Endgame: This is the Way the World Ends - MACHINE ROOM

[animusmods]

Characters: open to those staying in the machine room
Setting: machine room
Format: any
Summary: The time has come to make decisions about what will happen after everything is over.
Warnings: psychological horror (eventually)

Comments

That icon is adorable! :-D

[oathshackledbird]

[It's that obvious...to the son of a love god...]

Well, to be honest I didn't know at first, but once you started blushing well...

[Diarmuid's hand unconsciously reaches up to brush at where his mole usually is.]

...I have a lot of experience with that look and that kind of stuttering. So...

[Details, Xion. Who does he need to go vet?]

[attheclocktower]

[She has no defense for that. In the end she addresses her gaze to the floor, still quite pink.]

His name's Yu Narukami. He... we met not long after I got here. He left for a while but... Zo brought him back.

[She fidgets]

I... I didn't even know until just a little while ago.

[oathshackledbird]

[Ah...Yu Narukami. Never mind, no vetting needed for this one. In fact, a huge smile crosses Diarmuid's face instead.]

Congratulations, Xion. He's a good catch from all that I have heard...

[Yep, that is totally followed by a wink. Diarmuid...really? You're going to kill the poor girl...]

[attheclocktower]

[Yeah no, there's no real reply for that. The color, which had been slowly receding from her face, returns full force.

She ends up burying her face in her hands with another squeak]

[oathshackledbird]

[Diarmuid laughs softly, though the sound is not mocking in the slightest. It has a loving tone instead. Without saying anything else, he steps forward and wraps her in a hug.]

I'm sorry. Please forgive me. You should not be embarrassed. Be proud instead. Love is a wonderful thing...

Just look at it this way. I'm helping to prepare you for when your father inevitably finds out...

[It won't be from him because he has already promised not to say anything, but considering how transparent Xion is...]

[attheclocktower]

[With the hug, Xion slowly starts to come out of her shell of shyness and embarrassment. She's still quite pink, though she's able to meet his eyes at least. And there might be the faintest of smiles slowly working its way across her face.]

I don't think he'll be that surprised.

[He was one of the people who'd realized she was crushing in the first place]

[oathshackledbird]

Oh, really? I guess fathers really do know everything, don't they?

[For good or ill, especially in the case of Reno.]

Xion...does this change your plans for going back? Or...haven't you figured that out yet?

[attheclocktower]

Well it's not... exactly new, entirely.

[Just back then, it'd been much more one-sided. Or at least it'd felt like it was, on her side. She doesn't know, for Yu.

At his question though, her face falls though.]

I don't know. I don't think... it changes anything. It... it can't.

[Finding out her unrequited crush was suddenly to be reciprocated couldn't change certain immutable facts. Like the fact that her friends back home needed her to sort things out before she could go running off to other universes.]

[oathshackledbird]

It just means there is one more reason we need to make sure we can travel between worlds once this is all done, right?

[Diarmuid can't say he is surprised she hasn't changed her mind. From what he knows of Yu, the boy probably needs to go back to his world as well, so that leaves just the one alternative.

All least, though, it does give Xion that much more to keep her strong while she is looking for the path to the future where she survives.]