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"Helloooo! You've reached Jaune Arc! If I'm not answering, it means I'm probably off somewhere fighting monsters or... doing something really awesome like saving a cat, or the president's son! You know how it is, a leader's schedule can be really hectic nowadays, ha ha! Just kidding, I'm probably in school, but I'd totally do those things if I ha-- [BEEP]"
[ TEXT | VOICE | VIDEO | ACTION ]
9/19; disaster.
...clean the whole apartment!
(In her defense, she hadn't realised how much the NPC Robot Maid Service had done until they hadn't had them anymore, and Jaune... Well, Jaune's a terrible street sweeper. Let's just get that out into the open right now.)
It doesn't take too long, even as she scours every surface with exacting surface. The oven is moved, the vacuum manuevered awkwardly behind it. Everything is taken out of the fridge as she wipes down every surface inside, and then put back in a decidedly less haphazard fashion. For instance, unlike Jaune, Pyrrha knows how to make use of the cheese compartment. Also, he had left the milk laying down for no real reason? The bathroom is scrubbed to a gleam, the common area tidied and vacuumed - later, she'll dedicate some time to putting all their video games back into the right cases - and even Pyrrha's largely ignored bedroom had been given some measure of cleaning treatment.
Jaune's bedroom is last, and Pyrrha would have left well enough alone if she didn't spend most of her nights there too. She's only at it for a few minutes before she happens upon the letter: it's tucked away, not exactly hidden but not flaunting its presence either, and Pyrrha had been about to put it aside before her eyes caught on the words.
She reads it four, maybe five times. Each time, she's aware she shouldn't - this is Jaune's, it has nothing to do with her, it's none of her business —
It's the first time she's contended with the fact that there's a world without her in it now, making her feel as insubstantial as she had the day CERES had brought her back. It's not jealousy, or the sharp hurt that comes only with betrayal, or even grief. No, it's the uncompromising honesty that Jaune has tried so hard to protect her from: that he can, and will, have a life after her.
She's gone from the apartment before he gets home, the letter left in plain sight on the kitchen table, purposefully far from where Pyrrha had discovered it. ]
audio; dis-ASS-ter
Not knowing where she is, and not at all ready to be apart from her again, especially on weird terms like this, Jaune frantically dials Pyrrha's number.
Come on, pick up!! ]
audio; sort of (but not really).
She had taken her CereVice with her, for obvious reasons, and is unsurprised when it starts to ring.
JAUNE ARC
> ᴅᴇᴄʟɪɴᴇ
> ᴀᴄᴄᴇᴘᴛ
She stares at it for a moment. After two rings, he'll hear this: Hello, you've reached Pyrrha. I'm not available right now but leave me a message and I will get back to you. ]
audio; voicemail!!!
Pyrrha?! Pyrrha, it's Jaune!! -- Obviously. I'm-- yeah, a-are you-- where are you? Pyrrha, if you're there, please, just... respond. I just need to know you're still here... please...
[ He's had too many friends disappear as it is, and he's already been through this with her once before. ]
text.
She ends up texting him her location, some five minutes after Jaune's left the voicemail. In the pleasure district, although going there has been a bad idea for a while, she had walked and walked and walked until she had found herself in the exact spot where they had emerged from ViViD some months ago.
She might be trying to find her way back, although - to what? ]
action; what a trip
And boy did he run! He takes a few seconds to catch his breath before he continues-- ]
You shouldn't be here.
[ ...Poor choice of words. He means the pleasure district specifically, knowing how bad it's gotten lately. ]
action.
She can't quite bring herself to look at him, eyes just so averted. ]
I've... begun to realise that.
[ Unlike him, Pyrrha's not talking about the pleasure district. ]
action.
...W-What do you mean?
action.
Miserably, she shakes her head. Maybe they'll always be on different pages, only able to understand one another when they aren't speaking. Silence stretches out between them, Pyrrha struggling to separate emotion from thought. ]
-- I...
[ She's feeling too much, it weighs her down, all she wants is a moment of clarity, a break from the torrent to put two words together. A shudder runs through her whole body, ribs quaking - it's a visceral moment, and an uncomfortable one: everything she's doing to keep from crying. ]
I think we need to stop pretending.
[ Just for a moment, or maybe longer -- ]
action.
[ He approaches closer, albeit slowly. Her suggestion that everything they've been doing so far can be summed up as pretending stings a little. He's aware of the reality of things all the time, even more so when she disappears like this... ]
Talk to me.
action.
You just said —
[ No, that's not right. She starts and she stops, and then tries again. ]
Jaune, eventually... you're going to go home, and your world will grow, you'll meet people, and - [ she gestures to the letter, but even then, it's a very sharp and quick gesture, hand withdrawn as if warding off a blow. ] ... You have your whole life ahead of you.
action.
[ He would have much rather died with her that night, or better yet, not let her go off at all. Either way, his existence won't be much of a happy one without her, he's known that for a while now. ]
I-I don't know what's gonna happen in the future, maybe I'll punch my ticket, too, I don't know! Just-- i-is this about what you found? [ And now he holds up the letter, in case she's not sick of looking at it yet. ]
action.
His words do sting, though. Pyrrha can't help thinking that it would be bitterly unfair if her death was answered with anything but Jaune living a happy, long life, the life she wants for him.
It's only made worse when he holds up the letter. Pyrrha swallows, ]
- that's none of my business.
action.
[ But... he scrunches the paper up for some reason, then turns his back to her as he throws it away. Far, far away. Begone, embarrassing past! ]
Tch, I should've done this a long time ago...
action.
And, unsurprisingly, she doesn't feel any better when he crumples up the letter. It doesn't make anything else she said less true, at least in Pyrrha's eyes. ]
... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been in your stuff to begin with.
action.
I just forgot to throw it out. The letter, it's... it's not what you think.
[ He doesn't blame her, though, even Jaune was fooled for a while. It wasn't a love letter that Pyrrha found, but a tangible reminder of his own naivety. ]
action.
[ Somewhat helplessly, she extends her arms outward. She believes him - as she loves him, she trusts him - but. There’s more here, emotions still weighing heavily on her neck and closing her throat. It’s worse than it had been with him and Weiss, because that had never been real. ]
… how did you feel when you first read it?
action.
How do you think I felt? [ He guesses that Pyrrha knows him well enough to imagine how he'd feel about being accepted, validated, loved... things he wanted all along, things he's had all along without realizing it at the time. ]
Things were... things were different back then. Before-- everything. ...I know how I feel now.
action.
You found what you needed, didn’t you?
[ It didn’t have to be her. It simply needs to be someone kind, someone he’s comfortable with. ]
I want you to remember that when I’m – …when we’re not together anymore.
action.
If that day comes, don't think my feelings will change.
[ Too much has happened for him to ever love anyone else. His priorities shifted on the day Pyrrha died because that was the day he really found what he needed, before he apparently lost it forever. ]
All I'll remember is you. It will always be you.
action.
[ It's the second time in her life she's ever raised her voice to him. As her shout trails off, all the metal in a thirty foot radius begins to rattle. ]
action.
"Pretending"! How can you just say that? Like-- like it doesn't matter! I know that when I'm with you, a-and what I feel for you, it's... more real than anything else out there. More than that dumb letter! And you think I'll just replace that?! Pyrrha, I--
action.
[ It's a quiet plea, desperate and low enough to be dangerous. He's skirted around the words so many times now and, each time, her answering thought has been the same: don't, no, not yet, I can't.
The rattling metal seems to subside, but there's a low, curious scraping in its place.
It's strange. Once, she would have given anything to hear these things from him.
... ] Jaune, tell me - would you still feel this way if I hadn't died? [ Grief and impossible miracles, these things could confuse his feelings - and, quite possibly, ruin the possibility of him ever healing and moving on. Pyrrha's voice is shaky, on the clear verge of tears as she struggles valiantly to keep her untidy emotions restrained for a moment, another moment, a hundred thousand little seconds where she teeters on the edge of a breakdown. ]
action.
action.
It is unfair, applying impossible differentials to their situation. Visibly, some fight leaves her stance, shoulders settling.
Quietly, brokenly: ] I'm not sure.
[ Now, that shaky threat of emotion manifests, downturned eyes becoming damp with tears. ]
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