Embrace Space | Kat and Akechi

[showhost]

Welcome to the Embrace Space!

The crew lets you in, and you find yourself in a... bedroom. The only really noteworthy features are the way-too-large bed and a timer on the wall, though you can poke around. There's some standard bedroom stuff in there, but nothing too scandalous.

The timer starts at 5 minutes, and the crew will helpfully inform you that if you don't kiss before the five minutes ticks down, you'll be kicked out of the room.

If you do, you'll find, the timer then starts over--at 4 minutes.

Then 3.

Then 2...

And so on and so forth, until there isn't any time at all between kisses. Listen, the point of this room is make-outs, okay.


A friend is here, also.

Comments

[gravkitty]

[(Oh, Goro...)

The matches have been harder to figure out than she'd hoped they would be - the same way it's been so much harder than she'd hoped to find someone who seemed earnestly and immediately interested in her the way she'd hoped to experience that fresh feeling of falling in love and being loved.

But... reflecting on all of the conversations that have been had, some of that difficulty might not be from matches that are obscure or confusing but from it being very difficult, sometimes, for people to know what they want.

Seeing that he's pulled into himself, Kat sits up. He seems more upset than her right now. He'd seemed upset, too, when he called Will up at the match ceremony, even before the fight. Had he wanted to stand up there with him, just like he's saying?] Of course everyone deserves that. I just think the way everyone's been talking about it is... well, strategic. [Even he has, he has to admit it.]

[flaweddetective]

[When he picked Will it had certainly been on the vindictive side. But not completely. Anna had asked him who he thought his matches were. He listed off two. Mark and Will. And she'd immediately turned on him telling him how impossible that would be. How he'd never fit by Will's side. Nor belonged there.

So, naturally, he picked Will. Only to be slighted. And now to see that he might not even be wrong. It all feels sour. And worse... familiar. That all too familiar blanket weight of rejection. It shouldn't sting. Nothing here matters. But it does... It always does, without fail.]

Of course... We all should be playing strategically. [But you still hope, just a little... These perfect matches might mean something. To be completely rejected by what might be your own. History repeating over and over again...] I really should be used to people not wanting me around.

[He checks his watch again... They're running out of time...]

[gravkitty]

[(You can't say that so easily when your first instinct is to push people away... that's like kicking yourself and giving other people the shoes.)

Kat can't say this, though it sits in her stomach kind of uncomfortably that she feels she can't be honest and a little snarky with him the way she can with people she's really close to.

But even if there are no cameras here, lecturing him - even if it isn't yelling at him (and especially not then) isn't going to make things any better. Kat puts her hand on the crook his elbow from behind and, if he'll accept it, gives him a half-hug.]

I think it'd be easier for people to be a little less tense around you if they saw the you that you are when we hang out. Josuke stood up for you too, you know. He knows that treating people like you've already decided they'll act a certain way doesn't give them much reason to act differently.

[And that's a street that goes both ways. They are definitely getting short on time... but if they need to stay in here a little while longer is probably going to depend on his answer to that, anyway.]

[flaweddetective]

[He can't help but tense as she touches him, a sort of flinch from the contact but he doesn't pull away and allows the half hug she offers. He's tense beneath her hand but not completely resistant to it.

She's right. He won't forget that Josuke did that. Or Sanji. Or, her for that matter. Certainly not her.]

People's minds are hard to change once they've already assumed something about you. [Stigma's are very hard to shake. He doesn't expect here to be any different. He sniffs and, depending on where she is, places a hand on top of her head.] We didn't come in here so I could complain. It's for you.

[Let's not lose focus.]

[gravkitty]

[She does feel him tense and tighten up, so Kat doesn't do more than that brief partial hug, though she also doesn't make any sudden movements. She just kind of lingers there quietly for a moment.]

Yeah, what's the big deal? It thought I was coming in here to sulk... [Here's where she'd poke him if it seemed like something he'd tolerate, but instead, she just lifts a finger to brandish at him in poking position.] It's ok. [She sighs.] I just got frustrated. You can make a good plan without dismissing people.

Ah! [She probably just checked the time, judging from her slightly surprised noise. She has an instinct for timing things, but that doesn't mean five minutes don't go by quickly.] Did you want to stay longer? The roof is pretty quiet, too... [If he doesn't.]

[flaweddetective]

[He gives a shrug at her inquiry.]

The company is better here than out there. [But hopefully everyone has finished their whispering.] But I haven't been on the roof. I thought there have been people up there. I could hear something...

[Not worth climbing and checking it out but he did wonder how people were getting up there.]

[gravkitty]

Well, I can shift gravity, duh! [It's playful. Kat's able to cheat when it comes to getting to hard-to-reach places, and the few times she's needed more of a breather, it's been nice to find a high-up place again.]

I dunno how anyone else is getting up there... and if I did, I shouldn't spill their climbing secrets.

[He didn't really like being hugged, and he seems lukewarm at best about staying in the space any longer than the time allotted to them. She's not going to make him uncomfortable for nothing..]

Well, I could get you up... the company would probably be fine there, too [It'd still probably just be her.] ... unless you wanted to be sure.

[flaweddetective]

[Shifting gravity, hm? He has questions about that but not tonight. And that thought is followed with some consideration to their current situation. Staying in here requires kissing which he is also not up for. But for all that he enjoys being alone... it feels bad to do so tonight.]

I'll go up to the roof with you, yeah. What do you do up there? Look at the stars?

[That, honestly, doesn't sound so bad. He's only ever been in Tokyo and the light pollution doesn't allow such a view.]

[gravkitty]

Sure! [Kat rolls off the bed, wipes her face with the back of her hand, and holds that hand out to him. They can get out of here before the timer throws them out... and if she's still upset, then at least she's going someplace where it'll be quiet.]

Sometimes! Or I enjoy the breeze or look at town... it's a lot different from Hekseville. One time I even think I saw some white ground in the distance... I wonder what that was.

[She's never seen snow before that she can remember... Kat has no idea what could turn the ground white like that unless it was something of stone paving.]