[HH 1v1] So Are You... (Ripley / Hel)

[Enoh Love]

"There are some things that would be better to forget." He explained, though he was pretty vague with it. He wasn't about to tell her anything more than that, especially about himself.

"He's my friend." His relationship with Finn was a simple one, at face value. Below that was much, much deeper.

Lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

Hel started fiddling with the eye patch again as they talked, giving her hands something to do. She twirled the patch by its strings, eyeing it as it spun rapidly between her fingers. "But if you forget things, at what point do you stop being you?" She asked, seriously.

"Uh huh--" Hel replied, her tone indicating that she didn't quite believe him, especially with the surprise that crept into his tone earlier--

Then, the serious conversation came to a bit of a halt as Hel's eyes widen and she stopped spinning the eye patch to point a finger at Ripley. "Wait!" She cried. "Are you the girlfriend he loves to ******** doggystyle!?" There truly was no rhyme or reason to jump to this conclusion aside from the fact that he admitted he knew Finn, but in Hel's head, it made perfect sense. Finn was all secretive about his 'girlfriend', Ripley was being all casual, and Ripley looked kind of feminine which she say she couldn't be surprised Finn swung that way...

But also she'd just ask that question to anyone who said they knew Finn. She'd have to get an answer eventually, right? Right.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"That depends on what you you are trying to forget." He countered quietly. "And how far you're willing to go to do so." Still, he shrugged; it was semantics, entirely semantics.

"...What?" Her sudden outburst left him at a loss for words, though thankfully years of practice kept it from showing on his face. Instead he just stared at her blankly, trying to figure out how she came to that particular conclusion. His honest first though? God damnit Finn, does everyone have to know?! But then, as he thought about it in the few seconds he had granted with his deadpanned question, he realized something else: Girlfriend. Finn didn't strike him as the kind to lie about gender.

"No." He said with certainty. He wasn't the girlfriend that he loved to ******** doggystyle - not boyfriend, maybe. More-than-friends-with-benefits, perhaps. Not girlfriend. The only girlfriend he had been aware of was Fini, and so he took a stab in the dark. "But I know her, too."

lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

"But there is only one you." Hel replied. The reaper had matured to not slate everything as black and white anymore, because there was certainly a lot of gray in her life now. There were some things she still applied a simple and certain mentality to though.

Unfortunately, Ripley had quite a few things working against him right now when it came to Hel. One, he said what. Two, he took too long to reply (even if it had been short, Hel would still think otherwise). Three, he said 'no', and Hel knew what no meant due to a few years of conditioning (unless it came from a certain Famine sage, but everyone else? Forget it).

"No means yes, Ripley!" Hel exclaimed cheerfully and enthusiastically, and unfortunately, with certainty. She then sidled closer to the Hunter, to nudge him good naturally in the ribs with an elbow. "But it also means try harder." She gave him a sly grin, that clearly said 'your no meant yes'. "Such a pleasure to meet the girlfriend!" She also ignored the 'I know her' part.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"But perhaps you liked the you before. People change, and sometimes not for the better." To him that was a sad fact, and one he was finding he struggled with almost constantly now.

"No means no, Hel." He stated easily, though his gaze dropped to a level of disapproval that even Mac would have been proud of. The good-natured nudge received a small frown and a smaller grunt as air knocked out of his lungs, but otherwise, he didn't return the gesture.

"I'm not his girlfriend. I'm not even a girl." He insisted, though, somehow, he already knew it was a futile effort.

lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

Hel hummed thoughtfully, reaching up to rub her chin as she looked over the top of Ripley's head. He seemed to have gotten her there! "Right." She nodded her head. "People change...so the possibility you can continue to change past the person you currently are is still there! So you do not have to go backwards! You can keep moving forwards!" She grinned at him, and then laughed, waving a hand at him. "Oh, stop! Stop it with that look! Jeepers!" She kept waving her hand a bit more, as if she could wave the disapproval off his face.

"You are too young to act so old!" She then rested her hands on her hips. "One mystery solved!" The reaper announced, whether it was about his relationship status or gender she didn't clue in on (though she was talking about his gender). "Tell me something else about yourself, Ripley!" She then stared at him and waited.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Some people are incapable of it after a certain point." As with everything, there was a point of no return. A point where, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't go back to yesterday, and moving forward to get back to it will only loop around to worse things.

Sadly, her hand waving didn't remove his expression, which remained as deadpanned as ever.

"I'm not a fan of small talk." He announced to her question, mostly because he didn't quite want to answer it any more.

Lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

"That is a very...ah...what is that word?" Hel drummed her fingers on her hips. "Ah! Pessimistic!" She snapped her fingers at recalling the word. "A pessimistic view! I do not agree with you. If you believe yourself incapable, then you have simply stopped trying." The reaper rocked on her feet and tilted her head to the side, chuckling a bit.

"Oh, I do apologize if I am boring you with small talk." She replied sarcastically. "I am still very interested in anything you want to say, so if big talk is to your liking, I am all ears!" She stared at him and waited again.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

He...stopped trying? That was certainly one way to look at it. He filed that particular comment away for now, for later dwelling, and chose to simply carry on with the conversation, as opposed to bringing up things he didn't particularly care to share or discuss with strangers.

Especially ones that already made him think about such things.

"I was telling you about myself." Ripley replied, unable to help the small smile on his lips. "I'm not a very interesting person, unfortunately."

lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

"Pssssssshaw." Hel was once again waving her hand away. "Not an interesting person?" She echoed. "Ah, you are weaving lies! Being mysterious~" The reaper waggled her dark fingers at him as she said the word, "Already makes for interesting, because it does not ease the curiosity...but I do believe, in my gut, you would still be interesting even if you spoke more." It felt important to reassure him of this.

"Since you will not speak, though, I will!" In the form of more attempts at questioning, of course. "As a hunter, what do you consider...the threat right now? What are you fighting?"

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"You're imagining things." He handwaved the notion of being mysterious. He was private, which was probably where she got the idea, but otherwise, he felt she was wrong.

"Everything." He answered unhelpfully, his head tilting. "Halloween, Horsemen, Eachother. Just like everyone else."

lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

"Am not!" Hel hand waved at him back. "Ah, Halloween as well, huh? So...students then, I take it? But if that is true, then why are you not fighting me right this moment?" Aside from the power difference, which she wasn't sure he knew or not. She did, but maybe he didn't...or did?

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

Ripley's lips pressed together in a brief, unhappy line.

"If you meant fighting right now, then the answer is clearly 'nothing'." Because they were standing there, having a mostly polite conversation, aside from the whole...well...Finn thing. "On a general spectrum, yes. Business as usual." Or so he was told.

lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

Hel laughed. She then clucked her tongue. "Ah, smart a**!"

"Obviously we are not fighting right now, but if Halloween is your enemy, and if it is business as usual, why are you not fighting me right this moment, if I am the enemy?" He seemed reasonable, this hunter. Was he like Dakota, was what she really wanted to know, who considered the true enemy to be horsemen?

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"You don't have to fight your enemy." There were other ways around that, like for example talking, which they were doing now. He shrugged one shoulder, and glanced away to take a small look at the room again. "Besides, you're not fighting me at this moment, so right now, I have no reason."

Lucyal