The Aspiring Archivist

The singing stopped. "Uh, Rue?" TAAron's voice in her mind.

Watch it. That's not me, that's a character.

Vena went silent, watching him, then turned bright red. She spoke quickly. "I know this is probably a horrible time and a dumb thing to say, but... can I kiss you now?"

It changed into a song, in a language Rue didn't recognize. It was melancholy, but tinged with hope. TAAron's voice was soft and melodic.

"Like the lighting loves the rain, like candle loves the flame. I cannot be away, I need you here to stay."

TAAron watched her go, then sat down, trying to clear his mind. After a moment, he began humming a tune, clear and low and haunting. He didn't remember where he'd learned it. He also didn't realize that his connection to Rue was still intact, and that she heard every note.

"I love you, Rallohir. I... hadn't actually said that yet."

He grabbed her arm, then pulled her into an short embrace. "I'm not pretending."

Vena just continued to hold him, caressing his hair and face tenderly, feeling his breathing and tremors. She didn't say anything; she was sure that anything she said wouldn't make it better, and would in fact likely make it worse. She wished so badly that she could just take his pain, bear it herself. She had never felt such loss, why must he now feel it twice?

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. He looked... ashamed.

TAAron was standing there, waiting for her, his hand still gripping the strongly glowing sphere.

"Oh, Rallohir." She ran her hands through his hair, holding his shaking form securely against her own body. "I'm so sorry."

Then, Vena was holding him to herself, looking at him with eyes full of concern. "Rallohir? Are you okay?"

I've seen this brought up already, but I haven't seen it resolved. I don't seem to be getting SU notifications for people I follow unless I check a notification option to that notifies me for every once of their posts. Chaos pointed out one setting, but that just has to do with notifications for replies to your SUs or ones you already replied to.

Vena seemed momentarily surprised, and pulled away. The conflict in her eyes had returned. She felt worry and doubt consume her. "Are-are you sure? What if you're wrong about me? What if you just have leftover feelings and after a while you realize that I'm not deserving of... you?"

She held to him tightly. "Likewise."

Vena found herself crying into his shoulder. "I... I hadn't thought that you would still love me. I still don't know how you could."

She suddenly rushed forward and wrapped him in an embrace. "Thank you."

"...Oh." Vena seemed to freeze, watching him, gray eyes sparkling in the light.

"A... tentative couple, maybe." Vena shrugged. "But I assume you no longer feel that way, now that you have a more objective perspective."

I encountered a minor bug. This is Google Chrome on a Windows laptop. It seems that if you look at someone's posts by hovering on their name or pfp and hitting the "Find Content" button, you go to the page you'd normally get from clicking "See Their Activity." However, that button is still there. If you click it, you just get sent to the same page you were already on, and then the "View Profile" button in changes into does not work. It also seems that when making a new post, sometimes the posting field just freezes and does not visually send, even though it has actually posted. This has only happened with SU replies so far, so I don't know if it could happen anywhere else. The profile box that appears when you hover on someone's name now also only shows either if someone is online or when they were last online, not when or where they were last seen when they were online. No posts have a visible rep count, except when they are posted as embedded links, apparently. I can also not see my own exact rep count. Also, I was wondering about a couple features that were mentioned in the update thread that haven't appeared. Specifically, a pronouns field on the profile and updated contact methods. I guess this is less of an issue than a small confusion, but I figured I'd mention it.