hippie_ninja | IC INBOX

hippie_ninja

This is Jesus. Leave a message.

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From:

braveoff

Hey, is this Jesus? Not sure if Crais spelled your id right, but he said you could stand to meet somebody sane for a change. If that sounds familiar, my name's Drake. Might be a little late to play welcome wagon, but hit me back if you wanna.

From:

hippie_ninja

[ Someone sane sounds like exactly what he needs right now, actually ]

Hi yes, I'm Jesus. Do you care if we switch to audio?

From:

braveoff

[ The next message is audio -- Drake's voice is low and gentle-sounding, tone friendly, the accent strong but hard to pinpoint unless Jesus is very familiar with New England's regional dialects. ]

Fine by me. You wanna call for real time?

From:

hippie_ninja

Yeah, I...haven't done that yet. I keep hitting the wrong buttons.

[Technology is fairly limited where he's from.]

How do you know Crais?

From:

braveoff

No smartphones in your world? I can give you a crash course sometime, if you want. There's a learning curve. For now, I'll give you a minute to play this and then call -- two options will be on the screen, answer in a green circle and ignore in red. Just hit green to pick up, and I'll tell you how we met.

[ Exactly as described, there's a few moments between the end of the message and Jesus' phone chiming and displaying options for him. Tap the button, buddy. ]

From:

hippie_ninja

[He is frowning thoughtfully when the screen pops up with Drake's face, and then he grins. It's not magic but right now it sort of feels like it is.]

Hi.

Yeah we're using basically tin cans tied with string to communicate back home. So thanks for the walk through.

From:

braveoff

Hey. No worries, I'm just lucky to originally be from somewhere with similar tech.

So uh... geez. I met Crais almost a year ago now, when we'd all been shipped off to kinky summer camp. Which was no fun for anybody despite the potential in the description. We actually didn't get along very well at first, 'cuz like a lot of people here he found me being nice too suspicious to trust. I'm not sure when or why he realized it wasn't an act, but we got there eventually. Much to my relief, considering how protective he is of my partner.

Can I ask why he pointed me at you?

From:

hippie_ninja

Well, we were talking about contracts. About how they work here, the sort of people to look for. The people to look out for. What did he say to you?

From:

braveoff

Just that he wanted you to meet somebody sane, really. Didn't mention contracting or anything.

Any prospects yet? Maybe he wasn't a fan of who you were considering.

From:

hippie_ninja

Not yet. But I've only been here a week, and I've mostly been looking for friends. Sane friends.

[A grin, a 'well, also' kind of shrug] A few who are questionable, too.

From:

braveoff

Oh, you've got plenty of time. I suggest you take the whole grace period and get to know people -- contracts are hard to get out of. You can switch, sure, but even three months with someone that's not a good fit will suck.

Questionable how?

From:

hippie_ninja

Oh I'm not serious. [Not very.] You just find people who are enough like you that you worry, you know? Same bad habits is all.

From:

braveoff

Hah. In my experience people with the same bad habits either encourage one another and get worse or drive each other crazy enough to finally break them. You never really know which way it'll go.

Anything you're comfortable talking about? Or is that more of a third date conversation?

From:

hippie_ninja

I'm in the habit of looking for bad situations where there sometimes aren't any. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but it doesn't stop me from looking for weapons [figuratively or literally] and I keep looking for them even when I've been proven wrong.

From:

braveoff

Nobody's like that without a reason. And I'm getting a better idea of why he messaged me specifically.

From:

hippie_ninja

Why?

[He's glad Crais did. He appreciates it, and he's enjoying this conversation so far. But he doesn't know Drake well enough to understand why him.]

From:

braveoff

He knows I'm safe. And probably more important than that, I'm really patient with trust issues. People who refuse to let anybody in or drop their guard... we get it. Crais tends to win everybody over faster, but I think that's a force of personality thing.

From:

hippie_ninja

It's hard to argue with his honesty. I've never met anyone like him.

[And yes he's already very fond.]

I take it you have your issues, too. I mean- everyone does. But issues like mine.

From:

braveoff

Trust? Maybe if you squint... in my case it's more like I'm always braced for someone to fuck me over. That just doesn't stop me from doing what I can for people, but the reasons there are complicated.

From:

hippie_ninja

[Jesus is pretty sure his own reasons are bog standard, at least in a world like this one. But that's not the salient point here; he grins a little]

We need more people in the world willing to do what they can.

From:

braveoff

We do, yeah. The ratio is real skewed in most worlds, which is how you wind up either burning those few willing people out or... guys like me. I've spent the past couple years working on the self worth thing, but I think Crais still worries.

From:

hippie_ninja

Guys like you? [It's a gentle question, with a tip of a smile. He likes self-awareness. It's another thing the world needs more of.]

From:

braveoff

That might be a third date question. Let's just say when you think giving's all you're good for, eventually there's nothing left. I got a second chance to learn some balance.