Emotional stress can cause vitiligo. Jack remembers this quote from his doctor as he takes a look at his shaking hands that have been attempting to finish a verse of lyrics for about fifteen minutes. There’s a patch of new missing pigment along his knuckles, an area of white surrounded by his more golden flesh. For a moment, his blue eyes squeeze shut, something to ground him. It hasn’t been an easy few weeks. In fact, he feels ill from most of what these days had to offer.
Before his mind gets the best of him, Jack closes his little notebook and heads out of the cafe he had been sitting in. At least it was nice out today, he reminds himself, autumn finally upon him. The air was cooled but still harbobed that same humid stickiness. Jack liked it.
As he pads across the pavement, head down in attempt to preserve his carefully dictated anonymity, someone speaks to him. His little bubble is burst then, a sharp inhale being taken in. A clearing of his throat comes next. The environment. Jack’s brows arch upward. He might as well. “Uh, sure,” The singer says, hoping his slightly hoarse tone doesn’t shed a light on how much he doesn’t feel too great. But perhaps that was already obvious by the bags under his eyes that refused to leave.
“Is this about how we, um, only have like, seven years to fix the planet? That freaks me out a lot. Sometimes I spiral down sections of the internet that talk about that and it makes me rethink everything.” Jack says with a chuckle. “That and bears. Everything about bears freak me out but I always do research on them. Bears could give us with one good slap. Can you believe that? Though I think I’d be sad if they ever…uh, went extinct or something..” Oh God, Jack, reel it in.
In all her time doing this, Juni met all kinds of people from all walks of life. Sometimes, it is obvious to gauge their standings and viewpoints from appearance alone, but a lesson learnt the hard way from a time gone by, has her hanging up her judgement. But old habits die hard. Head down, slow drags of feet across the pavement; clear signs of a person to be left to their thoughts, but Juni being her exuberant self, waved down the man's attention regardless, zero assumptions here, well, minus the initial -- damn he looks tired.
She hears him and doesn't have the heart to tell him the number is much shorter than that, “Some argue it's ten years,” she says instead, though she personally doesn't believe that, it seems like a better thing to say. “Bears?” she repeats and can't hold back the laugh that bubbles up. “You need to stay away from the internet.” And it's not to condemn, no, how many times had she lost herself down in conspiracy theories that had her questioning everything under the sun, “I mean, that's not a bad fear, irrational maybe, but there's worse, I suppose. You could be scared of ducks.” Another light chuckle has her shaking her head, “I don' think they're going to go extinct. Well, not the common ones anyway. Hmm, how many bear species are there? ... wow now you have me thinking about bears.”
