daybreakacademy | You're pretending you don't know anything

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You're pretending you don't know anything

Who: Miach & Nana
What: A seemingly harmless recon mission to the Outlands.
When: Early February.
Where: Outlands.
Warnings: Miach's edginess, mission-typical fighting.

[ Miach hasn't taken her mission duty as seriously as some. She only goes out when it suits her fancy and there is something to see that she believes worthwhile. So maybe it had been a little surprising to some when she signed up for a fairly simple recon and retrieval mission to the Outlands. Go to a secure location, scope out any changes in the local wildlife, retrieve a few sacred stones that are useful for certain rituals. Simple and straight-forward. Almost boring. Almost.

Miach hasn't been to the Outlands since that fateful day she was rescued from the clutches of demons. She longs to see it again and going out there with Nana as her mission partner is a good bonus. In school, Miach is still fairly isolated from her peers, but Nana's company has become a welcome constant in her life.

Stepping out of the gate to the Outlands, they find themselves on what appears to be a normal meadow - if you ignore the fact that the colors all seem a little wrong.

Miach twirls around on her heels once, getting a good look at the place. ]

This is prettier than I expected. Have you been to this kind of place before, Nana?

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[ This is nice. If Miach knew of Nana's silent assessment, she would heartily return the sentiment.

There is something extraordinarily beautiful about Nana's smile while there are bloodstains still splattered over her. It's a beauty born from the contrasts, Miach would like to think, but part of it is also... a strange sense of a gap closing between them.

Miach views herself as coming from a world of violence and survival. Her time in the Outlands might have been comparatively brief, but it shaped her so deeply that all her years in Japan had been spent without forming a single human connection. Miach hadn't wanted any of those people; nice and smiling and compassionate and utterly blind to the violence out in the world. Nana had reminded her of her old classmates on more than one occasion, but now... It's clear once more that Nana is an in-between like her. Nana can survive in the Outlands. Nana can fight and kill.

They're destined enemies, sure, but they're still playing on the same field. ]

Even in a beautiful place like this, the Outlands are deadly. We really are in danger. A world between physical life and death, the polar opposite of our human lands...

[ She trails off a little, then re-focuses herself. ]

We should absolutely dutifully retrieve the sacred stones and leave.

[ She's not getting up. ]

[It isn't bad at all, Nana thinks. Sitting here with Miach, looking down at her; looking at her seeming so unfazed. She can almost forget that she is covered in blood. The part of her that wants to run and hide is very, very quiet right now. Such a difference than the girl she was, even a year ago.

But is it a change for the better? Or did she finally lose part of herself, after spending so long trying to keep everyone safe? She wonders if she hollowed herself out, a lot of days, and just hasn't really noticed.

Here, now, with Miach, it doesn't seem so.]

We should. It's as dangerous as it is beautiful. We've had a firsthand demonstration about why we should go.

[She doesn't move to stand up. She looks down at Miach. She's so different than her. A background she knows so little about, a past she can only imagine. An outlook on life that seems destined to lead them to argument and strife, one day.

But she makes Nana not feel like a monster wearing the trappings of her old life, somehow.

And that's enough.

She falls silent, looking down at Miach with a thoughtful expression.]

[ Having voiced the urgency of the situation seems to be doing very little to convince either of them to move. It's funny, really, and also a little endearing coming from Nana. Miss Student Council President, who just killed a monster. Miach likes zeroing in on that aspect. Her own fear can fade into the background as long as she focuses on all the contrasts and irregularities in her companion.

For a moment they're just looking at each other. And then Miach reaches up to grab Nana by the fabric of her clothes and pull her down onto the grass with her. She's surprisingly forceful. Though her body is delicate and her muscle strength isn't anything to brag about, Miach has a determination in her movements that would only be stopped by brute force. ]

Mmf!

[There's a squeak of honest surprise from Nana. She goes from contemplative to surprised, pulled down onto the grass. She lands to the side of Miach, in the grass, and stares at her for a moment more. Her cheeks start to redden.

Then she stops contemplating -- or maybe makes herself move, before she can overthink it. Nana leans forward, sighs softly, and kisses Miach. For all that she's usually having her thoughts race...

There's a simple clarity for her, right now.]

[ Oh.

Somehow, astoundingly, this manages to be entirely outside of the realm of Miach's expectations. In her head, she is the instigator. Of this, of everything. Other people follow suit, even people like Nana, who have captured Miach's attention and care entirely against her own predictions and will.

She had something planned out that she was going to say once she succeeded with her grand gesture of pulling Nana down, but... that doesn't really matter now, does it?

Miach's never kissed a girl before. For all her flirting, the reality is that there has never been anybody who's been important to her that way. Fleeting attraction to girls who would never hold her interest, yes, but not...

She'd really, really thought she would be the one to initiate her own first kiss. Forward and bold, experimental like all her actions.

This isn't how it was supposed to go, but it's... it's good. The kiss, the way it happened. Both of it. After the initial surprise fades within the first split second, she closes her eyes and leans in a bit. She can feel the blood on Nana's jacket, where her hands relax their grip and only linger softly. The blood, Nana covered in blood.... the softness of her lips...

Miach is smiling when they break apart, and for once there's nothing enigmatic about it. ]

I like us, out here.

[It doesn't take too long for Nana to think, and overthink, about everything.

She's never kissed anyone either, outside of a few plays that called for it. A kiss on stage, though, is different from one done genuinely. She was tempted... but it never really came to this point, even with Kano. She imagined her first kiss as being entirely mundane -- on Earth, maybe in a park somewhere, and almost divorced from the reality of Daybreak Academy. But she can't complain about this.

But she worries if it was the right move; if it was forward or unwanted. She worries a little that she picked the wrong time. That she should be resolute and strong and in control, even now, and spontaneously kissing someone isn't any of those things.

But... no, the split second of uncertainty ends and Miach returns it. Nana's hesitation lasts no longer, and one arm supports her, bent at the elbow, as she stays there.

When she pulls apart, she brings two fingers to her lips -- a look on her face that says, 'I really did that.' -- and then she looks down. The smile has to fight nothing, to be as bright as it can be.]

I do too. We should stay for awhile.

[ And there they go, all those reasonable little thoughts of danger and duty. Miach is pleased that they're out of the way. This mission had been nothing but an excuse for her, a flimsy reason to get out here, and danger.... danger is everywhere. All the world, any world, is a trap. It doesn't matter. No, wrong. It makes it more thrilling. Their truest selves, revealed in the face of adversity.]

Let's. I'd love to watch this Nana for longer, free from the Academy for a fleeting moment, just herself... You're strong. I had no idea you were such a fighter.

[Nana's head tilts, but she smiles all the same. Honesty always came easily, with Miach... and it comes even easier, now. It's thrilling. And a little terrifying.] I hated that I was, you know. I thought it was at odds with who I am, who I said I am...

But it's not like that can be separated. I'm glad you like it. [She reaches out, her hand brushing Miach's cheek, almost experimentally.]

[ Miach let's that touch happen, observing Nana as much as her own reaction. Being touched by someone else... she's never liked it much, thanks to dark unsettling memories, but this... it's fine. She can let it happen and revel in the novelty of it for now.]

You're contradictory, yes. Not easy to slot into a simple category, not easy to put a label on. You try so hard to bend to that, but... this bloodstained you is beautiful exactly because it's at odds with it all, you know?

[Nana shifts back to her side, after a second, and then onto her back. She looks up, then turns her head, looking sideways at Miach.]

I like how you can see that sort of thing... and like me all the more for it. The way you see the world, the things you notice... they always amaze me.

[ It's comfortable like this, even if a cyclops could hypothetically burst around the corner and step on them. Those are problems they'll deal with when it gets to them, Miach decides. ]

Were you expecting to be rejected? For saving my life, no less.

[ Miach is well aware that her standards are absolute abnormal (and she wouldn't have it any other way), but this seems like a universally acknowledged good deed to her... ]

Ah... honestly, I... didn't really put a lot of thought into it when it occurred to me. I didn't expect a rejection, but I wasn't sure what to expect at all. It's not really like me.

[Normally, she overthinks everything. She keeps smiling, though.]

Normally, I would hesitate, overthink, and... not act on impulse.

[ Miach laughs at that. ]

You should go that more often. It's no good to suppress your impulses all the time, it's just going to make you unhappy.

[ Miach knows well that not all impulses are good and that living on impulse can have some ugly consequences, but even so, there is just something to be said for being true to one's desires.

Not that this case has been at all unpleasant or unfortunate. She just has too much thought on the subject. In the moment she just keeps smiling. ]

I certainly won't hold back.

[ Be scared. Maybe. ]

Mm... yes, you're right. I've done so before.

[At nearly every junction of her life, really.

She watches Miach's smile, and there's a chill at what she says. She can't say, for sure, if it's anticipation or concern.

But she finds herself smiling again.]

I don't want you to.

[ There's no verbal response to this anymore, because Miach decides she doesn't care much if she gets bloody (or maybe even wants to, really) and shifts over a bit closer to Nana so she can rest her head on her chest and just... stay. As calmly and as relaxed as possibly while still listening out for further cyclops demons.

There is a level of comfort here that she isn't sure she's familiar with, but maybe for as long as she closes her eyes and just breathes in and out, she won't have to think about it much. ]

Mm.

[That's a happy noise from Nana.

She wraps both arms around Miach. Not really tightly; not really enough to be a hug in any sense. But it feels nice, she thinks, to have her in her arms, and look up at the alien sky with open eyes.

And listen for any more monsters.]

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You're pretending you don't know anything

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