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[isawallflower]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, CHEERYCHERRY. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 019.46.820.17 *** CHEERYCHERRY has joined 019.46.820.17 <CHEERYCHERRY> It's Riley! <CHEERYCHERRY> Please leave a message! <CHEERYCHERRY> Please be someone with their priorities sorted out properly!

main: CheeryCherry
anonymous: panthera, aed
retired: gflynn (anon)

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[digiorno]

[Oh. God, okay, well — he bends to tuck the box in his hands between two sturdy roots and reaches for the tote bag as ordered. Peering into it, he glances up at Riley uncertainly.]

You didn't have to bring two things. [Or any things. Zero things would have been preferable, from a coward's perspective.]

[isawallflower]

Did so. [ oh my god is she eighteen or eight— ] Open.

[ The bag has something pretty simple in it: A book. It's rather large, hard cover, and, should he flip through it, not just text. It's not hard to figure out what's in it, with the rather straightforward title.

Fauna of the Ryslig Peninsula Land and Sea. ]

A lot of the animals here are...pretty similar to back home for me, so I kinda figured that was the case with you too...but I took a look through that and there's some fish and birds and...all kinds of things. Since you kinda live in a Secret Garden paradise, I thought...well, maybe you'd like some ways to identify them.

[ Feels a little silly when she says it out loud, honestly. ]

[digiorno]

[If Riley feels silly, it probably won’t last long. Giorno handles the book like it’s a precious thing even before he pulls it out of the bag; there’s a moment, hand in and eyes up, when his expression transforms from curiosity to wonder. Bag hooked over one wrist, he carefully lifts the book out and lets it fall open to any page. What’s revealed is a swimming bird that’s maybe excessively fancy. He smiles down at it, though, fingers coming to rest light on the page before he glances up at Riley again.]

Thank you. [A moment’s hesitation, and then he realizes he’s got nothing at all to be embarrassed about. She gets it already, obviously. So he just huffs out a quiet laugh.] I used to do that with my spare time, you know. Sit at the library and look through books like these so I could learn to identify animals.

[And create them, but that wasn’t the impetus for his curiosity. If anything, it was the other way around. The big glossy pictures of living things he might, if he’s very lucky, catch sight of one day were a much more comforting way to spend an afternoon than at home.]

. . . I’ll make good use of this. But it’ll come back to haunt you. Next time I see you, I’ll have a lot of facts you’ll have to listen to. [That’s friendship!]

[isawallflower]

[ He likes it. Before he even says anything, she can tell he likes it. A rush of endorphins floods her, and her feathers puff out a little—how funny, that that can signal both discomfort and affection—because she did it, she's successfully gotten him something he'd like, twice, and this time she didn't dither for nearly as long, and she's only known him for about five months, not years and years and years.

This is, quite frankly, unprecedented. Yes, she remembers the other Riley from the other world getting Celeste or Haruno or Steffan or even her father birthday gifts, Nattenfest presents, various knickknacks of all sorts. But she doesn't remember the reasoning behind it. Even that Riley was unsure sometimes in if the recipient would appreciate her gifts. So this Riley? What hope did she have?

But Giorno likes it. She's almost giddy because she can tell without a doubt that Giorno likes it, no second-guessing required. The smile he looks up to is bright and shining, worthy of the nickname Eridanus adopted from their alternate selves. ] I kinda thought this'd be the sort of thing you'd appreciate.

[ Downplay it, something tells her, but she can't listen to it. Even as she tries to play it cool, it's written all over her face just how ecstatic she is, that he likes it. ]

Please tell me everything you want to. That's how I know you're getting good mileage out if it, after all~!

[ That is going to come back and haunt her. But oh well. ]