Emotions, Physical Violence and Hallucinations

Mei Ming is continuing her care of Cole after the incidents of the Grim infested basement but is interrupted by Cerise. With a tendency to lie, she has been making up stories about Cerise and how he forced himself on her and made her overuse her semblance. Cerise submits to the abuse but subtly warns Cole about Mei Ming and mark his little understanding of her. Cerise feels oddly loyal and attracted to Mei Ming because he knows the real person she is, and when Cole puts her in danger when he starts to act violently due to psychological disturbance in the form of auditory hallucinations from the Grimm infiltration, Cerise jumps to protect Mei Ming who does not show her appreciation.

## RP Repository Summary

Cerise approaches Cole and Mei Ming in the garden, somewhat interrupting a romantic moment.

Cerise tries to make it clear that Mei Ming isn't who Cole thinks she is through his attitude towards Mei Ming, hinting at their earlier involvement. However, upon finding out that Cole got hurt because Mei Ming had used her semblance on him, he feels guilty and tries to remove suspicion by using his pleasure inducing semblance, so that he'd stop paying attention and hopefully forget the whole thing. This just makes the situation worse though, as Mei Ming starts coming onto Cole making his injuries worse. Once Cerise and Mei Ming are alone, she degrades him once again; Cerise is beginning to fall for her.

## EXP Awarded

**Cerise Moani** - 115 EXP (Cerise shows the impact of Mei Ming’s actions, and begins to form an unhealthy attraction and loyalty to her.)

**Mei Ming** - 110 EXP (Mei Ming continues to display her manipulative and lying features.)

**Cole Tarnung** - 100 EXP (Playing the part of a major tool in this roleplay, Cole starts to doubt Mei Ming.)

## Roleplay

Cole walked out of the auditorium with Mei Ming beside him, their arms crossed with each other.

"Well, Camping or a crowded conference hall?" Cole asked

Mei Ming held onto his arm on one side and held onto her cane on her other arm, "Well, I would say we would get to meet more people in a crowded conference hall, but that's not as fun as camping now is it?" she smiled, semi-blushing.

"Well, true, so Camping it is?" Cole confirmed

Mei Ming giggled, flattening her dress a bit, "So then, shall we get settled in the tent?" she said as she kissed his cheek.

Cole blushed and touched his cheek where she had kissed him.

"O...of course." Cole said

Dutch amaryllis, calatheas, birds of paradise, Cerise admired them all as he walked through the garden, mentally noting that he would love to maybe meet the person taking care of it so he could get some samples for his own garden. As he was walking he spotted Mei Ming with Cole, and although he didn't have the best first impression of Cole he thought it would be rude to ignore Mei Ming. Walking up to her, he greeted her with a small peck on the cheek. "Hey lovely, what are you up to in the garden? It really is a shame you already used up your semblence, I'm sure you could really appreciate these flowers if you were able to see them, considering how much you were able to appreciate mine. ;)" He then turned to cole, greeting him with a curt "Hey."

"My, I thought I may find you here!" Mei Ming said, blushing and giggling as she gave Cerise a hug, greeting him, "And we were just talking about you, I thought you may appreciate the exotic arrangement of flowers here. But yes, it is rather a shame. I am not used to feeling so vulnerable!" She giggled again at his last note, though internally nervous if Cole understood his meaning.

Cole was adjusting his tent before turning to Cerise.

"Fancy seeing you here." Cole said

Having seen Mei Ming's true colors just recently, Cerise was feeling a little hesitant in how to act. He was really feeling irritated with Cole though; his greatest pet peeve next to rejection was ignorance. If he always faced the world's truths head on, even the bad ones, why wouldn't others? Ignoring any potential punishment from Mei Ming, he was set on showing Cole that she wasn't who he thought she was: a sweet, innocent girl to have a happy life with. "Well, it shouldn't be so surprising considering what I share with the garden..." Cerise said as he gave his flower a light touch. "But Mei Ming here seems to know me well enough to figure out my habits!" Then turning to Mei Ming, he said "Well if it's any comfort sweetheart, seeing you in such a vulnerable state only makes you cuter... It feels like a whole wall has crumbled between us as compared to when I first met you."

Mei Ming giggled, feeling a little irked by his presence. Though she wasn't entirely expecting less. She masked her annoyance with a smile turned back to Cole, tilting her head in Cerise's direction, "Is that so, dearest?" she continued to smile, "Well, isn't that lovely. Don't you agree? It's better not to have your walls up when you're trying to get to know someone.. as unique.. as you. However, my lack of semblance did happen to be a small problem earlier. I won't get much into it, but I couldn't help but feel more upset with myself. Being useless in such a dire situation. Cole here suffered the most because of it, and we can both agree I didn't use my semblance for anything .. crucial.. and that the whole thing could have been avoided if someone hadn't had such an.. imposing .. presence." She said, selecting her words carefully and talking a little sternly, hoping he would get the picture.

"What are you getting at Cerise? And about the last time. I really felt disturbed the way you played? Played? Well, the action that you did to my shoulder gave me a very..chilling vibe. So sorry if you felt offended." Cole said.

Damn, was Mei Ming really going to play that card? Blaming her used up semblance on him? She was the one who offered to use it! He didn't even realize that using her semblance was what she meant by the phrase "use her mouth"! Although... did she say dire situation? Cole suffered? Now that she mentioned it... Cerise did notice some bandages peeking out from under Cole's shirt... Was it his fault that Cole got hurt? Cerise began to feel an immense guilt weigh on his shoulders, to the point where he totally lost sight of his initial goal. "Oh... I... Didn't realize... I'm sorry.." Cerise said, uncharacteristically dropping eye contact with both. He didn't mean to make Cole feel "played" either, his apology referring to Cole's concerns as well. If anything, he was just trying to play around to give everyone a good time..

"It's fine. Nothing a hunter like me can't shrug off." Cole tried getting up but fell back onto the ground as soon and he got up.

The pain kicked in. But Cole did his best to resist it

Mei Ming smiled a bit at Cerise's weaknesses and acceptance of the blame but quickly hid it as she turned to Cole, rushing to his side, "Dear! Are you alright? I should have asked for more painkillers for you," she said, sounding concerned as she helped lift him up, "Do you need any?"

"Mei. I'm fine. And, what was Cerise saying?" Cole looked into her eyes.

Mei Ming looked at him with concern and sighed, "We were just talking about something personal to Cerise, dear," she said, "Isn't that right?" she glanced over to Cerise.

"The truth. Mei. The truth. I don't want I lose people that are close to me because of secrets. I've learnt a few tricks from my buddy. So no lying to me please." Cole looked at her.

Cerise was already feeling guilty over Cole getting physically hurt because of him... He wasn't sure if he wanted to be the source of any emotional pain at this point either... "Yea.. something personal...It doesn't involve you, so don't worry about it, okay?" Cerise gave with a
wink to perhaps lighten the mood.

"I wouldn't lie to you, Cole," Mei Ming smiled and kissed his cheek, "Trust me, it's as Cerise says."

"I do not take it lightly when something is being kept from me." Cole stated.

She internally sighed at his persistence, but couldn't lose his support, "Nobody is trying to keep anything from you, dear," she said, "I think there just may be some sort of miscommunication. The issue with Cerise and I is as I stated earlier, I know about Cerise's habits, though it isn't difficult to infer, and Cerise knows a little about my background. This was due to a rather imposing situation Cerise had me in..." she frowned and looked to Cerise, "But I forgive you, Cerise, I know it's only in your nature.. to be that way... However, I will appreciate no more of your physical contact. For you see... I actually have my eyes on someone right now." She looked back to Cole and smiled warmly.

Cole sighed. "Fine...if that is the case." Cole tried getting up again and succeeding in doing so. Walking over to Mei Ming and hugged her.

"No more hiding secrets from me. Understand?" Cole said.

Listen, Cole, just don't worry about it..." Now that Mei Ming had stated her cover up, Cerise felt like the time was right to use his semblance. His flower glowed a faint pink as pollen drifted out. Cerise was hoping the high that the pollen would induce would help ease Cole's pain, as well as get him to drop the topic at hand. Getting Mei Ming high as well would be an unintentional side effect, but maybe it would be for the best as Cerise didn't necessarily want to put up with any more of her harsh lies.

"Wh..What?" Cole began to feel ecstasy.

'Oh no, not this again, I have little control over myself when Cerise uses his semblance,' Mei Ming turned white but hid it quickly as she hugged Cole back, already feeling the effects of the pollen as she started to feel lightheaded and a little more loose. She giggled unintentionally and stroked Cole's face smiling. "You're very important to me, do you know that, dear?" she said to Cole. She hugged and kissed him, and stretched her arm out to Cerise, "Come join us, won't you dear?" she smiled at Cerise. "Did you want to camp out with us?"

"N... Not... gonna... Ha... happened." Cole shook his head, Trying to fight off the effects.

"Cerise. What... is.. going on?"

Mei Ming pinned him down, "Having some sort of trouble, dear?" she asked, "Come on, loosen up." She said, tugging on him, "It's fun!" She gave him another kiss, hoping to have some sort of effect, this time longer.

"Mei!...Stop.... W..what... is going... On.." Cole could feel his wound stinging, reaching for it, he felt that it was wet.

"M.. my.. wound..." He whispered before covering it with his coat.

He didn't want to worry Mei Ming or cause anymore problems for them.

He wanted to play along but it felt wrong to.

Mei Ming pulled away, smiling, unsure why Cole wasn't enjoying this, "Something the matter, dear?" she asked.

"N... nothing... I'm.. Fine.. but.. this... this isn't my definition of fun..." Cole stated lightly, trying to mask his pain.

Cerise wasn't used to people fighting the effects of his semblance, they usually reveled in it! He could clearly see that things were taking a turn for the worse though, opposite to what he intended, the sight of blood especially put him in a panic. Being the only sober one around though, Cerise knew he had to intervene. Rushing to Mei Ming and Cole, he pushed Mei Ming off of the other, "Cole, I'm so sorry!!! Your wounds... I'll get you help." Afraid to leave Mei Ming alone with Cole, he dragged her off with him to fetch Patchouli.

"I'm.. fine!" Cole sat back down and reached for his knife and a small Bunsen burner, grabbing a few herbs.

"Wounds... like this... Isn't hard for me to stop the bleeding." Cole heated the blade and crushed the leaves of the herb to make a paste, taking out some gauges, Cole opened the bandage and cleaned the blood off, pouring the paste on the opened wound, Cole took the knife and pressed it against the paste and wound, slowly stopping the bleeding.

"Next time... Don't.. do that... when I am wounded.." Taking the gauges, Cole covered the wound and tied the bandage back before leaning against the tree.

Mei Ming giggled as Cerise dragged her away, "My, Cerise, this isn't like you. Why acting so heroic? I probably could have handled the situation, after I noticed I was causing him pain. However, hopefully that won't be the only pain I'll be causing him," Mei Ming smiled, once they were away from Cole so he couldn't hear them, not having control over herself and allowing her true feelings to show. She continued, "Cerise, dear. I must thank you, however, for your support, you're much more useful than I thought and a lot more fun than Cole is." She smiled and turned back towards Cole, "Ah, it seems he has taken care of the immediate threat, but we should probably still fetch Professor Russet."

Cole watched as they left.

"Something... isn't right. The neck strike on our first meet... the way her pupils moved when I insisted on knowing. I am.. not going to be lied to...again. I really hope Mei isn't what I thought she was..." Cole talked to himself grabbing his journal.

"If she finds this. She'll know I'm suspecting her. And she'll not trust me. I need someone to help me keep it or destroy it. Auric or Sable... No... Sigh." Cole laid his head against the tree.

Looking up, Cole decided to head back to Mistral when there was a holiday, burning the book there or burying it.

"I mean... it's not the first time I've had to handle an assault... I see a lot of poor girls suffering out in my field of work.. I think Cole's had his fair share of suffering by now, do you really have to continue targeting him? Am I not good enough for you?" Cerise said, his voice taking a more serious tone than usual. He knew that he was being taken advantage of.. but... in a way it was a relief to be able to be his real self around someone... and have that person be he real self around him. Upon arrival to the infirmary, Cerise gave a quick rapt on Patchouli's office door.

Mei Ming smiled and tilted her head looking genuinely confused, "You do realize that you're not good enough for anyone? Why would I settle for just you when I deserve more? I was born and bred to be elite. I will use whomever I please to get my way, I thought you realized that by now, dear," she smiled, sensing that Cerise was having mixed feelings about her. Once they were inside, the building. She pulled Cerise aside and gave him a deep kiss, hoping to have an effect on him, "But don't worry, dear, I still need you." She stood aside as they made it to the infirmary, calling out with fake concern, "Oh, Professor Russet! We have a situation! Cole's injuries seem to be causing him trouble and we need your help!"

Patchouli was getting the papers ready for physical examinations of all the students and filling her medicine cabinet, using her semblance here and there to convert components of chemicals to those that she needed. She was having a grand time, it was a relatively peaceful day, and she had settled a lot of plans with the other professors and was happy to be getting along with them, even Yín. She sighed as she heard someone knocking the door, "Spoke too soon," she muttered, but became concerned as she heard Ms. Ming's voice, though sounding a little forced. She quickly grabbed a medical bag and opened the door, "Show me to him, and I'll see what I can do. Ms. Lobelia and I have already treated his injuries but that boy doesn't know how to sit still. Let's go," she said, as she followed them.

Cole waited for their arrival. Standing up right, having kept the journal somewhere, he had his back facing the way that lead to his tent, he was admiring the way the leaves fell

Suddenly the voices began to ramble about Mei and Cerise.

"They're having an affair behind your back!"

"Mei Ming is only using you for her own success!"

"You're a failure! You can never succeed"

"Feed to the jealousy!"

Cole held his forehead and creased it, shaking his head.