Mingle - Emergency Potluck

[pumpkinhollow]

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WELCOME POTLUCK

Greetings, residents! Those more observant sorts among you may have noticed a large influx of very crowded ferries. In order to welcome our new residents en masse, Town Hall is holding a potluck in Town Square. Please bring a dish if you are able and make a new friend!

All of our newest arrivals need only bring themselves. We look forward to welcoming you all into our community, and may your lanterns always be lit.

This event is open to all! In light of our new influx of prospective players following the Great Sail Migration, we've decided to offer a small public event to tide everyone over until the TDM this weekend.

Comments

[maximumcake]

The first thing she will feel is his heart soaring with a burst of hopeful joy. Valdis?! That was her voice! His head whips around and when her face comes into view he lights up like the sun. And at the same time, tears spring to his eyes so fast his vision goes blurry.

"Valdis!! You're here! You're...you're really here!" He races to her side still half blind but he could find her even in the dark of night. He wraps his arms around her in an almost crushing hug and sobs against her shoulder. "I thought I lost you."

[redlightgreenlight]

Hers.

Everything she needs is here, more so now that Max has found her. But she'd promised him that hadn't she? In every world. In every lifetime. They would find each other. At the time she'd said it to comfort him, to assure him of her love. She never imagined it would be real.

"Max," she hold him just as firmly, burying her face in his chest, willing herself not to cry. "I told you, remember? I said we would always find each other."

Perhaps the goddesses have chosen to smile on her after all.

[maximumcake]

"You did," he chokes out, "You did. You did." And he always trusted her before. He should have known she'd find him. He never should have doubted for a moment.

"Are you okay? The last time I saw you it was... you were..." it's so horrible he can barely repeat it. "Is Tiamat gone? Did they really get her?"

[redlightgreenlight]

"I'm fine."

So much better now that he's here. She drinks in his scent, letting it drown all her senses.

"My powers are stable here. I feel like I can breathe again."

[maximumcake]

"Really?" Max's chest swells with even more happiness. He knows she was having such a hard time feeling how stressed and upset everyone was in such close proximity. He hated not knowing how to help. "It's better here for you?"

[redlightgreenlight]

"People, animals, plants, weather, life, things that change...It's like a paradise compared to the Eterna, Max."

Valdis pulls back so she can look up at him, smiling a smile that only he ever sees.

"Even more so since you are here."

[maximumcake]

"Yeah," he says in hushed awe. It's really starting to hit him now. It's so much better here. And they didn't have to give each other up to find this happiness. They can have all of this together.

"Can I come home with you tonight? I don't want to sleep alone."

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis smiles, closing her eyes and breathing in sharply. Happiness. Real happiness. Far more than they could ever have on the Eterna.

"You are always welcome in my home, Max." She rises up on her toes to kiss him. "It wouldn't be home without you."

[maximumcake]

"Home," that one word sparks a solar flare in his soul. Her kiss could almost make him start crying again from joy.

Then, timidly, he voices a hope he's had for a long time. "Can it be our home? Officially?"

He might still keep a rented room at the Oak & Iron, in case they ever need alone time. He knows she needs her space. And he needs a place to bring any lovers he might take that isn't their bed. But... to think of her home as his... that's what he'd love the most.

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis blinks, recalling their conversation from long ago, when she'd been the one who felt insecure in their relationship and when he'd stepped up into the place she normally occupied. And here he is, away from the Eterna, in a place they've found each other again, expressing a desire that she never expected him to have. Something shifts again, something she hasn't felt since she was with Malachi. She loves Max, she knows she always have, but it suddenly feels so much deeper with that simple request. Their home.

"Yes."

She's not sure what else to add, or even if he needs anything else, so she just kisses him again.

good place to fade?

[maximumcake]

He's done a lot of thinking and a lot of growing. At first he was content to call the Serena his home. But... home shouldn't be a place they have to suffer in. He's become so sure of that. Living with her, he wouldn't suffer. He'd be comfortable. He'd feel safe.

Safe, just like he feels now leaning into her arms, deepening the kiss until all he can feel is her all around him.

"I love you."

Yep.

[redlightgreenlight]

Whatever goddess she had to thank for retunring him to her would be offered whatever they desired. To have him, and to hold him again is all she ever wanted.

"I love you too."