eastbound | (accidental) video; un: man's greatest treasure

[ -- and the camera starts transmitting, as someone pulls away from being very near Hermione. The talisman does not pick up the features of that person, at first, but what it does pick up is Hermione's faintly dazed murmur or:]

A-are you truly a witch?

[There is a brief pause, from the person - woman, you can see it's a woman (Miang-Si, if you've already met her) - in front of Hermione, before she darts forward again, darkening the view completely.

Before the trasmission cuts, from bodies pressing together too tightly, there is one audible clue: the sound of lips meeting lips in a surprisingly thorough kiss.]

- L A T E R -

[OH LOOK AT THAT, IT'S HERMIONE'S FACE. She looks a little more dishevelled than usual, a bit surprised.]

Th - [Clears her throat.] Did this thing turn on? [The indignity. Her first kiss in as long as she's been here, witnessed by the whole network. (Her first kiss with a girl, too! A woman even.) Earth swallow her up.

No, this is fine. She's going to grit her teeth and smile tensely.]

Right, so - on the bright side, I don't think Quangze suspects that I am one of her accomplices? The rest of the inhabitants still think I'm a writer of books on manners - there's something to be written about shoving your tongue in someone's mouth uninvited - regardless. I'm not - I've never met her before just now.

So, in light of that... Please all do me the favour of not mentioning to anyone that I am a you-know-what.

[ooc: Please consider this backdated to Miang-Si's parade on the 25th.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( there are so many things red could say to all of this, but there is really only one that matters: )

You okay?

[oh, it's Red. Red saw. Does Red think - well, who knows what she thinks. Probably nothing bad, right?]

I'm fine! There's a warning on my hand now, but otherwise I'm doing great.

[A pause.] Can I get one petty whine in?

Edited (I changed my mind re tag ) 2023-05-27 22:01 (UTC)

Woah, a warning? What kind of fucking warning?

( Red doesn't like the sounds of that - it's clear that the woman is going through it, but the fact she got a warning following a kiss? About what? Her hackles rise at the thought. )

But uh yeah, of course. I'm here for all kinds of whines or just being upset, cause that was several flavors of screwed up. ( Even if Hermione enjoyed the kiss that's not the way a kiss should ever really go down. )

[ The pettiness first. ]

I haven't had a kiss since the time I got here in Akhuras and that was just unfairly anticlimactic.

[Deep breath. Okay.]

The warning showed up on my hand, it says our red moon rises hungry.

( Red will file away the warning - it seems like some kind of riddle, which this place is pretty good at handing out. She doesn't like it though. Red moon? The fuck. If the moon glows red, she's going to Hermione's side to be sure she's okay. As for the pettiness, it's not really petty at all - it's something worth being upset about. )

Yeah. Having a kiss while someone's chained up, being dragged around to houses, and in answer to an entirely different question's, a fucked up way for it to go. Sometimes people can enjoy a kiss from a stranger, but way harder when they're chained, dragged around against their will. Puts a damper on it all.

( She gestures vaguely. ) ...was the first one you had here in Akhuras better at least?

[ She pulls a face.] No, I mean - that was it. Those were it. The first time here.

And uh, the last time before coming here was...complicated. I kissed one of my best friends in the middle of what felt like the final battle against an evil dark wizard because I thought hey we might die, and truth be told it wasn't grand but maybe that's just my destiny in life.

Great at spells, bad at getting kissed.

...oh, fuck.

That really sucks. Don't think it's petty to be upset about it btw. ( Not at all. ) But also you essentially went from the frying pan into the fire, right? Not like you've had much slow down time to actually meet somebody, gain some feelings, act on those feelings outside of the multiple fucked-up situations you've been in that adds a kind of pressure and emotional intensity to things.

I mean, you're not wrong about that point. This fire we're in doesn't really lend itself to romance, does it? With people who have actually managed to make it through the beacons back and forth, we have the proof that at the end of the day, once we leave we forget.

It's hard to have courage to seek out other forms of connection, beyond friendship, with all that in mind.

...and sometimes people leave forever, and sometimes for a second, and sometimes they leave and forget everything for a couple decades before they're tossed back into the frying pan.

Not really the recipe for long-term romance. Suppose that doesn't mean you can't have something in the short-term though if you wanted.

Something short-term? How would that even work, assuming that both parties agree to it? Do you put a deadline to it, or...?

You just kind of accept that it won't necessarily be forever. Not like life has any guarantees in it either, y'know? People break up for all kinds of reasons, life is fleeting, etc.

It's about appreciating the moment before it's gone. ( and all her relationships or quasi relationships or not-at-all-relationships that happened when she got the chance to live her two decades of life were like that: fleeting. for one reason or another, death or distance or falling apart. )

(accidental) video; un: man's greatest treasure

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