godsfire

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

It is dark.

((Warning: Contains traumatized characters and other content that should be warned for. We will attempt to start keeping up-to-date specific warning list soon))

Comments

[dotted_lines]

what.

He twists away and scoots back. "What? No! you are my friend why would I?"

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

She doesn't move. (It is almost as if she is consciously holding herself very still; the only sign she is not a statue is the slight tremor of her muscles).

"Because if things had gone even slightly worse earlier," she says after a moment, "you would have been seriously injured at best? Because I hurt you badly anyway? Because you are going to startle me again?

"Because if only one of us can get out of this alive, ultimately, I have backups?

"Because--" her voice catches. "Because maybe you've been playing a long game since we first started talking. And if that is the case, you currently have a perfect opportunity that I cannot do anything about."

She takes a breath. "Please make sure to destroy my brain so that whoever put us here cannot get any information off of it. And my stack, if it does not self-destruct and you do not take it with you."

[dotted_lines]

There is a brief flicker of fear on his face, quickly replaced again by confusion and dismay.

"But, but you're my friend and you didn't mean to and I'm going to try and not startle you again and, and I don't want to kill you I didn't want to kill you, you're my friend!

"I thought? Did you think I was lying the whole time?"

He curls up and hugs his knees again.

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

He does not seem to be attacking her. She... is not sure what to do with that. (She wants to go give him a hug, but no no no bad idea).

"It is, is a thing I have been concerned about? I have mostly been trying not to be, because it was not relevant and not very likely, but it is relevant, now. --If it is true, you are a terrifyingly good actor." This last sounds almost like a compliment.

She considers the rest briefly, and then continues. "Assuming that is not the case for the moment; that you are my friend means you are less likely to get a dangerous reaction, but, especially when I am high alert like I am now, still does not sum out as you being very safe."

She is silent for a little longer, and then says:

"I die horribly all the time," she says gently. "You can make this death quick and clean, if you want." Pause. She shivers, slightly. "Or you can, not, though I do not get the impression you want to. If you do, though, you should probably restrain me first."

[dotted_lines]

He stares at her in confusion and horror for a few seconds.

"Why would I-- I don't want to-- I wouldn't, that is not a thing I want to do!"


"You don't have to, but do you want a hug?"

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

She considers him confusedly. "I do not understand you," she says, eventually. "That is normal, people are confusing, but it is important right now, and I do not understand why you care."

[dotted_lines]

He takes a moment to collect his words into a coherent sentence.

"I care because you're my friend and I like you and so I don't want to hurt you or kill you."

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

That gets a more complicated facial expression. (She is starting to look a little more alive). "Mmm," she says, and closes her eyes.

She sits there for a little bit, with the expression of someone picking their way through a minefield.

"What would you do," she asks, finally, in a far-away voice "if I got infected with the exsurgent virus?"

[dotted_lines]

"Uh. If I could I'd try to get you un-infected. There's lots of magic and some of it can probably, but otherwise whatever's the fastest safest way to."

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

She seems vaguely exhausted. "Please elaborate on 'fastest safest way'? -- And -- what would you do if it was too late for that, or there was not a safe way to?"

[dotted_lines]

"If I could I'd want to at least try a bloodstone circle for minor exorcisms for un-infection, but if I couldn't." He gives her an apologetic look, "Probably lethal or disabling measures, depending on what was at hand."

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"Okay." Thorn takes a breath, and brushes a bit of loose hair out of her face. "Okay," she repeats, more clearly. "That is good." Pause. "If you think I might not be completely infected, and you can do so safely, the best thing you can probably do is use lethal measures and retrieve my stack as soon as possible. But do not put yourself at risk to do that; there is a very good chance that will be corrupted before you can do anything."

She breathes for a few moments, and then says quietly, "If that hug is still available, I would like it, please."

[dotted_lines]

"I'd like an explanation of how to do that later. But yeah, it is."

He slowly scoots back over to her and holds out his arms.

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn holds out her arms, too, but does not go so far as to initiate a hug.

(She does not seem bothered by him moving toward her, however, even in an abstracted way.)

[dotted_lines]

He pauses a moment to make sure she isn't upset about his approach, then scoots the rest of the way over and hugs her.

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn is hugged!

After a moment to collect herself, she hugs him back. "'m sorry," she says, muffledly.

[dotted_lines]

The hug continues.

He pats her back a little. "It happens. I'm pretty sure everyone's mistaken someone for a secret operative who wants to kill them at some point in their lives."

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

This gets a shaky giggle. "M-more than once, though I have been right before too or I would not still be in the habit. Sometimes it seems like everything wants me dead."

After some consideration: "I do not usually solve it that way, though." Squeeze. "I am very sorry about putting you though that, especially after the other thing, for which I am also sorry." She pauses for a moment to try to collect herself again, and then adds, "It does seem to have worked, though." (She sounds rather surprised by that; not as though it has just occurred to her, but as though she is still in the process of being surprised by it)

[dotted_lines]

He smiles back, a little sadly. "Yeah, it can be like that sometimes. But you're still alive."

Squeeze. He continues hugging his now-confirmed again friend. "Good."

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"The more I hear about Eventide, the more I think that it is a horrible world, too," Thorn says, giving him a slightly tighter hug for a moment.

His latter statement gets a confused look at he may or may not be able to see. "Hm?"

[dotted_lines]

"It has some good sides, but overall, yeah." Hugs.

He looks up at her tone of voice. "I'm glad it worked?"

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"So am I, but..." There is a great deal of bewilderment in her voice. "That is all you you have to say? --I am fairly certain you would have to actually try to hit something that triggered me verbally, if that is what you are worried about."

[dotted_lines]

"Uh. I'd like to know what was going on, and what you were trying to do that worked but you don't have to. We're back to being definitely friends, right?" Slightly tighter hug.

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn makes a quiet choking sound. "Yes," she says, hugging him tightly. "I -- how the hell do I manage to poison everything around me?"

She has to stop and breathe for a few moments to get her voice even slightly under control. "I was terrified I was going to kill you. And I knew exactly how and why and -- the short version is that I am paranoid. Which, is not news. But if you were a, a secret operative, at this point I had already very throughly lost, so I might as well find out if I could trust you. And then I went in circles on the part where I already as good as dead-or-worse if that was something I had to be concerned about from you, and the part where, especially if I did not, I really do not want to kill you, and, well... you saw the result."

She unwraps an arm long enough to rub at her eyes before hugging him again, after a close look to make sure he does not object. "It did work, although I would still recommend not startling me, but I, I am rather concerned about what I seem to have done in the process."

[dotted_lines]

He hugs back. "Good. I'm not poisoned I thought you said, though?

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I'm glad you didn't want to kill me. But yeah, it's a tough decision when you think someone might."

He does not object to being rehugged with the arm, but instead hugs a little tighter. "It's okay. I'm glad it worked, and we're friends."