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 Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2024 4:13 am
Meeting his parents for lunch never got any easier, in Baz’s experience. Not that they tried to be stressful, because he knew that none of them tried that. Neither his father nor his dad ever wanted to stress him out. His mom didn’t want that either, nor did Aunt Mina. It was just Baz’s little personal thing that he had to concern himself with and nobody who knew him IRL actually understood it. Not that he’d really given them a chance to understand it, but even without having done so, he knew that they wouldn’t get it. Parents didn’t understand things they didn’t want to understand, such as their children having things they could improve upon about themselves that didn’t line up with what the parents envisioned themselves.
Based on some of the things Baz had read about happening to some of his friends online, it was unquestionably in his best interests to never let his parents find out about this specific little personal thing, either. Some parents sent their kids away about things like this. Temporarily, yes, but sending them to places where people actively got paid to not understand why somebody had personal rules and plans that they stuck to? Or why they dedicated themselves to honing their sense of self-discipline? Thanks, but Baz wanted none of that, and his parents could have taken the matter out of his hands. Even if he wasn’t a minor anymore, they did still pay for most things in his life and Baz knew that he didn’t currently make enough in art commissions to cover rent on the townhouse, much less anything else.
Thankfully, Dad was on another diet, and whatever this one was, it made him predisposed to take Baz’s choice of spinach salad as a gesture of solidarity or……something like that. As if Baz had not been the one child out of seven who hadn’t ever put up a fuss about spinach.
That interpretation of his choices, however, had not gotten him out of another discussion of how much his parents wished that he had someone to stay at the townhouse with him. Friends, they meant, for the most part. Or a boyfriend, if things shook out that way. But mostly, they meant friends, and allegedly, they wanted this for him because they worried about him living on his own. Baz didn’t think he could begrudge them that, but having to talk about it all with them put him in a strange mood that lingered well into the afternoon. Even by the time he was picking up drinks for himself and Vesuvianite, it hadn’t dissipated.
Still, he did pick up the drinks—a hot green tea for himself, and a strawberry iced-tea lemonade for Vesuvianite—at a little shop near the park where they’d agreed to meet up for a patrol. After powering up in an alley, Ilmari made his way toward the statue of some long-dead town founder of something. He hoped Vesuvianite would already be there. Needing to wait alone for too long sounded like Hell right now.
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2024 2:04 pm
Vesuvianite needed a long, long break, he thought. No, that wasn't true. They were really settling into this whole magical world thing these days. They felt really, really good. Life, for once, was working out in his favor, and he was excited to see what would come next. Maybe promotion to Captain, soon? getting the ability to travel to Negaspace by themself would be lovely and so would the teleportation, they thought. Putting that aside, though, he sildled up to the statue of some old fart or another that he didn't actually care about to wait for his friend. Shortly after he'd arrived, he sensed the aura and looked up. "Ilmari!" they said, lifting their hand in greeting. "Hey, good to see you."
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Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 10:14 pm
Oh, thank god, Vesuvianite was already at their meeting place. Ilmari didn’t try to hide the relief in his smile as he got closer and held out the strawberry iced tea-lemonade for his friend to take. “Likewise with yourself,” he said, waiting for Vesuvianite to be ready before they could head further into the park and start patrolling. “Waiting here with only my thoughts for company sounded extremely tedious. I’d much rather spend the time with somebody else.”
—Which, on consideration, might have been part of the reason why Baz’s parents were being so insistent about him finding a roommate, or a boyfriend, or, like, somebody who could live at the townhouse with him. Then again, there might just as easily have been other reasons for their dedication to that cause. They’d made him take a gap year before letting him start at DCU, too, and they’d cited concerns about him working himself too hard. Getting them to cover the costs of Mandarin classes so he wouldn’t get rusty had taken far more wheedling than Baz had felt entirely necessary, especially in light of how important it was, in this day and age, to speak or at least read more than one language.
Or maybe they suspected that something else might have been an issue……but Ilmari didn’t think that was entirely likely. True, he had gotten swept off his feet very easily when the kosopod queen had destroyed part of the space museum (something that had not happened to plenty of other people present that night). Yes, he thought back on that incident fondly. Injuries aside, being swept away so easily had given Ilmari a very pleasant little buzz in his brain. While it didn’t hit as hard, now, the memory of that buzz still offered something nice.
“But what about you,” Ilmari said, casually starting to drain energy off civilians as they walked (going one at a time because he had to). “Have things been going well for you?”
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Posted: Sun Aug 04, 2024 11:57 am
"I used to prefer being alone," Vesuvianite said after a few moments of thinking. "Then... I became part of the Negaverse. My life is very different, now. More friends. I can still handle being alone, of course, but I'm much happier." They realized that Ilmari had been draining bits and pieces of energy off people as they passed and started to do so as well. Might as well combine activities, after all. The more Vesuvianite got, the more likely it was that he'd be promoted to captain. And he needed this promotion. Needed to be needed. Wanted to help, direct power, that sort of thing. Have some more independence in his choices. "I think my career is going well," they continued. "As for my personal life, well... I don't hang out with many people outside the office, as it were? Not outside of our business clothes, at any rate. But I might have to reconsider that. I do like going to the movies and that kind of stuff. Might be fun."
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Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2024 2:42 pm
It almost certainly wasn’t what Vesuvianite had intended, but the mention of their allegiance to the Negaverse made Ilmari look around for someone he could start draining. A nice walk in the park was all well and good—though any walking he did as Ilmari never counted toward his daily steps overall, at least not according to anything he used to monitor such things as a civilian—but they were out here to gather energy, too. It wasn’t as though the Negaverse could simply function without harvested energy, after all.
But draining energy off of one civilian as they walked, and then another, and then another, and so on, didn’t mean that Ilmari didn’t listen to his friend. That would’ve been rude. “I’ve always been sort of a people person,” he conceded, which was mostly true.… Ilmari personally thought it was true of him: he liked being around people, and he liked it when people liked him. He just also enjoyed having his own space without anybody being able to pry too much where he didn’t want them prying, or kick him out of the house (or the dormitory) because they wanted to have sex. “But it’s still much nicer with the Negaverse. Having a team for support is something that I don’t want to take for granted.”
It certainly helped with learning his way around the ropes, which was good. The team was important and Ilmari didn’t want to make them look stupid.
“And, uh……” This was such an awkward segue. But, then, it was awkward and weird, how much Baz’s parents cared about this. “I don’t know what your living situation is? But if you ever need a place to stay? Or want a roommate for any reason? There’s plenty of room at my place. I have a nice townhouse all to myself right now, and teammates get first dibs on rooms. If you ever need one. Or want one.”
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Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2024 1:33 pm
"Oh, God, yeah, having people you know you can trust is a blessing," Vesuvianite agreed, rolling his neck and grimacing at the series of very concerning cracks that emitted from his bones. He paused for a moment at the offer—well, if he wanted to live somewhere for free, there were the Negaverse barracks... but that also seemed pretty lame, and while he was dedicating himself to the Negaverse and its mission, uh, no, he still had a life outside that, and he didn't want to seemingly give it up—he knew he'd somehow just retreat into it there permanently. Their work persona. And they didn't want to lose themself. Not when they were still figuring that out, some days. Buuuut... Going halfsies on rent with someone cool like Ilmari didn't sound so bad. And there was no need to hide any weird s**t from his roommate in that case. "I'll take those first dips," they said with a half-grin. "It'd be nice to split bills with someone and also not try to hide that I'm secretly some weird-a** Spiderman."
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Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2024 1:44 pm
—Oh!! Ilmari hadn’t really known what to expect when putting the offer out there for Vesuvianite, but he perked up and smiled brightly at the affirmative response. Yes, he should have paid a bit more attention to draining energy like they were out here to do, but hearing that Vesuvianite did want to move in? That was exciting. It was distracting. But in a very good way that Ilmari hoped wouldn’t be held against him if any senior officers were to come out of the woodwork right now and ask what he and Vesuvianite were doing.
“You would make a good Spiderman,” Ilmari said with a bit of a giggle, “but not having to hide anything does make things better, I imagine. And whatever help you might need with the move itself, consider me available to help. We might need to schedule around classes, when next semester starts, but I should still be able to make time to help.”
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Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2024 1:48 pm
"Yeah, I figure why not, my lease is up next month anyway." They laughed a bit, giving a half-shrug. "I don't know if I'd be Spiderman, though.Is there even some kind of... fire or lava type hero? That's not Lavagirl, anyway." They laughed again at their own joke. "We can totally figure out a schedule. I'll give you my number when we get off—maybe we can have dinner at some open-late diner."
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