IC contact post!

[experiencepoints]

[IC contact post for Drift Fleet!]

Comments

[huaaaaagh]

Um... no, not even then. Actually, once we won I dismissed the party, and we didn't even spend that much time together until about a year and a half later. I sort of assumed she didn't like me for a long time.

[If the fight had gone according to plan, then maybe things could have been different. Who can really say? As it is, he'd left her out of necessity, even if she'd disagreed with him about it. Fact is, staying with him would have put her in danger from the beta haters, and he hadn't trusted himself to protect anyone back then.

But that's all stuff he'd just as soon avoid sharing, considering he'd only barely salvaged the mood once already.]

[experiencepoints]

A year and a half? That must have been one hell of a lecture.

[jesus, kirito.]

[huaaaaagh]

[sdjkhfkdhfjkdhf]

Th-that isn't why! I just always worked solo, and she joined a guild, and she didn't need my help after that...!

[experiencepoints]

[She laughs at that.]

Right, right. So, a year and a half means she was already second-in-command when you talked to her next?

[huaaaaagh]

We'd talked here and there at boss meetings, but it was all business, and we clashed a lot. But yeah, at that point we finally wound up working together again, and one thing led to another, and... I don't know. It's like we never split up in the first place. Something about our techniques just clicked, and suddenly she was always smiling at me...

[experiencepoints]

So... Was she the one to confess first?

[She seems to be genuinely into this story. And she doesn't believe for an instant Kirito would make the first move. Sorry dude, you're an herbivore.]

[huaaaaagh]

[He's about to rock your world then, Night.]

I... well, I sort of... k-kissed her. So...

[it was meeeeeeee]

[experiencepoints]

[GASP.

okay, no, not really, but she does seem surprised.]

Well, that's one way of getting your point across. You don't do subtlety, do you?

[huaaaaagh]

[UGH why did he tell her, this was a huge mistake.]

I'm just. No good with words. And I'd almost died! It was a heat of the moment thing. I thought she'd teleport me right to jail for it.

[experiencepoints]

That's a reasonable worry. I mean, I would have.

[... says, you know, the huge lesbian. maybe not quite comparable.]

[huaaaaagh]

Y-yeah.

[HE FULL WELL KNOWS HE DID A BAD. And yet somehow got away with it. He is the luckiest idiot in the world.]

But she was crying, and saying it was her fault, and that she should leave me alone... I couldn't just sit there. At least if she got mad and hit me for it, she'd be upset with me instead. I hated the idea of losing her over something so wrong.

[experiencepoints]

... A master of timing, you are.

[i mean, what else can she say here. a girl who hated him was crying and traumatized and so he kissed her. and it worked.

seriously, kirito, what the fuck is your life.]

[huaaaaagh]

[m a g i c]

Hah, I guess. Even I don't understand it, really. I mean, she even said yes when I said we should get married.

[experiencepoints]

How... How old are you again...?

1/2

[huaaaaagh]

Huh? Well, I'm 17 now. All that was more than a year ago.

[huaaaaagh]

[....

....

BRB REALIZING WHAT HE JUST SAID]

W-wait, wait, I can explain- marriage in the virtual world is different from real life...!

[experiencepoints]

And how long were you dating before you proposed?

[the judgement is almost palpable.]

[huaaaaagh]

[....

HE NEEDS A TELEPORTATION CRYSTAL TO ESCAPE THIS VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION IMMEDIATELY

SHIT]

D... dinner at her house counts as a date, right...?

[experiencepoints]

[too late. we're already in the battle screen.]

I'll count it, but that was not what I asked.

[huaaaaagh]

[Pause.

Deep breath.

Be brave, Kirito.]

Then. One date!

[experiencepoints]

[. . . . .]

One date.

[huaaaaagh]

[B E B R A V E]

Yes. One date. We had dinner.

[experiencepoints]

Kirito.

You confessed by kissing her after what sounded like intense emotional trauma, while she was blaming herself for something bad that happened to you. You had one date, at her house of all places. And then you asked her to marry you. You're also refusing to give me the timeframe this all happened in, so I'm pretty sure the answer to that is going to be pretty damning as well.

You understand why I'm a little concerned by this, right?

[huaaaaagh]

[....

....

....

Excuse him for a minute, he needs to be utterly horrified for a while.]

Y-you think... she said yes... because of that...?

[internal screaming]

[experiencepoints]

[She has to take a moment, and honestly... That pause is probably pretty damning on its own. But she really does have to think.

The amnesiac who first woke up in Takshaka's dorms with no memories... would have said yes without a second thought. That's what the logic points to, and nice things just don't happen. Nothing works out so nicely like it's a storybook. As for who she was before... Aiya would have said no, of course not. Not because she really believed him, but because confrontation is scary, and she doesn't actually know Kirito that well yet.

On the other hand, by now, she's changed. She understands herself, and feelings a bit better, though she's still not great. And she's more willing to try to connect with people. She tries to understand people now, and make friends. And, well... The real question here, underneath everything is 'does she trust Kirito'.]

... I don't. I don't think you're the kind of person to pressure someone like that. Even accidentally, you seem devoted enough that you would have noticed if something was wrong, I hope.

It's more likely I'm just missing some details here. Something that makes it... not like that.

[She's going quiet there, waiting for him. There has to be something he can fill in here to prove her point.]