mistleglow: a winter kiss meme

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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

[sleepyhollowed]

[If only Kieran could see him! He'd have plenty to say about those red cheeks and goofy grin. He can hear the gentle tap of ben's palms against his cheeks, however, and can guess what's happened.]

[His smile widens.]

Hmm...

[Despite that smile, he's treating ben's question seriously.]

...Well, uh, w-what are you expectin' to go wrong?

[benhargreeves]

I - I don't know. Nothing specific.

[ Ben does know, though. He knows where his anxieties lie, the cracks inside him, the shattered places. It's just... difficult to talk about. But Ben trusts Kieran, deeply.

So he sucks in a small breath and explains in a low voice: ]

He promised he wouldn't let me hurt him, but I guess - I spent so much of my life convinced I was evil and that anyone who got close to me would be in danger. Part of me is still worried. Cole is so... good, and I just. I couldn't live with myself if I made things worse for him, when he's already been through so much.

[ It's not the kind of worry that has an easy answer. Ben has been striving hard to unlearn all those things Reginald had taught him to think about himself, but the work is long and hard and some days it seems endless. ]

I guess all I can do is just... try to treat him right.

[sleepyhollowed]

[If there's anything in the world that Kieran Duffy can understand, it's the fear of completely fucking something up. If there's anything he can understand even more, it's actually fucking up.]

[The look on his face is nothing short of empathetic as he listens to Ben's concerns.]

[When he first tried to talk to Mary-Beth, the conversation imploded on itself in spectacular fashion, and he hadn't helped.]

Yer not evil, Ben. I-I know you know that, but, uh, it helps to hear, you know?

And yer not gonna make things worse fer Cole. Just by tryin' to treat him right yer already makin' sure yer not gonna.

[He scratches the back of his neck.]

Besides, i-if you accidentally did do somethin' that, I dunno, h-hurt his feelin's? That doesn't mean that you m-messed up everythin'. That's why you talk and make up.

[benhargreeves]

It does. [ Ben thinks about just leaving it there, but instead, he says, voice quiet: ] It helps a lot, to hear it. I don't - know it every day, you know?

[ He glances up at Kieran, a small and slightly rueful smile at one corner of his mouth. It's hard, when he wants to be proud of the progress that he's made, admitting that he still has bad days. That this whole not hating himself thing is a work in progress, still. Ben wishes it were just a switch he could flip, a single choice he could make. ]

Thank you, Kieran.

[ In a burst of fondness he reaches over, taking Kieran's hand. His touch is careful, and he makes enough rustling noise as he moves so that Kieran will not be surprised. He's getting used to small measures like these. Then, in an impulsive moment of fondness, Ben brings Kieran's hand up to his mouth and plants a quick kiss to the back of it. It's an affectionate gesture, childish and noisy and, well, silly. Kieran brings out the silliness in Ben, at times. Makes him feel a little less like an old man before his time.

There is a distinctive POP as the bubble around them vanishes, the nanites ceasing to glow and flying off quickly to harass some other unsuspecting residents. ]

Wait, that's it? Seriously? That was all it took, this whole time?!