This is madness! Madness? This. Is. REALITY! (Private Lani, Rackie)

I took a deep breath. I need to tell her. Even though our kiss actually confirms my feelings, I wanted to make her sure. For some strange reason, I started feeling uneasy. Come on, Raccoon, this it the right time. My heart started beating faster when she opened her eyes. "Merry..?" I started, whispering. Another deep breath. I had a huge blush on my face. "Do... Do you remember our conversation from the previous thread? T-the one about m-me developing a crush on you?" I was still whispering, afraid of rejection. I was trembling a bit and stuttering. Why can't I be more confident? "I... Well... Y-You were right...But...  I-I was a pathetic coward. " I told her, slightly louder, feeling almost as if my heart was about to jump out of my chest. I closed my eyes for a second, and when I opened them, I resumed my pathetic love confession. "Y-You were right, Merry... I have developed a crush on you and I..." This was the most difficult part to say. I was really afraid of rejection. It would be painful, too painfull. I bit my lip. Come on, Raccoon, you can do it. "...I...I think I might have even... F-Fallen in love with you..." I told her, trembling like crazy. Now she knows the truth. I felt a slight relief but also fear. This cannot be reversed now, I can only hope that she will accept my feelings. I know this is weird. I know this wouldn't have happened if not the fact that our existence almost breaks the site's rules. However, I'm really happy that I met Merry and I'll never regret this moment.

"I told you so...~ I thought the words were a thought bubble, a tease as gentle as his touch, but they fled from my mouth without control or reason. Of course, I should know better than that. Where it benefits the creators, they will do what they wish, make us say what they wish. I laugh. It's nervous, and I know why but I don't want to be nervous... But I should be. So I am. I roll over and accept that fate, submitting to it as my eyes meet his. I don't know what to say. This, we, it is, we are a "shouldn't." Not for the same reasons that I shouldn't be able to bounce through threads and correct posts, but shouldn't because I shouldn't even be able to feel.

I should only want to spread this madness. Instead, I want to keep it quiet.

Instead, I want us.

I'm speechless.

Of course, she was right, I giggled quietly. It seems she's okay with this. I mean, I'm confused by her answer as it doesn't really confirm anything. However, I noticed her nervousness. Barely, but still. She might be struggling as much as I do. Or perhaps she has her own thoughts and worries? I don't know, and I refuse to learn the truth through shameless reading her post. I know this is like a forbidden love. I'm okay with this. I don't mind. I just want to be close to her. Sighing I closed my eyes, feeling an uneasy ache in my heart. I don't know what to do, nor to say. Perhaps I should remain silent for now? I looked at her, trying to smile warmly. I nodded, just to confirm she was right. I laid on my back and sighed, putting my hand on my forehead. What should I do? This feels so awkward now. Did I choose the wrong moment? I don't know anymore.

My eyes trail after him, seconds ticking to moments as I contemplate. Shortly, I move to curl at his side, nudging at his arm before laying down. I want to be held. Hell, I still need sleep after all, right...? That's a good enough excuse...?

I rolled to the side and moved a little bit closer to her. Reaching my arms out for a gentle snuggle. I guess words aren't needed. I relaxed, holding her in my arms. Suddenly I realized that she wasn't able to rest after all because of me. I shook my head. What now? I wanted to suggest getting her back onto the coach, on the other hand though, I wanted to snuggle with her on the floor for a little bit longer.

I let myself relax where we lay, finding comfort in the serenity. It was calming, a nice contrast to the tasks at hand. Eventually, we would be awoken and brought back to reality. Eventually, they'd send someone after us, or just simply bug one of the dragons. That would be enough, but for now, this was everything.

I forgot about the time, what time is it in my original timeline? It doesn't matter now. We needed rest. I suddenly realized how tired I was from our little adventure. We deserved rest, after all, we're basically heroes who must save the world. I closed my eyes and sighed in a relaxed, filled with relief way. Snuggling is fun and relaxing. Perhaps a nap would be a good idea? I'm a bit sleepy.

Sleep comes easy when one relaxes. It comes easier when you can bend reality to force it. Come wakefulness, I realize that sleeping that close by while still... recharging from his energy. In a way, it was like leaving a pot of water in a running sink and walking away. Overflowing, I suppose, would best be the way to explain my power surge.

Given that we were technically in a pocket realty, there literally was no way to tell just how long the both of us were out. When we came to, however, is the direct result of being awoken by a dragon that seemed to be formed of pure lava and ember. He wasn't particularly hot, thankfully, but he certainly had a chunk of attitude to him, nudging us each relentlessly until one of us woke.

A good nap can work wonders for a tired person. It was like recharging the batteries. Sadly, everything good must come to an end and so, something woke me up. I opened my eyes, thinking that Merry got bored of waiting for me to get up. Unfortunately, it was just a dragon. With a sigh, I looked at it. "What, are you here to remind us of our mission or something?" I asked the creature with a murmur. Sighing loudly, I looked at MerryLynn, waiting for her to join me back in this crazy world

The small dragon, which seemed little more than a hatchling, just nodded at him before trotting off. It's legs were stubby, its body permanently frozen at the stage between egg and developing wings. It was a beautiful sight, in a way, seeing the soft surface scales appear like they'd been dipped in lava and come out unscathed, stealing away the coloration and leaving as the victor.

But I was tired and I didn't want to be awoken. Not that it mattered; I knew well enough when to not fight the words that made my actions into the reality of this world. Straightening and stretching, I snapped my fingers, forcing myself awake with a quick bend in reality --- really, the rules that forbid such did not exist here. This was an in-between. Shaking my head, I toss my hair before donning the hat once more. I stand, forcing the dress to poof back out and moving away from Raccoon before he accidently raises his head and makes everything awkward for the both of us.

"Are you ready?" I ask him, jokingly teasing him with a coy grin and a melody of a tone.

I slowly got up with a quiet groan. Sleeping on the floor sucks. I could use a good massage. The dragon surely was magnificent and beautiful even for someone like me- for someone who wasn't a big fan of those creatures. I looked at Merry feeling a slight ache in my heart and a slight uneasiness. I still wasn't sure whether she accepted my feelings or not. With a sight, I rubbed my eye. "Yeah...I guess" Replied, sounding less enthusiastic than I wanted my words to sound. There was a great worry in my heart, my head and thoughts were filled with doubt. I guess, she prefers us to be friends and I have to accept this. With a groan and a sigh I asked: So... Admins, why are we here?"

OOC: Man... Don't force yourself. I can send Ordis or Stephanie to replace you. I mean, sure Stephy's mind would explode, but she's too care-free to mind!

IC:
"Stop with you bullshit Rackie and explain why you invited us here!" I growled. Whoops... I didn't mean to say that out loud! Sorry, Merry.


OOC: "Alright, my snowflakes. My most favorite and lovable pair on this site, my... "

IC:
"Get to the point, right now! I'm not in the mood!"

OOC: "Alright, alright, sorry. MerryLynn, kick him in the ass later for me. Thankies? Anyways, this time we know what the anomaly is. Our mascot has escaped our HQ and is currently roaming free in the world. Find the poor thing and bring back here"

IC:
"Really? Can't you just fuckin' teleport him back here?!"

OOC: "No, because it's an anomaly now, damnit! Doing anything with it might destroy the site even more. That's why you have to do it"

IC:
"Fine! What are we looking for?"

OOC: "A certain small, white dog. With two human hands sticking out of its sides."

IC:
"What the fuck?" Seriously, we're supposed to find an overused meme?! Come on!

"Potty mouth, boy," I say, trailing a finger under his chin as I walk past. Louder, I speak again. "How, of all things, did you manage to let 2 Hands escape?" She bore no real affection for the creature, in part because he was simply an overused meme, but nostalgia of him remained and thus he'd become a favorite on the site. I found him funny, personally.

ooc: I don't man the dog cage!

"Of course not, you're too busy with your dragons and your OC's and your armada..." The words were muttered; it didn't matter.

ooc: I will go down with this ship.

...What... ship...? My face burned and I looked down, away. Was she canonizing us?! My lip fell between my teeth, where I massaged it idly out of nervous habit. My eyes found his, fluttering towards him shyly. Was I still flirting...?

I bit my lip, Admin talk was enough to shut me up. Straight to the heart. I looked at Merry for a second, our eyes met, then I looked away, not trying to show that my newest weak spot has been already hit a few times. I sighed, then whispered my magical mantra. "Let's just find that stupid dog that my creator loves so much." I muttered, clenching my fists. Our creators are our gods, they have infinite powers or something. A bit like in a Greek mythology- there were many of them. With a growl I turned away, I wanted to leave this realm as fast as possible.

OOC: I... I'm sorry, Raccoon.

IC:
Shut. Up.

OOC: Before you start hating me, know that I'm planning a small revamp for you. A new name, a new history. The rest will remain the same. You will actually remember your old and your incoming backstory...

IC: Don't care.

"At your leisure," I say, instinctively grabbing for his hand as I wait for the next portal to open up. Something feels off about him, though I'm not entirely sure what and have no desire or intention to pry.

I felt her hand touching mine- this was enough to wake me up. I guess the pull of magic has started messing with my head already, or, perhaps it was my own fault? I don't know, it's not important. I was both happy and sad. Happy because I could hold Merry's hand. Sad- because I was worried she might be playing with my feelings. I sighed loudly and opened a portal. Destination? Random thread. Knowing our luck it might be the right one anyways. I closed my eyes. I needed to collect my thoughts before the next adventure begins. I'm not sure where this one will take us. I have a really bad feeling about this though. This might end badly for us. I want one thing before we step through the portal. I won't probably get it though.

He feels off and I don't know what's doing it, my mind lost somewhere in its own void of thoughts, ignorant to the rest of the world, the rest of the thread. My hand squeezes his, an attempt at a reassuring gesture to him as my eyes raise to meet him. It's teal kissing green and I'm finding myself falling through his eyes again, becoming lost in them, lost in this turbulant storm that seems to be developing behind their surfaces.

I'm scared. Staring at him frightens me further, not because of a fear of him but a fear of Ius. A fear of what getting what I want could mean for either of us. Protecting him becomes one of the objections that pipes up from the dark matter of my mind and I play with it, fingers kneading through it like dough or some child's toy, before flinging it back into the abyss. Why do I keep trying to talk myself out of things? It's a back-and-forth struggle of want and what seems like should be the more proper order of things.

Proper order? I shouldn't exist.

My hand squeezes his once more, harder, and I let my hair fall into my face as I feel my eyes begin to water, again. Now is not the time for an existential crisis!

I opened eyes, ready to move out. I sighed, releasing some stress from my body and mind. Instinct made me turn towards Merry. Something was not right. With both of us. Perhaps another misunderstanding? Like the one who has just happened in the Auroras thread? I hate misunderstandings- they lead to arguments, they lead to pain. I moved closer to her and wrapped my hands around her, hugging her tightly. This might be the last happy thing in my life. Whatever is behind the portal, might lead to our doom. Don't cry, love. Be happy. I love it when you're happy. When you're sad, I'm sad as well. It's my damned attachment to ones I really care about. Whatever caused tears to appear in her eyes might be similar to what I'm experiencing. What if she feels as lost as I am?
We don't even have time to talk about it even though I think we need it. Can't..Can't the admins stop the time again? For at least an hour?

The reality of the world, the true reality, is that time stops for no one. No one, no matter how much they need it, no matter what that extra clip of the clock could mean. Even with the way we worked, it felt like these rules were snapping back into place. Pocket dimension as it was, maybe we could manage it. Maybe. But at the same time, I didn't want to talk, not yet, not now. I wasn't ready to talk, though I knew that I needed to. Emotions were such funny things, funny things that I am not, as of yet, accustomed to. Then again, if what I'd seen and read throughout my travels was any indication, there's never really a point that people just get used to things like emotions. The heart is a fickle thing. The brain is a stubborn, immovable object. Combining the two can lead to chaos so often, so easily, and that's the place that it left me in.

His arms around me make me grounded, grounded in a way that keeps this form dominate while not making me feel caged. I need it, but it makes me fight back the tears even harder. It's a pang in my chest that digs between guilt and desire, things I don't want to deal with, right now. Things that I don't have time to deal with, right now. I go up on my toes, nudging at his face to lift it up enough for me to reach it. Wriggling, I dislodge my arms, reaching my hands up to cup his face. Desire demands, screams for me to kiss him again, but my heart also aches to stare at him again, study him. Something feels wrong and foreboding. I want to remember him. All of him. And I'm scared that, while I certainly have it in my power to skip around and toy with his past selves, if I were to lose him.... I can't do that. I can't screw with his timeline in such a way. It might unraval his entire existence. It could certainly unravel mine.

Words were not needed. Only thoughts and actions. I looked at Merry, thinking about our whole situation and what was happening between us. There are many things I dislike about my personality- probably the most annoying thing in it is my ability to dig myself into one deep depressing hole with just thinking. Looking at Merry managed to calm me down, cleanse my thoughts Perhaps there's still hope for a happy ending? Perhaps. Just like in a certain video game series- Despair will only lead to chaos and destruction.

I looked into her eyes, with a calm, yet worried smile, bending over slightly to be closer to her face. There's no need to cry, love. Everything will be fine, love. Just give it time. Time will help move us forward. Perhaps I'm just not noticing the most important facts? Perhaps. I want to kiss her again. Is she allowing me for it now? I think so. Our faces were close, the tip of my nose met hers. This might be the last kiss. I hope it isn't. I hope there will be more. I moved even closer, our lips met in another gentle kiss.

Desperation takes over, my hands cupping him gently at first, squeezing slightly as the kiss deepens. I keep my lips to his, being as gentle as I can, trying not to fall head-first into the whole ordeal. We could do this, come what may, but I wasn't sure if I was quite ready for it. I wanted to dislodge the thoughts; there were things for us to do. There would be time later. There would be. There had to be.

The kiss lasted a moment, which once again was like an eternity. I loved kissing her. I loved her. Unfortunately, it was time to pull away. I opened my eyes, my forehead was touching hers. I grabbed her hands gently and started holding them. I smiled once again, before giving her a kiss on the forehead. "Merry, after we save the world, I'm proposing a date. So make sure we both survive this adventure" I said, looking into her eyes with a wink, breaking the silence and regaining my long lost confidence. My thoughts are clear. Optimistic. We must survive this. We will survive this.

"Oh, so my acceptance is assumed?" I teased; really, what did he expect from me? A laugh followed and I merely nodded, pushing back my nervousness; there was a wide array of threads that we could hop into, and some of them were incredibly dangerous. Though I wished against it, I had the gut feeling that we'd hit one of the big ones.

"No, but highly wanted~! Unless you want to make a certain silly Raccoon-man sad, that is." I replied, trying to tease her too. I winked once again and grinned widely, before releasing her hands. There was nothing to worry about. Clowns and sorcerers are very powerful. Plus, we must avoid characters from the thread we'll be visiting. So no matter what is behind the portal, we must be stealthy. I patted Merry on the back and started approaching the portal.

I followed after him easily, still smirking slightly from our banter. I was amused, and rather easily so, by him. Still, as we stepped up and through the portal, I found myself somewhere between nervous and excited, things I attributed, in part, to the adrenaline coursing through this human body of mine. Once through, I begin fighting back the feelings, though I knew exactly where we were. Swallowing hard, I set about answering a question I had thought of earlier, too late; but was the other side of the portal blue?!

OOC: "Yeah... The other side of the portal is blue..." (And the cake is a lie)


Thread: Why German Cafes are Death Traps
IC:
When we stepped through the portal I felt a drastic change. The first thing I noticed was that my hair and clothes are different... My glasses too! I quickly pulled out a phone from my pocket and used its screen as a mirror. "What the hell?" I asked myself in surprise. I mean, sure my face was basically the same, but my hair, glasses and clothes were different! After returning my phone back into the pocket I looked at my companion. "Great... My character sheet has probably just been revamped..." I told Merry, not sure whether to feel happy or not.
Anyway, I looked around to check where we landed this time. European architecture. German signs. Oh, god no! Why? "Don't tell me... Don't tell me we've landed in the middle of the battle for Berlin..."