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<IBUKI> hello!! ibuki mioda here!!! ﾟ.+:｡(≧∇≦)ﾉﾟ.+:｡
<IBUKI> if you're here to talk to ibuki, leave her a message!! okay?
<IBUKI> she'll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible! ♪(ﾟ▽^*)ﾉ⌒☆
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She might or might notice that also, for once, he's not wearing the tooth. He can, uh. ...Fix the chain later. He kind of flipped out in the two minutes after sending his last network message; objects were thrown and it... became the cherry on top.
He doesn't think to be shocked that this is the first time he's seen her like this. If she's wiped out, well, he is, too.
He's about to cut in during that pause, taking a breath to get actual talking happening before she can go blubbering or whatever when --
-- she fucking punches him! And holy shit, it does knock him back - there's no resistance; he's smacked straight into an uncomprehending blur and reeling a few steps back as... - eyes pitch to a glow and widening under a low and crinkling brow with, his stance lowering and hands coming up as if he's entering a fighting stance; what the hell was that for?!
Again, she catches him before he can say anything. With a couple of rising, voiced breaths, building to a retort to bite out --
-- when oof!
Ha, this, he... he wasn't expecting it, but he's not shocked by it, either.
Nor is he... too thrilled with it, right now. He just... dead-weights at it. His arms tense but not moving, more... defensively. Like he wants to push her off. And the temptation's there, but it's being unconsciously overridden by the fact that her doing her thing is a little... reassuring, ego-restorative...
He can't... really make himself look her in the eye right now, partly out of petty spite and partly because he's in no fit mood to figure out what he'd do with what she'd be giving.
His eyes roll up and around, his head with them.
Both settle to the side.
And fix on nothing.
He shakes once under her with a simple coughed, clattering "heh" of a laugh - an expulsion of some steam.]
-- Yeahhh.
[And he holds the... tensest, tiniest smile on by a wire.
It is nothing but sardonic. Pointedly so.]
-- Lookit you havin' a whoooole lot of friends now.
And me? [A scratching, screeching pitch up and a... not dangerous, considering the circumstances, but a widening of the smile.
Sighing his way back down, along a maintained tense edge that densifies as he goes:]
Awwww IIIIII ain't nothin' special.
-- Just another ooone! [Peaking back up again. Half-assedly:] Nooot like I -- like I damn well believed you over the "best friends" thing...!
[A little... growly edge comes into that; he's getting... freshly heated up over it as he says it. Goddammit, Ibuki, why'd you have to make him... actually really care about this?]
-- Who the hell needs me?!
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[With that, she pulls back again - one hand still on his shoulder and starting to grip it, the other balled up in a fist and going down to her side - frowning hard up at him.
That -
That is the worst thing he could be trying to say to her, right now.]
Uh, I need you? Duh!? Why would Ibuki even invite you over if it's not to talk and try to make things right!?
You and me are best friends - Sonia's... Sonia's different, and Mari-chan...
[She scuffs her claws on the dirt like she needs to think of how to word this. But it's more like she just plain doesn't wanna say it.]
... Mari-chan's not Ibuki's best friend. Maybe Ibuki's her best friend, but she doesn't know anything about me, yet...
Ibuki and Mari-chan are still -
We're still strangers to each other. I don't even know anything about her yet, either!
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His brow lifts when she pauses on Mari - a bit... uneven. Skewing higher on one side than the other - hmh? Go on...
Meanwhile, he... thinks to piece things together re: Sonia? So she's like -- a girlfriend, maybe? He guesses he could get that...
And Ibuki explaining... is a relief as far as where they stand goes, but a bit of hostility stays hotly prickling under his skin.]
Auhhhh, so she's just insaaane!
[Insane like rain on your wedding day, maybe.
He... hitches a huff in. Slumps, with his nose twitching and a look askance again. It's kind of a... kind of a pouting.
In case it's some tell that he's feeling better, the light in his eyes is starting to burn down.
And he mumbles...]
...Ffffuck 'er.
Showin' up and tryin'a act like she, uhh -- ...
[He... had it, but... how was he gonna complete this thought -- ]
-- Tryin'a act like she knows ya -- ...
[A little louder and clearer the second time. With a consistent vibration of, well, mood.
And... now, with a scrape in and his eyes snapping back onto her face:]
So which is it, then -- ...
You, uhh. [BREATH.] ...You like all your friends equally?
Or you like me as much as I like you?
[Better than anyone else, is how he means, but well, uh.
She might not know that what other... two? FRIENDSHIPS he has right now are pretty shallow ones.]
1/2
Mari-chan's the most normal girl Ibuki's met, here...
[The insinuation here is that Ibuki is the weird one. Which isn't false in any sense of the word.
But that question gets a little scoff from her, like she's offended that he'd ask that. ... Because she kinda is.
Her friends are all important to her! And she does love all of them equally. It's just, well...]
... Can't believe you're makin' me get all deep on you, but Ibuki loves all of her friends equally. She just loves them all in different ways, y'know?
All her friends are special, but in different ways.
Like -
[Here, she'll step back a bit since Lucas is clearly still prickly and steamed. All three tails starting to swish with thought, ears still folded back in a way that makes her earrings look wholly uncomfortable.]
Like you and Sonia! You two are Ibuki's top best friends, but differently...!
Lucas-chan is the fun and reckless friend that Ibuki can always count on to do something exciting; you always play Ibuki's games, even though I know you probably think a lot of'em are dumb, and you gotta lot of cool stuff that you like showing me and everything.
You're Ibuki's fun and exciting best friend!
But Sonia's the opposite kinda best friend.
She's cool and calm and sweet, and she likes it when things are just nice'n easy like when we're sitting on the couch watching one of her dramas, and she's okay with listening to Ibuki talk a whole lot about nothing, and she's always ready in case Ibuki's upset. Like she's an anchor on a super rickety boat, y'know?
Plus, she's from Ibuki's class... so she knows more about Ibuki than anyone else in this whole world.
So she's like... Ibuki's cool and steady best friend.
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The whole thing.
[She looks serious. ... About the stupidest threat in the world, but it's a serious stupid threat.]
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But that's because... Ibuki's kind of his only frame of reference when it comes to girls. Zoe doesn't count, 'cause she's his fuckin' sister. And she was insane, too.
His eyes... harden a little, when she scoffs, not... really knowing what to expect.
Nnnnno, he doesn't get what's meant by "they're all special". It sounds like a... a cop-out to him. He has favorite everythings. You can have favorites between very, very different things. He's either Ibuki's favorite or he isn't.
...But...
When she goes on, he starts to relax again. A tingle of gratification - the one that he was looking for, goodness, when she says he and Sonia are his top best friends. The tug of a... an automatic, soothed smirk at his lips, his eyelids half-lowering.
He looks aside - a "casual" move - to mutter "nahhh, I don't think they're dumb" on the games bit, which, it's true, he doesn't. It's a frickin' relief to have excuses and occasions on which to just let loose and enjoy yourself.
...And, uh. It might be selective listening, but Sonia is continuing to sound like not just a friend, and so...
They're good, then.
The anger is almost all cleared. There's still an afterburn that it'll take only time to fully die, but...
He's comfortable enough right now that he... starts to settle and move up. To reach a hand out for her shoulder. Here, is this... a sign? That yyyeah, things are cleared up between them?
In the meantime, that dumb, serious threat gets an ugly snrrrk! out of him, and bubbling up off a trail of giggling:]
-- Ahhh, you're gonna have to be fast!
[Vampires are fast, too, after all!
-- A swallow and an "mmmmh -- !"]
-- But nahh, nahh...
Don't worry about it -- !
[Still working some of the rust off to a gleaming shine.]
'S long as I'm your number one!
[And with that rust worked off, extra-selling this, seriously, please pick up on how important this is to him...]
-- 'Cause you're mine -- !
[With an unspoken, un-given thumbs-up.]