USER #030066

[passio]

Black-as-can-be cats arrive a-pair,
Up on a rooftop, a plaintive eve,
And on the tips of their pointed tails hung
A wispy crescent-moon, looking hazy.
'O-wah, good evening,'
'O-wah, good evening!'
'O-wah, o-wah, o-wah!'
'O-wah, the man of this household is bedridden.'

A poem by Sakutaro Hagiwara, that I heard once from a friend. It seems things have calmed down since #FFFFFF arrived, but I wonder if that's the end of it.

How is everyone's literary analysis? I think we should be prepared for more mysterious messages, and maybe there's a way to prevent it before it gets bad.

Comments

[passio]

I don't know. Why does anyone cry?

[passio]

I think so, too. Most of us seem to have survived the furniture, but... it wasn't easy.

[swordfucker]

[Two thank yous in a row... He still doesn't know what to say to it. It's just a normal way to think, and he's the last guy who needs to be thanked for anything.]

If you're posting poetry on the internet, that means you're not going anywhere any time soon, right?

[He could just ask straight out if he can play chess with him right now, or he could be like this and try to avoid saying it directly. The choice is clear!!]

[thriftea]

i don't think so. let's hear it!

or... let's SEE it, i guess!

[It can't be that bad, right?]

[passio]

[ the change of subject is a surprise, but not unwelcome. he's posting poetry and brooding, mostly... ]

No, I'm not. Do you need something?

[passio]

[ YOU HAVE SO MUCH FAITH IN HIM........ ]

I don't know the whole thing. It's a little longer than the one I posted. I remember the ending, though.

'He was good. He was kind. He never whipped the wind nor squelched the mud unless it was necessary. And never did he retire into a deluge. But he will die. Is it, then, nothing at all to be small?'

[swordfucker]

Yeah. I'm bored, so I think I'll come over and kick your ass at chess.

[Yeah, he's cool, he's the coolest]

[passio]

[ oh... a challenge! he can't help that he gets a little competitive when it comes to this kind of thing, but guren is a good opponent. he can tell that already. ]

Will you?

[thriftea]

[Hmm. There's a significant pause here, because she's determined to give this her all.]

that can be sad, but it doesn't MAKE me sad.

when i read it, i think about all of the good things that the person did while he was still alive. if he was good and kind, then he must have helped lots of people, right? and those people will remember him even after he's gone.

so he's not small just because he's not there anymore. the things he did made him BIG!

[passio]

[ dextera pauses too, surprised by the way she's approached it. he doesn't remember the poem in its entirety, no, but he remembers the way he felt when he first read it—that it doesn't matter how beloved someone was, they will die. all people will. ]

...that's a nice way of thinking about it. There were other lines in the poem too, about how many people he helped.

But I can't help but feel sad. If he was so good, why does he have to die?

[swordfucker]

Go to hell. I'm coming over.

[Fuck you and your "will you?????", he's gonna do it!!! Also he is, in fact, coming over right now so there he goes, this is his last message.]

[good_ideas]

i have no idea~

because they're sad?
or maybe another reason you might be thinking of?

[passio]

[ dextera takes guren’s anger in stride, at least for now, while he’s safe on the other side of the laptop.

in preparation for guren’s arrival, since he knows guren is following through on that threat, he sets up the chess board. it was missing a few pieces that he had to quickly recreate out of some of the bones he’s found, and the paint is peeling off in places, but it’s functional.

he wishes he had his own, though. ]

[swordfucker]

[KICKS THE DOOR DOWN no not really, but the threat is real and should be worried about.

Instead, Guren knocks a couple times when he shows up like a normal person.]

Alright, chess master, let me in.

[passio]

[ he hasn’t cooled off...!! dextera thought the walk over might save him, but it appears he’s misjudged. ]

...

[ he opens the door, a far more unassuming person than he was when he issued that bold challenge. ]

1/2

[thriftea]

[Ah, but that question. It brings all sorts of unpleasant memories to mind, but one quickly rises to the very top. His death wasn't her fault—she knows this—and yet carrying him to safety, wishing that she could do more while knowing that she couldn't...

...It's not something that she's worked through quite yet. It is, in fact, something that she tries very hard not to think about, but now she's revisiting it for the first time in a long time.]

i don't know. but it makes me think how heroes put their lives on the line to protect everyone. the best heroes do it because they think it's the right thing to do. it doesn't matter if they get a big reward or if they get hurt. the important thing is helping.

it doesn't seem fair when they die. but THEY don't think that! to them, even if they just saved one person then all of it was worth it. it's their time to go and they... go.

so maybe that's what makes them good.

[She types all of this up, still thinking of that one person, and hits send before she can change her mind.]

[thriftea]

[Only she's hit by a sudden wave of sender's regret. Wow! Dextera didn't ask for any of that, so she shoots off another quick reply.]

i'm sorry! i didn't mean to type so much!!! it was silly.

[swordfucker]

[...He's cute, but that won't save him. Guren answers by immediately shoving his index finger into Dextera's forehead and pushing him back so he can step in more.

But, he does have a grin on his face that says he's having a good time, even before they've started.]

Where'd you set it up, your room?

[passio]

[ sender’s regret or no, she did send it, and dextera considers it with all the gravity that he would if she hadn’t told him to forget about it.

it sounds like ~*~trauma~*~, and he’s no better equipped than she is to handle trauma, but in a way... there’s a camaraderie in that, too. ]

It wasn’t silly.

I think you must be incredible, to think about it all like that. I admire it.

[ there’s nothing he can say, when he’s struggling with his own certainty of being a bad person—but he wants to assure her that she’s fine. her emotions are fine. ]

[thriftea]

[Well, the good news is that he's probably going to wake up one morning and find a) a happy poem and b) something nice to eat both sitting on his doorstep! Because holy cow, she feels so bad for sending that mess to another person. Split-second decisions are The Worst.]

that's nice of you to say! but it's not anything special. i was just trying to do some literary analysis, i guess!!!

thank you for sharing your poems. :)

[And now she'll just be floating up to her ceiling. Woohoo!]

[passio]

[ dextera is tentatively having a good time...

he’ll have more fun once they’re actually playing! for now, he nods, protecting himself from guren’s wrath by turning away to head to his room.

with no furniture to speak of, he settles on the floor, his laptop open next to him—but he imagines he’ll be a little too focused on the game to use it. ]

[passio]

[ don’t go......

he wishes there were more he could do for her, having seen this kind of insecurity laid out before him like this, even if the forums help hide exactly how sad or embarrassed she is to express it all. ]

I’ll try to think of something happier for next time.

I hope you’ll tell me what you think of that one, too.

[swordfucker]

[Guren moves to sit opposite of him, already looking thoughtfully at the board. He's thought about this since they last played. Dextera's patterns, his way of thinking, his techniques— he's got a plan to use this time, and he's feeling confident!

But aside from his own competitive mood and his interest in playing fun games like this (both for his heart, and because he likes it), Guren wonders if it might help Dextera, too. He's pretty sure Dextera isn't necessarily down, and it's more like he's just like this, but still— brightening things was always good.

Even if he's not the type to really do it very well, he can try behind his own interests.]

You take white. [Whether white was "white" in this case or just another grey, he's determined to take the second move because he thinks it's marginally harder...]

[passio]

[ chess is genuinely fun for him. he doesn’t remember learning it, but the rules themselves are there, years of plans and tactics and games played over and over in his mind to draw on at any time.

guren’s first match was pretty good, considering that it was his first. this time, dextera knows how guren likes to play and can adapt accordingly.

he doesn’t tip his hand in any way, glancing over his pieces as impassively as ever until he makes his first move. immediately, his gaze turns up to guren’s—and there’s a competitive gleam in his eyes, too. ]

[swordfucker]

[Guren's a natural at not giving away a single thought, himself, so it's automatically a tense match. Add his own silence on top of it, with Dextera being mute, and somehow it gets even more like that. He calculates every move that could follow before deciding on one of his own, but he still manages to look almost bored with his chin resting on his palm.

Or, he would if he hadn't already revealed how into this he was. Whatever.

It's always the same. Make a move, look straight across at Dextera. Try to read his face, but deciding that Dex is better at this than he has any right to be. Giveaways like that won't be happening.]