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[RYSLIG] IC Inbox
WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, NAGITO KOMAEDA. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 004.28.777.00 *** MrBrightside has joined 004.28.777.00 <MrBrightside> Hello there! This is Komaeda. <MrBrightside> I'm grateful that you want to talk to me. | ||||
Anonymous username(s): < Triple7 > < BlueRam >
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But the sound of approaching footsteps manages to stir them and, albeit weakly, the pile begins to jostle. Whomever is under it is still alive, and conscious, and trying to escape ramen-cup hell. Dramatically, a clawed and vibrantly yellow-scaled hand bursts from the pile, waving wildly in the air for the other to come closer to help.]
Sleepless-san...? I, Is that you?
[He clearly doesn't sound dead, even if his voice is rasping from all the wind knocked out of his lungs. He's still flopping his arm around, trying to find purchase to claw his way out; but the struggle itself seems to only settle the boxes on top of him, rather than knocking them off.
Perhaps Diavolo could be kind enough to lift some of these off?]
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[Closer, still, Diavolo approaches the disarray with a curious expression fixed on his face. So this is the one, then? Nagito Komaeda, the mer who'd so boldly threatened him on the network (and it was a threat, it could not be read as anything but), buried under a pile of the very goods he intends to sell. No wonder he was reaching out for help. Is he here all alone?
A pause, and then, as explanation:]
You kept me waiting. To think I believed you'd been doing it intentionally.
[A stretch down, and he lifts a particularly weighty box with ease. Somewhere near the head, hopefully, lest Komaeda suffocate in his self-inflicted tomb before this meeting can even begin.]
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[Comes the apology, before the box is relieved from his back. Once it is, however, Komaeda is able to get just enough leverage to not be crushed, but is definitely still buried, under the pile. It's also enough to bring some air into his lungs; and slowly, he twists and wiggles his way through the cardboard grave until the top of his anemone-like head is poking out, followed by the rest of his fishy face.]
I was doing some cleaning, but while dusting I fell backwards into these stacked boxes...
[He manages to laugh, despite the situation, and the sound of it is bright and cheerful.]
Imagine my luck... slipping on nothing and nearly getting crushed to death! Thank you for coming to my rescue, Sleepless-san.
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It happens to the best of us.
[Is this really what he's doing with his time? Entertaining the idea of a job at a convenience store of all places? Too many nights spent alone have driven him to madness. That is the only explanation for any of this. He should have walked out when he wasn't properly met, when he heard the tumbling and crashing of the boxes, when he found his would-be boss helpless on the ground. Is this what he's been reduced to? He doesn't have time for this. It's so far beneath him it's disgusting.
But he can't stand another sleepless night spent with only his thoughts for company.]
"Diavolo", if you would prefer my name.
[There, while Komaeda is still half-buried. If there's a single hint of recognition on that fishy face, it gives him plenty of time to leave unharmed. As always, when he gives it out, he stares intently in search of the slightest twitch of expression. He has far too many enemies, too many people who could have spread his name.]
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Rather, he pushes aside his own hangups with his luck, and instead answers what he could only assume to be pity with the sound of an indolent, humorless laugh.
That laugh is, quite quickly, followed by a smile that looks a bit more genuine at finally receiving a proper introduction. Though it would be hard to tell otherwise, what with the distinct lack of humanoid facial cues to Komaeda's expression, he doesn't recognize the name at all. In fact, more than the name, the more he looks at Diavolo, the more the guy sort of... reminds him of someone.]
Diavolo-kun! It's nice to meet you.
[His reply is chipper as ever, and he doesn't give his name back because, well, Diavolo already knows it!]
Um... I'm sorry to trouble you, but... Do you mind helping me up?
sat here wondering if diavolo would know anything about japanese honorifics. he would be offended
And then Komaeda asks for help up.
The urge to leave returns with a vengeance. He nearly drops the box at the thought — there, right on Komaeda's head. It may not be a fatal blow, but it'd be enough to distract the mer for long enough for Diavolo to make his escape.
But that would be the coward's way out, wouldn't it? He's already come so far, and so he catches himself.
With a tilt of his head to break eye contact and a bite to his lip to disguise his immediate grimace, he takes a moment to neatly deposit the box somewhere it might belong. And then another moment to recuperate and steel himself. And then he turns his attention back to Komaeda.
Very well. He reaches a hand out as boldly as he can given the circumstances. Touch is still an intensely foreign concept to him; though it may not cause him physical pain, he cannot shake the the feeling that mere skin contact might as well burn him or cause him to break out into hives or both. Burning, he thinks, may even be preferable to this. Alas. His arm is stretched out all the way, and, helpfully, he advises:]
You really should be more careful. What would have become of you if I had not shown up?
[Take it. Take his hand so this can be done and over with. It's easier to cope with, at least, if he pretends he is touching a fish and not a person.]
Komaeda calling an adult man by kun is peak friendship in his own book ok
Once successfully freed from the avalanche of boxes, Komaeda properly dusts himself off and gives his apron a few good pats before immediately turning his smiling face towards the mess at hand. Immediately, he stoops down to, weakly, pick up and restack the boxes.]
I probably would've died, to be honest! [He grunts between lifts, and when he sets one box down, it's with enough pause to laugh.] It wouldn't be the first time, but... It would have been pretty inconvenient.
So I'm glad you made good on your word, Diavolo-kun! You saved me~
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This carefree air ... it's an unusual attitude for the owner of a business. Komaeda fails to meet any of his expectations, but instead of being off-putting, it's almost a relief. This, he thinks, is vastly better than having orders barked at him or being treated like a simple, mindless employee-to-be. This sort of menial work may be undignified for someone like him, but he assists with the boxes regardless. He hefts them with ease.]
The most humiliating deaths, I find, are the ones that sting the hardest. "Inconvenient" is quite the understatement.
[He does not know what a kun is and he is not about to ask. He just averts his gaze, hoping it that the sentiment isn't anything overtly-familiar. From the tone of Komaeda's voice, he fears that it might be.]
Of course. I would not have backed down on my promise.
[A complete and utter lie, but Komaeda does not need to know that.]
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But it wouldn't be right to foist his feelings on the matter right onto the shoulders of a guy who both hardly knows him, and just helped him out of a rather dangerous predicament. That, and he's still doing well to remember Riley's advice of thinking before speaking.]
It makes me happy to hear that, you know! The ability to keep your word is an admirable trait in an employee... [He laughs again, short and sweet,] saying something like that really makes me sound like a business owner, huh?
Still, I appreciate you showing interest in our little store. It's not much, but this was my friend's hope, so it's important to me to have the right people working here.
[Komaeda grunts as he hefts another box up, and honestly, it's questionable whether monster strength might really be a thing for him or not. He seems to struggle with the same capacity as an unathletic human. When he sets it into the stack, he pauses for a moment and turns to look back at the nephilim, one finger hooked into the collar of his shirt to flap some air through it, and cool him down.]
I can already tell you're a good guy, Diavolo-kun!
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Regardless. It is nice to be appreciated, and Komaeda's words bolster his ego. He finds himself relaxing more, stretching his wings out instead of holding them protectively against himself. The work is tedious and it's disturbingly mundane, but he continues on. Another box, and another, and another. It occurs to him, for a moment, that he is not actually employed here, at least not yet — but first impressions are so vital.
He is already succeeding at this impression, but there's no harm in sweetening this conversation and turning it further in his favor. Some respond so well to compliments. Doppio certainly does. Those come easily sincerely; what Diavolo says next is far more forced, but, again ... Komaeda does not need to know that.]
Your network post drew my attention. Your enthusiasm was palpable in every reply you wrote. This clearly means a lot to you.
[Another lie. The post only caught his eye because he was out of his mind in solitude and boredom and it struck at precisely the right time. This sort of work seemed nonthreatening enough to pursue — not like other businesses in search of security or bodyguards or the like. Here, at least, he can cling to hope that the wrong person will not wander in and he will not one day find himself reduced to a smear on the floor in the line of duty.]
It's truly admirable.
[It's a convenience store.]
A friend's hope, you say?
[Steering the topic to something more comprehensible...]
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He did it for a year and a half at Insert Coin, and he's doing it again, as if it were nothing. Mukuro, too, minded the Kit-Tea-Kat cafe in Lila's absence, who only ever took it over from Regulus.]
I don't think it's admirable. [Komaeda interjects, with his words firm but his tone passive, and without looking in the other's direction.] In Ryslig, that's just what happens. People come and go, and what they leave behind is taken care of by others...
When you have friends, or people you love, it's only obvious you'll want to hold onto what was important to them. In case they come back, or... if they never come back.
[Either way, it's something that feels necessary. It's nothing admirable, nothing so chivalrous. It's just what you do.]
I'm sure if one of your friends left Ryslig, Diavolo-kun, you would want to hold onto their things too. It's like... a physical memory of them. It's just sentimentality.