31. Pallas

[heisrisen]

[Public]

I don't actually know anything concrete about my counterpart. If I ought to know you and I don't, or if he's hurt you, then I'm truly sorry.

I go by Risen. I'll be helping in the infirmary for as long as this lasts.


[Private to Zane]

You have bunnies.

[And he has cats. What a place.]


[Private to Bianca]

How are you faring so far?

[They have never, ever been friends. Bianca jealous of Zane's attachments, Risen too stubborn to be charmed or influenced. But a step back, without the fear, with the power balance tilted less egregiously in the other direction - there are things he can appreciate about her, even respect. And when he chooses to take responsibility for someone, he is unfailingly solicitous. He is not her friend now. But neither is he insincere.]


[Open spam]

[He's in the library, awed, giddy, tearing through manuscripts long lost by his time. He lies on his back in the greenhouse, breathes slowly, remembers what a garden smells like. He is on deck, with a laser pointer, cooing the sappiest, most idiotic things at the Emperor's two cats. He has missed cats so badly.]

Comments

private

[godsays]

Of course.

I have memories of you.

private

[heisrisen]

I have - I got flashes. Scraps in dreams. But not enough to feel like I know you.

private

[godsays]

I remember hurting you and falling in love with how beautiful it was.

I'm not like that. Anymore.

private

[heisrisen]

[A wry smile, twisted in ways that are only partially visible.]

A few centuries of pampering will give anyone an...odd relationship to pain.

I fell in love right back. If you doubted it.

private

[godsays]

I didn't.

private

[heisrisen]

[He misses Zane like mad; wants to kiss this one too. He's always magnificent.]

If you're not like that anymore, then what are you like now? Besides crusading for bunnies.

[Exquisite demonstration though it was.]

private

[godsays]

I do good. I have family. I trust people.

private

[heisrisen]

I wouldn't say he's not like that. He's just...

[Selective, he thinks, although that's probably the wrong word to say. Strategic, too.]

More guarded.

private

[godsays]

Paranoid.

private

[heisrisen]

[A tiny smile, pinched at the edges of his eyes, like he doesn't quite approve of the word but thinks better of arguing it directly.]

He has to prioritize more.

private

[godsays]

Justified paranoia is still paranoia.

private

[heisrisen]

Medically, a certain amount of irrationality is implied.

[He sighs, rubs his temple.]

He's careful and he's cold. Paranoid if you insist on the word. But he's just as fierce on behalf of his family as you are.

private

[godsays]

Excessive caution is in the eye of the beholder.

But I knew he wasn't so bad.