powerhungry | SALTBURNT

[ A NSFW-ish photo lands on his phone, long blonde hair wavy at the ends, face strategically covered by the phone — she didn't bother putting on the makeup just yet, so she's hiding it. ]

img.jpg thinking about bringing this to the pink slip next shift think ani's gonna approve?

[ A few moments later (long enough for him to question if he's the intended recipient and land on no, then decide that answering is the more merciful course of action): ]

I can't imagine it wouldn't.

[ Then, typed out in lieu of opening the picture again: ]

It suits you.

[ Username: silco. That's enough to get her heart racing a little (—what could he want?—), then come the messages that don't quite make sense until she scrolls up and sees the photo. ]

oh oh my god i'm so sorry i didn't mean to send that to you

It's alright.

[ Which is, maybe, insufficient as an answer. The kind of thing you say about a window that's been left open or when you're running late, not this kind of photo, when their connection has been ill-defined at best. ]

Unless you'd rather I wear a blindfold when I visit the Slip.

well no, i wouldn't rather that it's just there's probably a difference between you walking into the pink slip while i'm there and me invading your phone with photos ... so you like it?

[ He's— bad at this. It's one thing to understand how to balance reproach and reward, but in this setting, he falters. He couldn't say, rightly, what it is that he wants. ]

I do.

[ The two words blink back at him. Too honest by a mile. ]

What do you think of it?

[ Oh. Well, that's. Something. More than she thought she'd get from Silco, of all people. ]

it's definitely costume-y but i think it still kinda sells a fantasy? like, sexy but kind of cutesy reminds me of the cosplays i did a little bit

[ Fantasy, strangely enough, is the word that bumps him out of his daze. In another life, he'd have suspected that this might be a ploy. It still could be, but she's— not like him. Which is maybe the whole point. ]

A fantasy befitting the season, by my understanding of the holidays.

"Cosplays"?

yeah, it's a whole thing people dress for it even when they're not trying to get someone's attention oh yeah cosplays are like, when you dress up as a character? it's short for 'costume play' cosplay's pretty niche but it's also a huge thing back home, if that even makes sense do you have favorite stories? movies?

[ The instant question, floating for a moment before being squashed: and are you trying to get someone's attention? ]

I haven't yet indulged in the theater we have here.

[ Sort of a half-answer — a nod to an existence that hadn't left room for much by way of entertainment. ]

What did you dress as?

[ Questions she asks herself: am I really talking to Silco about dressing up as anime characters— ]

well i dressed up as an elf princess once and a pink nurse with this big skirt there was a character from an anime called neon genesis evangelion? it can basically be anyone, as long as you have the costume and get the right wig it's kind of a niche hobby anyway oh! halloween can have cosplays sometimes

I recall. Halloween, I mean.

[ A beat. ]

You'll have to show me, sometime.

really? i can totally do that sometime and if you come up with a character you'd like to dress up as you have to tell me

[ There's something touching about the message, not just the cheeriness of her immediate response but the suggestion in that last line, the thought that he might ever be the sort of man to be so taken with a work of fiction as to style himself after it. ]

I will.

[ Just a month ago, he might have outright refused. Yet— ]

Do you have any suggestions?

do you know castlevania? or king of fighters

Neither, as yet.

[ and now i don't check if these images existed in 2007 sssh ]

okay so for castlevania you have dracula img1.png for king of fighters you could totally be iori img2.jpg

[ a girl can dream of hex club's owner wearing that neckline ]

[ "Dracula," at least, is a concept he's passingly familiar with thanks to this place, though both pictures are a step or two more flamboyant than his usual attire — though he supposes that's the point. ]

You'll have to teach me more about both stories.

yeah def! i'm sure there will be some party that wants us to dress up again anyway thanks for talking to me about my dorky hobbies, silco :)

SALTBURNT | inbox.

misfire — post-lockdown, un: mommylonglegs

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sweats as i try to pick canons that aren't already in saltburnt

lmglkdjfg real

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🎀?