Rebels & Mutineers is set in modern day New Orleans, Louisiana. R&M is fueled by player's plots and group input.
Supernatural people have always had their place in society, hidden in plain sight or locked away for their own protection. New Orleans, a haven for the strange and mysterious and a magnet for the supernatural.
Established: Oct. 27th, 2018 Recently Updated Posts && Recently Updated Threads
05.11.19
As the community reels from the untimely death of Lucia Lovelle, life has to move on. Primrose readies for the annual Prom celebration! Keep your eye out for a event board and have fun!
02.27.19
It's not too late to vote for February's OTM winners! The winners for January, keep an eye out on your messages for your winner's graphics for your signature. Already voted? Make sure you check out the Mardi Gras event board! Party up, have a good time, and enjoy!
Mason woke up in his bed, with a very fuzzy memory of how he got there. He was sure that he finished his day like he always did, it had been two years of falling into his bed at the end of the day, two years of loading up on medications and pudding at dinner. Mason ran his fingers through his hair and winced at the searing pain through his muscles. He felt like he had been hit by a truck, and wasn't sure what he did to sleep so weird. Mason dressed in simple jeans and a white t-shirt. He had big plans for the day, he wanted to go find Sophie and Lilith and spend the day with them. They were both rapidly becoming important to him, and he wanted to spend as much time with them as he could.
It didn't help that he was getting a crush on both of them.
It probably wasn't the best idea to continue to spend time with both of them, but he couldn't help himself. They were both smart, beautiful, and fierce women who were amazing to be around. He adored them both, and knew that it would probably blow up in his face, but he couldn't help it. He wanted to spend time with both of them, and he couldn't stop. Mason walked into the Monroeville library and glanced around at the various shelves of books and cozy corners to read in. Corners that he would enjoy curling up with Lilith and Sophie in. Stories that he would enjoy reading.
Reading wasn't his strongest suit, his lack of formal education had something to do with that. He knew that the books were filled with stories of long lost places, of people who lived amazing lives, of fantasy worlds, they were stories that he wanted to learn how to access, but for now, he had the stories that his friends could tell him. Stories about their lives, stories about who they were before this place, stories about who they wanted to be when they got out.
Mason knew deep down that there was no second life for him. That he was too much of a threat and he was going to be trapped in Monroeville for the rest of his days. He grinned when he spotted the duo he was looking for in a cozy corner, "Well if it isn't my two favorite ladies." His Texas drawl a little more pronounced with how exhausted he was.
Post by Lilith Grace Taylor on Dec 27, 2018 20:07:32 GMT
Since arriving at Monroeville four years ago, the library had become something of a safe haven for Lilith. It was a place that was filled with so much knowledge and wonder that it seemed impossible to feel anything other than happy when she was hidden between stacks of books that were taller than she was. She had probably read just about everything on these shelves, too. The library was a place of silence, outside of the hustle and bustle that came with the chaos of a hospital like Monroeville. She learned that there were snippets of the outside world here, things that she could hold onto when everything else started to feel as though it was slowly slipping away. Lili didn’t know exactly what it was about the books - aside from the ability to forget that she was in Monroeville while she read. They transported her somewhere else, to a place where she could be happy and free of facing any kind of punishment because she fucked something up. Lili liked to imagine that her friends were with her, too. Every scenario she could dream up in her head, they were there. She wouldn’t leave them behind as long as she could help it and that carried over into her subconscious.
This year had been full of changes. While Lili had always found a constant in Lucia Lovelle, the circle of people that the two girls kept had practically tripled in size. It had started as a small lunch in the cafeteria, the two girls the way that it had always been. That was what they were used to; no one wanted to spend time around the freaks - nevermind the fact that the entire hospital seemed to be filled with freaks of different natures. It didn’t matter, though. They had barely been able to start eating when they had been joined by Benjamin, the kid with the ability to tear his own bones out of his body and have them replenish before their very eyes. It was more fascinating than what it probably should have been, but Lili liked to think back to the skeleton army that they were going to conjure one day to get out of here.
Then there had been Mason, the skinwalker who had been here for a while and yet somehow she had never met him before. She had felt an instant connection with him and it was obvious enough that even Lucy had noticed it. In the days that had followed, she found herself spending more time around him and those feelings only seemed to deepen. But therein existed a small problem. Lili had met Sophie, a vision of beauty who had helped her avoid the orderlies on a day when her ability had been a little bit out of control. Her heart ached when she thought about losing either of them and it ached in such a way that she was almost certain she wasn’t going to be able to come back from. They were feelings that were largely foreign to her and had yet to be explored. Fear was the main reason that she hadn’t said anything, hadn’t dared to act on the feelings that were thrumming just beneath her chest.
Today saw her in the library with Sophie, the two of them having claimed a corner for themselves. While her gaze was on a book - reading the same paragraph at least three times now - her fingers had found themselves busied in the brunette’s hair, absently twirling strands between her fingers. A familiar voice called out to them and her fingers paused in their ministrations, blue eyes jerking towards Mason. ”Mase!” Shoving a bookmark into her spot, she stood and rushed over to him, throwing her arms around his shoulders.
Post by Sophie de la Cruz on Dec 30, 2018 2:26:57 GMT
From the time that she had been a child, Sophie had found comfort in libraries. She wasn’t quite sure why—maybe it was the prospect of all those stories contained in one place—but regardless of the reason, she sought the library out whenever possible now. For the past four years, she’d been coming to the library, using it to escape the hellish reality of her life. Once or twice, she’d even tried coming in here at night when she couldn’t sleep, or when the dreams had been too much. Only once had the room been unlocked, and since she’d been lacking any desire to try to crawl through the ceiling to get in there, she’d made her way back to her room and stared up at the ceiling, both yearning for a fearing sleep every other time. That had been the norm lately, mostly because her medication usually left her too wired to sleep well at night. When she did drift off, she was plagued by vivid nightmares of situations o specific and bizzare that they couldn’t be real. Each time, she woke up swallowing her own screams, feeling phantom pain aching in her joints and the feeling of restraints still around her wrists. It was so real, she could still feel the exact texture of the restraints that had held her down: worn and somewhat pliant, but still hard somehow. Unyielding. How could it all be a dream when it felt so real?
Sophie had turned the dreams over and over in her head, thinking about them in an almost obsessive way, and if she was being quite honest, she was getting sick of doing just that. The dreams weren’t just dreams, they couldn’t be, but if they weren’t then she didn’t know what they were. The couldn’t be memories, she had never been tortured by Dr. Blackthorn or Dr. Devereaux. If she had… she would remember when she wasn’t sleeping, wouldn’t she?
The questions were ever present in her mind, but there were moments like this, quiet moments curled up in the library, where she was able to forget about them. However, there was a significant part of her that wondered if the reason that she wasn’t thinking about them was because she was thinking about something else entirely, something that was just a little more pressing than her massively messed up dreams. There was a book open in her hands, but she hadn’t turned the page in at least five minutes, much more preoccupied with the fingers curled in her hair as they sat there together. She had another problem, one that involved the pink-haired woman whose fingers were busying themselves in her long hair as they read together in the library. She had felt a connection with Lili, one that was deep and nearly instantaneous; there was a deep impulse to protect her and her wide blue eyes from every single asshole orderly who would come from her.
However, there was another person that she had felt a deep connection to in the recent past, one that she wanted to explore. Mason. Just thinking the name conjured the dark green eyes and the feeling of his hand in hers. How was it that she had been lucky enough to develop a crush on two people at once? Moreover, how was it that this was the first crush that she had developed while in Monroeville? Actually… that wasn’t totally true. There had been one other person, but that crush had ended a long time ago, when she realized that they were far better friends than they would ever be in a romantic relationship. Particularly in a place like this.
When it came to Mason and Lili, Sophie genuinely had no idea what she was going to do. She had thought about bringing it up to Eli, if only because he was one of the best friends that she had in this hellhole, and she trusted his advice more than anybody’s. After all, four years amongst the criminally dangerous made a pretty strong bond between two people who got along. However, there was still something holding her back. Maybe it was the fact that she didn’t want to admit that she liked both of them. Or maybe it was because she didn’t want to tell anybody else that she could picture dating both of them with relative ease.
A familiar voice broke her from her thoughts, and she glanced up towards the source, before that mischievous smirk broke over her lips. She took her sweet time putting her bookmark in the spine to mark her place, before standing and making her way towards him. She noted Lili’s arms around Mason, before looking up at his face again. There was something familiar about it, beyond the general appearance that she had seen when they had run into each other out on the grounds. A tightness around the eyes, the exhaustion written into the sharp planes of his face that she had admired. The smirk fell from her face as concern furrowed her brow. “Hey,” she started, her voice sounded tired, pale in comparison to Lili’s bright and energetic greeting. She reached forward, brushing her fingertips over the back of his hand, trying to make it look friendly in case Lili and Mason had something going on that she was intruding on. “Are… you okay? You look exhausted.”
Mason walked to the comfortable corner of the library and felt almost relieved when he finally spotted Lilith and Sophie curled up in the corner. He was so sore, so exhausted, but there was something more about it. Like he could feel the traces of how he got this way tugging on the corners of his memory. The darkest parts that he couldn’t get to and was going to drive him inside without knowing why. He smiled when he saw the women, Lilith and Sophie cozy together, Lilith’s fingers tangled into Sophie’s hair as as much as he cared for the two of them, he had a new thought about the whole situation that he had never considered before.
There was one possibility that he never considered with this whole crush that he had on both of them, that they might not want him anyway. It wasn’t like he really had much to offer anyone, let alone either of the beautiful girls who he was becoming more and more dependant on the company of. Or both of them. If he was being completely honest with himself. Being with either seemed like less and less of an option with the more time he spent with them. If he was being completely honest with himself, he wanted to love them both. He wanted to wake up to see them both asleep in his bed, dark brunette hair mixed with pink.
He could love them, care for them, want to be with them with every fiber of his being, but things like that just didn’t work out like that. He didn’t get to have both of the beautiful women simply because he would care for them with every inch of his life and every breath in his lungs. Those things just didn’t happen and if they did, it didn’t happen in Monroeville. At least not in the years that he had been there.
Still he could hug Lilith back with whatever strength he still had in his arms and hold her close to himself. When Sophie approached to check in on how he was doing, he reached out and squeezed her hand. “You ever feel like you got hit by at least a thousand mac trucks? That’s how I’m feeling right now.” He told them honestly.
“What are the two prettiest girls getting up to in here?” He asked, breaking the hug from Lilith to hug Sophie as well. He cared for them both so much, it was impossible to consider what kind of a life he could have without them. He knew that Sophie resolved herself to be a lifer at Monroeville, but he didn’t know about Lilith. He couldn’t imagine being there without the bubbly pink haired beauty, but he knew that he was getting ahead of himself.
Post by Lilith Grace Taylor on Jan 3, 2019 1:06:23 GMT
Romantic feelings were almost entirely foreign to Lili. She had found herself locked in Monroeville before she had ever really had any chance to experience that part of herself, but enough time reading books in the library of the hospital had allowed her to delve into the possibilities of who she might have been . Lili was the type of person who loved love. She wanted that fairy tale with someone, to have them wrap themselves around her and protect her from all of the evils of the world - just as she knew she would do for them. There were people at the hospital that she felt strongly about, people that she wanted to protect and people that she wanted to avoid entirely. It often felt like she wasn’t going to have anyone to share that life with. How could she in a place like this? It wasn’t as though they orderlies were going to let patients sneak into a closet to get it on while they looked away. Admittedly, the sexual aspect of things wasn’t something that she considered necessary, but that was largely because of her own inexperience.
That naivety on the subject hadn’t stopped her mind from drifting towards different possibilities. It hadn’t stopped her from dreaming of a world where she was tangled up between people who loved her in the way that she loved them. Admittedly, there were two people that had found themselves as the product of such fantasies, though the pink-haired patient was not keen to admit such a thing to either of them. Mason and Sophie had both become important to her in such a small window of time that it almost didn’t seem to be real. How had she been fortunate enough to develop feelings that ran deeper than friendship towards not one, but two people? It was too good to be true, Lilith knew that. There was no possibility that these feelings could go beyond friendship and she had difficulty trying to reason with herself that friendship was the only thing that would ever come of this. Her heart yearned for more and every little physical touch made her skin feel like it was on fire. There were so many times that she just wanted to give in, but she continued to resist, not daring to break up the friendships that had finally formed and provided her a fortress of comfort in the wake of unease that the hospital brought on.
Monroeville wasn’t a place that allowed people to be happy or to truly live their lives. It promised rehabilitation so that special kids like them could assimilate better to the outside world, but after four years of being stuck here, the light at the end of the tunnel seemed to grow further and further away from her. It wasn’t possible for her to be happy with the both of them and, in truth, there was a part of her that drifted back towards being told that she was dangerous. Neither of them had seemed to think that was true, but it still made Lili wonder; it begged her to pay attention to the negativity until she was so thoroughly wrapped up in the arms of the monsters in her head that she couldn’t tell up from down. Sometimes it made her wonder if she was crazy.
Mason’s embrace chased the darkness away, made the demons of her mind retreat for the moment. Pulling back from him, her gaze increased in the concern that she had felt after not seeing him. Something was off with both him and Sophie and Lili would have had to be blind not to see it. Worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, her gaze shifted between the two of them. It wasn’t until Mason pulled back from his embrace with Sophie that Lili found herself reaching out with both hands, taking one of each of theirs in her own. She couldn’t chase away whatever was haunting them with any sort of ability, but a part of her was hoping that the contact would provide enough comfort.
”The least amount of trouble,” she said gently, her gaze turning towards the orderly at the desk, aware that the woman was paying more attention to the three of them than what was considered polite. Furrowing her brow, Lili turned back to Mason and Sophie and lead them further into the library, towards the end where beady eyes wouldn’t be watching their every move. When they were sufficiently shielded by an obscene number of books, blue eyes turned back towards her friends and she released their hands, instead lifting her own to cup each of their cheeks as she looked from Sophie’s eyes to Mason’s, as though that would provide her with the answers as to what was plaguing them.
Post by Sophie de la Cruz on Feb 16, 2019 14:30:34 GMT
Despite everything that had happened to her, Sophie believed in the idea of love. She believed that not everybody out there was like Dakota, and that some day, she would be able to find the love of her life. The fact that she was now in love with two people was a new development, and she wasn’t really sure how she felt about the whole thing just yet, but it was something that she was going to have to figure out. After all, it wasn’t exactly fair to either Mason or Lili for her to flirt with both of them, when she knew that she would need to pick one or the other. That was the way that the world worked. Wasn’t it? Suddenly Sophie wasn’t so sure that that’s what she wanted, because at this point? She couldn’t really imagine her life without both of them in it in a very big way. It was something that was weighing heavy on her mind, and now that she was around both of them it was even more intense.
There was also the possibility that the two of them wanted to be together and cut her completely out of the picture, and the idea sliced through her heart and cut to the core of her as she watched them hug each other. However, the reassuring squeeze of her hand brought a small smile to her face, even if she was still concerned about the amount of exhaustion that seemed to be etched in every line on Mason’s face. “What happened?” He looked awful, and more than anything she wanted to make him feel better.
Sophie got her chance as he turned to her and wrapped her in a hug that was surprisingly tight for someone who said he felt awful, and her returned it, leaning her forehead against his shoulder, relishing the feeling of his arms wrapped around her and hoping that this wasn’t about to be the last time that she felt them. Their hug broke, and Lili reached out, taking her hand and Mason’s, and instinctively she reached out for Mason’s forming a little triangle that she was sure was intended to try to chase away whatever seemed to be haunting the man that she could feel herself falling for. Whether or not they knew it, though, they were helping to push whatever unknown thing that was lurking at the back of her mind away, and making her day a little brighter. They were both good at that, though.
“Lili here is keeping me on the straight and narrow for now.” She shot a knowing look over at Mason. Considering that the first time they had met, they had ended up getting chased down by orderlies, tackled and tased, he would know exactly what she meant. Of the three of them, Lili was definitely the most kind and innocent, but her and Mason? They were troublemakers, and she had a feeling that Lili was going to have her hands full dealing with both of them.
Or maybe just one of them, depending on what happened.
Lili moved forward, and Sophie followed along with her as the three of them headed back towards the farthest corner of the library, feeling a little better with each and every row of shelves stacked with books that separated the trio from the beady eyed orderly. The last thing that she wanted was an audience; she wasn’t that kind of girl. When they were far enough away, Lili stopped and turned towards both of them, a question in her eyes as Sophie felt her hand brush over her cheek. Sophie leaned into the touch, squeezing Mason’s hand a little tighter as her eyes flicked from one to the other and then back. “I like you.” The words were addressed to Lili, and fell from her lips in a flurry of speech that was both blunt and packed with feeling. She was never one to mince words, and this was no exception. The moment that she said the words, she knew that they were true; she wanted nothing more than to run her fingers through Lili’s pink hair and stare into those icy blue eyes for the rest of her life.
Sophie’s eyes flicked over to Mason, and she trailed her thumb over the back of his hand. “I like both of you. And I have no idea what to do about it.” She didn’t want just Lili, though she knew that she would certainly be happy with the pink haired beauty. If it were just the two of them, it would be fine… but there would be a significant, Mason-sized piece missing from her life. She looked, hopelessly, into the dark brown eyes of the man that she had bonded with, almost able to hear his voice yelling “best first date ever” as they both got tased out in the yard. Even then, there was a glimmer of hope, an idea that maybe, just maybe they felt the same way that she did. Then she wouldn’t have to choose, then she wouldn’t have to deal with the heartache that she knew she would feel having to cut one of them out of her life. “Do… do both of you feel the same way?”
He wished that he knew what happened that made him feel so horrible, "I'm guessing I slept weird, cause I haven't gotten tased in a while." He teased. If he used his ability too often, he would get some flu like symptoms, so maybe that? He had been hanging out with Lucy and changing his face for her entertainment. She was so pure, he would do anything to make her smile. He felt the same way about Lilith and Sophie in front of him, but on a completely different level.
Mason hugged them both, damn. Why did he have to fall for two amazing women? Why was this the first time he had a big crush in Monroeville that he couldn't do a damn thing about. He brushed some of Lilith's pink hair behind her ear and squeezed Sophie's hand. They were both just so perfect and amazing. He couldn't help it. He just wanted to be with both of them, he wanted to love them both, he wanted to have a life with both of them. He just knew that those types of things just weren't allowed to happen. He would be crazy to think that these two beautiful women would be okay with that. He had very vivid memories of watching Jerry Springer on a little TV in their RV and he would watch women fight on a stage over the love of a man. He didn't want to contribute to that. He didn't want to see them fight, because they both meant so much to him and he knew that they meant too much to each other.
"For now? Sounds like you. When are we going to get Lilith on one of our dates, Sophie?" He asked, with a teasing glance over at Lilith. He would do anything to be able to go on a real date with both of them. To hold both of their hands, to take them out for a nice dinner. To walk and talk. He just wanted to be with both of them. To make them both happy. He wasn't in this for any illicit reasons, he just happened to fall in love with two women at the same time.
Nothing was as simple as it could have been, but there he was.
The back corner of the library and following behind Lilith and Sophie, he was confused but happy to be away from the prying eyes of the library staff and the orderlies fanning around to make sure there were no wrong doings in the stacks. When they reached the corner, Sophie spoke to Lilith, stating that she liked her. Mason felt like he had been hit with even more trucks. All of the trucks crashed into Mason as he looked between the two women. Of course. He knew that it was silly to think that his dreams of the three of them living in a cute home, the three of them holding hands at the movies, the three of them celebrating anniversaries and falling asleep in a large bed. He dropped Lilith's hand, knowing that the two of them were going to want a moment alone. He could see himself out. He was sure that the hurt was clear on his face when Sophie looked at him. He didn't even want to deny it. He had been so sure.
So dumb for being so sure.
Both? Did she say both?
"I like both of you too. A lot. I like both of you a lot." He wiggled his hand back into Lilith's, squeezing her hand as a silent promise that he would never let it go again. "Lili? Do you feel the same way about us?"
Post by Lilith Grace Taylor on Mar 3, 2019 2:52:12 GMT
Lili hated seeing her friends in such an abnormal state. She was so used to them being happy and vibrant that witnessing them when they were so exhausted was something that broke her delicate little heart. It didn’t seem to take a lot to actually break her heart, but this was something that impacted her more than what she actually know how to deal with. There was a physical pain her chest, brought on from the knowledge that she couldn’t do anything to stop the hurt that they were feeling. Sophie and Mason had both looked tired, the dark circles beneath their eyes giving way to something akin to sleeplessness, but she worried that there was more to it than that. It was unsettling and it made her wish that she had answers to questions that had been left unasked.
The feelings that she had towards the two people before her were complicated. Being in a relationship was something that Lilith had absolutely no concept of. She had never so much as held hands with someone she liked, let alone told them about such feelings. Truthfully, the pink-haired girl hadn’t been trying to navigate the feelings that were manifesting and had instead simply decided to allow them to sit there. She didn’t ignore them, but she wasn’t going to sit around and ask herself a thousand questions that would slowly serve to drive her mad. It was impossible to deny that she liked both of the people that were standing there. Mason and Sophie were so different and her heart was full whenever she thought of them. It was something that she had put down to just being friends, but this was a feeling that went beyond that which she felt for Lucy or Eli.
As the trio made their way through the stacks of books, away from orderlies who might make themselves a little too present in a conversation they didn’t need to be part of, Lili slowly found herself feeling more and more at ease. It was simpler behind all of the books, away from the people who might have thought they were up to no good and separated them just for being next to one another. Her feelings were jumbled, her mind feeling as though it was unraveling piece by piece as she tried to keep herself together for the sake of her friends. It was something that she couldn’t put into words, something that she simply allowed to exist in a state of limbo that she had just accepted as permanent.
Sophie’s words caught her off-guard and caused her brow to furrow in concern - a look that only deepened when Mason pulled his hand away and Sophie continued to speaking. While a more obvious part of her mind knew what this conversation was entailing, there was another part of her - the naive part - that felt this was something much smaller than it actually was. ”You two are my best friends; of course I like you both.” And even as the words fell from her lips, a slow grin started to pull at the corners of her mouth. Naivety didn’t mean stupidity, but the comment had certainly paid for itself in the expressions that she saw on the faces of her companions.
Exhaling softly, she looked between the two of them. ”I… I don’t know. I think so?” There were feelings there, of that she was certain. But because this was territory that she had never explored before, Lili found herself feeling nervous and anxious and the idea of messing something up was something that she couldn’t seem to shake. ”I know I’m sad when you both aren’t around, and when you’re sad I want to do everything I can to fix it. You both make me feel safe,” she said softly.
Sophie could count on one hand the number of times that she had felt a genuine attraction to anybody that went deeper than physical. The first was when she was eight, and Tommy Jacobs from down the street shared the swing with her. He had been her first crush, and it was one that had burned out almost as soon as it started. Him chasing her around with a frog was a really strong deterrent at that age. However, all the crushes of her past currently had one thing in common: none of them had been anywhere near as intense as this one was. It was completely unlike anything she had ever felt before; a yearning when they weren’t around, an unspoken desire to see Lili’s shock of pink hair or Mason’s ever shifting eyes. And when she was around them, she felt… safe, secure, surrounded in a warmth she hadn’t felt before. It was something precious and rare, and something she wanted to avoid losing at any and all costs. The fact that she had found them here, in Monroeville, made her feel almost happy that she had been tossed in here. Almost.
“Well, maybe let’s keep the not getting tased thing going, at least until our next date,” she quipped back at him, her signature smirk unfurling over her lips. It was definitely meant to hide the worry, and the feeling of familiarity she felt when she looked at him. It was as if some small part of her mind recognized exactly what had happened to him because it had happened to her, too. While she couldn’t put her finger on an explanation, sleeping wrong definitely didn’t seem to fit the bill.
At Mason’s question about getting Lili on one of their dates, Sophie was conflicted. DId he mean that as a trio of friends? A couple and a friend? Who was the odd one out? Despite the easy smile on her face, she couldn’t help but feel like she was seconds away from losing one or both of them. “Hopefully soon.” She shot back, her voice level for now. “Though we might have to tone it down a bit to avoid the tasers with you already hurting.” She was teasing of course, but part of her motivation of avoiding tasers was standing next to her. As much as she didn’t mind making the orderlies’ lives hell, and she knew that both her and Mason could actually handle being tased, the thought of seeing someone as pure and gentle as the pinkette besider her being subjected to it felt like a punch to the stomach. Not to mention, her body still ached when she moved, and she didn’t think it had anything to do with the mostly healed taser marks that covered her body.
The flash of hurt in Mason’s eyes was not one that she had missed, and it prompted her to reach out and slide her hand into his, trying to keep him there. If… if he like Lili and not her, she wasn’t going to stand in their way, but she wanted to make sure that she said everything she had to say before anybody left. And maybe, just maybe, the two people who had become incredibly important to her felt the same way she did.
Mason spoke first, and Sophie felt like she was flying. She squeezed Mason’s hand in hers, determined to not let it go. Then she turned to Lili, trying to not let the hope show on her face. She didn’t want Lili to feel like she had no choice but to say yes. However, as Lili spoke, Sophie’s mouth opened, and then shut as she tried to think about how to phrase this as best as she could. However, it was then that she caught the slow grin creeping at the corners of Lili’s lips, and her smile slid back into place. “You little minx,” she said through the giggle that fell from her lips, understanding that Lili had understood more than she was letting on with what she was said. However, as the pinkette continued, the laughter faded from her eyes. There was something about this conversation that felt important, and she felt like joking her way through it was not a route that she was meant to take. She nodded, squeezing Lili’s hand gently. “You both make me feel safe, too. I feel like… nothing can touch me.” She wanted to reach out, to pull them both in a hug, but it still didn’t feel like the time was right to do that. “But this is all new to me, so I don’t really… know what to do with it.”
