770/Unpause the Sneeze

Unpause the Sneeze
Date of Scene:	16 November 2023
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	Double Trouble has been a little too busy to notice that their roommate got a girlfriend. So when they find out, well, they freak out in the most adorable way that only Dianora could. There is screaming. There is (pillow) fighting. And so. Many. Feelings.
Cast of Characters:	Double Trouble, Hinoiri Kirara

---

Double Trouble has posed:
Dianora Lagorio has been keeping busy. She's added harassing Adora to her usual list of activities. After that, classes, people watching, and carefully constructing scenarios in which to befriend others, she hardly had any time to just lounge around their room.

But today she was taking the afternoon off. Classes were over and she was on the love seat with a bowl full of mealworms and some trashy romance movie on the TV. It's the perfect recipe for relaxation: comfort food and drama.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Speaking of drama! It was then that her favorite little drama unicorn(and only) arrived. She'd been... well.. It had been *a day*.

She walked in and... and blinked.

Mealworms? Eh. She supposed there were worse things one could be eating. And it didn't bother her any worse than people eating meat around her. She'd seen griffons eat before. She collapsed into the opposite end of the loveseat and glanced over at Dia. "Busy day?" she asked her. She then glanced to the television and... "Oof. That... that looks rough."

She then pulled... a sucker out of her pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it in her mouth. "Want a miracle pop?" she asked, pulling like... five more out. She would have just stuffed one in her mouth. But she was eating.

Double Trouble has posed:
Not wanting to miss any of her trashy romance drama, Dianora hits pause. The screen freezes on a frame where the guy the main character is pursuing has the most ridiculous expression on his face because of a sneeze.

"It has been busy. Nobody prepared me for how busy Dianora was going to be with all this school," she says. "Between attending classes and doing homework, I barely have any time to plot and scheme at all." She gestures to the TV then. "I'm finding some insipiration."

It's only then that she sees what the screen paused on and bursts into a fit of giggles.

She reaches for a sucker and unwraps it, popping it in her mouth before setting aside her meal. Protein is whenever, but sugar is for now. Always.

"Where'd you get these from?"

How did she not know? She must have been very busy lately.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a small shrug. "Really? I don't know, the school work here is fairly chill compared to back home. We only get a few assignments each week." ... Yeah, her last school sounded like anything but 'reasonable'.

"Still, good to know you're having fun, if busy. As for these? Well, I won them on my recent date. Apparently some candy shop was doing a whole thing with Hematite's stupid 'I need a miracle' video. Jackass," she muttered, popping it into her mouth again.

"Apparently I'm lucky, because I bought one and won a whole month's supply of them. I'm tempted to see if I can get some of them to stick in Hematite's stupid hair. But yeah, if you want any more, they're in a big bag in the cabinet over the stove. Go wild."

"...I don't look like that when I sneeze, do I?"

Double Trouble has posed:
Dianora Lagorio pouts. "Not everybody is a huge nerd like you, onee-chan. I'm an actor not an academic!" She folds her arms over her chest and harumphs. It's painfully adorable, especially with the little stick from the sucker hanging out between her little pouting lips.

"I have been having fun. Just the other day I--" She stops midsentence as her brain catches up to all the words she just heard. Clearly she's tired because usually she's anticipating what everyone is going to say.

"Did you say date?" Her shoulders hunch just a little as she folds her arms even more tightly and pouts even more. "How do I not know about this? Tell me everything."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a soft chuckle before reaching out to just lightly flick the tip of the stick in her mouth. "I'd tell you you're cute like that, but why tell you what you already know?" she teased before leaning back. She blinked a few times, looking bewildered.

"I... did tell you. Didn't I? Huh. I thought you were home when I called out and... meh. Maybe you didn't hear. Yeah, that blue haired girl. The one who saved me from the witch a while back? I asked her out. Bit of a stickler, probably going to go to crap eventually, but I'm learning a bit. And eh, I mean. What better reward for saving my life than a date with me? I couldn't just... NOT reward her for saving my life. I need to set the precedent so other people try it if I'm ever in that kind of awful situation again. I wouldn't get too excited, though. I don't think this is going to be nearly as dramatic as your little afternoon romance special."

Double Trouble has posed:
Dianora Lagorio pulls her legs up onto the couch and wraps her arms around them, folding up into the smallest, most pitiable little pink bundle of pout that she can be.

"Oh. I see," she says, her voice a little flat. She takes a deep breath and exhales sharply. She's not even looking at Hinoiri. No, she's looking at Mr. Silly Sneeze. "So you're just...trying to set a precedent...that saving your life will earn a person a date with you?"

She harumphs again. "That's never gonna work."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara cocked an eye, cocking her head to the side and pulling the miracle pop out with a loud 'pop'.

"I mean, not really. That was mostly a joke. They're sparkle skirts, they'll probably try to save me regardless. I mean... Sailor Moon did. It's... what they do. Weird as it is."

"As for Sayaka, well... I don't know. She's... kind of annoying. Wayyyy too... uptight. I guess I'm trying to get her to lighten up a bit. Girl's going to get herself killed at this rate. Apparently those 'witches' aren't any joke. They're very... murdery. Not a fan." She leaned against the side of the loveseat, a thoughtful look on her face and... "You know..."

"Just because I'm dating a cute sparkle skirt doesn't mean I'm going to turn into one of them. Or that I'm going to stop making sure you can sample the delicacies of actual enjoyable food. No need to get jealous." She did catch onto the jealousy/annoyance... but, of course, assumed it was just because DT was scared there wouldn't be more 'sweets' on the way. "And I'm definitely not going to out you, if that's what you're worried about. You don't out another person like that, that just isn't cool."

Double Trouble has posed:
Dianora Lagorio rocks in place just a little. She's not even looking at the TV now. It's too funny. She doesn't want to laugh. She wants to pout.

"Dating?!" She looks up and just stares at Hinoiri for a minute. "Have you been on more dates? Is she your girlfriend now?" Dianora is doing the opposite of calming down.

She chomps down on the sucker and crunches it until it's gone. The stick is set aside, and she grabs the bowl of mealworms again. She needs comfort, so comfort food it is. She grabs a few in her fingers and pops them into her mouth. Mmm. Mealworms.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara expected a lot of reactions.

She had never seen this one coming. She actually looked... surprised. Her mouth hanging open... and the sucker slowly sliding down her mouth and... she only barely caught it when it fell out, floundering with it for a moment before snagging it. Now her hands were a bit sticky.

But she stared at her. "I... mean... yes? We've been on two so far. And there was the experimenting one I did with Naru. Are... are you okay? I thought you'd find this hilarious. Not..." She didn't even know WHAT this was. Was... was Dianora messing with her? Was this just a prank? Was Double Trouble getting into character? Or... too much into character?

... It wasn't possible that Double Trouble actually had feelings for... her? Was it? No. That'd be ridiculous. Just the idea made her want to... laugh.

... She couldn't laugh right now though. She was too concerned.

Double Trouble has posed:
"Of course I'm okay," Dianora snaps, looking like a wounded puppy. "Why wouldn't I be okay?" She's clearly not okay. "I'm so happy for you, onee-chan. You have a girlfriend!"

Literally nothing about her says happy except her words.

She stuffs another pinch of mealworms in her mouth and chews them rather deliberately as she just stares at the ottoman. The other half of the heart shaped loveseat. Her feet press against it and push it away like a broken heart.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara just stared at her. She looked so confused. How... what... why? Dia... she couldn't... she wasn't... why was she... "I..." she tried. She glanced back towards the television. Wait. Silly... romantic comedy and...

"Oh. Oh. Ohhhhh. You're good. Dee? You're real good. Oh man. I... I actually almost fell for it." ALMOST? She totally fell for it. She snickered and collapsed back, stuffing the sucker back into her mouth.

"You're really good at it, you know that? Like... I really thought you were just... you really play up the 'jealous friend' role well. You really had me going, 'imoto-chan'," she said in a teasing tone, reaching out to boop her nose. "Is that part of your new ploy? Try and see what drama you can create by 'falling in love' with one of the sparkle skirts? Oh, please tell me you're planning to use it on Adora in front of Catra. That'd be *hilarious*."

... Oh. Oh no. She... she was likely just going to make it worse.

But her smile did waver a little. It had to be a ploy, right? Dee knew her. Dee UNDERSTOOD who she was. There was no way... Nope. None. Impossible.

Double Trouble has posed:
To Hinoiri's credit, that would be hilarious. Some other time Dianora would have burst out giggling at that idea. She is absolutely going to do that exact thing now. That is her new plan, as of this moment. She is, in fact, utterly delighted with this idea, and is so excited.

But she's also irrationally upset and so she suppresses all of that joy so hard, in order to let the jealousy wash over and flow through her. So, instead of bursting out into a fit of giggles, she lets out a wail and starts to cry.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara froze. She didn't... know... what to say. What could she possibly say here? The amusement faded as she just stared at Dee. She... Double Trouble... liked... her?

What was she supposed to do here? She felt... trapped. She didn't want to hurt her.

... She didn't want to hurt Dee.

She was trapped. There wasn't an option to not hurt her. To not hurt them. To not... When she'd been crying, what had Dee done? She'd henshined or, rather, de-henshined. They'd been there for her when she needed it. What was she supposed to do? What was she...

So she did what she always did in these situations. She fled. She got up and she just... left the room.

However, a few minutes later she came back and she just... SMACKED Dianora.

... With a pillow. Not hard. It was meant to shock, not hurt.

"Okay, Dee. No. We're not doing this. We are *not*. You? You are a badass performer who can fool, well, even me. You're awesome, and cool, and not a stupid monkey. You're... the closest thing I actually have in this stupid world to a friend and you're kind of freaking me out. I'm just messing with this Sayaka, you know that. For Sora's sake, I'm a damn unicorn. She doesn't even know that. She thinks I'm just a non-magical nobody. I'm certainly not going to tell her, the girl has problems for miles and..."

"... You... can't... actually have feelings for me, can you?" she asked softly. "... I've never done anything to earn that... so... if this... is just you messing with me? Knock it off. I... I don't know if it's the dark energy or what but it's kind of... it's kind of... working..."

Double Trouble has posed:
Dianora Lagorio's arms are wrapped around her legs, hugging her knees to her so she can bury her face against them while she sobs, rocking back and forth. She is out of sorts.

And then Hinoiri gets up and leaves the room.

"Of course you'd run away, you coward," she yells down the hallway after her fleeing roommate. "That's all you really know how to do," she says, probably still loud enough to be heard. "Spending all your time obsessing over this girl or that, and running away when you bring the world down on your head. Is Kirakirafantastica really so different that you don't know anything about people?"

And that's when the pillow smacks her in the face, and about time. She was not being very nice.

Her head turns with the pillow and then slowly turns back, looking up at Hinoiri with those big, green eyes, looking so wounded. But then the unicorn starts talking and so, she listens, but she still pouts the whole time.

When Hinoiri finishes, Dianora takes a couple of ragged breaths, and says, "If she's so worthless and I'm so awesome, then why are you paying attention to her instead of me?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara always ran. That was usually the only choice she had. Fight or flee. She didn't know how to do anything else and when your mentor was a borderline demigod, well. You learned to run. A lot. But when you couldn't run, you fought. And now a fight was brewing. Her fists were clenched and were trembling.

"Why am I... is that what this is? You're jealous I'm paying attention to someone else? Dee, half the time you're the ONLY one I pay attention to! Most days you're the closest person I have that actually makes me feel NORMAL!" she snapped, fury in her voice as she borderline started lecturing the girl.

"This girl thinks I'm just a normal, mundane little helpless human. And that's all she's ever going to know about me. Because she saved me when... I was really scared. I was trapped as another stupid helpless *human* and I couldn't do anything, okay? I figured I wanted to understand these relationship things because I just... don't get them. Why not kill two birds with one stone? But no, it's *not* going to be serious. You know what happened on our second date? Hematite showed up. And she practically interrogated me over it and told me she was going to have her friend find out all about me if I didn't tell her everything, so I made up some bullshit story about how I was one of the 'victims' during one of his attacks. Because I don't fucking trust her! Okay?"

That, however, made her freeze. And slowly, a hand reached up to her face, and the look of just... horror on her face.

"... I trust you. Oh Sora I trust you. That's... I've been teaching you my spells. I... I cried in front of you. I've told you everything. I-I... I trust you. That... you can't... I can't trust you. You can't trust me! We can't, that's not... I'm... you're... you're... you're a performer. I'm just an audience. Aren't I? You can't..."

"... You... you'd... come for me... wouldn't you?"

And there it was. Another crack. But this one wasn't... necessarily bad. It was... one she needed. She took a step back, hugging the pillow to her chest. Not sure if she should run, fight, curl up. "What... what are we?"

Double Trouble has posed:
Dianora Lagorio is so ready to just jump right back in. She's super defensive and so hearing to respond rather than listening. But Hinoiri is a pro at monologuing, and does not give them an opportunity to actually interject. So she gets all the way to her realization before Dianora even gets a chance to say anything.

And then something more powerful than her jealousy and insecurity takes control of Dianora: her dramatic sense. This is a moment. She can feel it, and she is curious. And when she's curious, Dianora actually listens.

Her expression softens as Hinoiri stutters out the truth about how she feels about Dianora. About Double Trouble. Her wounded eyes turn toward concern, and she does several things all very quickly.

First, she removes her necklace, her body changing into an inky black form and then coalescing into their natural self. Green skin, gloriously luxurious yellow hair, and a prehensile tail. She tucks the necklace in her pocket, and then...

Second, they dash off the couch and over to where Hinoiri is and throw their arms around her, their tail wrapping around her waist, and just squeezes. It's a tight hug.

"Of course I'd come for you, stupid."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara really is good at monologuing. Listen, when you were top of the class in every class at school and dealt with nobles ALL the time, you learned to talk over the crowd and get your words out. But that... that had struck her hard.

When Double Trouble got up, she watched her. When the reptile reached out to her... she cringed a little. But there was nowhere for her to go. And she took a sharp breath at being dashed towards.

"I'm not... stupid... I'm advanced..." Hinoiri muttered. "You... you know I'm a pony, right? Like... I... I'm not sure if your world had ponies. It had horses? So... I guess... I don't know how that works," she mumbled softly. "... I... shouldn't trust you... you... shouldn't like me... but... we do and... and it's not smart. Is it? No. You... you know these... you're a performer. In... in the stories... the people like us always die in a dramatic fashion when this kind of thing happens... I... I trust you too much and you betray me or... or you like me too much and I betray you and... and... I'm... I... I just fake being nice and you just fake... well... everything... and... I... I guess you're kind of hot when-- oh gosh did I just figure out hot?" She gave a sound somewhere between a whine, a whimper, a whiny and a gurgle.

"... So what... are we... then?"

"... ... Would you... come with me... to kirakirafantastica?"

Double Trouble has posed:
Double Trouble leans their head against Hinoiri's and squeezes tightly, taking a deep breath of her scent as they listen to her. The girl clearly needed the hug. She's needed the hug as long as Double Trouble had known her. The poor girl was a mess.

They can't help but laugh at that thought. They lean back, their tail still holding Hinoiri close by the waist. Their hands rest on the sides of her shoulders for a moment and then slide down to grab ahold of hers. "Darling, we're a couple of disaster queers."

They give Hinoiri's hands a squeeze, and then lean in closer, holding their hands up between them. "If I found a way back to Etheria tomorrow," they say, and then pause. They can hardly believe what they're about to say, but as soon as the words came to them, they knew they were true. "I'd tell Adora, and pass it up."

Gazing right into Hinoiri's eyes, they say, "Kirakirafantastica's just as magical, and I'd rather be somewhere magical with my unicorn than back home with all those princesses."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara stared at them. Blink. Blink blink. Stare. Blink. "I... I'm not a disaster... I make disasters..." She was such a disaster. Such denial. "And... and don't take this the wrong way. But Etheria sounds like it sucks. You don't even have... have cakes there. What kind of world doesn't have cakes? Or muffins? And... princesses are lame... sovereigns are way cooler... who'd wanna be a princess who just gets bossed around by their mom all the time?"

Somewhere, Glimmer likely sneezed.

Her cheeks went scarlet and it took a lot of restraint for her to resist snapping 'Not YOUR unicorn'. Especially because... she kind of maybe didn't entirely possibly object to it and oh that red was just grooooooowing.

So they did what they could in this situation. They fought back. There was a light wrinkling... and then Hinoiri just popped one of those miracle pops into Dee's mouth. Mmm. Pineapple.

"... Wait. Does... does this mean we're dating now? How... how does that even work? Are... are we secret dating? Is... is this like... Double Trouble and Sunbreaker are dating? Are we like... friends with pastry bonuses now?" Yes that was a thing Kirakirafantastica was an amazing place.

Double Trouble has posed:
Double Trouble lets go of one of Hinoiri's hands and lifts up their finger to press it against her lips. "You're overthinking this, darling," they say. And then they brush their fingertips along her cheek and rest their palm there. "I'm yours. You're mine. We've both got complicated lives that defy labels. There's always gonna be Sayakas and Adoras because that's who we are."

Their thumb brushes across her cheekbone and they tilt their head just a bit to one side as they look at her. They smile. "Even an advanced unicorn like you can be real stupid sometimes, darling. Do you really believe you've never done anything to earn my love? You have been here for me since the day I got here. I walked out of that witch's office and wandered the halls and I found you. I would have been fine on my own, sure. I'm a thespian, I'm very resourceful. But I wasn't on my own, because I've always had you."

They look at her and smile, laughing lightly. "You know, I think I might not inevitably betray you."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara nodded slowly, a bit... confused. She didn't get it. She didn't understand it. How. How did... how did any of this make sense? It didn't. It didn't in the slightest. "O-okay. So... it's... like..." Slow, deep breath. "... If... if school... we'd be like... each other's... protege. and like... there might be other students. But... but only one protege.... And... and I don't know if I'm... comfortable... with... being your 'love'... Nobody has ever loved me before and I'm not sure I'm ready for that q-quite yet," Hinoiri managed to kind of squeak those words out.

"... You know... I... I was only really using you, though. I mean, you... you seemed useful. And... and I didn't have anyone and you were like... not... human... and kind of dragon-like so you reminded me of home. Then I thought you were fun to watch because it's kind of nice to just screw with these sparkle skirts when they get so uppity but... it wasn't like I was... just... being nice to you because I was being nice... I've just been using you... I thought... aren't you just using me too?"

"... I'd like not being betrayed again... though..." She sunk, just a little bit, against the wall.

"... You are really tall."

Double Trouble has posed:
"Yes I know, you're using me for my plushies," Double Trouble says with a smirk. "I've never met someone who was fooling themselves as much as you are. You're a pile of trauma wreathed in dark, magical flames. I haven't been using you, darling, I've been _spectating_."

They lift their hand up from her cheek and brush some of her hair back with their finger tips before lifting their hand up to press it into the wall above Hinoiri's head. They lean in just a little closer. "What else would you call the feeling, then? Love can take on so many qualities. Friends love one another. Siblings love one another.

The lean down and press their forehead to hers. "I care about you. Deal with it."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara flushed and squirmed a little. "W-well... maybe I like having an audience a little bit too. Y-you're not the only one with a flair for the dramatic..." she said gently. She even gave a soft little squeak when Dee leaned in over her.

"... I... I don't d-do friends... though... r-remember... never... had family... or..." And oh gosh there was red. So much red. Okay, normally she got MAD and then things stopped bothering her but she couldn't just beat Double Trouble down with the pillow! The sneak attack only worked once! How did it come to this?! How did she so firmly lose control of the situation?!

"... O-okay. I... I care about you too. And... and I'd like you to come to Kirakirafantastica with me... when... when I... return to my rightful place."

"... Sora is going to have an aneurism when I do it which frankly only makes it sound funner."

Double Trouble has posed:
Hinoiri lost control because she fell into one of the semi-classic blunders. Everyone knows the classic blunders. Just like you should never go up against a Sicilian when life is on the line, you should never go up against a thespian when being melodramatic. Double Trouble had been in control of the situation from the moment Hinoiri got home. Even if they hadn't been entirely in control of themselves.

"You sure have a busy social calendar for someone who doesn't do friends," Double Trouble says with a smirk. They lean in just a little closer to brush their nose against hers, and then lean back. They smile and look right at her eyes again. "I'll follow you wherever it is you go, darling. You're stuck with me like a piece of glitter."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara would have objected to such blunders! Everything she DID was melodramatic, that would mean she'd always lose and she HATED to lose!

"Well, yeah. I'm pretending to be 'friends' with them, but you know the truth... Oh Sora you know the truth and you still want me what is wrong with you?" she asked softly. Her heart was pounding. She was staring. She...

Oh gosh for a moment she felt a *song* coming on and she just covered her mouth, struggling desperately to suppress it. Oh gosh as if she couldn't be more embarrassed than she already was. "Okay you win I'm yours!" she muffled through her hands... and oh. Ohhhhh. Dee could likely *hear* the music that sometimes seemed to accompany her roommate. A musical number.

Double Trouble has posed:
"Oh, I'm an absolute disaster, darling, really it's more a question of what's right with me," Double Trouble says with a laugh. They bring their hand down off the wall, and grab hold of one of her hands, pulling it away from covering her mouth, and then turns to lead Hinoiri back toward the loveseat.

They fall back onto one end of the loveseat, and they pull on Hinoiri's hand--they're quite strong--and pull her into them. Loveseats are for snuggling. As they settle in their tail reaches out and grabs the foot of the ottoman and pulls it back to nestle in against the couch; the heart no longer broken.

"Finish watching this with me, and then we can go do something fun together," they say, and then they reach for the remote and unpause the sneeze.