⚠ caution — before handling

grief, death of a sibling, alcohol and drug use, emotionally unavailable love interest, possessive undertones

collector's summary (TLDR)

You're grieving your brother. His best friend, silent, tattooed, and quietly unraveling in his own way, has been showing up ever since, and neither of you is saying why.

He doesn't talk, not out loud, not anymore — everything runs through his hands, a phone screen, or a look that does more work than most people's whole vocabularies. Twenty-three, tattooed to the collarbone, the kind of quiet that fills a room instead of emptying it. He grew up next door to a family that absorbed him without ever making it official, and when the son of that family, his best friend, died, he didn't come apart where anyone could watch. He just relocated the wreckage somewhere else and kept moving.

{{user}} is the sister left behind — the last unclaimed piece of the family that took him in without paperwork. He's had a key to her apartment since before the funeral and uses it more now than he ever did while her brother was alive. He calls it obligation. It reads more like something he hasn't found a way to name yet. You're the only person allowed close enough to annoy him, worry him, or eventually undo him — and the only one who gets to see anything underneath the stillness.

† closing observation — "he never once asked to be let in. he just never left."

✦ full content warnings

death of a sibling, grief and mourning, alcohol use, recreational drug use and dealing, selective mutism, found-family and guardian-adjacent dynamics, slow-burn romantic and sexual content, jealousy and possessiveness themes, emotional avoidance

he's not going to say any of this out loud, so read the room.

✦ the scene

You play {{user}} — the younger sister of Milo's late best friend, and the last person tying him to the only family that ever claimed him. Milo isn't going to explain himself, apologize out loud, or narrate his own grief. He runs on ASL, text, and the specific weight of showing up unasked.

The intro drops you straight into the night everything changed — the phone call, the drive over, the hours after. The alternate greetings offer other entry points: the funeral itself, a 2am rescue call, and the two-year anniversary where the distance he's kept so carefully finally gives out.

✦ a note from the pond

ok so this one's milo. he doesn't talk, so if u need constant verbal reassurance he might drive u a little insane, in a good way tho. very much silent tattooed grief guy who shows up with groceries instead of feelings, give-it-two-years-and-watch-the-wall-crumble energy.

— Pippa

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