wingstosee | ic inbox (balance)

[ for a brief moment, venus honestly doesn't comprehend what's happening here. it's a gift, from erika. that much is clear. but why is it happening now, on candlenights?

OH RIGHT IT'S CHRISTMAS WHOOPS. about ten minutes after venus wakes up - which is about 8am, time is surprisingly not fucky for her after a few months here - there's an energetically subdued knock at erika's door. like someone wants to be pounding at it, but is worried about waking you up, so instead they just sort of... knock?? more than once??? really gently????

it's very annoying and very distinctly venus. ]

[Very, very distinct...

Erika almost doesn't hear it. Futayo...well okay she knows roughly what's up, she watched her haul the goods in. It'd still be nice to be able to finish all of these and have them out of here while she's out, so that the one on her pillow is appropriately mysterious. Shhh.

So the crumple of paper obscures the first Weird Knock. Not the second, though. Erika stops crumpling paper to listen for a third.

For a split second, when the door peeks open and Erika peeks through, she's butterflying with enough indignant determination to block the view of the inside of the room entirely, static blue filling the crack. THERE WILL BE NO GIFT SNOOPING.

Except it's Venus, who already got hers, so gift snooping isn't an issue.]

Oh!

[She falls back into shape.]

Good morning!

[In kind of a startled stage whisper. Is it already that late?!]

Good morning! Um. Hi! [ she can't help it. her own eyes are trying to make their way in - trying to see past the small girl blocking her path. ] Sorry, I didn't- you haven't gone to bed yet, right?

[ look. she knows erika, alright? she's well aware of how erika does. her thing. ]

[No it's fine. Actually she opens the door wide enough to grab Venus' wrist and pull her in hastily, shaking her head. Close that behind you please.]

Not until these are done. [There's wrapping paper and novelty slippers all over the floor. After coming back, the moment she falls asleep is going to be a commitment to recovery from all that goddamn walking. Need to get this in before that.

She looks down, of course. Is Venus wearing hers? Oh good. Erika sighs short and content out through her nose, bounces up on her toes, and hugs her.]

[ oh man. oh god oh man oh god oh man erika's so cute when she does that?? venus makes a dumb little happy sound in the back of her throat before throwing her own arms back around erika. she even leans forward to give erika a tiny little smooch on the forehead after a moment. ]

I can... help? [ ...ok, she's still clearly sort of tired. ] I'm not really any good at it but. At least there'd be two of us.

If anyone cares, I'll take their gift back. [just desserts for the undeserving! When the hug unfolds, Erika doesn't release Venus' wrist, dragging her along to the heart of the mess and the epicenter of Erika's distraction.] Cut out more pieces this size so I can wrap and tag them.

[So many novelty slippers. Monkeys, lobsters, penguins, crows, dogs, dinosaur feet...]

Yes ma'am. [ but she doesn't seem to be cowed or intimidated. if anything, the smile across her face is evening out to a peaceful, content grin. ] I can do that. I think.

[ even so, when she sits down her wings have to take a few extra steps to make sure they're not pressing down on anything or fluttering them out of place. erika has a very... "organized chaos" approach to things, it seems, and she wouldn't want to disturb that! ]

How many do you need?

...Seven? Six. [Yeah okay there are six pairs not yet wrapped, specific animals mentioned last tag. Erika looks around at them with a temporarily lost expression, regaining her bearings.

...Sitting down.

Reaching over and poking the bottom of Venus' slippers so they start flashing.]

Got it. Six. I'll just start...

[ she just. sort of trails off and watches erika move. when she finally pokes her shoes, venus holds back a giggle- which is difficult when her shoes are flashing like that- before asking the important questions. ]

So, um. Any reason for that?

I want to see them work. [It is the lamest-ass of excuses, because she has already seen that they work. Her actions have to speak for themselves. A steady issue of butterflies moves out into the room like a sigh of release, so that when Erika sits back up and starts wrapping the next pair of slippers, she's also kneeling behind Venus and reaching for one of her wings to...uh, groom it, basically. Running her fingers through the feathers the way you'd comb someone's hair back, over and over, far more for the contact than the hygiene.]

[ okay, no luck here. venus definitely snorts and giggles a bit at that excuse... and then makes a soft sound when butterfly wings alight on her wing. it's not a surprise, exactly - she can see them as they approach - but it's still a sudden sensation where none was before. ]

Oh. [ she hesitates- reaches out towards the wrapping paper- hesitates again. ] ...keep going?

[ she wants to help. but also, she doesn't want this to stop? ]

You too.

[She slides the scissors and paper across the ground. She also keeps brushing through Venus' feathers, tracing carefully around her eyes, touch still light.

Get the presents done, first. This can't be delayed.]

-right! Right. Got it.

[ and, true to her word, she picks up the scissors and... tries to Got It. she's not the worst at cutting things out, but uh. she's definitely not the best, either. it's actually kind of sad to watch. somewhere, a gifted six year old is crying watching her fuck this up. ]

[Cry, child, cry!!

Luckily, the shape of the paper doesn't matter as long as the squares are big enough, because wrapping them is a lumpy, haphazard affair anyways. When Erika takes them, she pauses, considers their angles, and matches them to the slippers they'll cover best.]

When everything's calmed down. [by which of course she means "after i've slept for 24 hours straight"] Let's go somewhere.

Mm. [ she says it offhandedly, not quite uncaring but definitely unwitting, up until- ] Wait, you mean like... a date?

[ this is... a surprise. not an unwelcome one! but erika kind of seemed like the "sip terrible alcohol in our room and giggle and smooch" kind of person. huh. where can you even date on the moon... ]

Exactly. I've been thinking about it since yesterday. Let's find something fun to do.

[Since...Christmas...which she hasn't explained to Venus and has kind of forgotten the need to, what with all the other shit going on. Blar.

(tape crinkling noise)]

Oh.

[ it still doesn't really hit her at first. she just nods and keeps cutting. but then a smile pops up on her face, and then it gets wider, and then her shoulders dip in and she bites her lip and a goofy little giggle makes its way out as she says: ]

That's- really cute, actually? A date. My first real date. Wow.

[That reaction...]

Yeah, mine too. I'd already stopped going to school by the time...you know. But Chitose always talked about the dates he went on, so I have a bit of a clue.

[ANYWAYS THE UPSHOT IS THAT] One full day off. No thinking about missions...just something fun.

[erika that is mostly a restriction on you]

Yeah. I was still in school, but, well. You know. And then by the time Jupiter and Neptune and I actually were dating...

[ they were on a space station, stranded in space, with nothing to do but drink liquor and stare out the windows. for a moment, venus falls quiet - but she shakes her head and moves past it soon enough. ]

Yeah. No missions allowed. [ another dorky giggle. ] What is there date-wise, here? I guess... Does Bender count as a lunch date?

I think it's just...

[....

She puts on this voice, like, she's mimicking someone else for a moment. It's definitely not going to be clear to Venus who, exactly.]

Dates are for having fun and showing off, so if you had fun and showed off, it's a date. Location's just a detail...

[Drops the voice.]

I think.

[ yeah, uh. she has literally no clue who that was. ]

Wow. That sounded... experienced?

[ she also has literally no clue about dates, clearly. ]

Fun and showing off... I mean, I could dance for you? But that seems kind of. You know. [ weirdly intimate? something we already did in our first thread?? ] Oh! Uh, we could ask Johann to play us something? Do you think he'd...

[ it's striking her now that she probably should be on somewhat conversational terms with someone before asking them for a free romantic serenade. ]

...could we pay him?

[She brushes off the ?compliment? with a shake of her head.] Chitose. [Him again, that practically-a-brother of hers, her brother's best friend since middle school. The one that flirts and goofs around. The loyal, reliable one. That Chitose. So don't mistake her intuition about some guy's advice for actual experience.]

Maybe... [There is that issue of familiarity, though. Erika fidgets.] There's always going out to a restaurant, right?

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	Venus: I want feathers in my lungs and eyes on my skin. I want my heart to see and my lungs to fly. I want to undo the division of day and night.
	APP HMD DANCER KARI