redmarsshit | mistleglow: a winter kiss meme

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mistleglow: a winter kiss meme

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh hell. It was one Rey's mind, but she wasn't sure how to be so bold as to say anything about it. With Elleru around, she doesn't have to.

As the seconds pass, she feels the heat slowly return to her skin. Now it's more of a flushed color rising to her face, as she feels the clamminess of her palms turn to sweat of a different kind.

"You think so?" Rey speaks out in a rather unsteady voice.

She's not exactly meeting Elleru's eyes to see how sincere she's being, but she's feeling a little more and more at ease despite the nervous creeping up inside her chest. It's baffling, how not even her panicked display earlier could deter someone like this from making suggestive comments like that in times like these. Not that Rey minds. She cares about it, but she doesn't mind...

"Might... need to lay down for a bit, first. Do you mind?" She doesn't mean to leave this place entirely. It's quiet, calm -- pretty chilly at the moment, but not to her. This is fine to relax for a little while more. Think about things... like that.

Elleru shakes her head, not minding at all. In fact, she leans back just a hair and pats her lap invitingly.

You want a thigh pillow, Rey? Have a thigh pillow.

While a lot of things tend to fly over Rey's head, a hint like this she gets. She's too weary, drained from what happened in her bones and spirit to react in exaggerated proportions and decline.

Instead, she takes the offer, repositioning herself onto her back so that she can rest her head on Elleru's lap. Rarely does she ever sleep like this, opting into sitting posture than putting herself in more vulnerable states. Right now, she'd rather not think about that.

What more, she closes her eyes, a soft hum rumbling from the back of her throat allowing herself to relax just a little.

As Rey closes her eyes, Elleru takes the opportunity to run her fingers through Rey's shaggy hair, gently brushing through the strands, carefully pulling at any tangles that curl around her hand. While preening is a social activity among her people, she's learned that humans tend to be more guarded with such contact, not allowing anyone but those they know and trust to be so close. Rey has been especially reluctant to form such connections, even with someone who has been trying her hardest to reach out to her, so for her to rest her head on Elleru's lap and close her eyes...

Well, Elleru can't help but feel she's special in some way, like she's done what others would deem impossible. With only the sound of the water for accompaniment, she hums to herself, her voice and song peppered with murmured trills and thrums as she goes through the melody. Rey is sharing something special with her, so it's only right she do the same.

In most scenarios, Rey wouldn't be caught dead letting her guard down the way she is now. To be so vulnerable that not only to expose her weaknesses out in the open, but to put herself into the hands of someone else...

It should be terrifying. But right now, there is an odd sense of comfort in this. She might not know Elleru that well, but in their past exchanges she's never given Rey any reason to assume that she's the type who'd take advantage of someone in effort to do them harm.

A few times there are memories of a confined room flashing in her mind's eye, in passing. A woman who would stroke her long, wild hair back then and hum a song not unlike a woman right here and now is doing. Rey doesn't linger on that moment for long, not to risk the ache in her chest causing more suffering than it needs to.

Her hands fold over her own chest, feeling the thrum of her mechanical heart under her fingertips. Focusing on Elleru's voice and touch through Rey's own unkempt hair, untangling her usually ungroomed strands bit by bit as she starts to allow her own tension unwind.

This is... nice.

This is nice. Elleru keeps humming, drawing her hands through Rey's hair, and wishing her native tongue weren't so strange to the upright ear. The words don't translate so well, but she tries anyway, her voice rich, deep:

I was born on this mountain
Born on this mountain
The river runs high as it flows through your veins
Yield in our claws, was a change in the thunder
Hear the tall trees as they whisper their pain

I was born on this mountain
Born on this mountain
The river cuts through and I follow its way
Yield in our claws as I think of before times
And know that the morning brings brighter a day

She had to swap a word or two on the fly to make it rhyme in common, but it works well enough. She forgoes lyrics after that, closing her own eyes to simply take in the moment.

"How does that feel, Rrey?"

Edited 2020-01-27 09:00 (UTC)

As Elleru sings, Rey doesn't shift, or speak. She's lies still, drinking in that voice, unaware of the changes their source had to make in order to translate. It doesn't matter. It keeps her grounded to this present moment for the time being, and that's all she needs.

For a fleeting moment, it seems all right to just forget... When she does move, it's to take Elleru's hand that's been combing through her own hair--

"It's beautiful," she exhales, not moving to stop Elleru from what she was doing, but to bring those fingers to her own scarred cheek. Her response isn't just to the song.

The touch of Rey's hand against hers startles Elleru slightly, her humming coming to an end with an inquisitive hm? as though to ask what it is Rey wants. She lets Rey guide her hand across her scars; from there, Elleru traces Rey's marred skin with her fingertips, mentally mapping out each one while reveling in the trust she's being shown. She hasn't known Rey terribly long, but she knows plenty well how closed off Rey can be when it comes to contact like this.

She smiles widely to herself, feeling truly special to have such a gift before her. Rey even called her song beautiful -- surely that is all she meant by that.

"It has been a long time since I sang," she admits. "I hope I am not rusted."

It's not entirely what she meant, but it's close enough that Rey isn't going to correct Elleru. Her fingers just curl around the other woman's; she finally welcomes herself to relax since her earlier episode.

"Is that a song from your home?" Rey asks, her voice uncharacteristically soft and quiet, careful when she asks because she realizes she doesn't know much about where Elleru comes from -- or even what she is. She appears humanoid enough, but the ears (and her other form) would imply otherwise.

"It is," she answers, her nails brushing through the shorter hairs at Rey's temples. "It is a song the... mm."

Her brow knits as she tries to think of the appropriate word for it -- one both understandable to an upright, and one that doesn't give away her true nature.

"I do not know the word for it," she admits. "But it is a song the hen? That she sings to the little ones at night."

At first Rey isn't sure she entirely follows. She looks up at Elleru, as if there will be clues in her features.

"To the little...?" Rey starts, tilting her head towards Elleru's touch a bit more. "You mean something like... a lullaby?"

Normally she wouldn't even understand the concept. But distant memories -- true and not fabrications, hint of a time where she was lulled with song and rhymes. It was always one of the few things that placated the monster inside.

"Ah yes, a lullaby!" Elleru giggles as she says the word, enjoying the way it rolls off her tongue. "It helps soothe them so they remain quiet." Too much noise not only wakes the others, but could draw unwanted attention to their colony, after all. The illusions set up to protect their home may deceive the eyes, but the ears are far more difficult to trick.

"I do not know many of them anymore. It has been so long since I heard them myself. Do your people have lullabies?"

To Rey it makes enough sense. She hasn't been around many children, but she knows they're rowdy, noisy, and not very good at being conspicuous.

"Don't... really have a 'people'." Rey casts a sidelong gaze, chewing the inside of her cheek. It's sad but it's also true -- she doesn't have a tribe or community to call her own. And the few she could, she doesn't want to burden herself upon. "But, have heard a few lullabies in the last. Songs. Stuff like that."

"You do not have a people?" Elleru questions. Rey had been hesitant to get close to others because she thought they would inevitably leave, but does she truly have no one?

That seems so sad, enough so that Elleru lets out a despondent warble. "Tell me of your lullabies. Perhaps I can sing them for you."

Rey shakes her head slightly, not to disturb Elleru's hand. "Nothing real, anyway."

Memories of a street urchin and her pack come to mind, but that was Stone's life. Not Rey's. She had tried to connect with others as Sheridan, but even she knew that she would never truly belong. Gregory had made sure of that when he planted those many lifetimes into Rey's mind.

She considers Elleru's offer then, looking up at the other woman through her lashes to mull it over. Rey doesn't sing in answer, or even share the words that she remembers sung to her in the cold, lonely nights of her glass cell -- the first 'House' she had ever known.

What she does is hum, shutting her eyes as the song reminds her. It's a nostalgic tune, slow and heartfelt. For someone who doesn't look it, she's a practiced singer, or at the very least a hummer. Hearing such things kept her sane in isolation. Made her remember why she's alive.

As the melody dies with a shaky sigh, Rey's fingers lightly squeeze Elleru's.

"There are words, but... Not ready to share them with anyone yet." It's one of the few things she has left that she can truly say belongs to her. Something her mother was allowed to give to her. To surrender it without thought feels like a betrayal.

Rey may not want to share the words to the song, but Elleru is touched all the same to have the melody hummed to her. She opens her eyes as Rey's song ends, returning the squeeze of her hand.

"We must all have some secrets," she muses softly. "I hope one day, we will share them with one another. For now, I am pleased to have your trust with this song. It is an honor, Rrey."

For Rey, it's her mother's song. Undine's song. She treasured it more than any jewel. Sharing it almost serves to further bind the fact that she existed once. That she had someone who loved her.

"Thanks," is all Rey says at first. Reluctant, she sits upright, not to put distance but to shift so she can turn to Elleru. "What's it like, having a people?"

All Rey ever knew were fleeting moments, but nothing ever cemented for long, and she often made a disaster of things on the end.

Rey's question is one that Elleru has honestly never considered before. What is it like to have a people?

She hms to herself, thinking. "To have a people can be many things," she starts. "It is to have a home, a place I can return to, if I so desire. Those who raised me are there, and though we may not always understand, we have concern for each other. That is important."

With Rey no longer on her lap, Elleru pulls her legs to her, getting comfortable again. "It is to have a history with the place and those who live there. We speak the stories of our creation and of our goddess. We have traditions we share. Our physical home may be destroyed, but those memories and practices that make us who we are remain."

She pulls a hand through her hair, still considering her words and trying to make sense of them. "Most of all, to have a people is to belong. They may not be like you, and your home may not be what it once was, but if you belong with someone, you have a people. And that is enough."

As Elleru speaks, Rey listens. She doesn't interject or ask questions until her final word, to which she just nods, understanding.

"So, in a way it's like family? Don't really have much of one either, but it felt... something like that." Her mouth tightens as she draws the distinction in her head, at least. She might not have had one growing up (for the simple fact that Rey never did, in fact, 'grow up' in the conventional sense) but, if only for a brief period and with one person, she had something similar to what Elleru described.

And maybe that's what Orion wanted to give her. A piece of what he had, and she never did.

"I believe it is like family, in a way," Elleru agrees. "And like home, family can take many shapes and be many things."

It's like Elleru herself, in a way. Liking that thought, she gives Rey a coy smile. "Perhaps you have a people already, and simply do not know it."

It makes sense. She's seen soldiers often share a tribal-like relationship among each other... not that Rey ever got to experience that much herself, oftentimes being an outsider by design.

"Well, had a person." She huffs at her own admission, scratching the side of her neck before she adds: "A brother. Never did have what he did, though."

Orion was able to accept familial figures his entire life -- if only because he actually had one, unlike Rey.

Elleru's brow knits in quiet confusion as she turns Rey's words over in her mind.

"But... a brother is family, no? Then you have had one."

Or maybe there's some upright distinction she's missing?

"Weren't family for long. Rather, didn't know he existed until a few years ago." She shrugs. "We were, um. Separated recently, too."

God, she hopes he's okay. Not that she'd be able to help him from where she's at, even if she was able to get back to her world.

Oh, oh that's even more distressing. Not only does Rey have a family, but she's separated from him? Is that why she's afraid to get close to people? It must be, Elleru thinks to herself.

She clasps her hands together, pressing them to her chest. "You were separated by being here? Or before? What happened to him? How did you not know him? Do you miss him, Rrey? Are you afraid others will be separated from you, too?"

She could probably stand to ask one question at a time, but she can't help how her heart bleeds for her companion.

It would probably help to answer one question at a time, but the bombardment is almost overwhelming because a.) what one is she even supposed to answer first? and b.) most of them segue into long anecdotes themselves. Rey practically deflates as she runs a hand down her face, trying to piece together how the hell she's supposed to unpack all that.

"Happened before here, yeah," is all she can muster at first. "Everything else is... loaded. Would take a while to get into."

It's not like Rey has anything better to do or anything, but she doesn't assume everyone wants to sit for a longwinded yarn.

Moreover, it would take more for her to try and explain things in a way that someone like Elleru might be able to understand, but she's reluctant to admit that at the risk of insulting the other woman's intelligence. It's not that she thinks she's dumb; just that they're literally from different times and places.

mistleglow: a winter kiss meme

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