Closed RP Step Out Into the New Normal

This RP is currently closed.

Belle was a mess, it was the nicest way to put it, relationships of any kind were not exactly something he understood fully or something he knew how to handle. Hell, he was still debating what exactly it was he felt when he was around her, but at the moment, it didn't feel like it mattered.

His hand hovered slightly closer, the hair on the back of his neck tensing with uncertainty. "It will be okay- It will be..." He was sure he'd only thought it, but he was muttering the words before he could stop them from pouring out of his mouth. His lips pressed thinly, telling himself to stay quiet, now actually in his mind.


His skin burnt for a moment, and he worried, thinking it may split open again, but, against all odds, it didn't, the itch faded, the pain inexistent. It felt like a static shock, or maybe it was simply the fact his body had relaxed, but as he crossed a distance that seemed like miles in a time that felt like hours, as his fingertips barely grazed her hand, he sighed in relief, pretending it was all part of his plan and he knew he wouldn't suddenly turn into a lightbulb and crumble on the ground.

"See?... Little by little..." Belle's statement was almost a joke with how much he was actually shivering.

The scars were there, but nowhere near as gnarly as they should be in reality. Even the scar crossing his brow and cheek gave him a bit of character, they looked old, as if they'd simply been there, always, as if they were part of him. Because they were.

He took the time finally, genuinely, look at his own skin without fear, without a horrible, aching feeling of disgust. It felt warm, right. Even when those scars were paint or led lights, the feeling lingered somewhere in his organs. But now? He felt, free, happy, he could smile honestly without faking politeness.

He pondered as he kept his hand there, not daring to actually hold hers yet, not wanting to make it more awkward than it already was.


"Thanks... For letting me try. And not- You know, not making me explode or something..." He said, carefully, before taking a deep breath and brace himself. "I don't mind- Being friends with your friend I mean. Y-You are nice so, I'm sure they will be too..."

'Being friends', he smiled at the thought despite how foreign it felt. He liked that, they could make it work, for once, he was certain about something, maybe that was all he needed after all, he had a home with Sam, and now, he could have a family again. That is what Lucian would want.
 
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Eli’s shoulders tensed as Belle reached for her outstretched hand. What if he hurt himself again? He wouldn’t want to still be friends with her, would he? She clearly wouldn’t be a good friend if she couldn’t stop her powers from hurting someone she didn’t want them to hurt, especially when they were trusting her not to hurt them. Her fingers twitched as Belle almost reached her, a twinge of expected contact skittering up her arm and almost causing Eli to pull her hand back. Almost. She did wince when the tips of his fingers brushed against her own, half expecting to feel warm blood, but she didn’t. Eli’s silver eyes stared down at Belle’s hand, tracking along the lines of his scar for… any change really. But it was just skin.

Eli’s body finally relaxed at that, and she let go of a breath that had bottled itself up in her throat somewhere next to where her heart had climbed. She smiled again, a nervous giggle following after that held breath because things were fine. “Yeah, I don’t know what I was worried about.” She said, which was certainly a ridiculous thing to say so a couple more bubbling giggles followed after the statement just to get themselves out there. She turned her gaze up to Belle and smiled. She turned her hand to shake his, keeping the pad of her index finger touching his hand in case breaking contact would ruin the effect.

“I’m Eliana Rook, it’s nice to meet you.” She said. Was this weird? This was weird wasn’t it? But, it felt… well, they could shake hands so they should, that would make them proper friends, or something.

She paused for a moment, her gaze flicking to his scars before returning to his eyes. “So, uh…” wait, was this rude? If it was shouldn’t she stop herself from— “Does it feel weird with your powers gone? I, uh, I mean I don’t really feel like I have any and uh… is it weird?” Oh no, this was rambling she was rambling wasn’t she?
 

"My powers?" Well, that was direct. He wasn't all that sure he could answer it, not in a way that made it sound like he was miserable every day of his life.

"It feels, better to be honest... My powers are, weird. Since I make light, I'm always very warm, and my body aches a lot... Like a fever to a normal person, I guess." He took a quick look at the hand which wasn't in contact with her, his palm, his knuckles, the sensation of his skin not feeling as if it was made of sandpaper. "But without them I feel, healthy, really... It's odd but, not bad... I would prefer it this way, if I had to choose..."

He was doing exactly what he told himself not to do, so he steered back into a positive, if not too positive, point of view.

"B-But it's okay. I am used to it and... I don't get sick at all, and I can be helpful with my powers so, I think it's fine to struggle a bit..." A bit was definitely no way of describing what he was, but he seemed mostly honest about his thoughts on it.

Slowly, he leaned forward, hunching his back, not to hide but simply as a habit.


It took a bit for him to say anything else, but having found his bravery he dared to be a bit more talkative.

"Would you... Want to go on a walk? Before it rains at least..."
 
“I can understand that, I think.” Eliana said, her gaze dropping back down to her own hand. Was it really fair for her to say she understood? But… she wished she could just turn her power off too, sometimes. “N-not that it’s the same or anything, mine don’t make me feel bad or anything, it’s just… sometimes it’s funny really and other times I feel like I’m just making things worse…” Eli let the statement tail off as this was most certainly not a ‘meeting a new friend’ sort of conversation anymore. She shifted, awkwardly, but Belle offered her a change in topic before she had to think of one.

“A walk sounds nice,I was starting to feel cold anyway.” Eli said, with a quick smile. She drew her hand back and busied herself with packing up what was left of her little picnic, which wasn’t too much. That was nice at least, not that it was super fancy or anything, but she was happy with how it turned out. “So, do we just want to do a lap of the park? Or did you have somewhere else in mind?” Eli asked, giving the sky a quick glance. That didn’t provide her with any insights as to how long they had left beyond seeing that the clouds did indeed still look rainy.

“Oh, also, uh” She caught herself as she slid the boxed lunch back into her bag. “Did you want any of the leftovers?”
 

He wanted to contradict her, to say something corny of how to him, she made things better, but he thought about it instead of spitting out nonsense. It was not the time, and it was likely the last thing she'd want to hear, that's how it was for him, at least. Sometimes being a meta just didn't feel okay, it felt, as she said, like he was making things worse. So, he refrained and just focused solely on what was in front of him, or rather who was, maybe some other time, some other day.

"Eh... Just a walk around the park could be okay, I think- We can walk more next time, maybe. Maybe an aquarium, that would be nice, I think... I heard someone talking about it." He wasn't exactly aware of how pricey tourism was, at least for someone without a stable job, but he could save some money, right? Just had to deliver more packages and it would all be perfectly fine. It was worth it, in his mind.

Regarding the food, he definitely didn't want to sound greedy, and it wasn't like he was really thinking about food anymore, hell, he forgot entirely they were even having lunch together. So, he shook his head lightly, slowly closing the lid of his peanut butter, for dinner. "I'm good, but- Thank you, really..." He smiled, sincerely.

Belle couldn't help but wonder what her friend was like, maybe she was a meta too? He could ask or, he could wait to find out on his own, he wasn't sure yet, but that was fine, in reality, he was too excited thinking about what they could do the next time they ran into each other to be concerned about that.

"Oh but-" He paused, his hand coming out of his pocket with his beat-up phone, struggling a bit to get the screen to work as he searched for his contacts. Finally, once his device decided to cooperate, he gently turned the screen and showed it to her. "Could I have your phone number?- I-I promise I won't be texting every five minutes... It's just, you know, that way we can plan where to meet up and stuff..." He wasn't lying about that, he really did not text much, even with Sam, his texts were usually limited to a simple 'sure' or 'okay' and on those very special days he got talkative 'see you tomorrow?', needless to say, Belle wasn't much of a texter.
 
“An aquarium sounds like fun, don’t think I’ve ever been to one before.” Eli said, with a thoughtful bob of her head. Theoretically it sounded like it would be fun, it was just like a zoo for fish and she liked visiting zoos. Which wasn’t to say she’d been to a lot of zoos but… it had been nice when she was allowed to go. She could just… go wherever she wanted now, couldn’t she? She felt like she came to that realization a lot, so did it really still count as one? She slid the lunchbox into her shoulder pack, because it seemed a better use of her time. “Hope they have garden eels, I always wanted to see one, oh, and seadragons, they always look pretty in pictures.”

Sliding her bag back onto her shoulder, Eli pushed herself up and smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt with the back of her hand. She bounced on her heels a couple times, just to help get the blood flowing in her legs again, as it would be very embarrassing to take three steps and fall flat on her face.

“Mm? Oh, exchanging numbers? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” Eli said with a smile as she gave her jacket a pat. It took her a couple seconds before she found where she had put her phone and then to fish it out of an interior breast pocket. The case was well worn and scuffed, but it turned on easily enough once she tapped the power button, despite the spiderweb of cracks that covered the screen protector. She was rather lucky the zombie turned missile hadn’t obliterated the device when it had crashed into her. A few taps and she had her contacts list open, and she held it out for Belle to take. Wait, did they exchange phones so they could input their own numbers or was there a different normal protocol?

“Um, would you like me to put my number in?” She asked, reaching carefully for Belle’s phone.
 

He didn't think about it. Why didn't he just ask her number? Too much TV maybe... He didn't even own a television. "Yeah just- You can put your number in mine, and I can put mine in yours-" He was over complicating it, though, that wasn't all that rare in anything that Belle did.

The contact list on Belle's phone was very, very empty. Three contacts in total, Sam, Damon's Pawn Shop and Damon2. The first of the two odd numbers was from the old man that asked him to get packages across town for a pitiful payment, the second, from someone he didn't actually know the name of, but who always received the parcels that Damon, if that was the guy's actual name and not just the shop's, sent.

Belvedere realized that it may be a good idea to ask for a small raise if he was to go anywhere with Eli and her friend, ten dollars were likely not going to be enough. All in due time.
 
If Eli found the limited list of contacts on Belle’s phone odd, it certainly didn’t show as she exchanged her phone with his. A quick glance through her own contacts list might indicate why she was so nonplussed, it too only had three entries; Adelyn’s Grandparent’s House, DO NOT ANSWER and Work. Perhaps DO NOT ANSWER didn’t really count as a contact given it was more of an… anti-contact? That couldn’t be a thing. Also, and this was only really coming to her now, did Belle really know two different Damians?

Anyway, she tapped in her information; Eliana R. so he hopefully won’t need to have an Eliana2 if he met another one followed by her number. That done she flipped his phone closed and held it out for Belle to take back. She… really could have just asked him just for his number couldn’t she have? Oh no, she definitely made this weird, didn't she?

“S-so uhm, we can text about plans later! And I’ll need to call my friend about it too.” She said, cheerfully. “Time for our walk then, I think?” She added, glancing up at the sky, hoping that it wasn’t yet raining.
 

He didn't think much about the numbers on her end, if anything, the fact that he would be the third saved number made him feel at least a tiny bit happy, they were both making a new friend, someone to keep up with.

After the numbers had been exchanged, the phones returned accordingly and Belle had settled his breathing, he finally looked back at his new friend, the neutral expression he carried was much less defensive, could even be considered friendly to some degree, at least compared to how nervous and suspicious he looked before.

"Hm? Oh- Yeah, the walk... Should still be good..." He squinted his eyes while looking at the clouds, some rays of sunshine still coming through the gray, it really didn't seem like it would rain immediately, maybe just half an hour or so before the clouds darkened further and shelter was needed. That was enough for now.

Once they started their walk, Belvedere allowed himself to have a bit of small talk, planning slowly for contingencies regarding the future hang out, it seemed smart, considering things rarely ever went how the star infused boy expected. "The aquarium is close to the zoo so... If your friend doesn't like fish much, I guess we could go over there too..." The irony wouldn't be lost on him later once he met her.
 
Okay, that all went well, didn’t it? A new number for a new friend that’s… a normal thing for her to have. She felt relieved as Belle passed her phone back over, and she gave his name in her phone book a little glance before she slid the device back into her breast pocket. Her second friend! She could feel a warmth growing in her chest at that thought, a second friend and she hadn’t messed it up. She could skip! Or laugh! Or… well she shouldn’t do either because she was certain she’d look really weird but she wanted to! She picked up her shoulder bag and slid it on before she beamed a smile up at Belle that was at least as bright as his glittering Christmas sweater.

She fell into step with Belle as they began their amble around the park, her good mood perhaps threatening to stick around for a while yet, which was good because she did still have homework she needed to get done. “The aquarium? Well, that’s something we can ask her about later.” Eli said, though she felt certain that Adelyn would really like to join them for a trip to the aquarium. Unless she didn’t like fish? Well, it was something she’d just need to ask Adelyn about when she saw her next! That was a thought that brought a touch of the warm glow to her cheeks “Either way, I’m sure it’ll be fun.” She added, cheerfully.
 
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