IC Inbox

[major_rawne]

Leave a message.

Comments

[major_rawne]

[He'll be waiting for them, door propped open enough to see in.]

[chaos_drifter]

[They lean back, resting their head against the couch.] ::Would it help to think about what you can do now that things have gone the way they did? You might not be able to change the past, but you can change the present and the future.::

-> Action

[chaos_drifter]

They walk in and close the door behind them, then wrap their arms around him, leaning against his chest. They stay there for a moment, their body still. “This is nice.”

[major_rawne]

::Maybe? Mostly I just want to stop thinking at all.::

Re: -> Action

[major_rawne]

He wraps his arms around them in turn. "Yeah, it is."

[chaos_drifter]

::Not thinking at all seems impossible, at least for me.::

[major_rawne]

::If I'm tired or drunk enough, my thoughts kind of... slip away. For a while.::

[chaos_drifter]

“How are you doing otherwise?”

[chaos_drifter]

::That sounds peaceful.:: They pause. ::Or empty.:: They think they would feel empty without their thoughts, but there would always be other people’s minds if their own was silent.

[major_rawne]

"Better. This weird flood is helping to calm me down, I think." Touching people more often has benefits, who would have known?

[major_rawne]

It's both, if you do it right.:: Though it's not something he wants to do for long. After a while, it's just empty and cold.

[chaos_drifter]

“Good.” They sit down on the couch and pull out their orb, little streaks of salmon and light indigo curling over the surface. “This Flood is strange, but at least it affects our bodies rather than our minds.”

[major_rawne]

"Oh, yeah, it could be way worse," he says, sitting, "I know some people don't like it, but touching someone every once in a while is mild. Comparatively."

[chaos_drifter]

Those words feel heavier somehow, weary in a way that goes beyond the general fatigue that they can sense from him.

::Does sleeping with someone else help?:: If he has someone who would be comfortable doing that.

[major_rawne]

::Just sleeping? Yeah.:: Having someone else there, someone he trusts, usually makes him relax enough to pass out. If only for a few hours.

[chaos_drifter]

::Just sleeping,:: they clarify. ::I could do that, if it would be helpful.::

[major_rawne]

He smiles. ::I'd like that.::

[chaos_drifter]

They lean over, lightly resting their head on his shoulder. Warmth spreads through them and settles in their chest. The indigo streaks on their orb bloom, not eclipsing the black, but taking up more surface area.

“What kinds of things would be worse for you?”

[major_rawne]

"Mental torture," he says, "that one flood where mirrors appeared everywhere and alternate versions of people replaced them."

He settles an arm around their shoulders.

[chaos_drifter]

Or the reality-warping Flood that Hanna had caused.

“When something like that happens again, I might be able to help.” They have no idea what they will do if he expresses his emotions more strongly.

“Have you talked to Will or Malcolm about it?”

[major_rawne]

"No. I should, but I've been avoiding them." He doesn't feel like having his brain poked in, right now.

[chaos_drifter]

“I talked to Tendi about it,” Avalon says. “She suggested thinking about the good parts of what happened, or the parts that went better than they could have.”

[major_rawne]

"That's good advice," he says, slowly, "but easier said than done."

[chaos_drifter]

“The fortress that we saw in the dream Flood — you thought of that as a failure because lives were lost despite winning the battle, right? What else did you accomplish by winning?”

[major_rawne]

"That would have been... Jago, I think. We denied them use of one little fortress, out at the end of the fortifications. Nothing much, in my mind, considering how many casualties we had."