menial | 5 ~ Every one of my classmates shared the same look of disbelief [audio]

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5 ~ Every one of my classmates shared the same look of disbelief [audio]

['Well, it's been a while since Valentine's. Maybe I can show my face on the journal again. Well, so to speak. My tiny icon. Whatever. After having laid low for a while, it should be safe, right?'

And so this rather lackadaisical message appears on the journal.]

Has anyone ever had that feeling where you anticipate something bad happening for a while, but when it actually comes to pass, it's just confusing instead? And then disappointing.

Actually, I guess that would be a good way to describe everything... simply confusing. Anyway. I guess there are New Feathers coming around here, too. My advice for you would be to suspend disbelief and just move on with your life as soon as you can. Helpful, I know. Well, good luck.

Oh, and I guess Haruhi would want me to say... if you need to talk about your problems, the SOS Brigade is here. So there's that.

Well, I hope everyone I haven't talked to in a while is okay and all that, and later.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If you'd like to use it, I would be delighted to. [And he will repeat it for her benefit.]

So, you?

[ a long-suffering sigh. ] Summers. Buffy Summers.

Well, it seems like a nice enough name to me, Summers.

['Prettier than "Buffy", actually, but I have a hunch I ought not to say that.

I mean, "I have a hunch", as if it weren't obvious.']

That's because it's nice enough, as names go.

Been here long?

I believe this would be approaching four months. And you?

[ faux casual: ] I believe this'd be approaching, oh, three years.

['Why so sassy, Summers...']

...Another old-timer, huh?

I prefer 'veteran'. Makes me sound a little less senior citizen and a lot more cool.

['And for the same reason, I prefer "old-timer."'

A little teasingly, he adds:]

So I suppose I shouldn't bother asking how you feel about "long-suffering resident", or perhaps "chronic case".

Had I been in your snark-shoes? I wouldn't gone with terminal. It would've been punchier.

[ her tone softens. just a smidgen. ] You stay here this long? The feelings get complicated. A little beyond disappointment and confusion and a bad day.

Well, your terminality isn't assured, and I for one certainly hope it won't come to pass for you, Summers.

[He mulls over the second part for a second, too.] Yes, I guess I've seen that in others, too. You have an attachment by now, I suppose. Or several of them.

Several. Yeah. [ though most of her longest-standing ones have gone, now. few remain from the old days. her feelings are so mixed on that count. ]

Kind of avoidable after so long. Hell -- I'm sure it's unavoidable even after less time.

That might be true. Though it certainly makes for an odd situation when people you already know, or thought you knew, turn out to have been here for three years.

Still, no contest, I'm sure it's more complicated for someone like you, Summers.

Please. Let's not tumble into some sort of awkward complicated-off. I'd much rather have like a...snark-off. Oh! Or a bake-off. With someone other than me doing the baking.

Well, I would be ready to admit your victory in the complicated-off. If it's a snark-off, perhaps I can put up a better resistance.

As for the bake-off, I think I'll have enough baking to do for White Day as it is.

White Day. Which one's that again?

It's like reverse Valentine's Day. Men are supposed to return the gifts that were given to them on Valentine's.

What? The men don't give gifts on Valentine's where you're from? Isn't it supposed to be sort of a two-way street?

Well, the second way of the street comes a month later. Girls give chocolate on Valentine's, guys return them on White Day.

Funny that the Malnosso never mess with that holiday.

If they don't know, so much the better. Perhaps the Valentine's savagery slakes their romantic thirsts.

That's a little...dramatic. And poetic. Dramatically poetic.

Thank you, Summers. I think.

['Perhaps I have talent as a poet, but I've never been able to grow it?']

You're welcome. [ ... ] I think.

[He laughs a little at that, before returning to an earlier topic.]

So how many terminal patients like yourself are there still? I think the people who would fall into that that I know are you, Haruhi, Arisato, and Misaki, right...?

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