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npc contact.1
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Stop THAT— ( He puts his hands on her shoulders, but only to keep her at a distance. ) There's a difference between making fun of someone and laughing because they're...
( ...being cute... )
...reacting in an amusing WAY. ( Safer answer, comparatively. He waits a heartbeat to make sure she's not going to immediately step on his feet again before he lifts his hands off her shoulder again, brushing the tips of her hair as he draws back. ) I only tease you some of the TIME, Little Wolf. I was just reassuring you that you can be honest with me if I can be honest with YOU. That's how friendships—no, relationships in general operate, isn't IT?
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The frown deepens on her face when he touches her shoulders, but she doesn't pull away, instead glaring at Natsume to be the one to take his hands back. Her hair tickles when it falls back across her face. ]
I have always been honest with you. [ Saying only what she wants to say and nothing more does not constitute a lie. ] You can stand to extend the same courtesy to me.
[ Neither friendships nor relationships in general operate on pure truths, this she knows all too well. It creates a foundation, though, and hers and Natsume's... ]
If you needed help, ask me and I will help. If you needed somebody to listen, I will listen. Don't play coy and say you want to talk "for indeterminate amount of time, about various things." What was I supposed to think?
[ Obviously, that he was going to prattle on and waste her time. He'd given her nothing to work with, but she still came with him. ]
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Contrary to what you might beLIEVE, I didn't call you up here to talk me out of an existential criSIS.
( ...No, it really was just about memories on the fourth floor, and being on the roof with her, since she likes the view. )
My conversations with you never go exactly to PLAN. ( But he doesn't sound mad about it; if anything they just go better, overall, so he can't be. ) If I had told you, "I want to talk about hallucinations I had on the fourth floor of the school that I also purely coincidentally disappeared for a week because of during summer BREAK," what would you have DONE? Once we were done with the fourth floor chatTER, you would've LEFT. We probably wouldn't have even made it up HERE.
( Because that's all the conversation would need to be. And maybe that still would have led into the "are we dead" conversation depending, but who knows. Maybe it wouldn't have, and he could think himself into an early grave in the meanwhile. )
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[ If he were to say it like that???? please ]
But if you simply said that you experienced something strange that you wanted my opinion on, that would have been enough. If you said you wanted to eat together instead of baiting me to an auditorium picnic, that would have been enough.
[ If Natsume cuts out 99.9999% of what he does, everything would be fine, but instead he's like this. ]
You don't have to operate on the extremes, like it's the only way people will see you.
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Picking at people is only fun if he's the one doing it. )
You're the first person to tell me THAT. The rest of my life has been spent adjacent to or within the entertainment busiNESS. ( Outside of his pronunciation distortion, his voice is flat; it picks up a little bit after, but not by much. ) But don't talk like you know anything about ME, Little Wolf.
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You're right. I don't know you. I can't, when you never say what you mean.
[ When their interactions are all bait-and-switch. ]
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And yeah, he hasn't made it easy; he doesn't like being known, but he's still human. It's still nice. He just also doesn't like it. That's why he has so many words. )
...It's not like you want to, anyWAYS. ( He keeps his gaze off her, watching the gentle slope of trees instead. ) What does it matter if you can or CAN'T?
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...
Maya pushes off from the wall, as if to walk away, but instead she stops in front of him, face to face, her turn in the sun. ]
You said you wanted to be friends. Do you take that back?
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Are you taking back your words about not wanting to be FRIENDS?
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[ What she thinks has nothing to do with this. His decision and hers are separate, and she waits for his answer. ]
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...No, I'm not taking it BACK.
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Then there's your answer.
[ Now she's going to turn and leave. ]
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he steps after her, around her, to put his weight against the roof's door so she can't open it. ) That's not an anSWER.
( why does it matter? why does she care? does she want to be friends? )
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She hardly ever knows, when it comes to Natsume. ]
I don't know anymore. I feel like whether I say yes or no, nothing will change between us. We are still the same people.
[ Not a hard no, not a hard yes. Maya is in camp "friendship is just a word" like all of my friendless npcs, wary to pick up labels with all the expectations associated with them. ]
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But that... is at least a better answer, to him, and he exhales softly through his nose as he moves. )
You don't know THAT, no more than I know if I'll make the same mistake I did that lead me HERE. ( ...Would things change? They are the same people, in every sense of the phrase, but the way she makes it hard for him to get close makes him want to try harder. He gives her a wave, roof door free for her to open now. ) I'll take it THOUGH. Thank you for your TIME, Little Wolf.
( ... )
Or Maya, if you preFER.
( Some small token of apology for getting in her way just now. )
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... ]
"Little Wolf" is fine.
[ said quietly, before she slips through the door and out of sight. ]