CICONIA: WHEN THEY CRY

[insinning]

It's a holy night. Silent night.

All is calm.

Everything is b r i g h t.

Comments

[dissimulative]

It's not like we have an ice pack right now, so this is good enough.

[ He smiles at Sinclair. ]

You always take care of me sooo well.

[insinning]

[ ??? Well it's a small thing so]

You're my friend. Of course I have to try.

[dissimulative]

You're so sweet.

[ Hehe. ]

Is there anything else you want to play? If not, I wanna play Tekken 1.

[insinning]

[Sweet...Sinclair will take that in stride because Oria is just Like That.]

Tekken? Yeah, lets play.

[dissimulative]

Time to play!

[ He pulls Sinclair along to the Tekken arcade machine. ]

I'm gonna get my revenge for that maimai!

[insinning]

Wha--why? You won at the bubble game.

[ Sinclair gets dragged along. And when they set up the game Oria has a chance to troll with character choices because Sinclair is confused and defenseless.]

[dissimulative]

My veteran hand still stings from its time from the war.

[ Absolutely. Oria laughs anyway and chooses King, some leopard man. ]

[insinning]

[There's only one choice for Sinclair: Kuma. Leopard man meet bear]

But I got you something nice to help with that.

[dissimulative]

[ Oria just grins while putting his really cold hand on the back of Sinclair's neck. ]

[insinning]

[SHRIEKS ]

Oria!!

[Defenseless (1) help]

[dissimulative]

Yeah. I definitely got something nice.

[ lmao

Anyway, when the round begins, he begins the ruthless barrage of attacks against Sinclair's character. ]

[insinning]

You're mean.

[ And help his poor Kuma.... he's trying to valiantly put up a good fight but with the distraction...aaaaaaa]

[dissimulative]

I'm being friendly!

[ It's really nice to have spare time to do mundane things like this that it almost makes Oria think that everything in the past has been worth for these moments.

Even Aria's death?

...

The thing about being great at P3 is how he can angst all he wants without being noticed.

He keeps up the barrage of attacks against Kuma by inputting combos one after another. Despite his sore and slightly numb yet somehow stinging palms, he taps away at the correct buttons for input. ]

Come on, you can do better than that!

[insinning]

[ It's nice distraction, isn't it? Pretending everything is normal... pretending they can have something normal together. Maybe it's not even pretending.

Sinclair scowls and tries to recover but he can't quite the first round]

...you wont get it that easy this time.

[Round two has Sinclair smashing those buttons immediately. Die leopard man!!!]

[dissimulative]

Bring it.

[ He welcomes this challenge, but Sinclair is faster with those buttons and gets to King first. Oria tries his hardest to be free himself from this combo. Free him.......... ]

[insinning]

I will.

[ Up up down down left right. The onslaught will not stop as he tries to stunlock Oria]

[dissimulative]

[ He's being so walled right now... Oria continues trying, but in the end, he's practically stun locked to death. ]

When did you learn that?

[ He laughs, looking pretty impressed. ]

[insinning]

Ummmm. Practice?

[ Sinclair is very happy with his win. Ehehehe. But the tie means round 3]

[dissimulative]

Practice, huh? You've been practicing with other people?

[ "you know other men?" vibes right here, though it isn't serious. He's trying his best to create it though. Oria thinks Sinclair should have the right to be with whoever else he wants.

Even if--

Even if... ]

You've been doing real good. Alright, let's go for round three!

[insinning]

[ There is definitely a strange tone there but it's not something Sinclair can place]

Huh? No, not at all.

[Unless 'he' counted but...he wasn't interested in these things. Time for round 3!!]

[dissimulative]

[ poor prisoner sinclair...

Oria starts inputting combos and tries to predict what Sinclair would do... rush at him? He's gonna try to grab that bear. ]

[insinning]

[he really is only allowed to leave with like two people.

Rushing seems like a bad idea this time so Sinclair has the bear jump back and above. Dodge!!! and then combo if that works]

[dissimulative]

[ Oria sometimes processes things too fast that his hands can't keep up with his thoughts. It's no problem when he has the gauntlet, but in everyday situations, everything feels so... slow.

But Sinclair really read him, didn't he? He absolutely did. King puts up a guard as soon as possible and tries to counter. ]

[insinning]

[ There is something about working together in a squad that makes it easier for Sinclair to read how Oria would act. Of course, the same would go for Oria too in return. That's probably what makes this so fun. He gets countered and counters Oria's counter in turn, health bar chipping away.

It's a coin toss for whoever wins this round even as Sinclair's hands begin to cramp on the controllers]

[dissimulative]

[ Oria's palms feel so numb, bro. It's making his fingers feel uncoordinated and he misses some inputs.

And that is why Sinclair win the tiebreaker! I flipped my phone for this ]

We really know each other too well, huh.