Echo Incursion 01 - Jurassic Gateway (August 10th, 2016)

[raisednpcs]

It's a particularly hot day in the Gateway City zoo. What else could you expect? It's not like it's not to be expected, it is the middle of August, after all. But there's plenty of things to see here at the zoo, and the visitors' center is air conditioned well enough.

Just a normal summer day in a typical summer vacation spot. Right?

Well, that's when things change. Those in the visitor's center would find the building changing around them. There's suddenly a dinosaur skeleton in the middle of the place, with the banner "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" hanging from the ceiling.

That's not all. The animal enclosures are now different. What used to be a pen for the african elephants now has very large, very long necked reptiles in it. A gigantic, meat-eating dinosaur just tromped its way out of the lion habitat it's too much too large for, and unfortunately for the people around it, its vision is based on movement. The monkey house? Well, those are velociraptors breaking out of it. The aviary? Now filled with particular aggressive flying pterosaurs.

These are just some of the creatures making their sudden emergence, and it's not long until they spill out of the zoo and into the city proper. Dinosaurs are now walking the streets of Gateway City.

Yes, indeed. Just a normal summer day.

[OOC: The new event is live! Please see this post for npc information and just what characters will have to deal with.]

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[peacefulwinter]

Winter shivers when Lily starts to speak again, enough that she knows her partner will feel it. She doesn't really care. "I know. I've... learned that lesson, already. I vividly remember how it felt." Her scar twinges, and a hand goes to her side, but she powers through. "I know now, that I can't just take all of that onto myself and hope for the best. It's... not okay if I'm the only one that doesn't make it out." It's progress; when they'd had this talk previously, Lily hadn't been able to pry that out of her. Slowly but surely, she's getting better about things.

"I don't want to leave you alone, or anyone else. Even as overprotective as I get, though, I know that I have another duty, too. Honestly, we get dealt a lot of bullshit sometimes, but- well. I'm getting used to it. I let Summer get under my skin sometimes, and I see red if something happens to you, but beyond that, I'm putting myself... maybe not first, but it's up there." She knows she's rambling a little, but she doesn't want to give herself time to be pretty about it. She'll use that as an excuse to leave things out, to weasel out of things. And Lily doesn't deserve that.

When she hears the reminder that they're on a team, though, she stills again. "I think some part of me hasn't really... acknowledged that, still. Intellectually, you're there, Jasmine is there, Rakka and Raye and Marina are there, and everyone else. But I don't really process it as a team. It's... I trust you with my life, Precure or not. That was true even before we were, well, us. Jasmine's a good friend that has my back. Before there was a team, it was just me, and sometimes Toushirou, or Bakura, or whoever else we had." It's been a long list, since then. People that fought the darkness, whenever it came to call. It always felt like it happened too often, as far as she's concerned.

"I talk like that because I have a responsibility to myself to take those burdens on, beyond everything else. But I also know that my precious friends will help me shoulder them, whatever happens. If I've got too much, someone will grab what I can't handle, and we'll make things happen together. We're a team on paper, but in my heart, the people around me are more than that. That's why I take things onto myself so often - I can share them, and everything works out."

She can't resist any longer, taking that half-step closer and wrapping her arms around Lily. She knows she's hard to live with, sometimes, but she wants to be someone that can be counted on, and if that means she has to work a little harder than is perhaps sane, so be it. She knows she has a safe place to land, and that gives her the strength to keep going.

"I'm sorry, Lily. I know how I can be, but I'm trying hard to change. I don't want to worry you or anyone else, and I sure as hell don't want to be in the hospital again. So... I'll keep working on it, and until I'm confident I can promise you that and mean it, I'm going to do my best to make it happen anyway." Pulling back a tiny bit, she reaches up to wipe tears away, smiling slightly. "So... please, don't cry? I'm not going anywhere. That, I can promise."

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Having let all of that out, Lily is - momentarily - a bit fearful. It's all a bit... sharp, and to the point. They're worries she's had but pushed aside, which she now realizes is a discredit to all involved - surely, she could have brought it up when they're not about to charge into battle. Still, she listens, holding everything in. She wants to give Winter her due, and see what she says...

She absorbs it all, and Winter keeps on talking through everything. A number of Lily's fears over blurting all that out dwindle off, left only with the core fear of Winter taking care of herself. As the hug comes, she lets herself relax. Her hands slip around the young woman's neck, and she pulls her even closer.

"...thank you, Winter," she breathes finally, and it feels like she hadn't done as such for several minutes, even if she knows better. She sucks up her tears, reaching to grab Winter's hand and hold it to her face. "I'm sorry, I know I'm not exactly perfect either, so I'm not always in a position to criticize... I let all this worry bottle up over time, and... mm... Just. So long as you can hold to that last part, so long as you don't leave us behind, and remember we're always there for everything..."

The emphasis lies there, because even as she doesn't want to bring it up, the incident with the apparitions in Shephard's Haven are still fresh in her memory, too. How Winter didn't want to say anything then, didn't want to burden Lily with her fears...

"So long as we go forward together... I may not be able to switch back into all of this as quickly as you, or maybe not as much as anyone else, but... I know I can take on anything, then. That we can, and we will."

She doesn't want to part from Winter, but does step back a hair. She smiles, at last. "So... let's do what we came here for."