[text]

[oftheletter]

Name: L/Near (Eli Dagwood)
Date: 8/20
Format: Text

This is Eli Dagwood.

I find myself facing unusual circumstances and would like to request a temporary bond as soon as possible.

[There is nothing else.]

[Having just been canon updated, Near has ten years of history to jostle in his head while getting back in touch with his life here - and the fact that he's been bondless for some time.]

Comments

[oftheletter]

How long will it last?

[He hadn't asked before they'd started. Normally getting such details would be important to him, but these were special circumstances. His singular focus had been getting the temporary bond, in essence hitting the reset button. He would have time to worry about everything else afterward.

And of course L's right. That's nothing he didn't already know going in. He can't let things go on as long as they did before, meaning he has a couple months at best to make a connection with someone when he currently doesn't have anyone he considers above an acquaintance - except for the man in front of him. And that won't happen. Asking him for this had been more than he'd ever intended to do, and he's ashamed that it had to come to this point. He won't stay attached to L like a child clinging to a parent's coat sleeve.

He just hates how this bond has made it so he'll miss the man when he takes his leave.

Near purposefully keeps his eyes turned downward, his hand finally retreating to the usual place in his hair. His tail shifts on the floor, an indicator that he's alive and not sitting in complete maudlin contemplation. He only bothers to peer up through the curtains of gray when L mentions helping him again.]

Are you going to hold interviews?

[His tone remains neutral, but it's meant as a joke. He's just not very good at jokes, and he's not feeling it either.]

[hearthebell]

It lasts for about a day.

[He's aware that it's a shockingly short amount of time. Not much good, for someone who might require more to arrange a decent permanent match... but it's at least somewhat true that this mashes a reset button of sorts. Near will find himself unbonded tomorrow, but not immediately find himself in the same place of desperation that had put him in a position to ask for L's help.

L might guess that Near means it as a joke, but he answers seriously, nevertheless. He's likewise just not in the mood for humor, but it isn't Near's fault; it's been like that a lot, lately, and that's saying something for either of them, considering their typical rather somber approach to matters.]

That's one method; I could. My misgiving is that as the individual who needs a Bond in question, you should have a say in the matter, beyond objective data or my own biased impressions. You should know that while your specific needs are unique, your situation is not. There are many monsters and witches in Aefenglom who share your predicament.

[You're well within your rights to ask for this.]

If I'm to be asking around on your behalf, I should have a clear idea of what you need in a Bond. Try to think in terms of broad traits, rather than specific people who may or may not possess those traits.

[Like Mello, for instance... or perhaps L, now.]

[oftheletter]

[A day. It's enough. A couple minutes would have been enough - at least for now. Without his mind clear, without the threat of going feral edging closer and closer, he wouldn't be able to take any of the next necessary steps - steps that he should have taken a long time ago.

There's always that cat. He should really address the issue of that cat again. It's only a matter of how much they'd be able to stand each other's presence for any length of time. Cats were always a little snooty, in his opinion, and this one also happened to be sentient.

If he knew what he was looking for, the process would be much easier. But he doesn't. He might as well ask L to help him find a new best friend.

His finger gets stuck in his hair. He leaves it there momentarily.]

I need someone I'll be able to stand. I think that's the most important quality.

[And there's a fair amount of people that immediately rules out - though it doesn't rule out as many as one might think. Near is more tolerant of idiots as long as they don't attempt to drag him down to their level.]

Someone who isn't too talkative and who doesn't require regular assurances.

[hearthebell]

[Well, it's a start, at least.

It's a shame that they're who they are, respectively... otherwise, L would really fit the bill for what Near believes he'll require in a Bond, or at least close enough. A Bond between them would make sense, at least on paper, but maybe his thinking is clouded by what's temporary but still highly secure. He did right by a successor, for once, and there are infinite ways he could screw it up, but... for now, this suffices. This will do.]

You need someone who is going to challenge you. Arguably... that's more important than everything else... I imagine that after ten years in your most recent occupation, the memory of what that feels like might have faded.

[oftheletter]

[There's a moment of silence after L says that, as it isn't entirely true. There had been one case, just the one, before he'd been brought here that had been a challenge. Perhaps he hadn't officially taken the case. Perhaps there were all sorts of supernatural elements that he couldn't account for, but the fact remains that it wasn't solved. He still doesn't know who had the notebook and he might never know.

At the very least they hadn't been going around murdering everyone. Whether or not they could even be considered a criminal was up for debate.

If he wasn't currently bonded to the man before him he wouldn't even mention it. But as it is that doesn't seem appropriate.]

...There have been a couple times. Only a couple. Where the notebook emerged in the human world again. It's never been as same as it was the first time.

[There may never be another owner like Yagami.]

[hearthebell]

[Near's silence alone isn't curious; L has always known Near to be a thoughtful and intentional speaker, and age only has a way of refining such tendencies. Gradual, subtle changes, like a master jeweler cutting a diamond... but the Bond lets L see it from a new angle and a new perspective, and he appreciates every new reflection even if the meaning carries notes of... bitterness? Regret?]

I expect that the world changed a lot, since 2004.

[Possibly more than it did between the time L came of age as a detective in the eighties, and the time he came of age as an adult (albeit a stunted and isolated one) in the nineties. Advances in technology and culture alone would be a lot to handle for even the most impressive social chameleon or tech-savvy savant, and L died before smartphones, before Twitter.]

Every new generation would deal with the appearance of a killer notebook in a different way by way of necessity and circumstance. Perhaps there would come a point where tracing it was actually impossible, but...

[Does L have room to talk, as one who died solving the same case a decade and a half earlier?]

As long as you expose yourself to new perspectives and influences, your limits won't have to be defined or determined. Your Bond can do that for you, even if it's frustrating and you clash sometimes.

[Especially then, truly.]

If you're lucky enough to survive failure, it's an opportunity, not an ending.

[oftheletter]

[There's a light, humorless chuckle at that.]

My life was never in any danger. I doubt they even thought about the fact that I might be trying to figure out who they were. [He pauses, tilting his head up.] Ryuk must get bored. That would be an interesting individual to see here, surely.

[Then he shakes his head.] I'm sorry, I've gotten us off track.

[It's a bit frustrating, this bond - with how comfortable it makes him around the other man. He had assumed that the temporary bond would make him desire a more permanent connection, but knowing that and actually feeling it are two separate things.]

[hearthebell]

[It's a little startling to hear any kind of laughter out of Near, regardless of affectation or context. In spite of the scales, it makes him seem a bit more human than he's ever been.]

Ryuk?

[What he knows, plus what the Bond gives him and what he's able to deduce, form an uncertain but ultimately pretty likely picture. He'd said shortly before his death that there was another notebook, and possibly more; it made sense that there would be more shinigami to go with them.]

The one I met was called Rem. I don't know what happened to her, after...

[They are off-track. He clears his throat; is it possible that Near being older, growing into his role as L has relieved some of the tension and the burden their relationship carried undercurrents of before?]

Near. Where your needs are concerned, for this Bond or future ones... don't dwell on them in silence. It's a privilege to help you in the ways that I'm able.

[oftheletter]

Later. I'll have to talk to you about it later.

[When the bonds effects are long gone. He does lean over to an end table on his side of the sofa, pulling open the drawer and shifting items around until he has a small notebook and pen in his hands. He sketches something out with the pen as he continues.]

If you're offering to come to my rescue a second time, I appreciate it. [Though it's technically been more than twice already.] Hopefully it won't come to that.

[He doesn't make friends well. He knows this. But if he has to slither his way back to his mentor in another month or so because no one could stand to be with him it will be a true embarrassment.]