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[lakebrat]

Hello. You've reached Goro Akechi, known as Frog. Please leave a message.

[Beep.]

[[ooc: WARNING that threads with willowandoak may contain unmarked NSFW. Tread lightly. Blame Sunflowren.]]

Comments

[willowandoak]

He does, leaning back against the pillow and squirming a little to get comfortable, giving nothing more than a skeptical hum in response.

As patient and generous as it is, Crow's latest message makes him hesitate. He doesn't glance at Goro or reach for him, or in any way ask for even more support than Goro's already had to give him. But he's searching for courage, and it's taking him a minute to find it.

[lakebrat]

But Goro slips an arm around his shoulder, a warm, steady, naked presence. He's right here, Ren.

[willowandoak]

Ren's determination carries him through the long series of messages he sends Crow, although his grip on his phone grows tighter as he continues. But the instant he's done with the final message, he drops his phone and turns to hide his face against Goro's neck.

Fuck, that was awful. Do people really do that all the time? Just say shit? How are they not dead?

[lakebrat]

His other arm goes around Ren, holding him close and secure as the two of them breathe together. Imagine just saying shit like that. He'd almost rather die.

He rubs Ren's shoulder, in slow, certain circles.

[willowandoak]

"Fuck," he mumbles after a moment. "At least when I had a Palace I didn't have to do this shit."

[lakebrat]

"Yeah," he agrees, involving his fingernails a tiny bit, keeping Ren close against him. "But then there are a lot of other things you didn't do, either. And I know you think it's worth it, or you'd have told Crow to go jump."

[willowandoak]

"He was the first friend I made here." He is curious to see how Goro will take this, so he adds: "We flirted once or twice. Since I look his boyfriend, and." He gestures at Goro with one hand. "It didn't mean anything, it was just funny."

It's at this time that Ren's phone vibrates. He sighs as he pulls away and picks it back up.

[lakebrat]

But Goro's not too upset. It's not as if Ren lived like a monk. He wrinkles his nose some, though, not because Ren dared flirt with another, but because it was Crow. "What's he saying?"

[willowandoak]

He angles his phone so Goro can see it. "Magpie was a dick, and it's his fault I got a Palace. Crow's fault, I mean."

[lakebrat]

"How can I put this?" He curls, arching his back as he snuggles lazily down beneath the quilt. "I don't think it took Crow to give you a Palace. Tell him to stop being so egotistical."

He does not think this would be a genuinely good idea.

[willowandoak]

He snorts. But he doesn't type that, or anything similar, into the text box. Instead, he closes out of his messages with Crow entirely and opens the proper Nav, the one that can take you to the Metaverse.

"The Goro Akechi that everyone here calls Crow," he says into the phone.

No candidate found.

Huh. He glances at Goro, his mouth slanted wryly. "The way he's talking, it was worth checking."

[lakebrat]

... huh. He leans back up on his elbow. "That's a relief. Then again, his Shadow is walking around with him the whole time. I suppose he could have two."

Thinking aloud. Two Shadows?.. well, Ren had two personas, after all.

[willowandoak]

Ren hums absentminded acknowledgment, absorbed in his phone for a moment, until Crow's newest messages send him into a fit of quiet laughter. He holds out his phone to show Goro the latest exchange.

[lakebrat]

Yeah, he looks at the message briefly, then falls back on the bed, dropping the pillow over his face in silent mirth.

Muffled words leak from under the pillow. "Twirling. He twirled. Is Crow's subconscious Destinyland?"

[willowandoak]

"If he does ever get a Palace, I bet that's what it'll look like." He goes back to typing. "I did a Palace once at Destinyland. Which sounds like it should be fine, right, because it didn't actually look like Destinyland, it looked like the distortion. Which was a fucking... farm or some shit, I think. Except the guy didn't pay attention to the actual rides at Destinyland, so the safe rooms were all thrill rides."

He is less distracted than he sounds, telling this, and more aware of how Goro is reacting.

[lakebrat]

And, indeed, under the pillow Goro's stopped laughing, reminded of his one abortive visit to Destinyland—with Haru and the rest.

He doesn't lift the pillow. "The safe rooms were thrill rides? Did you use them?"

At a guess, it wouldn't have been safe.

[willowandoak]

Hm. His little probe has yielded... okay results. Not great, not awful. Goro hasn't gotten mad at him for talking about his evil murder history or whatever, but he's not happy, either.

"Mostly just for quick travel. If you went in and out real fast you were probably gonna be okay."

[lakebrat]

He raises the pillow, tucking it in behind his face, watching Ren. Something odd there.

"I'm a bit surprised you even knew about the safe rooms. Though I suppose, if Morgana hadn't pointed them out, I'd still have figured them out eventually."

[willowandoak]

He shoots Goro a brief look. "That says more about you than me, dude."

[lakebrat]

"Ouch." But he's still watching Ren's face.

[willowandoak]

Ren's mouth slants in amusement. He looks, perhaps, slightly less open than he did a few minutes ago, but he's not upset or anything, he thinks.

[lakebrat]

Goro considers him. After a moment, he says, casually, "Have you even been to Destinyland for real?"

[willowandoak]

When the hell would he have had the time or the money to go to Destinyland...? "Nah," he says easily. "I'm a Dome Town scrub." Not that he's been to Dome Town more than a couple times either, but whatever. "Why? Are you secretly a Destiny fan?"

[lakebrat]

"Yeah. Dome Town is more our scene, isn't it?" He grins for a moment, feeling the tension, before sitting up, against the pillow he propped up earlier.

"I've only been there once." Quietly, he adds, "The night Haru's father died. She had taken us there."

[willowandoak]

His hands fall still on his phone. After a second, he glances sidelong at Goro with guarded, evaluative eyes, trying to gauge what reaction Goro wants to elicit. Guilt? Awkwardness?