Maybe I shouldn't ask why there was a hospital cot in a dumpster.
[She thinks to ask if there may be any unhealthy, biological stains on it, but she has a suspicion Kimiko would not inflict that upon her. And after eating grilled iguana on a stick in an establishment that clearly has no standards for cleanliness, it can't get any worse, right? Health-wise.]
I would appreciate it, but only if it's not too much
[Hold on a second.]
I should make sure I haven't overstayed my welcome first! I know I was meant to leave by now, but. I really like living with you two.
So, that is to say, I wouldn't mind it. If it's okay. Do you need help picking it up?
[Wait. That was a dumb question, wasn't it? It's more for politeness than logistics, to be fair.]
[ And she'll want to wipe the frame down first, before letting Lucy touch it. Maybe scrub it with bleach and boiling water. ]
You can stay as long as you want. :)
Rent is 225 JL per month, starting next month.
[ That was... almost a sweet moment! In fairness, it is considerably cheaper than Lucy would get anywhere else, aside from maybe the most cockroach-filled flophouse of a motel room. There's a lot of financial wiggleroom when you've three people in a one-bedroom unit. ]
[Honestly, the offering itself is sweet enough. Lucy's learned enough from the wasteland (and Panorama's rampant and sometimes deadly form of capitalism) that nothing comes free. She's more than happy to pay her share.] I can do that! Promise, I won't let you regret it. And I'm going to buy more cereal than you can shake a stick at!
Cassian? Of course! Why wouldn't I? (You don't have to answer that.) If you're asking, I'll be free after I finish up this repair. Do you want to "hang out"?
You are. Don't worry I didn't do much texting before arriving here either I was going to cook you dinner but I wanted to see if you were interested in helping me pick out the ingredients.
[ He's really out here making it a full date, huh? ]
You were going to cook me dinner? [Well, obviously that's what he's just said, but she's. Wow. Dinner! Cooked! And he's not even being paid to do it!] I would love that. Really. Though I should be very upfront about the fact that I know absolutely nothing about cooking, unless you like boxed macaroni and cheese. I can make a mean mac.
[Oh. That's -- actually, that's fair. Lucy had been imagining a joint effort, but if he wants to do it entirely himself...
It would be a silly to complain.]
You're right. I think I'll watch. That's always the best way to start learning.
And that will be a future date! I promise. Once I find some. But! I'm eager to start! So, where should I meet you? Some special sort of. Food store? I mean. Your favorite one?
[Thank goodness he's laying out the path for here here, because she's floundering. It's not like the concept of grocery stores is new to her, but the most Lucy has been doing is going to a corner shop and buying a scary amount of cereal and canned soup.
The only thing she really misses from the vault is mashed potatoes... and the canned peaches.]
Not that I can think of. Promise I'm easy, Cassian. Most of the food around here I've never had a chance to try. We mostly had canned food. Corn, apples sometimes. Tatos, if the crop was good enough.
Wait. Maybe not jerky. If that's okay. [Who knows, maybe there's meals that involve jerky. She's not exactly chef material.]
Even if you're easy doesn't mean you can't have preferences but I can promise jerk is the last thing I plan on making unless I have to I'll see you soon
[ The grocery shopping is an eventful trip if the conversation with Lucy leading up to it beforehand had been any indication. Eventful doesn't necessarily mean bad however. Contrary to his typically grumpy face Cassian had enjoyed himself and had been more than happy to provide a crash course in food outside of canned food and jerky.
The market he'd told her to meet him at had been a short walk from the new apartment - a rarity in Panorama but one that had been factored in when he and Amos had been looking for a new place. Unfortunately walking also means being exposed to the elements. Getting caught in a downpour probably hadn't been in either of their plans, and by the time they make it back to the apartment rain will have soaked them both down to the bone.
With his arm full of groceries he pushes the door open with his hip, ushering Lucy in before he steps in after her. With his boots kicked off at the door he makes a beeline for the kitchen. Somewhere from Cassian's room, he can hear C4T stirring, beeping and whirring its way out to greet him and his guest. The apartment isn't quite anything to write home about; it's a little rough around the edges but it's clear that he and Amos are putting time in to improve it and don't seem to mind doing it either. ]
If you want to jump in the shower while I start, feel free. Towels should be clean.
[She has to admit, Cassian has a fair bit more manners than she would've, um, assumed. Just from looking at him. Which is precisely why one doesn't judge a book by its cover. This is exactly why. She shoots him a see you soon! just so he knows she's on the way over, carefully driving her clanker of a car that has a fair bit more dents and chipped paint than it did when she first received it.
She still has trouble remembering it's one foot for both pedals. Lucy maintains it doesn't make sense.
Grocery shopping is its own little event. Mostly she follows him and smiles every time he goes out of his way to explain something new. The only thing she insisted on was a fruit that vaguely looked like a pineapple as an exotic dessert for the end of the meal. She offers to take a few bags on the way out only so they can run through the downpour faster, laughing on the way back to his place.
She toes her boots off next to his, creeping into his place to look around, not the least bit shy of sticking her head into all the rooms. He's definitely not the only one living here, but his roommate appears to be out for now.
And a third roommate makes itself known, a little robot that beeps at her.] Well, hello there! Aren't you friendly? [And much closer to the machine she reprogrammed in the supermarket than that drone on the train. She squats down, giving it a peek as it huffs air through its intake. Sounds like its running kind of rough, though --
The offering has her pop back to her feet.] That would be fantastic, actually. [Lucy pokes around to find the bathroom, then pauses.] You mind if I borrow a shirt? I'll return it after tonight, promise.
[Just feels better to wear something a bit nicer for dinner than the shirt she was wearing to work in. Which.
She only owns the one shirt and the vault suit she arrived in. While the dress she'd gotten from her train experience was nice, there was no getting all the blood out of it.]
[ Honestly she wouldn't be the first - but she also isn't wrong. He can be polite when it suits him, but in other instances he really does leave others to their own devices and other situations still where he can just be a straight up asshole. But he's made her a promise of sorts and there's no need to be the latter, so here he is, offering to cook her dinner so it doesn't feel like some sort of transaction - even if she seems to think about sex in those terms.
If she also picked up that he was overly cautious, or at least, very aware of his surroundings, she wouldn't be wrong to think that either. Looking over his shoulder is a hard habit to break and even a normal grocery shop isn't except from that. But here, in the comfort of his (and Amos') apartment, he seems less on edge and certainly doesn't have an issue with her poking her head into the rooms. She'll find that his room is sparse in the way that it is for most bachelors. There's little to no decor on the wall, a closet and a dresser - but his bed is tidy and there's shelf filled with a small collection of plants with grow lights aimed at them.
While he beelines for the kitchen counter he looks up, lips quirking slightly as she bends down to greet C4T who burbles back in Korean something that is probably its version of "hello". ]
Sure, borrow whatever you want. [ He tilts his head towards his room, voice lilting almost jokingly. ] If you want me to join you I can but I can also get started on dinner if you're hungry.
[A regular, serial dater might actually know exactly what he meant by that. Instead, Lucy's snooping through his room (for a shirt only!) and comes out with only a bra on as she's tucking one of the plainest black tees she could find under her arm. It still vaguely smells of dust and oil, and she does wonder if at some point the little robot ran over it.
The one that, um. Definitely does not speak English. Maybe it's a language from his home?]
I guess that saves water. I didn't know there was a water shortage. [She looks him over, but he looks clean enough. And honestly? She's hungry.] No, you start dinner. I'll take a short one, promise!
[She does as promised: the shower turns on and she's back out about ten minutes later, wearing his shirt with a towel wrapped around her shoulders where she rubs her hair into it. It's funny. Usually this part comes after the sex, right? It feels a bit like she's going backwards, but... Lucy's happy to let Cassian do whatever makes him comfortable.
And it was a rather nice shower. If there was anything she missed in the wasteland -- beyond clean water and edible food and modern toilets -- it was showers.] Much better. Now, how can I help?
[She already warned him on her lack of skills, but she can at least... well, cut things.] Did you find it? [She tips her heads towards the robot.] For company?
[ Serial dater or anyone who had semi-regular hookups when they weren't trying to survive a post-apocalyptic wasteland. When his subtle offer goes unnoticed he doesn't take offence; instead he seems to regard her bemusedly and not so quietly admiring her without her shirt on. There's no point in trying to correct her. There isn't a water shortage (yet, he has no doubt that will probably come up during their time here given everything else they've had to deal with here), and he had actually showered recently - but getting clean for him wasn't really the point. He'd mostly urged her to shower so she wouldn't catch a chill.
The offer to join her would have just been an added bonus.
By the time she comes back he's made a fair amount of progress with the prep. In fact he's currently coring bell peppers – though there's still a couple of ingredients that could do with prep. ]
Can you tear those into smaller pieces?
[ They're mushrooms. Safe, non hallucinogenic ones. As for C4T... Cassian's gaze drifts to the little droid who is still happily whirring around the space. ]
I bought it. It should have been a humidifier but it doesn't really work that way.
[She's going to kick herself later for realizing the opportunity she missed out on. If she ever puts it together. Honestly, why did he need to be so subtle about it? She was raised in a vault and this whole dating thing is nothing but brand new.
Okay, it doesn't matter. This is what he wanted, isn't it? The whole... kit and kaboodle. She's clean, now braless, clothed in his shirt. This is intimacy in its rawest form.
Cooking, too, is meant to be a form of intimacy, right? At least, some of the books she's read sure made it feel that way. Especially breadmaking, for some reason.] Oh, sure. Easy.
[And so she does, very methodical about the process, and yet a bit too enamored with handling raw produce she'd never seen in her life, only pictures in books. Every new experience is like this: something she wants to hold onto. To learn from.
Like, next time, maybe agree to the shared shower.]
No. A humidifier? [She looks over her shoulder at the still-whirring robot. It, um. Is definitely not doing that.] You haven't fixed it? I can't say I know everything about the machines in this place, but I could get it a look. [She tips her head.] Do you speak that? That language. [The one it's sputtering with now.] It's... it's beautiful.
[ It goes without saying but Cassian did not grow up in a vault where procreating was sort of necessary. He'd learned his whole song and dance, run the whole gambit really of being overly subtle and to being incredibly straight forward about his intentions and had somehow landed somewhere in the middle. And maybe, just maybe, he'd grown up a little bit. Had some sense knocked into him many times over on how he should treat someone, centre it on them and put his own desires to the side - even if it did just end up being a one night stand. After all, there's no way to tell whether or not she'd want to see him again after this.
May as well leave a good enough impression one way or another.
And there's also nothing stopping them from having another shower together later considering there's no water ban in effect. ]
I tried. So did my roommate. [ Cassian glances over towards C4T with an expression that is both bemused and weary. ] We couldn't figure it out. If you want to take a look later, you're welcome to.
[ And as for the other question she has - ]
No, but someone told me it sounds like a language from their planet. I was hoping you might. I haven't met anyone yet who can identify it.
[ It's not really a big deal at the end of the day. For all he knows, the little droid has been cussing him out this entire time. ]
No kidding. [Well, not everyone's a whiz. Not to toot her own horn, but... most of the technology here isn't what she'd exactly call advanced. So far she hasn't found anything much more complicated than a pressure-release vault door.
Not that she doubts Cassian's abilities! Of course. Not that she. Um. Knows this.
Okay, a part of the date is finding out more about each other, right? She can do that. Even though as she's pulling apart mushrooms shoulder-to-shoulder with him, she gets this strange, vibrating bit of nervousness. Sex is easy. It's simple. She's not completely unaware of the fact that she tends to say the -- not totally correct thing in some conversations.
And she likes Cassian. She doesn't want to... turn him off.] Oh! Their planet. Right. [Different worlds. She's still getting used to it.] It does sound sort of familiar, like something from an old recording, but I couldn't tell you which language it is. We lost a lot of human language after the Great War.
[Look at this nicely torn up mushroom that is definitely not chaotically distributed into the bowl! This is going. Fine?] So you're not from Earth? Any planet I might've heard of?
[ Funnily enough they both have a similar experience to the level of dingy but still somehow more advanced technology. Which is why, despite all his attempts to try and fix C4T, he still hadn't been able to diagnose a problem. If Lucy openly judged his skills, he wouldn't blame her because if he's being honest with himself, a part of him had wondered if he'd made it worse by trying.
Regardless of his failure to fix the little droid, he's come to appreciate C4T for what it is. And silently, it fills a void in his life that he's had since arriving here.
Cassian watches her silently from the corner of his eye. He's not a mind reader, nor does he have any kind of ability to sense emotions, but Luthen had plucked him out of the scraps of Ferrix for a reason. If she's nervous, he'd prefer to know because that's the last thing he's trying to make her feel. Nerves and talking about a Great War are arguably mood killers.
With the peppers prepared he gets to chopping the rest of the ingredients. ]
Ferrix?
[ A part of him doubts that she'll know. But maybe he'll be surprised. ]
I've met other fluxdrift from Earth. But it doesn't sound like they've gone through your Great War.
[And we have Queen of Misunderstanding Circumstances:]
So your first assumption that a message I sent you -- which I didn't -- was useless stuff taking up space? Wow. I'd hate to see you when someone asks you to be honest.
Oh. That was sarcasm, actually. You know what sarcasm is? I think I used it right.
[It's a genuine question!]
Nope. Unless you want to provide a little company. Something tells me that's not in your purview, though. Though -- is this seriously just your work number? Do you delete everything that isn't a job offer?
[Though now she's suddenly worried she might have used it wrong. She rereads her texts again. To be fair, it is sort of hard to read tone in these messages. Especially with Cloud.
Especially.]
You've never wanted company for a bit of a sexual release during times of stress? I mean, I think I'm doing okay here, but I have to admit, readjusting to this kind of life has been a bit stressful.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
text.
Date: 2026-01-24 04:37 pm (UTC)I found a hospital cot in a dumpster.
Furiosa can probably fix it.
It might be better than the inflatable mattress.
[ Kimiko is looking out for you and your lumbar, Lucy. ]
no subject
Date: 2026-01-24 09:47 pm (UTC)[She thinks to ask if there may be any unhealthy, biological stains on it, but she has a suspicion Kimiko would not inflict that upon her. And after eating grilled iguana on a stick in an establishment that clearly has no standards for cleanliness, it can't get any worse, right? Health-wise.]
I would appreciate it, but only if it's not too much
[Hold on a second.]
I should make sure I haven't overstayed my welcome first! I know I was meant to leave by now, but. I really like living with you two.
So, that is to say, I wouldn't mind it. If it's okay. Do you need help picking it up?
[Wait. That was a dumb question, wasn't it? It's more for politeness than logistics, to be fair.]
no subject
Date: 2026-01-26 10:22 pm (UTC)[ And she'll want to wipe the frame down first, before letting Lucy touch it. Maybe scrub it with bleach and boiling water. ]
You can stay as long as you want. :)
Rent is 225 JL per month, starting next month.
[ That was... almost a sweet moment! In fairness, it is considerably cheaper than Lucy would get anywhere else, aside from maybe the most cockroach-filled flophouse of a motel room. There's a lot of financial wiggleroom when you've three people in a one-bedroom unit. ]
omg I lost this notif AHHH
Date: 2026-02-03 06:31 am (UTC)[That's something people definitely still say.]
but then you found it again! c:
Date: 2026-02-05 12:21 am (UTC)[ In her defense, English is her fourth language. ]
c:
Date: 2026-02-16 07:22 am (UTC)from: 737 – 9012
Date: 2026-01-26 05:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-27 05:55 am (UTC)[Yes, there's quotation marks.]
no subject
Date: 2026-01-28 05:57 am (UTC)It's my way of asking you out.
Are you asking me something different?
no subject
Date: 2026-01-28 06:22 am (UTC)[Sorry, she's still working on modern vernacular. Especially dating vernacular.]
No! Just. Making sure I was using it correctly. I didn't come from what some people might call a texting culture.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-31 08:33 am (UTC)I didn't do much texting before arriving here either
I was going to cook you dinner but I wanted to see if you were interested in helping me pick out the ingredients.
[ He's really out here making it a full date, huh? ]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-03 05:53 am (UTC)You were going to cook me dinner? [Well, obviously that's what he's just said, but she's. Wow. Dinner! Cooked! And he's not even being paid to do it!] I would love that. Really. Though I should be very upfront about the fact that I know absolutely nothing about cooking, unless you like boxed macaroni and cheese. I can make a mean mac.
[With evaporated milk.]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-06 11:09 pm (UTC)Good thing I'm cooking for you
If you want to help, I can teach you what I know
And then next time you can show me how you make your mac and cheese
no subject
Date: 2026-02-08 04:45 am (UTC)It would be a silly to complain.]
You're right. I think I'll watch. That's always the best way to start learning.
And that will be a future date! I promise. Once I find some. But! I'm eager to start! So, where should I meet you? Some special sort of. Food store? I mean. Your favorite one?
no subject
Date: 2026-02-09 03:06 am (UTC)I'll send you the directions to the grocery store. We can meet there
Any requests? Or anything that you don't want?
no subject
Date: 2026-02-16 06:46 am (UTC)The only thing she really misses from the vault is mashed potatoes... and the canned peaches.]
Not that I can think of. Promise I'm easy, Cassian. Most of the food around here I've never had a chance to try. We mostly had canned food. Corn, apples sometimes. Tatos, if the crop was good enough.
Wait. Maybe not jerky. If that's okay. [Who knows, maybe there's meals that involve jerky. She's not exactly chef material.]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-16 11:07 pm (UTC)but I can promise jerk is the last thing I plan on making unless I have to
I'll see you soon
[ The grocery shopping is an eventful trip if the conversation with Lucy leading up to it beforehand had been any indication. Eventful doesn't necessarily mean bad however. Contrary to his typically grumpy face Cassian had enjoyed himself and had been more than happy to provide a crash course in food outside of canned food and jerky.
The market he'd told her to meet him at had been a short walk from the new apartment - a rarity in Panorama but one that had been factored in when he and Amos had been looking for a new place. Unfortunately walking also means being exposed to the elements. Getting caught in a downpour probably hadn't been in either of their plans, and by the time they make it back to the apartment rain will have soaked them both down to the bone.
With his arm full of groceries he pushes the door open with his hip, ushering Lucy in before he steps in after her. With his boots kicked off at the door he makes a beeline for the kitchen. Somewhere from Cassian's room, he can hear C4T stirring, beeping and whirring its way out to greet him and his guest. The apartment isn't quite anything to write home about; it's a little rough around the edges but it's clear that he and Amos are putting time in to improve it and don't seem to mind doing it either. ]
If you want to jump in the shower while I start, feel free. Towels should be clean.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-17 06:51 am (UTC)She still has trouble remembering it's one foot for both pedals. Lucy maintains it doesn't make sense.
Grocery shopping is its own little event. Mostly she follows him and smiles every time he goes out of his way to explain something new. The only thing she insisted on was a fruit that vaguely looked like a pineapple as an exotic dessert for the end of the meal. She offers to take a few bags on the way out only so they can run through the downpour faster, laughing on the way back to his place.
She toes her boots off next to his, creeping into his place to look around, not the least bit shy of sticking her head into all the rooms. He's definitely not the only one living here, but his roommate appears to be out for now.
And a third roommate makes itself known, a little robot that beeps at her.] Well, hello there! Aren't you friendly? [And much closer to the machine she reprogrammed in the supermarket than that drone on the train. She squats down, giving it a peek as it huffs air through its intake. Sounds like its running kind of rough, though --
The offering has her pop back to her feet.] That would be fantastic, actually. [Lucy pokes around to find the bathroom, then pauses.] You mind if I borrow a shirt? I'll return it after tonight, promise.
[Just feels better to wear something a bit nicer for dinner than the shirt she was wearing to work in. Which.
She only owns the one shirt and the vault suit she arrived in. While the dress she'd gotten from her train experience was nice, there was no getting all the blood out of it.]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-26 01:14 am (UTC)If she also picked up that he was overly cautious, or at least, very aware of his surroundings, she wouldn't be wrong to think that either. Looking over his shoulder is a hard habit to break and even a normal grocery shop isn't except from that. But here, in the comfort of his (and Amos') apartment, he seems less on edge and certainly doesn't have an issue with her poking her head into the rooms. She'll find that his room is sparse in the way that it is for most bachelors. There's little to no decor on the wall, a closet and a dresser - but his bed is tidy and there's shelf filled with a small collection of plants with grow lights aimed at them.
While he beelines for the kitchen counter he looks up, lips quirking slightly as she bends down to greet C4T who burbles back in Korean something that is probably its version of "hello". ]
Sure, borrow whatever you want. [ He tilts his head towards his room, voice lilting almost jokingly. ] If you want me to join you I can but I can also get started on dinner if you're hungry.
no subject
Date: 2026-03-02 06:52 am (UTC)The one that, um. Definitely does not speak English. Maybe it's a language from his home?]
I guess that saves water. I didn't know there was a water shortage. [She looks him over, but he looks clean enough. And honestly? She's hungry.] No, you start dinner. I'll take a short one, promise!
[She does as promised: the shower turns on and she's back out about ten minutes later, wearing his shirt with a towel wrapped around her shoulders where she rubs her hair into it. It's funny. Usually this part comes after the sex, right? It feels a bit like she's going backwards, but... Lucy's happy to let Cassian do whatever makes him comfortable.
And it was a rather nice shower. If there was anything she missed in the wasteland -- beyond clean water and edible food and modern toilets -- it was showers.] Much better. Now, how can I help?
[She already warned him on her lack of skills, but she can at least... well, cut things.] Did you find it? [She tips her heads towards the robot.] For company?
no subject
Date: 2026-03-03 03:03 am (UTC)The offer to join her would have just been an added bonus.
By the time she comes back he's made a fair amount of progress with the prep. In fact he's currently coring bell peppers – though there's still a couple of ingredients that could do with prep. ]
Can you tear those into smaller pieces?
[ They're mushrooms. Safe, non hallucinogenic ones. As for C4T... Cassian's gaze drifts to the little droid who is still happily whirring around the space. ]
I bought it. It should have been a humidifier but it doesn't really work that way.
no subject
Date: 2026-03-03 10:19 am (UTC)Okay, it doesn't matter. This is what he wanted, isn't it? The whole... kit and kaboodle. She's clean, now braless, clothed in his shirt. This is intimacy in its rawest form.
Cooking, too, is meant to be a form of intimacy, right? At least, some of the books she's read sure made it feel that way. Especially breadmaking, for some reason.] Oh, sure. Easy.
[And so she does, very methodical about the process, and yet a bit too enamored with handling raw produce she'd never seen in her life, only pictures in books. Every new experience is like this: something she wants to hold onto. To learn from.
Like, next time, maybe agree to the shared shower.]
No. A humidifier? [She looks over her shoulder at the still-whirring robot. It, um. Is definitely not doing that.] You haven't fixed it? I can't say I know everything about the machines in this place, but I could get it a look. [She tips her head.] Do you speak that? That language. [The one it's sputtering with now.] It's... it's beautiful.
[She's never had the chance to hear it before.]
no subject
Date: 2026-03-04 06:52 am (UTC)May as well leave a good enough impression one way or another.
And there's also nothing stopping them from having another shower together later considering there's no water ban in effect. ]
I tried. So did my roommate. [ Cassian glances over towards C4T with an expression that is both bemused and weary. ] We couldn't figure it out. If you want to take a look later, you're welcome to.
[ And as for the other question she has - ]
No, but someone told me it sounds like a language from their planet. I was hoping you might. I haven't met anyone yet who can identify it.
[ It's not really a big deal at the end of the day. For all he knows, the little droid has been cussing him out this entire time. ]
no subject
Date: 2026-03-05 07:08 am (UTC)Not that she doubts Cassian's abilities! Of course. Not that she. Um. Knows this.
Okay, a part of the date is finding out more about each other, right? She can do that. Even though as she's pulling apart mushrooms shoulder-to-shoulder with him, she gets this strange, vibrating bit of nervousness. Sex is easy. It's simple. She's not completely unaware of the fact that she tends to say the -- not totally correct thing in some conversations.
And she likes Cassian. She doesn't want to... turn him off.] Oh! Their planet. Right. [Different worlds. She's still getting used to it.] It does sound sort of familiar, like something from an old recording, but I couldn't tell you which language it is. We lost a lot of human language after the Great War.
[Look at this nicely torn up mushroom that is definitely not chaotically distributed into the bowl! This is going. Fine?] So you're not from Earth? Any planet I might've heard of?
no subject
Date: 2026-03-07 07:45 am (UTC)Regardless of his failure to fix the little droid, he's come to appreciate C4T for what it is. And silently, it fills a void in his life that he's had since arriving here.
Cassian watches her silently from the corner of his eye. He's not a mind reader, nor does he have any kind of ability to sense emotions, but Luthen had plucked him out of the scraps of Ferrix for a reason. If she's nervous, he'd prefer to know because that's the last thing he's trying to make her feel. Nerves and talking about a Great War are arguably mood killers.
With the peppers prepared he gets to chopping the rest of the ingredients. ]
Ferrix?
[ A part of him doubts that she'll know. But maybe he'll be surprised. ]
I've met other fluxdrift from Earth. But it doesn't sound like they've gone through your Great War.
text (i couldn't think of any reason he'd text her unprompted lmao)
Date: 2026-02-16 05:28 pm (UTC)I deleted your message
Looked like spam
( cloud is fantastic at socializing✨ not him belatedly realizing that 'lucy' was someone he knew )
I am SO sorry I lost this notif!! ;; this is perfect lmao
Date: 2026-02-25 04:32 pm (UTC)My spam? Like the canned meat product?
[Ba dum tish. Except she means that genuinely.]
sorry that he saved her contact as "butt jerky"....,,
Date: 2026-02-26 08:05 pm (UTC)Spam for texts means trash messages
Useless stuff just taking up space
if she was funny she would've saved him as soup boy
Date: 2026-02-28 03:31 am (UTC)So your first assumption that a message I sent you -- which I didn't -- was useless stuff taking up space? Wow. I'd hate to see you when someone asks you to be honest.
she should if she ever finds out how he saved her
Date: 2026-03-02 03:29 pm (UTC)( ?? )
So, you don't need anything?
SDLGJ wait she might do it anyway. it's an affectionate "nick" "name" as the cool kids call it
Date: 2026-03-03 08:34 am (UTC)[It's a genuine question!]
Nope. Unless you want to provide a little company. Something tells me that's not in your purview, though. Though -- is this seriously just your work number? Do you delete everything that isn't a job offer?
HELP they're both so lame
Date: 2026-03-03 04:50 pm (UTC)Do you?
I was getting a lot of spam messages so I deleted them because they were annoying
( also you're BUTT JERKY and he seriously forgot what that was supposed to mean until a few minutes ago... )
Why would you need company?
they're both EXTREMELY lame with the same level of people skills
Date: 2026-03-05 07:58 am (UTC)[Though now she's suddenly worried she might have used it wrong. She rereads her texts again. To be fair, it is sort of hard to read tone in these messages. Especially with Cloud.
Especially.]
You've never wanted company for a bit of a sexual release during times of stress? I mean, I think I'm doing okay here, but I have to admit, readjusting to this kind of life has been a bit stressful.
i'm crying at this tag
Date: 2026-03-05 07:51 pm (UTC)Don't say shit like that to me
in this episode: cloud meets someone worse at being normal than him
Date: 2026-03-05 08:18 pm (UTC)text.
Date: 2026-03-07 10:43 am (UTC)Are you okay?
[ And then, extremely helpfully, like this wouldn't be very established by this point — ]
It's Kimiko.