001 — Text — UN: SHINIGAMI

[mikoshi]

[ Text only from the guy who hates calls and/or being recorded. ]

Got it — that gold-red fern that only opens up during the day? Tobacco like.

Gives you a headache first time you smoke it, but afterwards? Smooth sailing.

Bring me samples of the leaves, drier the better. Found rolling papers.

Or don't. I'm not your mom.

[ Yet despite saying that, attached comes a picture of the aforementioned plant (Sun's Lace), two samples in view: one healthy, the other dried up. ] So you gonks don't poison yourselves toking up the wrong herb.

You're welcome ᝰ🚬

Comments

[coherer]

It's not like there's one answer to that man
I got snippy and I said sorry
Hearing about the details, even if it's different from what I've seen before idk
It's rough
Nobody should have to go through that
I just didn't expect it to come outta nowhere, that's it

[mikoshi]

[ Seems to Vincent like there is a single answer, actually. ]

Okay
Sorry I got TMI
Thank you for caring

[coherer]

No no, it's okay, really
I'm all in my head about it

You're good now though?
If you don't mind me asking how does that like.....
Work

[mikoshi]

[ Isn't answering that because he really doesn't know. Is he good? This place is starting to wear on him — its people. ]

It doesn't [ Work, that is. ]

But the tumor is excised
Walking around now
So it doesn't matter

[ Might still only have six months to live, a reality he was purposely avoiding thinking about. Did these Ascendants fix the damage to his body too? Or is this just another suicide run? ]

[coherer]

Beeeeetter than the alternative though Y/N?😭
That wormhole came at the right time lol

1/2

[mikoshi]

Dunno
Might still be dying

2/2

[mikoshi]

Sorry
This is none of your business

[coherer]

Hey, it's alright
You don't have to talk about it if you don't want
I totally get it
Like more than most probably
You wanna talk about alien tobacco some more?

[mikoshi]

Yeah
Tastes peppery, earthy
Reminds me of coyote tobacco
Static taught me to forage for it
A static before we even had names for statics — a Native, Pomo tribe
Glossiest, blackest hair I've ever seen
Let me roll the dried up leaves, smoke it against my mom's wishes
"Our little secret."

[coherer]

Man that sounds tasty, I just want to smell it
Then smoke it obviously but taking a nice deep inhale
Ahhh

( daydreams about a pretty lady or man flipping their pretty hair around... sighs... )

What's a static?

[mikoshi]

This stuff's pretty close to it

The people who stay behind, unlike us nomads. Still part of our tribe
They know the land, lived in it before the corpos, before the white man showed up
Wouldn't survive without their help
They run fuel depots, gas stations, roadside inns, farms
They give us shelter, we bring them news. We buy or barter fuel, food, other goods
It's a delicate balance out here in the desert
Why scum like the Raffens gotta be put down like the dogs they are

[coherer]

So they sound cool as hell, good to know
You're used to most of the stuff out here then
Except maybe the huge raptors

What are the Raffens?
White guys??

[mikoshi]

Didn't have huge raptors but do have Raffens driving giant rigs at crazier speeds
So same shit in the end

Our outcasts
We're a chill people, but there are few things that will get you kicked out of the tribe
Rape, murder, slavery
Raffen are scum cause they prey on the weak and innocent for their own gain
They sell out their own people

There's this one band of Raffens, the Wraiths
They only travel — and attack — at night
Our caravan got raided near the Mexico border
4 AM
Had to put a bullet through one's forehead
Was sixteen

[coherer]

I am not detecting a lot of chillness from literally anything you've just texted me
js
You go 100% at all times dude

I'm really sorry that happened to you, sounds like you've had the worst life of all time
idk if that's an award you want but I'm glad you're here too if that's how things were going before you got here

Can I offer some well-meaning advice though?
Like I genuinely want you to know something that might help you out talking to people on the Theorem/alien species/etc
If you tone it down like 30% it might make you easier to talk to
Like if you bring it all down to a 7 maybe your story won't be something you feel like you need to wield in convo
It's important to you, I can feel that, but it's kinda unapproachable
Just my two cents, please ignore me if this is offside

Again, I don't mean to be a dick
If I come across as one then that's my bad to dw
But rn you are super hard to converse with
If that's by design then that's cool
I've just got a lot on my plate too and sometimes I just want to talk about tobacco
ik I signed on for this by asking you leading questions so that's my fault
Does any of this sound alright?

1/2

[mikoshi]

[ Vincent is beginning to get the distinct impression that 1) his world is particularly shitty, and people would rather not hear about it at all and 2) everyone here is fucking soft, that they pulled kids and non-combatants instead of the opposite, and they're not gonna last the winter much less a desert.

But in the name of coexistence... ]

2/2

[mikoshi]

Okay
Just superficial, shooting the shit with you
Got it

[coherer]

😯
Are you mad at me now?

( the quintessential 18-year-old question, but usually heard from a girlfriend )

[mikoshi]

No [ Isn't lying — clearly people here prefer a more detached approach. It's a wake up call if anything. ]

I'll keep things strictly professional from now on

[coherer]

We just met so like
Yeah that's probably what I'd expect for like at least the first 3 months of meeting someone?

Or at least yk
Not talking about SA, murder, headshotting guys as a teenager, bleeding from the nose bc of malignant tumours, etc....
Ease in

Anyway, I'll let you be
Pce

1/2

[mikoshi]

[ Questions he was asked. But clearly people here come from such idyllic places — or societies like Japan — where honesty is the greatest crime, because it fucks up the harmony.

How Vincent hates mentsu. Waste of fucking time. ]

2/2

[mikoshi]

Then stop asking me questions you don't want the answers to

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