on those bad days, that not everything has to end in darkness.

Keep going, Alex. Happy endings are worth fighting for.
-Ushiromiya Lion."
]
Edited 2019-12-21 03:17 (UTC)
dialetheism: (that's true.)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2019-12-31 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
[ It was only meant to be a short stop to deliver Leon's present. Nothing more, nothing less - and they couldn't very well leave him out after everything he's done for them, could they? It wouldn't be fair. More importantly, it'd be against the spirit of the season.

So when Alex turns up, what he finds is an uncommonly frazzled looking Lion. It's clear that they didn't expect anyone to be awake, or... to be looking for them. Everyone else has more important people to spend the day with, after all, and they're planning on just running back to their room and sleeping after this, so why bother?

Which, anyone who's been surprised by someone they know at the grocery store at 3am could tell you is exactly what would happen.
]

Um.

[ Eloquent. ]

Happy... Candlenights to you too? [ Ugh, that was bad. They wince and break into a less alarmed smile. ] I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were looking for me. Otherwise I would've made it harder.

[ Oh that's ni- wait. ]
dialetheism: (🌠 for a reason)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2019-12-31 07:28 am (UTC)(link)
[ On one hand, they could relent and see what he wants. On the other, it's Candlenights. ]

Mm, that depends. How good of a climber are you?

[ Lion. Lion don't climb the bookshelves. ]
dialetheism: (🌠 and just to clear the air)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2019-12-31 07:44 am (UTC)(link)
[ Oof, critical hit. Both from the appeal to their stuffy, rule-abiding nature and also making them go through the five stages of face-journey-grief at the name fuckery. ]

...It would be cruel to stress him out on Candlenights, wouldn't it? Especially if it's just a prank. [ Party pooper. Ssssiiigh. ] Better not, then.

[ And Alex has received the best gift of all: realising that Lion was fucking with him. ]

Really, I am sorry, though. I didn't mean to send you in circles. What happened?

[ ... as if people only come looking for them when something goes wr- actually yeah that. that's accurate. ]
dialetheism: (🌠 if we let them)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2019-12-31 08:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ Someday, they'll bond over being menaces to society. Someday. For now, Lion just blinks in confusion- as if remembering oh, right, it is. For once, people will go looking for them for reasons other then stitching their friends back together. A novel thought.

Hm. They can worry about the dissonance of that later. For now-
] Ah, you...

[ -they can ponder a different sort of dissonance. See, Candlenights is... strange. They've latched onto the concept as a life raft of sorts - you kinda have to after spending all of November in New New Aspen like they have, because the town is infectious and very stubborn - but only so far as giving gifts to others. Getting them back is strange and unfamiliar territory.

Which, in laymans terms, means Alex gets boggled at in confusion.
]

They do? [ .... Lion. ] I mean- um. I didn't expect you to... need to.

[ Right. Mutual holiday. Culture clashes are weird. ]
dialetheism: (🌠 who help us most to grow)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2019-12-31 03:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ There's an explanation lining up on the tip of their tongue already- but no, can't, they know how that'd go. He'd point out they got him a gift - and sure, Candlenights is Different, but...

... but it's nice, knowing people care in a tangible way. They cannot deny him or themself that comfort at a time like this. So after another lingering moment or two of well-meaning confusion, they cave with a startled chuckle.
]

It works somewhat differently back home. And I'm not... particularly used to it, I suppose - it didn't come up at all last year.

[ There. All neatly tied up in a verbal bow that technically explains nothing but can be elaborated on later if or when (probably when) he gets curious. It's officially a problem for Future Lion.

Please ignore that - without the additional context - that probably sounds like "so nobody got me anything for Christmas and that's okay".
]

... But now is as good a time to learn as any. Especially for a friend.

[ A-at least they're just teasing him again? ]
dialetheism: (🌠 changed for the better)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2020-01-01 10:01 am (UTC)(link)
It's more that I kept myself busy.

[ Rip future Will, he died for their sins. They're quick to take the box, if nothing else then because that can't be fun to hold with his hands, but... uh. ]

Well, then. A Merry-Happy Candlenights to you too, Alex.

[ Wait, they already said that, didn't they? Oops.

After an awkward moment or two of conflicted staring at the box, it... might become readily apparent that they're not sure whether to open it now or sprint off to somewhere else. It's politer to open gifts in front of the giver, isn't it? But what if that's another thing that's changed between worlds?

... Nope, not getting hung up on it today. They'll worry about that later. The box carefully gets set down on the nearest table, to free up their hands for-

delicately. undoing each little strip of tape, one by one. Lion.
]
Edited 2020-01-01 10:14 (UTC)
dialetheism: (🌠 as it passes a sun)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2020-01-04 09:51 am (UTC)(link)
Wh- No! No, I'm not.

[ -well, he doesn't need to know that the thought maybe crossed their mind, does he? Especially when the teasing makes them fuck it up, tearing the paper around a tape bit. ]

Oh, damn. [ Lion, he's standing two feet away, mumbling does nothing. ] I was- um, just being polite.

[ ... maybe they should work a little faster, then. Even if they're still refusing to tear the paper. ]
dialetheism: (🌠 in this lifetime)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2020-01-05 12:05 am (UTC)(link)
[ It takes all the dignity they can muster to not immediately start sulking. They've been through worse. This is fine. ]

You don't have to buy it if it's true.

[ It Is Not. ]

And I do not! [ A pause, considering. And- yep, there's the pout. ] It just- it makes more sense this way, that's all.
Edited (i was a heathen and put the italic on the wrong side of the punctuation) 2020-01-05 00:05 (UTC)
dialetheism: (βš“ i ask forgiveness)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2020-01-05 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
[ Why does this feel so ominous all of a sudden-- ]

Do not. [ They sound so prissy. ] And I don't know what you're supposed to do when- er, where, you're from, but ripping the paper just causes a mess.

[ So they're definitely opening it like someone's grandparents, yeah. Whoops. ]
dialetheism: (🌠 because i knew you)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2020-01-05 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
That's called a grandmother, Alex. [ Wow, harsh. ] And it's not fun for me.

[ There's the slightest twitch at the needling, but they're too stubbornly focused on the present to react. ]

... But it... doesn't take that long, does it?

[ Like. They have most of it off already, but now there's that undercurrent of uncertainty to it. ]
dialetheism: (🌠 tied with a ribbon)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2020-01-05 04:26 am (UTC)(link)
[ They pause at that, because- well. There's a lot that could be said. "It teaches you patience", maybe. Or "cool, still not my thing". Or "Alex, you're still a kid, what the hell".

Instead, they fiddle with one corner of the paper, trying their best to sound amused.
]

Ah, I doubt I would have been allowed to do that. [ Well, that's weird. ] ... My sister certainly kept trying, though.

[ That's ni- wait. ]
dialetheism: (🌠 so much of me is made)

[personal profile] dialetheism 2020-01-05 03:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ah. They hadn't quite meant to say that - mouth running a few steps ahead as the rest of them tried to find a topic that wasn't bickering about paper or prying into why they have odd, stuffy habits - but they know better then to pretend it didn't happen. ]

In case you haven't noticed by now, I'm rather fond of my privacy.

[ There's no heat to the reproach, as their forced levity settles comfortably into the usual tone of dry sarcasm. ]

And really, when would mentioning her have done anyone any good? We've all... lost, those close to us, and I'm already far luckier then most. [ Another piece of tape is carefully unstuck. They don't look up. ] Complaining further would be cruel.

[ Unlike so many, they didn't arrive alone. It's something they're forever grateful for, selfishly so, because they don't know where they'd be otherwise. ]

(no subject)

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