Inbox (The City)

[featheradrift]

USERNAME: Hat Guy Wanderer Genshin Impact TEXT • AUDIO • VIDEO • ACTION • OVERFLOW

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text, un: caster; post-prom & post-exhibit shenanigans

[excaliburden]

[What a crazy few days, huh? But Altria has not forgotten the way he looked when he talked about Kaveh, and it's been niggling at her the whole time--especially the way he'd dismissed his own feelings with the words "It would be bad manners".

...]

hi yuu!! can we meet up somewhere?

[featheradrift]

[ It's weird to see his name on the screen. His name. He's never seen it written before. He's never really had it used at all. There's a feeling he can't identify buzzing in his chest. ]

When and where?

[excaliburden]

[Hmmmm. Hmm hmm hmmmmm. Oh, she knows. If it's going to be a peaceful place to talk, where not a lot of people will be--]

How about the park? Sometime today! I'll be around there.

[How about where they first met?]

TXT | un: theonewhogifts

[gripper]

Merry Christmas and a happy Noel to you! I'm here to announce who you'll be a secret Santa to... Your giftee is: Eddie!

Congratulations! Here's a few notes to help you pick or make the perfect present for them.

LIKES: Music, fantasy novels, horror movies, miniature figurines
DISLIKES: conformity, exercising, alternate dimensions
HOBBIES: making/writing music, dungeons & dragons, reading, diy projects

Remember we'll be having a Christmas party on the 25th, so if you want to give it to them then or just drop it off by the tree for them to find, well, you can do just that! We'll have a lot of traditional Christmas foods, plus smores, and I'm sure it'll be a wonderful little time for us to gather, sing carols, and be merry this cold winter season!

If you've got any questions, comments, concerns, or desires for clarifications... You got one chance to ask them, because I've got a bunch of people to contact and I don't have a bunch of time to entertain conversation! :)

1/3

[featheradrift]

What is this. Why am I getting this message?

2/3

[featheradrift]

[ Wait a moment. He vaguely remembers something about signing up for gift giving on the network a few weeks ago... he remembers skipping it because he isn't the type to join in those festivities.

He definitely didn't sign up. So how...? ]

3/3

[featheradrift]

Who signed me up for this? Tell me now.

[gripper]

Sorry, but Santa doesn't tattle! Do your best to pick out a nice gift now, Hat Guy.

voice. probably after all the exhibit nonsense, putting this placeholder here because i WILL forget-

[fussiest]

Ah, Yuu?

Sorry to be a bother, but I've a need for a moment of your time, if you can spare it. May I ask you some silly questions, not as Kaveh to Yuu, but as a Sumeran to an Inazuman?

voice

[featheradrift]

What do you want to know?

[fussiest]

Well, I was looking into Inazuman clothing for a side project of mine. There are different types of sleeves, aren't there? For the traditional kimonos. What is the difference between them, and how might I learn more about it?

christmas, text

[excaliburden]

[This is a gift she wanted to give away from the party. Altria waits until later, and then texts Wanderer with a simple:]

can we meet at the park? when youre available!!

[She'd like to just leave the gift at the door like he did, but!! She doesn't exactly know where to leave it where he'll see it right away, and some of it is perishable. So. Face-to-face it is.]

[featheradrift]

[ It's somewhat late at night, and he wasn't expecting her to figure out who sent the gift so quickly, so the text catches him by surprise. ]

Now? I can be there in 15.

delivery. backdated to whichever day was the winter solstice in this city!

[fussiest]

[ because u don't have a door, u lil fuck - wanderer gets a text message indicating where at the post office he can pick up his gift. there on the counter sits a large, handwoven basket labeled 'for yuu' holding two paper-wrapped gifts blooming profusely from their seams with long-stemmed paper flowers in dizzying greens and reds and oranges splayed along the painted watercolours of a rising, winter-morning dawn pale with still-visible pinpricks of mourning stars.

the first package is the size of a single man's palm. peeling the wrapping from it reveals the cover of what looks to be a pocketwatch, beautifully wrought in loops of twine heated and bent and soldiered into a gorgeous, copper-glint of a pattern reminiscent of sumeran design. flicking the cover open along its well-oiled hinge reveals that it's not a pocket watch after all - it's a compass. a quick test shows that the compass does not point north. if one were to follow the compass to its logical endpoint, one would find that it will perpetually point to alhaitham and kaveh's apartment. inscribed on the inside of the compass's lid in kaveh's slanted, printing-press neat handwriting says thus: It's always time for dinner.

it is, in fact, an open dinner invitation. no, alhaitham was not consulted about this. nobody cares about his opinion anyway!!!

the second package is larger, airier, with a note carefully placed on top indicating that the package is fragile and should be unwrapped carefully. when peeled, the colourful, braided rope dragging along precisely a hundred and twenty paper cranes of various, brilliantly-dyed colours comes loose. the cranes are kept on the rope via tiny glass beads tied into the rope. the birds form a curtain.

the note: ]

To Yuu,

In lieu of me subjecting you on repeat to my insistence that our home is always open to you for dinner, may that compass be an incessant, pocket-sized reminder instead. If you do not heed the reminder and I find that you are not showing up often enough for dinner for my liking, I will endeavor to modify the device so that it speaks in my voice. I hope you realise this is both promise and threat.

As for the birds, in truth, my source is not quite Inazuman, and also in truth I've no idea if this is a tradition in Inazuma to begin with, but the fact is that a thousand of these birds make up a wish in one culture that exists in this universe, and that is enough for me to gift you what amounts to one-tenth of it. Wishes are to be shared; they are to be worked towards. This is my second invitation to you: let us work towards that wish together, Yuu.

May your coming year be as sweet as watermelon, and as fruitful as pomegranates.

With warm regards,

Kaveh

[featheradrift]

[ And he won't be getting a door any time soon, betch!! Anyway, the text from Kaveh is unexpected but he immediately retrieves the gift because he has no desire to have something from Kaveh potentially ruined or taken by someone else.

He hasn't even opened it yet and it is gorgeous in the bloom of paper flowers and watercolour. Kaveh is perhaps the only one whose vision of beauty consistently matches his own, and the only one who keeps invoking a strong sense of nostalgia, which he feels as he gazes upon the compass that has been gifted to him. It seems like an eternity since he's seen Sumeran design, though it's been only two months. But it's two months in a city of alien design—a place he can't quite settle in. It's too different from Teyvat. He hasn't liked it, the whole time he's been here.

The second package has his eyes widening. He hasn't seen origami in a long time. There's no such legend about cranes in Inazuma, but the thought behind the gift is touching all the same. The empty space in his chest writhes in an unfamiliar, uncomfortable way. He both looks forward to their continued relationship and fearful at the same time. One day, Kaveh will learn of his sins. And a man as gentle and considerate as him will not look past them, he's certain. He will have to face the consequences of his actions at some point.

But until then... he doesn't want to ruin this precarious thing he has right now.

The compass goes into one of his pockets, to stay with him always. The paper cranes, he hangs up in the office storage room—but it's a bit of a shame, to have them hanging in such a room, but he doesn't have any intention of taking a living space for himself, so it'll have to do.

A while later, he sets off for the media store, because Kaveh has piqued his interest in paper crafts. ]

delivery, backdated to Christmas

[fanstheflames]

[ The package finds its way to him. Somehow. Don't ask me how, but it will reach his possession and inside, he'll find a container with still-warm omurice inside (and drawn on ketchup, a cute lil doodle of his face) and a blue newsboy cap! Very fashionable!

Just for Hat Guy!

No notes, of course. ]

[featheradrift]

[ Somehow, it does indeed reach him. We don't ask how. But anyway, omurice! Even though he's abstained from food for the most part, he's not rude enough to toss her gift, so he eats it.

It's warm and homely. It tastes of generations of hard work and love. Tsuruno is right—one can learn about someone through the way they prepare this dish. And he can tell it's Tsuruno—only she would think of giving him omurice.

The newsboy cap... hm. He'll keep it, though he has yet to want to wear the clothes of this city—gala aside. ]

Sometime the week after Christmas

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham would just leave it at Yuu's door if he... had any idea where he was living.

So.]

Where are you staying?

[featheradrift]

[ Gasp. Will Alhaitham be the first to learn the Wanderer has no apartment to call home?? And that he's active during most nights???

Anyway the drifter is sort of puzzled by the text. Why would Alhaitham want to know where he stays?? He spends a few minutes trying to figure out the other man's aim before he gives up and answers the text. ]

I don't have an apartment, if that's what you're asking. Why?

text, un: displayname

[strongroots]

hey, i can't reach aerith anymore. you know anyone else who was helping with the garden?

[featheradrift]

[ He does a quick search to see—yes, she's vanished from the list of contacts. That is not good. ]

No, she never mentioned anyone else.

We can't afford to let this stop us though.

text; un: thevampirelestat

[perfectdevil]

[ What do you mean it’s been a month, Lestat has no idea what you’re talking about. ]

I think tonight would be the perfect night to let off some steam, no? I’m at the stretch of land where the fairground once was. I’ll see you soon.

[ Attached is a location; as a just in case, and for the purpose of there being no excuses. ]

[featheradrift]

You decide to ignore my text for an entire month and expect me to answer your summons at the drop of a hat? You have a lot of nerve, bastard.

[ He's going to show up anyway, but he might make Lestat wait for a bit just as revenge. ]

text. @kaveh, right after netzach gets stabbed by kromer

[fussiest]

Yuu, sorry to reach out to you urgently like this, but do you have a moment? It's urgent. Is it possible for us to meet somewhere? We'd like to pass on a warning, but it's best done in person.
Alhaitham let me know that you have a storage unit in the city. Would that be an alright location to convene?

[featheradrift]

[ It takes a long moment for the drifter to reply the text, as he's preoccupied by other matters, but he does, about an hour later. After he reads the text, he curses himself for being slow to check and replies immediately. ]

It's that restaurant I invited you all to when I first arrived. I'll be there immediately.

[ He'll get there as quickly as he can, which is about thirty minutes. ]