#✩ ‹ ₀₀₃. I Rᴇᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ › - Operation Starfall Completion Verse

[seginbeats]

◁◁ ▐ ▌ ▷▷ Now playing. . . starter for @arvend

He’s become acutely aware of how his days seemed to be overlapping and repeating in cadence and theme; the date on his phone would remain static for three days sometimes, before springing back and restarting. When asked what was taking him so long to finish cleaning up his track for one of his grunts, Giacomo grew more and more frustrated— he finished it days ago.

It’s just that every time he tried to play it for them, static came out of the stereo system.

Seven days ago (or this morning) he was outside of Mesagoza loitering with members of the Segin Squad, apparently, but he hadn’t gotten out of bed yet today (and didn’t the next day, but yesterday hadn’t happened yet.)

The fruit punch stain on his bed sheets is nearly dried when it’s suddenly soggy as if he’d just dropped his drink everywhere.

Someone sounds like they’re talking in reverse.

When was the last time he had made a phone call? Sent a text? Tomorrow? Yesterday? Someone was supposed to get back to him about the strange illness he had been experiencing since his visit with Ortega.

He’s laying sidelining on his bed, thumbs meticulously texting the one dork who might know something about how he was feeling: Arven had used herba mystica to treat his Mabosstiff’s sickness, perhaps whatever was going on with Giacomo could be alleviated with the bitter variant.

He wipes the back of his hand across his forehead; he’s sent the text:

[Outgoing text] dude I texted you days ago when are you gonna answer

Realistically, Giacomo hadn’t reached out to Arven ever, this was the first instance of making contact; he’d briefly spoken with him after learning from Penny that a dive into Area Zero had occurred recently. Even then, neither Giacomo nor Arven made it a point to converse with one another.

A minute later.

[Outgoing text] hey man I don’t mean to be a pain in the ass but it’s been two days now.

The glimmer of the antique ring on his finger catches Giacomo’s eyes. A weird gift from Ortega, an antique that his family had kept in their splendorous collection of luxurious items and strange curious.

[Outgoing text] hello????

[seginbeats]

◁◁ ▐ ▌ ▷▷ Now playing. . . starter for @frestoniia

“So, I don’t got a clue on what we’re doing for this project,” Giacomo admitted with a grumble as he sat down next to his work partner; Professor Jacq had assigned a group project while Giacomo was busy skipping class. Supposedly, the student he had been paired up with was one of the smarter people in the program— how unfortunate to be stuck working with someone who was a flunky.

“You’re gonna have to catch me up to speed, my bad,” he apologized; at least the disinterested DJ was attempting to be decent.

“Did I hear him right? We gotta take pictures for a bio thing?”

[seginbeats]

◁◁ ▐ ▌ ▷▷ Now playing. . . Starter for @dxmesticbliss

This was, by far, the stupidest, most unnecessary, most embarrassing extra credit assignment he had undertaken, but it was either this, or flunk home economics class. Now, Giacomo did not claim to be a genius with his class work— school rarely held his attention, and so his grades suffered for it.

But wasn’t cooking class supposed to be easy?!

It was entirely his fault. After skipping class for three weeks straight, he hadn’t turned in anything for the final part of the semester. Giacomo, who realized how stupid he’d look if he failed— (because apparently Mr. Saguaro was everyone’s favorite teacher) had approached his instructor, asking him if there was anything he could do to bump up his score to a passing grade.

And now, here he was, flat face, assisting his teacher with a shopping trip.

Giacomo kept his eyes on the toes of his shoes as he walked next to the considerably taller man on his left; just act like he’s your uncle or something, and it’ll be FINE.

“. . . So where are we going first?” Giacomo eventually asked.

[seginbeats]

◁◁ ▐ ▌ ▷▷ Now playing. . . Starter for @vlvheart

“I ‘unno,” Giacomo scrubbed the back of his head with his hand, and looked to the side awkwardly. They were sitting on a bench outside of one of the many sandwich shops in Mesagoza; Cereza had noticed Giacomo’s almost melancholy attitude for the past few days, and insisted on talking to the stubborn boy about it.

Ah, but, feelings were complicated; seldom did Giacomo want to open up and discuss these things, especially when it involved familial matters. He felt awful keeping secrets from Cereza though-- he couldn't recall caring for someone outside of Team Star so much. Maybe he just didn't want her to worry so much; in Giacomo's mind, there were bigger problems in the world than his conflict with his parents.

“It ain’t that important,” Giacomo tried to deflect, despite his facial expressions giving away his disdain, “you don’t gotta worry.”

[seginbeats]

◁◁ ▐ ▌ ▷▷ Now playing. . . Starter for @tinksaton

Picture this: a teenage boy terrified of a small, elementary age child. A ridiculous notion. What's so scary about a child besides the thought of them begging to ask to play games on your phone? This is no mere child though-- no, Giacomo had one fear and one fear only: Tinkaton. And what did Poppy of the Elite Four have? A damned Tinkaton.

Giacomo was trying not to look too rude as he lingered around the Pokémon Center outside of the league; Kingambit lurked behind his trainer, eyeing the child prodigy and her fairy type beast. Would he be turned into armor for that fae of war? The steel type had no interest in finding out.

". . ." MAYBE he should challenge Poppy to a battle. What's the worst that could happen?

"Hey. Kiddo. You accept non-league challengers?"

[seginbeats]

@vlvheart is ice skating with @seginbeats: ❝ one step at a time, you'll be fine ! look at me ! ❞ cereza laughs, giving his hand a squeeze. ❝ just don't let go, i won't let you slip. ❞

"This is WAY more difficult than I thought it'd be!" Giacomo laughed as he latched onto Cereza's hands. He couldn't help the way that his knees buckled, causing him to slip and slide along the ice.

He'd never been ice skating before, but when he saw that people were gathering in the square on Christmas Eve, Giacomo wanted to create a special memory for him and Cereza. It was the first time he'd really-- felt something for someone.

And she made him feel okay enough to get out of his comfort zone.

Even as he fell onto the ice, laughter erupted, his head tilted back as he stared up at his precious little cherry love.

[seginbeats]

◁◁ ▐ ▌ ▷▷ Now playing. . . Starter for @stellanoa

“C’mon, I promise! You’re gonna love it!” Giacomo assured as he walked next to Penny down the sidewalk. It was already getting dark at the hour, but that was no problem; where they were going, it would be well lit.

“Now that you’re not busy hiding in your room and being Big Boss Cassiopeia, we get to chill and hang out and do all sorts of fun things,” he began to ramble, occasionally stopping in his stride to kick a rock on the ground. Giacomo perked his head up, paused, and grabbed onto Penny’s sleeve.

“Yeah— this is it, we’re here,” he brought a hand up, pointed and jabbed his finger as a fluorescent sign, flashing in multiple colors. And a laugh punctuated Giacomo’s words!

“This is my favorite arcade! Bet I’ll kick your ass at Galaga!”