#D20000

[lacrimose]

Ryo's gone home.

[He doesn't have a lot more to say about it than that. People should know, but there's no point in being upset about it on the network.]

by the way, we all agree no one's going to try quest 67, right?

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[passio]

[ dextera takes a deep breath before he answers the door, but it’s largely to psyche himself up to just—give akira a hug. after everything, he thinks they both need it, even if dextera has never been the huggy type. ]

…I’m sorry.

[lacrimose]

[Akira returns the hug, half-burying his face into Dextera's shoulder. It's unexpected, but nice.]

It's okay. [His voice is gentle. This has to be harder on Dextera than it is for him.]

[passio]

He…

[ dextera doesn’t know what to say. his heart aches, suddenly. maybe it’s seeing akira here that makes it much more real. ]

I don’t want him… to be gone. We still…

[lacrimose]

[Akira wishes he could think of something comforting to say. "Maybe he'll come back" or "somehow you'll see him again" just feel like false promises. How would he know? He doesn't.

So he just continues to hold him.]

...I was giving him a hard time, before he vanished. [Avoiding him, even. Some friend he is.]

[passio]

He… he told me.

[ dextera calms down, just a little, at remembering the way other people have suffered. ]

He turned you down, he said…

[ but dextera had heard it in his voice, and seen it in the set of his shoulders as he stood on the stairs to dextera’s room. he regretted it. ]

[lacrimose]

Yeah. He said relationships are a waste of time.

[Akira pulls back a little, expression bitter. Ordinarily, he can put his feelings aside. He's used to being forced to do that. In this case, it hurt too much-- the thought of letting him down gently hadn't even crossed Ryo's mind.]

[passio]

…

[ that sounds like ryo. still, dextera doesn’t want to leave it alone. he doesn’t want akira to carry regret or bitterness within him, as much as it can be helped. ]

I’m sure… he believed that. [ a beat. ] But I don’t think he meant it.