Lessa

His words soothed like aloe on a bad sunburn, and she felt her shoulders relax. It wasn't as if she lived in constant fear that Jomei might leave her - what a sorry existence that would be - but the reassurance that he was stuck on her was always nice to hear. "No returns," she echoed, nodding her agreement. "I'm good with that. More than good, actually." At Jomei's mention of Oscar, Lessa's shoulders rose and fell in a quick shrug. "I gotta believe I'd have gotten there eventually. He just called me on my bullshit, and made me realize that I didn't really have anything to lose. The worst

She was moving before Belregor's attack finished. Heat, light, and energy washed over her, and though they were only a fraction of what Jomei and Riker experienced, every muscle in her body screamed. Her hair blasted back from her face, now flushed with pain and panic, but her steps didn't slow. By the time the effect faded, allowing darkness to spill back across the beach once more, she was running. Jomei squared off against the boss, his shredded clothes hanging limply from his muscular body. Later, she'd look back on that moment, and decide that he looked just like Hercules after the H

"No way," Lessa cut in, shaking her head. "I'm glad you didn't make your move sooner. I think it all worked out perfectly, exactly the way it was supposed to." She gave his hand a tight squeeze. "Not that I would have minded more time with you, like this, but I love how it happened. I wouldn't change a thing." At Jomei's confused expression, Lessa loosed a quick laugh. "Glue, yeah," she echoed, giving Oscar few seconds to walk away before giving Jomei her full attention. "Before our Clash of Blades fight, I had a long talk with Oscar about... well, about you. And us. And just kind of wher

"Lighthouses are endlessly suggestive signifiers of both human isolation and our ultimate connectedness to each other." — Virginia Woolf Thunder boomed. It coincided with the opening of the lighthouse's front door, giving the entrance a little extra pizazz. Not that it needed any extra theatrics, as the wind ripped the wooden door from Lessa's hands, and slammed it into the adjacent wall. "Holy shit," the woman muttered, shoving her body behind the heavy door, and bracing her foot against the wall. Once her companion had followed her inside, she pushed off, snarling against the wind,

His voice came from behind her, and her food-induced excitement was fully eclipsed by her joy at his presence. The contented smile she wore split to bursting, and she tilted her head back to grin up at him. "Merciful and generous!" Parroting his earlier words back at him, she let her eyes drift closed as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. Seriously, was there anything better than forehead smooches? Eyes still closed, she turned in her chair to face him. "So you're just-" Her eyes opened, and when they focused on Jomei's shirtless torso, they nearly fell out of her head. Her brain short-ci

Lessa: Oh my goddddddddddd, I love free food. Lessa: Don't you dare start without me. Lessa: Omnomnomnom. Lessa: Get in mahhhh belllllllllllllllllly. The urgency with which Lessa put her items back on the shelf, fled the shop, and sprinted down the road was... alarming, honestly. The shopkeeper, and one of the patrons inside, both poked their heads out the doorway. In silent awe, they watched the woman's retreating form, until she turned a distant corner and vanished from view. "Did she steal something?" the customer f

Lessa hadn't played too many RPGs prior to donning the headgear, but even she knew the one universal truth - when the boss floated up into the sky, you got the hell out of dodge. And when he starts glowing? When he starts absorbing power from his surroundings? When his literal clothes burst off? Unless it's one of those games, only an idiot would stick around to see what comes next. And Lessa didn't fancy herself an idiot. With a very ladylike, "Shit shit shit shit shit," she swung around in a clank of armor and a swirl of blue fabric. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her party-mates doin

He reached for her, his command softened by sleep and the goofy little smile he wore. Lessa's gaze flitted around the room for the briefest moment. The twin tubs of melted ice cream that really should be put away. The light that could stand to be turned off. The door that they'd come through, and the more comfortable bed that lay one floor down. At least, she assumed it was more comfortable - she'd never actually tried it out. The thought sent butterflies spiraling in her stomach, and her eyes finally returned to his. She'd never slept over at his place before, and he'd never stayed at hers, b

Her response was to heave a world-weary sigh. "So true. If I were this gorgeous, this funny, and I was good at math?" She paused for a perfectly executed hair toss. "Damn, I'd be unstoppable. No one person should wield such power." Grinning, she listened to him talk of their many good times, and finally nodded her agreement. "You're right, we've been through a lot together over the years. It hasn't always been smooth sailing," a tough conversation in a haunted house's pantry returned to her, "but I think that's why it's so special. Because we stuck, even when things weren't sunshine and rainbo

With a small laugh, she turned into his touch, letting her lips skim over the fingers that had so gently traced her jawline. "I have to have a way with words," she replied, her voice matching his in volume, but her blue eyes dancing with amusement. "I have so much to compensate for. My abysmal math skills. My horrendous cooking." She blinked a couple of times, then added, "And honestly, my less than stellar performance in this support role." Her lips pulled into a smile, telling Jomei that she was only half serious, but... yeah, only half joking, too. Then she pursed those lips contemplatively

"Jesus," Lessa breathed, swinging around to face the player indicated by Acanthus. "They do look super similar." When the boss had assumed her form, she'd been too shocked to truly study the likeness. Now, however, it was easy to compare the two side-by-side. It was the most difficult game of "find the differences between these two pictures" she had ever played, and she had been raised on Highlights magazines. Without help, she would have really struggled to differentiate between the two. Since there was no time for Arabelle to tell the party something only the real Arabelle would know, Lessa

Lessa pursed her lips around a contemplative hum. "I am now picturing myself literally gluing you and Jomei together. Nooooot a bad visual." Then her expression relaxed, and she shook her head. "We've already been over this," she drawled. "I could never afford a therapy session with you. You know how you get col in this game?" Without giving him a beat to respond, because of course he knew, she forged ahead. "Well I'll tell you how you get col in this game. By grinding, and by crafting. I do neither of those things, and that makes me a broke-ass bitch." Some of the humor leeched from her

"I was?" she asked, her voice trembling, though not nearly as violently as the rest of her. Her fingers found the hem of his henley, holding onto it, holding onto him, in an attempt to steady herself. Still, she shook as completely as a woman left alone in a frozen wasteland. "I don't think I was. If I was, it wasn't important. I don't know what I was saying." When her teeth chattered, she gritted them together, and muttered a breathy, "God, sorry. I'm sorry. I just..." Lessa twisted the fabric in her fists, her eyes wide and searching as they found his. She saw calm there, a sharp contra

"Astreya," Lessa repeated. "Astreya, Astreya, Astreya." She let the name roll around in her mouth, wondering if it might jog her memory. When it didn't, she shook her head. "No, I don't think I knew her. We might get along though. My parents always gave me a hard time for all my 'like's." The wry smile that twisted her lips lasted only a second before dropping away again. Back then, she'd found the whole thing impossibly annoying. Now she'd give just about anything to hear her dad mock her, or listen to her mom correct her speech. She looked from her ice cream to Jomei's cocked eyebrow, and th

It wasn't the first time that Lessa had wandered the Town of Beginnings after dark. In fact, it had been unavoidable while she lived on the floor the first few years in Aincrad. But of all those countless nights, none had felt quite like this one did. Faint stars tossed haphazardly against a gray-black sky, hazily lit by the lights of the city. The gentle roll of murmured voices, accented by the occasional laugh or cough. Music drifting from doorways and windows thrown open to the cool breeze. There was something significant about her surroundings, something cinematic in the way the evening ro

They were brought together like two pieces of a whole, fitting perfectly as they stood together in his kitchen. As his arms circled her waist, hers came around his neck, and she gave a soft sigh of relief as she simultaneously relaxed and held him tighter. A push and a pull. Give and take. A balance, the way things had always been between them. Her fingers found the back of his neck, her thumb stroking the soft skin there as she drew him even closer. “I’ve got you,” came her soft exhale, her breath feather-light against his hair. She pressed her lips to his head, then said again, “I’ve got you

Lessa swayed on her feet, gasping in a hard breath as she fought to regain her bearings. Whatever that was, it did not feel good, and a glance at her party’s health bars revealed that it was very much not good. Wincing, Lessa summoned her HUD. “There go all our antidotes,” she muttered, making two selections, and extending her hands so they could materialize there. In a swirl of rainbow ribbons, an antidote crystal and a mass healing crystal both appeared in her palms. “Morningstar,” the blonde called out, tossing the man the former. “Slap that on. I have more, if anyone needs them.”

"I feel like, we've got this bond, you know?" She leaned forward on her barstool, his words a rope that tugged her closer. He felt that he could be himself around her? And he had since they'd first met? She felt the same way. As he continued to speak, she continued to shift closer, her eyes on his lips that dropped words like bombs, shaking her all the way to her foundation. Had they both been sitting on these truths all this time? How different might their lives have been if they'd just shared how they felt, all those months ago? It would have saved her from a lot of heartbreak, and a lo

"It is real!" She bit the words out with far more intensity than she intended; the sheer force of the statement launched her out of the chair and onto her feet. As the sound of her shout died away, and she realized just how she'd filled his whole house with it, she felt a blush begin to climb her neck. But she wouldn't back down from it - she'd spent far too long backing down from it. "It feels real because it is real," she insisted, though this time, her voice had dropped about thirty decibels. They stared at each other across the kitchen, the silence and the space still humming wit

Lessa barked out a laugh at the visual of Oscar plinking out Hot Cross Buns on Jomei's abs. Then she stopped to appreciate it. Then, with a soft hum, she let Oscar have his say. He was a good listener, and an equally skilled advice-giver. They were two traits that likely made him an exceptional psychologist, which she assumed he was, based on conversations they'd had. In Aincrad, they made him an invaluable confidant. Before that moment, she hadn't realized just how important his opinion was. They'd always been on good terms, having even spent a short stint as guildmates. And their love o

"Won't cost you a thing," she countered cheerfully. "And whatever ice cream we don't eat tonight will just go back in my freezer. To be consumed later. By me. Probably in one sitting." She was so busy chattering away, adjusting the pints of ice cream in the plastic bag, that she missed his approach. But she certainly did not miss the playful gleam in his eye when she finally turned to him, and let her gaze climb up. "Normally, I would fight you for it," she replied matter-of-factly. "Tooth and nail, to the death. It would be brutal." Lessa placed an unnecessary amount of emphasis on the word,

Maybe if Lessa had branched out a bit more, and actually completed the Gemini quest, the sight might not have shocked her so much. But as it stood, she had never actually seen a mirror image of herself, and it was horrifying. "Is that what I look like?" she said aloud, wincing as the boss swaggered closer. "I do not swing my hips that much when I walk. And all those belts look ridiculous." She made a mental note to remove at least some of them after the fight was over. The humor, and the color, drained from her face as Not-Lessa plunged Not-Arcael's Might into Jomei's side. Raw instinct

Thunder murmured overhead, a low, ominous sound that seemed to drill straight into Lessa's bones. Rain tapped across her heavy armor, seeping through its cracks, and soaking her clothing beneath. It might have been a metaphor for the way this beach, this boss, this entire floor was finding every chink in her armor. Something about 29 really put her on edge, and she was starting to wonder if that was an actual feature of the Floor’s design. Low frequency sound was often used in movies to create a sense of dread or unease, and high electromagnetic field readings in small spaces could jack up a p

It took a few minutes. Perhaps he was in the middle of something, or he didn't immediately understand the point of her message. But when he finally swung open his front door, he found her smiling up at him. "Special delivery!" she declared, wiggling her shoulders excitedly. "One order of your favorite person!" Then she lifted up a plastic bag in the space between them. "And also ice cream! Because shitty nights call for ice cream." Without waiting for an invitation, she slipped under his arm and scooted to his kitchen. Though their relationship was still new, she had been over to his hous