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[hypomeneo]

"Please leave a message."

[ TEXT x VOICE x VIDEO x ACTION ]

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[text]

[antaressnipe]

[And so, a text arrives around 6pm some afternoon, a few days after Malachite's tantrum]

If you have a moment, Caster.

[hypomeneo]

I do. What can I do for you, Archer?

un: dojima.daigo

[indignitas]

While cars don't seem to be in vogue here, I have found motorcycle rentals.

[hypomeneo]

[He has not been on the back of a motorcycle in... Christ, was the last time in Iraq with Melvin over twenty years ago? Yes.. around then. Meddled with them enough to know what a sparkplug looked like, but never learned to ride. He always meant to during his days wandering from India, through the Middle East to Greece... but-

Seems like another lifetime ago. In some horrific ways... it was.]

You have? What kind of bikes do they offer?

[Still, now he's free in a way that he hasn't been in a long time. That keeps hitting him. He has time... for that.]

[text, after the third round of gembonded arrive]

[antaressnipe]

Caster.

Do you know of a Caules? Flat mentioned he might be, or might have been, a student of yours.

[hypomeneo]

[.........................

Is this regarding his Grail War? What other reason would he have to ask.]

Caules Forvedge? I do. He graduated from my classroom some time ago and we remained in contact afterwards.

I take it you know him?

i'd say im not sorry but i am; action, 4/1

[escardos]

[ one of waver's newest coats may have (definitely) gotten a bit of a change. on the back, is a patch that's something like this. yes, it was hand sewn. yes, flat learned how to sew in order to do this. because waver is the person he's closest to, he obviously gets the stupidest april fool's gift.

that's your son figure for you. ]

[hypomeneo]

[Waver's arrival is preceded by a black streak racing into the house, a black streak that suspiciously looks like a certain unfortunate cat once it actually bothers to settle down...

any moment now...

No? There goes a lamp.

Any moment no- Oh finally. It settles down to lick a paw.]

FLAT!!

Why did you ruin my coat! You're paying for a new one!

[The door bangs against the doorframe as one angry Servant storms in, sans the coat he waited forever to buy.

The cat looks around for a moment before going back to grooming. What? Me? IT'S A COINCIDENCE!]

un: acala

[indignitas]

[ An unexpectedly long message from Daigo, ]

I found Mine in town during the most recent influx of gembonded.
I don't know if I did the right thing in approaching him.
I don't think I could have stopped myself regardless.
He's the same way he was 10 years ago, all he remembers is falling from the hospital *
I didn't know how intensely he felt for me until the end.
He wanted another life so that he could be a better man for me, that was the last thing he said back then.
He feels like now is his chance.
The need to do things right this time is overwhelming.
Sometimes I look at him and all I see is death.
Sometimes I'm so gripped with fear of losing him that I can't let go of his hand.
I don't know if I've done the right thing.

[* (it was a hospital not the millenium tower, I hecked that up when he told that story woops)]

un: el-melloi_ii

[hypomeneo]

[He's going to take a minute here, because while this is not the first reunion of this nature he's had someone come to him about, this is the first time it's not been someone from his world, and he has to remind himself of that.

And ache privately because between Flat and Iskandar...]

First, what you're feeling is normal. Accept it as normal.

[Well... if his own experience is normal. That is difficult to say. Mages don't do humanity - divorced from emotional attachment and empathy - and while Waver's accepted and reluctantly embraced his, he knows he's deeply messed up on many levels and it doesn't speak well of him.]

Don't put it terms of the right thing - you've done the best you can and that's all you can do in this kind of situation, no matter what happens. These things are messy at best and they don't get better for a long while. What matters right now making sure that he is okay and you are okay in this moment, and nothing else.

[Mmm... reading that back to himself makes him feel like a hypocrite, because that's never what he says to himself, but it's what it is. The situations here, after all, are very different.]

un: archer

[antaressnipe]

Caster.

If you wish to speak on what happened, I can meet you at a location of your choosing.

[Assuming, of course, he prefers face-to-face, but that is why the frank statement has been framed in such a way; the ball is in Waver's court]

un: el-melloi-ii

[hypomeneo]

I do.

Meet me at the central marketplace in the Emerald District at three. You will find me at the fountain in the main courtyard.

[A very public place. If there's ever a sign Waver doesn't want blood...

... no blood doesn't mean he isn't angry. But it's a gesture that indicates he's willing to talk despite that.]

1/2; you can't just get pensive and tipsy at a rock wedding and text professors

[valkyriens]

Lord El-Melloi

[This is the entirety of the first message.]

[valkyriens]

Do you believe that the evolution of culture can only be represented as a flat circle?

That is, once a concept has been injected into the zeitgeist, does it ultimately become inedible?

That's surely why things are the way they are.

[She doesn't notice that she didn't write "indelible" :( ]

misfires; un: acala

[indignitas]

1/?

[hypomeneo]

[





This is horny. Who wrote this? He's drawing a blank here. All the literature he's consumed and....]

2/?

[hypomeneo]

[Daigo... FIRST OF ALL, this is going to drive him mad trying to figure out if you're quoting erotic poetry at him or composing it yourself, and for fuck's sake, he's supposed to know these things without asking and...









Is this a booty call?]

3/?

[hypomeneo]

[......



uh.]

[hypomeneo]

[UM. IS THIS REALLY MEANT FOR HIM???]

[hypomeneo]

[HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.]

[hypomeneo]

[Better question: does he get revenge for how red his face is now?

Wait, the cat is coughing up furballs. Hold that thought.]

action

[escardos]

[ to be frank, flat has never enjoyed self-defense classes. not in the clock tower and not now, even with the experience of a holy grail war under his belt.

he doesn’t see the merit of it! there’s nothing fun about just parrying punches or getting bruised up defending yourself. he can’t even do a flying kick—what’s the point if he can’t do a flying kick!?

waver has to (almost literally) drag him to the lesson…and he’ll get the rare sight of flat being annoyed, as if this were the biggest inconvenience in his life. yes, even worse than the murder attempts.

as soon as they stop, flat sits down on the ground, arms crossed against his chest defiantly like a mature 19 year old. ]

[hypomeneo]

[Frankly, Waver would have participated more directly in them until now had he not been so frail the chances he would have collapsed in a gasping pile in the middle of them were high, and so weak, he would have never made it to that point, because any of his students would have destroyed him.

That changes now. There's almost pleasure in his eyes as he regards his sulking student as he stretches. They're outside and it's a lovely late summer afternoon, with just the tiniest bite of the fall to come. Being Caster, without those bodily limitations... Waver is savoring getting to teach this far more hands on.]

Pouting isn't going to gain you anything. But if you insist on starting off this way...

[An enemy cares not for temper tantrums, after all. They're still going to come.]

text | un: unsaphir | misfire time

[semicharmed]

so

the elevator im in just broke

[hypomeneo]

[Eyebrow UP, disaster lad.]

Son, that's a job for the fire department, not me. You need the number?

10/3

[escardos]

[ throughout the week, flat does his best to keep a secret from waver. it’s difficult, considering how sharp his professor’s eyes and judgement are, but that doesn’t deter him.

it’s on the midnight of whatever equivalent of 10/3 there is in this bizarre world, that waver will find out what he was hiding.

it’s a small box on the kitchen table, wrapped neatly in wrapping paper. on it, there’s a note, written in flat’s characteristic handwriting.

Happy Birthday, Professor! Thank you for your patience and love.

[ on the back there is also some writing. ]

Mr. Daigo and Mrs. Konoha helped too :)

[ when he opens the box, he’ll see… it’s a small, vanilla cake with frosting. nothing special, nothing weird about it. it is just a homemade cake.

in the meantime, feeling like he’s done a job well done, flat snoozes. ]

[hypomeneo]

[Does he smell... baked goods?

Padding into the kitchen at midnight, cat at his heels, and following his nose a little like his other student and son, Waver comes across the box on the table. The wrapping paper is neat, the folded note a little less so, and Waver feels his eyes begin to prickle with warmth as he slowly smoothes the creases out of the paper.

Flat didn't have to go so far.

His birthday is just another day. That's the way it's always been.

But...

Carefully, he unwraps the present, taking care to not tear the paper. It's a normal frosted cake inside. Sweet smelling, with a hint of vanilla, and no hints of anything that might not belong in baked goods like dill pickle or grainy mustard. Pulling that off must have been equivalent of a labor of myth for everyone involved.

Waver fetches a fork.

There's no cake to be seen after twenty minutes. Just crumbs.

And in the morning, nursing a strong cup of coffee, Waver waits for Flat to get out of bed with a quiet, contented expression on his face.]

Thank you. That was a very tasty cake, Flat.

action;

[indignitas]

[ He really should be elated that Shaxx is back, but there's something still a little bit bittersweet to how he feels. An awareness that he's been scared and also bit unkind in his treatment of the people he cares for. It's hard to push down the sense that he's being stupid. That he knows better than to get tangled up in people; a stance he knows is hypocritical.

He puts his arms loosely around Waver's stomach, leans against his back where he's making tea. ]

I invited Shaxx to come meet you.

[ Not the first mention of his name, but never very clear about exactly who he was meant to be to him. Important, but not how much. The answer is implied in the invitation. ]

Sorry, I should have asked you first.

[ He had been uncharacteristically emotional, it had just spilled out. ]

[hypomeneo]

[Waver blinks as he sets the leaves to steep. There's a small plate of lemon cookies to the side - store sadly out of scones he'd customarily serve with tea.

He leans back a little, making a little surprised noise, even though their connection makes it clear he's curious and not upset. So close, Daigo can catch a hint of the perfume he gifted him tease at his nose.]

Mm?

[He... has never asked about Daigo's other partners. It's never been said, but it's very clear Waver doesn't have other partners of his own. Yet anyway.]

It's fine. A little unexpected, but fine. Do you have an idea when?