hadriel | 第2: [text] -- backdated to 4/8, about 1 hour after chris's post

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第2: [text] -- backdated to 4/8, about 1 hour after chris's post

because everybody keeps asking, i am going to tell you what an emoji is

it's a few things:

1) fancy emoticons (before anyone asks, that's emotions + icons, pretty self-explanatory)

2) it's a japanese word: 絵文字 (e mo ji) - that means picture character

TECHNICALLY 絵文字 is also a chinese word, but i don't speak or read chinese, so i can't tell you how to say it. the word "emoji" is JAPANESE, though. and before you ask about THAT, since some of you are from who the fuck knows where, japanese and chinese share a little of their written language, but they are DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. do NOT fight me on this, DO NOT

so don't fucking ask again. if you do, i won't draw any emojis for you

but chris will, so go give him shit about that

[middle finger emoji; smiling emoji; middle finger emoji]

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Undercover nerd

Hiding your flannel and counterstrike teeshirts under $1200 leather jackets

Purse is secretly full of cheetos and redbull

I'm onto you

you're disgusting, you have no sense of fashion, and please, this figure takes hard work and dedication

We really do need a salt emote

yeah. can't really think of how to draw one, though

Maybe a pile of it? Or like a canister that just says SALT really obviously on the side would be better.

[Her response is a bunch of attachments, made up of all requests to date. She chose the cannister one for salt. The doodles aren't great, but they get the point across.]

Stop showing me up with the whole 'getting things done in a timely fashion' thing

[But no really these are excellent.]

no

by the way? you have shit taste in friends. good to know you like to shoot the shit with ignorant, racist bitches

[Uuuuurgh he'd been hoping not to get dragged into this but he isn't surprised. Emily has a right to be pissed, after all.

But he's not having this conversation in public over text, so he actually bothers to get up, wandering over to Emily's room even if it involves climbing a set of stairs. Geez, the things he does.

Chris stops at her doorway-they really do need to make someone fix that door--and sighs.]

It's not exactly like I knew she'd go full on Siamese cat from a Disney movie.

Do you want me to say something, or...?

[As much as he'd wanted to stay out of it he'd already considered stepping in because really Nick, not cool, friends or not.]

[Emily would've been perfectly okay having this conversation on the network, but she's adaptable. When Chris arrives, she sits up in bed, where she'd been lying on her stomach, dutifully and angrilly tapping out messages on her phone.

Needless to say, she's glaring at him.]

Seriously, Chris? You're asking for my permission to tell your little asshole of a friend to shut the fuck up and cut the racist bullshit? Wow, good to know you've got my back!

[She's a lot less offended by Nick than she lets on, having learned to just ignore that shit and crush people with her style and smarts and success. But most people who think lile Nick -- at least, that Emily has come across -- aren't belligerent and persistent about it. And even still, it's not so much a Grand Statement in defense of Asian people everywhere, but more of a fuck you to someome pulling this shit at Emily, and with intent.

And really, she can take care of herself, and she doesnt give a shit who her friends' friends are so long as they don't hang out when Emily is around, but she expects her friends to take her side. Period.]

[Normally, Chris would just reassure her and back her up on this, but something about the way she puts it just--]

I know it's like, a shock to everyone or something, but I'm not a babysitter.

[Can't his friends act like adults for five seconds? It seems every time he turns around someone is getting into a fight or doing something stupid or being a jerk for absolutely no reason, and he's getting really sick of it. He's a lot more concerned about people not dying than he is about anything else, and that's about all he can really handle at the moment.]

So yeah, sorry I didn't immediately think you needed defending or whatever, because not hovering over your shoulder like you can't handle yourself is totally the same thing as not having your back.

[Because when he thinks of the phrase, he thinks of the night on the mountain; of the good and bad choices he made that night that could have--and sometimes did--mean life and death. A text conversation just seems really insignificant and so he really doesn't like having it thrown at him; he can't be everywhere at once and he's tired of trying to be.]

I'm not asking you to be anyone's fucking babysitter, and I don't need you to be defending me. I can handle myself. That isn't the fucking point here. The point is that she is doing this shit on purpose to fuck with me because she's so insecure about how stupid she is. And that you feel the need to ask my permission to fucking back me up when I already spoke up for myself!

[She would do it for him. She would back him up if someone tried fucking with him while she's around. It may not seem like she cares, but he's one of her people, and if she detects even the slightest hint of wilfull hostility directed at him, she'll fight. She'd do it for Ash and Sam and Josh, she'd do it for Jess and Mike despite it all, and she'd sure as fuck do it for Matt.]

So, what, I can trust you with, like, life and death shit, but not something about who I am? Something I can't fucking change, something so fucking important, Chris!

[She's defaulting to her usual tactics, taking the truth of the situation and making it bigger than it is -- except, fuck, maybe she's not as upset about it as when she was a little kid, but it still stings. She's not truly impervious to everything, no matter how much she pretends to be. She kept her cultural life at home to get the weebs and the jerks to leave her alone, and now this happens, in this shithole, of all fucking places.]

I'm not asking permission, I just don't feel like telling her to shut the fuck up and then dealing with you getting pissed off at me for acting like you couldn't take care of yourself.

[Ultimately it comes down to that Chris still isn't completely sure how to read Emily and figure out what are right and wrong moves with her. Normally this wouldn't be a huge problem--he's good at dealing with people but not a mind-reader--except for that everything he thought he knew about a lot of his friends has been kind of shaken up lately. Being so unsure about and having to second-guess everything is just another layer of stress under all the other, usually more serious issues.]

T-That is so not what I said. I-I thought it was just--

[But he stops; he can't explain this in a way that makes sense, and he's struggling to get his temper back under control. He's still angry, even if he knows it's probably somewhat irrational, but he doesn't want to fight with Emily. Things are strained enough at their house.

So instead he takes a deep breath and tries again.]

I'm sorry, Em. I didn't realize this was the sort of thing you wanted backup on.

A simple "that's not cool, bitch" would be good enough. I'm not expecting you to fight my battles for me.

[It's her own fault her friends aren't always sure how she'll react to any given thing. Part of her survival strategy for life is to force people to stay on their toes around her, constantly on guard so that she's the one leading a conversation or a project. It's only with Matt, and only just starting that last night on the mountain, that she started to see how cruel her tricks could be when used against the people in her small, tight circle. For him, she would change that.

But he isn't here right now, and she isn't sure it's safe enough here to let her guard down even a little. She'd though maybe she could reach that point with Chris (girl needs someone to vent at, now that Jessica is a disaster on top of being a backstabbing whore), but now...

Now, she just doesn't know.]

Why wouldn't I want my friends to back me up on this? Seriously, why? Like, this isn't some asshole on the street or a weeb on campus, this is your friend choosing to be a piece of shit to me. Me, and I've been your friend for years. Shit.

[She turns away now, squinting a little as if fighting back tears -- she is, kind of. A teeny bit. But of course she'll play it up a little. It's called persuasion, and she has every right to use that skill right now.]

How am I supposed to know that? You dealt with the thing with Maketh on your own and that was a lot more serious.

[If this thing with Nick had been in person he would've stepped in already without asking, but it isn't; it's text and voice messages and so he'd thought intervening would be overstepping. Apparently not.

He'd also sort of been hoping Nick would cut it out on her own, but apparently not on that too.

And now it looks like Emily might be crying and he really screwed up, and he's feeling guilty and angry and frustrated all at once.]

I just... I didn't want to like, undermine you by making it look like you needed someone to help on this.

[Which is true, even if he also had wanted to stay out of it for his own reasons.]

Also I guess I was hoping Nick would like, make it not necessary by figuring out she's totally out of line, but I guess not.

[He seems to be pretty bad at picking friends who can do that.]

[The thing with Maketh. God, that feels like forever ago, just like the mirrors, and the wendigos, and the mountain. Way too much shit has happened in their lives since the mountain. Since that prank. What was that again about this not being hell? Because it sure feels like it.

Emily doesn't answer right away, both because she's thinking of what to say, and because for a moment, she's afraid she might cry for real. She gets herself under control with a breath, clutching the edge of the mattress as she turns to look at Chris again.]

What Maketh did was not more serious. She hit me, but she didn't keep hitting me, and she admitted she was wrong. [And she's actually not that bad. Shame shit had gone sour fast at the bar.] Nick would not shut up. She obviously doesn't see how much of a fucking bitch she is. It's not like this is the first time I've dealt with that shit, but fuck--

[She looks away again, playing up the hurt, letting it twist in her throat and steal her voice for a second. When she speaks again, her voice sounds a little strained, but somehow more certain, too.]

I would stand up for you if someone started trying to give you shit for being a nerd. Like actually trying to put you down. And okay fine, you're not a mindreader, but just like... she wouldn't stop. That's a good time to step in. To like, say that's a line you don't fucking cross. Because I swear to god if we were face to face, I would've decked her like Maketh taught me.

Edited (disregard the comment title, that sstuff got cut) 2016-04-12 21:55 (UTC)

[He's quiet while Emily speaks, listening carefully, leaned a little against the doorframe so as to keep his weight off his knee. When she explains it this way it seems obvious, even if he still thinks punching someone is a little worse; it doesn't matter what he thinks, it matters what Emily thinks.]

Okay.

[It's quiet, and he's not sure what else to say, but--]

I get it now, I just... Sorry. I'll say something.

[He really is sorry, as much as he's also frustrated about the situation and some other nebulous things it's hard to really get to the bottom of. He didn't mean to make everything worse for her.]

Thank you.

[She means that, too, more than even she realizes. On the mountain, Matt and Sam were the only ones who bothered to try and see Emily's side of anything. At least now Chris is trying.

She almost leaves it at that, except... no, it's not even the slightest bit her fault, so why is there this niggling feeling of ... guilt or whatever? Ugh.

Still, though. Even if she's not at fault, she can show she appreciates his effort here.]

Sorry this shit happened.

[He's expecting her to still be upset, so the thanks is even more unexpected than it would normally have been. But he's really glad she seems not to be really mad at him anymore, at least.

He shakes his head at the apology though; there's no need for that.]

It's not your fault at all, like... I mean, she's from like, Kansas or something but that's still not an excuse for that whole... Thing.

[It's partly a joke--ah, Kansas--but more just a lighter way or putting something serious. At first he'd thought Nick was just understandably--if awkwardly--ignorant about culture differences, but then it'd quickly gone egregious enough to be more than a little surprising.]

[She was never mad at Chris in this. She was (and is) mad at Nick, and at the situation, but not at Chris. It just so happened that he was the only person she could be angry at. Now that she's said her piece and been heard (and agreed with), she's better. Chris has her back. He's standing by her when it counts.

Her little circle won't be broken.]

Not at all. [There's a pause, then she sighs.] I have more emojis to draw.

[And damn they better get coffee out of this. An artist Emily is not.]

Okay. Cool.

I'll talk to Delight tomorrow.

[He'd say morning, but it's late already so who knows when he'll get to sleep, let alone wake up. But he'll ask her tomorrow for sure.

He offers a small wave of goodbye to Emily before heading for the stairs to go back down to his room. Now to go reply to Nick. Urgh. This is gonna suck.]

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第2: [text] -- backdated to 4/8, about 1 hour after chris's post

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