🪓 🍃 🪓 🍃

”Its like you read my mind bro!” He pats Kyle on the back as they walk out of the lobby, following Oti at a non-suspicious distance.

“Oh yeah… I’m starving! Plus, we gotta make sure Oti-bro’s date goes well! It’s our duty!” Spy on the princess of the Prismari frat… GO!

”Maybe we should go get dinner too!” Chad is hungry, but he’s also nosy to see how the lesbians’ date goes.

“Hella!” He hugs his best bro in the world, the power of lesbians flowing through his arms to deliver the most amazing hug known to frat bro kind.

3

Jackie (Tav: Meadhbh 🌿)

theheckmachinebroken

Yltrin

yltrin

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

Close

”So true bro!” He wipes a tear for under his sunglasses. “Let’s hug it out bro” He puts his arms around Kyle

3

Alvilda (Tav: Helaena+)

alvilda_

Yltrin

yltrin

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

Close

“Man… I love lesbians,” says the frat boy with a sniffle. “Their love is like, so pure…”

1

Yltrin

yltrin

Close

“Yeah! Whatcha in the mood for?” She asks, an arm around her shoulders (since her waist is a bit too low). “I heard they got some good steaks here. Ohh, buts it’s been a hot ass minute since I had some pasta..” The newly-reunited couple make their way out of the lobby.

”Ah! Sorry! Don’t impale yourself!” She turns a bit red. She stands up and gathers her hair up into a poly tail with her returned scrunchie. “Shall we then?” She smiles and holds out her hand. Her eyes still red from crying.

“Oh, fuck yeah!” she whisper-yells. “I’m hungry as fuck. I’ve been out shredding it all day!” For real. She’d still be out there if the slopes didn’t close at night. She has dark vision! They should still let her shred… “I’ll let you treat me for now, but next time? I got this.” She leans her head against Meadhbh, but one of her antlers pokes her cheek. “Oops. Gotta remember to get used to those again…”

"Do you want to go grab some dinner or something? On me." She glances up at Oti, her head stil resting against her arm "Call it a second chance at a first date or something... Although, our first first date will always be very special to me..." She giggles.

“Don’t worry about fucking up,” she replies lightheartedly. “Because you’re gonna. I’m probably gonna, too. No, what’s important is that we… learn how to forgive each other when we eventually do.” She just lets Meadhbh rest there as she continues. “I fuck up a lot, so I learned to stop making promises like that to myself. It’s okay. Life goes on. I’m here for ya either way.”

"Thank you." She hesitates for a moment before silently scooting closer to Oti and resting her cheek against her arm. She's tempted to kiss her, but she feel like she needs to work her way back up to that "I wont fuck up this time..."

1

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

Close

She nods her head in understanding. Otidea is not good at dwelling in the more negative aspects of emotion, but she promised herself she would stay strong. She figures it’s time to pass long the kindness her brother had given to her throughout the years, even as he crumbled under the weight of his service. “Glad to hear you’re gonna get help,” she says, rubbing her claws up and down Meadhbh’s back. “Because you can’t get through the tough shit all by yourself.” Her ears perk up at the mention of Laena. Hopefully her brother isn’t fumbling the bag right now. That’s a stray thought easily swept away. “But, uh… I’m always here to listen. Or hug. Kiss… more… you know. Whatever you’re down for,” she grins.

3

Alvilda (Tav: Helaena+)

alvilda_

Jackie (Tav: Meadhbh 🌿)

theheckmachinebroken

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

Close

"Then yes! I totally want to give us another chance!" She smiles through the tears that had been rolling down her cheeks. "In that case, I also owe you an explanation..." She takes a deep breath "I'm sure its kind obvious, but I've been having a very rough time since the beginning of last semester... To make a long story short, my parents died when I was very small, and I never really dealt with it in a healthy way... My cousin Jerry sent me this letter like the first week of the semester that really threw me for a loop, and that's putting it lightly. And then after that it just felt like it was one thing after the other that was going wrong for me. I broke up with you because I didn't want to weigh you down with all my problems... But that just made me feel worse... Anyways, Laena, my suitemate suggested I see the school counselor, so I have an appointment set."

Otidea let’s put another weak laugh at Meadhbh pinching herself. She’s as silly as ever. But her mood then shifts. “I think everyone deserves a second chance,” she replies somberly. “I really do.” How else could she live with herself if she didn’t believe that? She finally dares to touch her, placing a hand on Meadhbh’s shoulder.

Meadhbh blinks a few times in disbelief. Then just to be sure she isn't dreaming she pinches herself. 'Ow!' Okay no, this is happening for real! "Are you serious?" Of course she is. Why else would she be asking? "Yes! Of course!..." She pauses. "But why? I'm not sure I really deserve a second chance..."

She sits up straight, throwing her head back with weak laughter. “Bahaha…!” After a while, she stops. “Then I guess… you’d be down if I said I wanted to try it again? Us?”

”Really?” She can’t believe what she’s hearing. She thought she was such a flop for spending so long pining for her ex girlfriend, especially when said ex girlfriend had TWO new girlfriends…. But it seemed like Oti felt the same way and just handled it very differently… “I was never over you either… I’m still not.”

“Y-yeah… I did.” Do I really deserve this right now? She knows about at least one of the dates. She’s also relieved they didn’t go much further. She can’t even pretend to not be. “I like them… Rue and Kili. I still do. But I… I was never over you.” Uuuuuugh I am such a loser… “Even after all of this time…” she groans, hiding her face in her hands.

”You did??” Meadhbh tries not to sound excited about that. “Well… I’ve been single this whole time.” She sighs. “I went on a couple of dates. But none of them went any further than that.”

Otidea knows what that means. “… Ooooh.” She has to hold back a laugh. “Well, fuck me, then…” Her ears droop a bit as she looks out of the window. “I broke up with my girlfriends, you know.”

”What? No! You reminded me of someone who used to be my best friend! His name is Pixie, he’s also a half orc. He was my smoking buddy during undergrad, we had similar upbringings so we got a long really well…. I did have a crush on him, but he’s…” She limps her wrist “Ya know?” Meadhbh shrugs “I figured that was part of why I felt so comfortable with you so quickly…”

"I've wanted to talk to you for a long time," she says, another admission added to an ever-growing list, truth after truth spilling out after the dam had burst open. "But I thought you just... didn't want to. I thought I reminded you of someone that made you feel bad in the past." It made me hate my face so much more than I already do. "And you're not an idiot," she counters. "You were... are going through shit." I'm the idiot. I used this as an excuse to hurt two people I really care about. "Maybe we could have done this earlier, but... at least we're talking now, right?"

Meadhbh’s eye widen at Oti’s reason for holding on to her scrunchie. “You… you were? You wanted to talk to me?” A small smile starts to creep across her face. Then Meadhbh remembers how much she was absolutely feeling herself that day I’m the dance studio, thinking no one was watching… And her face turns bright red. “Oh gods, you saw that?” She buries her face in her hands. Oti wanted to talk to her? For how long? Then she remembers her meltdown at the skatepark… “I’m such an idiot…” Her voice is muffled now

She turns her head to see Meadhbh seemingly trying to curl up into a ball. "Just be open and honest..." "It did hurt," she admits, realizing that downplaying her own feelings isn't really getting them anywhere, nor is it making Meadhbh feel any better. "At the time, I didn't get why you did it. Now that I do, I'm still kinda mad. I could have..." "Just let her know you're someone she can lean on if she needs it" "I could have helped you. I still want to help you..." "Depression convinces you that you’re worthless. It encourages you to push people away, even though doing so just makes it worse." "But we didn't know each other long. So... I get it. You were just doing what you thought was right at the time. But it still fucking hurt." She follows Meadhbh's gaze toward her wrist. Guess it's time to come clean about that. She could probably lie and say she just found it randomly, but her recent attempts to lie or dodge the truth have only caused pain. Her pride is not worth it. "I was watching you dance the other day," she admits. "This fell out of your hair. I was going to... gods, this is so lame of me." She sighs heavily. "I was going to use this as an excuse to talk to you. Turns out I didn't need it, but... you can have it back now that we're talking anyways." Otidea takes it off of her wrist and offers it to Meadhbh.

”And not having you there just gave me one more thing to dwell on and be upset about…” She sniffles and tries to catch her breath. “I shouldn’t have done it. I should have given us the chance to figure it out together… or decide to end it together. Even if I was trying to protect you, I think I just made things worse by blindsiding you like that.” She rests her cheek on her knees, which are still pulled up to her chest. As she pauses to take a deep breath her eyes dart down to her scrunchie on Oti’s wrist and linger there.

She isn't saying anything that Otidea didn't already gather from her eavesdropping or her pep talk from her brother. But it's still a relief to hear it straight from Meadhbh's own mouth. "It's okay," she replies without missing a beat, her body fully relaxing as she bends forward to rest her elbows on top of her knees. "I get why you did what you did." Women crying are her biggest weakness. She wants to hug her, but she keeps her hands clasped together instead. "I'm sorry your brain sucks ass. That's what's not really fair."

”Ugh, except I totally do!” She runs her hands through her shaggy orange bangs. “I’m sorry Oti. When I broke things off between us I acted very rashly.” Theres a tremble in her voice as she recalls that day in the Witherbloom lecture hall of all places… “I thought I was making the best decision for you… Which in retrospect wasn’t my call to make….” She lets out a deep sigh. Meadhbh knew this was going to be hard. But that neon scrunchie on her ex girlfriend’s wrist is giving her enough of a glimmer of hope to keep talking. “I’m sorry that I hurt you… that I hurt us both…” She feels a lump starting to form in her throat as she speaks. “I just- I was… I am really struggling. Mentally. And when I thought I was going to drag you down with me that just didn’t seem fair to you.” Tears start to roll down Meadhbh’s cheeks.

3

Alvilda (Tav: Helaena+)

alvilda_

SoulFearer (Tav: Irory & Co)

soulfearer

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

Close

While she would normally be slouched back and sort of manspreading on the couch, Otidea is instead sitting upright, her posture oddly stiff. It relaxes only slightly at Meadhbh begins to speak. "Oh... no, no. You don't owe me that..." You were going through shit. You don't need to apologize for that. She shares a lot more similarities with her brother than one might think.

Meadhbh follows Oti to the couch and sits not too close, with her feet up, pulling her knees to her chest. Where to begin… “I owe you a massive apology.” She stares out at the slopes as she speaks, but then turns to look at Oti.

She doesn't look disgusted, so she calms down enough to finish the rest of the song. And then Meadhbh has to look at her with those damn eyes of hers... she can't possibly say no. "Um, sure... maybe we should move, though." So Otidea leads the satyr to one of the couches by a window that overlooks the snow, pine-tree covered field. What do I even say? I broke up with my girlfriends because I thought I had another chance? What if she doesn't want another chance? What if she's trying to tell me not to bother? She blinks rapidly as her thoughts bubble around in her mind.

He throws an arm around Chad as he joins him in the cheering. "T-that's was... sniffle s-so beautiful..."

"C-Can we talk? Please?" She looks up at Oti with her big doe eyes.

2

SoulFearer (Tav: Irory & Co)

soulfearer

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

Close

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Chad claps and cheers loudly.

"I know that something has changed Never felt this way I know it for real This could be the start of something new It feels so right to be here with you And now looking in your eyes I feel in my heart The start of something new" She places her hand on Oti's when she sees the panic in her eyes. "I never knew that it could happen till it happened to me I didn't know it before But now it's easy to see It's the start of something new It feels so right to be here with you And now looking in your eyes I feel in my heart That it's the start of something new It feels so right to be here with you And now looking in your eyes I feel in my heart The start of something new The start of something new" She finishes the song.

"Now who'd have ever thought that We'd both be here tonight? Oh, yeah... And the world looks so much brighter With you by my side..." Gods, I didn't even watch this movie. What the fuck is with this song? [Perception: 17] She sees Meadhbh's confused reaction at seeing her scrunchie, and she starts to (mildly) panic. Oh shit oh shit oh shit I forgot I was wearing this! She's going to think I'm such a fucking creep... oh no oh no oh no...

"This could be the start of something new It feels so right to be here with you, ohh And now looking in your eyes I feel in my heart The start of something new.." [Perception 10] As Oti rolls her sleeves up, a flash of neon just barely catches her eye... her own scrunchie... on her ex girlfriend's wrist... But didnt Oti have like two girlfriends? She saw them all together at the nightclub... why did Oti have her scrunchie on her wrist??

She is so insanely nervous, that she misses the start of the verse, which sort of puts her on a path of trying to play catch up with the lyrics. Plus, Meadhbh is doing such an amazing job. How can she- "...I know that somethin' has changed Never felt this way And right here, tonight..." Her nerves are starting to make her sweat, so she rolls up the sleeves of her loose sweater, revealing a familiar scrunchie on her wrist. Of course, Otidea doesn't even register the thing is there, forgetting she wore it so she'd have an excuse to talk to Meadhbh whenever she was ready to do so. ... which was definitely not right now. But, oh well.

Meadhbh takes a deep breath as the lyrics start to come up... [Performance 23!!!!] "Living in my own world Didn't understand That anything can happen When you take a chance I never believed in What I couldn't see I never opened my heart, Oh To all the possibilities..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBG-sEGlULs&ab_channel=DisneyMusicVEVO

2

SoulFearer (Tav: Irory & Co)

soulfearer

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

Close

She'd try her "turn invisible and run away" trick, but who knows? There might be some other mage with counterspell around to make her look like an ass again. So she accepts her fate, taking the mic in her hand. Who knows? Singing might encourage her to actually talk.

1

Clara - Tav: Mim / Anareya

claraoswaldttv

Close

"Hey, you know what? Someday, someday you guys might thank me for this." He hands the half orc woman a microphone and goes to pull up a song for them.

👀

2

SoulFearer (Tav: Irory & Co)

soulfearer

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

👀

Close

"I don't have any songs in mind..." This is quite awkward "Dealers choice I guess." She shrugs.

And now she's up on stage, too... "Um..." Dude. At least say hi? "U-uh..." Oh my gods. Why can't I talk?!

He shoves the half-orc out of her seat, and she's too shocked to really fight against his shoving her toward the stage.

Well, Meadhbh is up there now, awkwardly holding a mic.

The back smack feels like the tickle of a feather to her. "Okay, dude..." Wait, did Chad say Meadhbh? She's here? "Wait, uh... wait. Me and her?" Shit shit shit. I wasn't ready to talk to-

Oti is basically an honorary frat bro, despite her being a woman and not a full Prismari student. He goes up to her and tries to emulate an Oti back smack. "Oti bro! You gotta go up there! Because... there's like no one else here and we don't wanna hog the stage!" Weird that she's alone, though. Where are her babes?

Meadhbh looks very confused.

"Yeah Meadhbh! You totally should!" She grabs her hand and pulls her up out of her chair.

"Alright! How about that for a couple of frat bros?" Brett asks the non-existent crowd at the end of the performance, using the context clues from Kyle's sweater. "Who's gonna rock the house next? Huh?" He scans the nearly empty room. "You two?" He points out Oti and Meadhbh.

Meadhbh cant help but giggle at Chad and Kyle's performance, She's their dealer she knows they're good dudes. She suspects there might be something more blossoming between them

He's gonna always have his bro's back, because that's what bros are for. He channels all of his white boy rapper energy into this very serious performance, letting Chad shine during the very important "chorus". [Performance: 16] "All right stop, collaborate and listen Ice is back with the brand-new invention Something, grabs a hold of me tightly Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly Will it ever stop? Yo, I don't know Turn off the lights and I'll glow To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle Dance go rush to the speaker that booms..."

"Okay, lets do '*Ice Ice Baby*' my good sir!" He winks at Kyle, but he's wearing sunglasses so Kyle probably doesn't see. [Performance 4] Chad only gets part of the lyrics, specifically just the chorus. "Ice ice baby!" He hopes that Kyle, his wonderful friend, will be able to fill in the gaps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rog8ou-ZepE&ab_channel=vanillaiceVEVO

2

❄️

1

🧊

1

👶

1

Alvilda (Tav: Helaena+)

alvilda_

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

Close

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

❄️

Close

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

🧊

Close

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

👶

Close

He returns the dap with a smile. "You go ahead and pick, Chaddles. I picked last karaoke night!"

"Welcome gents! What song do you want?"

"Kyle!" Chad smiles, before dapping up his bro. "I'm so glad you're here! Lets fuckin do this thing!"

The sensitive frat bro arrives just a little bit after Chad, clad in a sweater proudly displaying his frat's logo. Always gotta rep! "Chad, bro!!!" he exclaims in a way that warrants three exclamation marks. "I'm so ready to sing with the best bro ever! Hella!"

3

Alvilda (Tav: Helaena+)

alvilda_

Jackie (Tav: Meadhbh 🌿)

theheckmachinebroken

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

Close

Chad is in here too! He saw a flyer up for a karaoke night, and he's so ready to sing his heart out. He sent a text to his best bro Kyle to see if he'd pull up as well and sing together.

Meadhbh's pointy ears perk up [Perception 22] She notices Oti as soon as she walks into the lobby, who could miss a tall half orc in an otherwise sparsely populated lobby. She turns to watch her ex walk to the bar, the leather of the chair creaking underneath her.

After a long day of snowboarding, Otidea enters the lobby to take a load off, removing her snow-covered jacket. From where she is, she can't quite see Meadhbh lounging about. First things first: she needs a damn drink, so she takes a seat at the small bar nearby and sips at some beer.

Meadhbh is sitting on one of the leather arm chairs, her legs swung over the armrest. She really doesn't know why she came on this trip, she hates winter...

An MC hired by the resort is setting up some speakers, mics and screens for a karaoke night

A large common area at the entrance of the ski resort

🛎️

1

Alvilda (Tav: Helaena+)

alvilda_

🛎️

Close