Welcome to Gaia! ::

The question came as a bit of a surprise but was not at all unwanted and in fact it made her truly happy especially since it gave her one more thing to look forward to. “I’d like that a lot.” She admitted with little to no hesitation.

“We could make a tradition out of this,” she suggested. “But... maybe try to reign in the strength and keep the prizes to medium or small sizes. Otherwise, I’ll run out of room on my bed.” A part of her wanted to be selfish and ask if it could just be the two of them but the other part also felt that he might have more fun if they came as a bigger group; and so she kept the request to herself.

“Sometime between now and September of next year,” Marissa replied in the most smart a** way. For the last few years, she had actually forgotten about her birthday until the day of when she checked her social media accounts and saw a slew of ‘Happy Birthday’ messages from friends and family.

“My actual one is mid-November, before Thanksgiving. Whereas my awakened one is in February, like yours.” Still not as specific but that was more so because her parents never celebrated such things while she was growing up. Christmas and Thanksgiving, sure. But birthdays just meant you got to pick what everyone had for dinner that day; it wasn’t something that anyone made a big deal about. No party, no presents. Just a nicer meal with family.

“Why do you ask?”

“It’s-” she hesitated, feeling odd offering him a date that she kind of felt disassociated with. “November 15th.” A life that was no longer her own but it was one of the few things she clung to. “Since it’s right in the middle of fall I tend to lean more towards pies or cobblers over cakes. Apple pie, pumpkin, rhubarb, chocolate mouse, creme cheese pies or peach or blueberry cobblers. Something warm and fruity, maybe a scoop of ice cream on the side.”

“As for the February one, it’s around the 20th I think…” Given the circumstances, she wasn’t entirely sure how long she had been underwater or when the actual awakening occurred. “Might sound stupid, but what are your thoughts about just celebrating that one together?” Their dual awakening, the birth of their lives as a half-youma.

When they stepped up to the display case Marissa glanced inside at the remaining options and then, when the cashier had asked for their order she held up two fingers. “I’d like to get a dozen cookies to please, two chocolate chunk and the rest whatever he would like.” She placed her palm to the center of Winter's back between his shoulder blades for him to give the rest of the order.

Marissa didn’t really know what to say about the age thing since she wasn’t sure how being a half youma affected things in terms of life expectancy. In human years, she was about to turn 27 but as a half-youma would it be accurate to say that neither of them were even 1 yet?

When Winter stepped in close, she moved the plushie out of the way and hugged him in return. “You deserve it. Thank you for inviting me to come along with you.” Like him, she too was starting to feel the fatigue set in leaving her to feel more like a drained battery in desperate need of a recharge. But at least they had this time together with photos to look back on.

With that thought, Marissa let go and fished her phone out one last time but turned the camera around. “Just one more before we head back,” this one, however, she wanted to be of the both of them with the prizes they had each won. Each exhausted yet equally happy she pushed the button on the screen to capture their last final moment at the faire then put the phone away in her bag again.

“When we get back I’ll redeem my favor and then you can get some sleep.”

Marissa was quick to drop the wolf plushy and reach out to Winter as he fell forward. “Careful!” She took ahold of his hand and lifted his arm over her head to drape across her shoulders and helped him to his feet before dropping her glamour. The last thing she wanted for him was to scrap himself on her horns since she still had moments where she forgot the spacial awareness as to where the tips were at.

“Come on,” Once he seemed stable on his feet she turned him around so he could open his door. “I’ll take care of our things, let's just get you inside.” A part of her felt incredibly guilty that he had expended so much of his energy taxing her to and from the fair but Laven had a feeling he would simply brush off any apology she’d give him and instead made sure he made it to his bed.

“No apologies necessary, no way to know unless you tried.” Lavendulan smiled as she took a seat on the edge of the bed beside him. Her gaze seemed set on the blank TV screen where she could see a reflection of herself in the glass.

“I don’t know if you realize it yet but I honestly look up to you. Not just because you are a half-youma like me. But because you have strength and devotion that makes me want to try harder.” She drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

“Before any of this happened I used to be very achievement-driven,” Laven explained. “The success of a day was determined by how many things I could accomplish. However, since my awakening, I have felt like a bird trapped in a cage and that a part of me was slowly dying to the point that I lost a handle on my goal-oriented personality and just simply stopped caring.” There were times as she sat in her room where she entertained darker thoughts but it had been Lopezite’s consistent presence that kept her from doing anything foolish.

“But then we ran into each other, or rather I nearly smacked you with the door, and things... changed.” In more ways than one but with how exhausted he was, now was not the time to list them all.

“You’ve pushed me to a breaking point,” not the breaking point she was slowly learning that there was more that she was capable of as she continued to allow herself to become more comfortable with her youma nature. “But that, in turn, has set things in motion that I could not have imagined. In a way you’ve challenged me to push harder, move quicker, or just be better than what I have been. I’m no longer content to just stay in my room anymore.”

“I’ll always be several steps behind you. But I at least have a motivation to try to keep up.” Laven looked down at him if only to make sure he was still awake after that long-winded lead up to the favor she wanted to ask of him. Despite being right beside each other, he seemed so far away especially now that he was a Captain. That aside, the last thing she wanted was to be a bother to him or a tag-a-long third wheel.

Although she hadn’t mentioned it to Wolframite, she had done some training on her own to try and learn how to better control the water movement while in her metamorphosis form in the hopes of challenging him to a rematch. What she had found was that listening to music seemed to help her concentrate a bit but if someone interrupted her the concentration would be broken and the globe would disperse into a shower of water droplets. However, with his promotion, any hope she had of anything more than training practice was now a long term goal since he would most definitely beat the ever-living s**t out of her if they actually took a fight seriously like the last time when she ended the match laying on the ground in an unconscious heap.

“I feel like you have higher expectations of me than I do of myself and because of that, the favor I want to ask of you is that when you feel that I’m worthy of my final promotion, I want you to be the one to do it.” She owed her promotion to Captain to Lopezite but for General… “I know we’re not the only half-youma but you are, in my mind, the only one really qualified to judge my growth not only as an officer but also on a personal level.” Accepting her more feral side and learning to find that balance between her two natures and embrace her uniqueness, not be scared of ashamed of it.

“I’m going to struggle and falter but in the end, I want my final promotion to be by your hand but only when you believe that I have met your expectations.” Lavendulan's heart hammered against her chest hard enough that she could have swore he could hear it with his more sensitive hearing.

Soverign? The thought of such a rank made her blood run cold but her youma side stirred with excitement from the thought of it. As of yet, she had never seen one in person but she’d heard of them and read about them in the handbook that had been on her bookshelf collecting dust for far too long.

“Together?” Lavendulan repeated the word in honest consideration. In her heart, she knew that she wasn’t suited for a leadership role but so long as she could help him achieve his dream then she would be happy being able to stand at his side.

“Okay,” she agreed with a slight nod of her head. “We’ll make it there together!” This time she sounded a bit more sure of her decision.

Laven bumped her shoulder against his which was met with little resistance and so, without thinking much on the act, she leaned in to give him a very brief feather-light thank you kiss on the side of his head. “You should get some sleep. I’ll see you when you wake up.”

When she felt confident that he wasn't going to fall over sideways, or off the bed, once he no longer had her as support to lean against, Laven rose to her feet and began her retreat towards the door. "Goodnight and sleep well."