05 - week five

[afflictionmods]

WEEK FIVE

Come Sunday morning, the portals around Estelline fade away, but not all of the oddities hanging around disappear so quickly. The recreations of your dreams and memories are still around, ever changing and shifting. Whatever it is that brought these things here hasn’t ended, not yet.

You don’t have time to worry about all of that, though, even if you know you should exercise caution once two of you found yourselves on the bad end of a monster’s claws. The course still isn’t over, though, even if the portals changed lesson plans. Everything continues on, with new places to explore as the fog pushes back once again. This week still feels a little more like what you’re familiar with, though, after Saturday’s lack of lessons.

...For now.


SETTING TRACKER

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

SAGE / FLORENCE / LORELEI

CYOA SIGNUPS
Due Saturday at 8pm EST

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

[selfconcept]

Actual emotions. Doing things on reflex isn't hard and expressing myself is something I don't feel like doing often because of that. Just let reflexes take care of it for me.

[ So he'll smile, get annoyed—make it seem like he's experiencing emotion, but it's mostly a reflex. ]

[partymagician]

Oh.

[ Reflexes… that explains why Hien could seem “normal” despite the hollowness. ]

I wonder why I make you feel things.

[ It’s not like he’s special. ]

[selfconcept]

You're special.

[ He puts Fai's shoes back on his feet. ]

It's not really important to figure out why. The more important thing is that you do, so let's head out.

[partymagician]

Well, you leave no room for arguing.

[ He laughs softly as he stands up, waiting for Hien to straighten himself out before pulling him close for a quick kiss. ]

I feel the same. I love you too.

[ Because Fai had to consider a relationship worth it to even get into one, he’d already done all of his own assessments just like Hien. ]

[selfconcept]

[ Hien slowly blinks, staring at Fai after that kiss.

...

He holds his hand and leads him out of the skating rink. There's nothing else that needs to be said!! ]

[partymagician]

[ Fai lets himself be lead along, his heart practically pounding out of his chest but his cheeks nice and warm. ]

Hehe... you're so funny.

[ He lets himself bask in the moment, just for a little bit. ]

What kind of things are you hoping to find in there?

[selfconcept]

I'm... not looking for anything in particular, but I haven't been inside one here yet, so I wanna see what they have.

[ His hold on Fai's hand is firm. ]

[partymagician]

[ He likes the firmness of Hien's hand. It's comforting, stabilizing. ]

I hope you don't mind explaining whatever's in there to me.

[selfconcept]

'm not good at that, but I'll try. For you.

[ Thing 1, thing 2... They're passing by Tamamori's old style buscar thing as they walk over to the electronic store. ]

[partymagician]

Okay!

[ He ogles the buscar as they pass by. Huh... ]

I'm kind of excited, to tell you the truth.

[selfconcept]

Because you're gonna see new things?

[ His boyfriend is a nerd... ]

[partymagician]

Yep! I like seeing new things, even if I don't know what they do or mean.

[ He laughs. ]

I guess I started to like that stuff after I began traveling.

[selfconcept]

Normally, that's the point of traveling: to experience new things.

[ But he knows Fai has different circumstances. ]

So let's look for all sorts of new things...

[ He looks up. ]

... Like that huge ass moon.

[partymagician]

The moons are... a bit unsettling.

[ To say the very least. ]

[selfconcept]

I'd shoot one of them down for you.

[ Is that romantic??

He even lets go of Fai's hand to mimic drawing back a bowstring. ]

[partymagician]

[ Romantic or not, it does make him smile. ]

Do you have good aim?

[selfconcept]

Yeah.

[ You know. Evidence to the contrary like Hien's huge sniping failure that accidentally killed Owen and failing to stab the same guy the next day. ]

If you couldn't tell by the gun I brought out that time.

[partymagician]

So you're pretty good without all that chaos?

[ Because. Well. He sure hasn't had good luck so far. ]

[selfconcept]

Yeah. Guns are more my thing than archery though, but this person—I guess he's kinda like a mentor—uses bow and arrows. He makes it look so graceful with power.

[ So watching archery happen was always nice for Hien. ]

[partymagician]

I'm good at archery too, but I think you know that already.

[ Still. He smiles. ]

Want to see me do it sometime?

[selfconcept]

Yeah. Up close and personal.

[ Anyway, they're here at the electronics store now and Hien takes a look around. It's the usual display of mobile devices and the bundle of wires and whatnot. ]

... I'm no electrician, but maybe I could use some of this to cause power outages.

[partymagician]

[ He worries about the optics on shooting arrows up close and personal, but whatever Hien wants... ]

And you want to cause power outages for what reason...?

[selfconcept]

To piss people off at Camellia for thinking they know anything about humanoids.

[ The survey questions still annoy him. ]

[partymagician]

Did something they do touch a nerve with you?

[ It certainly seems like it... ]

[selfconcept]

They had the audacity to say relationships don't matter with the bonding process. They're making those suppression chips too. They don't know anything.