irl meetups & phone

[dissimulative]

Time to touch some grass.

There is nsfw in here. Shhh.

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[insinning]

[Sinclair makes a noise of acknowledgement]

No, that's definitely Dante's job. I don't want it.

[dissimulative]

From how your coworkers seem to do as they like, it sounds like Dante is a bit of a doormat. Or maybe your coworkers are just... forces to be reckoned with.

[ The worst type match-up for Oria, to be honest. He doesn't like dealing with those kinds of people. ]

[insinning]

I think they're just forces of nature. Half of us get along pretty well, but the other half are rather...prickly.

[Polite, as always! But Oria probably picked up on that when they had run away from some of Sinclair's coworkers on that date]

They only really listen when one of the higher ups really scare them.

[dissimulative]

That must be one hell of a scary person, huh?

[ Oria coughs a little and fumbles a bit, background noise of being shuffled around is heard. He's been trying to hide out hoarse his voice sounds, but his body has had enough of that and decided to give him away. He drinks some water to soothe his throat. ]

[insinning]

Mm, you probably saw him at--

[Pausing, and trailing off as he waits for Oria to recover from his coughing fit. He hadn't been able to tell very clearly since he had been the one talking all this time but]

...what's wrong? Your voice sounds rough.

[Oria wasn't sick - otherwise he would have shown some of that during the game, like he had last week. If that's the case...]

[dissimulative]

... I was yelling a lot.

[ He's not sure if he wants to get into the topic, but he's still thinking about it. ]

[insinning]

[Aria had taken off Oria's headset. So all of that had gone down then. Something bad enough to upset Oria into yelling like this?]

At your family?

[dissimulative]

Mm.

[ ... ]

Not at Aria though, if you're thinking about how she forced the headset off me without warning. It was annoying, but I wouldn't yell at her for that.

[insinning]

No, that doesn't sound like you.

[He hums in agreement. He hadn't thought of that--but it had been an abrupt action which meant something serious had gone down.]

Your parents then? [...] Or just your mother?

[dissimulative]

My parents. They...

[ Oria pauses. It's not hesitation of whether he wants to tell Sinclair due to trust, because Oria trusts him not to tell others when it comes to his family matters. That's not the issue here. The actual issue is— ]

They found someone who is basically "my older brother". You can probably tell that hell erupted in this house.

[insinning]

[ His brow furrows in confusion, and he wishes he was with Oria now. He's familiar with families. He thinks if his parents told him he now had another older sibling, it would be---pretty ugly]

Basically 'your older brother'? How?

[dissimulative]

Apparently, I wasn't the only attempt at twins. Iria had one too, but they thought he died prematurely. We're mostly angry at my dad and my mom absolutely lost her shit.

[ It isn't a child with another woman, but lol. lmao. ]

Dad had to give him away. I don't know the details of the situation, but he was hard-pressed into giving his own kid away when he was just born, so he faked the baby's death and did just that.

[insinning]

[Having an illegitimate child probably would have been a lot less messy tbh

What the hell...Sinclair's brow furrows, as he tries to work his head around that completely messed up situation. Why would Oria's father give up his own child?]

How did the rest of your family find out?

cw (unintentional) incest

[dissimulative]

Mom plucked the hair out of Iria's hairbrush for DNA testing, because we've been looking for a cure for her blood allergy and needed to look into it further.

[ Oria sighs. He feels so anxious about spilling family secrets like this, even though he knows Sinclair is trustworthy. ]

But... there was a time when Sora, Iri's boyfriend, came over for a couple photoshoot at the fancy garden outside. I guess Iri used her brush to fix his hair and apparenrly they were fraternal twins, so they didn't look alike at all. It's... a mess. Iri fainted when she found out.

[ So tldr, Dad is some deep shit for giving a child away, Mom is ballistic about having thought she had TWO miscarriages and that the Dad gave one of their children away (and the fact that he was a SON), Iria (Iri) found that her boyfriend was her fraternal twin all this time, and Oria... well, we'll come back to that later. The least affected person is Aria, and she was too busy trying to keep everyone in line but she's meek and doesn't even have a tenth of Oria's charisma to do what she wants to do to help her family. ]

[insinning]

[ Sinclair is quiet for a moment as he processes this. It's understandable why the household would erupt in chaos. That's not news anyone would handle well. His meeting with Iria had been brief - he had spent pretty much all his time with Oria that day - but he feels sympathy for her, for their mother.

But, it's not them he's deeply worried for]

...and you? How are you holding up?

[dissimulative]

I...

[ Oria's voice trails off for a moment on the other end of the line. ]

... I saw the look in my mom's eye. She wants him back to us, and I...

[ He sounds a little muffled. ]

... might be replaced by what she wanted all along.

[insinning]

...have you spoken to her about it? Properly?

[ He wishes he could reach across the distance between them and pull Oria into a hug and not let go. Why is it that every time they find a measure of peace, something comes along to break it?]

No one could ever replace you, Oria.

[dissimulative]

I don't think we can have a proper talk in a while in this family, let alone her for a long time. It was not even the look on her face, but she just outright said it.

[ He quietly breathes out. ]

But I know what you're saying is your truth, Emil. Unfortunately, it's not everyone else's.

[insinning]

[ He can't argue with that, not when he doesn't know Oria's family that well. But he knows Oria is hurting and it bothers him a lot]

...then you should take a break from them.

[dissimulative]

... A break from my family?

[ He would sound incredulous if this wasn't Sinclair that he's talking to, so he waits to see what he'd say or suggest. ]

[insinning]

You'll be in university soon. Moving out and getting some space to prepare for that might help.

[ It's an excuse, a blatant one, but it was good enough. No one outside the family would question it]

Most teenagers are supposed to have a proper rebellious period, aren't they?

[ a soft pause]

...If you keep having to stay in the same space when no one can even look at each other, nothing will ever work out.

[dissimulative]

You know what, Emil. You're right. I haven't thought of that before because I was planning on staying home. I still need to go to business meetings and stuff, after all.

[ But... ]

Securing a residence near the school won't be a problem, but I'll have to give up on the beta earlier if that's what I decide to do. Would you be okay with that?

[insinning]

[Oh. If Oria moved out, he was basically declaring independence earlier than expected for him, wasn't he? But--]

Mm. I want you to be happy. And free from all of that. If you need to give up on the beta earlier because you've gotten busy, then, I'll just have to work out other ways to see you.

[ He is that hopelessly devoted after all]

[dissimulative]

We can still talk on the phone or leave emails... maybe I can drop by whenever I have a break. Then we can go to a skating rink and you can show me how much you improved...

[ His voice, hoarse but gentle, quiets down. ]

... I think that would be fun.

[insinning]

[ Sinclair hums in agreement]

Yeah. I could visit you too. We'll make it work.