mistleglow: a winter kiss meme

[modblob]

mistleglow: a winter kiss meme.

The month of December has been a cold one in Anchor, with the bots working hard to bring a little winter joy to the city. This year, there's a little extra surprise - the bots welcome the participation of the nanites, who are able to join in with the winter holiday protocols for the first time in a long time following their long imprisonment.

And what are the nanites doing? Well...this winter wonderland has been missing a conspicuous offender: the mistletoe. That's where the nanites come in...

▶ The nanites will be floating around in little swarms, lit up bright with various colors, and when they run into any sentient creature, they will enclose them in a harmless invisible shield with a radius of approximately three feet by three feet. Once the characters are entrapped, they'll be stuck for exactly one hour...unless they kiss!

▶ There is no compulsion to kiss, and characters are welcome to just wait out the hour and hope they're stuck with a good conversationalist, but if they want to get on their way, they'll have to kiss their fellow captive, in a specific way depending on the color of the nanite swarm that's trapped them.

▶ The bots will be helping by helpfully informing any trapped characters they need to kiss as they pass by. They won't say what kind of kiss because that would make it too easy. But at least now you know, right?

▶ This meme can be counted as game canon and used for AC if threads continue into January (don't forget: December is check-in only) if both parties wish. Characters who are not in the game are welcome, and threads from this meme can also count for application samples! Come join us!

▶ How to Participate: Just post a top-level detailing the types of kisses you're interested in, and then tag around to other people's top-levels.

▶ Kiss Type Legend:

RED: MOUTH ● ORANGE: NECK ● YELLOW: CHEEK
GREEN: FOREHEAD ● BLUE: HAND ● VIOLET: BUTTERFLY

Navigation.

Comments

[scowlish]

Again, when he speaks she jumps slightly, obviously a little on edge. It doesn't really register to him that he might be intimidating to her, he assumes it's either some kind of claustrophobia or plain discomfort at being closed into such a small place with someone she's not getting along with.

When she moves to expose the watch she's wearing, he makes a little 'hm' in his throat, and then listens to what she says about the counting. That it's calming, something to focus on, and asks if it bothers him. He shrugs.

"It doesn't particularly bother me."

Then, after a few seconds, his eyes still pointed straight ahead and not necessarily at her, "Are you claustrophobic?"

[tenuefarfalla]

"Claustrophobic? No. I do all right in small spaces. You know, for a lot of people with claustrophobia, it's the feeling of walls closing in on them. An illusion of open space can be enough to calm them. So I suppose I wouldn't necessarily know if I've developed it suddenly - it's been a while since I was in a visibly enclosed space. Maybe I should go sit in a cupboard later to check. This is a pretty convincing illusion of open space." She runs her hand along the wall as she says it, as though testing that she still can't push her fingers through it. Her fingertips go white with the effort. Still trapped.

He said before that he had nothing more to say to her, but now he's talking, so maybe it's all right if she responds, as long as he starts it? Is that why she's making it stretch for as long as she can? Because she is definitely rambling. Huh. "My housemate says he gets claustrophobic sometimes, like on airplanes, and that sitting near a window helps. Or maybe he just wants to make sure he always gets the window seat." A slight pause, a furrow of contemplation. "Do they still have airplanes?"

[scowlish]

While she talks, he turns his head slightly to look at her. She's talking a lot, still seems nervous as she tests the barrier again and babbles about what it means to be claustrophobic. Sighing, Onni rubs a thumb against his jaw and then rests the side of his head against a forearm, face turned toward her.

"Mhm. We still have planes, but just broken in the woods."

It isn't much, but Onni isn't much of a talker, even with people who he's not at odds with. Looking at her still hurts, he gets that feeling again, of being completely helpless with the last member of his family left kept from him, not sure if he's actually okay or not, of being 'allowed' access to him only at the allowance of a virtual stranger. Remembers breaking down in public on the network, begging her, and how that still stings both his pride and his heart. For a moment, his fingers tighten against his own forearms, and he furrows his brows a little.

"Did you really think Lalli wouldn't be safe with me?"

[tenuefarfalla]

Planes broken in the woods, perhaps with the trees and other plants growing around them, through them. Cho has seen pictures of pickups in certain areas of American left to rust in the wild, slowly reclaimed by the wilderness. She wonders if the planes look like that. It's a sad, but oddly beautiful thought. Mostly sad.

Lalli. Safe. She turns her eyes to look at Onni, to try and read his expression, but she honestly isn't sure what she's looking for. He's hurt, and she's hurt, and it sucks. "You mean did I think you would be a danger to him? That you would actually hurt him?" The question is not quite as simple as it seems. Cho thinks that anything that would have caused Lalli aggitation, for whatever reason, real or imagined, might have caused harm. But had she thought that Onni would intentionally harm his cousin? "No. Are you... sure you want to talk about this?" She's not sure how she feels about it, but she doesn't feel good about much lately. This is hardly the worst of it. But she wants to be sure that Onni wants these answers, that she's not somehow managing to misread the situation.

[scowlish]

When she asks for clarification, his eyes flick over to her face again, though he keeps his chin buried against his folded arms, and then flick away again when she says no and asks if he wants to talk about this.

"If I didn't want to, I wouldn't have brought it up."

His voice is steady and calm as he says it, and he means every word, that much is obvious, but after a moment he continues, his voice still calm and even-toned but firm.

"I don't make idle conversation, as a rule. And I don't lie."