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[fujimaru]

It's Ritsuka! I've either fallen asleep or couldn't find my phone in time, so leave a message.

[ text / action / etc]

Comments

[fujimaru]

I've only gotten like one crash course in playing pool, so you'll have to deal with that.

[ But it's not a no; she also rises to her feet, following him. ]

Darts, I'm okay at. I played softball in junior high, so I've got semi-decent aim.

[cultfavorite]

You're about the only kind of player I might actually beat, then. I only learned to play it myself a few weeks ago, and I haven't had much opportunity to practice against anyone in the meantime. Maybe you can show me how to throw a dart after this . . .

[He does kind of want to know. The allure of Hobbies here is a strong one, and darts is a pretty solitary game. It might not be bad to have another option for nights when he's bored or overwhelmed and needs something quiet to focus on out of Cerberus, which is what he already does with practicing shooting pool.]

[fujimaru]

Oh, I see how it is, go after the newbie.

[ She says it with mock-solemnity, picking up a pool cue to brandish it at him, pointing it like a sword for a second. ]

Akira-kun showed me, when I told him I didn't know how to play. I learned darts before I came here, though. And poker, but I suck at that one. I'm not allowed to play anymore, on account that people felt bad for how bad I was.

[cultfavorite]

I never learned poker . . . I was going to say you could teach me, but maybe not, if that's your reputation at it.

[He grabs the end of the stick and moves it away with a huff of a laugh, grabbing the rack to rack the balls on the table.]

Too open-faced for it?

[fujimaru]

The rules aren't hard.

[ She does poke his arm with the cue lightly, then pulls it back to hold it in a more safe position. ]

But yeah. I'm just very bad at bluffing. Robin said it was like taking the whole "taking candy from a baby" adage too far.

[cultfavorite]

[He swats at it idly, but he's mostly putting the balls in the right order, which there is one of and I used to know it but I don't remember what it is. He knows it! And then he's going to grab a cue and chalk it up.]

Another Servant of yours? One of the less innocent ones again? I don't know. I think you manage bluffing in other situations better than he might think . . .

[fujimaru]

[ This is fine because I only know how to play pool based off that one Try Guys video, we're doing great,

She tilts her head, bemused. ]

One of them, yeah. Pretty much anyone I namedrop is going to be one. And he tries to paint himself as a bad guy, but mostly he has a lot of bad habits.

...what do you mean by that?

[cultfavorite]

For one thing, you're excellent at telling me things like that you're an ordinary girl with a straight face.

[Ha. He smiles at her, grabbing the cue ball to place it on the table and then bringing out a token.]

Heads or tails?

[fujimaru]

Heads.

[ She answers automatically, but she's still bemused, her brows drawing together as she looks at him. ]

I'm not bluffing on that, though? I am.

[cultfavorite]

[He flips the token and it comes up heads! Congratulations, Ritsuka, have fun breaking the balls. Saturn leans on his cue and watches.]

I know you think you are. Perhaps the trick would be to teach you the different hands backwards, so that you were convinced all the good ones really were bad. Ha.

[fujimaru]

Too late, I already know how to play.

[ But for the moment, she's focusing on the setup, her eyes narrowing as she assesses the setup, pacing an entire lap around the table before she picks a position and bends to take her shot. She's certainly no prodigy, and it's not a lie that she has only just barely learned, but she does have a good eye for how to play with physics. Her first strike is decisive, and she watches the balls scatter and stop before she straightens again. ]

--Okay, then, what do you think I am?

[cultfavorite]

[Hmm, that was better than he expected her to do for barely knowing how to play this game. Form counts for a lot! Besides, it's satisfying for that first strike to be a really good crack.

Anyway. He watches her, and then as he walks around the table to try and find the easiest shot to line up for himself, assuming Ritsuka didn't pocket any on the break, he pauses to give her a look. Just a casual one. But she deserves a real, honest, well-considered answer, and it's not like he hasn't thought any about it already.]

. . . I think there are different ways in which humans can be ordinary people. I know you think you haven't done anything that another ordinary person couldn't manage. Maybe you're right. But there are other things that are completely normal for humans to do. Things like giving up, or breaking under pressure, or becoming twisted by their circumstances . . . those things happen every day. And so do acts of courage, kindness, and strength. I still find those extraordinary, even when ordinary people do them. Especially then, maybe. . . . So, yes, you're an ordinary person, who has extraordinary resilience, adaptability, stubbornness, supportiveness, and charm.

[fujimaru]

[ So, hey, about that lack of a poker face!

If he's looking at her after he finishes saying all of that, he can see the surprise and the confusion on her face, her hands gripping harder on her cue for a few seconds. Even when the initial shock passes, she's still pretty clearly off-kilter. Her next shots probably will not be very good. ]

That's... that feels like you're going a little too far in giving me credit...

[ Charm? Charm?? Saturn, please, she probably still has leaves in her hair from this morning. ]

[cultfavorite]

Ah . . . I didn't think I was saying anything all that effusive . . .

[But this is a problem he has in both directions, sometimes, expressing an opinion he thinks of as fairly neutral and simply honest only to have other react to it as if it's either a great insult or a great compliment. Not that this wasn't a compliment! It was! But she's so surprised when he didn't expect her to be!!

He lines up an easy shot to pocket the 2 ball, so, he's solids now.]

[fujimaru]

I--I guess it wasn't...

[ It was probably just a normal compliment, huh. It's not anything special, just an observation, and there is nothing especially meaningful about it. It's time for the Be Normal challenge, Ritsuka!

But for now, she just stands there, fiddling with the cue, staring at her hands rather than look at him. ]

[cultfavorite]

It was a compliment, and I did mean it entirely. I just didn't expect you to be so surprised by it. . . . I rather thought those were all things you already knew about yourself.

[He pockets the 7 next, but that's all he can manage; every other shot on the table is difficult, and he's not very good at this yet, so he only manages to move the 6 ball a little closer to a pocket. Your turn!]

[fujimaru]

I don't... really think about myself that much.

[ Ha ha that's true on multiple levels ha ha she is failing this Be Normal challenge already.

She goes to take her shot, but as anticipated, she's not really good for much; her shot just sends the balls scattering further, none in a particularly good position to be pocketed for easy points. ]

I think I'm pretty replaceable? I'm not saying it to make myself sound pathetic or anything, just--I am? Anything I've done, someone else can do. That's always how it has been. I don't resent it or anything. It's just what it is.

[cultfavorite]

That's a terrible way to think of yourself.

[His eyes narrow, and he goes to try for the 1 ball, but he misses pocketing that too. They are both real pool sharks here.]

I know you have your reasons...I know I won't be the one to talk you out of them. But I can't let it go uncommented on when you say it, that's all.

[fujimaru]

I don't think it's that bad...

[ She studies the table, walking around it to try and figure out the best position. ]

I really don't. But--...

[ She bends to finally take her shot, and pockets the 3 striped ball,though she scatters the others worse in the process. Hm. ]

...but it's still nice of you to say. Thanks.

[cultfavorite]

...There's a saying where I come from. I never thought much of it when I was living there. I didn't concern myself with such things. But it's an ancient inscription on the wall at the Solaceon Ruin site...

[He walks around the table to try and find a decent shot, hmm. The current layout isn't great.]

It says "All lives touch other lives to create something anew and alive."

[fujimaru]

That's just what relationships are, right? Whatever their nature, good or bad. They need to be fed and tended to like a conventionally living thing.

[ She leans on her cue a little, watching him. Be normal, be normal. ]

But there's things that stay, and things that change.

[cultfavorite]

[Be normal challenge! He manages to pocket the 1, nice.]

But the people in them can't ever be replaced. When I helped you make curry for us...I wasn't thinking, "anyone else could do this." Regardless of the truth of it. I was thinking of spending time with Ritsuka, and no one else can replace you in that memory.

[fujimaru]

[ She smiles a little at that, small and sad and fleeting. Be normal!! ]

I hope not. But that's not exactly what I mean by replaceable... Of course the memories I'm actually part of can't be replaced with anyone else. But there's always going to be other times, where you could easily be doing the same thing. There's only ever been one thing I've been irreplaceable for, and that one is...

[ No one will truly know what you're doing, Merlin had told her once. No one will acknowledge it. She still clearly remembers that, years later. ]

... Well. We don't know how that'll end yet. But I'm okay with that. Even if I'm not anything special in the end, I still lived. I still had things I did, and things and people I loved. Being a nobody doesn't take that away from me.

[cultfavorite]

[He misses his next shot, and turns around from the table with a flourish, brandishing his cue at her the same way she did to him earlier.]

Honestly. Where's Kleken when I need him to illusion you a new bingo card . . . I'll just have to write it out myself by hand for you. "Speak highly of yourself for two minutes." "Take a compliment someone offers you." "Lighten up just a little." Of course I'll have to put that last one on my own card, too. It's not as though I don't take some responsibility.

. . . Still. I'm not disagreeing with the core of what you're saying. And I'm not going to dig in my heels any more today.

[fujimaru]

I would not trust anything that guy gave me further than I could throw it.

[ But she goes to try her luck with balls. You know. ]

What do I win, if I get a bingo on this hypothetical card?

[ This time, she does manage to pocket a ball, which, you know what, she'll take it. It's something. ]