Luna and Hinata hear a familiar knock at the door, one only one person uses. Hinata rushes out of the living room to change her clothes, “Oh shit. It’s her!” Luna shakes her head with a smile. Hinata returns wearing a new yukata she bought in town, one that’s white with sunflower print covering the whole thing. "I got it! At least we don't have to worry about Mailman kicking our asses anymore??" Hinata goes to open the door.
Viper is standing there wearing some fairly average clothing, a black jacket with a low v cut shirt under it with black work pants with matching sneakers and waves to Hinata, "Nice outfit"
"Ha thanks," HInata smiles gayly as she welcomes Viper inside, "Come on in."
Luna waves from the couch wearing her usual outfit of a solid black hoodie, plaid lounge pants and socks.
Viper steps inside and closes the door behind her as she leans next to the door, "Been a little while since we've talked, how have you two been doing?" Viper waves back at Luna with a small smile
Hinata heads to the couch next to Luna. She musters a small smile as she speaks, "Physically we're fine, but uh. It's been kind of a mess lately. What with the nonferal timeline ending prematurely and now even our homeworld all screwed up." Luna nods in agreement, "So we've just been. Not doing anything."
Viper sighs, "Yeah I heard about the nonferal timeline. We stopped producing those police cars for that one town a while go but I'm sure you don't wanna hear about that right now" Viper pauses as she thinks for a second, "I could help you guys do something, we could do more sword practice? Or we could just hang out and talk about whatever."
Luna deeply sighs, "no offense but I'm not in the mood for sword practice at the moment. Not even sure why we even continue to fight if every single time it ends in failure. I think this is the first time I've ever felt like this."
Hinata nods and puts a hand on Luna's shoulders, "It's because we have to fight. It's not like the old days where you can watch things happen on twitter."
Luna goes quiet. "I don't know anymore."
Viper sighs, "Understandable, and i know i may not know much about the timelines but it's important to keep fighting even if it seems all hope is lost after all there is still some light in absolute darkness" Viper pauses for a second then continues, "Imagine if Cole didn't keep fighting, he'd still be locked away right now and i'm sure if he was here he'd quote some historical figure about the need to continue fighting"
Hearing Cole's name being brought up causes Luna to turn her head away quietly. Hinata shakes her head, "Apologies, but they got into a fight recently. It's uh. Difficult."
Viper winces slightly, "Oh...sorry about that then" Viper goes quiet as she thinks of something else to say
While her head is turned away, Luna takes a super deep breath and wipes her face with her sleeve. When she turns back to Viper, the area around her eyes seem slightly damp and a little red, "It's... it's okay. I guess I'm just. Done. with a lot of things. I don't even want to archive the JovianCove timeline."
"You should talk about it with Viper. She's here because we're friends. And frankly, we wouldn't be together if Lochlan hadn't intervened. I mean all three of us as erm. Girlfriends." Hinata blushes while speaking, her tone trying to be supportive, but it's hard when even she's feeling the stress of everything.
Viper nods in agreement with Hinata, "I'm more than happy to listen to your problems, i want both of you to be as happy and stress free as possible" Viper moves to standing next to the couch, hoping her closeness will help slightly.
Luna speaks up, her eyes closed and shoulders stiffened. "Okay, so where do I begin? I guess it kinda starts at the Meridian Explosion. I lost a lot of my memories from then, so like my mantra of 'archive everything' is broken there. A lot of stuff with Wickheck timeline I don't have anymore. So like I can archive what I have, but it'll never be complete. And now with Jovian Cove being premature, and all of the stress from everything connected to it, it's making it hard to even care to continue archiving. It used to be a necessity, but why bother now? I'm supposed to be the Archiver of Worlds... though I don't even know where I even got that moniker from."
Viper nods along with Luna explaining, "You seem to be burnt out on archiving from what i'm hearing, why don't you take a break? Just because you have a job doesn't mean you need to do it all the time, you need to take breaks from time to time" Viper gestures at the general room, "You could learn a new skill, or learn how to cook a meal"
Luna's eyes turn amethyst purple suddenly and a much more deep and somewhat masculine voice comes from her. Krystal explains while scratching the back of her head sheepishly, "That's.. kind of my fault Viper. I taught her long ago to archive her memories daily. And uh... we're approaching 15 years daily without a break.... So. Uh. My bad."
Hinata facepalms. "Fifteen years!?"
"Uhhh well I brought her home on her 21st birthday... and uh. she's turning 36 in two months..." Krystal seems nervous.
Viper blinks a couple times, "....I'm gonna force her to take a break, there's no way you can do that for close to 15 years and it be healthy at all"
Luna's eyes return to their usual blue and voice back to its usual high pitched cuteness, "welp. Okay, in my defense, I didn't even remember the first 13 years of it so."
"That's not the point Luna. You need to take a break. Just for a little bit okay?" Hinata smiles
Viper nods and smiles, "Pretty please?"
Luna looks at her laptop, and then back to Viper, and then back to the laptop. "Uh... I'll try??"
Hinata hugs Luna. "Oh thank the Gods above. You're actually gonna take a break for once."
"Can't promise I'll last long, but I'll try." Luna leans into the hug.
Viper smiles, "I believe in you, just gotta find something to distract you for a little while" Viper gives a not so subtle wink at Hinata suggesting that she has a plan
Hinata looks up and tilts her head. Luna is just confused. Her hands start to go to the laptop, but she forces herself to stop. "Dammit."
Viper suggests, "Have you played any good games recently?" Viper tries to not so subtly reach over and close the laptop
"I rarely play games honestly." Luna comments while Hinata is facing her, blocking her vision of rhe laptop's closure. Luna doesn't notice anything Viper is doing. "What are you doing Hinata?"
"Admiring your eyes?" Hinata grins
"Uhhhhh okay." Luna shrugs while admiring her girlfriend.
Viper shrugs, "I mean you do have some very nice eyes, watch anything recently?" Viper notices Hinata's help and gives a small smile
"Not really? It's honestly rare for me to watch anything, though sometimes I go outside to watch the moon and the stars."
Hinata smiles to Viper. "You watch me too Lunes."
Luna blushes, "I mean."
Viper snickers quietly, "I can understand why, hell i'd watch a show if it was just the two of you doing whatever, especially with those wonderful voices you two have"
Krystal - UHHHHHHHHHH VIPER, YOU MIGHT WANNA RECONSIDER YOUR PHRASING.
They both freeze in place and blush profusely. "I... are you sure??" Hinata gulps, clearly thinking less than clean thoughts.
Krystal - SEE??
"Erm... th-thank you.." Luna mutters. Hinata doesn't have words to describe her current thoughts. Viper snickers at her normal volume, "No problem, just letting you two know" Viper starts slowly sliding the laptop away from Luna
Luna is still highly confused at the last statement. Hinata continues to block Luna's view.
Viper slides the laptop under the couch and mutters, "That's dealt with...." and gives another but bigger smile to Hinata, "We make quite the team"
"We do?" Luna asks still confused.
"Don't worry about it Lunes." Hinata chuckles.
"Gods I hate that phrase." Luna shakes her head and sighs
Viper waves her hand dismissively, "Just helpin you out, and getting rid of a temptation"
"Temptation... wait." Luna blinks.
Hinata continues to block Luna's vision. "It's for your own good Luna. Just for a few days okay? You can trust her with it."
Luna exhales, a tone of uncertainty clear in her voice, "Uhhh... okay, sure. I trust you Viper."
Viper nods, "When those few days are up, i'll give it back to you" Viper leans on the arm rest slightly, "Until then we're gonna watch movies, tv and anything that doesn't require using the laptop"
"Sounds good to me." Luna breathes a sigh of relief.
Viper gestures to the tv, "Any genre you enjoy so i can get an idea of what to put on?"
"Comedy, action?" Luna mutters. Viper nods and pulls her phone out to look through some shows and movies to watch Hinata leans into Luna and breathes a happy sigh, "you don't know how long I've been waiting for this."
Viper smirks as she suggests, "How about the lego movie? I think you'd enjoy it" Viper shows Luna her phone so she can see how long the movie is, rating, etc
Luna stares at it unblinkingly for a moment, then she shrugs and nods. Hinata shrugs as well, "I'm just content being with y'all."
Viper pats Luna on the head as she puts her phone away, "Awesome, you got any popcorn?" She walks over to the table and grabs the remote and starts getting the movie ready
"Yeah check the pantry in the kitchen. We bought some microwavable popcorn a couple days ago." Hinata mentions.
"I got it, be right back." Luna walks out and goes to do the thing. The sound of a microwave is heard.
Viper finishes setting the movie up and plops down on the couch while waiting for Luna, "God i haven't watched the lego movie in so long"
"I don't even know what a Lego is. But it's uh... blocks?" Hinata comments, tilting her head at the oddly foreign concept... somehow
Luna walks back in with three bowls of freshly popped popcorn. "So what's Lego again?" she asks with a genuine tone.
Hinata simply says, "Blocks apparently. But it must be good enough for a whole.movie?”
"Okay!" Luna smiles.
Viper starts explaining, "It's little plastic bricks that you can connect together to make whatever you want really, different sizes and shapes and connector types" She shrugs, "Honestly not too interested in playing with them myself."
"Interesting." Luna smiles and hands.her a bowl.
Viper takes the bowl and turns the movie on, "Here we go" then leans back into the couch Luna and Hinata lean into the couch and each other as they watch the movie. Three gay women enjoying a movie and each other. It’s adorable. The movie ends and Viper has eaten all of her popcorn, she stretches and looks over at the two next to her to see if they enjoyed the movie.
Luna still seems confused by the concept but she tries to reason out while struggling not to laugh, "So the blocks have magic in them, but they're controlled by higher beings. Oh and they all sing and have some man’s voice?"
"So... bloc communism then?" Hinata smiles.
Viper struggles to not laugh at the mention of bloc communism then pulls it together as she asks the two, "Did you enjoy the movie though? Aside from them singing and having Will Ferrell's voice"
"Yeah it was a fun movie. I feel like if Toby was alive still he would've enjoyed it. He was huge into super heroes, even considered us his Avengers." Luna comments with a smile
"I enjoyed that. But being here with you two made it even better." Hinata smiles
Viper beams at Hinata, "Well thank you, i'm glad you two enjoyed it" Viper seems to want to pull them in a hug but decides to at least ask first, "Feels weird to ask but do you two mind if i pull you into a hug...i don't wanna spook you two accidentally."
"Not at all." They both say simultaneously
Viper pulls both of them into a tight hug while smiling widely, "I can't wait to spend more time with the two of you"
Hinata smiles up at Viper, "Same here." Luna nods.
Viper gives them a good squeeze then lets go of them, "Watcha wanna do now? If you want i could wash the bowls while you two decide if you need some time"
"That sounds okay, thank you," says Luna with a grin. "Yeah we'll figure out the next thing when you come back." Hinata nods
Viper smiles as she takes the bowls into the kitchen
The two of them snuggle up on the couch together. "So what's next Luna?" Hinata asks. "Well usually, I would get back to work, but that's clearly not an option. So uhhhhhhhhhhh... Mario Kart? I don't know." Luna tilts her head.
Hinata notes while thinking oddly hard about things, "Hm. Yeah not gonna lie, I'm not very good at choosing things."
Luna checks her phone and notes the calendar then shakes her head and puts it away. "Ah. Right, that is coming up, isn't it?" Hinata sighs
Luna nods. "The anniversary. Technically two of them, if you think about it that way."
Hinata, "Indeed. Definitely started the whole mess for us."
Luna, "Yeah but look, if Tsukuyomi is stupid enough to still target us even though they're on our turf, uhhh that would be stupid yeah."
Hinata nods. "Right, so uh can you snap the switch to the TV?"
Luna snaps her fingers and the NIntendo Switch that she received years ago for Christmas appears hooked up to the TV.
Viper walks back in as she dries her hands off and tosses the paper towel into the trash, "You two decide yet?"
Luna nods, "Not really? But we chose Smash Bros unless there's something you want to play."
The Switch appears to be hacked with tons of pirated games on an accompanying portable solid state drive.
"I have most of the library." Notably, Just Dance, Mario Kart 8, and Smash Bros are on the front page.
Viper shrugs, "I'm good with playing smash" Viper notices that it's hacked and mutters, "Didn't know I was dating a master hacker" then snickers to herself as she sits on the couch again.
Luna beams to Viper, "Not really a master hacker. That was all Krystal and Toby. I just watched from my soul room."
Hinata kneels down and grabs a couple controllers from the floor. Her stubby blond tail wags rapidly while down there. The controllers are handed to Viper and Luna.
Viper takes her controller with a grin, "Regardless of your hacker status, you're still cooler than most people I know for having majority of the switch library"
Luna blushes while selecting her character, specifically Isabelle. "W-Well thank you. I don't actually remember when I downloaded it all. Might have been in Meridian? Or maybe they put it on my switch for me. I... don't remember." Her hands are on her hand as she struggle to recall, eyes clenched closed. Hinata nods and pats Luna on the head, "it's okay Luna. What matters is we got games." Hinata takes Villager
Viper picks Samus with a nod, "It's no big deal, just as long as we're having fun"
The three of them play for a couple hours with matches rather close them. Some glitches happen in the game, but that’s to be expected right? It’s a hacked video game after all. After they finish, Viper shakes her head from the awful levels that kept being picked. “I hated that stage, good god, but good fight you two.”
They both nod simultaneously. Luna yawns a bit, "Sleepy.." Hinata pats her on the head. Old habits, such as being forcibly tired for years of her life, die hard. As such, Luna nods off. Viper gets off of the couch and goes to sleep in her room, one that was recently occupied by Lochlan and now freshly renovated. When was the room renovated? Nobody knows.
Luna finally wakes up after a lengthy night of sleep. She shakes her head muttering, "What the hell happened last night?" Hinata is snoozing next to her still. Viper peeks her head into the living room to check if they're awake yet, her hair is a little messy and she's wearing an oversized T-shirt with some fairly average shorts
Luna is awake and playing Mario Kart by herself. Her hair is a whole mess, parts of it standing up on end. HInata is still snoozing peacefully. Neither of them notice Viper, or even realize that Viper stayed the night. Viper stops peaking into the living room and heads to the bathroom to go brush her hair. After some time due to getting severely distracted with personal upkeep, she returns to the living room sporting a small smile.
Luna finally looks up after some time due to being distracted by the poker game she's playing, "Whoa, you're here again? Hey." Hinata had left while Viper was in the bathroom going for her usual jog.
Viper nods as she leans next to the couch, "Apparently i have a room here, not sure when that happened and i don't remember stocking the closet with clothes but ya'know, take what you get i guess" Viper smiles at Luna, "I'll gladly take more time with you two"
"That's..." Actually Luna doesn't know how she feels about that yet. But she pushes down that feeling of misremembering and smiles to Viper, "well I'm glad you're here too."
Viper looks around then asks curiously, "Where's Hinata? I swear i saw her in here when i peeked in earlier to check if you two were still sleeping"
"Ah, she usually goes for a morning jog in the woods every day." Luna explains. "I struggle with jogging myself, so I don't join her. Turns out having short legs isn't good for speed."
Viper nods, "Ah, yeah that makes sense" Viper leans partially on the armrest to peer over at the poker game she's playing
Luna then mutters, "But uh. I... don't remember making you a room, but I'm glad you have one now. Maybe that was Cole? Or... maybe I did that. I hate my brain." Her left eye is closed while she concentrates on both the game and trying to remember.
Viper waves her hand dismissively, "It's fine, just focus on your game honey"
Luna nods and returns to her game. "Thank you Viper."
Viper smiles and watches Luna game, content with the fact she's taking a break Luna's game has completely devolved into a mess of Jokers, billions of points scored, and oddly enough Luna pulling out her phone to calculate scores. She's turned it into math, what a fucking nerd. "Minmaxing is fun, don't mind me.”
Viper quietly snickers, "Don't worry, i wasn't gonna say anything, what's fun is fun to you" Viper enjoys watching Luna be a massive nerd
Eventually, the game ends and she has a smile. "Dang that was a crazy run. Been a while since I had time on my hands like this."
Viper nods, "Turns out when you aren't constantly working you have free time to do things you enjoy" Viper sounds a little harsh but she's got a good reason to be harsh about it
Luna grimaces a bit from her tone, "Ah.. erm. Okay. But I do the stuff because I have to. Otherwise I'm not going to remember things."
Viper nods, "I know, however you've been doing this for so long you started reaching for the laptop subconsciously so i think a little bit of a break is in order"
"Because I didn't get to archive everything yesterday... and I feel behind already." Luna sighs. Viper shakes her head slightly, "I know you feel behind but you'll have a lot more steam once you start again, and you'll go through them faster" Viper gives Luna a smile in hopes that it'll make her feel better.
Luna closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, "Alright, I trust you. Anyway uh another movie? Been wanting to watch Puss in Boots 2 after Hinata showed it to me recently. She said I would like the wolf but it's the girl cat that was the hot one. You're wrong Hinata! Wait hang on, lemme see if anyone else wants to watch.” Luna messages the house group chat.
Spider walks in, she heads over to her chair then glances over at the group. her ear twitching when they see Viper, "whats the special occasion?"
"Uhhhh apparently she wants me to take a break. Oh and Viper lives here now. I'm just as confused as you are Spi." Luna turns the TV on and puts it on Netflix.
Viper playfully rolls her eyes, "Hinata also wanted you to take a break" Viper looks over at Spider and says with a clearly joking tone, "Can't a woman be gay without reason?"
Spider shakes her head, "yes but you moving in seems a bit quick."
Luna nods as she puts the movie on. "One hot wolf movie coming right up. I don't mind that she's living here now."
Viper shrugs, "I'll leave once the few days are up, after all, I do have work to do at some point."
"Wait few days??? I was thinking like 24 hours or something." Luna looks nervous.
Viper nods and sighs, "It takes more than a day to get over burnout, i promise that you'll be able to get right back to it once the days pass" Viper seems to regret saying that and making Luna nervous
"Thanks for being upfront with me though. I've had people, uh my creators specifically, try to get me to stop watching anime when I was a lot younger, but they made me do homework instead for the entire month without watching tv. And now I'm a weeb and not ashamed of it." Luna grins.
Spider sighs and unsure what to say turns their gaze to the tv.
Viper smiles at Luna, "I'm glad you get to be a weeb all you want, must feel amazing"
"I'll be honest, I didn't know what a weeb was until maybe a few weeks ago. Cole's called me one of those so much but I didn't know that's all it was." Luna shrugs.
The group watches the movie. Spider seemed to be especially interested in the Big Bad Wolf, but she definitely didn’t find it hot. They then tilt their head as it ends, “that was better than I expected it to be.” Viper agrees, adding “Dreamworks is getting better at making movies.”
Hinata seems out of breath and walks into the house. "Bloody fucking hell, what the shit was that oh hi Viper. Didn't realize you were here still."
Spider's ears perk up as they glance in Hinata's direction, "everything ok?"
Viper looks concerned as she asks, "Are you okay? You seem out of breath"
"Yeah I uh... ran all the way home. I'm not Elara, I don't have super speed or anything like that. But uh I saw something in the forest that confused me. And it honestly scared me a bunch. I hope I was just seeing shit, otherwise uh.. we might have creatures of legend in the forest and that's not a good thing.”
"..and they are?" Spider tilts their head mildly confused.
Luna explains, "Creatures of Legend, massive monsters that come from my world which are also vague concepts of different things, like death, rebirth, snow, dreams, wishes, etc. For the most part, they are all kept away from the larger city, secluded in a massive forest called The Outskirts."
"Not all Creatures of Legend are monsters though. Some are hyper powerful humans with magical abilities on the same level as Gods. For example, Oloric Frostbeard being the CoL of Wishes, treated as a saint for Christmas." Hinata continues. “Out here in Fairview, he’d be considered ‘Santa Claus’. Same idea.”
Spider sighs, "ok, yet another thing to deal with."
"But that's the thing. I'm assuming I saw a Creature of Legend. Cuz I've never seen this one before. It was like a polar bear but the entire forest, in the area I was in anyway, was full of snow. It's frickin 70F out, how the hell is it winter in that one place? I was able to blind it and get away, but if I hadn't, I would've been frozen!” Hinata then heads to the bathroom to shower and relax.
Luna just seems nervous about everything as she goes to grab the laptop that's no longer there, "Gah. Oh whatever, I'll archive in a few days." Viper still looks concerned about Hinata but snickers quietly at Luna going to grab the non-existent laptop.
Spider gives a small amused smile before continuing, "that legend creature, considering that the world isn't full of husks anymore shouldn't we go deal with it?"
"It's possible that Hinata only thought she saw Callisto? And besides, Creatures of Legend aren't exactly beatable. They're basically Gods in a way, and I don't mean the kind of God Cole is." Luna sighs and types on her phone. Spider grumbles in annoyance at Luna’s God remark and Viper rolls her eyes. Feeling the cold shoulders, Luna asks, "What. Did I say something wrong??"
Viper shakes her head as she does air quotes while whispering, "The kind of god Cole is"
Luna shakes her head, "right, I should've probably said the kind of God Nammu is. Point is, the Creatures of Legend are kind of like wild animals but with super powerful magic. I am just confused as to why the concept of snow and winter is here."
15 minutes later, Hinata walks back out feeling refreshed and wearing a t-shirt and jeans.
"Can it wait till the 23rd then?" Spider responds with a dry chuckle.
Luna shakes her head, "I would rather not kill it at all, but I guess???"
Hinata seems confused, "The 23rd?? Oh right. Our uh. Anniversary."
Spider tilts her head.
"Well not exactly our on day anniversary, but it's something we celebrate on April full moons. Anniversary of the Blood Moon Raid, the one where we originally were going to escape FMS." Luna explains while Hinata holds her hand tightly.
Spider nods, "are you doing anything for it then?"
"Probably not? We tried to last year, but then we had to fight Nyx, so that was ruined. And then previous to that, we weren't together." Luna sighs and shakes her head.
"And now you are, not to mention there's that one." An edge creeps into their tone as they gesture at Viper.
"Uhhh we could try again I guess? No nonferal world means no Nyx or evil Mailmen interrupting us." Hinata comments and looks at Luna with a smile.
"Sure. And uh want to join us Viper? Not sure what we'll do yet, but it might be something??" Luna nods and then looks at Viper
Viper excitedly nods, "I'll gladly join you two, i've got nothin much to do this week"
Hinata seems excited and says with a bright smile, "Okay! We'll figure out what to do and get back with you!"
"Yeah. Anyway uh... what do we do for now?? I can't archive so uh..." Luna seems unsure about the next step. Luna then yawns rather deeply, "ugh, maybe I should just get some sleep." She then snuggles up next to Hinata and passes out, snoring slightly.
Hinata sighs, "Again? Usually Luna doesn't sleep that early."
"She just said she can't archive, my bets on her going into a coma until she can again" Spider chuckles quietly as they get up and stretch, several cracks can be heard.
Hinata shrugs "I guess so. I don't exactly blame her though. Being forced away from doing something she's done daily for years cold turkey would probably do that to anyone. But at the same time, it's for her own good. There are nights that we just don't talk at all because she's so intent on working on stuff."
"I'd say that's a good thing." Spider shrugs
Viper nods in agreement as she lowers her voice due to Luna sleeping, "I can't imagine that happening, what matters most is that she's taking a break and hopefully won't spend 24/7 working on it anymore."