adsum | npc contact.1

( he really wants to live by himself... how poetic. )

Sakasaki-kun said something roughly around the same, and that they were also like gravesites... like the gorintos here, but larger.

( he hums, everything rokkun says he chews on it like a question posed to him. if everything that happened there belongs to him, then what he says has to mean something. answers from the subconscious? whatever it is, they were markers in a way.

komaeda shifts to the left, moving so that he isn't stuck between the door, rokkun and the potpourri he holds. free, he walks off to one side of the art room, looking around. )

What do you think? If it was meant for us to follow... did they want to share their journey?

[ Rokkun doesn't follow him this time— not with his feet, anyways, though his eyes to follow.

What does he think... A lot of things, right now, but if he had to answer that question, ]

No. In this case, they're footprints.

Footprints...

( a hand lifts to his face, index finger bends as the knuckle presses against his bottom lip. the sketch of the story, and rokkun can paint these words any way that he wants to help bring life to it. komaeda won't correct him, but the more he explains, he feels like he needs to do something else so he can stay focused on talking. )

Are you familiar with them?

( now, he looks towards him, a brow raised like he wants insight himself. after, he does chuckle softly. )

I wouldn't be surprised if you do.

Yeah, I've seen them before. I used to leave them myself, so I wouldn't get lost coming home after dark.

[ They're footprints to him because that's what they were: a little pile of rocks left so he can retrace his steps, hope a bear doesn't knock them over ]

( oh no... not me sad about rocks. )

You went so far out you needed markers, ahaha... did you find interesting things?

( he's going to sit right in front of rokkun's sketch, reaching out like he wants to touch it, but he stops a small margin from doing so.

this sketch isn't for him. )

[ If he touches the paper and smudges the graphite Rokkun might have to break his hand ]

...Yeah. I found the river near home by wandering around like that. And I found a bear's den once. I left the last cairn under a large tree so I would know not to go any further than that.

[ Terrible. He'd wanted to hear Komaeda talk, but now he's just reminiscing. ]

( he only has ONE HAND? )

...

( his lips purse into a straight line, rokkun can't see him because he's too busy looking at the sketch that he's thinking about touching. when all four of them were waffling around, trying to decide where to go, a cub did make their appearance. )

You were an adventurer...? ( look at him, sharing a talent with amami... ) ...How interesting, no matter, did you take food with you, too? It'd be a shame if you went hungry after running from bear cubs...

[ I'm sitting here like does npc-kun never give Komaeda his arm back, they wouldn't ]

I wasn't an adventurer... I was just a kid playing in his backyard.

[ And sometimes your backyard is a bear infested forest full of steep cliffs. ]

Sometimes I took snacks with me, but not always. And I was never stupid enough to get close enough to a bear cub for it to notice and chase me.

( STOP I MEANT HIS REAL ARM HE HAS HIS MECHANICAL ONE STOP!!!! im tearing up. )

...We met a small bear cub too, I guess you were luckier than us.

( wow, didn't want to share a talent with amami huh... it's fine, not like that's a bad thing, he has to become the ultimate architect somehow. )

We didn't know where to go, so it chose for us... it and the mother.

[ npc-kun makes Komaeda buy back his own arm ]

...And how many of you survived?

[ Come to think of it, he hasn't seen the other three around yet. Maybe this is why. ]

( i been sitting here laughing about buying back his own fucking arm, that i tabbed out, came back to this, and laughed again. STOP. )

...Oh, I'm just a ghost, haven't you noticed?

[ adsflhk YOU KNOW IN YOUR HEART THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS

Anyways, this is where Rokkun will come over and take Komaeda's hand so he can stop threatening the sketch. ]

No you're not. See?

( IM CRYINGGG THATS WHAT SIBLINGS DO take your stuff and make you buy it back, hopefully they had a little price tag on the pinky finger and everything )

Did I say you could touch me?

( he looks up at him, staring at their hands which he doesn't pull away, and he continues without needing an answer. )

Adams-san and Hinata-kun wanted to follow the river but... the bear chased us in the other direction... I also fed the cub, that was pretty exciting!

( that's why it chased them, but details. smetails. )

[ writes the price on the pinky finger with permanent marker and sells Komaeda an alcohol swab to wipe it off with ]

Yeah? That's different.

[ He doesn't let go of Komaeda's hand either, just sort of holds it and plays with his fingers. Is his finger still broken, what was he doing over break ]

( sciecechan's blood will be more than enough to remove the $1.99 wrote on it, he doesn't need the swab!

in my mind, i expect him to have some common decency not to grab around the swollen area that's redder than his other fingers a bit, but rokkun's stupid...

so you're right, and he lifts his other hand trying to remove the rokkun's hold from him, because it hurts, and his wrist is also in bad shape. )

It hurts when you do that... this is the wrong hand to hold... ( he looks up at him, waiting for him to obey. ) anyway, I have a story to finish.

[ why is Komaeda's arm priced like a piece of junk from the bargain bin that's gotten its price slashed three times

but anyways, yeah, Rokkun is stupid and has no decency, but he at least opens his hands so Komaeda can take his back. ]

...I already know how the story ends.

( i hope that's what npc-kun did so komaeda can get his fucking arm back for cheap!!! )

...Why did you make me speak on it if you knew?

( he sounds a little sad about that, like he didn't have to go through being so longwinded, and now it feels like rokkun's playing around with him. his hands settle onto his lap, and he sighs right after, before his eyes lift up to stare at the light brown. )

Rather, tell me, how does it end.

[ They'll trade his arm for $1.99 and a hug ]

I was hoping to hear what you thought, or how you felt.

[ Instead, it was just "this happened" and "then that happened" and Rokkun gives a shrug, because that's how story telling goes and he shouldn't be feeling disappointed ]

In the end... you're falling. And just as you land, you wake up.

( $1.99, a hug, and maybe a whole case of dragonfruit bread, and it's a deal. )

...

( what he thought? what he felt? there's many things he felt, there's a lot of things he thought, but that was him baiting, trying to find what rokkun knows. he knows enough, it seems. at the moment he feels... like he's done something wrong. )

How can you decide that when you never asked for them? My thoughts, my feelings... everything was about you then, not me.

[ Deal. They're going to ration that bread for breakfast lunch and dinner for the next month ]

Why would you say it's about me?

[ It's Komaeda's story of his summer break adventures, and the only part Rokkun's taken so far is being asked questions of what he thinks. ]

Besides, you never talk to me about your [ non-hope] thoughts and feelings.

( komaeda will be gambling at the vending machine until he's lucky enough for the dragonfruit bread. )

...It was always about you.

( why is he saying that? the fact that komaeda is even here to begin with, it had something to do with him. consciously, komaeda baits, subconsciously... this is how he shows that he cares in a way. on one hand, he feels he should have taken another route, and on the other... he doesn't even know what the other is, because to him, he's incapable of having proper feelings. his thoughts, his feelings, why would rokkun want to hear something he doesn't understand? he's always been told he was inconsiderate, but the times that he does try...

like now, it doesn't work in his favor. )

...If that's how you view me, why did you expect it now?

[ It's always about him? That doesn't make any sense, but Komaeda is hard to follow sometimes and Rokkun... doesn't really know what to think or prefer. Like that Achilles song that goes
"You crave the applause
Yet hate the attention
Then miss it, your act is a ruse" ]

I can hope, can't I? That someday you'll talk to me.

I'm talking to you now.

( yes, well, the topic was always about him, and that's why komaeda came here today. he feels like they've gotten off topic, that the avenue they're supposed to be walking side by side has a bit of construction work, and so they must take a detour. )

Do you remember, I asked for you to tell me what's on your mind... so you told me to walk you to the exit every day. That never happened. That might have been the "someday," but it's out of our reach.

( because he doubts rokkun is up to do it now, say what's on his mind, how that song of achilles verse sits in his head. ) Do you really know the end of the story I was telling you about?

[ It doesn't feel like talking— communicating— it feels more like speaking at each other and he can't even say it's all on Komaeda. He doesn't talk about his own thoughts either, doesn't have anybody to talk about that stuff with, and even when Komaeda asks, it's hard to tell if he cares.

Even right now, when he's thinking of so much that they're all jumbled in his head, he doesn't know how to voice it, staring down at the skeletons of buildings on his paper. ]

...I'm a child walking through the forest. It's dark, and I'm trying to get home. I come across a cairn, but can't tell which way to follow it... I always choose the wrong direction. At the end of the path is a den, and a— [ ... ] ...There's pain. In my chest, on my side, and I'm running until I'm out of breath. Then the world disappears beneath my feet. And I wake up.

[ He looks up, and over at Komaeda. ]

It's a dream I've been having for the past few nights.

...

( that chance to understand, to communicate was such a long time ago, that even now the way they talk just feels like... them. komaeda doesn't understand feelings, but he tends to understand how people are at the moment.

the story however, it's familiar, one that could fill in the gaps. wasn't he supposed to be playing, but in this version he was lost. couldn't find his way back home, stumbled upon a... )

Suffering from nightmares, Hinata-kun used to tell me the same thing. It was my fault, though.

( he stands up, looking at the other, he can't tell whether rokkun's mad, or if he's disappointed, or if komaeda was right and he thinks differently now. )

My story, and your story... there's a few differences. ( many. ) Close your eyes.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject