standingonmyneck: (no bouncy hair)
Daria Morgendorffer ([personal profile] standingonmyneck) wrote2020-09-01 03:34 pm

FOREST COVERED: IC CONTACT

"If this is a prank call, then hang up and know that someone is always watching. For all other calls, remain on the line to spout out your word vomit. You have thirty seconds."

[Mail | Physical | Voice]
be_acknowledged: (Just stop please)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-23 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
[He continues to stare into the cup, trying to think of how to get things off his chest. He talks more than his other brothers about himself, but it's still hard to, you know, TALK. He supposes he can at least start things off on a positive note, of sorts.]

Uh, Ichimatsu is back. Um. Don't know if you heard.
be_acknowledged: (Is there a problem?)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-23 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
[He looks out the window, unsure how to answer the question. He finally gives a non-committal sound as an answer. Mm.

A while passes before he can work up the words to talk again.]


I need... I need to make sense of something. Something that's been rolling around in my head for a bit. I... it's not going to make a lot of sense to you, I think, and I'm sorry, but I can't really talk with my brothers about it. I just... I need someone to understand our situation, and not just the basic look of it. Um... if that's okay, I mean.
be_acknowledged: (Default)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-23 04:17 am (UTC)(link)
[He fidgets. How does he begin this? Does he leap straight to himself? That would be confusing though... maybe he should start from the beginning.]

Uh... I'm going to start with a story first. I'll... I'll get where I'm going in a bit, but... yeah.

[He clears his throat nervously.]

So, ah... once, there was a cartoonist, named Fujio Akatsuka. He became a very popular cartoonist, with his comics becoming renowned throughout Japan. There were even popular trends and catchphrases people picked up from them! Eventually, he became an important figure to Japan itself, and people called him "Akatsuka-sensei."

[He looks at her, seeing if he's lost her or not.]
be_acknowledged: (it's all my fault)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-23 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[His eyes flit upwards in a silent acknowledgement, but he doesn't say verbally one way or the other.]

Among his work, one of the most popular of his creations was a strip about six young boys, all identical, all nearly impossible to tell apart. Since it was a gag comic, nothing was taken seriously; people could be violent to each other, or mean, and it was all in the name of exaggerated humor. People loved it.

One day, years later, Akatsuka-sensei died. Years after that, those sextuplets, in honor of their creator, wanted to bring their presence back to Japan, to remind people of his work. But they knew that the humor that worked in the Showa era didn't work in the twenty-first century. And they wanted to make sure they wouldn't just become side characters in their own work either; being completely identical only goes so far! So... they grew up. And became their own people. The humor was still on the mean side, but now the six were capable of carrying things more on their own.

But, of course, one of them had to become the "tsukkomi." The straight man. So one of them would react the way other people would to what people do. It's... it's a humor style. And so one sextuplet, somehow, gained that role.

[He turns the cup in his hands again.]

...but the fact was, one can only do so much in a situation like that. And so that sextuplet frequently found himself on the outside of the situation, horrified at his brothers, but also on the inside, working with them. Both wanting to be like them, but also wanting to be "normal." Without a community really supporting the latter, he ended up falling back into the former a lot. And this was fine -- in a world where actions didn't really have long term consequences.

[He looks down.]

Except briefly, one time, they did. Then inevitably went back to normal. And then that sextuplet joined his brothers in a place where consequences were even more important. And suddenly, that sextuplet realized the truth:

[His fists clench.]

That what's funny to people from a distance is horrifying in person. And how terrible he really was.

[He's quiet, for a while longer.]

That's... that's my story, I guess.
be_acknowledged: (You okay there brother)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-23 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[The worst part is that, being the "straight man," when she says it out loud, it really DOES sound absurd.]

Sort of. Except we've also got our own lives. So we're sort of a creation and sort of our own thing - look, I did say it wasn't going to make a bunch of sense!

[He puts his head in his hands.]

It's just... somehow I'm supposed to be the adult! But I also just want to be free to be whatever I want, and I...

[He sinks lower, his head now resting on his arms.]

I just... want to be a good person, but I don't know if I can actually do it.
be_acknowledged: (not even a goodbye)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-24 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
[Well, what was stopping them? What was preventing any of them from changing, from becoming better people? From evolving?

Maybe when we're all together... ...we'll always be like this.

One thread pulled, unraveling an entire shirt.]


We six have always done everything together. Lived together. Conspired together. But we still never talk to each other. I...

[His voice chokes a bit as he thinks of what Ichimatsu told him -- about the family, leaving one by one.]

I'm afraid that if I try to become my own person any further, that if I allow the status quo to change, I'll destroy our family... and Akatsuka-sensei's creation.
be_acknowledged: (Is there a problem?)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-25 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
[Well of COURSE it sounded ridiculous. Being an "audience surrogate" has its benefits.

He's quiet for a while, before finally speaking.]


We owe Akatsuka-sensei a lot. But... but he isn't here anymore, and we are. Which means we have to forge our own paths forward.

[He looks down.]

...but is it better to stay in one place and stick together... or move forward and fall apart? I'm just... I'm not sure anymore.

[He rubs his face.]

...Ichimatsu told me something about what happened after I got my job and before I gave it up again. It... it scared me.
be_acknowledged: (Default)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-25 08:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[What DID make him flip flop?

Well, there was the power of comedy and the status quo, of course. Characters will be characters and whatnot. Iyami had said so himself. But somehow that didn't really feel satisfying.

So fear? But he hadn't really been AFRAID when the Invitational came up, just excited. Who WOULDN'T want to win the Invitational and have all their dreams come true? It was easier than WORKING your way out of NEETdom... except wait, he DID want to work his way out of NEETdom? Or didn't he?

He felt like he was missing something, somehow, something about himself that was mucking the works up. And if he didn't just want to be a character with no agency, there had to be something in common.]


Uh...

[...but that really confused look on his face should pretty much show that he's not sure what that thing in common IS.]

Maybe I'm just that easily persuaded? We're all shitty NEETs after all...

[And retreating right to the personal insults! Weird.]
be_acknowledged: (it's all my fault)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-26 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
I... I know that! It's just so hard! I mean, every time I think I'm getting somewhere, I keep getting drawn in by --

[He wants to be a serious person, but he keeps getting nicknames.

He tries to make a life plan, but gets accused of rising.

He finally starts moving forward in life, only to get drawn back into the NEET life.

By

Kuzu.

Levant just tried to pull the thread... but Kuzu was the one who shredded the sweater.

No... no, it can't just be that, can it? That's not fair! They're all pieces of shit, why should it matter if Kuzu...]


By...

[He grows quiet. It makes sense when he thinks about it. No matter how hard he tries, it all circles back to the same source.

He grows quiet again.]


..."Maybe if we stay together, we'll always be like this."
be_acknowledged: (What even the hell)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-26 05:05 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe.

But I'm not sure I'm happy that I did.

[His knuckles turn a bit white around that coffee cup.]

It's... it's not right to blame others for your own problems, right? That's what shitty people do, right?
be_acknowledged: (Rising)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-27 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
[He watches the donut slide to him. He picks it up, turning it around a bit.]

...Time. I need more time, I think. And... the person I'm thinking of needs to be on the same page first. Then maybe...

[Then maybe he can confront him -- and finally really tell Kuzu the things he hasn't been able to tell him ever since they started becoming more distant.]

Uh... thank you.

[It's hard to tell whether he's thanking her for listening or for the donut he's biting into.]
be_acknowledged: (good junior worker)

[personal profile] be_acknowledged 2016-06-29 01:51 am (UTC)(link)
D...do you think so? My brothers usually just accuse me of "rising" my self-awareness. It's not like I'm TRYING to...