#clematised

Although maybe tonight was a bit worse, given the individual's bright hair was hard to miss. Pink like that could give Dorothy some good competition. Or just make everything equally as blinding. But that was an intrusive thought for another time...

"...Hey, you need a refill?" Or was this going to turn into something different real quick. Despite seeing most of it all some things did still manage to surprise her...

He reached out towards the person he had just tumbled into, grabbing onto their shirt mindlessly. It definitely softened his fall, and he was able to slowly lower himself to his knees, breathing heavily in exhaustion. He was, indeed, still gripping their shirt, stretching it out rudely, before his gaze slowly drifted upwards. His breath caught in his throat, eyes widened, and his fingers tinging purple.

He was currently kneeling, covered in sweat, paler than usual— grasping onto Mizi's shirt like a child as he stared up at her, effectively stunlocked.

And, well,

When she didn't move in a while ago, he hadn't quite expected her.

He's also stepping on an empty pizza box.

"Hey? Till? Guess what?"

The house was a complete disaster. Neither of them were particularly good at cleaning, having either lived in cages or as pets their whole lives. It was the worst-case-scenario of a bachelor pad, a concept Ivan didn't quite know about, but if both bachelors had been treated as animals for most of their lives.

Also the two large animals here. For once in his life he felt kind of embarrassed. It was...New.

"Mizi's...here. Hi Mizi."

Mizi...he never understood her, as much as he wanted to. She was so nice, no reason to be, didn't get anything out of it. It was so far beyond his own understanding of how the world worked, it fascinated him.

So he took her hand gently as they walked together, patting the back of her hand with his other hand as he brought her up to date on this place. A place that he'd been since even before he had died, as far as he knew, with no breaks.

"This place...it's just as weird as when you left. I can see why you might be stressed out." Shell-shocked, almost, in fact. "Do you have any questions for me? Or we can just go get something to eat."

𝄞 Sua's reappearance in the city had been sudden, but it had been even more sudden to find herself dropped into a home she hadn't lived in before. Ivan, Till, and Mizi all seemed to live there as she'd been informed, but rather than wait around for the boys, she ended up immediately going into Mizi's room.

Not to do anything bad, but to wait on her bed until she returned. It was preferrable to her than having to do their reunion in public, especially when she wasn't sure how Mizi would react. Would she be surprised? Would she be happy? Would she be upset? Would she be mad?

“Y-you made this yourself? Mizi, this is great… It’s like… one of those inspiration boards ya see. I’m gettin’ a ton of good ideas just from looking at it!”

“What? The last few pages are for… ph-photos…?”

Till stares hard at the blank pages, the gears in his head visibly turning as he thinks… And then—

“W-W-WE BARELY HAVE ANY PICTURES TOGETHER!! Like, basically only the ones from our Alien Stage promos!”

“O-okay! I’m gonna get a camera! We gotta take photos of you an’ me an’ Ivan together at least!”

“She won’t tell me where she got all those scars from… I wonder how much more she isn’t telling me. Now that I know how much Ivan and Sua suffered… I should apologize to her for assuming she had it easy. I’m sure it affected the way I treated her, even if I didn’t mean for it to. I already knew I never knew that much about her, but I guess… I never really knew what any of my friends were going through at all…”

Till’s thoughts on Mizi swirl about in a confusing cacophony of riptides and eddies. He’s up late, unable to sleep as they tumble around his head. Absently, he’s sketching a picture of a jellyfish with long tendrils.

“She probably won’t tell me about her scars because she knows I’ll blame myself and doesn’t want to hear me say ‘sorry’. I get that. I don’t like it when she apologizes for things I blame myself for, either… Maybe… Maybe I should ask her about what her life was like when we were kids. I could… apologize for any hurts I directly caused her, and then work up to the more recent stuff… But... I’m probably one of the last people she wants to talk to… And I can never get my thoughts across to her properly… Ugh, speaking of, I need to apologize for the song I sang her during my first round, too. Stupid. My timing was so fucking dogshit. What as asshole I was. Even if I tell myself I wanted to cheer her up, all I was doing was selfishly trying to convey my feelings so I could die with one less regret.”