maskormenacelogs | (no subject)

[ So much cake in the world... Annie answers the door with a bowl of candy and apples braced against her side, looking out at about Inumuta's chest level. Sure, only two of the townhouses out here in Nonah are actually lived in in the government owned area, but being a city location and just off a train stop with the added bonus of extra police security still lurking around? For some reason, it meant kids knew where to go to get imPort candy. Like. Twenty whole kids.

Regardless, every knock on her door has been some child in costume, meaning she has to look up to find his face once it registers she's not getting bombarded with a sing-song trick or treat. ]

Hey.

[ She steps back, opening the door wide as an invitation, leaving plenty of room to enter into the foyer. The blinds are drawn in the living room right off to the side, with the major source of light from the kitchen in the back part of the first level. ]

Trick or treat.

[Inumuta replies anyway, smiling a little. Once inside, he's starts heading for whatever consists as the living room, and drops his backpack full of stupid junk food he intended to eat if Annie didn't have any appropriately awful food. For once it seems he didn't have his laptop with him. A miracle in the making, for sure.]

I brought movies.

[ She exhales through her nose, a softer snort of what was probably amusement. The living room is in the same front area as the door, so once he's past the foyer, he's in the wood floored area with the couch, area rug, and the television set. It's all the standard issue to these townhomes, but at least the couch looks well loved. (Mostly Kaine and Reiner's faults.)

Good call on the junk food. Most of hers is right there in the candy basket. ]

Can you make them work?

[ Look, she knows how to get things playing on computers now. She has no idea about DVD players. Progress. ]

[A well loved couch is a comfortable couch. Unless it's the kind of "well loved" couch that implies unwanted stains and strange colored spots. Then it's time to get a new couch, or different roommates. Inumuta takes a seat on the couch, removing the contents of his bag. It's definitely a pretty strange collection. Dare you try it, Annie?]

... Yes, I can make them work.

[Gives Annie A LOOK.]

It's not magic. I put the DVD into the DVD player. You... do have a DVD player, don't you?

Edited 2014-11-13 04:37 (UTC)

[ It's a comfortable couch. The nice kind of well loved that saw people passing out on it instead of bothering to walk up a flight or two of stairs some nights, nothing racy. Leaving the candy on the entry table near the door, Annie lifts her eyebrows and shrugs oh so eloquently. ]

Hell if I know.

[ She doesn't watch movies, and all she's seen with Kaine here is the news. When would she have checked? There is a blueray player connected to their internet actually present, but it's a box under the television she hasn't bothered to explore. She'll just turn over one of the chip bags he's pulled out to puzzle over the packaging. Those... are chips, right? They come in flavors like these, too?! ]

[These are chips. These are foreign, typically Japan-Only chips he had to have imported, so, be grateful you get to taste this rare commodity, Annie.

As for the Bluray player, Inumuta removes himself from the couch to crawl closer to that mysterious box, and yes, that'll work fine. Good thing he has mostly bluerays, anyway.]

Look in my bag and pick which one you would like to start with. I recommend "One Missed Call" but any will be fine.

[Might have intentionally picked that one due to Annie's already growing fear of technology.]

[ Mounting paranoia. Not fear! And in no part thanks to Inumuta himself. Annie glances at the bag, moving to pick out the one he's named (less reading and pretending like she knows what any of the summaries really mean on the backs). Her guess is there's a reason behind why that one, but it's either a genuine recommendation, or he's waiting for the punchline to laugh over at the end.

She brings it over, handing him the DVD case. Whatever. She can handle it either way. ]

Did you want anything to drink? We don't have any soda right now... though there's a corner store two blocks away if you can't stand any of the rest.

[ And want to deal with the Halloween crowds. Godspeed, she's not making that trip for him. ]

We have water, fizzy-water, rice milk, shitty beer, some kind of juice, tea.. coffee...

[ If this sounds like an old folks home it basically is. ]

[The punchline comes after Annie realizes what the plot of the movie is about. It's also genuine recommendation, to his defense.

He pauses once the DVD's been handed to him and gives Annie an incredulous look.]

You don't have any soda?

[how is he supposed to have chips without soda. Normally he'd settle for tea, but... with chips and with candy, soda is clearly the best option. Sighing, Inumuta inserts the disc into the player, and as the system begins to boot up, Inumuta moves back to his bag and begins to search in it for a tablet. He sets up the tablet on the small table in the living room.]

Normally, tea would be an acceptable option. But I think tonight particularly calls for something more unhealthy.

I'm assuming you don't want one, yes?

[ She has sparkling mineral water in flavors of various citrus... lemon, lime, even orange. However, that's very much not soda, and she shakes her head in answer to his rhetorical question, along with his correct one. Nope, Annie's not really up for a sugar explosion. She'd get all wound up and restless, to the point where she had to move simply to deal with the energy rush.

He really, really doesn't want to deal with that. ]

No thank you. Though where are you planning on getting soda from?

[ She asks, heading back into the kitchen to get herself fizzy water. (Carbonation's weird, but in an oddly enjoyable way.) ]

My tablet.

[Sitting in front of the tablet, and holding it with one hand, he poises the other in front of the screen.]

I rarely use this ability. It's difficult to get correct.

[If Annie so happens to glance over, she'll see Inumuta's hand begin to... disappear, into the computer. The screen ripples lightly, as if he was dipping it into water rather than an electronic's screen. He's silent for a few seconds, and then slowly withdraws his hand, holding a bottled soda instead. An orange soda, Fanta brand. Inumuta's mouth twitches a little, not quite a frown, but places the soda on the table.]

I was hoping for pineapple, but I suppose that's better than what it could have been.

[ She catches the tail end of all this when she's coming back into the living room, quirking her eyebrows up and not sure what she... actually did see. ]

Where'd you pull that from?

[ Bad jokes about people coming through the computer aside from a while back, she does want to know as she sits down on the couch, pulling one leg up underneath her as she sits down. She twists off her bottlecap, keeping the cap on until the initial release of carbonation slows down to a faint hiss. ]

The internet, technically.

[And Inumuta does the same, twisting the cap off lightly to take care of the fizz, and tucking his tablet away into his backpack.]

It's one of my abilities, but it almost always winds up incorrect.

[ Huh. She lets her interest show on her face, tucking her other leg up on the couch as she settles in. ]

What's the success rate?

[ Almost always wrong leaves a margin for when it's right. Talk stats with her, Inumuta. That's downright sexy talk. ~~No it isn't.~~ But she is genuinely curious - the "powers" granted by the Porter are a curiosity to her, none-withstanding the fact she's finally starting to get a handle on what hers does. You know... that one she never talks about, versus the one she confessed to an entire network of people that she and her comrades can do. ]

It's less a probability factor and more a popularity one. I was asking for pineapple soda, but orange soda is a more popular citrus-based soda flavor, and so that's what I got. I can pull from what internet popularity dictates as it's closest interpretation of my request.

[He knew she'd be interested in this. Hell, he's still interested in this. But he rarely uses this power for a reason- it's given him several ... unsavory "popular" things that he's learned to not rely on it often. However, a simple soda seemed like a safe enough bet. Any more creative than that, and well... things might have wound up a little weird. Or gross.]

Only a few people know I can do this.

[ Thank whomever Annie has no concept of what constitutes as popular online. She can use the internet as a research tool, but that's about where her interest flagged in the face of what else she had to get done. Still, what he says makes a certain amount of sense. As long as he's looking for something popularized on there... huh. Is it restricted by screen size? Amount of matter the object being retrieved is comprised of? Would weapons work the same way? Would they come fully loaded? Does it have to exist on this planet?

... No. Okay. She needs to stop wondering. (She won't, but she can sideline herself until later.) Instead he gets a curious look, and Annie holding her hand out for his Fanta. She's not planning on drinking it, but hey, recent track records might be suspect. She mostly wants to verify results with another tangible sense. ]

Why did you decide to tell me?

You didn't have soda.

[Is that the whole reason? No. But come on, Annie. You can figure out the rest of it.]

Are you all set? I'm going to start the movie now.

Mm? Yes, go ahead.

[ Fair point on the soda, and yes... she can. She's just not sure what to make of it, so she falls into more familiar silence, eyes flicking to the screen. She's really not prepared for this, but it's curiosity, not dread, that she feels at the moment. What the hell is more "frightening" than the lives they've all led? Pfft. She's got this.

Though the lights are totally on in the kitchen and the rest because what is movie etiquette, nothing she knows anything about. ]

[So the movie starts up. Only five minutes in, and already the weirdness starts with a strange ringtone, a missed phone call, and a weird voicemail. Inumuta nudges for Annie to pass the chips.]

Edited 2014-11-18 01:03 (UTC)

[ She doesn't get what he wants at first, and she's still trying to figure out what they're looking at with this body in the morgue - uh. Right. Chips. He gets the whole lot gathered up and dumped into his lap.

Not that Annie uses her hands to do it. Welcome to the gratuitous use of psychic shielding when she's been trying to figure out if it can carry weight as well as deflect. ]

[Well that's...

That's a surprise to him. He didn't know she had that kind of ability. Is this some sort of unspoken of exchange? He revealed an ability to her, and she did the same to him? Or is it unintentional? Normally, he'd ask more, but the movie is still playing, and he doesn't want to speak over it. Not that the chip bags are any quieter themselves.

Cue the Real Struggle of trying to quietly eat chips so Annie can pay attention.]

[ It's at least a partial revelation, and different from how it'd be understood by Blue Beetle or what Lunatic might make of it from how they've seen it function. With Charles Xavier gone, there's no one to even point out that it makes her impossible to hear, too. She might, if asked, but she's trying to make sense of what's going on.

Those phones are totally older than theirs. These are the details she registers, politely ignoring his struggle with eating very quietly (it seems to make it more pronounced) as the one woman calls the other. Shopping? Yeah, that's... okay. Dark at night is also usual, crossing over a bridge...

It shouldn't matter. She'll tell herself that later, when the sound of the train comes out of the speakers, and the woman is screaming over the phone to her friend. It's not even graphic, or particularly realistic, when she's leaping down on top of the moving train. Annie goes still, eyes wide, watching the screen but not really seeing. She can hear her heart pounding, feels like she's sucking in breathe with a weight sitting on her chest. She knows where she is. She's very aware of being in Nonah, in the living room, knows her present company, knows all of this. Knows she can't be smelling burning hair or flesh, can't taste actual ash in her mouth. She's not smelling anything like the sweetness of decay as she dry swallows, trembling in spite of herself.

Scent is a very powerful memory. She's here, but she's also elsewhere in Nonah, in Sofia, back home in Trost and staring down at what's left of a familiar body in the aftermath of days of hunting down Titans, leaving the dead to rot. One sort of chaos and death brought about by the actions of those she's involved with, and the others the accumulation of factors here she's been unable to change. She doesn't even realize when she's spoken. She can't breathe. She's not connected enough to this moment. ]

I'm sorry.

[ She's unaware that she repeats this as she lets her fizzy water slide out of nerveless hands, unable to find the power to grasp in that moment. ]

Ah-

[He catches it in time before it spills or falls elsewhere, and places it on the table. He pauses quickly as well, looking over to Annie who seems to be struggling to breathe for some reason. Was it... the movie? Was she really that horrified of...

The train. He'd forgotten the train scene in this, and it's connection to past events Annie had gone through. Earlier in the year...

Well, Inumuta isn't exactly known for being the most sensitive being.

He does, though, put a hand on her shoulder, to try and bring her back to the moment. He wasn't with her at the train site, and as far as he knows, he has no connection in her mind to destruction.]

Annie- look at me.

Breathe.

[ She pulls away, hearing his words but not having them connect to anything - she's breathing, why is he asking her to breathe, can't he see she's breathing - but all she manages is another: ]

I'm sorry.

[ It's awkward, moving forward with both her legs caught underneath her at first, but she's moved under more awkward circumstances, and she can't stay still. She absolutely can't stay still right now, and the scents are only getting worse. Her hands are visibly shaking as she gets to her feet, keeping balance but intent on going - going where? Forward she tells herself, toward the kitchen, toward the back door where she can find clean air only tainted with the modern conveniences of society, but free of what's cloying in here.

Annie walks into a chair on the way there, catching it with her hands and looking down at it like she can't understand where it came from. Logically she can. It's not logic driving her, but the irrational belief that if she gets outside (where the trains run, they're always running in Nonah) it'll be better, she won't be trapped, she won't be caught in with the dead in the dark or the daylight, carting off the people she's known. Her fingers fumble with the stupid lock on the back door, to the point where she can't even manage more than a noise of frustration when she can't get it to just open. ]

[He didn't think it would affect her this badly.

But it all really boils down to- he didn't think. As much as he calls himself Annie's friend, there's still so much about her he doesn't understand. Her panicking seems without reason, without cause. But he is also not one to react to horrifying things of the past in such a way. He just holds it bitterly inside of him for decades- which isn't a healthier way by any means.

Inumuta gets off the couch as well, following after Annie as she struggles with the lock on the door, and opening it for her. If she needs fresh air, she should have fresh air.]

[ To be fair, no one would have predicted this. Annie is enough of a stoic that people tend to remember that first and foremost, not the times where she's started to react or break down. People not from home haven't seen much of that - Wally's seen degrees in Sofia, and there's usually been someone around to remind her - Reiner. Reiner in Trost, the officials in Nonah, the need for capable hands in Sofia.

There's no need for her hands right now. No need for her. He opens the door, and she slides past him, saying thank you as she goes.

It's a step down to the dirt and grass outside, to the side of the small patio. Annie breathes, sucking in air like she hadn't been able to before, rubbing at her face with her hands. It hasn't rained, but the grass scent is sharp in the chill night air, more immediate than the rest of what her mind provides. It cuts through it all, but it doesn't shake it off. Annie starts to pace, still rubbing at her face, trying to shove it back down and away. It's not working - she's been trying to for long enough - and this is too unexpected. She wasn't prepared, and all she can think in the back of her mind is that this is her own damn fault.

At least if she keeps her hands on her neck, where they fall when she feels like she's suffocating herself, they can't shake. It doesn't matter (or register) that she's crying. It's not precisely sadness, and not fear, either, but a release of everything she's feeling that's too overwhelming in that moment. Annie paces, pivots, then paces back again, breathing in and out as steadily as she can manage, heart rate still too elevated. A car backfires like a shot-gun blast several blocks away, and she starts, looking up and toward where the railroad tracks are, hidden by buildings and distance. Her nerves are raw enough it's all rubbing her wrong. ]

I'm sorry.

[ It's at least less of a reflexive, uncontrolled statement, but she can't stop pacing, and she's laced her fingers together where her hands join behind her neck. Still, she can register that he shouldn't have to see this, and that's about all - she can't think past that, focusing on what she can try to convince herself is okay. The chill air on her face, especially biting as the warmth from her tears leaves wet trails down her cheeks, the way grass feels under her feet. Nothing out here smells like it's dying. There's no sulfur, no gunpowder, nothing burning. Not as good as mountain air, but a hell of a lot better than the things haunting her right now. She keeps pacing until she can come to a stop, just to the outside of the arc of light that comes out through the window from the kitchen. Annie stays there, breathing still audible if he's listening, eyes closed, struggling to calm the irrational with the rational.

It's not a winning battle, but it's not one she's losing entirely. At least the pacing has calmed down for the moment. She can fight enough to hold her ground, not expecting anything to come crashing down around her. No kick through the Wall (Bertholdt in action), and no explosions marking the caving in of structures and vehicles she barely understood. A few laughs from children that hit the right pitch to travel through the night air, but nothing else. The normal hum of traffic in the distance, the normal sounds of a train moving past, unharmed.

In small degrees, it all starts to help. ]

I'm sorry, Houka.

Edited 2014-11-18 03:10 (UTC)

[Yeah, he's used to Annie being stoic. He knows she can break a smile here and there, but he's never- never seen this much raw emotion on her. On... anyone he's had this close a contact to, really. He's seen Gamagori lose control, and he's seen Sanageyama lose himself... but he was removed from the situation, physically and mentally (to a degree). It never happened while he was only a few feet away, and the lack of real distance is affecting Inumuta's reaction. He can't just... observe, and look on.

He's not good with reassuring people. He's poor at making people feel better.

But now might be a good time to start trying?

Houka waits until Annie stops pacing, and the silence seems to be helping her, but he just feels a pang of guilt every time she apologizes to him, when it's his fault she's having this kind of breakdown. He didn't know- really, couldn't have known, but is his conscious going to just accept that as an answer? Not likely.

He takes a few steps closer as she settles, and apologizes once more.]

It's okay. You're okay.

[ Okay is such a - such a lacking statement. Annie opens her eyes, shifting to look his way. Nothing is ever really okay. Her hands are cold on her neck, and she unlaces her fingers, letting them drop down to her sides. She does nothing for the tears on her face, or frankly, the snot that's not far from following. (Crying isn't a pretty process, and she's not masking that, even if there wouldn't be much point in the darkness.)

He's still standing in the light thrown out through the window, while Annie stays just outside, in the shadows, heart still beating too hard and too fast, but breathing better, for all it's still heavy. There's no instant off switch, no way to make everything better simply by reasoning with herself. The last time things had caught up, she'd had precious little time to cage it all back in before pressing on. No breaks as a mentality that leads straight up to the moment where she breaks anyway.

Her voice is thick when she tries to speak, and she has to clear her throat, coughing a little, then swallowing. There's a moment where she almost laughs. She settles on smiling, a sad, sad expression, but honest - in that moment - for how she feels. It's almost a sweet expression, uninhibited as it is, but it can't be. Sweet smiles with unhappy tears don't exist. She's tired. She's scared. She's overwhelmed, and it's showing, like so many frayed threads she needs to collect and tuck back in to pretend they're whole again. ]

No, it isn't. And I'm not. But I will be.

[ She swallows, turning to face him fully, because it's easier to focus on something - someone - so divorced from the rest. The bad memories she has of him are grounding - the expression on his face when she and Riener and Bertholdt had confessed. Helping out with the laptops, even sharing that really shitty song about being blue. Calling her a murderer on network, like it bore repeating. And it does.

No, it isn't okay. And I'm not. But she doesn't have a choice about the will be. Moving forward, moving on, that's what has to happen. Even if she wants to run away, there's nowhere to run to. ]

I'm sorry. [ For this, right now, for what she can't always handle, and what she doesn't expect. ] I'm not... okay right now.

[ But don't worry. Please, for fuck's sake, don't worry. She doesn't know how to take that from him, of all people. ]

[He might still be in the light, and she's still in the dark, but he's still close enough to see her face when she turns to face him. She looks a great deal more upset than he imagined she would. He isn't sure why he always thinks that when people cry as deeply as she just did, they aren't going to look as bad as they do. Wet spots all over their face, snot running down their nose, eyes red... it's a big mess. Maybe because he's never done that, it seems so weird to him.

He's going to worry. Smart people worry, because their minds are always moving on something, and sometimes that thing is other people. For some, that thing is always people, and for right now, that thing is Annie. He takes another few steps closer- they're only a half foot apart now.

Even if she's not okay right now, she says she will be. So that's... that's good, right?

Cautiously, Inumuta raises a hand. Slowly, and trying to keep it in Annie's sight, (much like he'd treat a cat who he's afraid will run away) and eventually raises it to her face. With his thumb, he makes an attempt to wipe away some of the tears that still stain her face slightly.]

I have a friend who's said that... he will wipe away his own tears, because he realized he relied on too many people and needed to stand up for himself. But I think you've wiped away your own tears enough. You can rely on people- certain people. And you don't... need to be okay all the time. It's okay to not be okay, too.

[Don't expect good advice like this again. Much like a full moon on Halloween, this will happen once every ten years or so.]

[ It's strain, and stress, and irrational responses to memories and experiences she can't keep repressed forever. The way she feels right now is not under her control, let alone what she'd felt when she'd been sitting on a couch watching a movie that shouldn't have touched anything. She doesn't cry much, relative to some she knows, or all that often. But she's human. Even as a Titan, she's cried. It's not something anyone might have proposed as truly possible, but Annie knows. (As does Levi.) Titans don't need air to breathe, yet they can still weep.

She watches him, his hand moving where she can see it in her periphery, but it's his face she makes herself look at. Listening isn't easy. Or it is, but hearing is another matter, and it feels foreign, very strange, hearing these words out of anyone's mouth. Like reading back before when he'd called them friends, before he knew. How that had made her stomach drop out and feel sick, because it had been a lie in her eyes. Houka Inumuta has a way of surprising her that she doesn't expect, though she should really know better by now. He can be a jackass and an asshole, but he's a person who cares about what he cares about deeply. His friends, the things he finds important, and she respects that. Even his ridiculous passion for electronics and thirst for knowledge. It has to be nice to feel that stirred up by any one thing.

And it's nice to let her mind focus on something else, simply accepting everything she's feeling, even the fresh tears she feels welling in her eyes. There's some gratitude in there, because she can't believe him to be disingenuous. Much like Eren wore his heart on his sleeve, some things feel more genuine from people who don't make a habit of speaking in words they really don't mean.

Annie brings her hand up to his, pressing her palm against the back of his hand. It's just to capture his hand against her cheek for a moment, a small reassurance in human contact that she denies herself because building bonds is an act in creating bridges to burn later on. Or it had been. For so long, that's exactly what it's been like. ]

Are you sure?

[ And it's not the sentiment she's asking after, precisely, and not the wisdom in what he's saying. People can bend or break on their own or with people at their side. It's him - his actions, his words, and an ache she can't really identify. Her eyes close briefly and she swallows, but when they open, she's looking him in the face again. At some point, he stopped reminding her of other people, and started reminding her of himself. She wonders when that happened. ]

I'm a traitor, a spy, and a murderer. [ She won't forget. She won't let anyone forget, let alone him. Right now it makes her shiver, but that's her chaotic emotions, that's the chill night air. These walls she builds are to keep herself safe, and keep everyone else safe, too. ]

Should I rely on - [ you ] - people like you?

[ Some things she only needs to hear once. They can mean more than a thousand repetitions of the same refrain. ]

[It's a good thing Inumuta isn't wearing his typical jacket. It's this kind of scenario and situation where he'd like nothing more than to bring up his collar and duck behind the fuzzy trim rather than having his whole face exposed like this. He's afraid of having his own emotions so obvious and out there, because it leaves room for teasing and insults. In a way, he envies Sanageyama and Gamagori for their ability to be so plain with their emotions. When Sanageyama's happy, he's smiling and letting everyone know it. When Gamagori's upset, he's frowning and making sure everyone knows it. Inumuta is quiet, and prides himself on it. Being difficult to read gives him a little feeling of triumph, because it means he knows how he feels, but no one else does. The collar helps, when he can't control the way his own mouth conveys expressions.

Annie holds his hand to her face, and he kind of just. Leaves it there, because he doesn't know what else to do with it now. She wants it there, clearly, because she hasn't moved his hand away, but ... what. Does he just. Leave it there for a while now? When does he take it back. Is this going to lead to something? He's seen an anime like this, and it lead to kissing. Oh god. Is this one of those times? Oh shit. He's not ready for this. Maybe he should just. Not move. Yeah. Not moving sounds good. He can do that.

Except now she's talking to him again, about how she's a traitor. And yes, she is. Whatever form of humanity there is out there in her world, she betrayed them. A spy and murderer, she's those too. It's the latter that he can't forgive, but...

But isn't he just lying to himself, if he acts as if he too hasn't lead to lives ending?

All of the Elite Four have. It was even Inumuta's plan- the Tri-City attack plan he had been working on- that apparently went without a hitch- took into account there would be a death toll, particularly so in Osaka. Does a strategist count those lives lost on his own tally, or does it go on the shoulders of the people who had done the life-taking? In the same way Annie had taken down the Walls, she lead people to their death without doing the killing herself. That's the same position he finds himself in, but he had simply... put it out of his mind. He hadn't owned up to it, in the same Annie had.

Without much conscious thought about it, Inumuta's hand returns from Annie's cheek, and instead looks for her own hand to meet with his. To hold, at least.]

You can rely on me.

[Not just people like him, which she can rely on as well, of course. But he's not going to speak for anyone else here. He means himself, just in this moment.]

[ She doesn't keep his hand at her cheek; as soon as he moves to take it away, she simply lets him. It's surprising in a different way when he takes hold of her hand. There's no particularly strong associations with handholding to being anything other than a gesture of comfort or connection, and what she can appreciate, after a moment of hesitation and the strong desire to twitch away (she's still rattled, she's still not running on what counts as normal, and she won't be for a while yet) fades, she gives his hand a small, brief squeeze - thank you - before pulling her hand away.

Those are words she won't be saying quite yet, preferring the silence and the motion to the words that can be stolen away by the cacophony of tonight.

Reliance here is about impermanence. The people they know will come and go, and they may be among that number. She may leave, and return, and recall nothing about him or this conversation; the same might happen with him. It's the thought in the back of her mind as she builds relationships with all different sorts here - they're all passing each other in the night, spending time walking the same paths, only to diverge again somewhere unknown down the line. Reliance isn't about permanence.

Her eyes drop down, closing, and she breathes in. There are conditions and limitations - there always will be - but some things she can allow herself. Some things she can learn to say. ]

Mm.

[ ... Or try to say. At least it's not a denial, and she's not turning away. For everything she doesn't know about him (and there's more than enough), to everything intimated or outlined in the words and actions and silences of both Houka Inumuta and his friends, what he's never done is forgive her.

And for that - among the rest - she can try to trust that he means what he says now. She can open her eyes and look back up at his face, expression tired and serious when she says: ]

I'm going to go do the dishes.

[ .............................. because normalization sometimes is everything about completely ignoring what's going on in favor of what you don't have to think about. Like dishes. Either way, it's when she moves past him, on the inside, cutting through the light from the window. ]

Thank you.

[ They're quiet words, and she doesn't say them looking his way. She doesn't need to, or want to, or some mixture of both. Either way, that's the end of anything she'd say before heading back inside and living up to her own statement. Annie Leonhart: also can't do movie nights right. ]

Edited (thank you! done.) 2014-12-29 02:40 (UTC)

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Ruins your tag nirvana

reclaimed!!!

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I GUESS I FOUND THE WHOLE MOVIE ON YOUTUBE??? SOMEHOW??

watches...........................................

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the closest i have to an icon that cares

it's okay i have all the wrong icons for this too

wrong icon party

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