[X] No honesty.
- [X] Everything's fine, your parents are just acting weird or something, don't worry! Hey, what's for dinner?
Era's face is filled with curiosity and worry for you. You don't blame her - the half of the conversation she could hear wasn't exactly run of the mill. Ben and Che Mat and Che Din, on the other hand, just look like they're waiting for you to tell them that everything's fine so they can get back to having...
...well, they're having fun, you think, anyway?
"Ah just nothing lah," you say to Era, blithely brushing it off. "Parents being parents lor. Once turn adult they think I'm going to take you all go mahjong parlour or something."
Era still looks suspicious. "And they went kampung? On your birthday?"
You shrug. "How I know them? Early early morning eat cake sing song, then run out. I also don't know why." There, that's
clooooose enough to the truth, because truth be told you don't know what made them run 300km away either.
Or whatever was with those weird things they were saying on the phone. Competitions? Hobbies? Becoming Prime Minister? Ugh.
Parents. Eighteen years of living with them and they're still impossibly weird.
"Don't care lor, they want to go kampung they go what." You shrug, then guzzle some more 100-Plus. Then you artfully deflect the conversation. "So you still talking to Gregory ah Era? Didn't know you were keeping in contact with him!"
Her face says she's going to be chasing this thread again, but she lets it go. "Insta only okay! And
takde cute girl friends for you to find either," she says to Che Din, "all his Insta picture just selfies and food." She scrolls on her phone. "See, see -"
And, you think as she scrolls through shirtless selfies of your old crush complaining that he's fat, crisis
solved averted. At least until Era decides to bring it up again.
[x] On your way out of the park, some guy runs up behind you, grabs Era's purse, pushes her to the ground, and runs for it.
- [X] You didn't spend two years doing kawad kakimarching exercises as a pengawas for nothing! You (and Ben, and Che Mat, and Che Din) chase the guy down.
Social media is a rabbit hole. You go through photos,
very carefully not accidentally double-tapping anything to heart them especially since you're on Era's phone, and from there it's on to other people's profiles and then Era's own profile, where she's got a bunch of new stories and photos from university and
her own boyfriend (that you've never met, you tell her with Meaningful Looks. "You're not my boyfriend filter, Amanda," she tells you with rolling eyes.) and then her boyfriend's Instagram profile.
"Oh he also a lot of shirtless photos hor," you declare, grinning at the acquisition of new knowledge to tease Era with. "Swole swole orh?"
"It's good for him to carry things when go shopping," she declares stoically, but you can see her blushing. Ahahahaha. "And anyway the university gym is free to use for students so must make use okay?"
"Then you never go gym ah, still
lembik-lembik one?"
"Eh I got go okay! Just not as much as him."
"Never make full use~"
"I never said anything about making full use, I only said make use -"
"Ah ah ah!"
The discussion-slash-friendly argument continues for awhile, until Ben rolls over on the floor and groans dramatically.
You and Era stop and stare. "What happen? Stomach ache ah?"
"Need toilet," he says, shamelessly.
Che Din kicks him in the shins, not particularly lightly. "See lah! See lah! Drink so much. Never thinking. Drinking only." He rolls eyes. "Need toilet go toilet lah."
"But the toilets here," says Ben, and you sigh. Right. Public toilets. "Go petrol station one lor can?" He turns to you, appealing. "Birthday girl say can then can right?"
"Okay lah," you allow, reveling in this one day of unexpected authority.
"From pengawas become cikgu," snarks Che Mat, gathering up the half-full bottles and tossing the bag of melting ice aside. "Go toilet also need permission already."
"Eh he asked one lor!" you reply at once, because if you don't nip it in the bud it will become one of their silly running gags. "Next time you want to go then you just go can already!"
"Yes teacher," say Che Mat and Che Din in unison, and you groan. Too late.
It's also probably because of that that you didn't notice there were other people around in the park. You become very aware of that, though, when Era screams and the four of you spin around to see her pushed to the ground, a man running away from you with Era's purse in his hand.
It's a good thing you wore jeans out today instead of a skirt. And that you had all that kawad kaki back in secondary school when you were a pengawas, because you can
run. And, full of sugary isotonic drink, so can Che Mat and Che Din.
And, a lot farther back because he'd been power walking for the car and now is power sprinting for the snatch thief, is Ben.
The snatch thief runs for his dear life for a motorbike (plus rider) parked by the roadside, but he's not fast enough to get there before Che Mat and Che Din do - so he turns and throws Era's purse away behind him. It lands, its insides spilling out across the dirt and grass, and those few seconds of distraction where Che Mat and Che Din skid to slow down are all he needs for a last ditch burst of speed.
The motorbike and its two riders squeal off down the road as Ben and Era finally catch up and the five of you gather up her things.
"Anything missing?" you say eventually, as she tries unsuccessfully to zip the purse closed. Not that it really matters - the purse has burst in a couple of places. "Money okay?"
She nods, quietly, close to tears, and you stick to her: straightening her rumpled clothing, checking for bruises or scratches (there are a few, but nothing a bit of iodine won't fix), and otherwise fussing comfortingly over her.
"
Si rempit sial ," grumbles Che Mat, still out of breath from the sprint.
"Excuse me you also rempit okay?" says Che Din, rolling his eyes. "
Kapcai still sitting at home, ask you throw also don't want -"
"My one is
cool," defends Che Mat.
"You spray the anime girls on it," says Che Din. "Lucah gila still take it go out."
"Eh anime cool okay? Not like you
tonton Upin & Ipin
saja . Nobody spray Upin & Ipin on their motor. Why? Because not cool."
They bicker all the way to the car and to the gas station and until Ben drops you off at home, because everybody has to have dinner with their families and stuff like that.
Except not you, because your family is...
probably 300km away in some kampung, and expecting you to be good and obedient and sit at home doing nothing.
You switch on the lights and sit in the empty, quiet living room.
~*~*~
4 SPINS AVAILABLE!
~*~*~
...in an alternate universe where you told your friends the truth or a partial truth, you'd probably have gotten a QuickTime Event to summon something to catch the snatch thieves. But as it is they got away! Luckily for Era, nothing too bad resulted.
Well, you're a NEET and your family is gone off, but it's not like you do
nothing at all with your time! What do you fill your time up with?
(Pick up to three!)
[ ] Watching lots of TV and Netflix. Netflix and TV. Well, mostly just Netflix. There's never anything good on TV.
● Netflix recommends a documentary to you, and you find yourself... weirdly illuminated. For some reason,
nobody you ask has ever seen it.
[ ] Pa always jokingly called it "practice for housewifing", but you
enjoy cooking and sewing and stuff like that.
● You also post pictures of your stuff on Instagram, Etsy, Pinterest, and places like that. You've been DM'd before with business opportunities and questions about commissions, but one of them stands out from the rest.
[ ] You kind of just hang out on reddit and Wikipedia and TVTropes all the time, soaking up useless knowledge and giving back some in return.
● You've got sixty tabs open and counting, but this particular rabbit hole is hitting a bit closer to home than usual.
[ ] As sociable as you are, running into friends and acquaintances wherever you go is pretty normal for you - in fact you sometimes have more lunch and dinner appointments than you
have lunches and dinners.
● Firash? Who's Firash? You don't remember any Firash. But he seems to remember you, and has the receipts to prove it.
[ ] All that free time lets you be one of the most active members in your MMO guild. Hey, it's fun, you
never buy any of their paid DLC stuff, and now you don't even have your parents asking you to pause it to run errands!
● They announce a global PVP event - guild vs guild stuff - and your guild mightn't be in the top 100 best on the server but you
really want the event-only winner loot...
[ ] Use SPINs (up to four)!
- [ ] Write-in items used (must be three or more)!
