[F01-SP] anthology.

[NIGHT 0]

anthology.

| [we've] told this story a hundred times. and still, bits and pieces have fallen through the cracks.

its easy to miss them, ren thinks, picking up the leftovers in between the wooden floor panels. they're in an abandoned hut, cleaning up storage space on bistro's behalf for some reason; day tags along because she thinks the player would be lonely. ren wasn't going to be. half the task was focusing on spotting glass shards in a dark place; she'd have no time for thinking about being lonely.

she chalks it up to day's presence after a while that the search goes faster than expected, and that, indeed, the loneliness is staved off. night thumbs the flat surface of one of the fragments collected. it's smooth, large, and it sits well in her palm. ren places it to a side, on the shack's counter, just as day pools her own collection alongside her original's set.

day's got the pile with the highest count. it's no surprise, but ren bickers with her over it any way.

you're cheating, ren mocks, and day takes it in stride.

i'm only using what tools i was built with, i can't help being perfect, cardinal argues. she folds her arms.

shut up, ren bites back. in that moment the player thinks twice about kissing her.

so—

| the pieces are stored here. the interlocking connections in between, the fragments and shards that don't fit anywhere else, because they have to go somewhere. the frame wouldn't be completed without them.

| [we] wouldn't be complete without them.

[Examine] [notes]: hi this is my perpetual thread where i just dump my drabbles into single posts here for 0 reason other than "bwaaaaaaa the cute" and there's like 0 linear chronology in this and 0 mechanics other than just writing and fluff. thats it yeah. and then ill close this when i hit 20 posts or something. anyway. uh it would be nice if you pretend i posted this thread right after i posted inbetween haha NIGHT | HP: 840/840 | EN: 122/122   | equipment: n/a   | battle-ready inventory: n/a   | skills: n/a  | consumed buffs: n/a  | misc. buffs: paragon lv. 5 | gain additional col equivalent to 10% of exp earned in that thread. lv. 10 | +3% exp gain.

[NIGHT 0]

<<

prompt: [daybreak] re: [inbetween]

>>

it's simply the heart of the hour when the female rose from her bed. the night was quiet, her room draped in shadows. by the curtains to her right, only a sliver of moonlight seeped in, languished in a pitiful line across the waxy wooden floorboards. she was just as stoic in the darkness, not a lone stranger to midnight routines, but it was with bleary eyes that she slipped out from the covers draping her figure, two bare feet meeting the cold ground and carrying the player to her heart's destination.

the shallow cuts of her tongue against the edges of her teeth didn't help to ease her nerves. what cricket calls coming from the city life outside her home were drowned by the sounds of her racing pulse, the beating of her steps on the ground, and two rasps of her knuckles against the door of the other that resided in her household. there was silence, at first, that seemed to stretch out for an eternity.

the blue eyes drawn in revelation from the room's entrance were met only with unfocused pupils drenched over with worry and sorrow.

"hey," ren breathed, still dazed by the presence of the other. the wringing of her wrist was but a reveal to the entity how unprepared the player was about her visit, and the half-lidded vision from the room's visitor only served to obscure the tenant's image from her immediate periphery.

"...i can't sleep."

there was a pause that lingered between them, just as the gemini was beginning to process her situation. she blinked slow, attempting to search her housemate's shrouded face for further elaboration of some sort, but found the player turning away at almost every angle she could scour from her rooted position.

almost. at the very least, day could tell that her other was definitely drowsy.

"um..."

it was only after that moment had passed that ren began to continue. "it's not that i need it, or anything. i just thought that, maybe, if you didn't happen to be sleeping, you'd be up to come to my room and –err..."

the tilt of the gemini's head to the side was practiced and confident, clean and obedient. day knew on the surface just how well her tricks would work, but it continued to astound her calculations just as she watched ren's voice tither off as the light caught a spark that light up the entity's blue eyes. it only worked to enhance her shift of assertiveness. "come— what?"

"c-come... s-share the bed with me."

a burn was forming on ren’s cheeks that marked her shamefulness of the question. her miniscule voice had been seethed through a light grit of her teeth. 

"sorry?"

"t-the bed," she stammered out, louder this time for her audience to hear. ren threw her gaze towards one corner of the hallway, focus of her sights floating about the ceiling, desperately trying to keep day's figure unnoticed yet in view, if only to be polite. "it's-- it's big a-and spacious, so i thought maybe you'd prefer resting in it w-with me -- as opposed to your smaller, less cushier bedding here." 

her volume lowered as she continued to speak on, eyes still averted.

"it's not as though you really need to take me up on the offer, either, i'm just saying maybe it'll be more cozy for either of us if we were resting s-side by side... o-or something..."

the construct barely had enough time to follow through on a response to ren's request. day only had a blank, stunned stare to return, toiling in complete malfunction just as her idle vision rested upon the player's own fidgeting hands. "besides," the woman continued, in as hushed a manner as possible, "i'm the one doing you a favour here, since you like to tail me so much..."

"you know," the gemini finally responded once she'd gotten the facts in order in her mind. "you don't have to phrase your requests in such a roundabout manner."

"i-i'm not. i don't know what you're talking about." her tone had been sullen and soft, but still there was a harshness in the way ren pushed and prodded at her skin, callous hands once toying gentle now locking and gripping roughly. "if you didn't want to take me up on my offer, you could've just said so, and it would've been fine—"

"who said anything about turning you down?"

the fingers wrapped around ren's digits were warm, smooth. it sent shivers down her spine once at their touch, and another wave washed over her at their moment of eye contact. jolting, their connection; it left the player speechless despite the earlier prompt from her gemini. only when day shut the door behind her, the entity taking a step forward to confirm her approach did ren finally shuffle on the spot, albeit slightly. she’d barely managed to keep a level head and a steady posture simply from restlessness alone. her lips had been pressed in a thin line when her counterpart was finally done with preparations.

"c'mon. take me back."

embarrassing. ren wouldn't be caught lugging her other half around with her anywhere. she led the duo forward, pushing open her room's door left ajar with a few fingers pressed up wide against its surface. it was day who let herself go from ren's hand, keeping the room entrance shut with as gentle a nudge as possible.

in the dark, it didn't take long for the construct to seek out her player, however ren could barely see a thing. despite knowing just how spacious her room was down to the millimeter by memory alone, the woman lumbered cautiously, slowing when she'd approached the bedside. the turn of her head amongst the shadows was telling enough of her confusion. a hushed slurring of words was sure to confirm any suspicions. 

"... where..."

the player’s fragmented vision wasn't helping, just as day's figure was traced over by the silver glint of the moon. ren felt her fingers catch her counterpart's skin once more, releasing a shaky breath more out of a curse of shock than one of relief. with further uninvited guidance, the woman slunk back into bed, nested and buried under the covers, scooting in the bed to make space for her companion. the gemini slid right into the empty space made available for her, and she too found respite getting snug underneath the sheets.

comfortable. fluffy and warm. a few more adjustments came from ren in the shifting of limbs as she tried to settle in for the night. the player rolled onto her side to face away from her secondary, placing a gap in between them at the center of the bed. 

a lonely disposition. in turn, so did the gemini copy her actions, taking up position at the edge of her end of the mattress.

she hadn't been given any other instruction to move otherwise.

"... 'night."

"good night."

there, in the eternal hollow, all things seemed to stay quiet, a tender yet cold night passing them by in stagnancy. only the stable breathing of the player in the room seemed to draw day's attention from the rest of her surroundings from her limited point of view. she knew when her vision was put to rest, the entity would be brought to a state of gentle observation, at attention to keep track of the passing of time. numbers on a clock were ticking away at the corners of her interface even now. how dull a duty it was, but at least out of her many restless dusks, this one would be spent keeping vigil for the state of her double. there were worse nights and far less efficient hours in the past, too often to scorn her watch now under these new circumstances. 

purposeful, her surveillance. only after a few minutes of remaining alert did day finally decide to settle in, lids starting to fall shut.

then the shuffle of sheets from her housemate stopped her optics from going offline, and a wrap of the woman's fragile wrists upon the sides of gemini's abdomen were suddenly made apparent. the warmth from two interlocking palms that gripped day's form registered as a welcome gesture to every fiber of her neural being.

—but, in all her minutes of idle time, not once had she guessed that such a contact would've occurred during this hour between her and her reason of being.

"ren?"

in silence, the player pressed her forehead right below day's neck. her voice came as a leaking whisper, a frightened creature pleading with a delicate tremble in her tone.

"don't look."

fragile. almost like glass readied to be shattered, her demeanor mirroring her shriveled shivering form in the dark. the admission was made in feverish fluster; upon her back, day could feel the flush of the player’s skin warmer than the grip by her stomach. ren’s breathing, once shallow, had grown to become but a slight bit more desperate. the gemini knew it to be an honest request.

it perplexed the entity so, given no follow up of an explanation in the seconds afterwards. but an instruction offered to her by ren was something she couldn't help but want to obey. 

so she swallowed and remained that way, sensors pressing her to keep still and awake for a few minutes more. just long enough to take in the receding urgency in the breath of her player, the occasional pinches and thumbing of day's woolen shirt in between her cuddler’s timid fingers. though her movements had been few and far between, the entity took every action in as a blessing, feeling the shifts of ren's digits as they intertwined with each other and fell back apart. 

how badly and desperately the surface of her own hands buzzed with an eager numbness in turn. the idea that the gemini was only but a second away from gracing the player with a touch to ease her worries was all but a catharsis that day herself could only imagine a privilege. a privilege that, if the entity wasn’t careful, she might start to get drunk on, incremental numbers climbing higher at the back of her mind. an imitation of literal emotions, day swore she could have heard thumping in her ears of a heart beat that was never hers, almost as though cardinal had taken extra effort to not only mimic her player's anxiety, but match it to ren's own pace of heart. perhaps it was half an attempt to explain a nervousness to a construct that wouldn't properly know how to parse it, half toying to create simulated emotions, the type that the system wasn't exactly made to feel.

cardinal's experimental subject bordered on the lines of conflicting pieces of information. one was a wreck of concern for her other, bothered with the quandaries that dogged her priority in the middle of the night. the other was exhilaration — the way she felt nothing but a muted sense of what might be excitement (or perhaps contentment?) that her companion was right by her side, in a moment when she was most vulnerable. 

was such an occasion liken to occur every new dusk? when the moon reigned high in the void of pitch above, that ren would be awash with a fear or a restlessness that kept her up in the murk? her player trapped under a cloak of darkness that left her feeling alone, keeping her rooted to her comfort spot, silent and docile; was this what was happening whilst she was alone in her own room next door?

the questions bothered the other. she sat with their implications as the minutes passed.

day stayed there patiently, steeled sapphires pointed at empty space, attention trained on getting used to her new sensations, waiting for cardinal’s thumping to fade away out of her periphery of concern. she would bring no other movements — it would be for the best, the construct reasoned, not until her companion suggested her otherwise. there wasn’t a need to further scare the woman that might already be frightened. 

when the gemini was certain the drumming was all but a murmur in the dark, she closed her eyes, an involuntary exhale finally escaping through her lips.

perhaps this was what cardinal's end goal was: a perverse insight into the fleeting moments of its player’s lives. day would simmer on the thought for long, alongside her many queries, until the sun rose again.