CONSIGNMENT; inbox

[hypertoxic]

serket.vriska@cdc.org
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[hypertoxic]

No.

[sequestrated]

Good. I'm glad.

[But he knows he's different, too. He knows he's lost something important; he knows she's seen it. It shouldn't matter.]

Anyway, that wasn't the only reason I chose the infinity sign. Can't you guess what the other one was?

[hypertoxic]

[ He doesn't question her, and that feels strange, too. But she's glad he hasn't. She's not disappointed, no, and even admitting as much is strange for a girl who spent a long time mocking a boy for a disability she caused him to have. What she feels about it...

... is nothing she is willing to deeply consider right now. ]

There's another reason????

[sequestrated]

You did call me simplistic.

[There's no tone in text, but he'd have hedged something like that with explanations and hesitations if he meant it; he's needling her a little. He has changed.]

It's because it was like yours. Your 8, turned on its side. Call me a copycat.

1/2

[hypertoxic]

[ ........

"Trying to be like her" is not something she'd've ever thought was a thing to rank on someone else's wishlist. ]

[hypertoxic]

Haha. What an uncreative dwee8. You're right. May8e you aren't cut out for a quirk after all.

[sequestrated]

No. So I'll be me, and you be you. And hopefully that will work out well enough.

You say the nicest things, by the way. Simplistic. Uncreative. Are you trying to goad me to do better?

[hypertoxic]

I don't know. Are you capa8le of gr8ness, Simon?

[sequestrated]

Infinite possibilities, my dear.

[No, that's been proven, is what he doesn't say.]

[hypertoxic]

The last 8oy I helped m8ke gr8 decided he h8ed me.

May8e I will let you fig8re it out on your own.

[sequestrated]

Realistically, it's something of a lofty ambition. You know how it is. I'll settle for just living day to day, and not getting any of us killed. Doing what I can.

Little things. Useful things.

[hypertoxic]

01
You are way too fix8ed on 8eing useful. It would 8e kind of depressing if it wasn't keeping you alive. Or may8e that's more depressing????

02
8eing useful isn't all it's cracked up to 8e!

[sequestrated]

It's what I want, Vriska. It's all I want. To be allowed to participate.

[Oh hush, Simon.]

Tell me about this boy of yours. Are we talking about a boyfriend?

[hypertoxic]

01
Remem8er that when 8ecoming useful also means you 8ecome h8ed.

02
::::\

03
I don't really want to talk a8out John.

[sequestrated]

All right.

There are plenty of ways to be useful without being hated, you know. Just because it happened once doesn't mean it'll happen again.

[hypertoxic]

Just 8e careful. Ok?

[sequestrated]

Shh. I'm always careful. I'm doing my best.

And you know everyone else is, too.

[Back to Kotetsu, full circle. And to Vriska herself, who's trying so hard in her own way.]

[hypertoxic]

I know. Just .... keep doing that.

[ A pause, then: ]

John was not my 8oyfriend. Well, he sort of was. 8ut he also wasn't. It's 8ullshit, is what it is. Are you sure you want to know?

[sequestrated]

If you want to talk about it.

[He'd listen anyway, and it's not as if she doesn't know more of his secrets than anyone not an instructor.]

[hypertoxic]

[ There is a delay of a minute or two before she sends him a flurry of texts. ]

01
I guess we sort of had a thing, at one point. Looking 8ack, all the stuff that seemed so important at the time just ended up 8eing insignificant in the long run.

02
He was one of the only people that would listen to me and not just instantly write me off. And I really liked th8t a8out him. I actually asked him on a d8, haha. What an idiot.

03
You already know my set of universes has weird rules a8out death. The John who belonged to the alpha timeline never died and stayed dead, and I did not see him for a long time after my own death.

04
8ut I ran into another version of him. A doomed version, that had died early on in his session. His timeline split off from the alpha, and 8ecame irrelevant. That version of John had never met me.

05
We d8ed for a little while, yes. 8ut it did not work out. We stayed friendly up until he was killed. Dou8le killed, which means permanently gone.

06
I did meet alpha timeline John again l8r. We hung out a 8unch of times. At first it was gr8, 8ut .... the more he got to know me, the less he decided he liked me, I guess.

07
I thought we were good friends. 8ut I was wrong. He said I was dangerous. Too dangerous to 8e 8rought 8ack from the dead. I am pretty sure he h8s me now.

08
So that's the deal with this "boy of mine."

[sequestrated]

[The story gives him pause; a lot of it, he'd need a diagram to follow. And it's not like he doesn't know well enough that she's done horrific things. Dangerous; too dangerous to be brought back? Well, ex-lovers can be cruel; he knows that as well. But they can also be correct.]

01
To be honest, everything I hear about your world confuses me more and more. But I'm so sorry, Vriska. That it had to go like that.

02
It's difficult to be thrown over like that. For something essential that you are. And even if the reasons are good, it's not very fair.

[He knows a bit about seeing someone you love die, too. But he can't help picturing her in his school uniform, screaming graphic abuse in a corridor. Not his finest hour.]