npc contact.2

[adsum]

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As the game progresses, different npc faculty and students will become available for threading. To request a thread, please comment below with the name of the npc and the ic date in the subject header. Threads may be cut short due to mod availability, so please have a reason in mind for the interaction.

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Comments

[crystallomancy]

( ... )

You're still a BRAT, but I guess you're not half BAD. ( ♪ ) Time for you to hold up your end of the barGAIN, Little Shopkeeper.

How did you get HERE?

1/

[adsum]

[ ... ]

2/

[adsum]

[ ...... ]

3/

[adsum]

[ ......... ]

4/4, cw suicide

[adsum]

[ They go back to settling against the front of the counter, back sliding down the surface until they're sitting with their knees drawn to their chest, so they can look anywhere but at Natsume when they speak. ]

I made a wish to be with my family again.

[ ... ]

Then I picked up a knife, and drove it into my heart.

[crystallomancy]

( He doesn't know what he expected, but that isn't it; he stares at the shopkeeper, words lost.

Did you get your wish? he wants to ask; but he wants to ask Is that your contract? and Is that why you're peddling wares?, too, and in the end, he moves to the front of the counter to lean against it too, remaining standing but looking down at the shiba inu plush with a frown.

He puts it on their head and holds it there. )

It takes a lot of conviction to do something like THAT.

( Some people might say courage, some people might say desperation, but Natsume says conviction because it's true. He has a few other thoughts, mostly unkind, but he keeps them to himself. )

Are you working to make that wish of yours come TRUE?

[adsum]

Sort of...

[ A noncommittal answer, and one smothered in the plush that they bring down from their head and press their face again. If Subaru smells tears on this later, they can say it was Natsume. ]

There was no conviction, though— I was scared. I— My heart hurt so much, and I... I didn't know any other way to make it stop hurting.

[ So they carved it out. Or tried to. ]

[crystallomancy]

( There are plenty of people who hurt and hurt and feel cold from the loneliness inside and out of them, and who still never even try to do something as (stupid, foolish, useless) drastic as that.

So: conviction. )

Most people go to therapy or find a home in other peoPLE. ( just a note, but neither of those are easy. especially if, maybe, they were still in that cabin he remembers. ) I...

( ...it isn't the same, so he shuts his mouth and closes his eyes. )

Did you stop its hurTING?

[adsum]

...No.

[ It still hurts, and it feels like it always will. But, after a pause, they lift their head and look up at Natsume with wet eyes. ]

But now I can do something about it. I can make it stop.

[crystallomancy]

( They remind him of Stephanie, so sure of herself and her potential to be a hero, to save everyone here. Belief is dangerous; a child's belief is twice as much. )

And just how are you going to manage THAT?

[adsum]

[ How do you make a heart stop hurting like the gnawing hunger of an endless void? You fill it up with whatever you can get your hands on: a brother figure, a sister figure, a father figure, material goods and attention, love. It won't ever be enough.

... ]

Hard work will be rewarded. I'm going to do my best and play my part.

[ Besides, in the end, there is no more pain in oblivion. ]

[crystallomancy]

( Not all hard work is rewarded. Actually, in reality, very little hard work sees reward.

It's different at the current Yumenosaki, at the idol utopia of Ensemble Square, but that's usually the law everywhere else. Is it different here, too? ...Can it be? An ideal world where you put in the work and get what you deserve... )

And you have a guarantee that it'll work out just the way you want it TO? ( ... ) Wishes are never free or so simply paid for, after ALL. I've read enough stories to know THAT.

( only in d*sney do truly happy endings occur; the rest you have to be careful about your wording with. )

[adsum]

No. Do you only do things that are guaranteed?

[ They don't. It doesn't matter to them. It's stupid and naïve but they have to at least try. And it's easy to turn to the impossible when you've exhausted all other option. ]

[crystallomancy]

( He opens his mouth to say yes, thinks of the past school year, and decides against that. )

I try to have at least a decent chance of getting the result I want before I attempt anyTHING, so I suppose I can't say I always wait until that chance is a perfect one-hundred-perCENT.