voicemail.

[coastal]

[Following the "record your voicemail at the beep" message--]

What? Who gave you the right to order me around? -- W-Wait, was that the beep?

I wasn't prepared--!! [a whispered hiss:] How do you get this thing to stop-?!

[Beep!

You know the drill! IC Inbox for voice/video/action threads for whatever occasion.]

Comments

[coastal]

[ . . . . . . . Lili is Atsushi's age.

Lili also didn't have many friends as a child.

So she's really confused right now.]

.... What're you doing?

[Ah. The struggle of being a friendless tsun.]

[jinko]

E-eh?! Do you not have pinky promises in your world...?!

[ He's stuck there dumbly for a moment, still holding out his pinky, before he starts on this very...unhelpful explanation. ]

I-it's something to people do when they make promises! You see, you just... tangle your pinkies together and shake! I guess it's just superstition, but... I just thought, maybe you'd like to formalize this? N-not that I want to make it an obligation, of course!

[coastal]

[ . . . what. With their pinkies? She blinks once before offering out her own, mirroring his outstretched hand. Is it like how she's seen people shake hands here... except this is for pinkies and promises?

(She doesn't seem to realize that this isn't some Other World thing - she just never had any peers her own age to pinky promise with.)]

It wouldn't be an obligation. I want to.

[She reaffirms that first.... because she can't be genuine with much, but she'll be absolutely sincere about when she wants to be of use to people.

But you got her to extend her pinky out, Atsushi.]

Like this?

[jinko]

[ This is also Atsushi's first clumsy attempt at pinky-promising, and accordingly, he's not as suave or smooth as he'd like to be about the whole affair. He swings and misses once, twice, before finally getting in a good position to lock fingers.

When he does, though, he winds his pinky firmly around Lili's and shakes his wrist with more conviction. ]

—There! Like this.

[coastal]

[She's kind of just watching as he misses.... Is that ceremonial.... Is there a reason behind why he's missing..... should she pay attention to that if she wants to recreate this?

But then he gets it! And she's tentatively going to curl her finger back around his and mimic the wrist shaking motion. Hell yeah, learning.

That said... this promise means a lot to her! So even if she doesn't understand the purpose of the whole "pinky promise" thing, she's still really happy about it. It means that he's promising to tell her when he needs help, right? So that way she can help him and repay all the kindness that he's showed her.

He's kind. But those words can't make it out of her lips.

Instead, the corners of her lips turn up into a smile without her even noticing.]

It's a promise, then!

[jinko]

[ There are a lot of things to feel good about here: having made a promise with someone, for one. It's not every day that he gets to do something like this, and this is a fresh, strange experience for himself, as well—

—but even beyond that, ah.

She's smiling.

That's all he could have asked for from this day, really, and the expression is contagious, spreading a slow but wide curl of his lips to match. Learning! Progress! But above all, happiness. ]

I won't forget. It's a promise, Lili-san.

[ Atsushi should probably let go sometime within the next century, though, because the waitress with their food is staring at the two of them like "when are these kids gonna let me do my job". ]

[coastal]

[It is a promise - but Lili's at least vaguely more in tune with the surroundings than Atsushi apparently as she uncurls her pinky from his and slips her hand away as she gives the waitress a polite, slightly more reserved smile.]

Forgive us, miss. Is that ours? Thank you for your patience.

[She's in a good enough mood to slip right back into her trained niceties, apparently.]