voicemail.

[superordinary]

"Hello! You've reached Makoto Naegi — I'm not available right now, so please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible."

available for:
( voice | text | video | misc* )

* Anything else! It can be a message tied to a rock thrown through a window, or it can be an action thread if neither of us feel like making a separate post for it.

Comments

text; 3/03

[freshprints]

Naegi-kun, are you there?

text;

[superordinary]

I am. What is it, Kirigiri-san?

text;

[freshprints]

I just wanted to talk to you. Not about anything in particular, but just to...hear from you.

Is that all right?

text;

[superordinary]

Of course. :)

text;

[freshprints]

Have you been sleeping well lately?

text;

[superordinary]

Sometimes I have nightmares, but for the most part I've been sleeping well.

text;

[freshprints]

I...do too.

They're usually of your execution.

text;

[superordinary]

Mine usually feature those who died and I find their....bodies again. Sometimes the Eevees are there and they don't understand why Ishimaru-kun isn't moving.

text;

[freshprints]

Isn't it strange? I'm not bothered by finding bodies, but that's what makes up your nightmares.

And the nightmare that you'd think would be yours is...mine.

text;

[superordinary]

Maybe? Sometimes my nightmares end with Detention but finding the bodies of my friends is a lot worse, somehow.

Are yours about my execution because it was intended for you? If I hadn't kept quiet back then...

text;

[freshprints]

That's not...what makes it a nightmare, I don't think.

When it happens, I'm usually back at my podium. The execution is running, but somehow I know that I could change my vote — change the outcome. The light is red and I can hear the sound of the machinery, but I stand there looking at your name and mine, and...

Most of the time I wake up before I've done anything but look.

text;

[superordinary]

...I see...

[ He's not really sure what to say, to be honest. ]

...What happens when you don't wake up?

text;

[freshprints]

It...finishes before I choose.

Naegi-kun...just saying "I'm sorry" doesn't seem like enough, but I don't know what else there is.

text;

[superordinary]

It's not your fault, Kirigiri-san.

text;

[freshprints]

I think I've been slow to accept that kind of forgiveness because it's hard for someone like me to understand your ability to forgive so unconditionally.

It's not my right to dictate what you feel or how you choose to forgive. But I...I want to be the person who protects you like you protected me. Not because I feel guilty about what I did during that trial, but because I...

Because I believe in you, like you believed in me.

text;

[superordinary]

Thank you for believing in me, Kirigiri-san.

...Can I ask why it's so hard to understand for "someone like you"? Forgiving people...that's something that comes naturally to me. I don't think you should be blamed for wanting to survive that messed up trial.

text;

[freshprints]

In my family, the Kirigiri detectives...objectivity is something that's of the utmost importance. To be able to appraise a crime scene, personal feelings can't get in the way. Or...shouldn't, if possible.

For someone like me, who's been raised to see the world like that, it's hard to understand a decision that's been made from the heart. Especially when it's something like forgiveness, which requires setting aside other factors for the sake of...kindness. And decency.

I don't...forgive well. It's hard for me, and doesn't come naturally. At school, I treated it like a betrayal when there were things you wouldn't tell me, rather than trusting you or trying to understand. But the things I did to you were much worse, and even when I know I deserved it, you haven't blamed me.

From a position of objectivity, I've benefited from your kindness on many occasions, and several of them were when I deserved much worse. It's...unbalanced, to be able to look at how I've treated you next to how you've treated me. That's why, for a while, I've thought that it might have been easier if you'd hated me, because...at least it would've been the natural consequence of my actions.

But when I say that I want to protect you, but not because I feel guilty...

What I mean is that...it's not because I'm trying to make up for something, that I care about you. I care about you because you're Naegi-kun. Because...you're an important person to me. I don't want something like that to be because I feel indebted or obligated. It's because what I feel is...

...

Hope. Among other things.

text; THIS IS A GAGTAG

[superordinary]

tl;dr

[freshprints]

gtfo

[superordinary]

nobody cares, kirigiri-san

[freshprints]

put that thing away you are the protagonist

[superordinary]

don't break the fourth wall

text; okay back to being serious and in character

[superordinary]

[ Holy textwall, Batman. All right, give him a moment to read all that. ]

I've said this before but you really have changed. The Kirigiri-san I first met would never have been so open or even considered writing what you just wrote, I think. I remember something you told me when we first spent time together, just the two of us -- "There's no value in letting others know how you feel."

And now you're here telling me all of this. So... thank you, Kirigiri-san. I appreciate it. You're an important person and you mean a lot to me.

text; i see no gag tags whatsoever

[freshprints]

The me you first met was more afraid than I was letting on. I was missing so many of my memories then, and I didn't want any of you to know that.

...It's wrong to say I'm glad about the things that happened at school. But I'm glad that I met you, Naegi-kun.

text;

[superordinary]

I'm glad I met you too, Kirigiri-san. I don't regret coming to Hope's Peak, despite everything that happened there.