hallucinogem | ic inbox 💎 deerington

I am actually! I don't want to get stuck in one actually. Not after the whole being stuck to a chair with a weird guy coming down on both of us thing.

I noticed you aren't really using any lately.

...And I think I know why.

And I just wanted to say we should work on something new. For you.

[well, well. leave it to rubicon rose to be the most perceptive person in the town. she smiles very, very slightly.]

If you're sure about that, it'd be nice to actually be able to fight again. I tried doing it with fists, but that felt weird, too, you know? [for... probably obvious reasons.] I wouldn't mind sticking with blades. If you're okay with that.

[Ruby isn't always the sharpest knife in the crayon box, but if there is on thing she knows it's weapons. And specifically when one of the people she was closest too wasn't carrying hers.]

Yeah. I honestly have no idea how Yang does it. I'm getting better but I'd still rather have that reach, you know?

[She considers that just briefly. She did have the scars still from the last time Emerald held a blade in her hand. But... That was a risk she was just going to have to take. It was far better than someone she considered family getting hurt.]

I think that's for the best, that's what you're used to after all. We'd all like to see you out on the field again.

...And a few of us are talking about forming a team and we need an E for it. So you're our best bet.

[Literal madness was surrounding them. The mountain had split open and the three-eyed woman was saying that Julia was dying. The Moss King's promise seemed so far away, but they talked like there was still a future for some of them, for any of them. Salem was here, and Neo was terrified for her friends, for the people who she wasn't friends with but at least cared about the fate of. And, at the end of the day, all she was? She was a killer and what could she do? Sneak around a town in disguise when there was nobody to disguise herself as.

She was a broiling, emotional wreck. She wasn't able to scream. She just smiled, went through the motions. Kept to herself and... it was too much. She wasn't going to have another chance, so she was doing this. When Emerald had snuck off on a supply run with one of the others on her birthday, Neo had agreed to keep the apartment safe. By the time that Emerald came in, she'd find the apartment lit by little, lightly scented candles. She'd stolen them from a store somewhere.

In the living room, she was resting on the couch, looking a little nervous. A very big ribbon wrapped around her midriff over her breasts, and two ribbons went up over her shoulders while the last slid down her belly and between her legs. All of it was tied in a big bow. There was a dinner on the table there, cold cut sandwiches, chips and a bit of wine. Look, it was hard to get a feast going around here and she didn't know when Emerald would get back. She looked up over the couch, waving as soon as she saw Em and trying to smile less nervously.]

Hold on, hold on. Who's forming a team?

[she's. ha. that's. wow? wow. that's kind of flattering. she doesn't know what to say.]

I mean. I'd be glad to join one, especially because I feel like we're gonna need one soon, but... you gotta give me a little more leadup for this kind of thing, you know? [she gives it a millisecond's thought.] I'm in. Who else am I working with?

We are!

[She gives a grin and doesn't go into anymore detail than that right away.]

Okay, okay! Next time I'll send a formal invitation but you don't always get to pick who your partners are like that. When I got into Beacon I got paired up with Weiss because she was the first person I ran into after being thrown off a cliff. That's just how it goes.

But it would be Glitch, Oscar, myself and you.

We're thinking of calling ourselves Team GORE.

Wow, my little sis, my little brother, and a mean dude that's friends with my family. You know, I can think of worse teams.

[she's impressed, honestly. it's a good team, even if she's dragging glitch a little. and she won't really... press on the idea of ruby being part of another team when, like. when weiss and blake are both gone. it feels like it would just be adding unnecessary pain. so she just moves on past it.]

Team GORE, huh? That's a little gruesome. But I guess we don't have a lot of better options. I can party with it.

I think with a little work we'll end up being a pretty swell team. I have faith in us. Glitch is kind of a grouch but he means well.

[It wasn't the first time Ruby had went and assembled a new team. RWBY would always be dear to her heat and her main team but she was aware that in situations like this it was important not to get hung up on things like that.]

Yeah- It's kind of gross. But it gives us some colour options. We'll just have to be the biggest bad butts around to live up to the name, you know?

[so, so much had happened all at once. everything, forever. the last gunshots that thief's respite would ever fire. the mountain. the town. the dream, and the dissociative episodes, and the anxiety over what was going to come next. it made emerald realize that if nothing else, she could always come home to neo, who would always know the best way to treat her.]

[of course, when she did come home this time, she didn't really... know how to process things. until she remembered, as she thought and looked at each carefully-placed candle, that today actually was her birthday. and a conversation they'd had months ago crept into the back of her mind, and, like. surely neo wouldn't still...]

[but that evaporated along with the rest of her thoughts as soon as she got within sight or the living room. she saw neo's bare skin, saw the careful ribbon work, and her brain just. snapped. for a moment. her eyes went wide, and she could only focus long enough to keep the supplies from crashing to the floor. as soon as that grace period ended and she was empty-handed again, she paused. walked forward to her girlfriend. examined the ribbons, especially the one in the front. and she signed out what her brain couldn't put into words.]

You remembered. Can't believe it. [and her hands touched the fabric across neo's chest, and she signed out three letters dumbly.] H-O-T.

[She squirmed only once while Emerald was approaching, because honestly she did love watching the kind of effect that she had on her. Just the littlest tease could be so beneficial for opening her up. Something this bold? It had her nearly speechless for so long and the look of shock in her eyes, mingled with obvious pleasure? Well it made it feel like she'd done a good thing, as far as she was concerned.

She grinned and nodded as one hand reached up to run along the length of her lover's forearm, grinning cheekily right up until she signed. Neo arched her back and tossled her hair very slightly before signing "Happy Birthday" to her and winking. Look, she thought the girl needed this, and besides... she needed to pretend that world dying out there didn't exist for just one night.

Leaning up, she cupped a small hand under her chin to lean in and give a soft kiss to her lips, grinning as she did, winking once. Yeah, there was food set out, but she liked that right now she was the center of attention.]

Careful, Rubes. You stick around bad influences like us long enough and we're gonna have you saying "ass" in no time. I mean, hell, Glitch is gonna be the leader, right? [smirk.] He might make it mandatory.

[she could smell the food, but she didn't care. every part of her was focused on her girlfriend here in front of her, wrapped up in a bow, kissing her, looking absolutely stunning. emerald sustrai was in love and that she could return here and just shut the world out for a while with neo was the best gift anyone could've gotten her.]

[she lingered in the kiss for as long as she felt she could get away with, then pulled away in time and put her hands to better use. not quite undressing neo yet (so to speak), no, but removing some of her own outer layers. slipping the jacket from her shoulders, removing her belt, undoing her chaps. forming the beginnings of a small pile right there in the middle of the room with little extra thought behind it for once. she wanted this, needed it... just had to have the chance to relax and pretend the world wasn't ending.]

[in a bold motion, she ran her hands up neo's arms to guide them to her clothed chest, then came in for another, deeper kiss. just before their lips touched, she murmured "i need you" in that same bare whisper that neo used to send shivers down her spine.]

[This was the reaction she'd yearned for. She had watched as Emerald tripped out of her outer layers, leaving more and more dusty western clothing on the ground while she waited patiently, relaxed, as much at ease as she could manage under the circumstances. Her eyes were lidded and she smiled when her lover came in for another kiss.

She wasn't in a hurry to get to the good stuff, perfectly fine taking her time, but something came to her and she made sure to reach a hand over to rest on the tie of the bow in front of her, giving the tiniest of tugs. It inched a little, not opening but making it clear she wanted her to untie it, not cut it.

Why? Oh... if she happened to feel the bow, the knot was surprisingly hard... as if there was something inside it.]

[she could only hold herself back for so long before her fingers started tracing patterns along Neo's bare skin, up and down her arms, around her shoulders, working her way to the bow. and she pressed her hands to each side of the bow, giving Neo a look of pure desire as she tried to shut out all the other thoughts and let herself have this for once, and moved one hand to the center to hold it in place while she pulled at the side of it—]

[and it felt like maybe she was... hm. well, Emerald didn't have a lot of experience with ribbons, but she wasn't totally sure that bows needed to be that firm in the middle. her hands still worked, the momentary confusion overridden by the want to lid her eyes and kiss her girlfriend's neck and drape her legs over one of Neo's so she could better warm herself up for what was about to come. she pulled at the ribbon until it came loose and drew her head back, her eyes singlemindedly focused on seeing Neo's body before her, and then she felt, saw something... drop. from the ribbon.]

[her hand reached down between Neo's legs to grab for what had fallen. she wasn't totally sure how to react; it took her a second of shock to snap herself out of the brainspace she'd put herself into. her eyes flit between what she was holding and Neo's eyes, and she could feel her heart pounding again.]

[Neopolitan was squirming at the touches, her breath rising and falling in response as she compressed her body into the feel of the hands of her lover. Her eyes went wide and she bit her lip when the bow started to come undone and something little and black had fallen between her legs. Had Emerald seen it? Gods but she hoped that she'd seen it.

There it was, in her hand. It was a tiny little black box with a hinge opening. The covering was felt in its softness and it looked about the right size for exactly what might have caused some people's heart to pound. Inside it was a diamond solitaire.

...the joke?

She'd actually bought this one.]

[she stopped in place, stopped her advances, just stared at the ring in the box in her hand. and the memory of her accidentally proposing came to her mind, and the conversation they'd had about it... and the moss king's prophecy, and how it seemed less and less likely that it was going to come to pass every day. and maybe emerald just never thought much about fate and prophecy, and maybe she just assumed that it would come to pass as most things did—when it was ready, and when they were in good enough places for it.]

[or not at all. which, she assumed, was what brought this on. neo had every right in the world to make this fate happen for them, and honestly... honestly, emerald wanted it. she knew that she would be okay back home, one way or another, thanks to jaune. but she didn't know about neo. she didn't know about anyone else. so she needed... she needed someone else to do this right. for her. even if it meant she sacrificed doing it right on her own, which really wasn't the biggest deal in the world now that it was all happening.]

[with tears threatening to well up in her eyes, she looked between the ring and neo, closed the box, and kissed her with all the love in the world flowing between the two of them. it wasn't exactly an "i do", but she could save that for later.]

[That was a yes, right? Oh brothers, she hoped that was a yes. She was being kissed almost savagely, the two of them wrapped up in each other in response to the little box and in that moment Neo was just going to assume that was a yes, to get the fluttering of butterflies inside of her to die down. She couldn't explain it without writing it down, because there were so many thoughts jumbled in her head.

That whole thing with Jaune and Oscar having memories of the next few days in their histories, it wasn't the nerve reducing thing that it was for Emerald, the thing that helped her understand the rightness of her decisions here. It was the nerve-wracking "I probably fucked up really bad" fear that gnawed at the gut of a girl who realized that she could have had some level of closure years ago, if things had just been different than they were here. And the terror didn't go away, even as she acknowledged it and accepted that this was what she was, and there was a price to be paid.

But in that moment, she was done having these dreams half dashed. She wanted to keep something, to hold it, to make it hers. She wanted a future, and there was no future in Remnant, only pain and death. As awful as this nightmare was, it was a possibility for life, and she was siezing it. Her lips were siezing it. Her hands were gripping, holding and clutching before she finally had to break the kiss for just a second to breath, to smile and try not to look nervous the way she felt. She wanted Emerald, and not just for a few months. She wanted her forever.]

I'm gonna fight for as long as I can- but if the leader declares it than I'm going to be the best teammate I can be.

But you're going to have to wait until that day comes, Em.

Had to do a little work, yeah. She still hates cold days, [ the driver's side door opens with a loud creak as if to emphasize yang's point, ] and sudden acceleration. Oh, and sharp turns. And turning on the air conditioning or heat too soon after starting up.

Still! She gets you where you're going like a charm. [ sometimes the bond between a half-functioning vehicle and its owner is something that can be so personal--

dubious safety of the truck aside, emerald's question gives yang pause. sure, they may not have been on speaking terms for a while, but ruby wouldn't have kept such a major event happening to their sister to herself. unless she means.... ]

The crashes during the blizzard. Me and Ruby got caught up in that. It was me driving and...well, the same thing happened to us that happened to everyone else. [ a breakthrough in their relationship and then crash, boom, bang-- ] That's the only accident I've ever been in and I'm not in a rush to repeat the experience.

You'll be safe, [ yang says quietly. i won't let myself hurt you. ]

I know, I know. I'm not gonna force it. I don't wanna make you uncomfortable—being a team means making sure everyone's comfortable on it, right? Or, well. As comfortable as we can be. We both know I'm gonna be an awkward mess for a while.

["you'll be safe."]

[it's something she's heard not enough times in her life. nobody has truly seemed concerned about her safety before she fell in with an actual family. they might have told her she'd survive, they might have said that it's not a life-threatening risk, but there is a gulf between nonlethal and safe. she smiles, climbs in slowly. it already feels like it belongs to yang, like it's an extension of her. the love that she's placed into it radiates from every half-broken piece. and it's not like emerald knows how to fix a car or anything anyway.]

I wish I could've had a breakthrough. I just thought that Goodwitch was my mom for a while. [she did, of course, have another, much more serious breakthrough, but she's not about to get into that right now. she tries a joke, goes for a weak snort of a laugh. a self-deprecating joke that can break the ice.] Like I need to be more confused about stuff like that, you know?

Yeah. Well we're gonna work together until we hit that point. Until then we can both be awkward messes together, how does that sound?

[ yang perks up, broad smile in place that looks like it's going nowhere soon, and hops into the truck once emerald's inside, shutting the door behind her with more gentleness than necessary. no, the door won't going to fly off if handled with a little force, but she reasons any unexpected noise might make her passenger run for the hills.

best to be cautious. ]

Deerington knows exactly where to dig, huh? [ it always knew. every fear, every desire, every idle thought dragged out of you and scattered upon the ground like bones spelling out a bleak prophecy.

she huffs a bitter laugh of her own, humorless and more than a little tired, rifling through her pockets for the keys. ] Our breakthrough helped, but I think it gave me a bigger stupid complex.... [ how can she help ruby if there's so much she can't keep her safe from, why can't she help anyone, what's it mean if she can't, who is she if she can't ] So that was a fun trip to nowhere.

[ yang slips the keys into the ignition, buckles her seatbelt. she glances over to emerald to make sure she's buckled up as well and starts up the truck, carefully backing out of the driveway and onto princess lane proper. ]

But I promise our trip is going somewhere and it'll actually be fun.

Oh, I can fuck up a normal everyday conversation with the best of them. We're gonna be terrible at this, but we're gonna be terrible at it together. That's what sisters are for.

[it was absolutely, completely a yes. she could do nothing but accept, forever, eternally. she just. she was going to be married... she was going to be married, to neo, and yes she'd had the vision, she'd had some time to come to terms with it, but it felt so. unbelievable. that it was actually happening and she was just here in her girlf—in her fiancee's lap and she was just. gods. kissing her. loving her. getting ready to give both of them one of the best nights of their lives.]

[once neo pulled back to breathe, emerald took a moment to stare wide-eyed at her, amazement hanging off her parted lips. so many thoughts rushed through her head all at once and she just... she couldn't give voice to all of them. she could barely give voice to one of them. what was she supposed to do? to say? she could... she could say it outright. it was two syllables. she could say that.]

I do.

[she felt the words come out of her mouth effortlessly, and her hands pulled away from neo's body only to start tugging at her own clothing more. her body shifted so she could rub herself against neo's leg while she fumbled with her top and pulled it off over her head. well, she couldn't very well leave neo feeling underdressed, could she? by the time she was done she was sitting there straddling neo's leg in her pants and her bra and she couldn't stop herself from muttering "i do, i do, i do" over and over even as she slid her arms over neo's shoulders, ran her fingers through her hair, pressed her everything against her wife-to-be in a deep, needy kiss. in a deeper voice, she mumbled something indistinct but the words "gonna" and "fuck" were clear enough against neo's lips.]

ic inbox 💎 deerington

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Action - May 8, CW: She's in a Bow and nothing else, so nudity at the very least...

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