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[grapeeater]

"Please leave a message."

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[grapeeater]

That depends on what the question is.

[preybeforemeals]

I know someone who dealt with 'phantoms', like the ones you've dealt with. He called them something else, but the effect was the same.

I've been wondering how you've been, with regards to that.

[grapeeater]

... Somewhat better. He's keeping his distance for now.

[preybeforemeals]

I'm glad to hear that, actually.

I'm not really a professional or anything quite yet, but social work is my field of study and I have my friend who's handling something similar besides. Things like that aren't particularly strange to me, if you ever need to talk about it.

I'm not insisting that you should, given that we barely know each other, but the offer is still there, and it's something I've been wondering about with regards to you, that's all.

[grapeeater]

I see. I've never really been involved in the social sciences at all. My family focuses on business, and also biology to a lesser extent, so I'm not all that familiar with things like this.

I guess it's natural to wonder about something like that after a display like mine. I'm still sorry for being embarrassing.

[preybeforemeals]

You don't have anything to apologize to me for, amore, if it troubled me so much I wouldn't have said anything to you in the first place.

[...Tsukiyama.]

[grapeeater]

I guess that's true. You were very kind to deal with me for that whole thing. Most people wouldn't.

[He's not sure how to deal with this. How does he friends with as little deception as possible?]

[preybeforemeals]

[Awkwardly. We do it very awkwardly.]

Don't mention it; if nothing else, I like being useful to people when I can.

May I ask who it was that you were seeing? If it's something you can tell me.

[grapeeater]

[It's a few minutes before he responds. He's not sure if he wants to say anything, but eventually he does send a response.]

My brother. He's dead.

[preybeforemeals]

...I see.

[He pauses a little once that's out there; he isn't the best at empathy for this sort of thing, because death is a constant part of his reality. He knows, on some level, that everyone he kills has a family and a life outside of the purpose he sets them to, but it's not really something he can think about for too long. He's had his own period of darkness in his life regarding things like that, after all.]

For what it's worth, I'm sorry for your loss.

[grapeeater]

I don't deserve an apology for that, since I'm the one who killed him.

[It's... hard to type it. It's his responsibility, and he knew that, but... it's hard every time that he admits it. He's... pretty sure he was wrong. Takatora may have been naive, but he shouldn't have killed him. Incapacitated him, maybe.]

[preybeforemeals]

[...Ah. Well, that's...]

If you expect me to judge you harshly for that, I'm not going to.

[grapeeater]

Somehow I didn't expect you to, actually.

[He just... doesn't seem the type.]

[preybeforemeals]

I'm not easily bothered by much; I've seen and experienced a lot, to put it politely.

The fact that you're still seeing him, however...regardless of what you think you deserve, I think that fact makes the apology remain appropriate.

[grapeeater]

I guess. It sounds like him, it looks like him... but he doesn't say the same things. He's not the same person. I shouldn't even be saying that it's him, because it's not.

[preybeforemeals]

For what it's worth, I don't think you're a terrible person.

Maybe what you did was unforgivable, maybe it was justified, I don't know the situation. But as someone who's done their own share of questionable things, I don't think you're terrible as an individual.

[grapeeater]

[... Oh. That's... huh.]

Thank you. That means a lot to me. More than I think you could know, really.