[ LET'S PLAY A GAME ] ; i'm just such a happy mess

[ungrieved]

        _______
       |/           |
       |
       |
       |
       |
       |
____|____

[That's it. That, and...a number of blank lines for people to guess letters. If they're interested in playing, that is. He apparently hasn't seen fit to explain the game, but if you stay tuned, you might catch the general gist of it.]

[[ooc: guessable words are in the comments. Please feel free to threadjack/make new words at your leisure!]]

Comments

[yourattention]

obvs why else would i be playing
hang him executioner

[ungrieved]

youre kind of a sicko huh

        _______
       |/           |
       |            O
       |           /|\
       |            /\
       |
       |
____|____

[Or is Gabe the sicko for indulging him? Something something chicken and egg, probably.]

happy?

[yourattention]

~*yay*~

[Yes. Yes, he took the time to draw out the tildes and asterisks in a different color.]

[ungrieved]

im sure hes thrilled to be there when you couldve saved him

[yourattention]

when youre falling in a forest
and theres nobody around
do you ever really die
or even make a sound?

[ungrieved]

when someone asks you
"catch me, I'm falling"
do you listen?

[yourattention]

does anyone?
or do they only turn away if you let go?

[ungrieved]

maybe they think the falling isn't so bad after all

[yourattention]

did you fall?
or did you let go?

[ungrieved]

I'm NEVER letting go.

[yourattention]

fair.
it's not like letting go ends in anything but being an abandoned memory.

[It's written in blue because he drew a bluebird next to the hanged man. A dove would have probably been better, symbolically, but he has a Thing for blue.]

[ungrieved]

IM NOT ABANDONED

[But...]

[It's written in white.]

[yourattention]

[Connor doesn't notice it, because good job. It's white on slate, Gabe, how is he supposed to read that. He does, however, add a speech bubble to his little bird:]

No one deserves to be forgotten, Mr. Hangman! You will be found.

[ungrieved]

[Scored roughly underneath - ]

some people are forgotten anyway

[yourattention]

uwu Lift your head and look around! You will be found.

[This is like the LifeAftr version of "Sincerely Me." That is what is happening right now.]

[ungrieved]

[Someone's drawn a line through it. That cheap, saccharine phraseology that means nothing, because it's all - because he was never found. He was never found.]

[It was too late for him. It was always too late.]

[yourattention]

There's no need to be rude! TT.TT

[People who are petty enough to write emoji to be sarcastic: Connor.]

[ungrieved]

[Extra fuck you for that one, Connor. Gabe doesn't dignify that with a response.]

[Oh, wait.]

[Yes he does.]

[It's the angry scraping sound of someone frantically trying to grind the existence of this wretched message off the face of stone.]

[yourattention]

[There's laughter coming from a nearby tree. This is great. He is living right now: someone is mad at him and it's the most normal he's felt in a month. This he gets. He knows how to deal with people being angry at him in a way he doesn't know how to deal with people being nice to him, supporting him.

. . . Someone please teach Connor Murphy a healthy coping mechanism.]

[ungrieved]

[Laughter.]

[Gabe straightens, a muscle in his jaw twitching under the pressure of how tightly it's clenched. This isn't how this is supposed to be. No one's supposed to get under his skin like this. He does the emotional subluxation around here; he's the one who people can't get out of their heads, like every repressed memory and unsung song.]

[But when he turns, it's with a smile. Smoothed over.]

Didn't know we had laughing trees around here.