011 | my star has left me (to take the bitter pill)

[mortal_son]

[ AUDIO ] | [ Backdated to Monday afternoon ]

Uh, there -

[ There's some shuffling sound, like he's setting the phone up somewhere, still. ]

Right. So.

... I ain't good at this, either the talkin or the - well.

But just writin it seemed ... not enough, and. All of you are probably sick of seein my face, so.

[ There's a brief pause, before he goes on. He sounds very, very tired, but his voice is nonetheless serious, and firm. ]

I frightened the hell outta a lot of you.

I said a lot of stuff, some of it to some people I don't even know.

And, it's complicated, but I can say that - while it wasn't all me, it was a part of me. So, yeah, I ain't gonna pretend it isn't my fault.

I'm sorry.

[ He swallows. ]

I am sorry.

I'm not gonna. Just sit around feelin guilty, though. Not -

[ Coughs. ]

- Yeah. So.

Up to you if you take this seriously.

But let me know if I can make it up to you.

[ And then the audio is turned off. ]

Comments

[koishi_komeiji]

"Oh..." Koishi blinked. "Why not? I like chasing them because there are a lot of them. So I don't see the problem. I have to chase and hunt things sometimes. It's instinctive. Otherwise I get antsy." She's a carnivore Shinjiro.

"Oh! Plenty! Sis owns lots of animals. She has dogs and cats and foxes and raccoons and birds and snakes and a tortoise and a whole bunch of other things."

[ Audio | Private ]

[mortal_son]

He hadn't known, but he was beginning to suspect that was the case. Shinjiro knew he couldn't keep forgetting what Koishi actually was. Still, he hoped she didn't hunt them down and eat them raw in front of him, or something. "... Nevermind."

"Huh," Shinjiro said, sounding surprised. "Uh."

It sounded really nice, actually.

"Yeah, you can bring some of her pets along." Trying to be nonchalant about it. Probably failing.

[koishi_komeiji]

"Yay! Sis might want to come along too. She doesn't get out enough so sometimes I make her come out and do things with me. Because she'll get too grumpy if left alone in her little box." Koishi will MAKE you be social, Satori. It's for your own good!

"She'll bring snacks too!" Don't promise that before she's agreed! "Sis is good at cooking things. I bet you'll like what she makes."

[ Audio | Private ]

[mortal_son]

Shinjiro bites back a sigh, not wanting it to be picked up by the microphone. So, now it was going to be a picnic. Well. Probably better than just wandering aimlessly around.

Considering her disappointment earlier, though, he tries not to sound too grouchy about it. "Sounds fine. If she wants to come."

"I'll let you know when I'm gonna be free."

... Actually. If he got fired from his job, he probably had a lot of free time on his hands, now.

Great.

[koishi_komeiji]

"Oh! That's good! Too bad it's Monday. Most people are busy today and tomorrow and the next..." She tilted her head. "As soon as you're free okay? There's lots of things we can do. I bet it will be a lot of fun!"

As if on cue a little white dog scampered through frame and around the corner, into the next room. She must have been home. It appeared to be entirely made of fluff.

"What sorts of things do you like to eat, Mister?"

[mortal_son]

... Fluffy dog was fluffy. Shinjiro was distracted, for a moment.

And then he concentrated on answering Koishi's question.

"... Whatever is fine, really." He then re-considered that, and backtracked a little. "Not that I really know what youkai eat. So, uh."

He felt really awkward. "Whatever's good for a picnic."

[koishi_komeiji]

"Oh Okay." A pause. "Ohhhh! Don't worry Mister. We won't make anything that's not okay for a human to eat. And if we do we'll put it in a different basket. It would be bad if you got sick."

There was a raccoon in the background after a moment, waddling after the dog before a fox came out of nowhere to playfully tackle it. Lots of pets indeed.

"So no oni sake or raw meat that hasn't been prepared to be okay for you to eat. Because sashimi is delicious and humans can eat it and sis is good at making it."

[mortal_son]

It was rather adorable. Shinjiro wondered what it'd be like, visiting that place. All of those anim-

... Yeah, no, visiting a youkai's house just sounded like an invitation for trouble.

"Sushi would be fine," he said, "if we were't walkin around too much, lettin it spoil."

Getting food poisoning was a bad time, he would not recommend.

He suggested, "Maybe somethin which would keep for longer. Who knows how long we'll walk around, lettin your friends play."

Shinjiro meant the pets, of course.

[koishi_komeiji]

"We'll have more than that. Don't worry. Sis is good at picnics. So nothing is going to spoil." She sounded very confident.

And then the dog was back, pouncing on the wrestling raccoon and fox, running several times around a table, and then out of sight, their little claws clicking on the floor. It was extremely cute.

"And sis can let them scamper around. They'll come when she calls because she's psychically trained all of them. They're very well behaved."

[ Audio | Private ]

[mortal_son]

Shinjiro shrugged. With everything here in Genessia, maybe the containers they had would keep magically cold, or something. He said his bit. If anything they brought looked off, he just wouldn't eat it.

"That's pretty cool," he said, meaning it entirely. Then, backtracked. He didn' intend to sound so eager. "Well. Uh. Pretty usefull, anyway."

[koishi_komeiji]

"That's because sis is the best big sister ever!" She was adamant about this, her third eye bobbing and swaying happily. "You'll like her. She's a sweetheart. But she pretends to be grumpy to act tough. But she's secretly super sweet and loves coconut. It's her greatest weakness."

A laugh. "She also gives the best hugs and is the most wonderful big sister ever!" You said that already. And at this rate Shinjiro would have a very poor impression of what he was going to be in for...

[ Audio | Private ]

[mortal_son]

... Actually, from the sounds of things, it might be that he'd get on better with her sister than he would Koishi herself. From a certain perspective, they sounded somewhat similar.

He was certainly self-aware of his shortcomings, and "grumpy to act tough" was definitely one of them.

Also, fortunate for Satori, he wrote off much of what Koishi said as overenthusiastic hyperbole.

"All right. I look forward to meeting her."