HereComesTheSnow

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Lucas Schwarz is a Nice Guy

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Silvan Haven@Crimmy@Write@Plank Sinatra

I shook my head, offering up a smile of my own as she pulled away.

"Don't be."

How long had she bottled everything up? For that matter, how much more did she have bottled up? Optimist though I may have been, I doubted it could be solved so easily.

I would help her save herself, true, but that didn't mean it didn't feel like my contributions were only scratching the surface. The problem wasn't alleviated, only the symptoms treated.

So, when she pulled back as though there was a weight off her shoulders nonetheless, perhaps only some of what had burdened her, I was a little confused.

...Maybe, though, it was enough to get the ball rolling on her end?

"You going to be okay?" I asked at length.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Silvan Haven@Crimmy@Write@Plank Sinatra

_{"Can I have a hug?"}

She had stepped out of the pool.

She was shaking like a leaf.

She needed somebody to lean on.

To hell, then, with going get some shuteye.

I unzipped the front of my hoodie, shrugging it off and walking forward.

I had no need to comment. I had no reason to react. I had no desire to even acknowledge how wet she was. Even I am capable of solemnity, and I was more than capable of doing some, perhaps not all, but some of what needed to be done right now. I would do more if I was smarter, wiser, or better informed, but I was simply none of those things.

Reaching up a little, I draped the hoodie around her shoulders. They weren't supposed to get wet, normally, but I had no towels on hand, and would simply deal with it.

"It's alright."

Then I pulled her into a gentle hug. We may not have known each other for long at all, but the least a guy like me could do was give her something she'd asked for. Whether or not it was my place to say that, to do this, or any of that crap, none of it was important. Even if it's wrong, sometimes, someone still needs someone to tell them that.

If it answers a cry for help, I'll gladly let myself be in the wrong.

I'm not smart.

I'm not wise.

I'm certainly not well-informed.

But there was one thing I always could be: There.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Silvan Haven@Crimmy@Write@Plank Sinatra

Oh.

Ooooooooh.

That...

That was very different.

I averted my eyes shamefully. This conversation was just one glaring blunder after another on my end, wasn't it? This was why I needed sleep, I concluded, I became dangerously slow-witted even compared to my normal self once I reached a state of physical and mental exhaustion.

Or maybe, on the other hand, I was naturally unfortunate. Conversations being a two-way street meant that half of it was also me trying to pick up what was being put down...

Okay, no, I knew that was the wrong way of going about this. It had nothing to do with my nebulously defined concept of "luck" or anything wrong on her part. It was entirely more shameful, really, to try and hide from or excuse away your own mistakes.

The bare facts are such: I had no idea of the mine I'd just stepped on. However, nonetheless, I still ended up triggering it all the same. Where does someone proceed from here?

"Sorry." I replied, after the natural awkward pause had more than run its course. "I'm sure you did everything you could."

Someone deals with the consequences of stepping on the mine, knowingly or not.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

i don't see any handholding, it's kosher

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Silvan Haven@Crimmy@Write@Plank Sinatra

"Well," I replied after a low whistle. "That's understandable. Not even my dad could handle 6 of April and Dawn apie—"

Amazingly, I found myself cut off again. I had, once more, suddenly realized something about that sentence was strange, even though I at first had casually skimmed through it and begun a natural response based off of that before brutally comprehending what I had just heard.

Was this the mental equivalent to The World Champ's Satan Fist? A delayed attack that explodes as soon as you've let your guard down?!

If I was being subjected to such a fearsome technique, my healing powers must have been indeed very amazing. In fact, I would argue them nothing short of Super.

"Hold on," I said again, feeling as though I were falling into a soon-to-be dead and tired routine. "Sometimes?"

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

<Snipped quote by HereComesTheSnow>

Okay, it's like watching the entire 2nd cour of Macross Delta, except I had an entire 1st cour that was good.

@Crimmy

nothing to gori gori about

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

<Snipped quote by SevenStormStyle>

I don't really have any attachment to the characters or the story, the latter of which is pretty bland. It's sorta like watching seasonal anime.

@Crimmy

I dunno, I've seen some pretty engaging seasonal anime

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

none of us actually still like the show

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Silvan Haven@Crimmy@Write@Plank Sinatra

Oh god hnnngh too much cute

I won't deny I locked up in my own right at the display, but thankfully by the time she'd managed to lift her head out of the water and explain herself, I'd quite literally shaken myself back into focus.

"Ah, that makes sense..." I began. It was true, after all. April, Dawn, and I were always keeping eachother on our toes. Granted, over the years it had increasingly felt like there was a shift in the power structure as the two girls formed an alliance, but that wasn't to say I was entirely helpless against them...

And then the other shoe dropped as I processed the first half of her sentence.

"A dozen?!" I repeated back, shocked. I couldn't even begin to imagine how helpless I would have been if faced with six of each...

"That's crazy."