Mask or Menace ☂ IC Phone Post

[numberthree]

INBOX Voice | Text | Call | Video | Surprise Me A flat computer automated voice comes on and states in monotone: "This is the voicemail box for Allison Hargreeves. Leave a message at the beep."

Luther

Diego

Klaus

Five

Ben

Vanya

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[numberthree]

[ Of course, she remembers him. She's probably played the recording of their shot conversation far too many times in the middle of the night. Poured over words about a little girl who isn't her daughter. Half-memorized it, and the shape of his mouth saying the words—his alarmed expression.

But the rest. Allison stares at it. Surprised. Intrigued. And, then, like the other shoe dropping; guilty. Conflicted. Wondering, despite any first lift to reading the words, if Luther feels like he has to take her with him now. Like some other part of that promise, she threw back in his face, that he's tirelessly tried to find ways to keep. Even around her leaving for half a week and Diego.

Her thumb hovers for way too long before she decides to go with that. ]

You know you don't have to take me, right?
You can just go and have a good time with your friends.

[obediences]

[ And somewhere in all that, he wouldn't ever have considered this as a reason for trepidation or hesitation from her. If they'd turned on their cameras, she'd have seen that confused crinkle in his brow. ]

What? No, I want to. You're like the only person I'd ever want to bring anywhere.
And it's probably going to be a bunch of people I don't know and a bunch of kids and I'm not used to parties, so if I can have someone I know there, who I can talk to. That'll be better.

[ He doesn't outright say I'm nervous or I'm anxious about it, but. It's there. ]

[numberthree]

[ Something in her chest tightens almost too sharply at that third sentence, and yet at the same time, catches like an anchor edge under the bottom of her breastbone and jerking upward. Before it (that statement; those words; that he said she) is the next line, buried under stacking details and explanations that take it and make it something more normal. Even convenient. A request for help in not so many words.

When the sore struck spot shifts toward unexpected fondness,
making her shake her head at her device. ]

I suppose I have to come along, then, and save you.

[ The dots stop.

Then, about two seconds later, they start again .]

Are there any other instructions? Things we need to bring?

[obediences]

Yes, please.

[ ugh now he's grinning like an idiot at his communicator ]

He's cooking, but we can bring food or drinks, apparently. He's never had a Christmas dinner either so he's figuring things out as he goes along.


It'll be my first one, too.

[numberthree]

Well, there are all the normal options.
Flowers, wine, some kind of delightfully too-rich dessert.




[ Maybe not wine. ] How old are these kids?
[ Cider? Eggnog? Some kind of Christmas-y virgin-mixed drink? ]

[obediences]

...Y'know, I don't actually know. Late teens? Early twenties? Kaneki looks young, but I'm bad at judging ages. Dessert is probably a good option, though. Everybody likes dessert, right?

[ One of his few #treatyoself indulgences, in all of life. ]

[numberthree]

[ Allison has some thoughts on that, but at the same time, it's not like all the people around Luther are Kaneki's age. And this place didn't seem to have much where it came to limiting how young or old someone could be when they were taken. ] Everyone sane, at least.

[obediences]

[ It's a complicated thing. A friendship built on a similarity so much more fundamental and wrenching than the simpler similarity of being of an age — although she doesn't know the original connection, can't know it. And maybe he's started to become something of an older brother slash surrogate father figure to the kid, too, and Luther doesn't even realise that, either. ]

Speaking of. What's your favourite dessert?

[ He's assuming she must've accrued other, more complicated, tastes in the past decade-plus. Something besides ice cream. He still remembers her choices for last year's birthday party — because of course he remembers everything about her — but Allison in catering party-planning mode didn't necessarily mean the same treats she would've chosen for herself. ]

[numberthree]

There are several. It depends on my mood at the time.

[ And the time of year, like right now. And whether it even existed where she was, like in Dallas, and in this place. ]

Cookies usually go over well, and there are a lot of Christmas varieties out there. Mints, and candy cane, and gingerbread, etc. There's a little coffee shop and patisserie Harry and I went to from time to time. I could give them a call and see if they do catering dozens, too.

[obediences]

That sounds good.

Should we bring anything else besides contributing to the snacks? Like, Christmas presents? Is that a thing people do even if they don't know each other all that well?

[ What is the etiquette! He does not know! Even the Hargreeves hadn't gifted each other anything last year, even when it was all of them. ]

[numberthree]

Maybe, maybe not.

Host gifts are a normal thing, and holiday gifts for friends.

But if you don't know him well enough to have any idea what to get, it's probably fine to come without, too, since you will still be bringing something for the tables. If it bugs you not to, you could always try to pay attention to what he talks about that night and send a gift afterward, between the dinner and Christmas itself.

[obediences]

He's a reader, so I've got a few ideas on what I could get. But yeah, okay, that's a good idea. I can gather more data and intel first and then follow up on it later.

[ luther....... ]

[numberthree]

[ Allison rolles her eyes, but there's a fond quirk to her mouth. ]

Try to remember he's a friend. Not a mission.

[obediences]

Duly noted.

And-- thanks, for being up for it. I'll pass on the info once I get a more specific address, time, and date.

[ Still sounds a bit like a mission, but at least less than before? ]

[numberthree]

[ It's, oddly enough, the first thing that makes her go back to think about that part again. Luther asking her to accompany him. Luther saying it wasn't an obligation. Luther saying. Her thumb hovered, but she didn't scroll back up to that. (Not yet.) ]

Sure. I'll keep thinking on it and tell you when I get home if I come up with anything else.