softlyfalling | 2k comment question meme 🎉

CR me?

Shrike considers herself to be friends with Persephone, but would never a) express that to anyone else in those words or b) ask Persephone to confirm this because she's pretty sure that would break the spell.

Regardless, though, Persephone is probably the person she lets herself be the most candid around, just because he understands a lot of things intuitively about her. You know, #JustVoidClubThings. Being able to talk about the things that she isn't sure if she wants or fears with someone is a relief.

She wouldn't mind getting to know him a little better, but sort of gets that being a little bit at arm's length is part of who he is or has chosen to be, which is something she respects. Part of the way she expresses friendship is trying to be useful to someone, which is a little hard when both of them are trying so hard to have zero needs, but at the very least she figures she can be a quiet presence who understands.

idk i guess cr in return?

CR please?

Shrike isn't someone who goes zero to "we're friends now" very quickly but she warmed up to Cobalt pretty fast—I think both because he's friendly at just the right level to coax her a little bit out of her shell, and also because it turns out they have quite a few things in common, despite their worlds being incredibly different.

Basically, he's very comfortable for her to be around, which is a deeply rare circumstance for her that she values quite a bit. Good hug friend.

Especially after witnessing one of his more recent memories, though, and not being able to follow up, she'd like to be able to become better acquainted so that she can offer support properly. She doesn't want to overstep, because it's such a personal thing, but basically she'd like to hang out and talk more, because he's been so kind to her.

cr me back~

Cobalt likes Shrike a lot, and has pretty much from the first time they spoke. Even though they're still relatively new friends, he feels like Shrike probably understands where he's coming from a lot more than other people do. He feels a lot of solidarity with her, which is really important to him.

Cobalt has only mentioned to a few people that he's worried his home was worse than Imeeji, but Shrike has been the only person who seems to actually relate to that. She also seems to understand that feeling of "I am a soldier but I don't get any joy from it, and will avoid it if I can." Both of these are things he kind of feels weird talking about with other people, but with Shrike it feels like he can finally relax about it, because she's right there with him. It's such a relief.

Not only do they have a ton of stuff in common, Cobalt finds Shrike to be easy to be around and interesting to talk to. He'd really like to get to know her more and just... hang out sometimes. He likes her a ton.

FEELINGS ON AVANTE(S)!!!

lov avante

CARDIGAN: Cardigan doesn't want to be The Leader but Shrike has sort of slotted them into "this is my commanding officer" anyway despite everyone's best intentions. Although—getting a little more confidence has helped to even that out, I think. She admires Cardigan's sense of conviction, even if Shrike is often having a panic attack during avante meetings because of her intensely-tuned reading-the-air sensors, conversationally

GOLD: He's a good kid, who really doesn't deserve any of this, and deserves to have a nice time with his nice boyfriend. He was very helpful when she woke up in the dorm, and she's never forgotten that. She wants to find a way to help him be less stressed out, or something? Let Gold Have A Nice Day 2k19

NEMESIS: Nemesis is sort of a stubborn person, but Shrike values that in a certain sense, because she's not good at having opinions, so she looks to people who feel strongly about things to decide what to do. She also looked out for Shrike an amount, when they were first starting out, and managed to actually bring an amount of levity to her first few weeks. She just wishes she and Cardigan could find a way to get along, because it's very stressful

SHISHIOU: She has no idea what his deal is apart from the fact that he seems to be some kind of music genius who is like 99% space cadet and 1% sudden incisive laser focus, and also that he seems kind of like he could use some help on some level? She's glad he's taken to the newbies and gotten a bit of a cohort, though.

GRIFFIN: Stan Griffin for life. This has been a wild ride considering their first interaction was him busting out of his room and threatening to bash her face in, but it turns out that he's actually very sweet and wants to feel needed and necessary, which is something that she finds deeply relatable.

HARPY: Shrike finds her likable but also finds interacting directly with her uncomfortably like trying to talk to a slightly-distorted funhouse mirror version of herself, since they both tend to try and fit themselves to other people's needs. She does have a certain admiration for how straightforward Harpy is, and how willing she is to just forge ahead on things she's decided to do.

NITRO: It's been like two days but he's also asking all the uncomfortable questions about what he should think and how he should go about things (stop asking shrike what your opinions should be, she has no idea!! please let her know when you find out), but also he seems to be able to roll with the rowdy youths and seems like he's following Griffin's lead on wanting to be cohesive and taking care of each other, which is kind of unexpected but nice...

TL;DR she'd die for avante and anyone on it whenever or wherever

as she should

as we all should

ok cr, i'm curious

Shrike has been reluctant to really push interactions with John, just because he gives off such a vibe of "NERVOUS DOG, DO NOT TOUCH"—she can be sympathetic to that, since her anxiety has given her a finely-tuned urge to try and read what other people want out of an interaction.

She sort of does and doesn't get where he's coming from on trying to get away from the production and do his own thing. The Producers are awful and trying to stymie what they want seems like a reasonable and normal emotion to have, but also she is someone who takes to assignments well and has rarely had control of the direction of her life, so to a certain extent making those kinds of choices is a little alien to her.

He seems kind of lonely, to her, but she's not sure she's the best person to help with that, and she's not really sure how to get to know him better, but she hopes on some level he gets some sense of peace, eventually.

top 3 plans shrike has for her time in imeeji??

1. Consider attempting to independently want things
2. Do her best to support her unitmates
3. Figure out how the hell her personality got like this and how to like. unfuck some of that

ps: i am honestly very curious what john's impression of shrike is, so far, since he holds his cards pretty close to his vest

So, they have had very brief and perfunctory threads so far . . . And there isn't anything that immediately sets John's radar off, so he hasn't delved deep into her head. Honestly, she is just a straightforward albeit nervous person that he has chance encounters with. There isn't any strong feelings or push with her for John . . . Which is fine because he does better when people sneak under his defenses by being the self-sustainable types. Shrike is okay, and John keeps it professional. Functional.

How's she feel about Avante's reputation? It's done a lot of changing but what's her IC reading on how everyone is . . .

The funny thing is that she's not really, like... aware of avante's reputation at all? Or that they even have a reputation. She's aware that there's some bad blood from before she got here—particularly the thing with Taisho, how Cardigan is eternally pissed at Yasuragi, and how when she first arrived avante wasn't sure if anyone would protect them in games. It's just that avante doesn't really talk about the past without extreme prompting, and most of the older members don't really want to pass on their grudges. Like, Harpy asked about how they should interact with Taisho at a team meeting, and Cardigan ended the meeting and exited that conversation as fast as Cardiganly possible, and Gold and Nemesis both sort of avoided answering in specifics.

As far as how the group is right now, she is slowly beginning to understand that the unit as a whole has a lot more in common than previously anticipated, because so many of them direly want to sacrifice their own wants and needs for the whole and also have anxiety and/or depression.

What's John's take on avante's reputation?

tell me about CR, of course, but I’m also curious about specifically the “bully shrike club” emergent CR!

re: Amaranth, Shrike has the sort of admiration/fear for Amaranth that you have for someone you're pretty sure you're supposed to be like but will never actually reach the level of. That and the fact that Amaranth drops so easily into instructor/commander mode in conversation with Shrike really only makes that more of a thing.

That said, the gradual like... slide toward a more level relationship has been interesting, which I think is sort of a combination of Amaranth putting together more about Shrike's background and Shrike becoming comfortable enough just... existing... to occasionally make deadpan jokes in Amaranth's direction. And, I guess, Shrike becoming more cemented/secure in avante is a big part of this, and probably also the fact that Shrike gets along pretty well with Cardigan, lmao.

Anyway re: the Bully Shrike Club, like—I've said before that Shrike has an incredible weakness for very assertive smaller pretty people and now they've formed a power couple, but also she's incredibly flattered and terrified that she gets to sit with them in like, the Dangerous Adults Club. (Also re: that conversation, she hasn't really gotten to addressing it yet either there or elsewhere, but I think she and Cardigan both had the simultaneous revelation that the other one has. so many fears)

anyway it good

~~CR please!~~ oh wait I jumped the gun, you already did avante cr

Edited 2019-06-16 19:31 (UTC)

LISTEN FRIEND i can and will write more

An interesting thing that came up recently is that in a conversation between Cardigan, Shrike and Amaranth, Shrike admitted to being terrified at the beginning, worried about being useful to the team, dying, making missteps, etc., and Cardigan said that was a thing they, Shrike, and Griffin had in common which I think is kind of a cute and interesting overlap between those three characters :|a

Also Shrike is sort of starting to slot Griffin into "good slightly younger brother" subconsciously, because she does have a younger brother about his age that she doesn't know about yet. Griffin's better, though.

A really belated cr me???

a really belated answer to this because [lol game fallout], but!

Obviously Shrike likes Sekhmet, ahaha. She was already inclined to be kind of generally interested in what was going on with her after they ran into each other at the big information distribution thing at future is now, since her understanding of religion and cosmology mapped reasonably well to Shrike's own. Shrike's also the sort of person that really can't ignore someone else suffering or going through some shit, which was the big reason she went to find Sekhmet after seeing her on Ruby's live—Persephone came and brought her tea once when she got her first kind of fucked up memory, so she figured she'd pay it forward.

When she found out what had happened in PPP, it was a little bit of a relief actually that some other people here who are nice shy folks are also kind of fucked up inside, because she herself is still dealing with the general sense that maybe existence as a whole is Bad, actually and she should maybe put herself and everyone out of their misery if she gets the chance, which is a different but similarly alarming internal fuckery. Being afraid of oneself is relatable hahaha

Also Shrike enjoys that Sekhmet is sort of a similar personality type of quiet and easily flustered, but different in that she's very straightforward, which makes her easy for Shrike to feel comfortable with. She pretty much knows where she stands with her, but doesn't feel that in a way that's overbearing.

Also I joke that Shrike's type is small pretty people who can top the shit out of her and that... is really honestly a joke that's also the truth and applies here, because Sekhmet has that assertive side.

reverse CR, tell me things~

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