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 Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2024 8:48 am
Backdated to late October 2023. Takes place following All is Fair. They left the fair. Since neither of them were old enough to drive, they relied on public transportation to get back into the city. They’d left the rest of Dawn’s friends behind, but she didn’t mind. Riker still seemed out of sorts. She didn’t want to burden him with extra company.
“Are you okay?” she asked once they were well on their way home, walking the darkened streets side by side. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine, but… Well, if you do want to talk about it, I’m a good listener.”
Dawn tried to be cheerful about it but wasn’t sure how much Riker would appreciate a smile and a chipper voice when he was feeling down. She knew he dealt with a lot from his mom, even if she didn’t know all the details. There were always rumors, and the employees on Mom’s team traded gossip like school girls. Dawn tried not to judge. She tried not to pity Riker either. She didn’t think he’d like that.
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Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2024 9:57 am
It was a simple, gentle question, but Riker still jumped a little when Dawn asked if he was okay.
“Yeah,” he answered, maybe a little too quickly to be believable. Then he cleared his throat, and shoved his hands further into his hoodie pocket so he could wring his hands together, and fiddle with the ring he wore.
It didn’t look like anything special now that he was just Riker. But as Reims it was a beautiful signet ring with fine detailing. It fit him perfectly, somehow. Probably by magic.
“Sorry for, you know, making things weird,” he tried to apologize because she was kind and patient as always and deserved something from him. He tried kicking a piece of cement that had come loose from the sidewalk and missed, stepped on it instead, and stumbled a little.
“It’s just… complicated.”
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Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2024 7:33 pm
Dawn put a gentle hand onto Riker’s arm to steady him, but she dropped it soon after incase he found it embarrassing. Would it have been better to pretend that she hadn’t noticed him stumble?
“Does it have to be?” she asked, walking close enough that they could almost touch, but not so close that they risked colliding too often. “Complicated, I mean. Your friends seemed nice. Maybe a little shy. Some of them, anyway. Unless…”
She peered at him curiously, trying not to offend, wary of prying, but wanting to understand.
“Unless they weren’t really friends?” She said it lightly, conversationally, hoping Riker wouldn’t think she was accusing him of anything, or teasing him.Guine Whoopsie forgot it was my turn to copy paste
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Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2024 8:39 pm
He mumbled a quiet thanks when she helped make sure he didn’t fall over. It was embarrassing that he stumbled, but it would have been more embarrassing if he fell flat on his face.
His ears were burning. Not so much at his clumsiness, but her question about them actually being his friends.
Riker couldn’t be mad at her even if he wanted to be. She’d helped him out of an awkward situation. Had let him lie and pretend she was his girlfriend.
“It’s--...” he tried to explain again and drew in a breath as though trying to will himself to talk, only to exhale in defeat with a “... it’s complicated.”
He knew he wasn’t doing either of them any favors by not answering her fully. But how was he supposed to tell her that he was pretty sure he knew them all in two different settings. And they knew him as two different people.
“They’re not my friends,” he admitted quietly as he stared dejectedly down at the ground in front of them. He could feel something in his heart twist painfully, and he knew he was being selfish to have any hope that they might think of him as one…
At least Reims as one. Riker…? He’d already burned bridges and he knew it. Maybe he was being more dramatic than he needed to be, but it was only a matter of time before he screwed up even more than he already had.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 8:21 am
Dawn frowned, but only because she was confused. And maybe a little concerned. No one had seemed particularly cruel or unwelcoming, just awkward and distant. An effort had been made. They wouldn’t have bothered if they didn’t care to, right?
“You and Elliot play on the baseball team together,” she said, trying to make sense of it without much to go on. “His boyfriend seemed sweet. And… you knew that Maisie girl, right? She was… I mean, she was nice enough, just… a lot, maybe. Like, sort of judgy, but it wasn’t like she didn’t want you there.”
The night was chilly, but not so frigid as to be uncomfortable. Even though Dawn wasn’t really a fan of cold weather, she liked to think the crisp air would help to clear their heads, so she didn’t walk fast and even slowed their pace when it seemed like Riker could use a moment.
“Was it one of the others?” she asked. “Have they… said things to you?” It was the only way she knew how to ask if they’d given him a hard time about his mom without being blatant about it.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 9:48 am
Riker had noticed that Dawn slowed, but he didn’t complain. He used the opportunity to more efficiently kick at pieces of broken sidewalk, although he mostly just rolled them under the toe of his shoe.
“No, they haven’t said things about me,” he confessed, grimacing at the ground because now he definitely couldn’t look Dawn in the eye. “Elliot is… kind of like a diplomat, I guess. He’s nice to everyone, but uh…”
Another deep breath, but it didn’t stop the red from creeping from his ears to his cheeks.
“I, uh, wasn’t very nice to them. And, well, um, I know them, uh… online. But they don’t know my, uh… real name. Except Maisie. I think they might be friends with that me. And I didn’t know I knew them until Maisie kinda hinted heavily at it, so. Yeah, it’s my fault for ruining possible friendships because I’m an a*****e.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 9:49 am
“Oh…”
Dawn had never gotten the impression that Riker was an a*****e. Maybe a little rough around the edges, but he hadn’t ever been cruel to her, or anyone who worked for her mom. He was a little strange at times, and not always the most talkative; he often seemed like he expected things to go wrong at any moment, like he didn’t want to get too close in case he disappointed someone, or someone else disappointed him.
“Well… you apologized…” She tried to be reassuring. Maybe it wasn’t her place, but she couldn’t do anything for the others. She was here with Riker. She could help him. The others had the opportunity to clear the air and hadn’t. “I guess they don’t have to accept it, but… as long as you’re sorry and you make up for it… maybe they’ll come around.”
She could tell he felt bad for it, that he was embarrassed, maybe that he thought she might judge him for it.
“I’m sorry it was so awkward. You didn’t even get to enjoy yourself.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 9:50 am
He winced a little at her oh. Even if it didn’t mean anything. Even if she was just saying it to fill the silence, or to let him know she heard him. He’d tensed up as she spoke, still twisting his ring around his finger as if that would keep him from being even more of a loser.
Doubtful.
“No, I’m sorry. It would have been better if they hadn’t, you know, invited us I guess. We could have done our own thing and they wouldn’t have had to worry about me being a jerk to them.”
Riker paused, and then groaned, finally pulling his hands from his pocket so he could rub at his face.
“Sorry. You could have spent more time with your friends. You didn’t have to come with me.” Not that he wanted to be alone, but he knew he wasn’t exactly the life of the party when he was moping and upset.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 9:53 am
Dawn wanted to say that he hadn’t been a jerk, but she held the compulsion back. She didn’t know what he’d done to them that hadn’t been very nice. She didn’t want to condone anything truly awful, even if she couldn’t imagine what he’d done had come from a place of malice. Riker didn’t seem malicious, just defensive—with too much to prove and no one who gave him the chance to.
“I don’t mind,” Dawn said. “You’re my friend, too.”
She wanted to reassure him, wanted to ease his worries, but she didn’t know how. She didn’t want to upset him further, or put him on the spot. She didn’t want to make him feel as if he had to explain himself, or that she might rescind her friendship if he wasn’t perfect.
He put too much pressure on himself. Maybe he couldn’t help it. Dawn wished she knew what to do to make things easier for him.
She glanced around briefly to make sure they were alone. Even if she couldn’t do anything about the situation with his friends, she could at least try to take his mind off of it.
Lowering her voice to a whisper, she said, “Hey, I… Well, since the fair didn’t go as well as we’d hoped… Do you want to see something weird?”
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 9:58 am
Riker felt childish that Dawn acknowledging him as her friend meant more to him than he could possibly put into words. He didn’t feel like he deserved her patience or kindness, and yet he was still greedy for it. Desperate, even.
And while he was able to relax a little, he gave her a questioning look when she offered to let him see something weird.
“Like… a video? Or… meme?” Because surely she meant something simple like that and not, well… he didn’t know what weird things she could be carrying with her. “Uh… I mean sure?”
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 9:59 am
“No, no, nothing like that.”
She kept looking around them. She might not know anything about what it was she intended to show him, but some part of her knew it shouldn’t be made public. She’d kept it a secret for months now. She still couldn’t even believe it was real. The less attention she drew to them, the better.
Dawn put a gentle hand back onto Riker’s arm and urged him to follow her. She ducked into the shadows between two buildings. After making sure they were alone in the little alley, she faced Riker with a rueful smile.
“Okay, so… A few months ago I was out with one of my friends, and… There was this… thing...” She didn’t know what else to call it. A monster, probably, but that seemed so childish. “And I don’t really know what happened, but suddenly I… Well, I don’t know how to explain it, so I probably should just show you…”
She hadn’t used the power very often, only a few times since it had happened, mostly to make sure it hadn’t been a fluke, that she hadn’t dreamed it. She felt it within her all the time, some secret part of her she had no explanation for—just a name and a feeling. She pulled on it now, let her thoughts fill with Rose, and felt the power surge up, up, and out.
When she was done, she looked up at Riker sheepishly.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 10:00 am
Dawn wanted to share something weird with him. But how was he supposed to know she wanted to show him this?
Riker’s eyes widened as realization dawned on him before she even powered up. That thing had to have been a youma. And that meant--
“You’re not supposed to just show anyone that oh my god are you being careful?” Riker hissed in such distress that his voice sounded like it was squeaking. He had a hand over his chest as if to try and calm his racing heart as he stared at a Page of Lysithea.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 10:01 am
Dawn jumped a single step back—not afraid, but certainly startled. She let Rose go in an instant, her blue skirt and white eyelet blouse disappearing, replaced by her very normal jeans and jacket.
“I didn’t— I don’t even know what it is,” she said, eyes widening as it seemed that Riker might know more about it than she did. Dawn’s composure returned quickly, her voice dropping back to a whisper. “Have you seen something like that before?”
It had occurred to her in the aftermath that her becoming Rose might not be a unique circumstance. Given that Tilly had shared the experience with her, that there might be more than the two of them wasn’t such a far-fetched idea. But if more did exist Dawn hadn’t met them, hadn’t even used Rose’s power more than a few times, and never long enough to draw attention to it.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 10:01 am
He’d moved his hand from his heart to clamp over his mouth, his other arm crossed tightly over his chest in forced calm and contemplation. Although his expression looked anything but calm.
“What? No,” he sputtered, muffled already by his hand. Again too quickly to be believable.
Dawn was a knight. Dawn was a knight.. And he knew the others were knights too. He’d seen Senshi. Princesses. And he’d felt the heaviness of Chaos, seeping into his senses like poison.
What would have happened if the Negaverse got to Dawn? What if something happened to her?
It was probably clear that she knew he knew something. And she (naively) trusted him to reveal who she was so…
Riker gritted his teeth and focused on his power just long enough to change into Reims so she could see that he understood, before powering back down.
“There are people and monsters that want to hurt people like us. You have to be careful. Please. And. I mean. Wow you were beautiful but-- I mean, you always are. I mean… wait. Just please be careful,” he concluded so he could clamp his mouth shut before he embarrassed himself further.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 10:04 am
“Oh…”
The sound was different this time. Lighter. A little airy. Surprised, but a little happy, too. If Riker was like her, that was good, wasn’t it? She knew someone else now! If he knew more, maybe he could answer all the questions that had plagued her since it happened!
Dawn smiled lightly, trying not to get too carried away. If Riker said she needed to be careful then she believed him. She didn’t want him to think she wasn’t taking this seriously, but she couldn’t help feeling a bit pleased. And he was sweet with his compliments. Maybe he hadn’t meant to say them, but Dawn appreciated them all the same.
“I saw one of the monsters, I think,” she said. “With my friend. It came after us, and then we both just… turned into whatever we are. I promise I haven’t done anything dangerous. I don’t know what any of it means and I was sort of afraid of it for a while, so I’ve only really become Rose a few times, just to see, you know? That’s the only thing I do know. The name Rose. And Lysithea, but I don’t know what they have to do with anything, just that I am Rose, or… something like that.”
She kept peering around to make sure they were still alone, voice still hushed in the dark of the alley.
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