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[worldisyours]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, RINDO KANADE. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 4.28.13.9 *** rindragon has joined 4.28.13.9

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[familyproblem]

Not without being in the same situation.

[Gladion looks flustered to have to put it like that, and/or just generally flustered about his own discomposure. His eyes won't meet Rindo's.]

And you wouldn't know until then. [And even if it feels vaguely...naked to say it:] I didn't.

[Sip.]

[worldisyours]

[In contrast to Gladion's unease, there's actually the shadow of a smile on Rindo's face.]

Well, I can't really argue with that.

[…Not without implying that Gladion doesn't know what he's talking about. He has to wonder what makes him see this potential in him, though. It's still hard for Rindo to imagine himself doing something that daring, but it is a little nice for Gladion, specifically, to believe in him like that. It's easier to trust in the judgment of someone who knows him well and who's free of preconceptions, unlike Swallow and the others.

Speaking of which… The words tumble from his mouth before he can second-guess himself.]

You know, back home… I must've won the Reapers' Game. With Shoka and the others.

["Be happy—the Game's over! You got what you wanted!"]

And… well, I don't know how it went, exactly, but from what I heard, it had to have been pretty hard.

[He doesn't like to think about it, because the experience of having an alternative version of himself he only knows of through hearsay is, at best, weird as hell, but it's so fresh on his mind following the Coco incident that he can't really help it. And with Gladion being an outsider to everything… He's just easier to talk to, he finds.

…It's kind of ironic that he knows way more about Neku, Beat, and Joshua's involvement in the Games than his own, but it is what it is.]

[familyproblem]

[It's a surprise. This is the most positive thing he's ever heard from Rindo on the subject of his unmade memories.

...He thinks it's positive, anyways.]

See?

[It's still not the same as having done it. But it's abstract evidence, at least.]

[worldisyours]

[Maybe it's because he feels like throwing Gladion a bone for his genuine efforts to comfort him, maybe the simple act of looking after a friend in his time of need—even in these small ways—is making him feel less like an irredeemable fuckup, or maybe he doesn't want to whine about his ordinariness after Gladion's opened up about his decidedly unordinary life. Either way, when Rindo answers, he sounds… almost playful.]

Well, what if Shoka carried me and she's not telling me because she doesn't want to hurt my feelings? We don't know.

[They don't know. It really is so much more comfortable like this.]