#something lighthearted

[playtimecoexposed]

After Playing & Finishing the Newest Chapter, I realized someone was...absent in the tapes and documents

[demonstars]

dnf

[cauldron-of-oddities]

Because you can't tell me otherwise, these two like to play, and like a good challenge.

It starts like this: he lost his cuff with his hourglass symbol in a fight, Jinx found it when she came to check out what happened. Sentiment made her pick it up, and maybe she could rile him up a bit.

They're not actively each other's enemy (there are other dangers and worries these days and a common enemy) but they steer well clear of the other, but every so now and then they cross paths.

Next time they meet, she teases him “Missing something?” While flicking a new little braid just behind her ear over her shoulder where she's put the cuff. “Want it back? Come and get it."

Why did she start? She couldn't give a straight answer if she tried. In the end, it boils down to this: He was her friend, her playmate, and she's bored and, if honest, still wants some form of connection.

He steals it back. Why? He could just make a new one. But this offers just the littlest of connections, a throwback to his friend, that he can't help but want to indulge in. Also, if she's distracted by him, less of a chance for her to cause harm to others. And if he's honest, he misses their games, the fun they used to have.

She doesn't really put up a fight for it. She wants him to take it back; he's missing something that makes him, him. Silly as that seems.

“It's part of you, completes the look.” followed by “Watch out, I'll get it back next time” - he's shocked, dare he say it almost sounded like a challenge (and a flirt). Would he and Powder have played such games if the explosion never happened?

So he takes a gamble, and well, they'd always loved a good game, so he's down to play. To show it; he adds a piece.

Next time they meet, she skims past him and, like she said, steals the cuff right off of him. He'll give her and him this. He slows time for a moment and puts a cuff in her pouch with her symbol on it.

His is silver in colour, hers is copper. Before she slips away with her prize, he tells her “Looked good on you too."

She finds the new cuff when refilling her pouch. Jinx does not want to admit how that makes her feel. To still be thought of, and not just as Powder or the memory of, but as Jinx, sure as day that's her symbol.

With that, the game begins properly. The extra shorter little braid becomes a thing. Both cuffs are on it, and she dares him to take them from her. He succeeds. And the time after that, she from him, both having fun teasing the other. And so it goes for a while. Until it goes wrong.

She may not be fighting him or the firelights, but she sure as hell isn't taking them into consideration. When they end up in a fight with the same chem baron, it goes almost terribly wrong when she launches one of her bombs. Those with him barely escaped the blast radius.

He is beyond angry at her, rightfully so. He can't, he knew he was playing with fire, but he had hoped something was changing, to have her do exactly what he feared, broke something in him. He has the cuffs at the moment. There will be no game, not any more. He throws them at her. “Keep ‘em, I'm not playing anymore!"

At first, she's angry, too. If stupid boy saviour didn't want them, then she didn't either. She leaves them where they fell. She fumes for a good few hours before she realises she's all alone again, but for her voices, who tell her she once again ruined everything. Frantic, she searches the area where they'd landed. They're scuffed but still there. And she pickes them up like precious treasure.

This game, this one good thing, this fun thing, it's something stable, something that reminds her she's not entirely alone, there's still one person who will actually look at her, play with her, touch her, even if it's brief. It's something she wants, something that engages her, makes her feel alive without all the destruction. It made her feel human.

And now it's gone.

There's no getting close to him. He avoids her like the plague. It hurts. Even if they still share the same battles.

At some point, Ekko gets kicked off his hoverboard and gets knocked out. Jinx is the one to pull him out of harm's way. When he comes to, the other firelights are with him.

“That menace pulled you to safety, we thought she'd done something but, well you're ok.” Later when he's back home he finds both his and her cuff in his pocket and a crumpled piece of paper, a doodle of an explosion on it with an x crossed through it and green bugs flying around.

And he knows it's her way of saying sorry, that broke him a little more. One silly little game with your ‘not quite enemy anymore’/‘once upon a time friend’ carries all that meaning, all that longing, and just the smalest bit of hope, it's that one remaining connection he has and fuck the baggage he wants to hold on.

He's wearing the cuffs again. The grin that lights her up is something to behold. For a moment, he thinks he's maybe made a mistake when she takes out something, a mini grenade? She dropped it between them. “Playtime!” A puff of smoke rises and clears quickly. She's standing a little bit away, putting the cuffs in her hair. “Were ya worried?” Her voice sounds small and a bit thick with emotion. “I can play safe.” Her voice cleared up a moment later. “Call your bugs away. This ship's going boom.”

The ship of shimmer does indeed explode, but not before those he was with were out of range.

It's his turn to steal them back, and he does something the others would call him stupid for, but he misses her and she kept her promise and well he's wanted to do this since he was twelve.

He kisses her, just a quick brush of lips as he flies by on his hoverboard, slowing time just for a moment, but she's thoroughly stunned. It's an easy steal.

“Want them back? Come and get them.” He echoes back at her. She definitely wants to steal them back, the kiss too.

The game gets infinitely more fun after that.

[kimmiessimmies]

Reconnect (21/29)

“Oh!” James suddenly said, “Did you know there’s a new miniseries on Stream based on a Harvey Collins book? ‘Vanished!'”

“Really!?” Sadie exclaimed, “Have you watched it yet?”

“Of course not,” James responded, “I never watch HC-based series without you; that’s our thing.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Sadie asked, “Let’s do it!”

[princess-peaches671]

she is the moment

[sotiriabellou]

i want to watch something but i don't know what

[tratatdragonlord]

Somebody wants to get kicked

[cheezriz]

Bubbly Thursdays be like...