( cmo ) general rp

[hopes]

play with me! ☆

my character list is here, while my (outdated) rp wishlist is here! go crazy with whatever you wanna throw at me; leave the character you want to thread with in the subject, and i'm cool doing or replying to starters!

body heat / fluff / insomnia / rain / realistic college au / reunion / soulmates / stargazing

Comments

[feigned]

( cont. )

[Fang's positive response gives Vanille a burst of confidence as she begins to lead a waltz, placing one hand around Fang's waist and taking her partner's hand in her other. her loose, fluid movements are no different from the way she used to dance for Fang in their childhood, when even her simple spins and pirouettes were enough to put a smile on the older girl's face after a tiring day on the Pulsian plains. that same smile has found its way onto Vanille's face, even in spite of all they've been through recently.]

How could I not? It's such a nice night—and when do we ever get any of those?

[she may be shorter than Fang, and her center of gravity may be a little different thanks to her monstrous changes, but Vanille doesn't even break a sweat as she goes through the motions. things like this have always been her release from the stressful life on Gran Pulse and the harrowing adventures on Cocoon; why would any of that change now?]

[belligerentwarrior]

[Fang adapts easily into the familiar motions, her grin sliding into a gentle smile when the younger Pulsian's does the same.]

Mm. It's been ages. This whole thing's pretty impressive. [The whole Masquerade is, but especially that food table. It's a downright feast by Oerban standards, hors d'oeuvres or not. She chuckles again.]

You've sure been taking advantage of it, dancing with every poor soul that wanders in arms reach. [She's teasing, of course. Fang couldn't help herself. Just as whimsy tended to be Vanille's solace, humor was hers.]

winging this omg

[monkeyfu]

[A date. It's a date

Or a not-date date, since he's sure Blake will kill him if he says that out loud in front of her. Heh.

But there's a nervous but excited monkey Faunus in front of team RWBY's dorm room, knocking politely on the... window?

Yeah, that's right. He thought he'd surprise Blake by climbing the tree just outside the window. Knocking on their door might attract more attention than Blake wants, and Sun has been scoping out the area to make sure that her teammates weren't around.

Come on, Blake. Don't leave him hanging here! He even buttoned up his shirt for her for once!]

IM SORRY

[blakenoir]

[Blake is definitely not thinking of this as a date. she doesn't do dates! she's got more important things to worry about than dates. so why, then, does she have this weird "butterflies in stomach" feeling? it couldn't have been the stuff she had for breakfast; otherwise the rest of Team RWBY would be moaning and griping around in the dorm. but nary another soul is to be seen, aside from the cat Faunus herself.

she's in the middle of trying to fight off this weird...anxiety...? by losing herself in the next installment in her favorite series when she hears the rapping at the window. like a cat, her ears perk and she straightens up into a sitting position until she locates the source of the noise... and lets out a rare quiet laugh. shaking her head, she walks over and opens the window, slightly leaning out of it with a smirk on her face.]

Why am I not surprised?

xion bb

[gratitude]

[of all of the knights who could have been assigned to the princess, rion was among the least likely. there were a few deficiencies that made him pretty clearly unsuited for the role of "sole bodyguard" on this particular journey.

he didn't have the ability to call for help, being mute. he was mediocre at best in combat (previously, "mediocre" had been "terrible" until one lady satonaka had basically dedicated most of her time to training the boy.) lady satonaka, in fact, being one of the most skilled fighters there (though a bit rough around the edges sometimes, and perhaps not the best in delicate diplomatic situations) would have been a far better choice.

but they'd decided that he would be taking over. they'd assured the princess that despite his height, he was no squire, but a full-fledged knight; despite the fact that he wore lighter armor than a typical knight. he didn't look much the role of a typical knight; there was no sword and shield here, but a spear and a small sword (presumably in case the spear was unsuitable).

it's the first night that they've been able to stop somewhere. it's been difficult communicating; the sort of casual conversation that might have gone by during travels was made a lot harder by the fact that rion pretty much couldn't answer questions that weren't yes or no while on chocobo-back.

it'll be awkward in the inn room. both of them have tried to remain as subtle as possible about who they were. turns out there was only one room available, and it would have looked strange for the pair of them to split up anyway...

for the moment, rion's on the bed, stripping his armor off. don't worry; he has clothes underneath, but have you ever gone around wearing armor all day? it sucks. deal with it, xion. maybe see if you can figure out how to reasonably communicate with your new bodyguard.]

[blackcoats]

[Xion is no stranger to awkward situations. her entire life has been one, after all, with recent happenings not exactly helping. as tensions have been rising between the kingdoms, protecting the crown princess to ensure that she would live to see her rightful ascension to the throne has been the number one priority. higher concerns regarding violence and espionage meant she was no longer safe at the castle; the king's council, his most trusted advisers, had suggested the plan to keep her constantly on the move. she'd have one knight to keep her safe; any more than that would have surely turned heads. the idea was to stay in the shadows, to not draw attention, to keep hidden until the castle had been safe to return to.

she'd admittedly thought it strange that Rion had been chosen as her personal bodyguard when she'd first been introduced to him, but she of all people knew that appearances could be deceiving. surely, there had to have been a reason for him to have been assigned to her; she trusted the council's decisions. (perhaps she was a little too trusting.) maybe it was because he didn't fit the usual image of a knight, instead resembling a page with his lack of muscle and sword. dressed as commoners, they very well could have slipped past enemy lines undetected. in any case, it was a thought that neither needed to dwell on.

she'd attempted to make conversation with her new guard while they were on the road, but quickly relented once she'd noticed his lack of responses. she'd reasoned he was focused on making sure the journey had been safe; it was a fair assumption to make, and she'd given it no further thought. she could only imagine how stressful it must have been to take on the assignment he had, after all. there wasn't exactly room for casual conversation then.

it's only when they're resting for the night that she finally breaks the silence between them. they're as safe as they're going to get in this secluded inn, where no one knows who they are or where they're from. as he undresses, she makes the bed across from him, then removes her shoes as she sits down on it. her eyes linger on him for a second, then she speaks in a small, slightly tired voice:]

Um... Sir Lyon, was it? [she pauses for a bit, giving him a hesitant look before quickly appending:] Since we're going to be together for a while, would it be okay to call you by your first name?

mayaaaa

[ghostful]

[Taesoo isn't really doing anything all that spooky right now— just aimlessly trailing behind random people. It's not like he follows them all the way to their destination, or anything like that. And it's not like he means them any harm, or anything. He is nothing if not a friendly ghost.

And lucky for him, right now he's following a pretty lady! Who he assumes can't see him right now, but he kind of wishes he could flirt with her anyways...]

[feythful]

[for a spirit medium, Maya's spiritual awareness can be a little lacking sometimes. it's not that she doesn't have the power; she just doesn't know how to completely focus it yet, still being in training. one day soon, though, she's destined to become the master of the Kurain Channeling Technique—she's gotta keep practicing to uphold the legacy!

while it's true that she can't see Taesoo right now, she sure can feel something behind her. she turns around, equal parts apprehension and curiosity evident in her expression. with the absurd amount of times she's been kidnapped and/or framed for murder, she can't help but be a little cautious...]

Is anyone there?

NEKU MAI BOI

[wantstoshine]

[It wasn't often that Chika had gone down to the city being a countryside girl. But this was important for promoting her school idol group. That's why she decided to stake out in Shibuya today. There were tons of people there who she was bound to get the attention of. So that's why she's standing on a box wearing a bandana with her idol group name on it and is handing out flyers to anyone who walks pass.

And she didn't forget the important thing: Her megaphone. She was a loud person on proxy, but this was bound to send her voice into obnoxiously higher octaves.]

HEY, YOOOOU! DO YOU LOVE IDOLS!? DO YOU LOVE THE COUNTRYSIDE?! IF SO, PLEASE COME DOWN TO URANOHOSHI ACADEMY! I'M TAKUMI CHIKA REPRESENTING AQUORS! WE'LL BE HAVING A LIVE SHOW IN TWO WEEKS! TWO WEEEEEKS!!

[She's been yelling into her megaphone for the past hour. The biggest question is why the police haven't told her to quiet down yet.]

[psychout]

[even with as much as he's changed during the course of the Reaper's Game, Neku admittedly still finds some old habits hard to break. one example he still exhibits from time to time is his low tolerance for the annoying. it's impressive that, even at the half block distance between them, as well as the fact that he's listening to his MP3 player on full blast, he can hear her voice—or shrieks, really—through the noise.

with frustration-bordering-on-contempt in his tone—though still with his headphones in, because they have some degree of noise-cancelling technology—he flatly says,]

Can you not?

Ryslig AU says suffering o'clock

[belligerentwarrior]

[It's getting worse, that sickness and leaden fatigue that settles in her bones every time the fog spits her back out into the world of the living. Near-death experiences were dime a dozen to Fang, but actually dying, well... She didn't think she'll ever get used to that.]

[Fang didn't return the first day of the fog or the next. She came trudging back through the door to their residence early on the fourth night, looking utterly exhausted, after spending a day resting on the beach she woke up on and traveling in short bursts.]

[Vanille's probably worried sick more than she usually is. At least Fang shows up looking like a normal gargoyle again; gone was the absurd wingspan, crown of horns, boiling blood, and dire need to burn everything. The bugs were gone, Fang was sure of it, and beneath all that weariness, she couldn't be more overjoyed for that.]

Sorry to keep you waiting. [If only that damned archaic computer came back from the dead with her, showing up days late wouldn't be such an problem.]

[feigned]

[gargoyles' petrification doesn't always mean unconsciousness. there have been days upon days that Vanille has been unable to rest even while deprived of her ability to move as her body crystallized as soon as day broke. it's the worst feeling, being aware of the world around you as things continued moving forward while you're literally stuck in time. at least when she and Fang had been in the pillar, they were mostly at ease; she couldn't say the same of Ryslig's atmosphere.

she could not fathom how these horrible things kept happening to Fang, when all she could do was watch or scream or, in the worst case, just hear about secondhand. their suffering was supposed to be shared, isn't it? something could be said of the amount of times Vanille herself disappears into the fog, only to come back days later, but at least nothing traumatic happens to her when she returns. she somehow doesn't have the propensity for dying that the other Pulsian does.

it's with wide eyes with heavy bags underneath that she greets Fang with on this night. she sucks in a deep breath as she rises to her feet, her wings unfurling as a chill runs up her spine. they beat once with a fervor before she folds them up again, biting her lip and almost drawing blood with her fangs.]

Don't you dare say sorry to me.

[she's not mad, though, even if that's what the phrase usually implies. her voice is shaking, and her eyes are already starting to well up.]

Ryslig AU, post-Control of Center, mostly Nyu failing at trees

[long_live_the_queen]

[She wasn't sure how she felt about being able to see in the dark, now. Of all the strangeness and horrors and dangers of this place, being able to see what made noises in the dark was far from ominous. It made Nyu confident, being able to cross a room without tripping over anything, and...upset her all the same, as further evidence of what she no longer was. She wasn't human anymore, if she'd ever been; she was horrid and monstrous and scary.

These people that saved her weren't scary, though. They were kind, even when she was frightened or nervous. That made her feel confident too, secure—even curious again.

And there was a noise outside she couldn't quite place. It didn't sound ominous, just a persistent cicada-like drone. Nyu had gone looking for it, peering around shrubs in the evening's shadows, and—something small jumped at her unexpectedly.]

Nyu!

[She recoiled, leaping into the nearest tree like some overgrown jumping spider. All eight legs and clawed hands scrabbled frantically at the bark until she was high enough that the branches started to bend under the arachne's weight and...she forgot how to coordinate her legs again, startled adrenaline abandoning her.

...oops.]

[feigned]

[Vanille, very reluctantly, has accepted the night as her domain. even for as long as she's been on the peninsula, it's been a very jarring change; perhaps even more so, in some ways, even harder to get used to than the wings and scales and claws that made up her physical transformation. the sun used to give her energy, make her want to dance in its rays and forget about the things that bother her; now, it petrifies her, forces her to retreat into the shadows, lest it freezes her in place until it sets.

instead of gracefully playing in the day, she now stalks in the night, the light of the moon a shadow of what she used to enjoy. she finds she cannot wait at the roost she calls home, or else Fang may be tempted to check on her; she can't risk things while Fang is still human, because how could she possibly live with herself if anything were to happen should her monstrous instincts overpower her last vestiges of humanity?

she's brought out of her brooding reverie when the arachne lets out a yelp, and the sound of branches about to snap echoes through the night. with her eyes wide as she looks up and sees the other girl, she brings a hand to her mouth, and asks with genuine concern,]

Goodness—are you all right?

[thank goodness the other girl is a fellow monster; she'd be tempted to just run away had she been a human.]

HERE I AM

[follytobe]

[ weiss schnee. weiss schnee doesn't mind that her father calls her every single day to check up on her. she's been in college for two years already! SHE'S FINE. she's always a dean's lister and is the pet of every teacher. everything is great for her! although sometimes, her bossy attitude has its downsides. some of her classmates don't like her, and when they're grouped together for a project, they just leave everything to her. "oh weiss, you're so smart. you can do this!" or "oh weiss, i'm sure you don't need OUR help since you're so great!" ]

Fine! I can do this on my own. I don't need you, or you, or you.

[ she points at her classmates as she spins her swivel chair in her room. of course, her classmates are imaginary. there is no way she would let those kinds of people into her room. besides, nobody should be playing with zwei aside from her.

... and ruby's friends, i guess.

and because of this project, it means an all-nighter! hopefully ruby won't mind that the lights of their room will be switched on the entire time until morning. and hopefully ruby is still out, because: ]

Dear Ruby,

I need you to pick up some grinded Arabica coffee beans for me. I'll pay you when you get back, of course.

Yours truly,
Weiss Schnee

[ you don't have to text that way EVERY TIME, weiss. ]

good

[scytheology]

[in striking contrast to Weiss, Ruby is... lacking, in most areas. being someone who got into college a little early thanks to her superb track-and-field records makes her feel awkward and distanced from a lot of the student body. it's a wonder that Weiss Schnee, actual debutante, is someone she can call a "friend," even if she puts a little more stock into it than the other girl.]

k

[... and that's all she says. it's about an hour after she sends that text that she gets back to their room. judging by the way Weiss worded her message, Ruby assumes her roommate is still awake... but just in case, she tiptoes up to the door and slowly pushes it open. she peers into the room, and once she sees that the lights are still on, she at least stops worrying about waking Weiss up.]

Hey Weiss. Still working? —Oh, yeah, I got your coffee!

[with grocery bag in hand, she makes her way over to a table to set it down. the bag's contents are a mix of Ruby's snacks and dog food for Zwei, but perched at the top is a package of coffee beans! ... except it's not exactly the one that Weiss had asked for; it's the supermarket's generic brand, with a hastily-scrawled "ARABIKA" label taped to it.

Ruby hopes Weiss doesn't notice.

(she's totally going to notice.)]

BAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLS

[darkbreak]

((Poke that is...))

[blackcoats]

[Xion vaguely remembers her early life in Alola before her parents had whisked her away to Unova for business purposes, where she'd spent countless days waiting in line to get the ever-popular Casteliacones with her new friends in Castelia City. just in time for her to start her Pokémon journey, family matters had yet again seen to her moving back to the island chain, even though most of the friends she'd known back then had already departed for their own adventures. it'd been so long ago, she wasn't sure they would have even remembered her in the first place...

for whatever reason, one of those old friends had stuck around by the time she'd come back to Iki Town; Xion had been shy around him initially for the reasons mentioned above, especially because she felt like he'd definitely been closer to the friends who'd started their journeys early, but... whatever projecting she was doing had gone unfounded, as the two of them agreed to traverse the region together anyway.

it's basically the morning of their scheduled departure, and goodbyes to family have already been said, but Xion doesn't look so ready to go.]

Um... Riku, have you seen Mimikyu?

hmmmm idk who this could possibly be for

[rewritethesky]

[This is so surreal, and given what all of them have been through, that is saying something. But the fact of the matter is that Naminé never would have hoped or thought that she would be her own person again, separate from Kairi without any adverse affects. She had hoped that Roxas would be the one to be the exception, able to exist separate from Sora, because he would be integral and important as his own person. She never thought that Riku and the others would try to find a way to bring her out too after all she did.

It was jarring and a bit nerve-racking to be honest. Naminé remained grateful and accepted it, but it's hard to believe that she'll have a part in the battles to come.

Even harder for her was that they accepted her request, sort of. Truly, it was just a casual conversation that she was having with the new Master Riku about wanting to do more, help more. And strangely, he seemed to accept the idea of training her. But not him personally, the little Nobody could tell he still wasn't confident enough in his new position to do so. But another Master might be more suited to the role...

So that's how and why Naminé is here, in this strange new world with blended features from both the Land of Departure and Castle Oblivion. It makes this place feel a little foreign despite the fact that it technically is her birthplace, and that plus the upcoming meeting and training with one Master Aqua, makes her very uncertain with what wad to come.

But she offered to help, and help is what she's going to do.

So she presses on into the castle until she finds the particular room they were meant to meet in.]

[mastering]

[after having spent so much time in the dark realm, it's strange for aqua to once again be part of the world of light. years and years had passed while she wandered seemingly forever; she'd almost forgoten what it was like to be touched by the sun's rays. yet here she is, standing under the sky she'd left behind with her two best friends.

she'd always known that boy, sora, would be the key.

she never did think that she'd be using her master status as it was meant when eraqus had conferred it upon her, though—that is, training new keyblade wielders, new forces in the battle against xehanort. it'd only been recently that she'd been introduced to the heartless, so the nobodies are even more of an unknown variable to her. but she'd been told that, despite their birth from nothingness, between the realms of both light and dark, these two—roxas and naminé—were different.

roxas, admittedly, looked too much like ven for aqua to handle; he was still housed within castle oblivion, sleeping, while terra still had yet to be rescued like aqua was. it was with a heavy heart that she had to pass on mentoring sora's nobody, instead entrusting his training to the new master, riku. she could handle the girl, though.

while aqua was surprised to learn that naminé's other, kairi—the young girl aqua remembered meeting in radiant garden all those years ago—inherited the keyblade thanks to aqua herself, it ultimately made sense in the end; it seemed like the second coming of her, terra, and ven, in a way. while they still didn't know if naminé had inherited kairi's keyblade, like roxas had with sora, if the young nobody was willing to learn, who was aqua to refuse?

it's in the room that her keyblade armor has resided for the last ten years that aqua asks naminé to meet her; a little morbid, maybe, but it reminds her of what she's fighting for. when the nobody enters, aqua turns her eyes away from the armor and looks up, welcoming her in.]

Naminé?

[appreciable]

[when your best friend is a thrill-seeking, dimension-hopping witch, you kind of get used to long stretches of time without them, even if you too have this special ability. fortunately for nora, though, she can rest happy that any time omega bounds off to some faraway plane to wreak her own special brand of chaos; someone has to keep the peace at home! besides, she knows that always means omega will come back with a great story.

... well, maybe not always. (usually, though!)

case in point being this latest excursion. the details of omega's story don't get past the opening line at this point, as the normally bubbly nora explodes with concern, her voice cracking.]

What do you mean, a murder game? What the heck kind of place did you land your butt in this time, Omega?!

[intolerable]

That's just it! I didn't land my butt there, I wound up there without wanting to! It pulled me there. And it's just what it says on the tin. Some elder god thingy was making me and a bunch of other people just kill each other for no reason! It was garbage.

[ She did bring back Nora a keychain, though. ]

And what's worse is the best person I met there is still trapped... he was so funny and legit, but he offered to trade his life for everyone else's who had died... including me. We were all got brought back to life and were able to go home, but he told me I better not stay to save him. He said I needed to come back as the strongest witch in the world if I wanted to save him.

[ She sighs... dare I say it? Omega made a legit friend! ] What a stubborn guy. I mean, I'm glad to see you again, but thinking about how he's still there...

u know what ho

[vipmix]

[what a nice day it is in traverse town, forever and always. but something in the dream world seems different today... josh can't quite figure out what it is...

Which is why he's just perched on top of a building lost in thought, not stalking the rest of twewy cast but watching some Nightmares and Dream Eaters duke it out. Surely nothing odd or strange could be happening here, right? It's his dream.]

now i can tag u twice as much

[soloremix]

[that difference that josh feels is probably neku, who has once again woken up on the ground, having been lying face down on the pavement. he's gotta stop ending up like this.

when he comes to and lets his eyes adjust to the perpetual twilight of traverse town, he frowns. just where the hell is he now? this isn't shibuya, nor is it that island he and joshua had experienced in a dream. it's... kind of got a similar feeling to it, though, even if he can't quite explain it.]

(Time to figure out what crap is going on this time...)

[it's eerily quiet in this dusky town, he notes, his footsteps upon the cobbled stone echoing off the empty storefronts. despite having spent most of his life keeping others out of his world, the silence now is a little unnerving.]

Anybody out there?

[he sees a flash of color move in the corner of his eye, and jerks his head toward it. whatever it was is gone by the time he reacts. a stray cat, maybe...?]

Ugh..

[226sluttyyears]

[ The soulmark. What an ancient tradition absolutely unlauded these days.

Marie Antoinette's signature has been on his dominant arm since he was seven, pulsing with glow every time he came near her. Couples in her court never glowed. People were married for power, not out of a sense of destiny. Humans were too valuable to let chase their dreams when forming alliances was the top priority. How must she feel, knowing her name is upon him and having to cover it with makeup so her husband doesn't feel inferior?

Then there were the deaths and then some. He's sure his fever came and took him before her because he couldn't live in a world without her. He claimed only to love his music, but every song he'd ever written was for her. It was his way of channeling his love into song that she might one day hear. The only way she could hear their bond... the only way they could speak.

Of course, he denied it, but maybe Marie knew. Maybe she didn't. It was difficult to love someone your entire life and perish, but more difficult was coming back as a servant... along with her.

And their master had trained them together, so his arm was always lighting up-- he could never see hers despite her outfit, where had she covered it?

In a warm break in Chaldea, one thing had survived. An old piano meant for teaching students in recreational hours. He tuned it to a perfect degree, spent hours fixing it, and at once, laid down his fingers to finish the last song he was to play before he fell ill.

Footsteps in the hallway interrupted him, however. ]

[guilloqueen]

[marie loved louis, yes, but... only in the way that she loved everybody. he'd never been offended—their influential parents had decided that they were to represent a bond between their countries. it's why they'd taken so long to consummate their marriage, why her mother chastised her for not bearing children until seven years after her marriage, why the rumors of louis's infertility and marie's promiscuity had begun to spread through france.

no, her heart has always truly belonged to that charming musician boy she met at her family's summer house, who'd had the courage to ask for her hand when they were children. of course marie, the eternal romantic, would fully believe in love in first sight. imagine her joy, her sorrow, when they'd been summoned together from the throne of heroes; both had made their marks on history to be memorialized forever.

she has always loved mozart's music. she adores the way his fingers expertly work the keys, the way his brain can improvise a masterpiece on the fly, the way his heart works its feelings into every note. when she hears the sound of a piano being played through the halls, she is instantly drawn toward its source. she makes sure to keep her footsteps light, but somehow she still manages to interrupt the music. of course, a trained ear like his would be able to note even the sound of a feather falling to the ground.

she peeks into the room, her expression cheerful, yet apologetic.]

I'm sorry—did I disturb you, Amadeus?

body heat/rain

[intolerable]

[ Autumn rain is lovely if you're inside your cosy home, watching it pelt your windows instead of appear out of nowhere in the middle of a forest you were trawling for a secret treasure or monster or both? Omega thinks it's both. Slay the monster, get the treasure, but knowing Nora it'd be pacifying the monster and being given a meager piece of it.

It's a cold and torrential downpour, and the skies foretell it being a lasting storm with lightning striking up close and in the far distance. After rushing together (or Omega bridal carrying Nora through the forest at a hasty speed, they find shelter in a forest fire observation tower.

As they look over the woods and watch the lightning strike from outside the tower as rain beats relentlessly against the roof and drips down in places, Omega realizes the only blanket in here is a ratty shawl someone probably forgot when forest fire season ended. It wouldn't keep either of them warm, especially Nora. She could see the mothbitten parts of it too... gross. She tosses it to the ground.

She grabs Nora from behind and pulls her to sit on the bed with her. At once, she wraps her arms around her. Too intimately. Her forehead is burrowed in Nora's shoulder to hide her expression. But from Omega comes a pulsing core of warmth. It feels like a heated blanket at one's back. Of course, someone with control over fire could control the warmth of their body... ]

No pneumonia, not on my watch.

GOMEN

[appreciable]

[even though her parents both passed down the ability to use magic to nora, at the end of the day, she's a regular ol' human and not an actual witch (half-witch, she knows, but who's really keeping track) like her best friend. as such, she's not really taking to the sudden change of weather in the middle of their adventure as well as omega is. bummer!

hugs are certainly not a rare commodity in the nora-omega relationship—heck, nora first hugged omega maybe five minutes into their very first meeting. the only major difference now is that the spoons are reversed, with omega embracing nora from behind. nora's actually surprised, but that shock quickly melts into elation, because yes, omega is totally big spooning her out of her own free will! write this down in the history books, folks.

despite her giddiness, she pretends to be annoyed at her friend's caring, her voice taking on a mock stubbornness.]

A-a little rain isn't gonna get me sick! [then, as if perfectly on cue, she suddenly stops talking and quickly turns her head away to avoid sneezing on omega's head. unlike her bratty act, though, that one was 100% real.] ...ugh...

Reunion - for Marie

[rulerclass]

[ The halls of Chaldea are still a strange place for Jeanne. She knows that as a Ruler-class servant, she technically should only be summoned in order to regulate a Holy Grail War but this... this is different. There is no singular Holy Grail War, no battle between magi or even groups of magi. Instead, it's a fight to preserve the future of humanity and a battle to preserve its past, one which she knows she should not remember but finds that new memories drift into her mind the longer she is here. She had been there, hadn't she? At Orleans, fighting her darker self, she had looked into what she might have been and defeated it.

And now she was here. A place teeming with Servants, their singular Master, and all the staff that ran the place. Teeming was perhaps the wrong word, but it was a small facility and it was hard not to run into people. Part of her wondered how one Master kept them all supplied with Mana.

The thought is driven from her mind in an instant as she peers down a corridor and catches a glimpse of a girl with her hair in two long tails and that absurdly round hat on her head. That girl is familiar and it feels as if her name is on the tip of her Jeanne's tongue. Without thinking, Jeanne turns and takes a few steps down the corridor. She's slow at first, hesitant almost, then her pace picks up speed until she is almost marching towards the girl. Jeanne feels giddy, excited memories picking at the edge of her mind as she finally
eases herself to a halt. Be calm, Jeanne. ]

Excuse me. I think... I think I know you.

i too got wordy

[guilloqueen]

[ for heroic spirits, the throne of heroes serves as a vessel for their souls in the cycle of death and rebirth in their fight to save humanity. marie considers herself a lucky servant, never having participated in a proper holy grail war. how sad she would be if she had been forced to fight other servants at the bidding of their masters, all for the elusive holy grail... no, she much prefers her duties here in chaldea, where her only mission is to preserve and restore the future where everyone can smile.

she turns around slowly as she recognizes the voice coming from behind her. for a second, she is overjoyed to see the maiden saint; she knows that after her sacrifice, her master and jeanne had resolved the singularity, but it's a whole different thing to see the ruler-class servant with her own eyes. she also seems to be a true servant now, rather than her human shade in orleans... that must explain the confusion, why she finds marie familiar but can't seem to remember exactly who she is.

the hurt in marie's heart at being a forgotten memory lasts only another second more. if she has to befriend jeanne d'arc once again, so be it. getting to be with the hero of legend who had saved her—their country in any capacity is a blessing, and she'd do it many times more if she has to. so it's with a warm smile that she greets jeanne, her arms outstretched and open wide. ]

Ah, Jeanne! Welcome to Chaldea, ma cherié.

MARIE...also will all our threads always begin with Sanson having something in his hair

[painalty]

[It's a beautiful summer day. For once, even for a moment, the world did not need saving and the crew of Chaldea, servants and all, decided it would be a good time for a summer holiday. Nothing can go wrong, right?

Wrong. Sort of.

Sanson is already regretting his decision to allow Nursery Rhyme and Jack to bury him in the sand and make sandcastles on top of him. Everyone else had joined in the fun - Mozart attempted to compose a new piece on one side, Elisabeth tried to write lyrics to it, and of course other servants showed up to cover the entire mound of sand with more sandcastles and other things like paw prints, scribbles, and seashells stuck into the sand in patterns.

It would have been fine if a crab hadn't decided to crawl up onto his head, and unfortunately his arms are out of commission. All he can do is try and dip his head in the hopes that the crab will fall lightly back onto the sand, but that crab is a stubborn creature and won't leave its new home.

HE NEEDS HELP.

When Marie is in sight, he mutters something that sounds like "Mon Dieu" and says:]

Maria, there's something on my head. [A pause.] Please help me remove it...

his fluff begs for it

[guilloqueen]

[if sanson was looking for help with his predicament, he probably shouldn't have reached out to marie. though she hadn't joined in the spectacle that had taken place around the assassin-class servant, she's more than prepared for a day at the beach. when sanson calls out to her, she is deaf to his request. instead, she drops the beach ball tucked under her arm to clap her hands together in glee as she rushes her way over.]

Ah—! How cute, how cute, he matches Louis! [she tilts her head so that the pigtail that her own crab friend is resting atop is elevated (as if to emphasize that "louis" is said crab), then crouches down to extend a finger to the little crab in sanson's hair.] Bonjour, petit Henri!

[she's already named it for him...?!]

stargazinnnnnnggg 1 my starters are always so long im sorry

[undeserved]

[ YoRHa was gone; the Tower was felled, and the war was as good as over. Their lives should have been, too. But the world kept turning, and, somehow, it let them survive - together. She doubts they'll ever be able to truly thank the Pods for what they did. 2B had been content with her fate, knowing it was what she deserved; now, able to stand on her own two feet beside 9S, able to look out once again on this beautiful world, unbound by her duty, she's glad that Pod 042 hadn't been as content as she was.

It's wonderful, and a little frightening. No one knows quite what to do, least of all 2B. The days pass by slowly, filled with small things, learning moments, as the androids slowly piece together how to live in a peaceful world. She throws herself into rebuilding efforts with the Resistance - work is all she's ever known how to do - and when 9S willingly tags along with her, knowing exactly who she is and what she did, she even manages to smile, just barely.

There's a lot of the world they haven't seen. It will never be what it used to be (they'd all known that from the beginning, as much as they tried to believe otherwise), but there's still life to be eked out and resources to be found; 2B and 9S are perfect for seeking them out. That's how they ended up here, not too far from the amusement park. The fireworks can still be heard in the distance, blotting the horizon with pink and yellow - but the sky above them is much more interesting. She'd seen the stars countless times from the Bunker; the view from the ground is much different, somehow, and as they walk through the (largely trampled) forest, her gait slows to a stop while she gazes upward. ]

[analyze]

[ as a scanner unit, it's only natural for 9s to be curious about anything and everything. does he regret that it's because of that curiosity that everything happened the way it did? if he'd just kept to the plan and didn't go out of his way to seek out the classified intel on the bunker's servers... if he hadn't discovered the lies, the suffering, the anguish, the destruction...

... nah, he can't say he does. because if he hadn't... they probably would have perished along with the rest of yorha, or worse—they might have been trapped in the tragic cycle that saw 2b killing 9s over and over again. they wouldn't be here right now, free of pain, free of subordination, just free. and that's all they could really ask for right now.

thanks to the pods' careful work, 9s had been successfully reactivated without any trace of the logic virus left in his system. of course he'd been overjoyed to find out the 2b he remembered—and yes, for the first time, with his memories intact—was waiting for him when he woke up, that this 2b was real and not just a ghost born of his corrupted circuits. of course he'd forgiven her for all that she'd done, because she had done nothing wrong. of course 9s always wanted nothing more than to be with 2b.

when 2b stops moving, so does 9s, following her gaze to look up at the sky himself. how silly this might seem to an outside viewer—two androids, transfixed by a perfectly ordinary natural phenomenon. of course, being the chatty guy he's always been, it's 9s who breaks the silence to remark casually on the sky above them. ]

It's way different seeing this kind of thing from the surface, huh, 2B? Humans used to call them "shooting stars"... even though that's not exactly correct. If we're being totally technical here, those bits of cosmic debris are meteoroids, not stars, and the "tails" they leave behind are just streaks of light produced by them as they try to breach the atmosphere. Most just disintegrate before they get anywhere close to making impact.

[ ... then he becomes aware of himself and chuckles weakly, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. ]

... sorry, didn't mean to nerd out. It's habit. But... I can see why people thought they were beautiful.