standalonehuman | Recolle IC Inbox

Almost as if a switch has flipped in his brain, James's anxious moroseness becomes loud agitation. He suddenly leans forward, glares at Togusa, and begins waving his hand accusatively at Togusa, but then at the empty space on his left side. Contrary to the quiet tone he'd been taking, he is now raising his voice.

"Oh yeah? What the hell kind of 'explanation' could you possibly help with? How could you possibly explain to anyone a decent reason for why I'm suddenly an amputee and how my arm is fully healed in one day?"

By the time he's done, he's yelling.

Somehow, it's better. Seeing James' usual temper come out, the indication that he's still in there actually gives Togusa some relief. "Good. You're not giving up."

Togusa's gaze stays firm, a little angry, himself, and he breathes out sharply. "I don't know yet! But either way, some story needs to get attached to this, and I'm not leaving you to deal with it alone." He's scared to go home, the thought of what his own family would say has to be the most frightening part of all of this.

Togusa swallows hard. "The- healing part, it turns out, that might be the easiest to explain, though. Somehow the local hospital has a surgical option, something from the other Togusa's memories. We can say you got that."

James tries to cross his arms, but of course only manages to shove his forearm against his chest. He gives up on it with a tense, angry flourish. "God damn it."

He forces himself to exhale. "What are you saying, that there is actually a way they could've done surgery on me and fully healed it in less than a day?" This sounds like complete bull.

"No." Togusa shakes his head firmly. "However they're doing this, it's not stealth-surgery. They would have had to do a lot more to remove the arm, themselves. It's more of that unreality bullshit. Push one button, give everybody superpowers. Push another, take away somebody's arm. They need to be stopped."

"But for the immediate problem of 'how to explain this to your family'? The microsurgery will make for a convenient excuse."

"Or maybe not. Grell said she could make me a fake arm."

He sounds less than pleased about it, but, well, anything short of getting his actual real arm reattached was always going to be unsatisfactory.

Togusa's eyebrows raise in surprise and interest. "That's quick, but good." One way to short-cut Togusa's anger, surprise him. "I wasn't going to immediately jump to a prosthetic, but, if you can get it, then all the better."

"She said it's not a prosthetic, it'd just be...a dummy that looks like the real thing, but completely useless. I won't be able to do anything with it, but...it'll at least buy me some time."

Enough time to formulate a better plan, anyway. He can walk around for a little while with the fake arm while he thinks up a strategy for the long term and how best to ease everyone in his life into it. Maybe come up with a decent excuse for it.

And thankfully, that reassurance that he'll be able to have some time to sort things out and breathe is enough to get James to calm down. If only just a little. It's the only thing he's been able to actually rely on in all the chaos so far.

"You'll need time to get fitted for a proper one," Togusa nods in agreement. "If- that's how you want to go, then all right." It's James' life, he's the one that has to live with this.

"My offer stays open. When it comes time to give an explanation, I'll be there to help, all right? Something that you can agree on and live with." Maybe if he just- avoids his dad for a few days? Yeah. Yeah, that would work.

~~This is a plan only a teenager would come up with~~

Fitted for a proper one. It makes it sound so permanent, inevitable. Like he truly has no other options--the arm is gone, and he needs a prosthetic. Which, objectively, he knows--but to hear it aloud like this makes it feel all the more real and all the more terrifying.

He wants to wrap his arms around himself all of a sudden but surprise, he can't. So instead, he grips his shoulder.

"Yeah...yeah. Thanks."

~~(In his defense, Grell came up with this one!)~~

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