Krystal is taking over for Luna and they walk into the living room and sit on the couch. Physically, not much has changed, though the fur on her ears and tail have grown out a fair bit. Krystal doesn’t notice the change though. For what it seems, she seems almost more feline than usual. Cole tries to break the ice, asking how everyone is, but Krystal seems down and her voice seemingly sad, “I wish I could tell you we're good, but the truth is we're struggling quite a bit. What with the eclipse coming up in a few weeks, and now some other issues. We're alive though, and that's what matters I suppose." Spider seems to be okay at least.
Cole waves his hand dismissively, "I'm fine, nothing new"
Krystal blinks towards Cole, as if nonverbally saying 'I don't believe you'
Cole shakes his head, "What do you want from me?"
Krystal shrugs, "Honestly not much. Just glad we're here together."
Spider opens their mouth, then decides against what they were going to say and closes it again one ear twitching.
Hinata returns to the house. She seems to be in better spirits than Krystal or Luna, but her eyes seem to be puffy. "Hiiii!"
Spider glances over as Hinata walks in, "hi."
Cole looks over at Hinata with a suspicous glance but waves regardles, "Hello"
Hinata walks in and sits next to Krystal. "So what did I miss? Figured out the pink stuff?"
Krystal - For context, Cole was attempting to experiment with samples of the current timeline’s nonferal blood.
Cole nods, "It was fairly easy, seems to change color with anything that is added"
"Right on. And I assume each mixture has a new effect. At least that part is easy enough." Hinata shrugs.
"except he hasnt tested it, so for all we know hes just made pink and thats it" Spider sighs
"Wait who the heck is he--" Hinata peers out the window and notices the truck. "Oh shit, hang on I got it." Hinata opens the door. "Hiiiii Viper!"
Krystal swaps out back to Luna. Her eyes go from Amethyst purple to Sapphire blue.
Viper waves to Hinata, "You seem awfully happy to see me, I hope i wasn't interrupting" Cole gives a slight glare to Spider as he mutters, "I don't wanna be like him."
Rowan glances up.
"Not interrupting anything honestly. What's up?" Hinata returns to the couch
Spider remains quiet as she looks over at Viper their head tilting.
Viper steps into the room and shuts the door behind her as she glances over at Spider with a curious look, and then she looks back over at Hinata and Luna, "Just wanted to check in on you two, make sure that you aren't too stressed out ya'know?"
Luna is busy on her computer and hasn't even noticed Viper, but hearing her words causes her to jump, "Wha! Oh uh hey."
"I'm uh. Doing okay." Judging by Hinata's tone, it sounds anything but ok. Everyone stares at her unbelievingly.
Viper seems slightly concerned over the two, "Right...." Viper looks over at the two people staring at her, "If you need a camera i have one you can borrow"
Luna's ears flatten from the sheer awkwardness of the current moment, "Uhh I'm sorry." She seems nervous. Hinata exhales heavily.
Rowan blinks, "Huh? Camera for what?"
Spider looks away her ears briefly flattening, though she chuckles at Rowan’s comment.
Viper folds her arms, "Uhuh...." Viper looks back at Luna and Hinata, "I could go run and get you two some tea to possibly help you destress a little"
Luna takes a deep breath to regulate herself in front of Viper, "No, that's okay. I don't wanna be a bother."
Hinata looks at Luna with a sigh, "are you sure? Viper's here for us ya know?"
Luna shakes her head. "I know, but. Okay. That would be good."
Rowan looks confused, "You didnt answer my question?"
"Because she was being sarcastic mate" Spider responds to Rowan.
Viper looks over at Rowan, "You were staring, and what they said" she gestures at Spider as she looks back at Hinata and Luna, "I'm honestly just gonna jog down to the store, i don't wanna waste gas driving there so i'll be back in a few" Viper starts to head out the door
"Thanks Viper." Luna slightly smiles before slumping further into the couch.
"Are you sure you don't want me to come along?" Hinata asks before she leaves.
Viper looks back at Hinata and tilts her head back and forth, "You know what? Why not, i could use some company on my jog" Viper motions for Hinata to follow as she heads out the door. Hinata follows right behind.
The two walk outside and through the forest towards the town. While walking together, they chat about what happened.
“Well, as you know, we've been together for a while, and sometimes we'll disagree on stuff. You know, normal stuff. Stuff about best girls or maybe we’ll tease each other about winning games. Last night, was the first time we actually yelled at each other. And uh." Hinata takes a deep breath, "It was my fault. I was stupid with the shit I said to her."
Viper sighs, "Well what happened exactly? Both of them enter the forest with Viper following the dirt road towards town
"We were talking about the upcoming solar eclipse, you know in my world shit's going down that day? I brought up the fact that all of this shit is centered around her. And I hated that I never had my time in the spotlight. It was selfish as FUCK, I know she doesn't want that, but like I don't have much else. I've always been in her shadow. I'm basically worthless without her. Where's my time in the sun?" As they walk down the dirt road, Viper will notice some of the trees have carvings in them. Hinata notices them and turns her head away. Many of them appear fresh, and many of them seem to be vents from Hinata with phrases like “I’ll never be good enough for her” or “Why do i even bother. Luna is too powerful.”
Viper nods while listening, "I understand how that feels but something that makes me feel better is that you do have your time in the sun, it's just not the same sun that shines on Luna" Viper sighs, "What i'm trying to say is that you have your own spotlight you just have yet to realize it, both of you are special in your own ways"
"...I don't know about that sometimes. Sometimes I feel like I'd be better off returning to Solaire and not looking back." Her tone is extremely neutral with very little inflection, though there is some rasp in her voice too.
Viper, disagreeing, shakes her head, "From what i know that wouldn't fix anything, and trust me when i say that you’re special" Viper smiles at Hinata, "Even on your worst days i know you make Luna's day better, if it makes you feel better i could sit in while you two talk over to make sure that doesn't happen again"
Hinata exhales heavily but manages a smile, "I would like that actually."
Viper smiles, "There's that amazing smile"
Reaching the convenience store, Viper walks around looking for chamomile tea while Hinata seems confused. Snapping her fingers, she remembers, “ah right. Tea. Let’s uh get that. Thanks for letting me come with you Viper.”
Viper continues smiling, "Not a problem" Viper heads inside and grabs some caffeine free Chamomile tea as she mentions, "Anything you want in specific?"
"Uhh, I guess uhh one of these?" Hinata grabs a bottle of matcha green tea for herself.
Viper nods as she heads to the checkout, "If it makes you feel any better, I'm buying this with the company card!"
Hinata chuckles, "Hah, nice. Just don't let Cole see the receipt." After checking out they return back to the house.
Meanwhile, while Hinata and Viper head to the store, Luna exhales deeply, muttering “What a mess.”
"Your girlfriend showed up, I'd hardly call that a mess" Spider grumbles.
"No that's not exactly it. Hinata and I had a fight last night in our rooms. If anyone heard any yelling, that was us," Luna explains.
Cole nods, "Ah...so that's what that was, I hope you two are doing alright."
Luna shakes her head, looking down in the process, "No. I don't think it's alright at the moment. I just know it was my fault for everything. I was an idiot."
Spider asks "..what happened?"
Cole nods in agreement with Spider, "I'm more than willing to help if i can at all"
Luna clears her throat and explains to the group, "We were talking about the Solar Eclipse happening in our world in a few weeks and the topic got onto how shit keeps being about me cuz my creators are a bunch of dumbasses, and she went on about how she never has time in the spotlight for herself. It's selfish, but I yelled at her telling her, 'what the fuck? you think i want to do this shit??? I don't have a choice.' And I shouldn't have yelled at her."
Cole sighs and shakes his head, "I agree you shouldn't have yelled but and i hate to say this but have you seen it from her perspective? It's possible that she just feels left out regardless if it's bad or not." Deciding it might be better to stay quiet for now, Spider's ears flatten again as they start to fiddle with their blanket.
Luna takes a deep breath as her tone becomes serious, "No I always think about her perspective. I want her to have her time in the spotlight, every time we fight together, I always look for ways for her magic to shine, cuz she's got some really cool stuff in her Arsenal. It's just. Hard to make it work in fights. I want her to shine. Eclipse Blade isn't just about the Moon being supported by the Sun. It goes both ways. The Sun needs to have its time to shine. Sometimes I feel like I should just return to Full Moon and just let them do whatever the fuck they want. I'm tired of fighting back."
Spider's ear twitches at hearing that and she growls, visibly annoyed, "you're joking right? If she wants to show off then let her do some stuff on her own. I mean you two are basically joined at the hip, this was gonna happen eventually."
Cole nods in agreement with Spider, "Not everything has to be synergy and perfectly in sync. I'm sure it would be refreshing if she got to do her own things."
Luna takes a few moments to think things over but then she nods, "You're right." Luna isn't smiling but her tone seems to have relaxed a bit from the serious or depressed tone from before.
Spider frowns lightly, "are we? What exactly did you take from that?" Cole seems to be in agreement with Spider.
Luna takes a slow deep breath then responds, "Exactly as you specified. We won't fight as Eclipse Blade as much unless it's absolutely necessary. Some opponents are uh... tanky and deserve that kind of whoop-ass. This way we can both have fun without having to worry about synergies, or needing to minmax damage. Numbers don’t always need to go brrrr."
Cole nods with a smile, "Perfect, you should probably get some fresh air before they come back so your ready to have this talk as stress free as possible."
Luna nods and heads outside. She's not exactly happy about this decision, but it's better than hating oneself or her love. On stepping outside, she notices Viper’s pink pickup truck parked in the driveway and something on the dashboard. Inspecting further, Luna finds polaroids of herself and Hinata taken in many places, though none of them are particularly creepy. Mostly they’re headshots of each of them, pictures of them fighting enemies, or just pictures of them cuddled up on the couch. Luna tilts her head and quietly mutters “Pros--? uhm. I should get evidence. I hope we’re not dating a stalker.” After taking a picture of the dashboard she walks back inside, seemingly nervous.
On reentering the house, Luna tells Cole what she found, hoping there’s a reasonable explanation. Cole, Spider, and Rowan all seem concerned about this revelation of very stalkery behaviors. Eventually Viper and Hinata return with tea for the pair. Luna, then after taking a deep breath, confronts Viper. "Viper, I like you a lot. But why are you taking pictures of us?" Luna flips her phone around to show Viper and Hinata what she found. Hinata seems weirded out at the photos, blushing ever so slightly. After some time, Viper explains how she has a certain medical condition. "I uhm....i have face blindness i was gonna say something but uh i wanted to wait a little bit which i probably should've mentioned right from the start, i'm really sorry."
Luna nods, glad her suspicion of Prosopagnosia was correct all along. "Prosopagnosia... that.. definitely explains a lot. Uh.. though if you needed pictures of us, why not just ask us? I love taking pictures." Luna smiles towards Viper, though there's something in the back of her mind still doubting. Hinata sighs at Viper, though a smile creeps in there, “If you wanted pictures of us, you can always ask. We love doing that!” Viper smiles wistfully, sighing slightly, "I...felt embarrassed and i didn't wanna put more weight on you two then there already was, if it makes it any better i took those after we started dating cause uh...i'd rather not forget you two if i can help it."
With that out of the way, Viper returns to the original topic at hand. "Thank you...when we take some pictures i'll be sure to get rid of those, now that's out of the way there's a rather large elephant in the room."
"Eh? Which one is that one? I don't see any elephants." Hinata chuckles.
Luna is typing stuff on her computer and doesn't respond.
Viper shakes her head with a chuckle, "Maybe i'm getting old like Cole is."
Cole shoots Viper a glare but doesn't say anything
"What is this about?" Luna asks out of confusion.
Hinata smiles towards both Luna and Viper, "Uhhh I'm not sure. It's either the fruit punch blood elephant or the magic spotlight elephant."
“Right,” Luna nods, “I do have a proposition for you if you want to hear me out?” Hinata seems receptive as Viper mediates. "We only fight as Eclipse Blade when we absolutely have to. This way we can use our own magicks and abilities the way we want to, without having fear that our synergies are going to fail, or our damage numbers won’t be minmaxxed. We'll still be a team, but this way we can both show off." Luna smiles gently towards Hinata. Hinata accepts and tightly embraces Luna causing her to squeak a little bit. Viper joins their hug as well.
Afterwards, Viper leaves after a job well done.