smash_logs | merry merry christmas, and I want you to know

Entry tags:

merry merry christmas, and I want you to know

Who: YOU
What: KISSLETOES
When: December 14th - January 1st
Where: Everywhere
Warnings: Sloppy makeouts.

SUDDENLY, AND WITHOUT WARNING...

title or description

The entire school has become covered in mistletoe overnight. It grows out of the walls! The ceilings! Everywhere you least expect it? HOW CAN THIS BE??

It's probably best not to think about it. Attempts to uproot the plants or burn them away only makes the plants grow back faster. For the time being, it seems the school must live with it.

[OOC INSTRUCTIONS:
+ Post dudes, get kisses!
+ Some (NOT ALL) plants are cursed. If you manage to step under a cursed plant, you will exchange a memory when or if you exchange a kiss. The memories will be first-person and very vivid, and characters will feel like they are experiencing the memory in real time, though in reality the transfer is instantaneous. Memories can be as short, long, happy, sad, or traumatic as you like.
+ If you'd like to participate, we highly suggest making a list of a few memories (with accompanying links/descriptions) that are up for grabs, and linking or posting the list in your top-level comment. Memory exchange is COMPLETELY OPTIONAL. When in doubt, OOC communication!
+ PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TAG YOUR CHARACTERS
+ That's it, we love you.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"If I'm honest, my reaction to you then would have been much the same as it is now." He knew the sorts of people he enjoyed the company of. It hadn't changed much. The only thing that had changed was his ability to deal with the people whose company he might not have sought out before. He was better at being social, but he still had some pretty strong preferences.

"I'll admit, I've no idea how others perceive you. I'm not a water cooler gossip and I tend to stick to my own affairs. I'd not have thought you bothered as to the opinions of others, besides."

Something about what he said was welcoming. Actually, a lot of things about what he said were welcoming. Still birds of a feather. Still of a familiar kin to one another. Even prior to any of the changes he might have made. Ziio could not only respect it, she could appreciate it.

Even more so, she acknowledged that she respected and appreciated it. The first step in really solidifying sentiments and attachment of a kind. Although in the back of her mind, there was some hesitance in attaching herself to anyone further. In her stoic and maternal way, Ziio loved her students, even if she didn't say so. Kind of in the same way that the Clan Mother loved her people. Because in one form or another, the students (and staff) were her people.

She shook her head, "You are not wrong. Few opinions matter so to me where I am concerned. Yet I feel..." Her right hand lifted and for a moment, she merely motioned, as if she didn't know how to give voice to what she was thinking. "I do not dislike the times we have with one another. They are of import to me." Like she was relearning how to express herself. Simply because it was someone new she had finally felt close enough to in order to attempt.

"I feel the same way. To put it simply, I'm better at being around folk than once I was but there's still a very short list of people who's company I'd seek out because I enjoy it. You're very firmly entrenched in that list."

"Are you..."

As she eyed him in thought, she tried to formulate the proper words. "You mean to say you seek out my companionship, then. Did you do that today?"

Intentionally, even. She had to wonder. And it was a wonderful thing to wonder about.

Jon scratched at his lightly stubbled chin and shrugged. At this point, what could the truth hurt?

"I'd hoped to find you. Yes."

She didn't say anything immediately. Mostly because she wasn't sure what to make of it. Flattering, to be sure. A 'why' she didn't necessarily know. "Is that so." Less a question and more an observation. And in that moment when she eyed him, it was differently than she had any other time prior.

"Why?" A straight forward question, which she imagined had no straight forward responses. But it was a worthy question to ask. Or so she thought.

Why? Now there was a question he was going to have fun answering. Well, sort of. At least they were at a point now where he didn't feel awkward just being frank. And that look in her eye.... well. He wasn't an expert at reading people but if he had to guess, it was something like encouragement.

"Because as soon as I saw the plants, I was reminded of our meeting last year. As such, I foresaw two possible outcomes should we meet again this year. The first of which was we might sit and have a chat, much like we did last season. The second possibility was that we might kiss. An idea which I also enjoyed."

She didn't remember being so kind the year prior. She was, in some ways, different, and in many others, much the same. Complicated and enigmatic. An infinite mystery to many and all. Jon included. Yet talks with him had always been relatively simple. She'd asked him many questions about himself and where he came from. And she'd told him not so much about herself, for that had been safest.

Hearing what he had to say hadn't prepared her for the truth of it all. Of course she knew in some part of her mind the possibilities of what he might tell her. And if she'd thought it, did that mean she'd wanted it to be a possibility? That was too deep for her to genuinely consider. At least in her opinion.

"Either way, it would have been something you would have liked," she observed quietly. "I... suppose I owe you in return then. For liberating me." What a strong word to use. Liberate. Something her people had never gotten. Something she had only briefly tasted before flames swallowed her.

"I'll not say no." Jon replied, leaning down just slightly. He wanted to point out she owed him nothing - he'd done it because he'd wanted to and she'd allowed it. That was it. But if that's how she wanted to phrase it, he wasn't about to correct her.

It was easier to find justification in liking a kiss or wanting it, if she at least pretended that it was for a better reason than self-indulgence. So when he leaned down, she did momentarily find herself a little hesitant. Was it the right thing to do? What harm would it cause? Surely... very little, if any.

Then she tipped up her chin and set a kiss to the corner of his mouth, much the way he had for her. Affectionate, in a way that was a bit different from what she was used to.

He couldn't help grinning a little. He just couldn't help it. She was... a little gentler than he might have expected. Not too gentle. But gentler.

"Thank you." he said, standing up to his full height again.

Why was it that a simple exchange of gratitude made her want to... almost redden? While usually direct and to the point, for whatever reason, or perhaps a few, she considered holding back. It could have been the way people around her affected her. Even though she tried so desperately to hold onto herself, smaller parts were bound to change and evolve.

If she'd been with her people, she imagined she would have stayed much the same. But was that stagnating?

"It... was nothing," she found herself saying in reply, as if she was trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince him. "If you run into conflict, I will come." And not just mistletoe, though she imagined she didn't need to say it, and it may have been for the best to remain concise and succinct. At least that way if she wasn't verbose, she didn't run the risk of saying something unnecessary.

"Aye. And you've the same assurance from me." he replied. He understood, by now, that telling her he knew she didn't need his help was superfluous. He was just there if she wanted him around.

"Otherwise, chances are, I ought to be letting you get about your day, unless you had something else in mind?"

Hey, maybe she wanted him to stick around. As he'd said before, he'd certainly not mind. Though, he didn't want to hold her up, either. Who knew how long the mistletoe had her stuck in place before he happened along.

Where had she been headed to before the mistletoe captured her? Ziio couldn't quite readily recall, nor did it seem to be a particularly important discovery. As she turned his words over in his head, she tried to find a reason to refuse his company and... well.

She couldn't.

Ziio shook her head. "I was not going anywhere that I have need to be," she explained. "What were your intentions?"

"I've nothing particularly pressing going on, Ziio." he replied, sticking his hands in the pockets of his loose, cotton pants. "If you're likewise unoccupied, maybe we could take a walk? Do a little training in the stadium?"

There was no shortage of options, really. Those were the first two that came to mind, though.

Ziio. He said her name simply, but with his accent, it was a charming. If she could even admit to that. Charming in its own right.

"A walk, I can do. Training, also, if you would prefer." She turned her gaze off of him and in the direction from whence she came. "Are you well-acquainted with the snow?" Which was really where she wanted to ask him if he was dressed for it. She could handle it without a problem, but who knew if he could.

"Aye. My home country spends a good portion of the year covered in it and I spent enough years out in it to have made my peace with it. Even in bare feet."

Which he was also wearing, currently.

"The cold shant bother me if you're more of a mood to wander."

Ziio nodded slowly and even harboured a lighter smile. "Then we are the same." She motioned down her feet which weren't bare, of course, but the same light leather that she'd come into the habit of wearing in the years prior. "Except our feet."

Her posture straightened and she shifted to set her hands upon her hips with some consideration, "I would be pleased well enough with wandering." It didn't take a lot to please Ziio, but she wanted to keep that mostly to herself, if she could. If he thought she was, he might succeed more often than not and he'd be able to see through her carefully veiled expressions.

"Then let us wander." he said, folding his hands behind his back and starting off towards the nearest exit.

"So, your home saw a lot of snow?" he asked. He actually didn't even know which area of America she was from, but he knew it was a large enough country that each state had its own climate. From swampy to arid to snowy to lush. Though, rattling off the few state names he did know may do him no good either simply because he was sure she was from a period before they'd figured out the names of all fifty.

She followed alongside him, so it was less 'following' and more 'accompanying' him. "Seasons," she replied to him. "Months of snow would give way to grass and flowers and rain. Consistently changing. I always remember the winters."

Perhaps because many things happened in winter. The Braddock expedition. Meeting Haytham. The two of them working together. And yet she was certain snow had not yet touched down when she was freed from the slaver, Silas.

"It is with thanks to those days and months that I can adapt to any time of the year and any climate." At least she liked to believe that.

"In that case then yes, we're very much the same. I credit my country's long winters with my ability to abide the cold. It doesn't bother me much."

He'd always been clever enough to find SOME way out of the snow if it got too bad. But his homeland wasn't often warm. Not the way it got here.

"The land I'm from is very often cold and it rains more than it snows. Fog is very common, too. It clings to your very bones and chills you from the inside out, it seems. The weather here is much more agreeable, even in winter."

"You came from across the water, is that right?" She wasn't sure what the name was. She just knew about tyrannical kings who resulted in colonial expansion. Except Jon from the land with the king and had evidently not ever turned colonial. But who knew how many years sat between them?

"Sounds as if you may like it here more." Which she couldn't blame him for if that was the case, because she certainly did. However, in her case, she simply liked being alive if she could help it.

"I vastly prefer it here. To say anything less would be an outright mistruth. I'd not go back for all the tea in China."

And considering how much he liked tea, that was saying a lot.

"No, jolly old England is certainly no place I've a desire to see again. I never felt at home there for even a second. Here...? I'm something close to normal. Despite being less than enthused about the technology, I'll take learning to use a cellphone over dealing with bloodthirsty, rifle-happy townsfolk any day."

The turning into a wolf thing was probably what he was getting at. Her people had spirit animals and such things, but actually turning into a wolf... She couldn't imagine what that was like. She was only animalistic and nothing more.

"I think I can agree with you," she replied with a short little nod. "And I imagine we are not the only ones who share that sentiment, Jon."

"Oh, I daresay not. In fact, some of the worlds people come here from sound fairly miserable. Even when compared to mine." he replied. "I'm one of those who can travel back, if I've a mind to. I got to Raccoon City to attend CapHigh via train. I think I could do it again, if I'd a need to. Some of the other people here who can't get back at all...? I think it's for the best."

He'd spent more time thinking on this than he'd generally let on. He was also an avid reader of the network, despite rarely commenting on anything.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject