[CLOSED] Good or bad, you only have a limited time to spend time together.

[sunstead]

Who: Clamor & others
When: ??? August, time is fake
What: Backdated closed prompts to make up for mission purgatory
Warnings: this is a fluff only zone, at worst there might be some mentions of like death/violence and stuff but FLUFF ONLY ZONE ONLY SOFT FEELS ALLOWED HERE



((Feel free to hit me up at BlueFlewFedUQueen, ping me through the game discord, or send me a PM if you'd like to backdate something!! more current prompts for September will come later.))

Comments

[sunstead]

[Clamor doesn't put up a fight, even though there's flour all over his sleeve now... but that's a thought far from his mind right now. He sighs, his smile dropping.]

Noah... no, I'm sorry, that wasn't fair of me. [trying to sweep something like this under the rug, like they don't know all about that night Noah woke up clawing tallies into his wrist. it isn't something he should be lying about.] I don't think I did... and there were only eight last week, I'm sure of it. I really don't know where this one came from.

[... but

but he can guess. what might be related to it.]

... Nao had only one tally, didn't she? [one tally, and one death. haha.]

[silentabyss]

Uh... I don't know, I think so, but I only ever said "hi" to her and then walked away.

[Like, literally, he walked up to her, said hi, got too shy to exist and then went and sat in a corner for the rest of the family meeting. He's avoided her like the plague ever since.]

What does Nao have to do with this anyway? She didn't do anything to you, did she?

[sunstead]

No, no, it's not like that. [please, do not run out of this room seeking vengeance on Nao—] It's just... well, she was "dead" once, wasn't she? Before she was put in that display case...

[and... maybe he also "died" the other day. he just got better after. he thinks.]

... A-anyway, we don't know anything for sure. There could be lots of reasons for tally marks besides the ones we know about.

[silentabyss]

[You know him so well, because he was absolutely about to. Noah squints and connects some dots, but none of that makes sense. Nao was dead and got a tally, he guesses? But Clamor getting an extra doesn't make sense because he's right fucking here.

sighs sadly, knowingly]

...yeah, maybe. You're not... implying something bad happened to you, are you?

[S t a r e s]

[sunstead]

Nothing serious! Well, uh, nothing... permanent... [ahaha... please don't be mad at him for this]

We ended up in the void when we were talking with gardener, and then a fight broke out. While everyone else was busy with that, I saw Amami fall unconscious, and when I tried to get to him I also fell unconscious. [said in a slightly embarrassed tone because damn, he sure didn't help with that one huh. he rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.]

After I passed out... apparently, we both started to dissolve? Lucifer did something to stop it, but he said he thought I was dead until we all suddenly appeared somewhere else. [just........ casually leaves out every gory detail, its fine,] Sorry, I know that's probably hard to follow and I'm not sure of all the details myself, but that's the only thing I can think of.

But everything turned out fine, so you don't have to worry about that part at all, really!

[silentabyss]

[NOTHING PERMANENT...]

You started to dissolve?! [Hello?!] Why did you start to dissolve?! What?! What do you mean it "turned out fine", did you get healed or something?!

[Where's the healer, hello? Noah needs to speak to them immediately. Now his floury little hands are pulling up Clamor's sleeves further like he's going to see some scars from dissolving or something. Does dissolving scar?

Clamor are you good?!]

[sunstead]

Noah, I'm fine. I promise. [please, you're getting him all flour-y...]

I don't know. Whatever happened... undid itself? I think it was because of the tree... [which is. something he needs to discuss with Nene, meanwhile, but that's for another thread] I feel fine, and I'm not injured, so let's leave it at that for now, okay? Acting without knowing the full picture won't do us any favours.

[and besides... he hasn't eaten in over a day? hello?? please he just wants these pancake to exist in an edible state, he's going to try stirring the mix some more and hoping the extra dry stuff is enough to balance the rest out.]

[silentabyss]

[Mii music playing in Noah's brain...]

...okay. S...sorry.

[One last little squint, though, and then Noah finally moves his floury l'il hands away and goes back to trying to help Clamor out... which, because Clamor's taken the mix now, is really just Noah standing there for emotional support. When he thinks Clamor isn't looking, he wanders to go sneak another bite of chocolate chips... do not perceive him.

Anyway, the dry stuff seems to make their disastrous pancake mix less ?? slimy ?? so that's good at least; there's a pan on the stovetop (not hot yet) awaiting Cursed Pancakes. Noah flips the burner on as Sidney showed him that day when they first made pancakes together. That's probably the one part of this he hasn't majorly fucked up so far.]

[sunstead]

[He is perceiving... but he doesn't say anything this time, because maybe Noah deserves another handful of emotional support chips after all that.

i dont know what this monstrosity of a recipe would actually look like short of concocting it myself, so let's just assume they get it to a ???normal??? consistency. which is probably still a generous statement, but whatever, it's fine, it'll probably be mostly edible. now its waiting for the burner to heat up time...]

... You don't have to apologize for anything. I was... being reckless, I suppose.

[looking back, he did a lot of reckless things. he knows he's not a combat mage, even his one attempt at going on the offensive only ended up putting everyone in danger... and if Kazuki hadn't been the person he was deep down, it all could've ended disastrously. would they have been able to win, exhausted as they were, if Kazuki had gone all-out?

but he wanted to do something. he couldn't just stand by and let others deal with these problems for him. everyone else has been working so hard... what has he been doing, really?]

I'm sorry, Noah. I didn't mean to make you worry... I just wanted to help.

[silentabyss]

No, I-I know you did.

[Please, now he feels guilty for being worried. Clamor's always so earnest, always wants the best for people, so who is Noah to get all concerned anyway? He tells himself that Clamor probably knows what he's doing and not to fret, but...]

I think you were probably more helpful than you think. You're a spirit mage, and Kazuki is a... spirit of a type, right? [Something something Noah's only heard passing rumours about the guy.] I doubt Amami and whoever else went with you has much expertise in that area, so don't look so sad, okay?

[He goes to pat Clamor on the shoulder and then remembers his floury little hands and decides against it, and then decides that maybe he should wash them off? How did he make this much of a mess in the first place, what was wrong with the Noah of 5 minutes ago... the burner is probably heated up a bit by now at least.]

[sunstead]

[Ah yes, their classic feedback loop. Clamor's attempt to apologize and make Noah feel better only makes Noah feel bad and want to apologize so Clamor feels better...

Obviously, this only makes Clamor feel bad for making Noah feel bad again, so now—]

It's fine, I know I did my best. I am a spirit mage... but I know when I've gone in over my head. I mean, I work with artificial spirits, so I can't say I've ever had to soothe a rampaging one before....

[he may have exaggerated his talents on the interview, just a tad.]

It was my mistake, and you were right to be upset about it. I'd be upset, too, if you went and got yourself hurt without telling me about it.