sheep_game | Myngle

[stays still, steady as a rock, and keeps holding him. this close Ananke can feel Lethe's heart hammering in his chest still, full of worry; it calms beat by beat.]

That was a lot at once.

[ Focusing on the heartbeat as a timer to count out some deep breathing, bunching his fists up in the back of Lethe's shirt ]

Probably should've broken it up...but it's done now.

[tries to breath in time with his heartbeat. calming, calming]

Sometimes it's easier to get it over with all at once. That doesn't make it less overwhelming, but--it gets it all done. Congratulations.

[ deep breath after deep breath ]

Thanks. It did what I wanted too. I remember Scarab again.

--! It worked? Well now I'm glad you had those coins handy.

Yeah. Part've me wants to save up more in case it happens again. I really don't want to forget him a third time.

[looks tired just thinking about it]

We get coins every time we win a game, so we can collect a stockpile again. It could happen to any of us, now that I think about it.

... We can make it a communal stockpile.

I feel like I might as well add mine to a stockpile right now. I don't have a use for them.

Good idea. If we suggest it to Charon too that should be more than enough to cover someone if it happens again.

And hopefully none of us need them for a while, so we'll have time to collect more.

[...leans back so he can get a good look at Ananke's face]

You feeling okay?

[ He's calm, but he looks distinctly drained after the memory onslaught ]

Um...I think so? It still kind've feels like my heart's in my throat, but I know everything was uh, stable in the last thing I remembered. I think I just need to take a break for the rest of today.

[he can't keep that little bit of worry out of his eyes]

Would ice cream and video games help? Or do you want to talk about it?

... Could we have ice cream and talk about it? I can even start slow with telling you about my girlfriend.

Leading with the good stuff is perfect.

[takes a deep breath and gets to his feet, offering Ananke a hand]

A girlfriend! I never get to hear about stuff like this.

[ Accepts the hand up and stands after him ]

Her name's Traci, and she's the coolest. Even cooler than Scarab.

You sound biased. What makes her so cool?

[he just saw Scarab do quite a few cool things in those flashes of memory, too, but he's going to wait to comment on that]

[ Starts ticking off points on his fingers ]

She's a super powerful mage, and she knows a ton about all things magic and divine. She's helped me deal with God's hitmen twice, and she saved my friends and family from The Reach when me and Scarab couldn't be there. Plus she's into me. That's the big one.

That last one is the most important one! For dating someone, I mean. She's got good taste.

[nods approvingly]

If she's got magic and she's helping you out like that, does that mean she's a superhero too? Or just a mage?

She's definitely a hero. The Teen Titans even tried to recruit her once.

Teen Titans...oh! Those guys. Wow, that is impressive. I wasn't sure if her magic was like Aides's, and she needed to finish magic school first or something.

You can't really trust magic schools in my world. I'm not sure who taught her, but it was probably her mom or someone on that side of her family.

["you can't really trust magic schools" is a concerning statement but Ananke doesn't have magic so he's just going to tuck that away for Later]

Family taught is best anyways, especially if it's a family skill. Are you guys planning on going to the same college or anything? Couples usually try to do that.

I don't think so... Traci wants to stay focused on her detective and hero work, and I, uh.

[ Glances away guiltily ]

I mean, college takes a lot of time, and you need a stable schedule to be a good dentist. Those are hard to come by when you're busy saving the city or the planet every other week.

Ah. Yeah. It's hard to balance. Most Hunters where I'm from don't end up going to college, or the government gives them credits for clearing dungeons if they're really invested in getting a degree. It'd be even harder to juggle with a secret identity.

[sighs wistfully]

It's nice to think of a time when it would be possible to do both, though. You still have a year or so to figure out what you want to do after high school, right?

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