EVENT 033

[sticksandbonesmods]

CRUSADER PROBE MISSION

Sometimes when you look outside, you think the Iris must be closer. That, or a month of isolation in the inn and not seeing the light of day has convinced you that the awful red moon has crept toward the realm you’re currently stuck in. Night after night feels largely the same; you go to bed to the awful shrieks of the Fake People, wretched hands tap against your window, and fleshy masses climb the walls. When you wake up, you hopefully remember to eat, and hopefully don’t fight with your neighbours you’ve been locked indoors with over the state of the kitchen, or the medical supplies scattered across the floor because someone tripped their way into the mobile clinic. Those of you who venture outside hopefully come back unharmed, maybe to the tune of worried friends and partners shouting that you should take a break. Surely the Goddesses must be working on a solution skywards, surely you need to wait, surely there’s some piece of the puzzle you’re missing, surely the magic will come back. Surely, surely…

Sleep, wake up, survive. Sleep, wake up, survive. Sleep… wake up.

There are twenty-five new moons in the sky.

Around the Grove’s sky in an uneven ring, your moon — the one from your home — joins the moons of your peers, bleeding, wounded, its craters unnatural and new. Sinew and tendon connect and pull like a sore being spread open by prodding fingertips. The twin moons of Elrios embrace Earthbread’s in a mass of unnatural tendrils. Valisthea’s moon is cleft in two, one half being pulled toward the east by a mass of goo attached to No Man’s, the other mid-collision with Earth’s. The debris that sprays out from it is a disgusting mix of blood and rock, frozen mid-splatter under the Iris’ gravity.

You swear when you look at the horizon that there are more Woodcrawlers than there were before, despite everyone’s best efforts. The wards on the inn hold, suppressed magic bubbling beneath the surface like a volcano waiting to erupt — one you can feel shuddering under your footsteps — and as the inn endures hit after hit from enraged creatures trying to get to you, you can’t help but wonder…

How much longer do you have left, realistically?

SLEEP IMAGE VISUALIZER

cw: promoting suicide

Out in the depths of the woods, the False God — the Forest, the Black Sun, the Creature — wakes from his slumber, to Zonari’s frantic shoulder-shakes and skyward pointing. The moons continue to corrupt, to bleed, to be consumed; the Heavens stay silent, and magic barely comes to the fingertips of those more powerful than you all. When the Forest glances at his fingertips, he can feel it suppressed under the surface, inaccessible even to Him. A Woodcrawler skitters toward his bedchambers from a shattered window and gets swatted like a gnat out of fury.

The Black Sun wants this hideous red moon to get out of his skies.

He does not approach the Grove. Rather, with the few dregs of magic that remain in a Fallen God and the blessings of his daughter at his side, he reaches into your minds — sleeping or waking.

“It’s been a while. If I wasn’t asleep, I would have cast that thing out of the sky before it got here for daring to mess with what is mine. It stole most of my magic, and I need it back — but I’ll get rid of it if you help me get my magic back. Consider it a gift.”

Whether sleeping or awake, you feel it — the burn of something on your wrist, like a tattoo needle being pressed down too hard for comfort. Some are marked with a black sun whose body is in the shape of a crescent; the other half are marked with one in the shape of a gibbous. When you try to cover the mark, or brush your hand over it to soothe the sudden sharp ache, it glows through your clothing and fingertips, unable to be hidden.

“Find someone with your opposite mark. Kill them, or give up and kill yourself.” The words hang heavy, but He does not pause to let you process it. “Don’t worry — you’ll only have things to gain from this. You already know how to give me the magic I need to get rid of that thing. Mizuki has told you time and time again, has he not? I promise there will be no consequences. I promise those who die immortality until the red moon is defeated, and if you lost something before… Zonari will give it back. And killers, well… you get the satisfaction, guilt-free. I know your fingertips must ache to pull the trigger, Wolfwood.

Chop chop.”

[CLICK FOR TEAM ASSIGNMENTS]

CRESCENT SUN	GIBBOUS SUN
Till	Viktor
Jayce	Ezell
Flamebringer	Faust
Mephisto	Mizuki
Elder Faerie	Pavlova
Pure Vanilla	White Lily
Shadow Milk	Silent Salt
Akaza	Genya
Senjuro	Kyojuro
Shinobu	Muichiro
Ain	Elsword
Aira	Vildred
Ras	Stan
Joshua	Ryan
Dipper	Zoey
Min-Gi	Astrid
Mystery	Luca
Lyle	Urbain
Kiera	Wolfwood
Corbeau	Cy
River	Lodi

GAMES FOR KIDS

Whether the Grove descends into immediate chaos depends on you. Do you immediately turn on your neighbour and try to kill them? Do you sacrifice yourself on the pyre? Do you grab your loved ones and hole up with the door barricaded? Ignore it? Hope someone else dies so you don’t have to?

Ydalir and Heimr, cross with this entire charade and unmarked, breathe out sighs that carry thousands of years of fatigue. The Guardians look no less thrilled about the situation, but their concerns lie around re-killing all of the Woodcrawlers and Fake People they spent so much time smashing weeks ago. The river, covered in Nethersea Brand, protects Sinann and the Seaborn — and only just, as the Woodcrawlers repeatedly try to stomp through it, only to get paralysed on top of it.

Zonari does not enter the inn, despite Heimr trying to extend the olive branch and say she may as well come inside. Instead, she sticks closer to the barn as she typically does if she visits, only venturing out into the cold to retrieve the dead after they resurrect twenty-four hours later and lead them back to the Grove. “What did you want back?” She asks those who have visited the Garden and lost something — a memory, a limb, an eye, an ability. “I have just enough magic to give it to you. Don’t go losing it again, or this was all a waste, wasn’t it?”

It is the Forest, though, that grants your immortality for dying. He has just enough magic to spare a little to throw your way. If you lose a limb under this blessing, it’ll reattach. Fatal wounds heal almost instantly, though they’ll still hurt for a brief few seconds. A papercut barely tickles you. The Woodcrawlers cannot crawl down your throat, Deep Root Disease does not settle under your skin, and the Nature’s Mockery can do little to impede your steps.

The nights tick on. Days become weeks. The marks on the wrists of the dead-and-resurrected fade. The chaos begins to lessen, little by little.

Then begins an all-out war.

THE DEEP BLUE

The Iris is not one to go down without a fight. It and the Black Sun are in a deadlock, pushing back against the other in an unending game of chess. When one is in check, the other retaliates. The fused moons suspended in the sky act as vessels to beam more and more threats down into the Grove — fifty, one hundred, one thousand. The inn weathers the storm only as long as Heimr and Ydalir continually cast what little magic they can access from the corners of the lobby; chalk-stained fingertips repeatedly draw and re-draw magic circles and arcane wards. If you can’t help outside with the sudden swarm of creatures attacking the inn’s walls and drive them back, they’ll instead ask you to help draw further wards, knowing that this is the best anyone could do in this situation.

The Guardians take on newfound rage outside. Moder’s earthquakes shake the threats off their feet every time she rears back. What doesn’t get stepped on and whipped aside by Sehul gets devoured by Callan’s ceaseless hunger. Back-to-back, Zahliya and Zonari stand valiant in front of the inn to cut down anything that gets too close, Nightfall clutched in her hand as a show of tentative trust from the shorter Gargoyle.

The Seaborn, adults and babies alike, rise from the river en masse and form together into something larger, tentacles and tiny hands holding tight to create an enormous, knightlike being donning shell armour and a blade made from sharpened bones. The Behemoth, too, joins the final stand with teeth and claws gnashing. Within the mountain peaks far away, if you listen closely, you swear you can hear the solemn prayers of the Lord of the Mountains. And far in the distance, rising beyond the cliffside covering the sea, the Cosmic Serpent rises from slumber, the stars making up its form twinkling dimly against the night sky as water cascades off its form. Its jaw unhinges, the light of thousands of swallowed stars gathering in its open mouth.

For a moment, the world seems to stop. You take a single breath and hold it as the chaos surrounds you, and suddenly the sky sunders with the burning light of dawn.

“ENOUGH!” Beiwe’s cry of fury mixes with the Fallen Sun’s own in tandem, and at the same moment her blade of dawn bears down upon the Iris, a blade of black from him joins parallel to hers. The Cosmic Serpent’s beam smashes into the Grove, vaporizing the monsters — and almost vaporizing you, if you’re helping the war efforts outside — at the same time the twin blades cleave the Iris in twain.

A still breath ripples through the trees. The rift in the sky torn open by brother and sister wobbles and ripples, but doesn’t close. The mutated moons are gradually bathed in Ourania’s healing light, the Seaborn return to the river, and the drained Fallen God’s breathing becomes a laboured, exhausted laugh. As the twin Gargoyles bicker and break the silence — Zonari thought it was a good idea to give her brother a noogie, okay? — a sense of calm finally comes over the Grove.

The next few days will be spent cleaning up the ashes of corpses, repairing broken infrastructure, and watching the skies gradually return to normal… yet the rift still hangs overhead, and the tickle of magic doesn’t return to your fingertips.

It still lies in wait.

Spark Notes (Click to Expand)

summary

CRUSADER PROBE MISSION: The moons are more mutated, with some of them smashed up or in pieces. Instead of rotating through the moons from various worlds of player characters, all moons from all player worlds show up in some state of decay.
SLEEP IMAGE VISUALIZER: Suri contacts everyone, places marks upon their wrists, and tells you all to kill each other to power him up so that he can get rid of the Iris. Everyone is assigned one of two teams... good luck!
GAMES FOR KIDS: Welcome to the Hunger Suri Games! Those who die and come back after 24 hours will become immortal for the month. If they died and previously lost something in the Garden, Zonari will grant it back to them with no questions asked. The chaos outside moderately lessens as more and more people become immortal, but the Iris makes a final stand.
THE DEEP BLUE: The inn's wards start to waver, resulting in Ydalir and Heimr asking for help maintaining them from those of you that can draw magic circles before they break again. Those of you who can fight should go outside and fight, they say. The Iris beams down thousands of threats through each wounded moon, and the Guardians, Cosmic Serpent, Seaborn, and the twin suns themselves attend the war. After the Iris' defeat, the sky is sundered and a rift hangs overhead, and yet magic still doesn't return.

out of character

Y'all, it's already February. Anyway, this is the second and final part of our GHE inspired event! Thank you for indulging in it with me, I've enjoyed running it. March and April will be our typical calm-after-the-storm months to make up for the murders I've inflicted on you all. Fun facts: Had I not gotten enough murder sign-ups I wasn't sure how I was going to end this log h-haha, so thank you guys for being SUCH enthusiastic little blorbo killers.

updates

Any potential updates, such as characters damaging something important or whatever else, will be put here.

submissions

❖ Questions
❖ February Plotting
❖ Past Life Plotting (Closed to Game Members)
❖ Investigations

code

Comments

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ That's... an answer and not, all at the same time. It's too easy to just claim to be okay, even if Mystery only thinks he is. The fact that the word "think" is involved at all makes Zoey's lips purse in a concerned frown, then part to begin to say something.

Which immediately stops as that second sentence leaves Mystery's mouth. Her lips remain parted, but this time in concerned surprise, her eyebrows going up. ]

You couldn't-- What do you mean you couldn't ignore him?

[ Immediately sitting down next to him, hello???? ]

[itisa]

[Oh. Oh, she's more concerned. Hm. He doesn't like that at all, actually??? Who did that? That's illegal??

Ah, right, he did that. At least with her sitting next to him he doesn't have to watch the concern on her face, since he trades looking at her with shifting enough to lean a little closer instead, not quite initiating contact, but still enough to share warmth, a bit.

Because he sure doesn't quite know how to explain without making things worse, but there's no brushing past it now, either.]

Why did you come to Namsan tower?

[It's related, he swears.]

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Oh, uh. Hello, sudden shared warmth! They're not touching or anything, but Zoey can still feel it, and for a second there's a feeling that almost feels like an adrenaline rush, or the feeling you get when you're in trouble with your parents and you don't know why. Butterflies in the stomach, a cold wave, all that.

But, that isn't serving her right now, so back to the focus on Mystery! ]

Gwi-Ma? But, I mean... that was Gwi-Ma. That guy in the woods doesn't have the same control over you, right?

[ ... right? ]

[itisa]

No...

[There's a quick shake of his head, because... he's pretty sure the guy in the forest doesn't have the same control, but the lingering knowledge that if he wanted it, it'd be pretty easy to take.]

But Gwi-Ma hasn't been in my head since I got here. [Obviously. He's dead and/or banished and didn't also show up here.] So... with the same kind of guy making demands like that...

[It was second nature to just. Listen. Act without thinking.

Suddenly, he straightens, remembering the other suggestion everyone had been given, and being struck with the kind of assumptions she could very easily make. He should let her make those assumptions, but some part of him wants to dispel the worry before it gets a chance to take root.]

I didn't kill anyone.

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Well, at least he's clarified that before she could bring it up. Zoey lets out a breath, visibly relaxing her shoulders just a little. He hadn't been made to kill anyone. That's good. He's been away from Gwi-Ma's control this whole time, and she'd hoped that he was able to regain some sense of autonomy.

But that doesn't entirely clear the air. He still died. She sucks in another breath, looking down at her hands folded loosely at her knees. ]

You don't have to listen, you know. I know it's probably like, really hard to ignore it. I don't know how long Gwi-Ma had his fingers in your brain. But if you want, if you start feeling like you're gonna cave to something like that again... you can come to me, if you want.

[ Just an offer! He doesn't have to. But boy is it better than listening to someone that doesn't always have your best interests at heart. She has a feeling that this time around, it just so happened that the woods guy's interests ran parallel to theirs. That's not always going to be the case. ]

Because at the end of the day, even if you didn't kill anyone, you still died. And that's... that sucks. Like yeah, it's not permanent, and you didn't lose anything like how people keep saying you do if you die here, but. What if you did? What if listening to what one voice in your head tells you to do means that you lose what makes you you, or takes an arm or a leg or something? You're finally free from Gwi-Ma's control, and I-- I don't want you to lose that.

[itisa]

[He'd be lying if he said he hadn't considered it - that's what the deal was, after all, kill and be killed, death for power, death for freedom from these creatures. The morning when the offer was made had been... quiet, relatively. He knows he could have slipped in and out of several rooms at the in and...

Well.

He was trying to be good. So he had to die.

She talks, and talks, and he listens quietly, hands still worrying the hem of his sleeve until his claws have picked a hole in one. It's... odd, to have someone this worried for his wellbeing. It doesn't quite sit right with him, but he finds he doesn't hate it, either. And when she finally stops talking, when her worries are left to hang in the air between them? He doesn't respond immediately, turning them over in his mind for a long, lingering moment.

And then, with a quiet huff of a sigh, he closes the small distance between them, reaching out to take her hand as he leans on her shoulder.]

...Okay. I didn't want to ask you to... [Kill him. Again.] But if- when it happens again...

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ The touch and the closing of personal space is unexpected, but to Zoey's credit, not even her fingers twitch. Her face, however, does flare with warmth, and she knows her cheeks are probably turning red. There's a soft little inhale, and she turns her head to glance away, like it will hide anything. She can't turn away enough to do that while still sitting the way she is.

But she does give Mystery's hand a squeeze. Just a gentle one, but reassuring all the same. If he can feel the way her heart is hammering through her body, then oh well. ]

Y-yeah. When it happens again, I'll be here.

[ Because the woods guy isn't going to stop any time soon. They have to be ready. ]

Thanks. For trusting me, and for sticking to our truce. I'm... I'm really glad you're here, you know? Everyone here is great, but it's nice having someone from home, too. Even if we weren't on the same team.

[itisa]

[Maybe he doesn't notice, his fringe hiding her blush from him as much as it hides his face from her. Maybe he does and notice and just has the good sense to not say anything about it. Maybe he's too busy trying to keep his own heart from fluttering out of his chest when she doesn't shove him away and squeezes his hand instead.

What he can't hide is how his patterns flare and shimmer bright, radiating out from that point.]

Sorry to make you be a hunter here, too.

[The other girls aren't here, and he's the only one of their sort of demon, but here he is, still being trouble.

Maybe that's okay. Maybe a little link to home even with their truce can be allowed. Still, as she keeps talking, he shakes his head a bit.]

You didn't have to trust me, either... but... I'm glad if anyone else from home was here, it was you.

[He can't help but think either of the other girls would have ended him before proposing a truce, and any of the other boys... They're his pack, sure, and he'd love to have them here, but if any of them had been the one to give a first impression to the grove...? No. No, she was the best one to be here, if any of them had to be.]

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Oh, hello? What's this? The glow makes Zoey turn back to look, catching it out of the corner of her eye. What is that? What is that about?

Is this how demons blush? Is he blushing? That would be extremely cute if true. ]

Huh? Why me? Why not like, another Saja Boy?

[ Because she knows she'd kill to have her girls here with her, even if this place sucks sometimes. Maybe they're not all as close as she thought they were? ]

[itisa]

[The patterns, they betray strong emotions, and since blushes don't show well when you're... kinda purple... to say nothing of how he usually hides his face...

Betrayal. Cute betrayal.]

Eh? Well, think about it... I'd like them here, but not... as a first impression to everyone else.

[All for their own slew of chaotic reasons, not least of which being the fact that if they were on their own, they probably would have hidden being demons, only to have that illusion shattered the past couple months.]

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Very cute betrayal. Zoey very nearly allows herself to giggle, but she manages to hold it in. It'll escape later, probably.

Instead of giggling, she stops to think about Mystery's reasoning. With Rumi and Mira, she knows they would have been respectful. But the other Saja Boys... well. She really doesn't know, but it probably wouldn't have gone as smoothly, sure. Mystery knows them better than she does, and if he thinks it would be a bad idea... ]

Yeah, you're probably right.

[ And besides: ]

I'm sure if it wasn't for me vouching for you, the other demon hunters here would have turned on you pretty quick. But you seem like you're maybe one of the more... tame Saja Boys? If that makes sense. No offense, of course! It's like-- Like I don't think you'd hurt anyone, you know? But some of those other guys...

[itisa]

[She deserves to have A Moment later. It's been rough out here.

And thinking of the others... Jinu might have been fine, until the lies about what they were were revealed. Baby would have eaten someone by now. Romance, too, if he came right from Namsan and was spiteful about their loss... Abby... was Abby, but he probably had the best chance on his own, if he was honest.

...That wasn't saying much for the Saja Boys.

He holds her hand a little tighter.]

Mmhm. The truce has been helpful. [But wait hold on a second--] ...Tame? You think so?

[He is but a feral creatur... on a truce-leash.]

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Ooh, tighter is better than letting go. That's good! The giggles are getting harder to resist, but look at her, she's doing great. ]

Yeah! I mean, like. Tame in the sense of... not-spicy? Not the opposite of wild, just a little more calm and less likely to uh. Jump on someone. The truce has helped! You're doing great, by the way.

[ ahahaha she's babbling oops ]

I mean... maybe it's because I've been around you for a while now, but I don't feel like I have to watch my back around you. But I can't say I'd feel as comfortable around the other guys.

[itisa]

[She's doing so great! Look at her go!]

Ah. I get it.

[Kind of. Mostly. The vibes are clear, at any rate.]

...Yeah, they wouldn't watch your back.

[That's not what she meant, Mystery, but the sentiment is out there, now. She doesn't have to watch her back around him because he's watching her back for her, obviously. As if it could mean anything else.]

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Oh, the sentiment is out there, all right. For a split second, Zoey automatically goes to agree, even starting to form the word "Yeah" in her mouth until she realizes what he said. They wouldn't watch her back.

That's not what she meant, but she can't find it in herself to correct him, because the thought of Mystery watching her back makes her cheeks flush all over again. Instead, she gives his hand a little squeeze, turning to watch her other hand as it plays with the hem of her sleeve. ]

Hey, um. Can I ask you something?

[itisa]

[If he thought about it for more than a second, he could correct himself, or maybe try to insist that, okay, they might watch her back here, with the truce established, and with her as a link to home, and because he wants her to stay safe, but...

That wouldn't actually help his case much at all, would it?]

...Yeah? What is it?

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Probably not, no! It may, in fact, dig that hole deeper.

Zoey sits for a second after Mystery gives her the go-ahead, gently tap-tap-tapping her thumb against his hand in a display of nervous energy. There are a lot of things she wants to ask. One big thing in particular right now, but... ]

What have you been eating here, anyway?

[ ...what comes out isn't that one big thing. Mentally, she kicks herself. Not that this wasn't a question that's been weighing on her mind, but! She can't bring herself to ask the big one. Because what if she's overthinking things? What if she's being stupid and assuming? What if holding hands and sharing body heat is some demon cultural difference she doesn't understand?

But, time for that later. Right now, she needs to continue rolling with what she did say. ]

Like, you haven't been eating souls, right? Just... normal food?

[itisa]

[She's quiet for longer than he expects her to be, so it's probably for the best that when she does speak up again, it isn't the big question. Her gentle tap-tap-tapping is surprisingly grounding, so his attention doesn't drift as far as it could have, but... it still takes a moment for the question to sink in, and for him to actually respond.

It's probably an ominous pause, all-told, but.]

Hm? No, no souls.

[Which is it's own set of problems, but at least those are familiar ones.]

Leftovers, mostly. Stuff people forget about so they don't get thrown away?

[.......So, like, sorry not sorry to anyone who has wanted to come back to something?]

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Well, if anything is going to distract her from her sudden and spectacular fumble, it sure is that! The admission of surviving on leftovers makes Zoey's eyebrows go up, and she turns the whole upper half of her body to look at him. ]

You've been eating leftovers?

[ Hello???? Are you nuts??? Zoey is standing in a matter of seconds, still holding his hand and in fact tugging him a little to urge him along. ]

Oh no, you have to have something to eat that's for you. Come on, I'll make you something!

[ Nevermind that her cooking experience is instant and microwavable things. It'll be fine. Probably. ]

[itisa]

Yes?

[Oh? Oh they're on their feet now? Hello? But, hey, at least her hand is still in his, that's... that's nice, actually, so it's incredibly easy for her to pull him along.]

Oh, I had the uh... the static ice cream? For me.

[Mystery that was months ago and also cursed as hell.]

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Extremely cursed and also yes, months ago! ]

Noooo, that doesn't coooooount!

[ She means every day! Not just one day months ago! So, to hammer her point in, she will stop in the middle of the lobby.

Let go of Mystery's hand.

Press her hands to his cheeks.

And gently squish. ]

Listen to me. You are allowed to have meals for yourself. Every single day! You don't have to ask for permission, and you don't have to eat someone else's scraps! You deserve to have your own food that is just for you! Just for Mystery! And if you want to share it with someone, that's your right, too!

It's perfectly okay to be a little selfish, okay? Gwi-Ma isn't here demanding souls or whatever. This is your life now! You get to live it however you want to!

[itisa]

It doesn't...?

[Apparently not! Apparently it doesn't count so much that she's letting go of his hand for it?

Not good. So very not good. So not good that when she faces him, his mouth has twisted into a little frown and his hand is left hanging in the air where it followed hers partway up when she let go.

But then she squishes his face, and he just knows she can feel his cheeks warm under her touch, but can only hope she doesn't register it as she talks.

He nearly protests - he's not selfless or anything, he was ready to just... let the world burn for selfish reasons, after all, but that also kind of feels like it's besides the point. Something so grand and terrible that could still be brushed aside with a "that wasn't you, though".

...He kind of hates that he doesn't know if it was him or not.

There's time to figure that out. Or not. Maybe it'd just be better to leave it behind them. Maybe being here can just... be a fresh start.

He puts a hand over one of hers as he leans into it. Squishes his own cheek into her hand again.]

With you?

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Well, Zoey had been prepared to expand on the whole food issue if need be. Clearly Mystery is having some sort of issue navigating living in a world where he's actually a part of it all and not just some cog in a machine or whatever! It makes Zoey sad. But she is here to help!

But Mystery interrupts any words that might have come by pressing her hand back into his cheek, and for a second, nothing registers right. With her? What, sharing meals with someone like she'd said before? ]

Huh?

[ Very eloquent, Zoey.

But then, it all clicks, and Zoey's face goes red. No, you idiot, he's asking that big question that she'd wanted to at least begin to crack open a moment ago, but now it's just. There and out and she's suddenly finding that in her head, she was a lot more smooth and bold than the sudden sputtering mess she seems to be devolving into.

Not that she's moved her hand away, though. ]

Wh-- Wait, you. Me? You want to-- With me?! Seriously?

[ girl he has been HOLDING YOUR HAND THIS WHOLE TIME ]

[itisa]

[She is here to help! Already she's been more of a help than she could ever know, to the point that, well, that big question could actually be voiced.

...Kind of.

It's out there enough that she's gone red and his patterns are flaring bright again, not to mention how his cheeks have gone hot under her hands and aah they should probably put it out there a bit more explicitly instead of dancing around it, shouldn't they?

Apparently they both were way more smooth and bold internally than externally.]

...Yes? If you want, I mean.

[boy you can SEE HER BLUSH FROM SPACE]

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ please hold, zoey.exe is restarting......... ]

I-- I mean, yes, of ccourse I want!

[ There. She spit it out. It only took forever, that's all. But the fact that Mystery seems to be at least similarly, if not equally, flustered helps a lot, because it's even footing. There's no room for doubt to worm its way into her mind about it. It isn't just some thing she's mistaken about, it's genuine interest. In her. Not in who she is as an idol, but her as Zoey.

Someone has actually looked at her, with all the babbling and rambling she knows she does, and all her weird, quirky thoughts, and said, "Yeah, I want that one." ]

I mean. I... wanted to ask you, too, but like. I'd completely understand if you said no! But you're not! So! Haha!

[ Ohhh boy she feels dizzy. But like, in a good way! And also vaguely like she could cry. But she won't! ]

So if you want, then... I want, too. Let's give it a shot and see what happens.