2903/Three Points on a Triangle, Two Benches

Three Points on a Triangle, Two Benches
Date of Scene:	26 August 2015
Location:	Alfheim Online <ALO>
Synopsis:	And then Kirito gets involved.
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, 9, 649

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Sinon (649) has posed:
    So here we go.

    It hasn't been a long time since joining the Union, and Sinon still doesn't have access to the radio yet. However...

    One of the things she does have access to is psychological support and counselling, which she could have used about a decade ago... now, what's going to happen today isn't necessarily entirely because of this, but it has made her a lot more prepared to do what she's going to do today.

    The setting is... a bench. Specifically two benches, placed back to back, meaning that the people who sit in them are also back to back.

    Sinon's sat on one of them. Who, exactly, is sat next to her- if either- and who is sat behind her is not yet established.

    The location is not really important beyond the benches. We could be in Alfheim, we could even be in Chiyoda.

    "So," says the girl who asked the other two to come here. "Here we go."

Kirito has posed:
    Kirigaya Kazuto looks nothing like his gun gale avatar, but Sinon - Shino - is well aware of that by now. He's been feeling very, very weird ever since the BoB was finished so strangely and when Sinon called to call... the boy's apprehensively answered. He's strolling up in, for once, NOT all black clothing. More normal clothes. But he does have a black shirt on. He moves to take a seat, but frowns at the opening statement a bit. What to say?

    "Here we go?"

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna shows up when asked. She knows pyschological help is important. She's been there. Still there, really, even though her own help is just mostly on-call rather than active help lately. She shows up a few seconds after Kazuto does, in a comfy dress outfit with a fuzzy jacket. She takes her seat next to Kazuto, her head tilted to the side.

Why is it always benches.

"Here we go. Hello, dears."

Sinon (649) has posed:
    If Sinon knows the significance of benches, she did not intentionally pick it out. Mostly she just... chose this location because she's ... well, you know after you've talked to someone for quite a while about your issues and you kind of need to be alone for a while? Well, this is /kind/ of like being alone...

    "Yeah. I figured at some point eventually I'd have to have a conversation /with/ you rather than /about/ you, after all."

    She looks up. The back of her head probably nudges against someone else's. Lately, she's been looking up at the sky a lot lately, after finding out that there's so much more beyond it than she knew was ever possible.

    "I... love Kirito. That's the way it is."

    "But... we all know the score. We don't need to repeat ourselves." Shrug. "I already... I've already said a lot of things. And people've said a lot of things to me."

"One of the things I'm still thinking about though is... Arthur told me... well, not like it was an instruction or anything, but said 'figure out what Asuna and Kirito are OK with when it comes to expressing that'. And then just... ride it out. Shake it out. Ride and/or shake. And have fun! It's a good idea. In theory, anyway."

    "So... what do you guys think about that?"

Kirito has posed:
    Ooooohhhh boy. Someone else being jealous at him. Kirito twitches ever so subtly. Asuna will probably realize it's the same cornered twitch he gets every time the others get huffy over the two of them.

    Yeah, he's not going to respond to that. Not directly.

    He never does.

    But then Sinon continues. His breathing stops. How IS he supposed to answer that?

    The boy blinks a few times, glances at Asuna...

    "Saying something like that out of the blue... you've been through a lot. Are you sure about your own feelings?" His tone's quiet, kind of gentle but also a bit uncomfortable.

    He gives Asuna a look that's just plain 'what the **** do I do.'

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna's head bumps back against the other girls. She can tell because of the small braid Asuna wears around the crown of her head. She tilts her head slightly, exchanging looks with the person next to her, before she gently reaches out to take his hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

"He asks a good question, but I'm much less doubtful. This where go where it's going to go, I think, so long as we are all comfortable with each other." The unsaid 'and don't forget he's mine forever' is ... well... obvious.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    "I think I'm sure."

    Sinon shifts in her seat. "The thing is... I don't... it's like I said to Asuna. I don't know if I've said it to you as well. The only other boy I knew before you, Kirito, was Kyouji, and we both know how that worked out. I felt basically the same way about him romantically as I did a tuna fillet."

    She shrugs. "But, on the other hand, well... we all know that I wasn't... mentally balanced... as much as I am now back then. I know that what I feel about you, I've never felt for anyone else before. And... hey, maybe I'll meet someone else and I'll know it, maybe I'll know that there's a difference."

    She looks out of the corner of her eye at Asuna. "Yeah. To say I lost him to you before I even started implies there was ever a contest." This must be a girl psychic thing. "But otherwise?"

Kirito has posed:
    With Asuna reassuring him, Kirito's confidence increases a bit. He returns the squeeze but the boy is feeling awfully uncertain and uncomfortable about this.

    Being present for all this girl talk just has him gaping a little. The open-mouthed amazement is just short of dumbfoundedness. It's very different from the confident warrior side he prefers to show.

    "... I wish... I knew what to say here..." Kirito is BAD at this. Very bad. "I've been thinking of you as a friend. A friend I don't want to see hurt or cry." He answers eventually. "But I said a long time ago.. that if you're going to marry someone and then they show a new side you weren't expecting, isn't it better to be happy about it? .. Right now, that's the case with Asuna. I wasn't expecting this discussion."

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna continues squeezing Kirito's hand every so often. It's a comforting gesture for both of them. At Sinon's glance out of the corner of her eyes, Asuna can't help but give a wry, small smile. "I think the only person I had any competition from was Agil." She says, her tone very soft and very dry. "Everyone else just... came in too late." Wow, Asuna, wow.

She tilts her head at Kirito as he speaks again, and she chokes back on her next set of words when a certain m-word escapes his lips, leaving her spluttering for a few moments before she clears her throat, her cheeks burning. "H...heh..." Oh god she lost what she was going to say, good job, Kirigaya. "I... I love both of you dearly, in my own way."

Sinon (649) has posed:
    "Yeah, I know." To both Kirito and Asuna's statements.

    A part of Sinon knows that the reason she decided that she was going to sit facing away from the two of them was that way, neither of them would see her cry when it happened. But she doesn't /feel/ like crying. Maybe she's just done enough of it. She certainly...

    "I still feel sad? But only a little. A lot less than I thought I was going to. There was a part of me that felt like... like... I don't know."

"I guess in a way it was good that I found out a lot of these things when we were still in that crucible of battle. There was so much danger and pain then, all swirling together in the Bullet of Bullets, that by the time it had passed a lot of the sadness passed along with it."

"I guess... I guess I still don't know what 'expressing it' really means. I can't kiss you or hold you or anything that people who are in love do. I guess, I guess... eeeeehhh."

She shakes her head. "I guess what I want to know is, until something happens to me to change it, with all of us accepting what we do, are you two /ok/ with me feeling the way that I do?"

Kirito has posed:
    What the HECK DO YOU DO with this kind of conversation? Kirito finds himself blushing fervently. Nobody's ever talked about things like this in front of him. Even private time with Asuna hasn't been a lot of open talking about embarassing topics.

    The black swordsman's shoulders bunch up a lot... but he makes a face at Asuna. Haaaaaaaah, yeah right.

    AGIL? Geeze.

    That's terrifying.

    "Are we 'okay' with you feeling something...? ...Sinon, um... it's not something I have any right to approve or disapprove of." He answers rather humbly and quietly.

    He's totally in that territory of speaking from the heart instead of thinking much.

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna resists the deep urge to kneel on the back of the bench to lean over Sinon's shoulder. Instead, she untwines her hand from Kiritos', standing up in a swift and probably surprising movement, her arms spreading out to the sky of whatever world they're all in.

"I'm okay with it... even though you don't need our permission, like Kirito-kun said. She then pauses and turns around. "Sinon... do you want a hug?"

Sinon (649) has posed:
    At some point, Sinon's going to check in on those care and support for people in love triangles counsellings.

    Also, lately she has been waking up more than once and not really immediately wondering which world she's in.

    "...which is funny, you know, because if you'd said you weren't then I would have stopped..." Sinon replies back, said with such ease that, perhaps, it's still not obvious to her how easy saying that SHOULDN'T be.

    "You know what?" she says, turning to look around at Asuna. "Yeah, I do."

    And she means both of them, clearly pulling Kirito up for a three-person hug. If that's something we're all ok with.

Kirito has posed:
    Love triangles suck and Kirito apparently has it so much worse in a few ways.

    He's promptly dragged into a hug rather awkwardly. Blushing the whole while. ACk what to do?!

    He just gives Asuna, squickly a rather helpless expression. But Sinon gets a good squeeze!

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna gives both of them a good squeeze in the hug.

"Okay, I think we're done here. Thank you, Sinon." She says, with a grin and a wink at both of them.

Sinon (649) has posed:
"Yeah, you're probably right!" Sinon replies. "Let's go get pizza."

As she walks off, she looks at Kirito and Asuna. Softly, almost just to herself, she says...

    "I asked you to protect me for the rest of your life... some day, I'll be able to protect both of you, too."