I'M NORMALLLLL PLEASE DATE MEEEEE

[screwreality]

[SUCH A WONDERFUL DAY! Full of snowbanks and sunshine and ~ROMANCE~. Victorian gents wander around with their ladies. Victorian hobos holler at prostitutes for discounts. Forgetful idiots swarm flower shops for last-minute attempts at getting flowers before they go home and get murdered by their wives.

IT'S VALENTINE'S DAY, YOU BASTARDS! Spam your fellow taggers! Play hard to get and stop responding to everyone but your personal favorite! Sob and eat ice cream while watching your inbox stay empty! CELEBRATE WITH ALL OF YOUR SPIRIT!]

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[screwreality]

「REALLY?」

[His smile hasn't changed, but for the first time it feels like something promising terrible fates. And, another first, all of Them shut up and back off of Liam in record time. Because it really is a promise.

He sparkles right after like it never happened.] 「HA HA! WELL, IF YOU WANT THEM TO BE FREE, THAT'S YOUR CHOICE. AND I DON'T MIND ANSWERING! I LOOK LIKE A CORPSE BECAUSE I'VE BEEN ONE. DUH, IDIOT!」

「AND I DON'T MIND COFFEE.」

[virinosa]

Not as I am now. [Liam smiles. He knows damn well what's happening to him, and if he has to sacrifice everything he is and has to force a win.

He has to. Even if he pretends his feelings are dead and that it's not about vengeance anymore.]

It's not about Them being free. I'm just not using power on something like that, unless someone who matters asks me to. ...As of now that would be you and Miss Michi, the rest of this country and this damn world can rot until I show them everything.

[He shrugs and holds out a cup. ...Liam stop stealing shit through shadows.] I don't have any milk or sugar, though, sorry.

[screwreality]

[There's something about the blank smile he keeps for the entire response means there's a very high chance that coffee's getting chucked right in his face. And it is. It's scalding enough to slough his flesh off and it's bloody and painful as fuck--

Wait, that didn't happen. He just sips his coffee with a purely blank expression. Because it never happened. There's no proof of it.] 「YOU'RE AN IDIOT. JUST STAY HERE AND PLAY WITH YOUR FRIENDS. MAYBE YOU'LL MEET ONE NICE ENOUGH TO SHOW YOU REALITY.」

[virinosa]

I know.

[He doesn't even blink.] Reality isn't any worse than the way I live now. I'll be able to kill them before I make them understand anything. Do you think I didn't know that already?

[He smiles a little sadly.] All I want is for them to understand it. If they knew, if they couldn't ignore it, if they saw it...I could live with failing if they were the same way.

[screwreality]

[It's another case where he doesn't answer, just humming and sipping his coffee with the tone of someone listening to someone stupid.]

「HMMMMM~. I DON'T THINK YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO TALK LIKE THAT, LIAM-KUN. WHY DO YOU DEMAND THEM TO UNDERSTAND YOU WHEN YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THEM? YOU'RE JUST BEING CONTRARY BECAUSE YOUR LIFE SUCKS! WHAT IS IT YOU REALLY WANT?」

[virinosa]

...That's right. I shouldn't pretend it isn't personal.

I lost everything that made me human. Everyone who didn't hate me for what piece of rock I happened to be born on. But nobody cares. What kind of world is that? People died and nobody cared just because they weren't the right people. They hated me because I wasn't the right person.

It wasn't like I did anything. It isn't like the people born closer to Them did anything but be born. I know it's stupid.

[He just wants them to understand. For their pain not to be invisible for just one second. He doesn't care that he'll fail. He doesn't care that he'll die. He's becoming an Old One and it doesn't matter if for one single second, everyone knows.]

[screwreality]

[Liam's free to be sad, because it looks like Kumagawa's not even listening. Poking at the rim of his coffee cup with all the charisma of someone wondering where it came from.

But he brightens up and sparkles at the end.] 「IT'S NOT STUPID. IT MEANS YOU'RE A HUMAN. AND YOU ANSWERED SOMETHING FOR ME, TOO. THANKS A BUNCH!」

[Downing the rest of his cup and then holding it upside-down. The drops dripping out are still black enough to be unnerving.] 「SO! WITH ALL THOSE CONTRACTS YOU HAVE, WOULD YOU LIKE TO MAKE ONE WITH ME?」

[He's kidding he's kidding he's kidding oh please let him be kidding oh god he's not kidding oh god oh god-]

[virinosa]

Sure. [He didn't even think about it Liam what are you doing-]

Out of curiosity, though, what're your terms?

[screwreality]

「I WANT TO SPEAK TO SOMEONE. AND I WANT YOU TO SIT DOWN SOMEWHERE OUT OF THE WAY AND SHUT UP. THEN I'M GOING TO DO A MAGIC TRICK!」

「IF MY TRICK FAILS, THAT'S IT! CONTRACT OVER, YOU'RE FREE TO DO WHATEVER. IT IT WORKS, THEN YOU'RE ONLY ALLOWED TO HAVE ONE CONTRACT. OKAY?」

[There is now a torrent of Their voices going WHAT THIS IS NOT WHAT WE WANTED WHAT THE HELL-- but the reason just smiles like he can't even hear them.

He totally can, cut that out, it's rude you douchebags.]

[virinosa]

Only one...with you? I thought you were a married woman. I don't want to be a homewrecker.

[screwreality]

[The smile doesn't leave, but something in the presence falters, and hard. That aura is muffling out even Them and the glazed eyes are a lot less relieving.]

...You believed that?

[The brackets are gone.

Why are the brackets gone]

[virinosa]

I believe you don't want to be committed to me.

[screwreality]

[Good enough answer. That feeling snaps back behind brackets.]

「WHY SHOULD I? THEY'RE NOT COMMITTED TO YOU EITHER! MY COMMITMENT IS TO YOUR DEMANDS. THAT'S IT.」

[virinosa]

And if you leave?

[screwreality]

「THERE'S ONLY ONE PERSON ALIVE WHO CAN OVERRIDE YOU, AND SHE'S NOT HERE. NOT TO MENTION SHE WANTS SOMETHING SIMILAR TO WHAT YOU WANT. SO I DOUBT SHE'LL STEP ON YOUR TOES, HA HA!」

[virinosa]

Then I don't have any objections!

[screwreality]

「GREAT! WE HAVE A DEAL THEN!」

[Now Liam just has to hope Ajimu doesn't show up and go "lol quit", because he'd quit on the spot.]