![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
as life gets longer, awful feels softer
Who: Shin & You!
What: April Catchall... also Shin's birthday
When: April 2nd onwards
Where: Gaming, Robotics & Programming and Gardening Clubs, Shin's room, the Student Store at night, the kitchen, the library... anywhere really.
Warnings: None as yet!
It’s April 2nd! Always a kind of weird time for Shin. The timing of it - just when getting back to school - always left him the youngest in his class and made the two events indelibly linked, such that during his first and only disastrous year of university it was another thing adding to the cocktail of strangeness, isolation, loss and relief that colors what he remembers of that time.
This year is extra weird, because he’d not really thought about it until the day arrived with unexpected speed, but the death game had killed him just before it. And if he’d chosen to graduate, he’d not have reached it either… somehow, despite all the odds… he’s actually become 22 in a way he remembers. Despite all the times he’s almost died, and all the times he actually has died… he’s still here. He’s made it this far.
It’s a heady feeling that’s hard to identify, with strange shadows of giddy euphoria and listless mourning to it. It’s a time of new beginnings, so it’s said…
He’s not going to be shouting it from the rooftops, and he’s completely not expecting anything. He’s celebrated the last two alone beyond a phone call with his parents and maybe some treating of himself with a snack. He’s planning on spending the day as he normally would; checking in on the clubs he’s connected to, working or napping in his nice warm room, or in the kitchen keeping his stock of tupperware soups topped up and the like. But there’s a quiet contentedness clinging to him, like just for the day something’s been lifted from him, and you can catch him humming or whistling to himself while doing any of these things.
There’s ways to find out if you want to surprise him; at least one of his friends is the sort to look it up in a school file or know it from those vague Yogen memories and then tell others about it.
[Since this is also April's catchall, feel free to have interactions outside of birthday or event stuff here as well!]
What: April Catchall... also Shin's birthday
When: April 2nd onwards
Where: Gaming, Robotics & Programming and Gardening Clubs, Shin's room, the Student Store at night, the kitchen, the library... anywhere really.
Warnings: None as yet!
It’s April 2nd! Always a kind of weird time for Shin. The timing of it - just when getting back to school - always left him the youngest in his class and made the two events indelibly linked, such that during his first and only disastrous year of university it was another thing adding to the cocktail of strangeness, isolation, loss and relief that colors what he remembers of that time.
This year is extra weird, because he’d not really thought about it until the day arrived with unexpected speed, but the death game had killed him just before it. And if he’d chosen to graduate, he’d not have reached it either… somehow, despite all the odds… he’s actually become 22 in a way he remembers. Despite all the times he’s almost died, and all the times he actually has died… he’s still here. He’s made it this far.
It’s a heady feeling that’s hard to identify, with strange shadows of giddy euphoria and listless mourning to it. It’s a time of new beginnings, so it’s said…
He’s not going to be shouting it from the rooftops, and he’s completely not expecting anything. He’s celebrated the last two alone beyond a phone call with his parents and maybe some treating of himself with a snack. He’s planning on spending the day as he normally would; checking in on the clubs he’s connected to, working or napping in his nice warm room, or in the kitchen keeping his stock of tupperware soups topped up and the like. But there’s a quiet contentedness clinging to him, like just for the day something’s been lifted from him, and you can catch him humming or whistling to himself while doing any of these things.
There’s ways to find out if you want to surprise him; at least one of his friends is the sort to look it up in a school file or know it from those vague Yogen memories and then tell others about it.
[Since this is also April's catchall, feel free to have interactions outside of birthday or event stuff here as well!]
no subject
[She takes out a paper that's made into an envelope, clearly folded neatly like you would for origami.]
Well. If it really isn't your birthday today, then you can just consider this an IOU for the actual date. And if it is, let's just say that this is an IOU for a belated thing anyway, since it's kind of hard to come up with something on short notice.
sorry about this icon :' )
Ahaha, wasn't expecting that sort of enthusiasm for sure...
[He's still half sure everyone was just taking it as an excuse to mess with him... thanks guys. For a second he contemplates saying that Sara did get it wrong and it was a completely different date, but he's not sure a) how well that would fly or b) if Inaba would then insist on knowing the 'actual' date and he'd end up repeating the experience two times a year... Speaking of delayed effect...]
Do I want to guess...?
[What she could have planned for the future, short notice aside? (He understands that sense of being put on the spot himself.) But it's mostly a dry rhetorical musing as he steps backward into the shop room a little more, leaning against the counter while he carefully if quickly unfolds the little envelope, leaning in that way equidistant between looking closely curiosity and not wanting to be glitter ground zero.]
The secret's already out at this point... Can't say it really isn't my birthday today... It kinda sneaks up, doesn't it?
[He's got his closed-eyed smile lifted up at her. Maybe it's because he'd still been subconsciously thinking that he had a full year before his next one... Yogen time sure does some strange things.]
no subject
[She's not sure if trying to make a birthday a surprise and failing and also subsequently saying that he'll get awful gifts is...
...something, alright...]
Although if you don't want it, we can just pretend this conversation never happened because you know, getting a bad gift on your birthday? Kind of groan-worthy.
[When he unfolds the envelope he-- does not, in fact get glittered, you're welcome, apparently glitter bombings is saved exclusively for people who are not Shin.
The paper then reads:
Happy birthday.
I couldn't really get you something good on such an extremely short notice, so here's an IOU.
This IOU can only be used once, but is valid for one year. (Expires: 4/2/2001)
This IOU can be used by anyone if the recepient chooses to hand over the IOU to another person, but must be confirmed with both the recepient and giver. However, making photocopies of this IOU is prohibited. If any copies are found, this IOU, along with its copies will be considered null and void.
This IOU can be exchanged for one (1) of the following:
- One mechanical build of any sort, given that is feasible.
- One free fix for any broken mechanical item.
- A reasonable favor of sorts.*
* Note: this favor DOES NOT include murder assistance, romance/dating assistance (romance advice is OK) and can be vetoed at the favoree's expense.]
They really do. Well, not that I did anything special for mine last year.
no subject
It's a recurring feeling when interacting with Inaba; the validation that he isn't going insane. That he's not overreacting when, say, he isn't fond of a roll call to gang up on him on his birthday going out on the network. Even giving Sara the absolute most charitable benefit of the doubt... it's really not his thing.
Thanks for sparing him and giving him glitter immunity... with it opened up he takes a little time to read it, a skim, and then making sure before looking up over it.]
...Haha, that would need me to get a bad gift in the first place, right?
[Translation: he likes it. It's an IOU, something last minute... but in a way it's heavier than something physical, than the paper it's written on, because it's a gift of a contract of trust. Even with the statement that Inaba can nix favours she doesn't want to give (which is a relief to see, honestly), there's still that uncertainty of what he could ask for which he knows they both know the power of; he almost wants to ask if she's sure, but... she's not the sort to give it if she wasn't, so he can only hold it, a little touched. Maybe he's being a little internally poetic about it, but it's a good gift.
He's almost tempted to cash it in now, ask her what she could do with one of the broken clocks the student store sells so that she doesn't have to worry about it (and also because he's genuinely curious about them), but the ability to use it on behalf of others gives him a little pause. That's... what if someone he knows needed something she could help with? It wouldn't be his first time calling in a favour on behalf of someone else... that's how he got Haruka her hopefully happy ending. It was the least Narumi could do for shooting him...
He's got some time to think about it at least, judging by the written date... He has the thought, that he immediately tries to put back, of if they'll both be around by the time the IOU expires... but they've made it this far. Even if Inaba's come back from the dead already, she's still that herself that died.]
Huh. Well, I might as well know when that was... since you know mine.
[He wants to return the favor in turn... it only seems fair (and fitting).]
no subject
[Which is fucked?? Did she have sad birthdays herself or something when she was a child???
But she doesn't linger on it too much before letting out a sigh.]
Ah, it's November 30th, so it passed actually a while ago. Not that it matters. Being dead means you don't age, and there's a non-zero chance that if you get reincarnated or whatever that you'll either not care about your birthday at all in the off chance that you somehow reincarnate as like... an animal, or something, or it'd be different altogether.
no subject
[It's somewhat unusual, the way his hand closes over the cloth of the front of his jacket instead of fully his scarf here... he lets go and returns it to it's normal place. Midori's gifts are... inventive, often in ways only fully appreciated long after the fact.]
Exactly, you'd have a new birthday. Not that you'd remember the old... probably.
[Unless something isekai was going on. Supplanting the old... now Shin's not only wondering again about what he'd reincarnate into (his brain always presents the worst options, thanks brain) but what he was before he was many shades of Shin Tsukimi with an April birthday. Were they human? How much of him is from them, that he doesn't know about? What would they think of who he is now... would they regret becoming him...? This is a depressing line of thought.]
Guess it is pretty pointless... [Says guy having had a lot of thoughts about it as a marker of survival.] Your secret's safe with me, though.
[It's a lightly joking tone. He's not broadcasting it to all and sundry, that's for sure. He carefully folds up the piece of paper along it's lines and tucks it into his pants pocket so it doesn't get crumpled up in the tumbledryers of objects that are his jacket pockets right now. Hopefully he remembers to take it out before he does the laundry.]
...Thanks, Inaba.
[For the present, but also just... their friendship (are they friends?) in general, much as there's that cagematch in the back of Shin's brain between 'you need friends to survive' and 'you're going to get them killed'. It's been stirred up, lately...]
no subject
And don't worry, he's not the only one who's thought of the worst--it's a bad habit of hers, to only think about the negative possibilities in life rather than the positive.]
Yeah -- ah, sorry to say something that's so much of a downer.
[That's followed with a bit of sheepish laughter, rubbing at the nape of her neck.]
It's nothing, really. Besides, if we somehow exist to November again--eh. It won't be a big thing.
no subject
I'm surprised we still exist now, honestly... I thought my memories would be wiped after Graduation, ahaha...
[Looking down the barrel of one kind of death as opposed to the other... so... he's still a bit shocked to still be here.]
Not complaining, though... it's more time to figure out a solution, isn't it?
[...Somehow. It's a bit of a wakeup call, realising how little progress he's made in that over the time he's been here and awake... he knows how Noah feels. It feels like they keep discovering things but getting no closer.]
no subject
[Memory wiping is one thing--and it is something that Inaba is afraid of, although that's something that she doesn't show on her expression. In fact, she remains placid.]
But yeah--we can't just stay still. Although it's hard to figure out the 'how' when it comes to finding things out.
no subject
[And also that one student who possessed Clamor trying to graduate... one of the events that had made Shin very very worried about what it might entail.]
Feels like the more we know, the less far we get... There's the new student contract but we probably shouldn't pin everything on that...
[Should he tell her about the co-ordinates Alice found? It might be useful to have someone who's not going to know just in case...]
If we could tell what some version of us has already discovered and what's new...
[If they keep getting reset every time... it's hard to make progress. She's seen the PDA logs, she knows... the crushing weight of repeating this over and over and over. He hopes the USB he left in the box will remedy that a little, but that only helps their future selves right now... it depends on if and when they discover it, too.]
no subject
[That's her two cents on it.]
I wish I could have had some physical evidence of what a past iteration of 'me' has done -- kind of pisses me off when I'm normally so careful of documenting things.
[She has experience, after all.
Of forgetting the important things. Of forgetting an entire timeline, outside of this place. It's why she takes so many notes: on her notebooks, on her laptop.]
...or a way to restore those lost memories, too...