voice

[lalliho]

[He's closed himself off. He thought it might help -- slow your surroundings to a standstill, and maybe everything going on inside would learn to slow as well. When he got control over himself, he could control this stupid magic of his that was given to him. He thought he'd be happy, getting back the gifts he was born into, but even with them, the storm inside had been roaring enough to keep him up night after night.

Which meant he'd been even more cut off than he'd intended.]

I can't sleep. I need to. Tell me...what to do.

[Simple as that. Just help him rest, please...]

Comments

[lalliho]

[he perks the FUCK UP]

Oh!

[He silences again so he can actually listen, and his heart feels like it's hammering against his ribs at the sudden, unexpected wave of emotion. Finnish. Unfamiliar Finnish, but even that was more familiar to him than everything else he'd been forced to come across in what feels like an eternity. He'd been dragged here from the island, and from there he'd been dragged from a place that wasn't even his home. He'd had one source to turn to for conversation. Real conversation. Now...

Pois sinä lensit avaruuteen,
niin ehkä löysit, mitä sä hait,
sammuessasi maailmaan uuteen
kirkkaamman, kauniimman loiston sä sait,
sammuessasi maailmaan uuteen
kirkkaamman, kauniimman loiston sä sait.]

...

[...Well, Dirk, your new friend looks like he's about to cry, so uhhh.]

[splinten]

[Shit. Shit did he fuck up. Did he fuck up. Lalli looks sad. He made Lalli sad. HE MADE LALLI WANT TO CRY? FUCKITY FUCK WHAT DOES HE DO]

Uh do you. Want me to change it or.

[INTERNAL SCREAMING WHAT DO YOU DO WITH CRYING PEOPLE HE DOESN'T GODDAMNED KNOW]

[lalliho]

[This is your punishment for memes, Dirk.]

Nh.

[He shakes his head quickly, but it's obvious he's not having a great time. The lyrics seem to have wound down, though, so after a deep breath to give himself time to confirm that and calm down, he gives Dirk a nod.]

You know Finnish...?

[Why else would he have a Finnish song?]

[splinten]

[HE FUCKED UP!!!!!!!]

No, I, uh... knew this band from a meme, so I checked out some of their other stuff and liked it. I only speak English.

Sorry.

[lalliho]

English...

[The way he says it, it's like the word is completely unfamiliar to him...which would be silly, since he knows Finnish, clearly, right? He gives another numb nod and finally lowers his hands again. Quite frankly, he's lost the will to hold on to it anymore.]

Oh. But you have more? Because of a meme?

[Whatever that meant.]

[splinten]

Yeah, uh, hang on...

[He has Loituma's discography so. ENJOY THAT, LALLI?]

You can tell me to shut it off if you want.

[He still has no idea what he's doing. The strangeness of how Lalli talked about English is registered but overwhelmed by this social terror.]

[lalliho]

[well this polka track is a little weird, but]

No... It's...okay. I'm fine.

[He actually sits, folding his legs in carefully, and closes his eyes to process more. Dirk might be intimidated by the awkward social situation, but Lalli apparently gives no fucks about continuing to be a sad weirdo here.]

...It's good. The Finnish. [Even if that initial one absolutely wrecked him out of nowhere, what a choice to go with, what scary lyrics.] I can listen to these.

[splinten]

[look. look he doesn't fucking speak Finnish????]

Okay. I, uh, don't have anything else in Finnish, but I can shove some folk music in English onto the mp3 player. [a pause] This kind of music is known as 'folk music.'

[lalliho]

Folk music, [he repeats like he's dead inside. Looks that way, so maybe!!!]

...Okay.

[He slides the headphones off and looks up at Dirk finally, eyes opening, but only partially.]

I'm not sleeping.

[splinten]

You're listening to it with a random dude and not tryin' to zone out.

[lalliho]

[well.





yeah.]

Does that matter...?

[?????]

[splinten]

[....]

Usually.

[lalliho]

Mmn...

[Well. His "usually" was usually different from everyone else's "usually".]

It doesn't. I don't think. It just didn't work.

[splinten]

Sorry, dude. Not sure what else to offer.

[Something about Lalli keeps catching his attention in a way that tugs on his divinity. But he doesn't know what.]

[lalliho]

[Um??? Don't look there, that's private.]

...I know.

[It's...unfortunate, but he's accepted it. Music was a bust.]

Can I still have it...? The songs.

[splinten]

Yeah, of course. It'll take me a day to get an mp3 player built, but then it's all yours. You can always add things to it too.

[lalliho]

You're...going to build the music thing...?

[witchcraft or craftsman... WITCHCRAFTSMAN]

[splinten]

Yeah. I don't have one, I've just been using my shades. [He taps them.] So I'll have to put together something for music. It shouldn't be a problem with the spare parts I've been gathering.

[lalliho]

[That makes very little sense to him, so he reaches up from his spot on the ground for...apparently he wants the glasses? Weirdo.]

[splinten]

[Dirk pauses and puts his hands over his glasses.]

I can't loan you these.

[Because he likes them. Because there are very few people he'd willingly give them to.]

[lalliho]

I don't want to borrow them, I just want to see them.

[But he'll grumpily drop his arm anyway. Ugh, this sucks. He's tired of everything.]

...What's a meme?

[splinten]

[Well. Seeing is okay. Dirk flips the shades over, which reveals a desktop background among other things.]

It's a phrase, image, behaviour, idea, or other element of culture that gets shared around at high speed by a group of people.

[lalliho]

[He reeeally wants to see with his hands, but...since he assaults people that get hands with him, maybe he should exercise some impulse control when it comes to someone else's boundaries? This involves interlocking his fingers, then hooking them under his feet. Better then outright sitting on them, clearly. And now he can focus on what the heck he's seeing...

...What is this nonsense.]

Okay? [He doesn't...really know if he understands.] That...sounds like an illness.

[splinten]

It basically is. Things are said to go 'viral' when they start spreading between rapidly.

[lalliho]

Oh. [Hidden under his feet, his hands clench.] That's terrible.

[Memes are awful and Lalli knows it even without suffering through them. Amazing.]