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[monster_san]

Hello! You have reached Fuu Hououji. I may be out, or possibly engaged in a life-or-death struggle. Please leave a message and I will get back to you just as soon as I return... if I do.

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[Video]

[springintoaction]

[It's a video, but all it's showing is some park. Still hasn't got the hang of this. He should probably be getting on home considering the sun is making the last of its way towards setting, but.

All ain't right in the state of Connie.]

Hey. Are you busy?

[monster_san]

[A FOR EFFORT CONNIE... she'd remark on it, but he doesn't sound very happy so she'll forgo the gentle teasing.]

I'm not. What can I do for you, Connie-san?

[springintoaction]

Hah. I'm feeling really useless. Would you mind helping me train some more? It can be with the weird ass powers I gained or swords. Though I don't know how I'd do against a sword as big as yours.

[Seriously Fuu. That thing is bigger than HIM.]

[monster_san]

[oh no :( DON'T FEEL USELESS CONNIE THAT MAKES HER SAD.]

I'm always happy to spar--truthfully I haven't had much formal training in swordplay, so that would help me as well. [cause when your sword IS bigger than you and... most people... you kind of don't need so much training. but she'd prefer to have it.] You're far from useless.

[springintoaction]

I am a freakin' genius. [So yes, he agrees he is far from useless. What is this modesty. Still-- a pause.] But there are a lot of things back where I come from I want to finish. And if people smarter than me have been here for years and couldn't find a way to send us back there's probably no way I can do it.

[PROBABLY.]

I don't want to give up and just live here instead. If I don't go back who's going to take care of my mom?

[Sure, she's a titan now, chained up and kept immobile so she can't eat anyone. But... But she's still his mom. He wants to save her. And the rest of humanity. He hasn't forgotten that hope filled send off they'd received before leaving to retake Wall Maria. He really can't just "live" here.]

[monster_san]

[ah... yes. She had a similar conversation recently with another newcomer.]

Well... strange as it sounds, time passes differently here than at home. You would return at the moment you left, without having left anyone in the lurch. [She presses her fingers to her lips, thinking about how Utena worried about forgetting her friend.] They do quite a lot to make us feel at home. But it's hard to forget about the things you were in the middle of. People who are here for years do grow and they may think differently than if they'd grown at home, but I don't believe that means they stop worrying about where they came from.

text | MISFIRE

[khajidont]

I mean I COULD get her a video game but I feel like that's not that personal plus it's kind of her job to play them so also not as fun

I dunno, what do you think I should get her for her birthday? We talk a lot but I'm not sure what she'll really want

Think it'd be tacky to lump in Christmas and her birthday for one megagift?

[monster_san]

[It takes quite a bit of time before a reply to this happens. Fuu has been thinking about her birthday, but she didn't think anybody else was. She's stunned and honestly quite touched to get this text. In fact, she reads it a few times just to make sure he means her, but she doesn't know of any other imPorts working for Jules Joel Jefferson's magazine.

Obviously he got the wrong number, and it's quite awkward to reply when you're the person he's asking about, but she can't just ignore it. Also, she can imagine the look on his face and once she does, she can't not provoke that reaction.

Even if she won't actually see it.]

I'm not so familiar with American Christmas traditions. What's usually done when a person has a birthday in December?

[khajidont]

[sHIT]

[khajidont]

YOU SAW NOTHING

[monster_san]

I'm afraid I have, Jaime-san.

[khajidont]

I was definitely talking about a different friend

[monster_san]

Oh! I see. Which is why it's so critical that I see nothing of this communication.

[monster_san]

I'm sure this entirely different person will be very touched to know that one of her best friends remembered her birthday when she doesn't have any family here.

[khajidont]

Well. How could I forget the birthday of someone as special as the person that definitely isn't you?

Also, if you were this person, what would you want. Hypothetically speaking.

[monster_san]

That may take some thought, since you're asking me to imagine what a complete stranger would want for Christmas.

But maybe she'd like a scarf, like the one the traveler in Sojourn wears. Even if it isn't one of her favorite games, a scarf is always welcome.

[yes they're in florida it appeals to her weird sense of humor ok]

[khajidont]

That's a pretty easy present.

[khajidont]

[......]

And I'm sorry about ruining the surprise, by the way. I really wanted to get you something you weren't expecting! I have no idea how this got sent to you instead. I swear I checked twice.

[monster_san]

Don't be! I'm still surprised and I wasn't expecting anyone to get me something at all. [...] In fact I was getting ready to be sad and lonely about the whole thing. Evidently that wasn't too smart.

[khajidont]

Fuu!

You know, even if you didn't remember, you could have at least just told me. Maybe I wouldn't have had a gift ready but I could have at least taken you out for some good food

Which is like half of what birthdays are about

[monster_san]

[you can't see it, but she's laughing quite a bit behind the screen... at herself, truth be told. she's fallen into exactly the kind of fault her sister pointed out, and which she herself gets so frustrated with when she sees it in her friends.]

The cake is integral of course.

I guess it felt awkward. The idea of telling people 'by the way my birthday is soon' seemed too much like I was imposing on them.

[khajidont]

It's not imposing when we care about you!

It's a little weird being here without any close friends from home right? Because they would already know about it being your birthday. When all of us can only be friends once we meet each other here, you gotta give everyone else a headstart on knowing these things

Otherwise we'll never know!

DELIVERY

[khajidont]

[ HO HO HO, AND MERRY CHRISTMAS! Courtesy of beetlemail, Fuu will be receiving: some Japanese cooking gear & sweets as well as, of course, a BIG BAG OF SPINACH. ]

Merry Christmas, Fuu!

You'd better be SO excited about this spinach next time I see you.

-Jaime

[monster_san]

It's one of those little pieces of knowledge you take for granted. When you're a kid, all your friends learn because your parents organize the birthday party, and maybe you bring sweets to share with your classmates.

But in retrospect this like my first journey, when we had to tell each other our names, what grade we were in, blood type in case we were injured....

In that spirit, what's your birthday again? I don't want to miss it.

DELIVERY

[burnseternal]

[ For Christmas, Fuu will receive a handwoven green necklace with cream and green beading in addition to a small assortment of candles that smell of sweetpea. Slipped inside of her card are pressed flowers, and a note: ]

Dear Fuu,

A happy holiday to you, whatever you celebrate, and an even happier new year. I would like to thank you for your friendship and congratulate you on your kindness, diligence and strength of spirit. They have served you well in the past and I know they will continue serving you well years from now. Be sure never to forget it.

- Saint Walker