unfastens | IC INBOX (ryslig)

Bucciarati, please.

We're ruining Maya's post.

I'm not nervous and I'm not putting a toaster in my professional bathtub, end of story.

[Throughout the month of December, Fugo has slowly been placing a number of items underneath the Hill House Nattenfest tree. They are all neatly and precisely wrapped with paper featuring ugly sweaters (of course). He also fries up a large batch of struffoli and bakes some mustaccioli for the house. If you get a gift, you get a carefully-packaged portion of struffoli and mustaccioli.

Bruno's personal gift is a record player and some jazz records to play. More practically, he also gets a very lux-looking hairbrush and comb set that’s sized for his new bearpaw hands.]

[It's insanely hard to be sneaky in a house of many people, but Trish manages to slip a whole batch of gifts under the tree just prior to the eve of Nattensfest. They are wrapped in frankly awful looking wrapping paper, and vary in size depending on contents, but they all contain a box tied shut with red string that also fixes a card in place. The card itself has two sides, one adorned with a design of various cats, and the other side normally blank but now adorned with neat, tightly written cursive from La Befana, which to the Italians of the peninsula is a familiar holiday figure.

Each card has a unique message. For Bruno, it reads:

Bucciarati.

Grazie di tutto. (Thanks for everything.)

Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo.

Inside, it's sort of sparse. She knows nothing about Bruno, and there's nothing she can give the man who saved her life twice over and have it be enough, frankly. Regardless, there's a bottle of the limoncello they all helped her craft, along with a rather fancy watch. Since Bruno came with nothing, there's surely some things he misses having. Something practical and unobtrusive seemed best. Here's to the world's kindest capo.]

[from giorno, bruno receives a record player and three contemporary jazz albums, as well as a small bag containing claw files and hair clips.]

[ Late as it is, Abbacchio hands Bucciarati a wrapped square package directly, insisting he waits to open it. Inside are two records: a jazz record, chosen to the best of his ability as a man with minimal knowledge of the genre, and a record of classical pieces. Attached to the topmost slip cover is a small gift card with a handwritten note. ]

Seems you're being inundated with music… anyway I hope these are to your liking. Maybe if they aren't awful, we can listen together sometime. Hell, if they are awful, we can still do that but then you have to tell me why they're so bad.

[ Neither one of them had set out to intentionally hurt the other but they both had; whether it was with words or with actions, they had reached a critical point, between all the bad news and the emotion that came with it, and old wounds had been needled at unintentionally by Bucciarati's words until they were left raw and bleeding, where Abbacchio simply had to say enough, for both their sakes.

And so Abbacchio spent the next two days barely sleeping, analysing the conversation he'd had with Bucciarati from every possible angle he could before coming to a single conclusion; in his hurt and his grief, he might have over-exaggerated in some of his reactions.

He understands that Bucciarati was doing what he saw as the right and just thing to do; Abbacchio had agreed with him then – still does, even now, after everything, after he's given himself a chance to reassess his own feelings on the matter. He doesn't like it, doesn't expect that he ever will; nor that he's supposed to. The outcome was awful for all of them at the end of the day, but they did what they had to do.

It's halfway through the third day of ruminating (of moping and isolating himself in his own self-pity) that he hauls himself up out of the bed that he's made for himself, both literally and figuratively. He washes in an effort to look halfway decent; throws on some clean clothes, and stares himself down in his mirror for a good five minutes while he brushes his teeth twice for good measure, before he finally unlocks his own door and heads out into the hallway between his own room and Bucciarati's.

As much as he wants to delay the inevitable, he doesn't loiter around in the hallway. Padding quietly over towards Bucciarati's door, he knocks softly against it – whether that's because he doesn't want to disturb the man inside or is hoping, foolishly, that Bucciarati won't hear his knock if he's inside.

If Bucciarati does greet Abbacchio, he'll be met with tired, bloodshot eyes (whether from lack of sleep, or otherwise), and the overall demeanour of a man who is struggling to grapple with his own conflicted feelings. ]

i have some insignificant but still positive news for you.

bucciarati.

bucciarati i'm losing my fucking mind here.
between everyone's stupid depressing bullshit and drama that
wont. shut. up.

there's someone making fugo anxious? and narancia. because of course. of course narancia was brought up.
why am i even telling you this you already know.

i can't
i need a fucking drink. or several. i don't want to be conscious.
you can join me or not but i figure you at least deserve the right to know that's where i'm at.

It's gotta be random, right? There's no other reason Trish would be a bear like Bucciarati.
What does she have in common with Bucciarati? I can't really think of... wait I guess they're both pretty hardworking.
But that still doesn't make sense, because so was the Boss.

Why am *I* a zombie deer, anyway? It has to be random, because if it's not, then it's what... a joke on how I look? on how I died?
But if it was really random, would I feel different as a demon? Because I kind of do, when I think of it.
Not a bad kind of different, just... different.

Man, I'm not sending this anywhere, am I?
I can't wait for the network to go back to normal. I don't know if the Boss can take another day of this.

[ After watching (and destroying) a tape of the broadcast, Bucciarati is the first person Abbacchio seeks out—and for once it's strictly business. He has the decency at least, to catch him in the early evening on his way out of the house, though Abbacchio is noticeably staying out of what little sunlight is remaining. ]

Bucciarati, do you have a minute to talk? It's about the position I hold at the Lucky 38.

[A few days ago, something happened with the televisions. Fugo himself doesn't entirely understand why or what happened, only the results: a large number of his friends disappeared into static. And the only sign that they are still alive-- if not well-- are the shows and movies that have slipped in among the regular broadcasts.

Part of Fugo itches to investigate. But he has to set that urge aside: with so many of the other monster volunteers absent, the orphanage has to be his number one priority. He explained as much to Bruno, Abbacchio, and Reira before he left: I need to make sure they're safe. I'll come back once everything has gone back to normal. I'll make sure to regularly check in. Send me a message if you need anything. And, as promised, he has sent several check-in messages. This one is ... a little different.]

Bucciarati, I have a favor to ask. Technically two favors, but you could accomplish the first at the same time as the second.

1) Would you mind bringing me some more clothes? I thought I had enough to last the week, but I underestimated how messy children can be with less people around to help wrangle them.

2) Would you be willing to take on a few hours of the night shit for the next few days here at the orphanage? Things have been very quiet so far, if busy given the lack of staff, but I would appreciate having someone on call during the night hours. There's a television in one of the staff rooms, so this wouldn't interfere with you keeping an eye on the broadcasts.

<Zigazigah>

Happy Nattenmas!

una lettera di nattensfest per te

nattensfest 2021.

an extremely belated nattenfest gift

action | backdated to dec. 22nd!

beginning february; <harmonia>

<abbacchio>

<purplepiper>

action, day after the broadcast

sometime during the tv event! 1/2