socialcapital | [ JACKSON HEART ]

[His hopes of a convenience store dwindle as they travel. Birds may have a place in Umbra's heart, but such regular experiences as "checking for '50% off, enjoy today' merchandise likely do not.]

Still... given the time and distance, this is not so bad.

Definitely not in this part of the heart, where money was more conceptual than real - a thing that got discussed in broad strokes more than anything he had to budget about.

"This is the place?"

I think that's up to you.

Would you like to linger here for a bit?

"... It's pretty quiet."

He lets go of Satin's arm to wander a little bit further into the park.

[He follows, keeping a casual distance between them.]

Twilight usually is. It's too late for families, and too early for those who are less responsible.

"Okay, I don't mind sitting here for a bit."

He plops down on a bench and pats the empty space.

[He can't help but smile a bit at the invitation.

Delicate songbird, quotes a memory. Sure to be eaten by hawks.]

As you wish.

"We're hanging out now. No ditching me."

I did not sneak you out of that situation just to abandon you the moment you were free.

So long as you do not clearly and directly request otherwise, I will stay with you and ensure your safe and punctual return. Because no matter how much I disagree with the situation you have been placed in, what you do is important to you. The cruelty here is not in the performance, or your fans. It's in those that have booked you for stage after stage without rest.

He reaches over to squish Satin's cheeks again, thoughtfully.

"You're a funny guy. Normally caring this much would give big crazy stalker vibes but I don't really get that from you at all. And you do SEEM to actually physically exist."

[Tolerates it the same way older relatives tolerate young nieces and nephews.]

I do physically exist, and I have not stalked you. I barely know you.

"But you did sneak into my dressing room and then sneak me out by taking down a back wall, and you have really strong opinions on my tour schedule even though you baa~arely know me."

He boops Satin's nose and then pulls back into his own space.

"That makes you at the very least an extremely funny guy."

[His nose wrinkles reflexively.

Even then, there's still no anticipation in his body language as Totality moves close, and no yearning as he moves away -- just the same casual comfort he's had through the evening.]

Knowing about you doesn't mean I know you. I'm not that presumptuous.

The things you like, the things you dislike, your thoughts, the things you feel -- all the parts that make you a person are unknown to me.

There's a mild flash of the sort of irritation that normally accompanies his puffy cheeked faces. The 'wow, I'm being so charming and you're not even charmed' indignation. But he doesn't let it show!!! (it shows a little).

"I'm not very private with most of that. It's all out there in some form or another."

[It shows a little. And he is charmed by it.]

I'm not going to look "out there" when you're right here.

Edited 2026-02-24 03:48 (UTC)

"A few hours might not be enough to learn EVERYTHING about me. I- wait. Hold on. Look. Look at that. Look."

He points at a pigeon sitting on top of another bench across the way. It's comfortably puffed up so big it's basically a sphere.

The air is starting to cool. They'll soon be roosting.

[He takes in the incredibly round pigeon... and then turns his gaze to the park around them, searching.]

Wait here a moment.

[Some equally casual habit has him drop a reassuring touch on Totality's shoulder as he walks past, crouching under a pine tree no more than a stone's throw away.]

He leans forward to watch whatever Satin's doing, VERY curious about what he'll do next.

[He picks up... a pine cone. One of those ones with all the scales sealed up tight. He turns it point-down, concentrating a moment... and taps it against his palm.

The pine cone he pits back down doesn't look nearly as tightly snug as it was before.

He then repeats the process three, four, five times, before getting up and returning.]

"Pine cone...?"

[In his open palm there's a small pile of seeds.]

Pine nuts.

A bit small for us, but fine for birds. Hold out your hand?

"Oh! Are we bird bribing?"

He holds his hand out. It's covered in just as many guitar-player calluses now as Jackson's are in the current time.

[He cups his other hand beneath Totality's, providing steady support as he pours the seeds into Totality's palm.]

I choose to think of it as a fair exchange of goods for services.

"Bird wages..."

As an entertainer yourself, I hope you can understand.

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