(open.) winter catch-all

[1yric]

WHO: any of my bunch (Tsumugi Tsukioka, Kenta Fiorello, Natsuno Minami, Jyoti Victoria Melanthios, Cherry Biscotti, and Lyric Anglin) and you!
WHAT: catch-all for December-January! will contain prompts from quests, tdm, as well as general things
WHEN: December-January
WHERE: all over the place
WARNINGS: NSFW likely (will lock this log once it happens), other warnings tbd


TSUMUGI ❄️ birthday party | wildcard

KENTA 🌸 the gentle rain | wildcard

NATSUNO 👽 christmas shopping | wildcard

JYOTI 🌊 wildcard

CHERRY 🛡️ the gentle rain | wildcard

LYRIC 🎀 kinda round | mistletoe | wildcard

OOC ➡️ quest plotting | CR meme

Comments

CLOSED 🌊 for Evangeline

[twofacedlight]

[ Secrets? Things she needs to confess? Jyoti has those in spades. Everything she's kept close to her chest is there for a reason - they're things she's gone to the grave with on more than one occasion.

But fuck, her chest hurts. It's the frozen heart phenomenon all over again, only literally more suffocating. Every breath that isn't choked by a flower petal is by the pervasive anxiety born from the possibility of another painful death. She doesn't want to die - didn't want to back in July either - but who could she possibly trust with her life? When she's never been spared before?

Only one person crosses her mind. The fact that anyone does is frankly foreign and terrifying. But before she can talk herself out of it, she opens up their chats and sends a series of messages.

First is her current location - a building in Solarpeak that's in the process of becoming her boutique - followed by: ] Come here. Please.

Hurry [ Because the pile of spit-slick petals and flowers on the floor around her only continues to grow. She's on her knees, hunched over herself and coughing, gasping painfully for air.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. ]

[abnormalizes]

Omw

[Jyoti, as a rule, does not ask people for help, or at the very least she doesn't ask Evangeline. Guessing from their talk before - probably not anyone else, either. That she's asking for help now-

Evangeline runs as fast as her legs can carry her. Her weapons are in her purse - she doesn't know what the nature of the emergency is but she'd be stupid not to bring them, even if she didn't carry them everywhere. She's thankfully not too far, but even a few minutes seems agonizingly long for her.

She throws open the door to the boutique, sees Jyoti on the floor, and immediately hurries to her side.]

What - how do I help you?

[twofacedlight]

[ Her head snaps up at the sound of the door slamming open. And it's strange - she hates that anyone's seeing her like this, with her hair disheveled and makeup running down her cheeks from all the tears forced out of her from the coughing, but she's also relieved.

She spits a few more petals inelegantly on the floor, clearing her throat. ] H- hurts to breathe.

[abnormalizes]

I bet.

[It feels like a dumb thing to say, and she winces after she says it.]

Should I get you something? A healer maybe?

[But if that were what was necessary, Jyoti could have just messaged a healer herself...]

[twofacedlight]

No. [ A pained hiss, as she grabs Evangeline's wrist. ] Don't go.

[ Don't leave her. Please. Please. ]

I don't want anyone else.

[abnormalizes]

Okay. I'm here.

[She covers the hand on her wrist with her other hand, squeezing gently.]

Whatever you need, I'll do my best to help you.

[twofacedlight]

[ It's such a small thing - a hand over hers - but it's so, so comforting. ]

Just- listen. [ Which might be a strange request when she's struggling to talk, let alone breathe, but. ] It's like the ice. Only more [ cough ] annoying.

And spilling secrets supposedly helps.

[ Which is why it has to be her. Only her. ]

[abnormalizes]

-Oh, that sucks, I'm sorry.

[Immediately even more sympathetic than she had been. Revealing personal secrets is about the worst thing they could ask someone to do to survive.

And Evangeline's the one she wanted here. The only one. Evangeline's chest feels tight.]

I'm listening.

[twofacedlight]

[ That apology has her cracking a wry smile. ]

Thanks. [ She looks at their hands, joined, because it's easier than looking her- her friend in the eyes. This sucks, and she doesn't even know where to start. ]

I. I think I'm afraid? [ Of so much more than she has the energy to voice right now, but what comes out is: ] I've died before. Here, and- [ not home ] where I was.

But I've never been brought back to the same place. It was always new. [ In other words... ] ... I've never been able to stay.

[abnormalizes]

[Evangeline nods, slowly. Hearing that Jyoti had died before isn't shocking, but hearing that she's died and come back somewhere else is something else. Evangeline doesn't know what she'd do, if she died and ended up somewhere else.

No wonder Jyoti doesn't want to get attached.

She gives Jyoti's hand another squeeze. She's listening, but she doesn't want to interrupt.]

[twofacedlight]

[ Ultimately, Jyoti appreciates the silence. But it does make sorting through all the thoughts swirling in her head that much more difficult. She feels adrift at sea, with that hand in hers being her only anchor. ]

I had no reason to think it'd be any different here. And- this is around when I've died before. [ Give or take a few years, but death's always come for her as a young adult. Before she's ever fully bloomed. ] But I'm still here. I haven't been pulled away.

Yet.

[ And there's where the fear resides. It's as suffocating as those damn petals. ]

[abnormalizes]

-Hard to get comfortable, or let yourself get attached to anyone or anything, when you could be ripped away at any moment.

[That's a fear Evangeline knows well, even if the thing that would separate her from those around her is usually death and not changing worlds. She squeezes Jyoti's hand again.]

[twofacedlight]

[ She nods. That's exactly it. ]

This is all some- some thing's idea of pity. [ She practically spits those words out. ] It was a gift at first, but now-

[ How much more of this must she endure? ]

I just want to stay.

[abnormalizes]

I want you to stay, too. -I don't want you to disappear.

[She doesn't want to lose her.]