Investigations of The Heart | Page 1 | First Year Oct. 8th to Nov. 11th Time Skip | Guild Forums

Kumako Shock
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Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 8:20 pm

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Characters: Altagracia & Clint
Prompt: When class is a literal nightmare, how will two future in-laws who have grown close react?

Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 8:41 pm

billiards room ✭ altagracia ✭ clothes

Gods above it had been the longest damn day of his life. Playing guard for the two princesses of Chronos had not been his initial plan. Not when Briar and Grace were on their own in whatever the hell that crazy dream Lan had put them in was. But he also couldn't just leave them on their own to die. Sure, it was all just a dream. But he didn't know that at the time. Somehow, despite the war and the ranch and what his parents had done to him, Clint still had a conscious. And that conscious had said it was a d**k move to leave two defenseless girls on their own in their nutso professor's personal torture dream.

Unfortunately, it had also meant that he hadn't been able to find the two girls he wanted to when the dream was going on. That brunette child had one hell of a head on her shoulders and she ran their little group like it was a damn business. Hopefully he would get his Sismas bonus. If not? Then Little Lady Adelaide was a pretty s**t boss.

When they had finally gotten out of that nightmare, Clint had been so slammed with all of the sensory overload he normally dealt with suddenly returning to him that he hadn't noticed Altagracia slip out of the room like a ghost. Which kind of made him pretty s**t at his job considering seeing ghosts was, like, the one thing he did. While seeing Briar and Ryo okay had given him some piece of mind, Clint had also expected Ryo to be fine. They had both been out in the war, they had both survived this before. Briar being fine was also a good thing. But he needed to check on Gracie. He hadn't seen his future sister-in-law since before history class.

It was driving him out of his godsdamn mind.

They had made a habit of finding each other in the game room with the billiards table in it each evening to shoot a few rounds. Clint usually did so over a drink. Some nights they would hold a conversation, similar to that first night when he had overshared to the point it was almost embarrassing. Others they would play while Gracie told him her latest mystery or mulled out loud over some fancy a** word for one of her puzzles. If he had to pick, Clint liked those nights the best. When he just got to drown out the noise of the day with her murmuring about some "apple with multiple cores" clue she couldn't figure out.

That habit was part of the reason he hadn't even bothered to change into more comfortable clothes after classes, instead bee-lining to their room as fast as his feet would take him. Then he found himself waiting. ******** did he hate waiting. Overtime he slowly shed parts of his suit. First the coat. Then the vest. Then the tie. A few buttons were now undone so he could breath as he started his fifth solo round of pool.

His eyes flicked to the clock as he broke, almost thankful that he wasn't from Chronos. Would this feel even more like torture if he could physically feel every second tick down? Then the door clicked open. Altagracia had the audacity to look at him like she hadn't expected to find him here. Like this hadn't become a nightly ritual for them.

"I was so..." The rest didn't need to be said aloud. In fact, it would probably be worse to say it aloud. Instead, he pulled her into his arms. Altagracia was a tall woman, but that didnt' stop him from towering over her the same way he seemed to tower over everyone. It also didn't stop her from slotting into his embrace like she just fit there... No, that was also something better not to think about. "You okay Gracie?"

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Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2024 11:05 pm

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Upon awakening and finding herself back in the history classroom, Altagracia found herself unprepared for the hurricane of intense aura that surrounded her. While she had certainly experienced horrors of her own while under Professor Yezikhulumi's spell, it had been the first time in a very long time that she only had her own emotions to inherently concern herself with. And honestly? It was liberating. In the beginning, it was, of course, disorienting to be without one of her senses. But as the chaos continued, there was a relief she felt in regard to only having to directly deal with her own spiraling emotions. She experienced a freedom in that world that she hadn't had since she was a child. Sadly, that freedom immediately led to her acting as though she were once again one.

Lashing out at Ryo was the sad highlight of her outlandish behavior within that hellish fantasy, an act she immediately regretted but didn't exactly have the luxury of a calm environment in which she could formulate a proper apology. No, that wasn't entirely true; a less scorned person might've been able to at least try and make amends. Unfortunately for Prince Ryo, he had burnt any semblance of a bridge between himself and his fiancée long ago. In all that madness, the best she could do was play her part in keeping the two of them, along with a couple of other students, from getting killed. There had been some sense of victory she had felt in being able to do that much, but that confidence immediately went out the window when she awoke. In the midst of all the emotional chaos that unfurled around her, the spirit detective did the only thing that made sense for her to do: she got out of there.

Escaping to her room, Altagracia spent the next few hours processing all that had been done to them all. Were such extremes truly necessary to teach them about the horrors of war? While Grace might not have been directly involved herself, she knew well enough that the peace that has gone on since its end was something all of them should strive to uphold. To go so far as to try and make them active participants in a slaughter...there was motive enough to give it a shot, but this "ends justify the means" approach didn't sit well with her at all. After several hours of getting nowhere with anything, though, she decided that she'd investigate the matter another time. With that, she went to the game room.

Over the past several days, it had become a sort of routine for her to meet with the younger Siscian prince and just...play pool with him. Clint was nothing at all like the David of her fantasies, but Altagracia enjoyed his company all the same. Far different from the normal high society types, a box that the spirit detective herself found herself fitting into far more than she realized in her conversations with him, he had a crassness that gave him a charm all his own.

But would he even be there tonight? Altagracia felt unsure. After all that had transpired, perhaps he'd need time to himself as well. Perhaps he wouldn't be able to escape those that haunted the campus, who'd certainly want to know every juicy detail about why the entire student body was passed out for so long. In any case, Grace opened the door, fully expecting to find herself alone.

"I was so..." Not skipping a beat, he wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. "You okay Gracie?" As usual, his voice seemed to mostly match what bits of his aura she could make out while her face was pressed into his chest. The only real difference was the restraint he put into his voice, but the way he moved betrayed him just as much as his aura had. He'd been worried sick.

"Y-yes, I'm...fine."

Reciprocating his hug, Grace wrapped her arms around him. It was...comforting to know that their encounters had been as important to him as it had seemed. Usually she could trust her senses completely, but with Clint she always wondered if she was just seeing him with rose-tinted glasses. Still, this was still the man she'd always hoped to share an embrace with. Even if the glasses were off, that rose tint could still be found all over her face. Altagracia knew better than to think of their friendship as anything more than that, but the fondness he showed for her still felt like a dream come true. Nudging her head up to look into his eyes, she met his worried gaze with a soft smile.

"Sorry if I worried you. I just needed to get away from it all, but I could've handled it better. Promise not to make that a habit, partner."

Oh gods, could that get misinterpreted? The red on her face deepening, Grace looked away for a moment. "That is to say partner as in like friend. Perhaps I should've used compadre instead? There's an interesting history regarding proper use of the term and its adoption to common muddling its original significance, and I...am spiraling again. ********. Sorry." Ending her little rant with a soft tone of self-defeat, she sighed. Why this man bothered to spend time with her at all, she had no idea, but Grace found herself still having to rein herself in from going full lovesick puppy mode. While Clint Westbark wasn't much at all like the David Westbark she'd made up in her head, he was still a tall, gorgeous man with eyes that pierced right into your very soul. And as of today, she also knew that he did not skip chest day.

Pulling her arms back and nudging his as a sign to be let go, Altagracia took a step back from him and looked his way once more. "We should probably get on with the game, yeah? Looks like you've been getting some practice rounds in. That's on me for not keeping track of time; I'll make sure not to be so late in the future." Without a moment's hesitation, the spirit detective briskly got out of hugging range and picked up a cue stick from the rack by the table.

"Shall we then, compadre?"

While not at all confident in a word of what she was saying, Altagracia did her best to act like she was. Her face had returned to just that initial rose tint, and she'd just survived spending the day with Ryo, so she could certainly win in the game of "don't make such a total embarrassment of yourself as to alienate yourself from the man who you thought was an emotionally tortured prince but was really more of an emotionally tortured cowboy." Yep, everything was totally fine.

Location: Recreation Room
Company: Clint
OOC: Outfit

Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2024 3:54 pm

billiards room ✭ altagracia ✭ clothes

"Y-yes, I'm...fine."

Three simple words was all it took for the tension to roll off of him. Then her arms traveled up his back and she was hugging him. Part of him hadn't thought that she would. Over the last few weeks she had gotten better about raising him up to what his station should have been. Every now and then she still did, but for the most part she remembered that he was just Clint. Just a cowboy. And thank the gods this was one of those times.

His shoulders slumped, and he pressed his face into her hair for just a moment. The smell of her shampoo was enough to tell him that he was going too far. Pulling his head back, it didn't stop him from continuing to hug her. This was the one girl he definitely, under no circumstances could not have for himself. Even if he was willing to twist his morals, Clint respected his brother too damn much to twist them when Ryo was the collateral. Even if she was being too damn cute trying to navigate her crush on him while he was wrapped around her like she was his last lifeline.

A wry smile grew on his face as a curse slipped past her lips. "I'm starting to think I'm a bad influence on you." His voice was light, at odds with the swirling emotions within him. On the one hand, having her here in his arms was helping to calm him down. On the other, he'd been sitting in this room alone for hours trying not to freak the ******** out. Even worse, he knew she'd be able see that his tone and emotions did not match in this moment.

Reluctantly he allowed her to pull out of his arms at her nudging. It wasn't lost on the cowboy how quickly she hightailed it out of range from him. It was probably for the better even if he didn't like it. "We should probably get on with the game, yeah? Looks like you've been getting some practice rounds in. That's on me for not keeping track of time; I'll make sure not to be so late in the future." Letting out a long sigh, he looked at Gracie with amusement in his eyes. If this was how she wanted to ignore the moment they were about to have that was fine by him. Because it was a moment they should not be having in the first place.

"Shall we then, compadre?"

Grace was trying so hard to bring them back to the game. Reaching up, he rubbed his eyelids before scrubbing his hand down his face. He would let her. He would let her, but first. "Damn straight you're not gonna be late again." As he spoke he knew it was better not to look at her. They were leaving the heavy emotions of this wretched day behind and getting back to what they did best after all. And for that he would need... Wait a second.

It took Clint a second to locate the cue stick he'd absentmindedly discarded in his rush to get to his detective. When he finally found it, he picked it back up and walked back over to chalk it again. There was a heaviness between them that it felt like both of them were trying to ignore. Probably because this was the most emotional the second prince of Siscia had been since that first night he found her here. But there was one last thing he needed to say before he dropped the matter entirely. "Consider this a warnin' that the next time you make me wait, I'll hunt you down myself and drag your a** to this room kinkin' and screamin'." Despite the humor in his tone there was a truth in his comment that he was trying not to think about.

Now he was ready to drop it entirely. Leaning his cue stick on the wall behind him, he stared at the table for a second before realizing he didn't need to reset the table the way he had been about to. He'd just broken. "You're just in time Gracie," There was amusement in his smile as his baby blues finally turned to his sister-in-law. "We ain't gotta reset s**t, I just broke. So get over here and shoot."

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Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2025 11:54 pm

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Gracie observed the playful look on Clint's face as she did her best to not sound like a total spaz. While he wasn't that much taller than her, the spirit detective felt as though a giant were gazing upon her from high above. His aura provided her some comfort, with the spirit detective primarily noting the relief he felt, but she couldn't ignore that there was something he was desperately trying to keep inside him. It was like a bomb that desperately wished to fulfill its purpose and explode, but for now she thought it best not to poke that bear. As poor an attempt at saving face as she was making, she still wanted to at least try and succeed.

"Damn straight you're not gonna be late again."

Her heart skipping a beat as if she were still a teenager, Altagracia did her best to calm herself whilst the heat radiating from her cheeks threatened to swelter. As her prince grabbed for her cue stick, she took in a deep breath and smiled. But before she could say something to help her ease her ever-fluttering heart, Clint showed himself to be determined to leave her eternally flustered. "Consider this a warnin' that the next time you make me wait, I'll hunt you down myself and drag your a** to this room kinkin' and screamin'." Altagracia teetered back and forth with her feet, dumbstruck by how brazenly he spoke to her. He was certainly rough around the edges; yes, that was what she could focus on instead of the everything else taking flight inside of her.

"How uncouth. That's no way to speak to a lady," teased the spirit detective as she brought the whirlpool of emotions inside of her to an abrupt halt. She needed to get a grip on herself; the chokehold this man had on her wasn't even really from his hand. Well, no. It was in part. A fantasy man had done a very good job of teeing her up for him, but Clint himself was doing a fine job of carrying out his legacy in his own, crude way. Fluttering her eyes as she brought herself back to the situation at hand, she noticed a change in her prince's aura. The bomb had blended into the background, seemingly defused for the time being.

Not only that, but there seemed to be some sort of epiphany that he'd come upon. "You're just in time Gracie," he began as he finally brought his eyes of deep ocean blue up to her after long moments of neglect. "We ain't gotta reset s**t, I just broke. So get over here and shoot." It seemed as though he had taken the bait and was ready to just focus on their normal routine. Thank the divine. Matching his coy smile with one of her own, she prayed that her poker face would continue to serve her well.

"Well, if you insist."

In her overthinking, the prince wasn't the only thing around her she'd analyzed. Altagracia was getting better at reading a pool table. And with things placed as they were and it being her go-round, he may find himself wishing he'd reset after all. The spirit detective strode over to where she thought the best vantage point would be. "But no takebacks, manganzón," she said in a soft singsong as she carefully lined up her stroke. With the swift clashing of cue stick against cue, Altagracia hit two balls that would bolt in opposing directions. In her head, she'd hit them in such a way that they'd both end up in different holes if she put enough force into it. But she overdid it; the ball that had started out further from a hole ended up ricocheting off a corner wall.

"Drat!"

Lifting herself up, she placed both hands atop the now-upright cue stick and rested her head there. Spinning off of the stick absentmindedly, aquamarine eyes circled the pool table as she tried to find reason within the chaos of her failed shot. Was that a matter of too much force? Not enough? Perhaps the angle was off ever so slightly...hm... She had no reason to consider herself a professional at the game, but her rampant curiosity got the better of her as usual. It felt good to focus on something so trivial, though; better that than what was really bothering her about today.

Taking a step back, Gracie decided it best to pause her investigation while her brother-to-be took his turn. Ugh, not how I want to refer to him in my own mind. Chiding herself for failing to separate the present from a future she promised herself to prevent, she pouted in self-disappointment. Thankfully, there was still time to course correct."Your go, reigning champ. Just don't get too comfortable with that title. I'll be nabbing it soon enough." Yes, they could just spend the night filling their ears with simple banter. They had a right to a fun night after such a dreadful day. And with a sly smirk here and a hint of mischief in her voice there, Altagracia was certain she could keep this ship on the right course.

"This is nice as is, though. I should've seen it sooner, but this was just the pick-me-up I needed after...well, after all that."

Or not. But she hadn't gone into detail, and it seemed as though Clint wanted to snuff out any intense feelings that were raging within him after today's horrors as well. Hopefully there was still a chance the two of them could keep discussion about history class to a minimum. After all, he was a prince, not a fish. He had no reason to get baited by her lure. They could just keep everything nice and pool-related. Right?

Location: Recreation Room
Company: Clint
OOC: Outfit

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 8:25 pm

billiards room ✭ altagracia ✭ clothes

A small smirk made his lips twitch, but only enough that only one corner of his mouth quirked up into a lopsided smile as he watched Altagracia move to the table to take her turn. While she did so, Clint backed off. After the hug and the swirling emotions it had brought on that he was successfully stomping down into a corner of his mind? Well, keeping his distance was just the smart thing to do. Especially if they were planning to continue to have these nightly games.

Clint wasn't willing to stop with their nightly games.

For all of the years that Gracie had spent gawking at him and looking at him like a spectacle, it was nice getting to actually show her who he was. Frankly, he hadn't expected to enjoy it so much. The Grace of his past was a stiff little girl who Clint had assumed was just as greedy as her parents. When he'd first learned the reason why she had been engaged to Ryo it was so easy to assume that she was clawing after a title. Plenty of other girls lined up at both of their feet at the Sismas parties he was called home to cloying for a chance to woo one of the brothers for a chance to be a princess. On some level, he was sure Briar had to deal with the same from boys. Why would the one who had succeeded in gaining an engagement through underhanded means be any different?

Then the ghosts started doing what they did best and whispering. Something about how she cried herself to sleep at night over the engagement. That her parents knew something and were blackmailing the queen and, in turn, Ryo. That the crown prince's fiance had begged to be engaged to him instead. It had been enough to start changing his opinion. Unfortunately, it hadn't changed it much and it didn't do much to make Clint see Gracie in a different light. But now?

Leaning back on the wall and absently fumbling with his cue stick, he watched her examine the table. Unbuttoning the cuff of his sleeve to roll it up, he tossed the cue stick to his free hand before repeating the action on his other one. These nights had given him a sort of understanding of Altagracia Sarmiento.

Firstly, she was a gaddamn busybody. How anyone could be so completely interested in other people's business, he would never know. But it didn't stop Clint from offering her some of the ghostly gossip here and there that he knew would amuse her. Nothing too personal about their classmates. Just the things that he knew would make her laugh.

Secondly, she was smart as a whip. On some level, she was well matched for Ryo in that way. There were few people who would be well suited to share in the management of a country. If Gracie put her mind to it, she would excel. Unfortunately, that didn't really matter much when he considered the most important thing he had learned about her in these last few weeks.

Altagracia was not interested in the throne at all.

It went against everything he had thought about her when he was young. But it had also been a relief to know that she wasn't interested in taking advantage of his brother. It was just her parents. That much he knew from his conversations with Ryo. But it made his heart ache to know neither of them wanted the other but were being forced into a loveless marriage. What was it with Siscian parents sucking?

Shaking his head, he pushed off of the wall. "Don't worry your pretty little head about it," There was a new deviousness that was seeping into his smile. "I plan on giving you plenty of opportunity to take that title." The taunt was meant to diffuse the room. Something had been brewing since... Well, frankly it had been brewing since they woke up in that stupid dream. Hallucination? He wasn't sure which it was. Neither were good.

He'd been trying to line up his shot. Trying to tap a ball into the one he was trying to pocket since her chaotic shot hadn't left him with any good options. They were going to relax and have a good time and forget about the weariness of the day. That was what Clint told himself as his arm pulled back.

"This is nice as is, though. I should've seen it sooner, but this was just the pick-me-up I needed after...well, after all that."

His stick nearly missed the ball, an unintentional force behind his hit that sent the table into a mess of clattering and even more chaos. His hands braced the bumpers, as if he needed to steady himself in the wake of her words. He'd seen a poor girl shot with an arrow, how much worse had Gracie seen in that godforsaken nightmare? Even more infuriating was that he was at least primed for it. He'd been to battlefields. Even had put a few bastards out of their misery. But her? She had never seen the horrors up close and personal before today.

"Gracie," His voice was soft, yet he still couldn't bring himself to look to her. "We don't have to dance around it. If you need to talk, I'm here. I promise I ain't going nowhere."

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Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2025 9:19 pm

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Ever since the day her agency in life was signed away, Altagracia was shunned whenever she wanted to really, truly open up to someone. By Ryo. By servants, both from the royal palace and her own. Even her parents, the people who had taken the time out of their work to painstakingly repair her damaged psyche after her powers pulled back the curtain and revealed the truths of the soul, denied her any sense of respite. It was always just more lessons from the best tutors in Siscia, whose sole purpose was to turn her into a young woman fit to be queen. It was almost like the hand of fate had set everyone in her life onto an inescapable course, their actions so dreadfully predetermined that she could always see them coming miles away.

How cruel a puppeteer destiny was.

But here was Clint Westbark, the man that the man of her dreams for those same years was based on, offering an olive branch. "Gracie, we don't have to dance around it. If you need to talk, I'm here. I promise I ain't going nowhere." For a moment, Grace just watched the balls clatter about. She'd almost forgotten what phrasing like that sounded like. Losing about an inch in height as she caved in on herself some, she held onto her cue stick for support.

Did he understand what he'd offered her? Probably not entirely. They'd only really gotten to know each other for a handful of weeks now, after all. Taking a glance at the cowboy, Altagracia found him also looking down. There was conflict within him. Of course there was. It was as though he had placed a sock in his spiritual mouth; there were clearly things he wanted to let out but was keeping himself from doing so. From the looks of it, he was doing so to spare her. Yes, his aura could be better described as specifically self-restrictive. He was being careful with her. Tender even, in his own way. Was it fair to say she knew his way by now? Perhaps not, but now the more that she stared blankly at him, the more desperate she was to believe that he'd be true to his word.

"If you say so..."

Altagracia looked back down at the messy table, taking in a prolonged breath. Her fingers unfurled and furled back around the cue stick a couple of times. Then there was a pause. A small tremble permeated her being. But it soon passed. Or at least it felt soon. It could've taken an eternity, as the duchess of spirit felt herself disconnected from the concept of time itself. Whatever the case, she once again broke the silence. "I was...with him. With Ryo." Her face had taken the shape of a weak frown. It was small, as if her physical form was hesitant to reveal the resounding truth that she knew her aura was revealing. But Clint couldn't see such things. She would have to communicate with him in the languages conveyed through the physical realm. She already knew this, but that didn't make this any more difficult.

"And we were...." she continued, letting out a soft, shaky chuckle. "Not combative with each other for too long. I'd even go as far as to call it progress between us." Well, progress for her anyways. Despite her immediate regret for doing so, there was a part of her that could still cherish the fleeting power she felt in telling him off. Her hands tightened around the cue stick. He hadn't asked for smoke and mirrors. "But if I'm being really, truly honest? It was terrifying. I knew that such carnage existed in the world, of course. Still, seeing it firsthand was haunting. Families and homes destroyed. Senseless slaughter. And yet...somehow, more than that...I was scared of him." The cue stick had joined her in shaking. It was a stupid thing to say when she heard it out loud. So, so stupid. But he said they didn't have to dance around it, so she wouldn't.

"He scares me, Clint. He fundamentally has ownership of me, even more than he would just being the prince. He holds citizens by their faith in our nation. He holds me by my hand, and his grip feels like a vice."

Aquamarine eyes were locked on his features now, her voice whittled down to a near whisper. "And I know how stupid that sounds. It's always sounded stupid." Her speech pattern had quickened back up after a long period of measured thought giving way to waterfalls of quiet emotion breaking the dam. "He is not inherently a bad man. There is a part of me that can recognize that. Especially with all he's done for you. I really, genuinely do not mean to discredit that." Her voice cracked a bit at the end of that. But the waters were still raging. Her mind still needed to run rampant aloud.

"And he was even...reliable in that hallucination. He saved me. But...I needed him. And I hate that I needed him. But even more than that...he killed people. In self-defense, sure. People die. The spirit continues. It's what we're taught. And yet I hadn't...seen such malice in him before. And I can't help but sit here and think to myself that...if he doesn't care about me, which I know he doesn't, then am I immune to that sort of brutality? What if he...if he..."

Altagracia couldn't see Clint too well at this point, by way of the tears forming in her eyes. Curse the limitations of the human body. Sniffling, she found the strength to straighten her stance. Removing one hand from her cue stick to take out a cloth from her coat pocket, she wiped the droplets away and attempted to contain herself. At the end of the day, Grace knew that it was wrong of her to let herself unleash like that. That was how she'd been made to feel for all these years, anyways. "I apologize. I know what you said. No dancing. I just...I'm sorry." Her gaze sank again, bringing her hand down and clutching the cloth that was now crumpled in her hand. Her face was red, and a stray tear fell down her face, but she was just too drained from the sheer amount of release she'd just allowed herself.

In a way, she was being disingenuous. She wasn't really sorry for what she said, but she felt like she should be. This wasn't anything like she'd wanted their relationship to be like. And not the fantasy of Gracie and David; she wanted this real, tangible friendship to blossom properly. But there was Ryo, ever the roadblock. Always pulling her strings in one way or another. And much like a puppet needs their master to make them come alive, Altagracia had felt a reliance on him in that dream dimension that would never sit right with her no matter how pragmatic her pleas were. It was all just...wrong.

Location: Recreation Room
Company: Clint
OOC: Outfit

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2025 5:17 pm

billiards room ✭ altagracia ✭ clothes

Waiting for her to speak was like waiting for Ryo to slam the door. Specifically assuming that Clint had a string wrapped around his tooth and tied to the doorknob. They'd tried it once when he was six and home for Sismas to give the Tooth Spirit one of his baby teeth so they could have pocket change. All the cowboy could really remember about it was the pool of heavy anticipation that had hung on him while he waited for Ryo to rip his tooth out. The emotion that was welling up within him at the moment was similar. It was seeping down into him. And not because he was afraid of actually being there for her.

No, there were worse things to worry about.

"If you say so..."

Grace's voice was hesitant. Soft and... scared. The pause she took rattled him. More than he wanted to admit. Had... Had no one ever offered to hear her out before? The thought sent a wave of rage down his body, one that he was doing his damnedest to stuff down because the last thing he wanted to do was startle her with his aura. Clint had told her not to hold back. He damn well meant it. Squeezing the bumper, he willed himself to calm down as she finally found her words.

The fact that she'd found Ryo in the... whatever it was comforted him. If his brother was with her, then it meant Grace had been safe. The news made every nerve in Clint's body crackle between relaxation and anticipation. If she was about to tell him that she finally figured out the good points to his brother and wanted to be with him, Clint was going to snap his cue stick in half and put a hole through the damn table. The fact that they'd had 'progress' left his mouth dry, only able to offer her a shaky chuckle in reply to hers.

"That's good, ain't it?"

The ******** up, twisted part of him was glad that it was not, in fact, good. But her voice was shaking. Bad. So bad he found himself unlatching his hands from the guards on the table and turning to look at her. It hadn't been just her voice. She was looking at him, shaking like a leaf and trying to explain why his big brother scared her without offending him. <********.

At the start of this conversation there had been a perfectly respectable amount of space between them. And really the smart, sensible thing for him to do right now would be to comfort her and defend Ryo while maintaining that respectable amount of space between them. He knew his brother wouldn't actively choose to harm anyone. Not if he was really being given the choice. But there was something in Grace's torrent of feelings that struck a cord within him. One that had him running his tongue under his front teeth trying to name exactly what it was that was unsettling him. A few tense beats hung between them before he recognized what it was. That he was relating to her.

There were a handful of things that the cowboy wasn't interested in. Ducks, for starters. They were mean, unpleasant little ******** that he didn't want to waste his time with. Helping someone cheat was right up there with the ducks. Especially if that someone was his brother's fiance. It was already entirely unappealing to kiss a girl who was taken, adding his brother into that mix? It left a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach. Yet, somehow in the last two weeks he had come to like Grace. Possibly as more than a friend. And it was killing him trying to pretend he didn't want to pull her in and ease some of the pain she was clearly going through.

If he was a smart man, he wouldn't. It was a good thing he'd never claimed to be smart. Instead that need had bloomed under Clint's gut in a way that had him crossing the room without putting nearly enough thought into it. Pulling the handkerchief out of her hand, his free hand caught under her chin and forced her to look up at him.

"Why the ******** are you apologizing to me?" Frustration laced his tone, and it made him wince. He wasn't trying to scare her worse. But something in him had snapped while watching her shake across the room. Thank the gods his hands hadn't been hit with the same gruffness as his tone as he gently folded the stolen fabric to find a spot that wasn't damp before brushing it lightly over Grace's cheeks to catch the tears that had continued to fall past her outburst. Once the task was done, his thumb brushed over her cheekbone in an affectionate gesture.

"I love Ryo, don't get me wrong. But you ain't me Gracie. Our s**t's different. While I don't believe for a goddamn minute he would ever do a thing to hurt you for the sake of it, that don't mean you ain't allowed to be scared. Especially after... That. I don't know what you saw, but none of it was good. You shouldn't have been made to see any of it."

Clint didn't want to think about what that meant about him. Not when his biggest concerns had been keeping that little brat and her sister safe and if Gracie had been being taken care of. The carnage of it all? It hadn't really made him bat an eye. Not when he was used to only seeing the aftermath. The bodies just left to rot. And then the ghosts. All the damn ghosts. If anything, there had been a level of relief during the hallucination simply from having one of his senses stripped away during it.

In a long breath, his bravado seemed to leave him. Clint slumped into Grace, pressing his forehead to hers. "I'm not good at this." The statement made him bristle. While he wasn't too proud to admit it, it didn't make admitting it any more pleasant. He wanted to be good at it. If only for her sake. He wanted to take every bad feeling she'd ever felt from her, ball it up, and throw it away where it could never hurt her again. Finally he let out a tense chuckle.

"Actually, I'm pretty s**t at it. But I know he wouldn't hurt you Gracie. I'd be a liar if I said he cares about you, not with the hell he's gone through trying to keep your parents happy. He also doesn't know you the way I do. What he does know is that you matter to ********.

He shouldn't have said that.

Closing his eyes, his hands came up to cradle her cheeks. Damn. He was going to regret that in the morning. Probably. But then again if it was already out there, why not drive it home? "I swear to god you better still have that crush on me." Clint didn't let her answer as he did what he did best. Following the spark of adrenaline that usually did him dirty, he closed the gap between them to claim her lips with his.

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Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2025 8:57 pm

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As they stood in silence, Altagracia felt ever so exposed. For the first time in a long time, she had put her feelings in their entirety on the table. A part of her thought that it would feel good to finally unload to someone willing to listen. It's something that's supposed to be good. The release of the absolute truth of the soul that the human experience tries to deny was supposed to feel freeing. So why did she feel more confined than ever?

The duchess of spirit could barely look at Clint. From that and the tears still building up in her eyes, she could barely make out his aura either. But from what she could see, there was something that had built up the more she spoke. And it didn't take an investigator to figure out what it was. Confusion. Doubt. This man had not been shy about how highly he regarded his older brother. It made sense for him to. For Clint, Ryo had been a loving big brother who did his best to look over the cowboy when he could. For Clint, Ryo cared. It was probably taking every bit of willpower he had not to just tear into her and-

"Why the ******** are you apologizing to me?"

"H-Huh?"

The trembling stopped, Grace being snapped back to reality by his vicious drawl. She took a step back as he came up to her, half-convinced he was gunning to shout right into her face. However, the sensation of cloth against her eyes and a calloused hand against her cheek made her heart pound with a different kind of anxiety from what she was expecting. She didn't understand. He was...comforting her? Caring for her after everything she said about Ryo? But why?

Blinking a few times as her breathing began to slow, Altagracia tried to look at this logically. Had he...really heard her out? Sure, they had been spending time together these past few weeks, but that didn't compare to a lifetime of love and loyalty. Was there...some other sort of angle here? Feigning sympathy to gain more insight on her point of view on things? But for what? To tell Ryo what he surely already knew? No, that didn't seem likely. This cowboy was far too straightforward, sometimes against his own best interests. Like right now, for instance. He had every reason to admonish her on the spot, and yet...he wasn't. And as he continued to explain how he felt about her admission, she experienced something she had only dreamed of knowing. She felt...safe.

"I'm not good at this," said Clint as he rested his forehead upon her own. The shift in weight caused Altagracia to tilt back a bit, but she quickly regained her footing. Her hands were holding onto his forearms now. They were...nice. "Probably won't win any medals for your service, no." Letting out a quiet, wheezed chuckle, Grace continued to monitor the aura of the man so close and yet so far away from her. There was still that wildfire of emotions just barely being blocked off from the forest that their physical selves existed in. He was still holding out on her in some way. Grace was thankful for that. It had to be difficult to act all rootin', tootin' cowboy while handling what was most definitely a touchy subject at best. The combination of his foul mouth and his tender touch was a combination she was unused to, but it was growing on her.

"Actually, I'm pretty s**t at it. But I know he wouldn't hurt you Gracie. I'd be a liar if I said he cares about you, not with the hell he's gone through trying to keep your parents happy. He also doesn't know you the way I do. What he does know is that you matter to me."

"I— you— yeah?"

Altagracia began to better analyze the wildfire for what sparked it. The feelings that he was desperately trying to manage...they weren't negative. Or at least she dared to hope that they were not. There was a sense of necessity there, though. What did he want to say to her that he hadn't already? That he said that she mattered to him muddled her focus. It was everything she'd ever wanted to hear from Prince David. He'd say that and whisk her away on horseback to somewhere neither of them could be abused any longer. They'd be free. But this was reality. Clint and Grace were to be in-laws. There was nothing more to read from it than that. There wasn't any reason for her to hope for-

"I swear to god you better still have that crush on me."

The duchess opened her mouth to question his motives, but Clint's mouth moved faster than she could make a sound. Well, that wasn't entirely true. She was still making noise, just not really words. There was a muffled noise of initial protest, but it melted into a soft moan as she quickly relented. Was this real? Was this really happening? For a second, Altagracia was half-convinced she was in a dream. It probably should've been just a dream. As a newly born tear trailed down her cheek, she began to accept the reality of the situation.

Breaking away to catch her breath, the hyperventilating young woman gathered her thoughts. Or at least she tried to before deciding that there were more important things to be done. Carefully slipping her arms under and up from Clint's own, she wrapped hers loosely around his neck. Altagracia's heart was pounding. The wildfire was upon her. However, she did not fear it. Instead, she walked right in so she could feel the heat of the flames firsthand once again. Pulling herself back into him, Altagracia smiled weakly as she brought her face up against his once again.

"Now this...I'm pretty s**t at. Allow me to practice a bit, won't you?"

She could see faint hints of the auras of others on Clint's lips. Perhaps he told all the women in his life that they mattered to him. Perhaps this was some random outburst of emotion that the soul sometimes just expects the material world to do something with. There were terrible implications from both of their actions. In many ways it was a sort of treason. But for the moment, Grace didn't care. She planted her lips on his again. She wanted— no, she needed this. Not to fulfill any dumb childhood fantasy, but because the man in front of her was exactly what she desired in that moment in time. Vernacular and all.

But there was something else Altagracia needed as well. His words hadn't been lost to her despite being engulfed in the fires of their...whatever this was. Taking a few moments to appreciate every wrinkle and contour of his lips, she eventually broke it off again. "I'm...not going to apologize for that one. I'd worry more about your brother than my parents, though. Scary as they can come off, it's Ryo who gets the final say back home. Does this mean...you don't approve of the marriage then? Because if so...I'll gladly listen to your concerns in their entirety. If you'll allow me to, that is." Grace's voice was still quiet but had gained newfound clarity, some otherworldly confidence coming over her. No, it was that she felt part of the flames herself at this point. And as selfish as it was, she wanted to stay engulfed in that all-consuming warmth for as long as she could.

Location: Recreation Room
Company: Clint
OOC: Outfit

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2025 8:09 pm

billiards room ✭ altagracia ✭ clothes

For one beautiful moment, she was kissing him back. Her soft lips were clumsy. Which, honestly, was to be expected. Grace had been engaged to his brother since she was a preteen. It wasn't exactly like she was in his situation where he'd had several partners in the sheets since he lost his virginity six or seven years ago. Hell, if he'd been engaged that young the gods knew he never would have had any of those experiences in the first place. All of that had melted away when she pulled back.

Clint had ******** up.

Calloused hands brushed a handful of strands back from Gracie's face. Her face that had a few fresh tears on it and that seemed to be struggling to breathe. Guilt pooled low in his stomach. It had seemed like she had still liked him the way she had for years. It seemed like Clint had read her wrong, only upsetting her more after that nightmare of a class earlier when he'd wanted to do the opposite. "Hey, hey, Gracie," His voice was gentle as he made a clumsy attempt to soothe her. Thankfully she seemed to be recovering quickly. "You're okay. I'm sor-" Her hands wrapping around his neck hadn't been what cut him off, it was the way she was leaning back into his face that had startled him out of his poor attempts at comfort.

"Now this...I'm pretty s**t at. Allow me to practice a bit, won't you?"

The worry melted straight out of his expression. Replacing it was a cocky smile, one that Grace quickly wiped off of his face with her lips. Clint's fingers threaded through her hair for a moment, holding her in place like she would run away at the first chance if he let go. Then, slowly, his hands slipped down her throat. Down they trailed as the ghosted over her waist and around her until he had her a** in his hands. Lifting her up, one hand trailed down her thigh, guiding her legs around his waist.

Their lips broke contact for a moment, only so he could murmur words of encouragement about wrapping her legs around him. Then he was walking her over to the billiards table and settling her down on the edge like she was something precious. Like if he used to much force she would crack under the pressure.

When she pulled away from him, Clint did not fight her. Instead he brushed out her bangs with his fingers, fixing the hair he had mussed earlier. The comment that fell out of her mouth so easily stopped his hands in his tracks, the affectionate gesture withering almost immediately.

It was no secret that he wasn't as quick as Grace. The girl's mind was like a steel trap that churned information over constantly until it made some kind of sense. Clint was muscle. He was good for shoveling and riding and heavy lifting. It wasn't a shock that it took him a beat to piece together what she was saying. What she meant. And the realization had him still as a statue, searching her turquoise eyes for any sign that she didn't mean what he thought she meant.

There was nothing there.

"You don't know." The words drifted out of him on a breath, unable to put any force behind it. It was like everything was snapping into focus. The way she bickered with Ryo. The mooning over him for years. Her fear. "They've been using you as a pawn for years and didn't have the godsdamned decency to tell you anything."

Dropping his hands, he bracketed her in on the pool table. Not necessarily on purpose. It was more that he was trying to contain the the new wave of rage that had begun boiling down in the depths of his soul. Running his tongue over the backs of his teeth, he sucked in a deep breath, knowing this was something that he wasn't going to be able to mask from her.

"To be clear," He started, raising his head to meet her gaze again. "I ain't mad at you. I need you to know that Gracie." Squeezing his hands into fists, he leaned forward to press their foreheads together. "But I know you're about to be hog-tyin' mad. You have every right to be."

"Ryo doesn't hold any of the cards Gracie." An uncomfortable pause hung between them. All that was left to do was rip the bandaid off, so why was it so hard. Sucking in a deep breath, Clint forced himself to continue. "Your folk's've been blackmailing him for years to make him marry you, Gracie. They want you on the throne. They got s**t on our mom, and Ryo's been trying to protect her by honoring the engagement with you. None of this was his idea and that's why y'all ain't married yet." His eyes darkened, flashing with a malice that he reserved only for his parents. His final sentiment was spit out under his breath. "Despite me trying to talk him out of it for ********' years."

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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2025 8:33 pm

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The way Clint handled Altagracia's body was the perfect middle point between shamelessly brazen and delicately tender. The way he took her by her a** certainly leaned toward the former and made her let out a yelp through her still-closed mouth that she hoped went unnoticed, but the rest? The way his mouth fervently melded with hers again and again? The way he'd run his hand through her hair as if to ease her into it? Who knew cowboys could be such gentlemen.

When she'd coyly asked about the circumstances surrounding this moment of impulsive desire, Grace had half expected them to just continue kissing. If she hadn't made it clear, more kissing was certainly an acceptable response. Then again, she was new to the whole flirting thing. Had she not made that clear? s**t. The shock on his face, though...no, there was more to it than that. It was as if an all-consuming wind had swept away their shared fire in an instant. What had this immense shock been born from? The magnitude of their actions in relation to Ryo was certainly something to have second thoughts about. Suddenly Altagracia felt quite flushed as the reality of their little liaison washed over her.

"You don't know."

Altagracia's brows shifted in confusion. What was the desperado before her getting at? While he only briefly paused, the spirit detective's impatient curiosity made it feel like forever. "They've been using you as a pawn for years and didn't have the godsdamned decency to tell you anything." They? "...They?" The anticipation brought a newfound restlessness to her. Aquamarine eyes scanned Clint's face, searching for any sort of meaning hidden in his form. Beyond that, she searched his aura that lay itself out before her. Dumbfounded frustration...epiphanies found behind normally closed doors...and then the fire returned. As he took his hands off of her, an inferno was once again only barely being held back. But this anger felt different from before...more...indignant. Pointedly so, in fact.

Her gaze continued to go side to side as he pleaded with her to understand where he was coming from. Or trying to. Gently grazing at her inner cheek with her teeth as she continued to absorb and decipher the information already before her, she understood the only path to abject truth lay in him proceeding. There was then a sound to her side. Averting her gaze to glance at the origin, she found his hands had now clenched into tight fists. This made her get caught off guard as he then brought his forehead to hers, letting out a soft inhale. Turning her attention forward once more, she took in a deep breath. The spirit detective then brought a hand up to clasp the side of his face, her stare resolute.

"No hay mal que por bien no venga, cowboy. Go for it."

That Clint would pause after stating that Ryo apparently held no favor in their little arrangement only brought more questions, but Altagracia stayed silent, eyes unmoving. He was getting to it. "Your folk's've been blackmailing him for years to make him marry you, Gracie. They want you on the throne. They got s**t on our mom, and Ryo's been trying to protect her by honoring the engagement with you. None of this was his idea and that's why y'all ain't married yet." And oh, did he get to it. With every word that came out of his mouth, eyes blessed by the divine scanned every trace of his being before her with increasing swiftness. Her heart was back to a pace only a Mercurian could call normal. Ever frantically did her mind race to find any trace of deceit in his words, his body, or his spirit. Clint then let out a final statement with unfiltered spite that could not be manufactured. Not to her, anyway. No, Altagracia concluded. This was his truth.

"I see," said the spirit detective simply as she released the moderate grip she had on the younger prince of spirit's face and brought it down to his adjacent fist. "...I'd like to get off the pool table now." Her voice was tense, but not shaky. She'd run out of shakiness. Of exhausting, overwhelming misery. The ire that Clint displayed was enticing, though. As Clint relented and let her step away, she left a final kiss on his cheek before taking a step towards the doorway. "I...need time to myself to process." Hands stuffed deep into her coat pockets, she stopped for a moment and turned back to her cowboy. He'd asked something of her, so it was only right that she responded. For once, she was with a member of the royal family that knew how to properly communicate with her. Best she continue to nurture that behavior.

"I'm not angry with you, though. If anything, I'm grateful," said the detective, flashing a brief smile before looking down to the floor. "And, as if I haven't asked enough of you already, I've got one more request. For now." Lingering on that for a moment, she swayed her coattails with her hands before stopping herself. She brought her gaze back up to meet his again, eyes warmly tracing both his form and his aura. "I don't want these rendezvous to stop, Clint Westbark." Letting herself linger in those words for a moment, she turned away and walked out of the room.

From here, she planned to go back to her room and just...unpack. Grieve more as needed. With the hurricane of emotions she felt herself getting swept away to, it'd be some days before she was ready to do much else. Once she was, though? It'd be time to investigate. But doing so against the people who taught her everything she knew...Altagracia understood that such a task wouldn't be easy. Easy was a rarity for her by now, though; sooner or later, she'd have to learn to just deal. And while she wasn't there quite yet, the path was clearer now than it had ever been. One small victory that threatened to be crushed by the weight of insurmountable defeat. That being said, the spirit detective had one advantage at least: she had seen the upper limits of her parents rage before, and it didn't hold a candle to hers.

Location: Recreation Room
Company: Clint
OOC: Outfit

Posted: Fri May 16, 2025 6:04 pm

billiards room ✭ altagracia ✭ clothes

It was like time had stopped. No. It would be better if time had stopped. The silence that hung between them after his last admittance was heavy. The way Gracie’s aquamarine eyes were rolling over his face looking for any trace that what he’d said wasn’t true. If only they could both be so lucky.

"I see.”

Finally she broke the silence between them. Though, it bought little comfort when he could see the storm behind her eyes. How she was trying to come to terms with the information he had just unceremoniously dumped into her lap with all the grace of a mangy cat offering its human a bird. The hand that had once been warm and welcome on his face was now turning clammy and uncomfortable with realization. Though even that was preferable to the way she dropped it away from Clint’s cheek. The only solace was that her fingers skimmed a trail down his arm before patting his fist while she requested to get up.

Not one to cage an unwilling partner, Clint stepped back. Even when that step back felt like thousands of tiny bees flittering around nervously under his skin. Then her toes pressed up, her lips ghosting over the stubble on his cheek in a soft gesture that made him want to pull her back in and give her a quiet place to process whatever was going on in that beautiful mind of hers.

"I...need time to myself to process." The comment was the only thing that kept Clint’s hands to himself. Instead he balled them into fists at his sides, before flexing them out and ultimately mimicking the woman in front of him by stuffing them into the front pockets of his slacks. “I can’t say I blame you.”

The fact that she wasn’t pissed at him was a miracle Clint was not willing to overlook. Especially when Altagracia stopped and turned back to flash a smile at him. The second her nervous gaze hit the floor, twirling her little coat around here and there in one of the cutest ******** gestures after everything else that had just happened, Clint knew he was a goner. That he was going to make it his life mission to make whatever came out of her mouth next happen.

"I don't want these rendezvous to stop, Clint Westbark."

The comment made the corner of his mouth tick up. “You say that like they wouldn’t have kept happening anyway.” Her lingering wouldn’t last long and he wasn’t planning to stay any later than she did. Taking a few steps forward, he closed the gap between them. “I meant it Gracie,” His voice was a deep rumble in his chest, a hand coming out of his pocket to rest on the door frame over her head as he leaned down. “If your cute a** ain’t here at our usual time tomorrow, I will find it and bring it here myself.”

His hand shifted, opening the door for Grace to leave first. “Go, get your head on straight. If you need me, you know where to find me. My door’s always open for you Gracie.” Once she left the room, he followed after her. Only Clint turned towards the men’s dorms. Hector would be glad that he was back so early to hear about whatever crazy bullshit the others were going through after that hell of a class.

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