IC Inbox for PSLs & Game Contact
Sep. 1st, 2020 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
youngtimer
NeverAcorned - Standard UN || HoratioV - Fog/Lighthouse UN || 5ofDiamonds - Casino Business || Odyssean - Anonymous/Sock UN
WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, NEVERACORNED. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 208.52.15.25 *** NEVERACORNED has joined 208.52.15.25 <NEVERACORNED> This is the private channel for Horatio Hargreeves. Leave me a message and I'll reply as soon as I can. If this is related to the Lucky 38, please start your message with a '38' so I can prioritize. <NEVERACORNED> Spammers will be banned, IP tracked, and have their index fingers broken. Have a nice day. :) | ||||
Text -> Action
Date: 2022-01-17 09:14 pm (UTC)Dolores would love a tea party. She's always telling me she needs to meet more people. I'll make sure we have some stuff brought up from the kitchen for them, and then I'll order the pizza.
[and he will, indeed, order a Garbage Pizza monster-style, along with a tea set for two. there's a standard black tea in the pot, since he knows better than to use the fancy blend Celeste favors when she's visiting. there are also a few frosted cookies on a plate, and Dolores is dressed in her best outfit for company - as usual, encrusted in her favorite sequins.
when he meets her at the door, Horatio's in black jeans and a t-shirt. the pizza, freshly delivered, is sitting on the coffee table with a pitcher of fresh margaritas and some bottled water]
Hey! Good to see you. ... Hi Maribelle.
<CheeryCherry>
Date: 2022-01-19 03:10 am (UTC)[ Riley is acutely aware that she is the wrong one, in how she acts at parties and reacts, to any sort of drug or alcohol. She tried. But the only reason she didn't leave was Mukuro. ]
If it's somewhere I can get some tea, then that would be lovely. I've got a bit of a busy schedule, but you're right. I know everyone at that party is someone Celeste considers a treasured friend, so I'd like to get to know you too.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-20 11:41 pm (UTC)You are.
[She squeezes back. There's an admission sitting just behind her teeth, and maybe it's the fairy form and maybe it's the way he's meeting her, level for level, that draws the words out. She has to tell him in some manner how she feels.
And because she's Celestia Ludenberg, and she cannot help it, she looks him in the eyes with a very familiar ferocity.]
Do not ever do that again, Horatio Hargreeves. Because I swear to any god that I will level this island to find you.
[Because she would. It had nearly driven her crazy to find him gone, and that itch beneath her skin still hasn't faded yet. Celeste has always been selfish, almost transactional with people's value, and he's worth more to her than most innocent lives.]
< VersaillesWitch > [PRIVATE] | Dated to mid-January Event | Deadman's Switch
Date: 2022-01-21 03:06 am (UTC)[The message comes in the hours of late, late night, sent to several inboxes in an automated swath.]
Hello.
If you're receiving this I am either dead, wounded, or captured to the point I cannot reach my laptop. This is a Deadman's Switch message I must disarm every twelve hours. I have failed to do so.
My suggestion would be to find Mukuro Ikusaba, as she is the most likely person to know my final whereabouts. Apologies, for the inconvenience.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-21 04:00 am (UTC)he's decidedly awake now.
awake, and remarkably afraid. he hasn't felt fear like this in decades. it feels like Blinking down the sidewalk and suddenly realizing you're in the middle of an apocalypse. like he's not sure what's going on, but Something Bad is about to grab his heart in cold talons and twist.]
Bee.
[he reads it once, twice, numb with terror, before he realizes how stupid he's being.]
Shit, get it together, asshole.
[and then ... he texts Mukuro.]
<NeverAcorned>
Date: 2022-01-25 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-25 03:56 am (UTC)[he swallows. why is he afraid to say it? coward. he knows why. if he says it, he could LOSE everything. but is it even really his to lose, if he doesn't?]
- since none of it would be the same without you.
<CheeryCherry>
Date: 2022-01-26 07:32 am (UTC)Yes, I'm on the 8th floor. I was actually one of the first on the 8th floor. It has great roof access, you see.
how does gmail keep eating things? :|
Date: 2022-01-28 05:50 am (UTC)Love the shirt.
[ Annie twists a smile at him. She looks frazzled, but overall seems like maybe it has just been a long day for her. ]
I can't get over the fact this place has the best pizza. I think I got used to slightly burned stuff back home.
<NeverAcorned>
Date: 2022-02-01 05:26 am (UTC)Roof access - makes sense. How about the place between the bookstore and the cobbler, a few blocks from the Multiversal Museum? Pick a time of day.
<CheeryCherry>
Date: 2022-02-04 07:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-05 12:34 am (UTC)it what?
And her brain halts fully when Five admits to any sort of feelings. Like what he's just said has completely caused a synapses to misfire. He's seen the expression on her face before, the momentary blink of unexpected recalculating when he does something that she has to step back to reassess.
It's just that she never did expect it. Ever. There's every reason in the book why he would not hold her so important. She is a traitor, a person who plucks at the weaknesses of others, someone who prides herself in the pain she can wreak. And he is absolutely none of those things, a martyr. More than that he's much more capable of a person, hell he was someone, he was born somebody when she just made herself so.
Silence. Is not the way to react to an admission like that. But sometimes for Celeste not speaking communicates far more than having an immediate rebuttal. She, to whom words are a weapon to be wielded, a master of every witty response, who cuts any and all fools to ribbons with her words, is struck silent. Even as her eyes hunt into his expression for any semblance of a lie, any dishonesty, and finds nothing but resignation laid truly bare.]
no subject
Date: 2022-02-05 12:58 am (UTC)but nothing comes. instead, she seems to be watching him just as carefully. he stops searching, stops worrying, and simply looks at her, letting everything he hasn't said out through his eyes.
it's a long, strange silence, but it isn't an uncomfortable one, and that surprises him just as much as it may her. he squeezes her hands again gently, and just ... nods. yes, he means it. yes, it's true. yes, it's you. it might always be you, now. yes, yes, yes.]
Text -> Action
Date: 2022-02-06 08:24 pm (UTC)[at the appointed time, he shows up in more casual dress than he usually wears around the casino, the sort of stuff he wears to the eighth-floor parties. dark jeans, a t-shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, fingerless gloves. he's leaning against the cafe's patio fence waiting for her, wings folded close to his back]
Hey, Riley. How's your morning gone?
cw: critical alcohol consumption judgement + internalized ableism
Date: 2022-02-09 12:11 am (UTC)One, that initial welcome party for Yugi, wherein she booked it the second she caught wind of alcohol, which he had brought.
Two, the meeting to try and figure out who tortured and killed Steve, wherein she spoke with him maybe once but spent the majority of her time shell-shocked and defensive.
And three, the most recent party, during which she all but told him to get lost and was a total basketcase over something that every other person there enjoyed.
(...Okay, maybe not Fugo. She found a kindred spirit in Fugo. That...really helped, honestly.)
The point is, while she's had worse impressions left on people, god, she keeps on striking out with Horatio, because the circumstances around their meetings are...weird. Bad. The setting here is vastly improved. Okay, she's still going to be in public and she always feels a little jittery like that...but it's still a private meeting, one-on-one. It's early enough that no one's drinking, and she isn't currently sorting through the aftermath of the death of one of her most beloved people. In all ways, this is an improvement! The deck is much less stacked against her in her quest to just be fucking normal and socialize with someone in her social circle.
Every person Celeste invited was either important to her or to their group in general. Horatio is both Celeste and Mukuro's boss. Or—was? Does Celeste still work at the casino? Regardless— he's someone the both of them like, she's able to easily put together. And, since everything in November, she...
Riley wants to get along with the people her friends like. Celeste is a friend now. She's sure of that. After months of a tenuous, nebulous antagonism, sometimes on her side, sometimes on Celeste's, Riley's grateful that things are...better. And she doesn't want to screw that up.
It puts more pressure on what should be a casual meeting, but—well, Riley's nothing if not her own worst enemy, imposing little challenges and caveats on any and every interaction.
She's dressed casually as well, though with a winter jacket tailored to accommodate for her wings. It's chilly in Ryslig right now and...she'd quite like to be warm. She gives a little wave, the smile on her face not relaxed but much less tense than the party atmosphere Horatio's seen her in. As usual, the very tips of her massive wings brush against the ground as she approaches. ]
Hi! Pretty uneventful! Just, sorting paperwork for Cassandra. Normal work stuff.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-09 12:52 am (UTC)And whereas the observations Horatio had made about Riley weren't necessarily Interesting, getting to know her better was even more important, because she was friends with so many of his own: especially now that he and Celeste were ... he didn't want to call it dating, that made it sound so odd on so many levels. Together? Ugh. Labels were hard enough as a monster, let alone a grown man in a teenager's body. Which, he'd realized as he was waiting for Riley, might be something she didn't know. It was certainly a conversation starter, if not outright important information. But the icebreaker he'd chosen seemed as good a place to start as any. He was getting much better at leading and holding conversations now that he wasn't a lone gunman at the beck and call of the Commission.]
I have to admit, I was surprised when you said this was near where you worked. I thought I'd heard someone we know say you worked at the Orphanage, not for Cassandra.
[he nodded toward the door, gesturing for her to go first]
Come on, let's grab a table, it's freezing out here...
cw: abuse logic
Date: 2022-02-13 11:18 pm (UTC)If she keeps repeating, that she's not in danger, maybe she'll believe that.
These thoughts hover beneath the surface. But Riley smiles, nevertheless. ]
Oh, well. I sort of have a few different jobs I'm working at, right now. [ She gets the door, as she explains. ] There's Persephone Orphanage, but I was working at Cassandra's agency first.
[ Not...consistently, since she ghosted Cassandra for a few months— god let's not even go into it— ]
But besides that, I do some work around Poundmates. It was volunteer at first but now I help out with giving the animals enrichment! Oh, and there's Nai'a Nights, but, that's only like...two or three times a week, it's kind of flexible.
[ She's a workaholic. That's the answer, Horatio. ]
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 12:55 am (UTC)[he tilts his head as they head inside, taking a second for it to register what she actually means by that.]
So like, you just go hang out and play with them for a while. Not a bad gig, if you ask me. And Nai'a, too? I'm beginning to think that Maya and I know all of the same people, and have for months, at least, and I'm just starting to find that out. Small peninsula. Keeping busy, though, that's - it's why I agreed to manage the Lucky, too.
[he nods to the cafe hostess, who just points to the 'Please Seat Yourself' sign. he'll go ahead and let Riley choose where they sit]
If I'm busy, I can't think too hard about how fucked up so much of this place is. Right?
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 09:46 pm (UTC)Um, well... Kind of. I mean, at first, that and to make some money but now... [ The orphanage discussion is way too big. So: ] There's...people relying on me. I'm just trying to support them.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-16 02:22 am (UTC)Celeste fists her hands in the crease of Five's lapel, crushing the fabric as she drags him closer and kisses him instead.
It's clumsy, rushed, and the second time she's ever kissed anyone in her life. But she decides that it doesn't matter, because she can't quite say anything back to him. Can't find the words. But she can do this.]
no subject
Date: 2022-03-02 03:54 am (UTC)[he's okay with Big discussions, but she doesn't know that. yet. he gives a little approving smile at her choice of table and pulls out her chair for her - both of their seats angled so that they can see the door. he's learned to always keep an eye on his surroundings, and figures any monster worth their salt in Bavan does the same]
Or people here? It's easy enough to get close to people here, too, if you find the right ones. People that remind you of old friends, family. Or the kind of people you always wished you'd gotten to know.
[he may seem like he's speaking in general terms, but really he's sharing a little of himself, too: some of his friends and employees remind him of siblings, but some have come to mean even more than that. mentors and support of a caliber he never had]
no subject
Date: 2022-03-05 07:50 am (UTC)Yes? No— people here. I know someone from home- I mean, we live together, she's my best friend— but, she's got her own job, she can support herself.
[ The reality of the situation is the orphanage is too big for her to go into. She's barely been able to cover it with those close to her, those who found her in the midst of her rampage or who she cried on after. The reality of what she did has lived with her, ever since Giorno explained what he meant, that day. Even before then—she lost the drive, the feeling that what she was doing actually saved anyone.
If she talks about it, she might break. And that...is probably a little much, for an afternoon lunch. ]
It's just... You know, working with...kids. [ It's the closest she can get to the subject. ] I guess... They remind me of...somethings. But, really...
[She shrugs one arm, and her wing bumps against her chair. Annoying, but she's used to it. ]
I just wanna do right by them.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-06 05:10 pm (UTC)has he done this before? yes, most definitely. but has he cared so much? just as definitely not. he wants her to know that this is safe to do. that he's not about to hurt her or betray her or - or anything anyone else in her awful past may have done.]
no subject
Date: 2022-03-06 05:50 pm (UTC)Doing right by things is important to a lot of people here, all things considered. Myself included.
[he takes a breath, then realizes that he may as well just dive in and get the usual conversation over with]
Has anyone told you I'm actually fifty-eight years old? I promise this is related.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-07 06:27 am (UTC)You're what?!
[ She squawks a little. Her neck puffs and stretches out. Her cheeks go red immediately after. ]