IC Contact/Voicemail

[preybeforemeals]

[VOICE/TEXT/VIDEO; OPEN TO ALL]
(Meridiana, you probably want this one.)

"Ah, amore, it seems I've missed you; do leave something for me and we'll see if we can rectify that, shall we?"

Comments

voicemail; | 1/2

[aufsassig]

[There's a kind of pause before this voicemail begins, and when the person on the other end starts talking, maybe the reason for that pause becomes apparent — there's a note of vague confusion audible, beneath a light and casual attempt to play it off.]

Wow, you guys are really getting intimate with your "sorry all our lines are busy" messages these days, huh? All right, all right, I'll try back in a few minutes.

[...?]

voice;

[aufsassig]

[And sure enough, a few minutes later:

RING RING RING.]

I'm sorry 1 / ?

[deaftly]

[10/30 6:02 PM]

YOU HAVENT SAID ANYTHING YET WHATS GOING ON

[...Well, he's getting an early start, apparently.]

2 / ?

[deaftly]

[10/30 6:59 PM, after four missed calls (no messages)]

ANSWER UR DAMN PHONE!!!!!

text;

[aufsassig]

It's 2 AM. Are you awake?

text;

[preybeforemeals]

[Oh god, if this is Naki starting off another textapalooza in his direction - ...ah. Well, that's...]

Yes and no; it's in that way that comes with not recalling when I decided to fall asleep, but I'm certainly awake now.

Did you need something, amore?

text | 12/3, ungodly o'clock

[deaftly]

[hey guess what Tsukiyama

you're getting a text at three in the morning!!

it's also from your super best friend who will probably try to send out a search party again if you don't respond in five minutes, have fun]

UR NOT GONNA BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED 2 ME

audio [1/2]

[preybeforemeals]

[...oh my god

he knows he's going to catch about a million texts and a search party if he doesn't respond to whatever that is so just...just give him a second to sort of roll over and smack the device - ]

I'm awake...give me a moment...

[HE SAYS, SOUNDING NOT AWAKE AT ALL.]

25/12, Pidgey Posy

[fortunatetoaster]

[ special delivery! there's a mareep egg with your name on it -- or well, the attached card, anyway.

it's a cute little festive scene of some Pokemon building a snowman together. There's a handwritten message inside too; ]

Merry Christmas!

Thanks for the piano lesson. I wanted to record something too, but it's not coming out too well... so it might be late. I hope this is okay instead.

- Labrys

text;

[aufsassig]

Hey, I just heard a song on the radio that reminded me of you, guess what it is.

[preybeforemeals]

If it reminds you of the person I once was, then I'm afraid it's been rendered inaccurate as of late - any sense of harmony my soul may have possessed has been torn apart and replaced by cacophonous discord, and I'm more than a bit wretched right now.

text; | late evening, 1/18

[occultigen]

[Why is Meridiana opting for a text despite literally living in the same house as Mr. Tsukiyama (and having no motive to hide the topic of her conversation from the other party currently residing in that domicile via soundless forms communication)? Maybe it seems odd at first blush, when she could presumably just go get him, but with a little further thought the logic sort of follows — from a very Victorian point of view, at least.

Mr. Tsukiyama has been largely indisposed lately; everyone in the house has been somewhat...stressed; it's late and entirely possible he would rather just sleep rather than seeing anyone; it's late and he might be indiscreet and she doesn't want to just walk in on him when he is indiscreet.

So, better to send around a polite note and ask permission to visit (the room...down the hall...probably...), rather than just walking right down and potentially risking an awkward situation.

It's so quaint you're gonna die.]

Mr. Tsukiyama, are you amenable to a visitor at the moment? I'd not like to intrude, but should you be willing, I would very much like to visit with you a bit before we all go to sleep.

[preybeforemeals]

[Tsukiyama startles a little at the text ping; he's been reading again, and while nothing quite compares to Takatsuki Sen he has to admit the Steinbeck equivalent here seems decidedly less full of shit when everything is Pokémon and there's some sort of stupid moral at the end of the story awkwardly shoehorned in, regardless of how well it actually fits the tone of the work. He isn't expecting the sudden contact today, however, particularly not so late; his first thought is enough to get his heart to jump a bit -

Will you talk to me again sometime?
...I might. Sometime.

- and he's quick to grab the device and check the ID of the sender.

It's not what he was hoping for, that much is immediately obvious, but it'd been a stupid thing to get hopeful about anyway; what surprises him is the fact that he's not at all disappointed about who is messaging him.

He can work all that out later, however.]

I'd like that, actually. Would you prefer I meet you downstairs, or...?

video | 1/28

[deaftly]

[The good news is that Naki's not texting you at stupid o'clock! The bad news is that apparently he has something in mind today as opposed to the daily rambling sessions.]

Hey, are you there?

[As usual, he's in that featureless room - or at least, it would be featureless if there weren't a ton of Inkays bouncing on the bed. How many are there? Too many.]

[preybeforemeals]

[It actually doesn't take Tsukiyama very long to respond; he's in what looks to be his room as usual, lying idly on the bed with one of his fingers slipped between the pages of a half-closed book to hold his place - it's a bit hard to tell exactly what he's reading, but it hardly matters, really. He seems to be in a decent enough mood today, or at the very least he doesn't seem to be in a bad one; he's a bit subdued, as he has been for the last...good while lately, but he's smiling a bit and he doesn't seem upset or anything, so at least there's that.]

I'm here, monsieur - something on your mind?

text; 1/29

[samsa]

[It's been two weeks since Tsukiyama would have heard anything from Kaneki. During that time he's had...well, quite a while to think and try to figure out what his feelings about things here are at the moment. While he would be lying if he said things were necessarily bad here compared to how they had been going back home, they aren't...great, either. The way Tsukiyama contacted him outright was surprising to Kaneki in a way that perhaps shouldn't have been, given everything he had just put him through. However, things between them were different now in Tsukiyama's time several months on from his own, if he was to be believed at all. For a long time he ponders contacting Banjou and talking to him first, but something tells him that if he does that he'll end up putting off talking to Tsukiyama even longer.

So.]

Tsukiyama-san.

["I have a few questions for you.

I ask only for honesty, but I don't require complete honesty."]

I need to ask you some things, when you get the chance.

[preybeforemeals]

[...Well.

To say that he hadn't been anticipating this in some way would be a complete lie; it's not at all the sort of anticipation that comes through expecting something, but rather the sort brought on by a feeling that resides somewhere between hope and senseless optimism. Tsukiyama's never had cause to experience much of either, but things are different with Kaneki.

They always are.

He's had time lately to consider why that might be, granted, and it hasn't done much for his mood; just the same, it's not enough to keep him from jumping a bit every time the device notifies him that a text has come through, from checking a bit too quickly, and when the name he's been wanting to see for two weeks finally shows up...well. It takes him a moment to respond, and he finds himself grateful for the text; he isn't sure that he could keep his voice calm if he tried. But the text seems composed, and like he knows what he's doing; he's been acting like he knows what he's doing for months now, once more won't hurt anything.]

I have time now. What's on your mind, Kaneki-kun?

text | 2/6

[deaftly]

[Good afternoon, Tsukiyama! Hopefully your day has been going well, because Naki's has been going... stupidly, to be honest. That's probably going to be incredibly obvious by the sudden text you're getting.]

AM I A MOUSE

[...yeeeeeeaaaaah]

[preybeforemeals]

[...WELL, HELLO THERE, NAKI, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.]

I don't know, monsieur, are you?

→ 2/14, delivery; ♥

[occultigen]

[Happy Valentine's Day, Mr. Tsukiyama! It looks as though Meridiana's come around to embrace the Japanese custom for celebrating the holiday after all, or at least enough so to drop some time, effort, and cash on making sure you end up with a proper gift from her come the fourteenth.

Consequently, hanging from Tsukiyama's bedroom door in a pretty hand-sewn little bag is a box of chocolates with his name on it, and with a handwritten note attached!]

Mr. Tsukiyama,

Happy Valentine's Day! I do hope this Geery Choco finds you well. In London, the very best chocolate for a Valentine is Cadbury's; here it seems to be called CadBurmy's, but I should hope it measures up just the same. I hope you'll please forgive me a bit of my own custom, along with yours; you've been so kind to me that I wanted to give the very best, Geery or not.

Best thoughts,
Meridiana

[...look at all this trying she did]

voicemail, 18/02

[fortunatetoaster]

Oh hey-- um-- this is on, yeah... -- Tsukiyama-san!

D--didya see that post I made the other day? Or um-- maybe not... but anyway!

[ this poor girl sounds about ten different kind of awkward good lord ]

H--have ya ever been t'Ecruteak before? Someone was sayin' it's a nice place an' there's some dancers there... and I was gonna go an' visit, but I ain't made a trip like that on my own before.

Um... so would it be weird... if I was like "hey, want to go with me?"

[ a pause. ]

Uh... i--if it's weird, y'can just ignore this...

[ aaaand click. she tried. ]

[preybeforemeals]

[The message from Labrys is a little unexpected, but at the same time that doesn't mean it's unwelcome; he pauses it after the start of it, flicking back a little bit on the device, checking some of the posts that have been made, and it doesn't take long to find the one she's talking about. It's certainly nothing to be so awkward abou-

...Ah.

Well, that's most definitely a thing, isn't it. Sweetheart, you tried so hard...]

Ah, bonjour, Labrys-san; I've never been to Ecruteak, no, but I've heard some lovely things about it.

As for the request, I don't find it weird at all. If anything, I'm flattered.

2/21; text misfire; evening

[samsa]

[After spending a whole week as a ball of nerves over quite possibly the stupidest thing ever, Kaneki had been mulling over just giving up the ghost with this stupid egg he bought. Maybe try to see if he could give it away to someone else for free if he had to. Maybe Nonon would have an idea of what he could do, but seeing as it's gotten a bit late he doesn't want to call her down to the lobby to talk to him.

...So he writes up a text instead.]

ive got a problemand I dont really know what to do about it
its kiNDOF STUPID
IM SORRY IF IM BOTHERING YOU I JUST NEED SOME ADVIC

[And it's about there that he realizes he's accidentally left the capslock on and moves to delete it and start over. Or maybe just delete it entirely, because re-reading it just makes it sound dumber than it is.

Unfortunately for Kaneki, the key for sending is awfully close to backspace. And his recent contacts? Tsukiyama and Nonon.

So when Tsukiyama ends up checking his Gear he will....be getting that, while back in his hotel room Kaneki has all but tossed the Gear away from him onto the bed, sitting with his face buried deeply in both hands.]

[preybeforemeals]

[It actually doesn't take Tsukiyama long to respond to that simply because of exactly how much is wrong with it - the sudden capslock reads strangely panicked, to say nothing of how it suddenly cuts off and, you know, the content; the entire thing is just made of so much WOW THAT'S KIND OF that he doesn't even think.

(It is strange, a little, that Kaneki would think to text him of all people, but now really isn't a good time for rational thought, it looks like.)]

Do you need me there in person, or is this the sort of advice that can be given from a distance?

[He figures he can save the "who am I going to be killing" for a later text.]

2/22, afternoon-ish | 1/2

[occultigen]

The weather was nice out so I went on an adventure and I found a dancing game!

ATT: IMG3268.jpg

[occultigen]

...Oh bother that picture didn't come out well at all.

text | 3/3

[deaftly]

[Hey, Tsukiyama, hope you're up at four in the morning! Or if you're not up, then hope you don't mind being awakened to the most important text you'll ever lay eyes on!!]

UNLIMITED PANCAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[...uh, yeah. At least he hasn't figured out how to change the font color or use sparkletext yet...]

[preybeforemeals]

[...ohhhhhh my god there is really only one thing to say at four in the morning to something like that, isn't there - ]

why

text; 3/3 Afternoon

[samsa]

[It's a bit closer to noon than it is morning when Kaneki sends a text as promised, but for as much sleep as Kaneki got last night it may as well still be. The stack of pillows in the darkest corner of the room exploded some time in the middle of the night and the resulting crisis kept him up for quite a while after.

Now he's got one eye on his Gear while the other is watching a newly hatched Deino plopped down on the carpet, content with chewing on Kaneki's left shoe instead of his foot proper for the moment. He feels a bit better having his Zangoose curled up beneath one arm as he sits on his bed, but even for such a young thing he's worried about what might happen when it finally tears through his shoe and starts looking for something, or someone, else to bite.

But at least through text he can sound like he's got everything under control.]

Good morning, Tsukiyama-san.

[preybeforemeals]

[...Oh. c:

Despite the fact that he had explicitly asked Kaneki to contact him, he hadn't really expected him to do it - perhaps because he's used to his requests being denied, who knows. Either way, there's a text ping, and it sounds a lot less...concerning than the last one, and that's surely a decent sign.]

Bonjour, Kaneki-kun.

Are you doing well?

[Pidgey Delivery]

[grapeeater]

[When Tsukiyama opens the package he'll find a scarf. There's also a small, handwritten card with it.]

Happy birthday, Tsukiyama-san. And thank you.

- Micchy

text, audio

[fortunatetoaster]

Tsukiyama-san

this ended up bein really late -- sorry! I wanted to record something for your birthday but I couldn't get it right in time. but happy birthday and i hope you like it even though it's late.

[attatched file]

[ it's a little slow and she hits a wrong note here and there but... she tried? ]

text; 4/29, evening

[samsa]

[It's been a little over a week since half of Johto fell asleep, and though the accounts of pretty much everyone he has talked to have confirmed that what they experienced were, in fact, dreams, he's had trouble shaking them. Oddly enough, every night since then had been dream free, if a bit restless compared to the three days of sleeping he'd done before.

So, he isn't entirely sure what it is compelling him to send Tsukiyama a message this late in the evening, at first. But he's the one who had warned him something like this might happen in the first place...and almost right around the time he said it would. Needless to say, it sure did happen.

Now he wonders if Tsukiyama slept, too.]

Are you awake?

[preybeforemeals]

[For what it's worth, Kaneki actually isn't waking him up; Tsukiyama tends to not sleep very much as it is, and the past few months have been particularly restless.

Well, particularly restless except when he's not; that recent weekend had been...odd.

But honestly, even if Kaneki had been waking him up, he wouldn't refuse communication with him anyway. Not by a long shot.]

I am. Something on your mind, Kaneki-kun?

5/1, text;

[aufsassig]

hey i'm pretending to text to avoid someone except that i decided i'm not a big enough loser to fucking pretend to hit little buttons on a phone so i'm actually hitting them and you're the lucky winner of this text, congratulations.

[preybeforemeals]

Well, fortunately for you I'm not busy or dealing with any shards of agony piercing my soul today - so I'm perfectly willing to pretend to be the made-up girlfriend of your dreams, or whomever it is you're so urgently contacting, for the next while if you'd like.

5/5, text;

[grapeeater]

Tsukiyama-san, can I ask you for some advice on something?

[preybeforemeals]

[...Oh...goodness, hello there.]

Of course, amore, whatever you want.

text; 5/5

[shuttermouse]

ATT: IMG094.jpg

Her name's Chelsea.

[ Pretend the rat in the picture is purple. ]

[preybeforemeals]

Is it, now?

I see you've been keeping busy.

text; 5/26

[shuttermouse]

[ Today, Chie's been out exploring the city and the beach, as well as trying out the cuisine at Olivine Café... which means she's basically spent her day in the company of beefy sailor NPCs who were legitimately surprised at the amount of food a tiny thing like her could eat. The sailors aren't too bad, really, but in the late afternoon she's grown bored of them so she decides to ditch them and instead see if her bestie wants to do something fun. ]

Want to explore the lighthouse with me, Tsukiyama-kun?

[preybeforemeals]

Feeling adventurous today, little mouse?

[The reply is prompt, because for once Tsukiyama isn't being absolutely fascinated by the dining in this place; it's not that he's lost interest, it's more that he wants to take his time with it and so he's looking for another way to amuse himself that isn't just being completely enthralled.]

video | 6/3

[deaftly]

[It's a little past midnight when Naki finally gets up the nerve to call Tsukiyama. This is a stupid thing to be nervous about and he's fully aware of it, but that doesn't stop him from feeling jittery. Naki's properly dressed this time - the suit looks pristine as always and his hair is slicked back. His makeup isn't even smeared which means he either hasn't cried today or he recently fixed it. Naki's got one of his numerous Inkays sitting on his lap and the squid waves when the video feed turns on.]

Hey. I guess I should let you know I'm alright. And that I'm still in Goldenrod. So uh... yeah. If you're not already asleep or whatever then I guess we can talk. Otherwise I'll see you later.

[Naki sounds awkward, but that's nothing new. His voice is surprisingly even and not as loud as it usually is, so he's either finally figured out what an indoor voice is or there's more to it than he's saying.]

[preybeforemeals]

[Tsukiyama is outside again when he responds, and it seems he hasn't given up his fondness for high places; the skyline is different tonight, though, not the usual high-rise buildings that would imply that he's back in Goldenrod or one of the major city centers. Everything is lower to the ground, judging by the lights dotted across the countryside, and there's another nearby brighter light source that sweeps by once in a while; he's in Olivine still, up on the lighthouse roof today, it looks like. Well out of sight of everyone, thankfully, and up above the light Amphy's projecting out over the sea in front of him.

He seems calm when he answers, though he isn't wasting much time in getting to the point, either.]

Ah, good evening, monsieur - is everything all right?

[He knows you said you are, but there's a difference.]

[phone call | 6/8]

[occultigen]

[A short while after this video hits the network, a call will briskly be coming in to Tsukiyama's Gear. Which is a bit silly, perhaps, but it's faster than going looking for him, and she's getting rather adept with these devices after nine months, anyway.

Ring, ring, ring.]

[preybeforemeals]

[...What in the world...

It takes him a moment to check the device and see who's calling, but he'll pick up eventually; this is...unusual, to an extent that makes him wonder if it's urgent or if she just felt particularly adventurous today, it's a little hard to tell.]

Miss Everett...?