#livin' on a high wire: eretria

[txmxrrxws-just-a-dream-away]

😑 - Eretria!

“Hm?” Gwen remarks, not looking up from her tinkering. She’s just acutely aware of the presence beside her and has a feeling she’s going to be listening to a lot in short order. She continues working.

[txmxrrxws-just-a-dream-away]

"You sneeze like a kitten." Gwen finishes another line of the equation on her homework. "And I've only known you five minutes, that's not really enough time to form serious opinions anyways. Gwen Robinson. Is there a reason you felt the need to make this point? Or are you just overcompensating for something someone else said earlier today so you could vent?"

“I am not adorable! I am pure terror! I make people shake in fear!“

[txmxrrxws-just-a-dream-away]

untxld-stxries​:

Eretria shot upright, turning around, her face quickly turning red. “WHAT?!” She pointed at Gwen. “No, no, there’s no way you could’ve known that because you don’t listen when anyone’s talking to you!”

Unless Gwen listened a lot more than she seemed to, which would mean Eretria could end up in a lot of trouble.

“Huh? Did you say something about it?” Gwen blinks innocently. “I didn’t even know you were here until you said ‘whatever’ right before James came in.”

James laughs harder at that, starting to cough, wheezing for air, tears rolling down his face. Gwen looks over at him and then back at Eretria with a shrug. James coughs a bit. “Sounds like you’ve gotta start explaining, Eretria, and I for one need to hear it.”

😑 - Eretria!

“Hm?” Gwen remarks, not looking up from her tinkering. She’s just acutely aware of the presence beside her and has a feeling she’s going to be listening to a lot in short order. She continues working.

[txmxrrxws-just-a-dream-away]

untxld-stxries​:

Eretria shook her head, closing her eyes. “And then we’ve got this whole business with…” She shook her head again. “Never mind. That’s… not important.”

Except it was. If Sabrine was going after Emala, what would stop any of those ex-Conqueror bastards from going after Oliver? All she could do to keep him safe was warn him, but how in the hell was she going to do that? It would just sound… petty. Wouldn’t it?

“Whatever,” she sighed. She glanced over at the door as it opened. “Ew, a Sasquatch.”

“Ew, a pixie,” James jokes as he walks in. “You done? I need to bounce something off Gwen for a bit.”

Gwen turns around and blinks, smiling. “Hi, James! Did Eretria tell you she kissed my older brother yet?”

James blinks and starts cackling, hunching over as he slowly drops to the floor. “You WHAT?!”

😑 - Eretria!

“Hm?” Gwen remarks, not looking up from her tinkering. She’s just acutely aware of the presence beside her and has a feeling she’s going to be listening to a lot in short order. She continues working.

[txmxrrxws-just-a-dream-away]

untxld-stxries​:

Eretria paused for a bit. She shook her head, covering her face with her hands. “And, just…” She mumbled some colorful curses in Greek. “There’s just something so… great about him. He makes me… happy. Nobody makes me happy, not like that.”

She groaned, smacking her hands back down on the bed dramatically. “And here I am, head over heels for this six-foot-tall dork. Because we bonded over music. I mean, I’m sure he does that with everyone. Writing songs. But still.” She sighed, a dreamy smile on her face. “And he kissed me. And I just… I don’t understand any of it…”

“Mm,” Gwen nods, sounding faux-enthused, standing up to better lean over her plans and label a few things.

Yeah, but you kissed back, she’s thinking on the comment, still not specifically saying anything of course. She frowns, tapping her pencil against the side of her head slightly as she thinks. “Hmm.”

😑 - Eretria!

“Hm?” Gwen remarks, not looking up from her tinkering. She’s just acutely aware of the presence beside her and has a feeling she’s going to be listening to a lot in short order. She continues working.

[txmxrrxws-just-a-dream-away]

untxld-stxries​:

Eretria flopped back onto the bed, staring at Gwen for a long moment. She wasn’t listening. She never was. Literally never. The demigod squinted, rolling over onto her stomach.

“Huh…” she mused. “So you do both have the family cowlick…”

Yes, yes we do, but that’s an interesting segue into you talking about kissing my older brother, would be the kind of thing Gwen might say if she were interested in talking right now.

But she’s not, so she just continues working without so much as a nod, not even reacting by reaching towards said cowlick. She’s suffered through enough of trying to get that to stay in place in her lifetime to know better than to mess with it.

😑 - Eretria!

“Hm?” Gwen remarks, not looking up from her tinkering. She’s just acutely aware of the presence beside her and has a feeling she’s going to be listening to a lot in short order. She continues working.

[txmxrrxws-just-a-dream-away]

untxld-stxries​:

Eretria hummed, sighing. She rolled back over onto her back, staring at the ceiling. Gwen didn’t listen. Eretria knew this. She was always too busy working.

“I,” she sighed eventually, “hate the fact that I had to be so brutally reminded I have feelings. It’s your brother’s fault, you know. I was fine until I met him.” She wrinkled her nose. “Not that I hate that I met him. He’s… He’s just… wicked. Gods, he makes me feel like I could do anything, more than I already usually do. It’s nice. And he’s just so…” She sighed again. “I don’t know the words for it. I don’t speak emotion.”

Gwen cocks her head a bit, looking back at her blueprints, still listening attentively.

She holds back a smile at the way she talks about how Oliver makes her feel. Because Oliver never seemed to see that part of him, not with anyone. He was great with inspiring others, with making them feel so invincible, beyond just the family motto, but... Oliver never saw it. Everyone else did.

Like her. And clearly, like Eretria.

“Mm,” she murmurs a bit, leaning in to look closer at something in her blueprints.

😑 - Eretria!

“Hm?” Gwen remarks, not looking up from her tinkering. She’s just acutely aware of the presence beside her and has a feeling she’s going to be listening to a lot in short order. She continues working.