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Event Six.
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Your first choice should always be to run Otherwise you had better hope You have silver bullets in a gun. | |
Welcome to Awash's sixth event log, everyone! Further information on this event can be found here at the OOC post. | |
| |
Your first choice should always be to run Otherwise you had better hope You have silver bullets in a gun. | |
Welcome to Awash's sixth event log, everyone! Further information on this event can be found here at the OOC post. | |
he full moon hangs brightly over the Town, hovering so low that it almost feels as though you could reach out and touch it. It should be comforting.
no subject
I don't remember what it's like to feel safe somewhere, Quicksilver.
[That's mostly true. But it's also a little bit a lie, because she remembers flickers of safety that have caught her in the recent past. Fingers twisted through hers. The brush of a shoulder. An arm all but lost in red foof and the flash of a Polaroid shutter.]
He seems okay. I just...you know. I have to be sure. Have to do all this or I'll never get the neuroses to calm down.
no subject
Yeah. I know. Guess I can't really say anything, anyway. I don't live at the house I'm s'posed to.
[Because he's more supposed to be with his friends, where he's safe. The only place he's ever felt safe, at their side; he's never been in the position to offer it to someone else. To Flora, sharp and practical and defined by fear as much as he is, if not more.
He wants to protect her. He's felt it before, about Noct, about Ignis, but never so strongly. Never so... personally.
Maybe one of them could tell him what it means, someday. They must have felt this way themselves at some point; he can see it when he looks at them. Heroes, them and Gladio, all three.]
But that's because there's girls there, so it'd be weird.
no subject
[It's probably supposed to be weird that she's sitting around in the middle of the night, on the ground, petting a fellow human being who just so happens to have ears and a tail and canine mannerisms. There are a lot of things about her life that should be weird, if she were to think about them hard enough. That's usually why she doesn't.
The thing is, it's nostalgic, too. Moments like this make her acutely aware of the weight of the ring on her finger, the one she still wears even though it's long since dead. They used to sit around like this too, didn't they? They made plans. They schemed. They laughed, sometimes — not unkindly, but with a certain undeniable superiority — about how they were two of a kind, the clever ones, and the others weren't. How that made them the same. How it made them natural partners.
The sound of her name. The distant clatter of armor and footsteps on the open field. The wind in her still whole-face as she'd turned and —
Her fingers dig in, just a little, burying themselves more securely in the shaggy hair at the back of his neck.]
I wish I weren't like this.
[It's a confession she shouldn't make. She trusts him to keep it safe, anyway.]
no subject
Except he just said she could, kinda? That she could come over whenever. That she has a place.
He's still getting his head around the implications, trying to unknot exactly what it is that makes her different, makes her one of them, when her hand tightens in his hair and makes him really pay attention.]
...Like what?
[He asks gently, and a second later realizes how much it sounds like for what? His question to Noct, when the answer should have been so obvious.
It isn't, to him.]
no subject
[She closes her eyes, ducking her head so that her hair falls around her face like a curtain.]
It's like I'm more afraid of good things than I am of bad ones. At least the bad ones are honest about what they are. The good things, you've got to worry yourself sick trying to figure out what the catch is.
no subject
Is that why you're not scared of me right now, even though I--I got turned?
[Because right now, as a monster more dangerous than he ever could have been, he's that much more familiar to her?
She's the one who won't let him hurt her. He found that comforting before, that the power is hers, that she'll take the threat he poses seriously and protect herself. He'd been relieved.
What is it he's feeling now? It's an unfamiliar fire, this urge to turn and chase off anything that comes near her now, almost as strong as the need to stay put, to keep his fur in reach of her hand.]
no subject
[Absently, she starts petting him again, and sooner or later she's going to really think about the fact that the way she's petting him isn't actually targeting his canine appendages, but his human attributes, and that's going to be something to think about, isn't it.]
But. I mean...yes, you're dangerous. Obviously you're dangerous, like this. But I know what the danger is, and I can figure out how to mitigate it if I have to. Bad things are the same way, they're usually pretty obvious about the ways that they can hurt you.
[She pauses, voice dropping low.]
I'm a little scared of you when you're not like this. Not when I'm around you, but after. When I start to realize that you got me to let my guard down, and I didn't even notice it.
[...]
When I'm around you I don't obsess over how to keep myself safe. Because I just...know, already, that I am. And that's...scary, to the part of me that thinks that if I'm not impenetrable, I'm going to get hurt.
no subject
I really don't think I can do anything about being so unscary it's scary. Like, if the tattoos and skulls don't do it...
[He trails off. Who ever mistook this kid for a Lucian? It's like he didn't even try for that Deadly Goth Warrior aesthetic.]
It's weird, but you're one of a really, really small number of things that don't scare me. Not at all. I mean, I know you could flash-fry me like a new recipe, but... I dunno. I guess it's like, because I understands the reasons why you might, it's not... not so terrible.
[For twenty years, the most frightening thing has always been what he didn't know. Possibilities, rather than reality. Unknown places, strangers' faces, the impenetrable dark. Codes yet unbroken.
He smiles crookedly up at her.]
Crazy, right? [He puts his head down, closing his eyes.] I guess I just feel like I've known you for a long time, even if it's really only been a few weeks. I've... never made a friend that fast.
no subject
[Now at last, she runs the very tips of her fingers up his ears, feeling the velvety backs all the way from the base to the tip.]
...I'm keeping you, just so you know. You're a little bit mine, now, whether you like it or not.
no subject
And he smiles.
And he doesn't stop his tail from wagging.]
You know, I'm okay with that.
[He doesn't mind belonging to someone, this outsider boy who never belonged. Not when that someone is her.]
Just don't put a dog collar on me or anything. I'd have a hell of a time explaining that to the guys.
no subject
[But her quick look away is different than her usual; it's not a reflex born of avoidance or of regret. On the contrary, it's because her face is starting to go a little flushed in the cheeks, and that tilt of her chin is a hasty attempt at hiding it.]
...You think it'll be daylight soon?
no subject
Hope so. Scritchies are nice, but I really wanna be able to wear my pants like normal again.
no subject
[She hums softly, under her breath, and after a quiet pause, she ventures: ]
What season do you think it is?
no subject
Spring, maybe? It's cool, but... I don't know, I've seen snow in the summer, too, depending on where you are. I guess temperature isn't the easiest way to tell.
no subject
Yeah. There's probably no way to tell, you're right. Oh, well.
[And what an interesting little non sequitur that was, wasn't it.]
...I'll stay with you until sunup. If you want.
no subject
...Wouldn't want any more big, bad wolves to come after you.
[He doesn't even pretend that's the real reason, gently lifting his head up and into her hand.]
I can't really go back to the house. Too many animals there. I don't think I'd bite any of my friends, but... Well, Sparky's just a baby. And the chickens are small. I can't.
You'll really be all right?
[She won't let him hurt her. She promised.]
no subject
He still probably would've done it for her, even if he'd known. This way, he still gets to, and the only difference is that she doesn't have to give up something in exchange.
But now she's heard what the word sounds like in his voice. And it's like she'd told Noctis at the prom — human voices are much harder than music, because of how they're a little different every time, but she was paying attention this time as closely as she could, and even if it's not perfect, it's close. She's sure she can get it close.
Now, if she wants to, when she's safe and alone and certain that nothing can take it from her, she can listen to him say Summer, and she can think, yeah? in return.]
Sure, I'll be just fine. Plenty of magic left.
[She smiles a little, and before she can think better of it, she lightly skims the backs of her knuckles down the curve of his cheek.]
You're not going to hurt me. And I won't let you hurt anybody else, either.
no subject
Okay.
[And in the absence of fear, what else is there but trust?]
Heh. Careful, I almost licked your hand there. Gross.
[Wag wag wag.]