31 - Video - Backdated to 4th

[fireincarnate]

[It's amazing, what playing with life and death will take out of you.

She's not sure what she did, exactly - just that she fixed something that was broken, and it took near everything she had. And it came on top of everything else - a month of being helpless, the chaos of the collision, the loss of everyone on Mirror Barge, their own people still missing.

(If she thinks about it took hard - about where Anya might be, if she's even alive - she thinks she might break.)

So she's just been resting. Recovering her strength, regaining her equilibrium. Talking to Morgana helped and hurt in equal measure, but it gave her the push she needed.

She knows how to put on a good face - to look calm and assured, even when she's twisted up inside. Her smile is warm and open, lit by the fire dancing round her fingers.]

I know we're all recovering right now. For those who don't know - I'm something of a therapist. If anyone wants to talk, I'm here.

[Current Patients]

How are you doing? Do you need anything?

[Wichita]

[Her smile turns rueful.] I'm sorry it took me this long to check in. Did you come through everything okay?

[Emperor]

[This is the first time she hesitates. She's not sure how she feels, now, about the choices she made on Mirror Barge. About how she's changed and what that means. About what his goal really was, in guiding her.

But ignoring it would be cowardly - and whatever his reasons, he helped her. He made her feel strong, secure, in ways she didn't think possible.]

I wanted to thank you. [Yes, that's true enough.] I know you had a bigger agenda, there, but I - I think I would have been a lot worse, without you there.

Comments

[private]

[routemistress]

[Iris looks exhausted, like she's stacked a death toll on top of not sleeping for a month, and her eyes are red.]

I don't know if it's therapy I need, Jean love, or just more gin, but I do want to 'ave a word soon. I've got some of Bianca's memories, from the last couple of days.

[chaotica]

'Something of'?

[private]

[beingdifferent]

I'm perfectly safe.

[Esther's voice is flat as a dull coin. The last time she slept through this event she screamed until her throat had bled. This time she isn't allowing herself to react at all -- to the chance she missed again, likely forever.]

Are you well?

[private]

[heisrisen]

Please don't thank me.

[Flat and bitter and angry.]

private;

[cons]

I'm fine.

That other Barge sucked, but I'm fine.

lazarus ate what i had for you // private

[persecutioncomplex]

[She's been dodging most of the Barge for a month, working to erase every spot of decay in hopes that it would give her her people back, not the imitations some demiurge created, and she doesn't know if she's completely succeeded, not when uninhabited cabins still linger. But Jean is here, the real one, and she essays back a tired smile of relief.]

I don't know if I can talk about it yet. Should I?