Even when the starry sky dissolves at dawn

[brightlyshines]

WHO: Literally anyone and everyone
WHERE: The Town
WHEN: May 3rd, evening
WHAT: The town's regained both some aspects of evening and a starry night sky. Stargazing is clearly in order.
WARNINGS: All that good pure cute, probably.

The town is just a little bit different today. Color has returned to some objects, even phenomenon, and it has left others. Slowly but surely, things are changing.

In some cases, very big things are changing.

Maybe someone looks out a window, maybe they're out late in the evening. At around 6pm, the sky takes on it's normal hue, just for a moment. And later, as darkness falls....

The stars blink into existence, one by one.

Comments

[passio]

...

[ it's more than he expected, really, to have her apologize to him—for whatever measure of an apology this agreement is, since he doesn't think she would offer if she didn't feel some type of remorse. but in reality, it is easy to have someone read his mind.

he doesn't mind. maybe she can find something he can't, buried deep in all that trauma. foolishly, he shakes his head, but he's not exactly sure that reads. so he gestures like he wants her to come closer, and thinks a very firm thought of: ]

It's okay.

[ above all those bummers floating around in his brain, his consent. ]

[hypertoxic]

[ what, what is he doing. staring at him with some suspicion, Vriska, against her better judgment, will place her feet on firm ground again and kind of shuffle a bit closer once he gestures for her.

it ends up being pretty unfortunate for both of them because holy fuck she fucking hears something what the hell! and she kind of gives this strangled squawk and jumps back. ]

Oh fuck, don't do that!

[ ................... ]

God, fuck, I'm such an asshole. Sorry, what I meant was: do it again, more loudly this time. Like I said, I'm really shitty at this so I didn't catch actual words so much as a kind of feeling? But it felt like you were trying to think something at me, so.

[passio]

—!

[ her language... but it reminds him of the coffin man, with his coarse vocabulary and devil-may-care attitude toward everyone and everything, so honestly, after the surprise of being yelled at wears off, he's able to nod. his eyes are still wide, but he luckily doesn't seem afraid of her.

he takes a deep, slow breath, and holds up one finger to let her know that he's going to give her a second to prepare, and then he tries again. the same thing. it's possible to be loud in his head, at least. ]

It's okay!

[hypertoxic]

[ Vriska's mouth pulls into a line, but she's a little relieved when he gives her a warning he's going to try.

She'll lower her chin a little, her brow furrowing. This time she doesn't jump, just looks like she's thinking intensely. ]

... I guess ... you're saying something like "it's okay"?

[ glances up at him with a thoughtful frown. ]

... okay. Then. I guess we will figure this out. I'm Vriska, by the way.

[passio]

[ it worked! perhaps she's not talented enough at all this for it to be a simple, straightforward mode of communication, but it's more than he's encountered so far. it's not a bad thing.

when she introduces herself— ]

...!

[ vriska! he knows that name! john mentioned her! ]

[hypertoxic]

[ Honestly, it's more a matter of practice. For all that she was all about mind controlling people, reading minds wasn't something she did all that much. Surprisingly, given her terrible personality.

But his obvious recognition makes her blink, and then narrow her eyes. ]

Okay, which dork told you about me, and how much do you know?

[ it's like

MOSTLY a joke? ]

[passio]

[ dextera flinches, because he feels immediately as if he might have done something wrong, by the way she looks at him—a joke it may be, but his heart is weak, and he's scared of even tiny alien girls?? ]

Ah—

[ will someone die if he gives a name? with his finger, he traces out the shape of square glasses on his face. maybe that looks like john? ]

[hypertoxic]

Oh my god, stop that! What do you think I'm going to do, bite you?

[ it actually bothers her, that he keeps doing that.

at the very least, his sign language works. Vriska huffs a short sigh. Her first inclination is to ask oh, haha, I bet he talked shit about me, don't believe everything you hear!

Except she knows that John actually would not talk shit about her to a stranger, and that's just her bitterness talking, and she doesn't want to scare this skittish guy more than she apparently already has. ]

Yeah, that's John. We have known each other for a long time, so I guess I am not too surprised he brought me up. I hope it was good! Haha.

[ .........

ugh. #yikes ]

[passio]

[ dextera would stop it if he could, since it feels agonizingly likely from his own experience that she would bite him. it's not that his home companions are especially violent, so much as they're just... unpredictable. they're not really his friends, either, so they're usually unpredictable for the worse. ]

...

[ haha! dextera actually, oddly, seems assuaged by her awkward joke. he nods, and holds his own hands together in what looks like a mimic for a handshake, or something. friends, is what he means—john said terezi and vriska "weren't so bad," verbatim, but that's what he meant. right? ]

[hypertoxic]

[ oh.

well.

after blinking once or twice, vriska will actually offer a faint smile. ]

Yeah. Something like that!

[ a pause for a moment, and: ]

Hey, do you want to, like ... keep trying, with the mind reading thing? Only if you want, but ... who knows, maybe it could come in handy someday.

[ the truth is that, given that he's mute, she's worried what might happen to him in an emergency if he couldn't tell people what was wrong.

but he could tell her.

she's just worried she'd phrase it poorly and make it sound like a threat somehow, so. ]

[passio]

...?

[ dextera didn't expect her to offer, but he knows for a fact that it would come in handy even if it makes him a little uncomfortable to think about. luckily, however... vriska isn't like the horned girl, who spits out his thoughts without his permission, nor is she like the mind reader (with an extremely apt name) who can't help that she knows all his thoughts.

it's just something that vriska can do, right? something that dextera needs to allow to happen, and that's probably why he nods, after a pause.

it might help her, too, to be able to train such a skill. ]

[hypertoxic]

[ ... he actually said yes. he gave her permission.

if she's honest with herself, she really hadn't believed he would.

which makes her give a real smile for the first time. ]

Okay. Then that's what we'll do.

[passio]

[ ...oh! a smile.

dextera is happy to see that, because he didn't expect this either. it seems that all it takes is a little kindness with people like this, and being able to communicate certainly doesn't hurt his chances at being understood. just staring tends to piss people off.

he nods, and then tentatively offers his hand. maybe touching can help her concentrate better? ]