#pocketdogged

he’s definitely seen this person before.

memories haven’t been on his side lately. not so much in forgetting for once, but rather too many were coming in all at once that it was getting way too hard to think. oscar squints as he holds the box in his hands, thumbing his finger over the smooth cardboard surface as he studied the other. flamboyant hair, more accessories than he could count, a bright face that, for some reason, seemed troubled with worry this time...

“ is something wrong? “ he asks before thinking, the panic only sparking seconds after the inquiry. he hides the distress with a cough into his elbow, trying ( and failing ) to look as inconspicuous as possible.

“ you were... looking pretty closely at that, so i was wondering if everything was okay. “ another cough. “ it was looking... kind of weird. “

Welcome back to scenic Isola Radiale, Joe!

You will be housed in CONDO 404!

You will retain everything you received in your previous stay.

PLEASE NOTE: As you were removed in an activity check, you have one week to make three IC posts else you will be considered inactive once more.

“ uh... i’m really sorry for the big death creatures. ” the boy buckles down, wooden cane in hand as he contemplates what to do. judging by their outfit, they look to be an ordinary civilian, which might make this a bit harder than the usual, but... well, he supposes that by now he can say that he’s officially training to be a huntsman, no?

great.

☆♫ // this is from july // actual meme

        the rain is like acid to the gel in his hair.

       neku lets out a long, drawn sigh as orange fogs his vision. it pokes and prods, all but controllable when he tries and fails to move it away from his eyes. this hasn’t happened in a while: the last few weeks that he was at home, it was the tail end of summer break, and any time else had been in snow, the start of spring, or the unidentifiable, unpredictable weather this city tended to have. and now—

       now, he may as well go through the list. he can’t see, his clothes are already soaking wet, the shell of his bag is suffering, and the nearest trolley is too far to walk to and too long of a wait.

       well. he fixes the strap of his bag, hiking it closer to his neck than the end of his shoulder. time to walk home.

       a few steps forward is all it takes before neku sighs, detouring under an awning and unclasping the cover of his bag. one hand slicks his hair back and shakes away the rain whilst the other roots through his bag. eventually, he finds what he needs; his headphones slide around his neck and his hands further draw his hair back, some caught in an elastic band and some (at least the hair that makes him look more emo than he should look) fixed and pinned up tight.

       someone at home would probably be gawking at him. it’s not as if it’s anything new, to be fair—well, sure, yeah, okay. maybe it would be for him to be seen doing it. but he’s done it a few times before; if they were here or he was back home, it wouldn’t change that fact.

       it’d sure change the fact that he isn’t getting a response now besides the faint echoes of their voices in his head, though. and something about that realization hurts: maybe it’s that he hasn’t talked let alone seen them in months, not without the footsteps of danger following him from death to life and death again; maybe it’s that they might not even be worried for him, or maybe enough time passed before him dying and being dragged back out of his own world so that they are.

        maybe—no, it’s definitely—it’s just not worth dawdling on it.

        in one motion, neku scoffs and pushes himself back from under the awning’s canopy and back into the rain. one hand positions between his bangs and his forehead as he starts to walk once more, waiting for the pins to fall and the rain to knock them away until they don’t. his hands fall back to his sides and he hurries on, treading along the main road in the direction of home.

The disaster happens in near slow motion. Oz is navigating the burning streets arms above his head to block out the growing flames. One sharp turn down a street later and he notices what seems to be a young boy wandering the city as well-

And as soon as he lays eyes on him, a glitchy beowulf bursts out of a burning storefront sending glass everywhere. It raises a horrible howl to the sky before bounding towards the unsuspecting stranger. “Watch out!”

Kumagawa Misogi looked so gloomy that he might have been the cause of the rain that was relentlessly pouring in the city right now. His eyes were the same color as every dark cloud in the sky. Despite that, he had a cheerful smile on his face that disagreed with those eyes. 

He noticed somebody standing alone in that rain the same as he was and walked over to them. Kumagawa immediately opened an umbrella over their head and tried to say hello.  『What a coincidence we meet here. It’s like running intro a transfer student the first day of class, I’m glad I could help-』

She didn’t want to go too far from ‘home’. Even that definition, though, is dubious -- a ward and building she was thrown into unceremoniously, without any question of her consent. So it’s no surprise that she finds herself wandering, searching for somewhere more suited for her, somewhere that didn’t remind her of all the inadequacies she could never forget.

The cherry blossoms were beautiful, of course, but they didn’t suit her. They suited Misha, someone far more free and bold than she was.

She finds herself wandering through streets of shops, watching the stalls closely -- curiously -- but not quite confident enough to approach yet. As they peter out, though, they give way to a field of neat green grass, spanned with trails and... dogs?

Aurica tilts her head. “What’s wrong with them...?” As she gets closer, it looks like their heads are some kind of screen, but the animals themselves seemed as energetic as usual. It was almost endearing. Though, they were a little fast moving to --