(no subject)

[fishy_go_byebye]

[The message to evacuate had somehow gotten lost between a tumble out of the dryer and a visit in the lobby with dancing chalk.

That was okay. Evacuations made her her itch and her skin run away. It was better, to just try and avoid the fast and quite.]

...don't like that gunk, not really grape... ape ate ace face facilitatory ish ed mmm...

...bring back some of the rocks. Not from those caves, though, the sand is slimy...

[Her journal is being toted around by one cover, and occasionally the sounds of her muttering waft quiet words onto the pages.]

Comments

[workaphilic]

You'll survive somehow, I imagine.

[fishy_go_byebye]

Don't run to the caves.

[workaphilic]

I don't plan on it. Do you?

[fishy_go_byebye]

I don't like them. [She burrows a bit into her forearms and leaves it like that.]

[workaphilic]

[He just watches her for a second, quietly.]

Can't say I disagree with you.

[fishy_go_byebye]

[Good. She hates it when people disagree with her. She'll even be kind enough not to tilt so she leans against him.

Her word is muffled.]

Good.

[workaphilic]

[He goes silent for a while, steepling his fingers under his chin and staring into space. Thinking.

Then, lightly, like it just occurred to him:]

I realize that you aren't accustomed to or fond of staying in one place, but it's necessary right now. I can't be monitoring you constantly.

[fishy_go_byebye]

[She doesn't say anything. Worry or not, she'll go where she will. He probably knows that, and she could promise - and really truly mean to keep it - but it wouldn't change the facts.]

They told me it's rude to lie.

[workaphilic]

[A pause. Yes, alright.]

Get someone who does have the time to monitor you constantly, then.

[fishy_go_byebye]

Barnabas couldn't come along.

[A little sigh. And then she adds on sulkily.]

...Don't need a keeper.

BLUH NOTIFS STOP HIDING THINGS FROM ME

[workaphilic]

[stiffly:]

You do now.

NEVARRR

[fishy_go_byebye]

[She opens her mouth to say something, and then closes it as she kicks at the floor.

Not fair.]

[workaphilic]

Stop that. [He glowers at the opposite wall.] You'll be thanking me when you're not laid up like the rest of them.

[fishy_go_byebye]

'Snot like they could catch me...

[workaphilic]

[Aaand, he rolls his eyes.]

Oh, well, if you're confident.

[Boy, he is laying that sarcasm on thick.]

[fishy_go_byebye]

[She wiggles away from him a little bit. He doesn't have to say it like that. It was mean, and she didn't deserve it and it wasn't fair!

Have a little sniffle.]

[workaphilic]

[Oh.

He's silent for a few seconds, at a loss for what to do. He didn't intend to upset her, of course, this is just the only way he knows how to deal with the cocktail of emotions he's feeling right now. A twinge of annoyance gets mixed in with the rest of them -- annoyance with himself, if he's really honest, but he does what he always does and points it outward.]

Oh, what now? How is that supposed to do anyone any good?

[Jesus Christ, Sherlock.]

[fishy_go_byebye]

[She likes you man, why you do dis?

A snake tattoo slithers around her eye, trailing down her cheek before sowing her lips shut inkily. She sounds sulky above the hurt, with snappy anger roiling through her fingers.]

Tick will wake up and it's only two weeks anyway and it's not like there was a giant fox or a blue boy that isn't what he was being a ghost.

[So why was he acting like the twinkle lights had said they love him.]

[workaphilic]

That's not the point.

[Doesn't matter because John still isn't awake, still might die, and two weeks or not the thought still makes something molten and heavy and unpleasant lodge in his stomach, his lungs, beneath his ribs. It isn't fun when keeping or losing John is a corollary of success or failure. (Learned that ages ago in a pool with snipers and semtex.)

Worse because he can't do anything to stop it, has to rely too much on the expertise of others. He's fulfilling a supporting role here, he's aware, and it sets his mind buzzing with idleness and frustration that he can't sleep through, eat through, think through.

The sooner it ends, the better.]

[fishy_go_byebye]

[She just... can't comprehend today. Can't grasp onto the realms of human emotion that were driving people to be... like they were. The fear, the worry, the despair. It couldn't fit between her fragments, not with them shifted just wrong.

So she couldn't understand. Had no idea where to begin grasping him, right now. Instead, she just inched a little further away before standing up and starting to wander off again.]

I am very pointed...

[workaphilic]

[He's not about to allow that. It's selfish, mostly (can't stand the thought of the noise getting any worse than it already is, mind might collapse in on itself entirely, don't want to tempt fate), but he still gets up and reaches to grasp her wrist, lightly.]

Don't. Stay here, focus. On something, anything, doesn't have to be me.

[fishy_go_byebye]

[his grabbing her hand has her jerking slightly before agreeing. Settling on the floor next to him again, muttering a count under her breath.]

[workaphilic]

[He sits with her, watching but not speaking. (Talking didn't seem to help much before.) He'll watch her as long as he's able, but he knows there's only so much he can do.

Trying to confine her to one place is probably the most pointless endeavor he's ever taken on.]

[fishy_go_byebye]

[The very most. But who would he be if he didn't?

To hold something indescribable was a thing to try, even if just for a moment.]