/Hey. Can we talk for a moment? I totally get if you don't want to talk to me again and all, but you know, I just thought I should try anyway. No pressure, though./
/Yeah. I... Okay. So. I suck at apologies? So again, I know you're upset and I hurt your feelings and for that, I'm really sorry. I had a shitty time, and I should have been more transparent, and there are reasons why I don't deal with stuff so well, but that doesn't justify it? So. I get it if you want to extend that three days and all./
/Aurora brought my home to Etraya, from before we lost Krakoa, where I used to live with my sisters and mum. I just felt shitty and stayed there to mope. Trashed the whole place, but — we cleaned it.
[She is very pointedly and purposely keeping her thoughts on the mundane journey. Say goodbye to Gustave. Down the stairs. Out of the apartment, all the way to the train.]
(She knows Maelle can take care of herself, but it'd just be irresponsible if she just let Maelle go around the island without directions. She's where she promised, telekinetically trying to shove a snake or two away from the station, but she can't throw very far. Bummer.)
Hey.
(When she sees her, a little sigh of relief, but also? She feels so damn bad. Not that she's showing that a whole lot, she mostly looks very intense.)
[Snakes may like basking in the sun, but fire??? Not so much. They slither out of her way when that rapier is lit up. She wants to see Sophie. She doesn't want to see Sophie. Like Verso, it feels easier to just write off the closeness as her seeing too much of what she wants to see.
She doesn't rush up for a hug, arms crossed over her middle.]
(For privacy sake? Maelle's brain is back into the sea of background noise. She won't listen unless it screams, but she notices the lack of a hug. She's already hard on herself, this only hits her wound harder.
But, okay. She's not a coward. She'll make amends.)
Come on, careful with the snakes. It's that huge pointy thing on the cliff.
(The way there is awkward, because of course it is, but Sophie does her best. Of course she's tapping her nails on each other, trying to fidget away her disregulation by the time she opens the door to the huge structure. It's got some shooting marks against the rock, some fire stains, she did say she trashed it before she cleaned it. But there it is. Rich, imposing, dominating Frost.)
[Maelle lets an uncomfortable silence settle between them. She's being petty. She knows Sophie feels bad. She knows it probably wasn't personal. But her feelings were hurt and she's sore and it's better than saying something ugly she'll regret.]
Welcome to us. We're not at all known for our warmth, loving, receptive, and welcoming personalities; it's quite the opposite. Our personality is mostly just a huge red flag.
(Which Maelle might be able to get, considering that Sophie struggles between the two ends. Too much of one, she feels uncomfortable. Wrong. Which is the point of the whole thing. She moves to the fireplace, getting it lit before sitting on the floor with a pillow, gesturing for Maelle to do the same.)
You know. What do you know about hiveminds, actually? Like, how do you think it works?
'Aware' is an understatement. It's more like... You know, when I let you feel what I felt when I was driving? It's, uh. That to literally everything, times five. Every move is synchronized, every thought, feeling, sensation, we move as one, think as one, talk as one, breathe as one — even when we don't individually agree, what matters is the unit.
(And that's where it gets interesting. Individuality, agreeing, disagreeing.)
One of us has to deal with that. Lead, kinda, even if that's really loose to begin with. It's the strongest one, physically. So, that'd be me, which fucking sucks, by the way. So, the one place I've actually lived in the longest, because I've been dead the whole time thanks to being the strongest one no less, shows up — that disregulates my shit. I didn't even go to that fucking school, again, dead when it came around, the one I went to has me buried with a bunch of other kids in the backyard.
So. I needed to mope and mourn a little. Here we are.
[Maelle is quiet, not quite looking at Sophie as she speaks. More death, more burials. Some things are universal, and it's certainly seeming death favors some more than most.]
God, no. Disregulated. Furious. Sad. Mopey, and I get really, really shitty when I'm like that. You deserve more from me than seeing me looking like a kicked dog and then having to deal with my — shit, I guess.
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Okay. I'm back, alright? It's fine. It wasn't fine, but I'm fine now./
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[And her, beneath the hurt that burned more than she likes to admit. It just makes her all the more cranky.]
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Do you want to know what happened or do we want to move on?/
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... Do you want to go see it?/
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Do you actually want me to, or are you just trying to appease me?
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If I wanted to appease you, I'd take you shopping or sneak you a cooler. I want to show you./
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[Just sulking.]
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Heading out now.
[She is very pointedly and purposely keeping her thoughts on the mundane journey. Say goodbye to Gustave. Down the stairs. Out of the apartment, all the way to the train.]
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Hey.
(When she sees her, a little sigh of relief, but also? She feels so damn bad. Not that she's showing that a whole lot, she mostly looks very intense.)
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She doesn't rush up for a hug, arms crossed over her middle.]
Hi.
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But, okay. She's not a coward. She'll make amends.)
Come on, careful with the snakes. It's that huge pointy thing on the cliff.
(The way there is awkward, because of course it is, but Sophie does her best. Of course she's tapping her nails on each other, trying to fidget away her disregulation by the time she opens the door to the huge structure. It's got some shooting marks against the rock, some fire stains, she did say she trashed it before she cleaned it. But there it is. Rich, imposing, dominating Frost.)
What do you think?
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... it's cold.
[She doesn't mean the temperature.]
I would hate to live here.
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(Which Maelle might be able to get, considering that Sophie struggles between the two ends. Too much of one, she feels uncomfortable. Wrong. Which is the point of the whole thing. She moves to the fireplace, getting it lit before sitting on the floor with a pillow, gesturing for Maelle to do the same.)
You know. What do you know about hiveminds, actually? Like, how do you think it works?
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Like... you're all connected? You're aware of one another.
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(And that's where it gets interesting. Individuality, agreeing, disagreeing.)
One of us has to deal with that. Lead, kinda, even if that's really loose to begin with. It's the strongest one, physically. So, that'd be me, which fucking sucks, by the way. So, the one place I've actually lived in the longest, because I've been dead the whole time thanks to being the strongest one no less, shows up — that disregulates my shit. I didn't even go to that fucking school, again, dead when it came around, the one I went to has me buried with a bunch of other kids in the backyard.
So. I needed to mope and mourn a little. Here we are.
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And you couldn't have said that? Before?
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Like I haven't seen you like that before...?
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