Evelyn Stones
May 26, 2020 1:17 AM
Big-- uh . . . small squishy chair thread! [Ness] by Evelyn Stones
Even after all that life had thrown at them, Evelyn always looked forward to the start of term chair meetup with Ness. The chair had gotten smaller (since Evelyn definitely hadn't gotten bigger and Ness was as Ness as ever, that made the most sense, right?) but the conversations had only gotten richer. Since they'd been living together, too, Evelyn almost valued this time more. It was their time to be friends from school rather than all the other layers of things that they were outside of these walls. Evelyn was sure she'd never be able to thank, let alone repay all the kindness Ness had shown her.Now, of course, there was a bit of a risk to it. Evelyn wasn't sure exactly where the entrance to the Aladren Common Room was, but she knew it was in the library somewhere, which meant that Ness wasn't the only person she cared about who might be meandering about within earshot. That was another benefit to the squishy chair though. The tangle of limbs and laughter meant that they were close enough to speak quietly if they didn't want to be overheard.
They'd made plans to meet and it would be the first time they'd had a chance to really talk since the start of the new year. They saw each other in class and they'd obviously spent time together, but between all of their extracurriculars, let alone their curriculars, studying, meals, and prefect responsibilities, they hadn't really gotten a chance to just breathe a little of the same shared space.
Evelyn arrived first - she often did, which she thought was funny since Ness was obviously much closer to the chair than she was - and took up her seat. By herself, she fit with quite a bit of room, and she sat sideways in the chair, her back against the armrest. It was a bit difficult to stay still because she really would rather be jumping around and shouting about how happy she was, and then also sort of wanting to cry because she was just so happy. It was a weird combination of feelings. But she was going to tell Ness and hopefully Ness would be happy with her. She was pretty sure that would be the case.
Especially since Evelyn and Heinrich had accidentally at the same time joined DnD, Ness and Heinrich seemed to get along extra well. Combine that with their shared Quidditch position all of the previous year and Evelyn's obvious care for them both and the two Aladrens got along just fine as far as Evelyn was aware. At the end of the previous year, the Ball had been the point at which Ness was completely sure that they were basically dating, and Evelyn was sure that her own summer plans had only helped to confirm that belief. It sounded like Ness wasn't the only one who thought this way, and Evelyn was still trying to figure out how to thank Hilda without letting the girl know why or what or who. But Ness had been happy for Evelyn with the Ball and she was pretty sure that her best friend in the world would be happy for her now.
She'd also noticed . . . well, she wasn't exactly sure. Emotions were in Ness' eyes that hadn't been there much before, some of them positive and some much less so. There had been a great deal more grumbling than normal over the past few days since the Feast, and not-so-subtle glances that Evelyn couldn't ignore, but also couldn't identify the subject of them. Or subjects? She couldn't tell.
These thoughts only had a moment to swirl around, as Ness arrived very shortly after she did. Evelyn grinned and patted the seat under the crook of her legs, raising an eyebrow mischievously. "How shall we do this, oh limby one?" she asked, enjoying the fact that her own small stature and lack of growth meant that it was Ness' body they were accounting for.
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Evelyn Stones
Big-- uh . . . small squishy chair thread! [Ness]
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Ness McLeod
May 26, 2020 6:38 PM
Room for two? by Ness McLeod
Ness entered the library from the Aladren Common Rooms, doing a couple of extra sneaky loops behind bookcases in order to come from a direction that wasn’t that. It was probably pretty obvious, after years of hanging out with many Aladrens that the Common Room was at least nearby the library. For starters, it was thematically appropriate, but Kir had also mentioned the number of times he’d had to break into a run to make it back to Teppenpaw by curfew after study sessions (meaning making out, Ness assumed) with Zev, or DnD whilst the Aladrens had drifted off relaxed and unconcerned. Ness wondered whether Evelyn had experienced a similar phenomenon.Ness was feeling frowny on approach to the chair. The Aladren’s mood had been swinging back and forth since the start of term. Classes tended to lighten the mood. Lyssa was in them, and any day now, Ness was going to pluck up the courage to go sit next to her and resume the conversation from the ball about how Ness was a fearsome valkyrie and… stuff. Something. Hopefully something cool to say would spring to mind. Other people kept getting to Lyssa first though.
Time spent in Aladren, however, tended to dampen things down again. Ness was actually wondering whether to give up hanging out there, which would suck, because being an Aladren was something Ness had always been proud of. The fifth year did spend time in the shared dorm room because stubbornness made Ness unwilling to yield it totally to Topaz’ control. It was just as much Ness’ room, and Ness would hang out and do homework and occupy a fifty-fifty share of it. That time wasn’t exactly relaxing though. It was to prove a point. The common room had always been more fun, but now it was depressing for exactly the same reason it had been good before - there was the possibility of running into Gary.
As Ness approached the chair though, Evelyn was looking sunny and happy, and Ness tried to smooth the grumps away to not spoil this.
“Why’d you shrink the chair?” Ness teased in response to Evelyn’s question of how they were to do this. The space under Evelyn’s legs was definitely not going to accommodate all of Ness’ unless they ended up doing lap sitting. “Probably need to perch on the arms or on me,” Ness shrugged, good with either option. They could also do back to back with their legs hanging over the side but that didn’t seem so conducive to conversation.
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Ness McLeod
Room for two?
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Evelyn Stones
May 26, 2020 8:02 PM
Only if we share. by Evelyn Stones
"Perch on each other?" Evelyn asked, hoping desperately for some positive physical contact. She didn't think of herself as a touchy person necessarily, but she wasn't not touchy, and she didn't have a lot of people in her life to touch. She wasn't sure whether Heinrich wanted her to hug him and other than Ness, that was about the only person she'd extend the offer to. Maybe one of the other DnD players or Parker, but that seemed unlikely to come up. Ness, she knew, was a good, happy, safe person to touch when the Aladren didn't mind. "I think it shrank in the laundry," she added, answering Ness' first question with a smirk. She maneuvered a bit, following Ness' lead, until they were comfortably sat together in the big squishy armchair that wasn't very big anymore."I always miss you at the start of the term," Evelyn beamed. "It's weird going from seeing you all the time to not really seeing you nearly so much, and when we do, we're doing classes and things." She smiled a little more softly, her eyes warm and glowing with affection for her friend. "I'm glad we made time for this."
She was pretty sure the polite thing to do was to ask how Ness was doing and give her friend room to talk before she burst out with her own news. She knew Ness well enough to suspect that if there was anything less than perfectly wonderful to share, Ness would wait until a time when it would not burst Evelyn's bubble. So she wanted to provide that space. She also really didn't because she wanted to tell Ness about the Big Exciting Thing. That was selfish though, and if the McLeods had taught Evelyn anything by example, it was selflessness.
"How are you doing?" she asked, softer yet. She didn't want to put any pressure on Ness to be doing one way or another.
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Evelyn Stones
Only if we share.
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Ness McLeod
May 27, 2020 7:02 PM
I can manage that by Ness McLeod
“More you on me than the other way around,” Ness guessed when Evelyn requested perching on each other, making a point of grabbing Evelyn’s legs and moving them out of the space so Ness could comfortably drop into it, before pulling them back into place, “Unless you have some M.C. Escheresque plans on how you now also position yourself so I am also perching on you. Make your hand the top hand,” Ness nodded, wiggling fingers enticingly, hoping to get into the silly ‘whose hand can be on top’ game.“Aww. Me too. I missed you on the first night especially,” Ness agreed, arms up and giving a hesitation and raised eyebrows before taking the lack of objection as confirmation that a big squishy hug was okay after that statement. They usually were. “We could have celebrated being prefects together. Except, well, obviously not if we were in the same house.” And I could have talked to you about what a jerk Gary was being, or maybe you’d have been there and seen it for yourself and I wouldn’t even have to explain and you’d have just dumped your goblet of pumpkin juice over his stupid head. Ness let out an involuntary sigh.
“Doing okay,” the Aladren replied neutrally to the neutral question, wondering whether this was the point to get into All The Stuff, or whether that was gonna eclipse whatever was going on with Evelyn. Maybe Ness’ stuff wasn’t a big deal, and Evelyn would have something bigger… That was usually the way.
“You?” Ness checked. “And, um, what do you think will happen with DnD after Gary leaves?” Ness asked, unable to help jumping in with something about it. Because Ness kinda wanted to know that someone else thought the same way about what was logical. But if Evelyn knew what Ness thought, she was bound to agree in a heartbeat cos she was a good friend like that. But, like it had been with Gary, Ness actually wanted someone to be on the same page, to want Ness as leader without having to fight to make them think that. Someone to look and be like ‘oh yeah obviously Ness would be awesome’ Evelyn seemed a good bet for that.
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Ness McLeod
I can manage that
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Evelyn Stones
May 27, 2020 9:09 PM
*snuggles* by Evelyn Stones
Evelyn let the challenge get to her, her expression turning mischievous as she pointedly pulled one of her legs back and jammed it underneath the nearest of Ness' and over the other one. It wasn't terribly comfortable, but it was sufficiently pretzeled. Actually . . . it was really uncomfortable. "Okay, okay," she conceded, taking her leg back and returning it to where Ness had put it. "You win this round." She felt small with Ness - she felt small with everyone for the most part - but very very safe. It was easy to be comfortable around the person who probably loved her more than anyone else in the world. Probably. That that wasn't certain was a really terrifying thought in a happy way.She nodded, emphatically agreeing with how nice it would've been to be able to celebrate together, accepting the hug with enthusiasm. It only last a moment though because Ness was very . . . neutral. On the whole, Ness was logical, and rational, and objective, but that never stopped emotions from being felt, whether or not they were expressed. Which meant that Ness was feeling a feeling and choosing not to share it with Evelyn. Perhaps it was not a comfortable thing to share? Or perhaps there was some guilt there for some reason? Evelyn didn't want to pry - Ness never pried into her business - but she also didn't want to not pay attention to this.
This impacted her decision to hold off on what she wanted to tell her friend when Ness asked about DnD. The look on her friend's face told Evelyn that this maybe was something to do with the practiced neutrality. That being said, it did worry Evelyn. She blinked, not sure what to think.
"Are you . . . what do you mean? Are you not wanting to play anymore?" Her voice rose a little with nerves, hating to imagine her friend not playing with her, but she reminded herself to keep it controlled because maybe Ness had something going on. "I sort of assumed that you were going to take over, honestly. You have the most experience and you're brilliant. That makes the most sense to me." She cocked her head, searching Ness' face. "Do you not want to do that?" she frowned a little.
She would answer how she was doing later. That was not important right now, because something was wrong with Ness and that was no good. She wondered for a moment if she just . . . shouldn't tell Ness ever. She'd basically been the Aladren's doom and gloom friend since forever; would Ness be upset with her for finding another relationship that mattered so much to her? But that didn't seem right . . . friends were meant to support each other and Ness would want to support her, right?
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Evelyn Stones
*snuggles*
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Ness McLeod
May 28, 2020 7:48 PM
I need those by Ness McLeod
“No, I do want that, and that’s what I thought too,” Ness stated emphatically when Evelyn asked about DnD. “Thanks,” the Aladren added, giving a hand squeeze for the vote of confidence, which meant a lot.“But it’s not what Gary thinks. He wants to hand the club over to Morgan,” Ness stated in a voice of absolute disbelief. “Well… he said we can all try out and everyone will get to vote or whatever. But that was his pick,” Ness summarised, blinking back tears.
“That isn’t fair, right?” Ness checked, “Like you said, I’ve been doing it longest. I know the most about the game. And then… then he came out with all this stuff about how it was a lot of work and he doesn’t want to overload me, like he’s doing me some massive favour by passing on me.” As far as Ness was concerned, ‘you’d do great’ had been a bland platitude, as Gary had already shown where his decision lay. As for sparing Ness the hard work, that could have been something he laid out and discussed instead of saying he’d just pick Morgan. Ness was a fifth year and a prefect - why did Gary think he needed to make decisions about workload on Ness’ behalf rather than just… explain the pros and cons up front? Trust that Ness could make rational decisions? Wasn’t that something the Aladren had proven good enough at?
“And then there was this whole monologue about how he needs to find a nice girl to be his wife and baby machine. Like… what the heck is up with him? Who even talks like that this century?” Ness stated grumpily. At this point, it didn’t matter on a personal level. It wouldn’t matter if Gary wouldn’t touch someone like Ness with a ten foot pole if Ness didn’t want to be touched. But Evelyn could be outraged as a feminist, and so could Ness, and that was fine.
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Ness McLeod
I need those
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Evelyn Stones
May 28, 2020 8:23 PM
I'ma murder a boy for you. by Evelyn Stones
Evelyn blinked, surprised. Gary wasn't one to play games (no pun intended) or mince words. So what was he getting at saying stuff like that? Morgan was great, sure, but she only knew what was going on about half the time. About as much as Evelyn, to be fair. Ness had always been there. Ness was DnD in a lot of ways, almost as much as Gary. It made a little more sense if he really wasn't trying to overload Ness, but that wasn't his decision to make and not even trying to talk it out seemed like a low blow. This was going to need to be something that was discussed and Evelyn would it herself if that's what it took."That's ridiculous," Evelyn said, more shocked than bitter. She wasn't sure how to manage vitriol when it didn't even make sense. "I don't know why he would . . . that doesn't make any sense."
The conversation turned to babies and wives and families, which reminded Evelyn again of Heinrich, but her feelings on the subject were markedly more positive than Ness' by virtue of the definitively male part of the equation not being a jerk about it. It did make Evelyn wonder whether this was the real root of the problem for Ness, though. An affront on DnD could be something that Ness would be irked by, but it wasn't like debate or discussion was uncomfortable or unusual for the brainiest person Evelyn knew. So maybe it was more than that.
Plus . . . well, Evelyn's positive feelings in a related topic put in perspective just how crappy it was of Gary to talk like that. If anything, Heinrich was doing the opposite. He was offering to take on the role and responsibility of parenting for Evelyn, not trying to "make new Hexenmeisters" as he'd said. So what the heck was Gary's problem? Also, why would he bring that up with Ness? It wasn't a secret that Ness was housed in a girls' dorm, which spoke to the associated anatomy - as far as Evelyn knew, the dorms were based purely on genitalia, although there was probably magic that could work around that - and it was also no secret that Ness did not use she/her pronouns on the whole. So that just meant that Ness couldn't possibly be an interesting companion?
She made a show of leaning down for her notebooks in her bag on the floor and then waving her hand. "I can get them out later, but I've been learning some great new hexes if you want," she said, smiling a little. Ness looked sad, though, and she didn't want to do too much to break the tension in that regard. "That's really weird of him. He seems like he wouldn't act like that." It made Evelyn a bit sick to think that people thought of her, or could think of her, as a 'baby machine'. That was a horrifying thought. Evelyn was much more than that, and Ness sure as heck was too. She cocked her head a little. "Ness, I wanted to ask but I didn't wanna pry . . . do you . . . like like him? Or did you, I guess, before he was being an absolute caveman about that?"
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Evelyn Stones
I'ma murder a boy for you.
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Ness McLeod
May 29, 2020 10:44 PM
Thanks by Ness McLeod
“Thanks,” Ness smiled, giving the nearest Evelyn hand a happy squeeze when the Pecari was emphatic about how ridiculous the whole Gary/game situation was. It wasn’t just Ness. Ness valued being cool and level headed, and knew Gary valued that in people too. The fact that what he’d said had pushed an emotional reaction had only added to the problem. If those feelings weren’t reasonable or justified then Ness was just ‘hysterical’ or ‘over-reacting’ and the Aladren had no desire to be labelled those things, with all the patriarchal baggage that went along with such comments. Justified fury and emotion was, as the name suggested, justified though. So that was better, even if the whole situation still massively sucked.“I’ll bear it in mind,” Ness agreed as Evelyn suggested various hexes. Ness wasn’t really one to resort to violence, and suspected Evelyn was not either. It was a nice show of support though.
And then Evelyn asked about feelings. Ness leant back, flopping against the back of the chair. The answer to the present tense question was a definite ‘no.’ Right now, Ness didn’t even like Gary, let alone like him. But Evelyn had asked using multiple tenses.
“Maybe?” Ness admitted. It wasn’t like that wasn’t something the Aladren was totally willing to share with Ev - they were best friends. And Ness had happily dropped things about how cool Gary was into all their conversations. It had been fun to be able to be excited about someone whilst Evelyn was getting excited about Heinrich. Except now it was totally embarrassing because Gary had proved, as Evelyn had said, to be a total caveman. “But I like Lyssa now,” Ness said decisively, determined to draw a line under any feelings for Gary. Except for one nagging doubt.
“Do you think it’s like… obvious? The Gary thing? To anyone who isn’t you?” the Aladren asked worriedly. There had been one person it clearly hadn’t been obvious in the slightest to but Ness wondered what everyone else in their group would have thought.
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Ness McLeod
Thanks
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Evelyn Stones
May 29, 2020 11:54 PM
My pleasure! by Evelyn Stones
Floppy Ness made Evelyn want to laugh but it didn't seem like the right moment. Then Ness admitted proudly to liking Lyssa and Evelyn beamed. Parker was a good human and Lyssa seemed like she was too, although Evelyn didn't know the younger Fitzgerald nearly so well. "Ooh, I bet she likes you," Evelyn said, recalling vaguely that Ness and Lyssa had chatted at the Ball. She thought she'd seen them passing Lyssa's jacket back and forth or something but couldn't be sure. "You're dynamite." She resisted the urge to clap and eep. "That's so exciting!"She smiled a little more softly when Ness asked about whether having maybe liked Gary was obvious. "No," she said honestly. "You've been really chill about it. But to be fair, I don't think Heinrich, Parker, Connor, or Morgan would be likely to notice anyway. And they don't know you out of that context as well as I do."
This was it. This was an appropriate segue. Her cheeks turned pink and all her previous feelings of excitement and eagerness and fear bubbled back up in her stomach, making her tense up some and she wiggled a little, trying to get comfortable again.
"Speaking of not noticing . . . uh . . . so I guess you were right? And Heinrich did like me?" Evelyn grinned then. It felt so good to say and she was so happy. "We were talking about everything at home and I sort of halfway admitted that I liked him, and then he asked me to be his girlfriend. And I think he wants to help me raise CJ after he graduates and then raise CJ with me after I graduate. I think . . . I think that means he like . . . really likes me, right? Like a lot?" She couldn't stop grinning and her whole face felt hot, like she might burst out laughing or burst into tears. It felt good to feel so happy. "I really like him a lot," she said more quietly, remembering where they were in relax to the Aladren Common Room and feeling a bit silly in general. She was terribly afraid that Ness would laugh at her or else try to tell her things were bad, but Evelyn had been through bad and this didn't feel like that at all. "I'm really happy," she murmured, squeezing the hand that Ness had used to squeeze hers. Evelyn had everything in the world and it was the best feeling.
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Evelyn Stones
My pleasure!
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Evelyn Stones
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Ness McLeod
June 01, 2020 6:58 AM
Ooooh! by Ness McLeod
“She called me a valkyrie and asked about pronouns,” Ness admitted when Evelyn said that Lyssa probably liked Ness back. That sort of behaviour seemed like confirmation and/or just reasons why Evelyn should get firmly on board the ‘Lyssa is a badass human being’ bandwagon.But then Evelyn shared, and it was… Big. Ness almost felt an eyeroll might be appropriate at this stage.
“How is that to do with not noticing?” the Aladren pointed out, digging Evelyn in the ribs slightly. “Everyone noticed.” Well, everyone except apparently Evelyn and Heinrich. Even Gary, the most oblivious person on planet earth regarding relationships, had noticed. But Ness didn’t want to sour things by bringing them back to him. The conversation had moved on. It had sailed away to somewhere nicer and left him far behind.
“Yay! That’s so exciting! You said ‘yes,’ right?” Ness teased. Evelyn had only admitted to being asked the question. And, uh, planning to raise CJ together. Which as relationship goals went was… kind of different. It wasn’t like it was a bad thing, but it sounded like a lot. Still, it was making Evelyn happy. That was what mattered. Ness offered a big hug.
“So, tell me details,” the Aladren probed.
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Ness McLeod
Ooooh!
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Evelyn Stones
June 01, 2020 11:52 AM
So much pleasure! by Evelyn Stones
Evelyn put her hands up in mock defeat. "Well, then she's perfect," she said seriously. Evelyn wasn't entirely sure what a Valkyrie was except in the Thor Ragnarok sense, but that one was badass and Ness and Lyssa could both totally be Valkyries. "Are you going to ask her out?" She grinned, imagining how happy Parker would be seeing Ness, Lyssa, Evelyn, and Heinrich go out on a double date. That would be the most precious thing ever. And Heinrich had been very nice when he thought maybe Evelyn and Ness were dating, so she knew he wouldn't have any problems with that. Good thing.She grinned again, blushing when Ness pointed out that everyone else noticed. "Did they really?" she said. "He said that Hilda and his uncle had assumed we were dating, and I knew you had . . . but everyone?" For a moment, she wasn't sure how she felt about that. Then she decided that it was great. For one, it would make any changing social dynamics less weird. But also, it meant they all already supported them, and that there had been signs of this coming for a long time. Evelyn counted herself as impulsive, but hadn't thought that this was an impulsive choice; now she had some confirmation.
Nodding, she couldn't help grinning. It felt so good to not be able to help grinning. "I said 'yes'," she confirmed. She wanted to reach out and plant a big grateful kiss on Ness' cheek for asking details because Evelyn was dying to share them but didn't want to impose and it made her so happy that Ness was such a good friend. It felt good to have a nice, happy thing to share.
"It actually started as kind of a bummer," she grimaced a little. "We planned on meeting up in MARS just to hang out, but I wanted to tell him stuff, because he had said he wanted to be involved with CJ and everything, and I'd like him to come meet you all at some point, and I figured he was going to be around all this stuff and he should know the full picture. I didn't get into it a lot, but he knows now, and he still wanted to date me!" She remembered Heinrich's jaw falling open in surprise when Evelyn had said what she'd said, and she was so glad she had. "We watched Princess Bride when he visited over the summer, and I was trying to sort out how to say that I wanted him to help out with CJ, but only if it didn't mean uprooting CJ all the time, and I said 'as you wish' and he got it! And . . . I think he was trying to explain that he wanted to go out with me but said something about finding a 'future Hexenmeister' and I feel so squishy."
Evelyn put her hands over her face for a moment, feeling so silly and ridiculous for reacting this way to everything. She peeked through her fingers at Ness. "I don't know what to think, but I'm really happy."
She pulled her hands away and looked at Ness a bit more desperately, hoping the Aladren could help her. "We don't . . . like we don't hug or anything. One time I hugged him briefly and he didn't really seem super comfortable, and then obviously we danced at the Ball, but that's it. And I don't know if I should wait to see what he's comfortable with or if I should bring it up. I sort of assume he's going to think I'm not comfortable with stuff? And I don't know. But I'd like to hug him at least! Or like . . . hold his hand." A sudden image of her standing on a stack of books so she could reach up and kiss him came to mind, but she dismissed it; Heinrich would probably frown upon standing on books and Ness definitely would. "Or stuff," she concluded, blushing. "I don't know how to bring that up. It feels so weird to bring up."
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Evelyn Stones
So much pleasure!
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Ness McLeod
June 01, 2020 11:17 PM
Awww by Ness McLeod
“Maybe?” Ness said regarding asking Lyssa out. The response did not sound very valkyrie-ish. Ness definitely wanted to just… How? sprung to mind as a question, along with What if…? After all, Ness had thought that all the conversations about magical theory with Gary Meant Something and they clearly hadn’t. Maybe listening to Evelyn’s story about Heinrich would give some clues on how to proceed.It definitely did not. That seemed pretty unique to them and their situation.
“Well, you did go to the ball together,” Ness pointed out, regarding everyone knowing, “I dunno if you know, but it was kind of a public thing and other people could see you. I mean, I know it’s not like an Unbreakable Vow or anything, but yeah - people probably do assume that most people who went to the ball together are dating. Oh, on which note, Dorian Montoir’s into other boys, in case you didn’t know,” Ness teased Evelyn. She sort of wanted to gossip about that too. Not in the malignant way that other people probably were but more in the ‘yay more queers/do we need to mount a rescue?’ kind of a way, but she wasn’t really sure how much there was to say about it.
Wow, what was it with guys and planning to put a ring on it? Weren’t they notoriously scared of that? And well, whilst yay for bucking one kind of stereotype, it was all a bit much.
“Assumption much,” Ness said, though with a light enough tone, “Not everyone wants to change their name.” Though maybe Evelyn did more than most… And for very different reasons to tradition. “Though it’s cool if you want to,” Ness added hastily.
Then Evelyn asked about… stuff. Like, even getting up to the level of hugging stuff and Ness was kind of puzzled by the fact that their own relationship seemed to be way more tactile than the boyfriend/girlfriend thing Ev and Heinrich had going on. Didn’t look like Ness would be getting much kissing advice out of Ev any time soon. Maybe even though Ev had hit the dating milestone first, Ness could get kisses in first. Also, once you counted by age instead of just chronologically, there was still time… Though as Ev pointed out, there were a lot of reasons why she might want to take things slowly. And Ness felt a little bit bad for mentally competing, or for thinking it sounded odd that she and Heinrich weren’t even really huggy. Though that was odd because… because hugs. Ness couldn’t imagine not wanting to hug someone you liked. But then, based on DnD, Heinrich didn’t seem the most effusive and tactile person either. And based on how long he’d taken to ask Ev out, seemed very hesitant to cross any lines. And also there was meant to be no judging, so Ness didn’t judge. But still. Hugs.
“Nah, date him and get hugs from me,” the Aladren teased, squeezing Ev. “Well, the options are bring it up or just grab him. When I put it like that, does it help one of them sound less weird and more like the thing to do?” Ness asked, with pointedly raised eyebrows. “Asking only seems weird cos people don’t normalise it enough. Be a trailblazer. If he’s that hands off too, it seems like he’ll appreciate it rather than think you’re being weirdly formal. And it’ll get less weird and you figure it out with time. Like it did with us and with family.” Consent Castles. They’d been explored. Now Ev just had to remember how it went when you were laying the foundations instead of occasionally checking for maintenance work.
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Ness McLeod
Awww
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Evelyn Stones
June 02, 2020 12:36 AM
Thanks for getting me here. by Evelyn Stones
Evelyn raised an eyebrow, surprised by Ness' very un-Ness answer. She wasn't sure whether that meant her friend really liked Lyssa, or just really wasn't sure. This was new territory for them both, in lots of ways. "Do you wanna talk about that?" she pressed gently.She blushed more at Ness' comment. "I thought he just needed a date for the prefect dance," she murmured, clearly pleased. Of course, he hadn't just asked her that. When she'd made it semi-clear that she would be happy to be his date, he'd asked her to be. That wasn't all this was now, right? Would there ever be a time when uncertainty didn't plague her?
Smirking some, she inclined her head. "He's not traditional so much, but I think he was trying to come up with words. Also, 'Hexenmeister' is a way cooler name than 'Stones'." Allowing such thoughts felt dangerous because it felt... Right. But she was also riding the high of a new relationship and she didn't want to read too much into that. Caution, Padawan. She smiled though, glad that Ness' also seemed to understand that she probably wouldn't want to keep her family name.
"Perfect!" Evelyn laughed although also it was a terrible suggestion. She wanted to date Heinrich (eep!! It still sounded so weird out loud) and get hugs from Ness, and also get hugs from Heinrich. But only if he wanted them. She wrinkled her nose. "Asking doesn't seem weird," she decided. "I'm so used to it now. It would be weirder to 'just grab him'." She appreciated the comparison, and reminder, that she'd done this before with the McLeods, but she had not had to figure out how to ask any of them to kiss her. That seemed like a very different problem. "He... Probably wants to, right? Like... He probably wants to kiss or something some time?" If her cheeks had been red before, they were nothing to the scarlet flush that bloomed now. She covered her face again, laughing embarrassedly. "I feel like such a dork."
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Evelyn Stones
Thanks for getting me here.
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