falling ill

[keep_busy]

A few months after the business with the chalice, Annie (with a gold engagement stud in one earlobe, now receiving mail at Aldaras's apartment, and thoroughly comfortable with Being Necklaced, to the point where she's helping mold the thing towards more exacting standards for real-world-practical as well as theoretical compatibility) is in bed with some unidentified sort of head cold or flu. Aldaras doesn't have it so far, so she is snuggled under the covers while he makes her spicy soup to help clear her sinuses and because she's having a little trouble with non-liquids. He's worried, she's mostly just groggy. Zzzz.

Comments

[namesthesky]

"Do you want to come in again, or...?"

[darkest_evening]

"Sure. If you don't mind, anyway...?"

[namesthesky]

She shakes her head and stands aside and sits in front of her starfish.

[darkest_evening]

He finds a nearby chair and also sits, looking between her face and the starfish. This is - going to be like navigating a maze. Or a minefield.

"Please let me know if I have another comma problem?"

[namesthesky]

"I can't necessarily tell the difference between - comma problems, and accurate but unpleasant observations."

[darkest_evening]

"You have more skill at it than I do. Just look at my track record."

[namesthesky]

"I don't think I could have identified this one as the thing you're saying it is."

[darkest_evening]

Oh. Oh, damn.

"Well, would you like to hear my logic process on it?"

[namesthesky]

"Sure."

[darkest_evening]

"Well, first of all - if I were caught off guard any sort of mind-affecting magic, I would want everyone around me to not believe a word I say until it was out of me no matter how convincing I was. Even if it was relatively minor. Even if it seemed like I was combating it, because I am extremely paranoid."

[namesthesky]

"Are we going to have to treat the new Adarin that way?"

[darkest_evening]

"I think at this point there's little purpose to it. Also, it's likely the other Adarins will act different than I will, because - five hundred years old, and the most paranoid of us all."

[namesthesky]

"Would there be a point to doing this paranoia treatment with me? I mean - none of the sorts of things that I might do under the influence are - okay, some of them are, but none of the things that I'd actively try to convince you to let me do are things that would leave me in a harmed state if I were later - undone."

[darkest_evening]

"That's the thing. I was doing the paranoia treatment with you. Because I thought that was what you'd want. And - I don't know what sorts of things would leave you in a harmed state or not. It varies from person to person."

[namesthesky]

"I - am having a hard time wanting to be the un-necklaced version of myself, right now, but that doesn't mean I want to hurt that version if I'm ever going to turn into it. Why would I do that?"

[darkest_evening]

"See? That. There's - part of the disconnect, the misplaced comma. I thought, 'Of course you wouldn't care about it, you are being affected by a conspiracy necklace.' When, in fact, you're still you, with all of the intelligence and self-awareness and introspection that brings, so of course you would think that. And for missing that, I'm sorry."

[namesthesky]

"Now what?"

[darkest_evening]

"I. Don't know?"

[namesthesky]

"Well - with this - revised understanding of my relationship with my selves past and future - what do you want?"

[darkest_evening]

"I would still like for you to be un-necklaced if it's possible to manage it without distressing you."

[namesthesky]

"You may have to settle for it distressing me."

[darkest_evening]

"I. Would rather not. I like winning, remember. And that is not."

[namesthesky]

"I understand."

She picks up her pen and draws a line in her starfish.

[darkest_evening]

Prime tilts his head a little.

"... That felt very decisive and contextual for a drawing?"

[namesthesky]

"...Have I never explained my drawings to you?"