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[girlcorrupted]

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backdated to the night of the fundraiser

[hairday]

[ Annie's a talkative girl. Steve finds himself plunging into a carefree conversation regardless of the circumstances, hours slipping by before things come to a natural conclusion. When the revelry finally subsides, a wave of guilt washes over him upon glancing at the time... as well as, he's not sure, foreboding, maybe?

Angel, he left her waiting around for so long; he's panicked but not surprised when he searches the venue from the top floor to the bottom and doesn't find her. He starts asking around. Still nothing.

Not knowing what else to do, he heads next door, back to his apartment. ]

did you head home early?



it's ok if you did i would've blown me off too
i just wanna know you're alright

[girlcorrupted]

[ In the end, Angel didn't wait around. Not heeding Jack's advice necessarily, but feeling too conflicted and all around bad to want to continue being there (though Jack did invoke some stranger danger anxiety in her on top of everything else.)

She should have told Steve, but she also didn't want to. At least the emotions of early have settled into a familiar numbness. ]

Yes, I left early. Sorry, I was tired.

[hairday]

[ Whoops, capitalization, punctuation, all that... If he's ever going to learn how to do some next level number crunching, he can't be lazy. ]

Hey, I should be the one apologizing.

[ He doesn't want to do it over this machine; it hardly feels sincere that way, but there's also no sense in not saying so right away. ]

I basically ditched you, and that really wasn't what I intended at all. I'm sorry.

[girlcorrupted]

[ She wants to believe him, she really does. But Jack's words about social contracts, about knowing better...all the things he'd said they just confirming her worries from earlier in the evening. ]

It's fine. Perhaps it would have been easier on everyone if I had stayed home for this one.


[ Still placating, even as those more paranoid thoughts aboit danger and abandonment begin to gain traction again. ]

[hairday]

Just say you're upset with me.

[ Why else would she be slapping him with that hypothetical? ]

I'm the one who did something stupid.

[girlcorrupted]

I'm not upset with you, it's more that I am being realistic. Don't worry about it, okay?

[ And the latter is what she's truly upset about. That she'd fooled herself into thinking she could have "normal." That she could leave her past behind. That Jack had been wrong about people. ]

[hairday]

[ Little hard not to worry when he's not even sure what that's supposed to mean. Realistic how? ]

Then I guess I'm just gonna have to be upset with me for you. I just wanted you to have a nice evening, and it kind of sounds like we both agree that it could've gone a lot better.

[girlcorrupted]

Angel sighs at the screen. She's so tired.

Steve, it's late.

[hairday]

[ He will acknowledge that. ]

You're right. Don't let me keep you up.
But I AM gonna make it up to you for this later.

[girlcorrupted]

Goodnight Steve.


[ Regardless of whether Steve gives Angel space after this or not, she'll make herself scarce then go offline completely from the 14th till the end of the month as she deals with the Valentines poison. ]

[hairday]

I mean it.

Sleep tight, Angel.

[ Steve is... very hard to deter when he has his mind set on something. If anything, her sparing replies do the opposite of that. There's so much he could be saying about the night of the party that he isn't, and it only makes him wonder if there are things she's carefully omitting as she taps on her own keys.

He manages to wait a day before showing up at Solsikke, which was always the plan; words on a screen are so cold, he can't settle for just writing out his thoughts. He also hasn't come alone. In his hand, there's a stuffed toy that looks like a rabbit. It's stupid, but bringing a gift makes him personally feel like less of a dipshit. And flowers were out of the question.

He knocks.

If no one answers, he'll try again another day. If she never shows, he'll leave the doll with one of her roommates, or on the doorstep, failing that. ]