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[snizier]

tba!

Comments

[snizier]

[😶...



...🧍...]











It's fine, I'll just do it

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

aw its ok! i bet theres someone around here whos doing that as their job or something

[snizier]

Have you even handled money before? It's simpler for everyone if I do it. I already know how

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

haha not really! but this would be a good opportunity to practice!

[snizier]

If you're going to insist on this then at least I'm coming with you

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

aw thanks jamil! you dont have to do that!

[snizier]

I do if you don't want to get ripped off. If you won't just let me do it for you then at least let me make sure it's not a disaster

[He's sure there are some parasites in town who would take one whiff of Kalim's rich boy naivete and upcharge him out the ear while he hangs onto their every word. It's guaranteed to happen. Jamil knows how these types work.]

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

oh i guess youre right...i need to be more careful about that stuff now huh :(

[snizier]

You've ALWAYS needed to be careful about it. Now you just have less you can afford to lose

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

ha ha cmon jamil i dont think it really mattered back home if i paid too much for a hair cut!

[snizier]

[well obviously not since the Asims just have people come to their estate anyway, but...]

It's the principle of the thing
Letting your guard down is how people take advantage of you
Anyway I'll come along so it doesn't matter

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

[ Kalim doesn't really care if someone takes advantage of him, as long as what they're taking is something it doesn't bother him to lose. Honestly it's kind of nice! Reassuring, to be able to easily provide whatever someone is trying to con him out of. The principle of the thing is not something he's concerned with in the least here.

Buuuut he's pretty sure this is the kind of thing that Jamil thinks makes him an idiot, and he doesn't want to make Jamil annoyed with him when he just offered to help. It is true that he needs to make sure that doesn't happen to him here, besides. ]

ok! i appreciate it :)

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

hey jamil great news vil says he can do it!
so you dont have to come along!
buuut he said he could trim yours too if you need it :)

[snizier]

WHAT???? Just let me do it then!!

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

[ Kalim stares at his phone for a second, and then takes a long moment to groan into his pillow. He's been trying so hard to ignore this! ]

what??? i KNOW you hate it!

[snizier]

I told you I'd do it so I'll do it. If you're just going to have someone do it for free anyway what's the point in asking someone else?

[Not even Jamil understands why he's so mad about this.]

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

so that you dont have to do it!
its not like its your job anymore! you get to do what you want here and i know you dont want to do stuff like that!

[snizier]

[Well, there it is. Kalim came out and directly referenced the conversation Jamil has been trying to pretend he doesn't remember for weeks, and there's no getting around it now. Jamil stares at the screen, frozen. Should he play dumb? It's the obvious, easy thing to do, but the thought of reenacting that moment feels excruciating.

He could hold his ground and argue that Kalim can't actually fire him. Kalim would probably listen to him, eventually, because he always does. Maybe. But the problem is that Jamil can't actually think of a good argument. There isn't really a good reason for them to keep up their family's little arrangement while in a literal other dimension, and Jamil isn't even sure why he's so desperate to hold onto it in the first place. Kalim will want to know why, and Jamil does not have an answer. He is a little terrified of trying to find that answer.

So he's stuck, wavering, between two horrible options. Time ticks on with his thoughts frozen and only his pounding heart to remind him the world is still turning. Like a coward he lets the choice be made for him.]

(Read XX:XX AM)

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

[ Kalim waits for a response for a pretty long time. When it becomes clear he isn't getting one, though, it feels like...permission to just keep talking. ]

i dont get it jamil
i know you dont like me! i know youd be happier if we never talked again
thats what it was like in the future!
i wanted to make sure it doesnt happen like that but you get mad no matter what i do
i dont know what you want.
please just tell me and ill do it.

[snizier]

[He doesn't know what he was expecting. That Kalim would assume he'd fallen asleep and leave him alone, maybe. As if there was any way.

Guilt stabs through Jamil at every message Kalim sends without a response and that in turn makes him want to throw the phone against the wall in anger. Jamil doesn't have a fucking answer for him! He doesn't know what to tell Kalim because he doesn't have words to describe the howling pit that opens in his stomach whenever he thinks about being fired.

He almost still doesn't answer Kalim back. He almost makes himself fall into fitful, anxious sleep for real and let himself deal with it in the morning. But his own guilty conscience won't let him--since when does he have one of those anyway!--so he owes Kalim something. He does. He can at least admit that he doesn't have anything to give.

It still takes him a really long time to send, because he sucks.]

I don't know

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

[ Kalim doesn't know what kind of response he was actually expecting to get – if any – but it absolutely wasn't that. The notification jerks him out of something that wasn't going to be sleep any time soon, and he rubs his eyes and just stares at the message for a while, trying to fit it into his understanding of the world. On some level it's kind of a relief – that maybe this makes as little sense to Jamil as it does to him, that maybe he hasn't been misunderstanding everything SO grotesquely that he missed an obvious explanation – but also, it's kind of terrifying. Jamil always knows what he's doing. Doesn't he?

Well... Perhaps not.

Kalim doesn't send a message back. Instead, a few minutes later, there's a knock on Jamil's door. ]

[snizier]

[Jamil tenses as soon as he hears the knock. He'd hoped Kalim would be satisfied with keeping things to text where Jamil is a bit better able to compose himself, but it's not like he deserves any better. It's still really tempting to just leave him hanging.

After several moments Jamil hauls himself to the door, feeling like lead, running their text conversation back over in his mind as he goes. Honestly--he hasn't given that much away. Kalim is here in person precisely because what Jamil said was really ambiguous. There's a chance he can still salvage this with his dignity intact.

That's what he tells himself as he finally wrenches the door open. Even so, he still can't quite look Kalim in the eyes.]

Kalim, it's the middle of the night.

[Like they hadn't just been texting 🙄]

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

Kalim gazes up at him wetly. His makeup, which he evidently forgot to take off before going to bed, is smudged, and he looks troubled and perplexed – but also, unfortunately, determined.

And he's going to just ignore that remark. Who cares if it's the middle of the night? If Jamil can text him then he can talk to him where Kalim can look him in the face. Kalim knows he's no good at reading between the lines, but it's even harder over text.

"Jamil... Do you want to cut my hair?"

He says it almost bitterly – like he's hoping the idea will offend Jamil enough that he'll have no choice but to admit what's actually going on with him.

SOME TIME LATER

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

hey
i AM going to bed i promise but i just wanted to tell you
its not totally impossible ok
even if its just here
you know back when all that weird time stuff was happening
for a while i was in like the future
or a future i guess. where everyone was really happy
i mean it was for pretty messed up reasons haha but still
anyway i met the future me and you there. and they hadnt talked for ages
for years
i wasnt going to tell you about it haha sorry!
thats why i was asking about the beard thing though. older you had a pretty neat beard
so
i think if you really wanted you could do your own thing and look really cool doing it!

[snizier]

[These, Jamil does leave for the morning. He's tired out enough from all that mess, he doesn't have the energy left to puzzle out whatever nonsense Kalim is talking about now.

Honestly, in the morning, it isn't any clearer what Kalim means by it.]

Why is this so important to you.