INBOX

[overstrain]

TERRENCE NOWELL

---

» Yo, it's Terry! Leave a message. «

---

TEXT / VIDEO / VOICE / ACTION

© EFRYNDIEL

(Note: Terry gave Kido his phone. Bought his own flipphone on 8/26!)

He has a stall set up in the market street for locating things. Feel free to thread it out with an inbox action thread or handwave it!

Comments

[overstrain]

[ "I feel like a faceless form that's only meant to mimic someone else--someone that I'm supposed to be. Me being myself got in the way of a lot of things."

He remembers writing that in one of the pages. He did forget about that for a brief moment when Kido told him that just being him is enough, but his thoughts immediately gear to overthinking again. Despite everything though, Kido still accepts him for who he is, and that's something he should never take for granted. Even if his self now is contrived of all the things opposite of what his original was supposed to be to the point it became natural for Terry to follow it.

... ]

I like... being me. Well, maybe it's more like I want to stay being me. I dunno! A lot of people didn't want me to be the way I am. So, I am fine with being me no matter who I'm with or where I am, but it doesn't erase the fact that people wanted someone else. If that was the only thing that surrounded me for a long time, it would be hard to convince myself that being me is a good thing, right?

That's why you saying that means a lot to me, Kido.

[reveilation]

[ There are a lot of people who hate themselves, hate being themselves, so the fact that Terry's so comfortable with who he is and wants to hold onto that can only be a good thing, Kido thinks to herself, but it's the former that she understands more than the latter. ]

Right... Those sorts of expectations aren't fair at all, telling somebody who they're supposed to be. Just look at the name my mom gave me. She probably wanted me to be cute and delicate... Kano's also always going on about how I'm not feminine at all. I was the opposite of all those things, and a disappointment to everybody around me.

[ She couldn't speak properly, she had a bad attitude, nothing about her mattered except the fact that she was a bastard child whose existence is a mark of her father's infidelity, and that was enough to make her scorned throughout the entire household. ]

But then I was taken in by a family of weirdos who didn't care about any of that, so I was able to learn that being me is okay. So really, I get it.

[ And so she never really corrected anything, although she's much better now than when she was little and her anger problems were even worse than they are now ]

[overstrain]

[ The name subject isn't something he wants to breach right now with himself as the main topic, so Kido will just have to keep calling Terry by Terrence for a while longer. ]

I'm glad that you were eventually able to learn that. It's nice to have someone who really understands. [ To an extent, anyway. ] That's why I never really feel alone with you around, Kido, because you get it.

[ He knows that Rei understands too, but that's left to be said face-to-face with the person at hand... The Black Cat household is basically full of "disappointment children". :( ]

Besides, I like you for who you are. That will never change. You don't need to be delicate and feminine to be cute anyway.

[reveilation]

[ god, they really are all unwanted disappointment children.......... no wonder they found each other

Kido ducks her head, hearing that, because it's one thing sort of assuming it from family that adopted her or who she otherwise grew up with, but another thing hearing it point blank that she's liked. There's that happy but embarrassed feeling again that she struggles with, all the heat caught in her hood and making her face even redder. ]

Stop talking. I don't care about being cute...

[overstrain]

[ Kido is being hella kawaii right now and Terry finds her reactions to be cute too... His bias to her is pretty close to Rei's level, to be honest. Like when Souji told him that Kido smashed his face with a glass bottle, he had dokis because that was fucking cool of Kido. lmao... ]

Fine, fine...

[ He doesn't look one bit deterred from talking, but he'll just interlace their fingers together to let Kido know what he thinks about that. ]

[reveilation]

[ asdfjlkh Terry supports Kido's violent tendencies, don't do that

He's embarrassing and Kido's embarrassed and if it were Kano or whoever else doing it just to get a rise out of her, she'd break their ribs without hesitation. But here, she only deathgrips Terry's hand to let him know what she thinks about all this, and stomps forward down the street to drag Terry along.

Until she realizes she doesn't know where the arcade is, and she glares at him like it's somehow his fault, slowing so he can take the lead again. ]

[overstrain]

[ His hand... hurts... Kido... yamete...

It's too bad that Terry matches her pace, so that he doesn't walk ahead of her or anything, but he does subtly lead her to where the arcade is supposed to be. He says nothing about how they were going the wrong way before, but it's fine. The time together is what matters more, doesn't it?! ]

Did you want to say something?

[reveilation]

[ It's called taking the scenic route, not that she was lost, yeah. ]

No. If I wanted to say something, I'd say it.

[ She absolutely does not do that, but okay. It's nothing she can put into words, anyways, that isn't already said with how hard she's gripping Terry's hand, that her hand hurts too and it's only because of that that she loosens the grip slightly. ]

Come on, let's hurry up and get there so we can play as much as we can before the arcade closes.

[ It's the perfect place for stress relief. Kido's going to blow apart so many zombie heads. ]

[overstrain]

Okay! Let's run a little.

[ He means normal speed running. He'll only become a roadrunner if it's necessary to him, and this is not one of those times.

They can shoot up bunch of zombie heads and I know Terry will fail at all DDR-genre games because he absolutely sucks at it. Also the crane game. He's bad at those too. He'll still have fun with it anyway and probably suggest to Kido to make Nekogami get the handheld console if they fail enough lmao

End thread?! ]

[reveilation]

[ lmfao Kido watches Terry fail 34598549 times at the crane game and then cheats with Nekogami because if she doesn't, that's grocery money going down the drain.

And we can end the thread! and do death things!! ]