Diadem Inbox

[valle]

Inbox

678 – 9829

Voice — Text

"It's Laura. You know what to do."

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text.

[carcajous]

[ The message comes...not as soon as it should've, but maybe sooner than she might've expected out of him. Two or three weeks after everything happens, Logan finds himself staring at the number he got from Charles. Hard to decide if he's hoping she'll answer him or not.

Guess they'll see. ]

Hey, kid.
You got a moment?

[valle]

( It takes her twenty minutes to text back. Not because she doesn't see it. It just does. )

What's up?

( What she means is: what's wrong, who's dying? )

[carcajous]

Was thinking we should talk.
I left some things unfinished.

[valle]

( Shit.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit- )

Sure.
Where?

from: Kimiko Butterfly (822 - 2762)

[pse]

Help.

I think I like someone.

[ What does she do? Does she just, like, die? ]

[valle]

( Oh boy, it's been a while since she had one of these conversations. It must have been back at the sanctuary, with one of her friends. That feels like so long ago... )

What's their name?

[pse]

[ If Laura is watching her phone for a reply, she'll see the message-in-progress notifier appear and disappear with chaotic regularity.

Finally, Kimiko panics, lies, and hits send. ]

Darwin.

text.

[imperatour]

I met another guy with claws like yours.

[ Furiosa assumes it's her dad, but she has a very complicated relationship with that concept herself, so she won't. Not until Laura says so. ]

[valle]

Sounds like you met Logan.

( She's only called him any variation of dad one time in her life, and it had been one of the bitterest moments she's ever experienced. Outside of that, she's only ever called him by his name. )

[imperatour]

We didn't exchange names.

[ In retrospect, sounds familiar. This next part is tougher to type than she thought it would be. It's just a fact. It's just what happened. ]

He told me he died on you.

[ And then quickly, like it will help: ]

I got mad at him for it.

i'm sorry i didn't know where to leave this, hope here's okay

[freakymagoo]

[So, since he knows where she lives and he knew how disappointed she was with the facesplitting goat and all. Maybe one day some weeks later, she comes home late to find that someone's brought the most boring zoo to her doorstep instead. Complete with fairy lights of course because what strong independent killing machine doesn't love fairy lights? Each monochromatic angular animal shape distinct from each other, able to stand or lean, some more obviously resembling an animal she knows and others more ambiguous.

If she looks hard enough she might even find a little easter egg that doesn't quite belong in there.

No notes, but to her some of the papers would smell faintly of leather and cheap aftershave.]

this is absolutely wonderful im crying

[valle]

( As it turns out, the only person to love fairy lights more than a strong independent killing machine, is a strong independent killing machine teenage girl.

It smells familiar enough for her to place the guy responsible almost immediately.

Each little paper animal winds up with its own designated spot in her room, because Laura is nothing if not an absolute lover of all trinkets and things unnecessary; she's sentimental enough to keep exactly this kind of thing. )

text.

[carcajous]

[ A little after he scares the shit out of John—unintentionally, he might add (mostly)—he decides, might as well find out more. Besides, she oughta know he's here, anyway, if they're familiar. ]

In the void, you ever run into a kid

[ deleting kid, on second thought ]

a guy goes by pyro or john.

[valle]

Yes.
Why?

( She can, perhaps, hazard a guess. )

[carcajous]

looks like he made it out, too.

text

[thetruefocus]

Laura, what can you tell me about Cassandra Nova?

[ He is not too happy about her.]

[valle]

( oop... )

John told you?
He knows her better than I did. I was on the opposite team.

[thetruefocus]

Yes, he did. It seemed relevant given that she could just as easily appear as the rest of us.

Delivered Anonymously Around Christmas

[idolatrized]

[Delivered to Laura is a small giftbox wrapped impeccably with red handkerchief.

It's a little old-fashioned, but he thinks it looks nice!]

Click to unwrap!

A pair of heart-shaped sunglasses*!
*and bubble gum

[And indeed, it looks to be some nice shades with a holographic shine to them. Bubble gum is thrown with reckless abandon around them, almost as if a replacement for packing peanuts. A small piece of paper inside reads: 'It's not gonna be very sunny for a while, but these reminded me of you.'

Under the gift is a small, tattered postcard:]

[pse]

[ The various entrepreneurs offering hand-delivery service are working overtime in the lead up to Christmas and its various cosmic iterations — but no such effort is necessary this time, because Kimiko hand delivers this particular gift to Laura’s motel room and safeguards it until it can be brought inside.

Why? Because it’s over four feet tall and very cuddly. Its fur is a little coarse with age, but its stuffing is as thick and supportive as ever.

A post-it is left on its nose, the written English painstakingly precise.

Merry Christmas!
He can take a punch and hold you up when needed.
- Kimiko. ]

around christmas

[imperatour]

[ The next time Laura stops by the garage for an exchange of joolies for scavenged car parts, an unassuming package gets loaded back into her jeep. It's not a secret, just not a big deal.

Inside are a few things. A couple of bags of sour candy and a small disco ball to hang from the mirror. A couple of weeks ago, a man with an odd collection across his dashboard came in to get his jeep repaired. Furiosa knocked a little off his tab in exchange for one rubber duck that now finds itself in the package too.

Beneath those things, there is a necklace, handcrafted but not by an expert. Just a simple string of leather, edges carefully burnished, wrapping around the green pendant. There's no note. ]

late December

[hellunbounded]

( The next time Laura comes by Sam's apartment to walk Oso, there's a small package addressed to her that's wrapped in newspaper. When she opens it, she'll find a used copy of a sci-fi book Sam thinks she might like, as well as a piece of paper with Oso's pawprint on it in blue paint. On a scrap of paper, is scrawled: Merry Christmas -Sam )

[imperatour]

Hey.
You wanna go to Acreage for a couple days?
Got some work tuning up farm equipment before spring.

[ I want to get out of town is not explicitly stated, but it will probably come up. ]

[valle]

Sure.
Wouldn't mind a change of scenery.

sorry can we pretend this was on time

[freakymagoo]

[The most practical gift left outside her door.]