Hotaru
He need not apologize for his intensity because it reveals more about him than he may have meant to share, and Hotaru likes what she sees. Though, to try and comfort him, she keeps a lighter tone with her own response. "You can't build a relationship with them if you never meet them in the first place." Clearly teasing him by the slant of her smirk and the crinkle of her eyes. She gently touches his knee in passing to grab the churro, not wanting it to feel patronizing by lingering. "Don't apologize for your passion. Or any opinion of yours really; people will either agree or they can get out of your way." Her cutthroat expression fits the message, something regal hiding in the shadows of her confidence.
So few people touch her shifted appendages that it makes her entire spine curve with the touch, a breathy little noise escaping her lips against her will. She could have assumed how it would feel given Sunjata's constant reactions, but she had become a hybrid only after leaving him and Nate. She has never experienced the intimacy of it firsthand, and it is devastating.
Enough to make it incredibly difficult to focus on his follow up question. "B-Both," she stutters, and feels color in her cheeks immediately at having done something so juvenile. "I hunt for meat and other useful things, but I am also part of the Monster Hunters Guild. We dispatch all manner of inhuman threats, so I utilize anything from weapons to magic and shifts." Her weapons were more magical in nature in terms of personal ownership, but she could utilize nearly every weapon in the barracks to a devastating degree. Deimos would throttle her otherwise. (Or, worse, give her his disappointed eyes.)
As his touch falls away she is able to focus a little more, which becomes important with the vulnerability he is displaying. One she can relate to a little too deeply, as evidenced by her empathetic expression. "I understand all too well," she murmurs, and glances away to methodically clean the sugar and cinnamon from her fingertips as she considers her own response. "Mine is abandonment. Similar, but different. Being alone has been the hardest thing to bear." He might assume she means Enzo's death, but the reality is that she has been contending with nightmares and loneliness since she left Torchline and never looked back. It has gotten easier, but it has also been multiple years, so progress felt negligible. Shaking herself slightly, she gives him a reserved smile. "Your turn love."
So few people touch her shifted appendages that it makes her entire spine curve with the touch, a breathy little noise escaping her lips against her will. She could have assumed how it would feel given Sunjata's constant reactions, but she had become a hybrid only after leaving him and Nate. She has never experienced the intimacy of it firsthand, and it is devastating.
Enough to make it incredibly difficult to focus on his follow up question. "B-Both," she stutters, and feels color in her cheeks immediately at having done something so juvenile. "I hunt for meat and other useful things, but I am also part of the Monster Hunters Guild. We dispatch all manner of inhuman threats, so I utilize anything from weapons to magic and shifts." Her weapons were more magical in nature in terms of personal ownership, but she could utilize nearly every weapon in the barracks to a devastating degree. Deimos would throttle her otherwise. (Or, worse, give her his disappointed eyes.)
As his touch falls away she is able to focus a little more, which becomes important with the vulnerability he is displaying. One she can relate to a little too deeply, as evidenced by her empathetic expression. "I understand all too well," she murmurs, and glances away to methodically clean the sugar and cinnamon from her fingertips as she considers her own response. "Mine is abandonment. Similar, but different. Being alone has been the hardest thing to bear." He might assume she means Enzo's death, but the reality is that she has been contending with nightmares and loneliness since she left Torchline and never looked back. It has gotten easier, but it has also been multiple years, so progress felt negligible. Shaking herself slightly, she gives him a reserved smile. "Your turn love."
Now you can quit, you can cave in
but just know you're not beyond saving
but just know you're not beyond saving
