[closed]

[tinged]

Who ꕤ Hani, Mithrun, Miharu, Noe, Tylor, Dehya, Albedo, Shoka
What ꕤ area runs, past & upcoming event overflows
When ꕤ second half of august, first half of september
Where ꕤ Piling Ruined Venom Fang, Heartless Black Exile, Thirsting Prostrated Epistemophile (Wanderhalle Library)
Content Warnings ꕤ Hani, Mithrun, QST like UST but questionable. Tylor. will update as needed!


ꕤ Piling Ruined Venom Fang | Results (CW: Suggestive)
ꕤ Heartless Black Exile | Results
ꕤ Wanderhalle Library | Recreational
ꕤ Before Meteor 8/31 | Text to In-Game
ꕤ Protected Corpse's Holy Relic | Results

(( please DM me on discord @ scheris if you wanna be plotty! ))

Comments

[tablescraps]

... As opposed to indifference?

( Testing... )

[tinged]

Yes, that’s right.

[tablescraps]

( Hmm. Okay. Then back to statements... )

I do think I feel indifference toward you.

( Oh, okay. He thinks he's getting how this works.

He wonders if he can try to say the opposite thing on purpose and have it come out the "right" way... But does he want to...? That's a lot of effort... It might be worth trying once, just to know? )

[tinged]

[ well, that just makes sense? it took hani over two decades to feel anything more than affectionate indifference for anyone; these things take time, if they decide to happen, and it’s not as though hani has entirely left that nonchalant pool just yet.

so hani nods. acceptance. ]

I’ll wait. If your feelings do change, then I’ll be happy. And if they don’t, I’d be happy if you could be happy with another choice, another person.

[ they start leading mithrun into the gate with a tug. ]

[tablescraps]

( Mithrun's been preoccupied with the effect that he hasn't, in some careless sense, been thinking too hard about Hani - tuning back in a little belatedly, Hani tugging him through the gate and into the red desert of the murky forest, he realizes he's a little bit surprised by their answer. They really are hard to ruffle.

He casts his gaze over the murky forest and the dungeon therein, drawing his claymore, inscriptions all along the fuller down its middle, preemptively.

Slowly, he tries to speak the opposite of what he means to say, to see if the curse filter will flip it: )

... You really do mind everything, don't you.

( Ah, nope, that didn't work. So it operates on intent, the feeling, not intended phrasing. Interesting.

Well, he starts off down the trail. Good science guys. )

[tinged]

[ ??? ]

I do?

[ ????????? ]

[tablescraps]

( Across the stone wall threshold and into the dungeon... )

... You do.

( Well, maybe Hani will figure it out. Not that Mithrun has the desire to make it obvious, either. It's not really a big deal. )

Most people prefer to let the people they like go. It's normal.

[tinged]

[ ?… ???… ????

nani the heck?

hani stops walking. earlier they were tugging mithrun forward, now they tug him back toward them. he’ll let them, hani knows. their hands reach up to frame his face, soft, dry palms holding his cheeks.

they turn his face slightly to the left, then right. hmm. then gaze up into his lovely eye. hmm!! ]

If I kiss you right now, would you mind?

[tablescraps]

( Mithrun's tugged back toward Hani without resistance, and he doesn't resist how they turn his face about.

He gazes at them and their pretty face impassively. He wonders if he's seen this expression on their face before quite like this. )

I would.

[tinged]

[ hani kisses him then, to prove that statement wrong. just warm lips and a little bit of shared breath. even that small action makes their toes curl.

they pull back with a huff. ]

A blessing? Maybe like the thought bubble one I received last week… Mmm.

[tablescraps]

( Mithrun, as always, lets it happen, his gaze flicking away elsewhere the best acknowledgment that he had felt some sensation when it had. )

... No. I wasn't just in an Area before we met, so I couldn't have been given an effect I was familiar with.

It makes a particular difference to me, so I really wanted to clarify.

( the w word... feels weird to even say that phrase )

[tinged]

I see.

[ very seriously. makes sense, makes sense. ]

I don’t mind it either, but I don’t think I like that it’s forcing you to say you want things. Yes, that part I don’t like. These blessings are quite relentless…

[ the thought bubble had even translated their thoughts for everyone. though the timing was convenient since they had been too tired for most things, including basic conversations.

well! now that that’s settled, hani lets go of mithrun and continues onward. ]

[tablescraps]

( Oh... The sentiment gives him pause, and he's pulled along. )

... Are you happy for me?

( Upset, rather.

As they approach, though, he sees the first mob - Disco Knives among them. Mithrun's hand slips from Hani's as he shifts into a stance to start his AoE combo. )

[tinged]

It feels as though...

[ hani withdraws a bottle of whiskey from their inventory and flings it over to the farthest enemy. it hits one of the knives where hani images its forehead would be if it had one. the sound of shattered glass is quickly followed by spell: givak don, invoking fire and flame.

there's no friendly fire (pun unintended, they barely know what puns are), so the explosion of heat doesn't touch mithrun. but hani had deliberately aimed for the back of the pack, just in case. ]

I'm a cat and I've been given the softest, most delicate scratching post. It's still nice, but I don't like it. That kind of feeling?

[ iya na kanji ]

[tablescraps]

( Mithrun listens, even as he dashes in, untroubled by the rising flame, and unleashes a Koranshu, a broad swing that strikes through multiple targets with startling ease - before he doubles back into the rest of his combo to slice through the rest.

With Mithrun up front and fire at back, they bunch up toward the middle - making them easy targets for mowing down. )

... You don't prefer things as they are?

( Ah, so not all questions come out exactly the right way. Probably because it's not neutral; there's a presumption behind it - that he gets the sense Hani may like things as they are, even if that's a prickly and unrefined scratching post, as it were. )

[tinged]

That’s not quite it, no.

[ an absentminded answer as they fling more fire to finish off the mobs. ]

I would just prefer it if you had a choice. Whatever it may be - you know?

[tablescraps]

( Ah, he sees.

Once the mobs are satisfactorily finished off, he begins to trot down the way again. )

... You pay attention to other people less than I do.

[tinged]

Yay, good job!

That’s how I am. [ they agree, following along at an easy pace. ] I don’t understand people a fair amount of the time, however. I guess if you’re comparing us, it would seem like I do it more.

But why compare? You’re fine as you are.

[tablescraps]

( He keeps his gaze ahead, claymore still drawn. )

... What's it like, having so much space in your chest?

( Referring back to a conversation. )

[tinged]

[ megan rom is murmured from hani's mouth before they answer mithrun. the rocks impede the incoming dark horse, which is a terribly unfair name to the human part of it. ]

Well! [ a thoughtful hum. ] What's in your chest right now?

[tablescraps]

( He watches the dark horse struggle against the rocks for a moment, falling slow into a stance to leap - like an animal. )

... So much of everything, I think it might burst.

( And then he's off, coming up real close to the monster with a Death Bringer as the Dark Horse breaks through the rocks, its form a little more haggard from the damage - in time for Mithrun to meet it with a blade thrust into the horse's neck, twisting around to lop the whole thing off in a critical hit. He shifts to run the belly of the rider through with his blade, just as it raises its own blade to strike and shield to defend. )

[tinged]

I wouldn’t say I’m much of an expert.

[ they call out teasingly, “hey, mister. over here!” the rider’s eyes start sliding their way, having forgotten there was another player here in the midst of all the horse slaying and potential belly slicing. in comes the bright disco stick, hitting the creature in the face. a moment’s distraction but enough for mithrun to finish it off. ]

But I’ve felt cracks that I thought weren’t possible. Before Justy-kun, even. When Gani-kun… [ they trail off with a smile. ] Sometimes, I feel like bursting, too.

I don’t think I’m remotely close to being full? That’s a handful of people out of the dozens I’ve met and hundreds I’ll meet. Maybe we only imagine a limit. And maybe we don’t realize we’re not empty until that person has already settled into our chests, in our hearts.

[tablescraps]

( He listens to Hani speak as he beats off the shield with the sheer force of his claymore, the thrust of his blade too powerful in momentum to quite block - it's a normal hit, but a critical, and it runs the rider through.

It hangs there skewered for some few more moments before it finally dissipates away. )

... I see.

( He looks back at Hani, a nonverbal signal that he'll be proceeding so they don't get left behind, and starts off again down the stony corridors. )

... You think we're alike, right?

( Or rather, you think we're very different - Hani being of the conviction that they're all particularly unique. Or so Mithrun understands of them. )

[tinged]

[ with an air of someone who’s just here for a nice little scroll and some interesting scenery, hani follows along. ]

Us? We are indeed different, you and I - but we’re similar in some ways.

[ they stretch, interlacing fingers high above their head. maybe in another life, mithrun and hani would be like their hands, closer to mirror images of each other. but hani was born worshipped as a near-otherworldly marvel, carefully loved, body unscarred. that tachibana boy. then again, if mithrun’s scars didn’t exist, would they be similar still? ]

Do you have any thoughts on that?

[tablescraps]

( Maybe it's all the fire from earlier, or maybe they're just lucky, but this stretch of the way doesn't seem to feature any monsters, even as it narrows into a one way path.

Mithrun keeps his gaze fixed ahead, suspecting something will pop up eventually.

He doesn't really know the words for how he wants to reply to Hani - he wouldn't know them even if he weren't speaking backwards. It's a level of feeling and introspection he doesn't understand, can't see. When he sees himself in the water, it sees his reflection blurry. )

... I prefer me to you.

( Envy.

It's a general feeling - not rooted in the strange tangle of the three of them, though he sees shades of it there. He doesn't want to change, he has a goal in mind he can only complete while he is himself - he cannot and would not be them.

But there's something about being relatively alone in your experience, and finding someone similarly alien, and then - finding they are so blithely bright; curious and open to the world about them. They don't find themself so defined by what they lack.

As they walk, the air gets thicker, and heavier, in some subtle way - like two frogs in a boiling pot. The tell of a Dark creature watching them from some distance, no doubt. )