( When her head touches his shoulder, he looks to her with a gentleness that's almost hidden before he lets his gaze drift off across the room, quiet there as he sits with her on the ledge. A glance down, hair falls in front of his face. )
Feels like it.
( More so back on Earth than here, but. Who knows. Maybe that’ll change with the missions or everything else. Either way, he tips his head back — flicks those bangs out of his face — and looks up as he sits there, hands coming out of his pockets to curl fingers under the lip of the ledge. )
Guess all we can do is take it one day at a time, right?
(She does notice the softness, but likewise, she notices the lack of an arm wrapping around her with the opening she has given. Well, suppose that is that.
It's all she can do, open, offer, and whether he takes it or not is up to him. She isn't pulling away, though. Instead, she's sighing, and without meaning to, she picks up on that mention of Earth versus Etraya.
Well.)
Here too, Nate. I have had people bug me to learn who the telepaths are, what we can do, and I have heard a human with all the "good intentions" thinking about how they can "help". I'd be careful.
( Out of the corner of his eye he looks to her — picks up on something without meaning to. Sometimes he hates that. Feeling everything around him. Always a gentle brush across his own feelings and mind, like a cool breeze on a summer day. It’s easy enough to ignore it, just as it’s easy enough to take in a deep breath and slip into everything that comes with that breeze.
Gentle, fingers reach over to take hers, a squeeze given as he looks to her. Pensive. )
I won’t let anything happen to you… and I’m not saying that because I don’t think you can handle yourself. I just mean I’ll look out for you and if you need me, I’ll be there.
( A beat, he looks down to their fingers, hand holding hers. )
She's the strongest sister, and yet, here, after going non-contact so abrutly, her powers are all glitchy, unreliable, and she lacks what the full set can do. She's an extremely competent telepath, but it's different — relying on versions of yourself versus other people. Harder is doing it in a normal way, not manipulating her way through it.
She means to tell him, at least. Her eyes dart to their joint hands, a thumb caressing across skin before she sighs.)
Honestly, with how things were before I got here, I'd be more concerned about me doing something impulsive rather than them managing to hurt me.
( The brush of her thumb has his eyes fall shut for just a moment and he opens them again with that softness there in the bright blue shade he wears. She’s always wanting to know about him — where he’s from and what he’s thinking or feeling without prying it out of him. She feels guarded sometimes with her own things, like Quentin, but. Maybe they all are to an extent. Maybe they’re all carrying their own traumas, guilts, mistakes, and anger that they’d rather just not talk about. It’s easy enough to feel it there on the surface of one’s mind, another thing entirely to force open the door and take a look with or without consent.
So he leans again — presses his brow to hers and looks to her, hand still holding hers. )
No… but if you want to, you can. Or you can show me, if that’s easier.
(At least, well, what she is about to tell him is going to probably explain a lot about who she is as a person, and about the sentiment a lot of them carry. Different ones, certainly, but the last few months have been... Complicated, or will be in Julian's case — nevermind the fact she spoiled it already.
Well. She won't show, because it does not pertain just to her, and it's not really fair to Julian when the version they have wasn't the one alongside her back home. He still has a home, and she should have kept her big telepathic mind shut.
Alas.)
Well. The short version? We lost our home. The Five-in-One took it pretty hard, and we decided to go on light terrorism with a douchebag to try and have a home again. Get humans shaking in their little boots with a bit of destruction here and there, manipulate some people on the ground to be at the right place at the right time and get it filmed, and steer some votes so they'd give us designated spaces, and we'd use the proximity to strike back.
(Hopefully he gets that that's just code for the hivemind.)
Turns out, sending the one Cuckoo that wants to die a hero is kind of shit for terrorist plans. I ended up, ugh, caring, and I couldn't go along with it. Cut myself off the hivemind entirely, fucked over my powers, which you've seen, and I'm just trying to do good instead of the usual self-serving bullshit.
That said, I'm still so angry, so it's a whole loop of me trying not to dip back everytime the people here get on my nerves with the well-intentions or general anti-telepathy speech.
( He's not offended that she chooses to tell rather than show. It's whatever easiest for her, he'd simply given her the option for either; letting her know he was open to both.
When she speaks, he listens — keeps his brow there to hers, but will let her pull back if she needs to. He... more or less gets the gist of it — some things he might not fully understand, but. For the most part, he seems to get what she's saying. Julian had mentioned Krakoa and how it was no more, apparently. Something the other seemed upset about despite his not going into it all that much. Again, things they all seem to rather not want to talk about, or is just easier not to.
Dropping his gaze down to their hands, it's his turn to brush the pad of his thumb over the back of her hand and he licks over his lips before he lifts his gaze back up to meet hers. )
It'd be easier, wouldn't it? ( He smiles a little, though it's more bittersweet. ) To just fix it all with the things we can do. Shut someone up if they get on our nerves.
( He's had those thoughts himself— he's done similar here and there. So he drops his gaze again — focuses on the way her hand looks in his. Soft and delicate compares to his own. )
I think we've all been there at one point or another. ( Telepaths especially. ) So I know it's hard but... I don't know. I think you're doing pretty good so far?
We are more of the... Making it worse variety than fixing it, actually.
(She does distance just for the comfort of looking at him while she tells him the tales of her world. With how he puts things about his own, he assumes he doesn't have mean, blonde, gossiping Regina George types, but alas.
But it is true that it can be quite a difficult feat, regardless of moral stand. She follows his eyes, back to the hands with her long, black-painted almond nails, the perfectionism in the minimal details of her manicure.)
Eh. I'm trying. Takes a lot of mental looping of what my friend said when she found out I was, uh, stabbing her in the back. Something, something, better-person-than-I-think-I-am, something, something, it's a choice.
(She's uncomfortable with emotions. She takes what Kamala said extremely seriously, but also.
It's uncomfortable.
He's not wrong in thinking she's guarded, it's because she is extremely so, even more so now than at home.)
( Sitting there with her on the ledge, hand still in hers, he gives her words another thought or two and offers her a bit of a smile for reassurance. )
Yeah. Trying to fix it but making it worse... seems like our calling.
( The calling of telepaths, that is. )
But trying's better than not. I mean... even if we mess up when trying, as long as we strive to do better or realize our mistakes... I don't know. I think it's better than not caring.
( At that he sighs — looks off around them. )
I've been around enough people who don't care or only care about themselves.
Still not that, Nate. Making it worse because it's fun. That's where all our brains go, collectively, immediately, and unrestricted. We do it, and that's kinda that.
(Too much faith in her, which is to be expected. He had said as much before that he would always have it for her, and she's just trying to steer him out of the idealism into a more fact-based view.)
You're in the presence of another one in remission, I guess. But you're not wrong, it's better to try rather than not.
( Maybe he does have too much faith in her or those that he knows and cares for, but. He has to have something to hope for, doesn't he? Since it seems like there isn't any hope for himself, so. Might as well direct it somewhere else.
At that, he smiles — looks down again and brings her hand close to him. Drops a kiss down to the back of it, soft and sweet. )
(Not to self-doubt, because actually, all in all, she's doing so well — but she just hopes he's not too upset when she slips. Individuality is something she's still figuring out, and that, on top of self-improvement, can get overwhelming at times. She doesn't notice, can't catch herself every time.
But that's a problem for tomorrow Sophie, if she is the one who fucks up. Today's Sophie is going to accept the faith and the kiss, rest a little, press her lips to his cheek.
( The kiss to his cheek gets an arm to wrap around her waist, holding her there close against him while simultaneously leaning into her, head ducked and smile faint on his lips. )
Think I’m good. For now anyways.
( Because who's to say how he’ll feel tomorrow or if a nightmare will grab hold of him tightly tonight or some other night. Always up in the air, just as navigating through this life he has for himself here seems to be as well. Something he’s still getting the hang of in various ways. )
(Her hand goes to his hair, a gentle carress and attempt at soothing. It's all shitty, isn't it? Not a moment of peace, aside the ones they manage to create. This goes right in the list. For now, anyway. Surely something else will get them rattled soon enough.)
I'm fine. I'll give you the grace of three questions if you want them, and then I'm dragging you to learn how to game.
( They'd played some together, too. He can see why it's something people mindlessly do? Just as he can see the appeal of television and the various shows that air on it. Letting his gaze linger on her, his smile is both soft and warm. )
I'll cheers to that when I'm drowning in spreadsheets.
(It's almost like the more one knows, the more fucked up things get. If he's fine with not knowing more, then she's more than fine with not giving anything else up.
What she does give him is a relieved, honest smile and another gentle kiss to his cheekbone before she does her best to maintain some dignity in standing up in that ridiculous outfit. Sitting on the ledge was not a smart, fashionable idea.)
... I haven't played against Hellion yet, or told him I've been gaming, actually. Fess up, is he any good? Gotta know my competish.
( Without even thinking twice, he holds her arm to help her there — takes another look at her outfit because obviously, before he stands himself and slips away from the ledge. Nothing awkward about the way he’d been, but. Then again, his choice of attire isn’t exactly anything like hers.
Her question, on the other hand, gets him to huff a little. )
Not sure I’m the best to ask there? Not like I’ve played a lot of video games before.
( And even then, he’d only been playing around just to get a feel for the game he and Julian had played together, short as it was. )
Competitive though. But I get the feeling a lot of you here are.
(She does notice the look, thank you, it gives her a little warmth to her heart — she's extraordinarily vain, which surely is a shocking, unexpected piece of information. It brings a satisfied smile to her face, and she takes the help without any hesitation.
She's taking him to the couch, where she has her console. There's the arcade machine up in there, but she suspects it's old news to him since the Golden Saucer.)
Still my best source of information. I don't fuck around in Jule's head, so I don't know.
( The couch seems to be the go-to spot for gaming and so, when she brings him over, he drops himself down to it — arm draped across the headrest of it some as he does. )
He gets pretty pissy when you just go saying hi in his head, I’ve noticed.
( Maybe it’s just a telepath thing and something he’s becoming used to doing with both Quentin and Sophie, but. He gets it — why it can bother others who aren’t telepaths, so. He tries to be mindful of that when he can. )
Yup. Getting shoved out by him is really, really unfun, so he's the only person whose mind I leave alone. Oh, and DP's, but that's mostly because his brain is horrendous. Not recommended.
(She doesn't try. She hardly even remembers it can be a wildly strange experience for everyone else — look, she has always been a telepath, and her entire world is up in five different heads. Not doing it takes conscious effort, and Julian's privacy is respected solely because the two times he kicked her out, her powers got glitchier.
I try and be mindful since he seemed annoyed by it, but. If I need him in a pinch, afraid it’ll be through the mind instead of on the device.
( Or he’s in a mood and doesn’t really think to text. Sorry not sorry, Julian.
Sitting there on the couch, fingers thrum against the headrest area of it as he looks around, his other hand scratching at his nose for a moment before it drops down. First the school now this building. Places he doesn’t think he ever would have really stepped into on his own or without a reason to. Here, there always seems to be someone pulling him into them, though. )
Is it like a requirement to play video games if you’re a mutant?
He's got a super good reason. I think talking should be fine, but waltzing around? He'll be mad.
('Mrs. Frost tried to break me', he said the first time Sophie went snooping into his brain. Sophie wasn't around for it, but she knows the enough, and she knows her 'mum'. Pretty nice of Julian to see her as a Cuckoo, not as a Frost, which well, isn't that great either, but I guess it could be worse considering some of Emma's antics.
Still, she hears that thought, and fishes the controller for him to play around with the console. He should get used to navigating the UI.)
Oh, heavens, no, you just got stuck with some who do. I think it's just me and Julian? Elixir, as far as I remember, is more of the tantric yoga instructor type?
You sure? I swear it feels like you’re all into gaming here.
( Brow raised, albeit playfully, he takes the controller in hand and looks it over. More or less similar to the one he’d used with Julian for Mario Kart, but. He rests the controller there in his lap while his other arm remains draped over the couch like it is. A tilt of his head, he eyes the screen and whatever games are to be loaded into this thing. )
Positive-ish. I know Quire isn't that into them, but I don't know if Jay and Josh are, leaving me and Jules as the gamers.
(She never went looking either. Look, it's already a whole thing that she games as much as she does at home. She gets concerned looks, hears the 'do we need to call 911 for Sophie' comments when they think she's not paying attention, etc. It's just very, very weird to see a Cuckoo doing anything that Kim Kardashian wouldn't do. She's not gonna be advertising it left and right more than she is.
She's watching him, though. Whatever he ends up choosing, he'll choose, although her favorite one, Summoner's, is right in front of all the others, with insane hour count that surpasses what is logically possible for her here. She was going through a weird time.)
I mean, it's still nerd shit. Feel free to bully him.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2025-06-12 01:43 pm (UTC)Feels like it.
( More so back on Earth than here, but. Who knows. Maybe that’ll change with the missions or everything else. Either way, he tips his head back — flicks those bangs out of his face — and looks up as he sits there, hands coming out of his pockets to curl fingers under the lip of the ledge. )
Guess all we can do is take it one day at a time, right?
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Date: 2025-06-12 01:57 pm (UTC)It's all she can do, open, offer, and whether he takes it or not is up to him. She isn't pulling away, though. Instead, she's sighing, and without meaning to, she picks up on that mention of Earth versus Etraya.
Well.)
Here too, Nate. I have had people bug me to learn who the telepaths are, what we can do, and I have heard a human with all the "good intentions" thinking about how they can "help". I'd be careful.
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Date: 2025-06-12 02:06 pm (UTC)Gentle, fingers reach over to take hers, a squeeze given as he looks to her. Pensive. )
I won’t let anything happen to you… and I’m not saying that because I don’t think you can handle yourself. I just mean I’ll look out for you and if you need me, I’ll be there.
( A beat, he looks down to their fingers, hand holding hers. )
You got me.
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Date: 2025-06-12 02:22 pm (UTC)(It's hard.
She's the strongest sister, and yet, here, after going non-contact so abrutly, her powers are all glitchy, unreliable, and she lacks what the full set can do. She's an extremely competent telepath, but it's different — relying on versions of yourself versus other people. Harder is doing it in a normal way, not manipulating her way through it.
She means to tell him, at least. Her eyes dart to their joint hands, a thumb caressing across skin before she sighs.)
Honestly, with how things were before I got here, I'd be more concerned about me doing something impulsive rather than them managing to hurt me.
... Did I tell you what happened at home?
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Date: 2025-06-12 02:33 pm (UTC)So he leans again — presses his brow to hers and looks to her, hand still holding hers. )
No… but if you want to, you can. Or you can show me, if that’s easier.
( Telepaths and all. )
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Date: 2025-06-12 07:31 pm (UTC)(At least, well, what she is about to tell him is going to probably explain a lot about who she is as a person, and about the sentiment a lot of them carry. Different ones, certainly, but the last few months have been... Complicated, or will be in Julian's case — nevermind the fact she spoiled it already.
Well. She won't show, because it does not pertain just to her, and it's not really fair to Julian when the version they have wasn't the one alongside her back home. He still has a home, and she should have kept her big telepathic mind shut.
Alas.)
Well. The short version? We lost our home. The Five-in-One took it pretty hard, and we decided to go on light terrorism with a douchebag to try and have a home again. Get humans shaking in their little boots with a bit of destruction here and there, manipulate some people on the ground to be at the right place at the right time and get it filmed, and steer some votes so they'd give us designated spaces, and we'd use the proximity to strike back.
(Hopefully he gets that that's just code for the hivemind.)
Turns out, sending the one Cuckoo that wants to die a hero is kind of shit for terrorist plans. I ended up, ugh, caring, and I couldn't go along with it. Cut myself off the hivemind entirely, fucked over my powers, which you've seen, and I'm just trying to do good instead of the usual self-serving bullshit.
That said, I'm still so angry, so it's a whole loop of me trying not to dip back everytime the people here get on my nerves with the well-intentions or general anti-telepathy speech.
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Date: 2025-06-12 07:41 pm (UTC)When she speaks, he listens — keeps his brow there to hers, but will let her pull back if she needs to. He... more or less gets the gist of it — some things he might not fully understand, but. For the most part, he seems to get what she's saying. Julian had mentioned Krakoa and how it was no more, apparently. Something the other seemed upset about despite his not going into it all that much. Again, things they all seem to rather not want to talk about, or is just easier not to.
Dropping his gaze down to their hands, it's his turn to brush the pad of his thumb over the back of her hand and he licks over his lips before he lifts his gaze back up to meet hers. )
It'd be easier, wouldn't it? ( He smiles a little, though it's more bittersweet. ) To just fix it all with the things we can do. Shut someone up if they get on our nerves.
( He's had those thoughts himself— he's done similar here and there. So he drops his gaze again — focuses on the way her hand looks in his. Soft and delicate compares to his own. )
I think we've all been there at one point or another. ( Telepaths especially. ) So I know it's hard but... I don't know. I think you're doing pretty good so far?
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Date: 2025-06-12 07:57 pm (UTC)(She does distance just for the comfort of looking at him while she tells him the tales of her world. With how he puts things about his own, he assumes he doesn't have mean, blonde, gossiping Regina George types, but alas.
But it is true that it can be quite a difficult feat, regardless of moral stand. She follows his eyes, back to the hands with her long, black-painted almond nails, the perfectionism in the minimal details of her manicure.)
Eh. I'm trying. Takes a lot of mental looping of what my friend said when she found out I was, uh, stabbing her in the back. Something, something, better-person-than-I-think-I-am, something, something, it's a choice.
(She's uncomfortable with emotions. She takes what Kamala said extremely seriously, but also.
It's uncomfortable.
He's not wrong in thinking she's guarded, it's because she is extremely so, even more so now than at home.)
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Date: 2025-06-12 08:03 pm (UTC)Yeah. Trying to fix it but making it worse... seems like our calling.
( The calling of telepaths, that is. )
But trying's better than not. I mean... even if we mess up when trying, as long as we strive to do better or realize our mistakes... I don't know. I think it's better than not caring.
( At that he sighs — looks off around them. )
I've been around enough people who don't care or only care about themselves.
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Date: 2025-06-12 08:37 pm (UTC)(Too much faith in her, which is to be expected. He had said as much before that he would always have it for her, and she's just trying to steer him out of the idealism into a more fact-based view.)
You're in the presence of another one in remission, I guess. But you're not wrong, it's better to try rather than not.
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Date: 2025-06-12 08:43 pm (UTC)At that, he smiles — looks down again and brings her hand close to him. Drops a kiss down to the back of it, soft and sweet. )
That's all I'll ever ask. Is that you try.
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Date: 2025-06-13 12:54 pm (UTC)But that's a problem for tomorrow Sophie, if she is the one who fucks up. Today's Sophie is going to accept the faith and the kiss, rest a little, press her lips to his cheek.
It's fine.)
Wanna talk about anything else, or you're good?
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Date: 2025-06-13 01:48 pm (UTC)Think I’m good. For now anyways.
( Because who's to say how he’ll feel tomorrow or if a nightmare will grab hold of him tightly tonight or some other night. Always up in the air, just as navigating through this life he has for himself here seems to be as well. Something he’s still getting the hang of in various ways. )
What about you?
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Date: 2025-06-14 12:54 pm (UTC)I'm fine. I'll give you the grace of three questions if you want them, and then I'm dragging you to learn how to game.
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Date: 2025-06-14 11:43 pm (UTC)( They'd played some together, too. He can see why it's something people mindlessly do? Just as he can see the appeal of television and the various shows that air on it. Letting his gaze linger on her, his smile is both soft and warm. )
But you're free from any questions.
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Date: 2025-06-15 01:18 am (UTC)(It's almost like the more one knows, the more fucked up things get. If he's fine with not knowing more, then she's more than fine with not giving anything else up.
What she does give him is a relieved, honest smile and another gentle kiss to his cheekbone before she does her best to maintain some dignity in standing up in that ridiculous outfit. Sitting on the ledge was not a smart, fashionable idea.)
... I haven't played against Hellion yet, or told him I've been gaming, actually. Fess up, is he any good? Gotta know my competish.
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Date: 2025-06-15 01:59 am (UTC)Her question, on the other hand, gets him to huff a little. )
Not sure I’m the best to ask there? Not like I’ve played a lot of video games before.
( And even then, he’d only been playing around just to get a feel for the game he and Julian had played together, short as it was. )
Competitive though. But I get the feeling a lot of you here are.
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Date: 2025-06-15 02:13 am (UTC)She's taking him to the couch, where she has her console. There's the arcade machine up in there, but she suspects it's old news to him since the Golden Saucer.)
Still my best source of information. I don't fuck around in Jule's head, so I don't know.
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Date: 2025-06-15 02:28 am (UTC)He gets pretty pissy when you just go saying hi in his head, I’ve noticed.
( Maybe it’s just a telepath thing and something he’s becoming used to doing with both Quentin and Sophie, but. He gets it — why it can bother others who aren’t telepaths, so. He tries to be mindful of that when he can. )
Probably for the best you don’t go in there then.
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Date: 2025-06-15 02:35 am (UTC)(She doesn't try. She hardly even remembers it can be a wildly strange experience for everyone else — look, she has always been a telepath, and her entire world is up in five different heads. Not doing it takes conscious effort, and Julian's privacy is respected solely because the two times he kicked her out, her powers got glitchier.
Nooooo, thank you.)
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Date: 2025-06-15 12:04 pm (UTC)( Or he’s in a mood and doesn’t really think to text. Sorry not sorry, Julian.
Sitting there on the couch, fingers thrum against the headrest area of it as he looks around, his other hand scratching at his nose for a moment before it drops down. First the school now this building. Places he doesn’t think he ever would have really stepped into on his own or without a reason to. Here, there always seems to be someone pulling him into them, though. )
Is it like a requirement to play video games if you’re a mutant?
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Date: 2025-06-15 01:33 pm (UTC)('Mrs. Frost tried to break me', he said the first time Sophie went snooping into his brain. Sophie wasn't around for it, but she knows the enough, and she knows her 'mum'. Pretty nice of Julian to see her as a Cuckoo, not as a Frost, which well, isn't that great either, but I guess it could be worse considering some of Emma's antics.
Still, she hears that thought, and fishes the controller for him to play around with the console. He should get used to navigating the UI.)
Oh, heavens, no, you just got stuck with some who do. I think it's just me and Julian? Elixir, as far as I remember, is more of the tantric yoga instructor type?
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Date: 2025-06-15 02:03 pm (UTC)( Brow raised, albeit playfully, he takes the controller in hand and looks it over. More or less similar to the one he’d used with Julian for Mario Kart, but. He rests the controller there in his lap while his other arm remains draped over the couch like it is. A tilt of his head, he eyes the screen and whatever games are to be loaded into this thing. )
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
( Just adding that. )
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Date: 2025-06-15 02:17 pm (UTC)(She never went looking either. Look, it's already a whole thing that she games as much as she does at home. She gets concerned looks, hears the 'do we need to call 911 for Sophie' comments when they think she's not paying attention, etc. It's just very, very weird to see a Cuckoo doing anything that Kim Kardashian wouldn't do. She's not gonna be advertising it left and right more than she is.
She's watching him, though. Whatever he ends up choosing, he'll choose, although her favorite one, Summoner's, is right in front of all the others, with insane hour count that surpasses what is logically possible for her here. She was going through a weird time.)
I mean, it's still nerd shit. Feel free to bully him.
(Not her, though.)
no subject
Date: 2025-06-15 06:27 pm (UTC)So what are you wanting to play? I don't know what any of these are.
( Except Mario Kart since that's what Julian had introduced him to, so. There's that at least? Baby steps in the world of playing these things. )
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