[muffled spooky scary skeletons playing in the distance]

[geonomy]

Who: You! Me! Everybody!
Broadcast: idk but we've sure got a pretty broad cast of folks eh, eh
Action: HECK YEAH PLANET MINGLE
When: 10/7 until plot update or recaptcha

It's a deep, deep forest filled to the brim with fungi, mysterious life forms, and pitch black darkness. Explore if you dare and discover all these things and more! Just don't get lost...

Comments

[sylphystia]

Probably. [But he'd wear it anyway. Dezel is just that kind of person, even if he won't admit it. Mikleo could've made him the most embarrassing, ugly hat in existence, but Dezel would treasure it. People don't give him things. People don't make friends with cursed seraphim.

He rubs at his nose. Mikleo dips his feet into the water, but Dezel feels no such urge. It's cold in there. He does wiggle his fingers a little, though, and lead leaves across the water like tiny boats.]

... You were sick for a while. Are you sure you're good now?

[nerdeology]

[Some people do. Some people find his company to be enough of a blessing.

Mikleo purses his lips at that, watching the leaves drift around in the water.]

Good enough that I'll probably lose my mind if I stay in that room any longer.

[sylphystia]

[Dezel makes a noise that's kind of like a chuckle.]

I get it.

[A moment passes, and another. He doesn't always feel the need to punctuate the silence, especially an easy and comfortable one like this.]

I was sick when I first got here, but it wore off after a day or two. [He probably would've killed someone if he'd been stuck for weeks like Mikleo was.]

[nerdeology]

I didn't know that.

[They hadn't been around Dezel much at the time, admittedly- hadn't wanted to crowd him after the initial meeting. It isn't all that surprising to hear that Dezel might've kept that particular detail to himself.]

To be honest, I'd been getting kind of worried... I didn't even know if I would recover. I'm just grateful to be back on my feet.

[sylphystia]

[Ack. Yeah, he hadn't...] I didn't want you guys to worry any more than you already were. If it was life-threatening, I would've mentioned it.

Probably.

[He's not sure, now, but whatever.]

I'm thinking we shouldn't make it a habit. For a few reasons.

[nerdeology]

...No argument here.

[Mikleo shifts, his expression uncomfortable, and quietly hugs his knees close to his chest. He still doesn't like thinking about it. Dying, coming back, having to deal with all of the memories associated with both. All of the memories associated with what he'd become and what he'd done.

Fire, blood, the sensation of wings beneath phantom wings he no longer has.

Power.]

[sylphystia]

[Dezel notes the change in Mikleo's posture and how he gets silent. He's not a conversationalist; he has no idea what to change the subject to. All he can do is sit here. Uselessly. And try not to think about how this was probably the result of his own blessing.

It's selfish to focus on his pain above everyone else's. He's learning that, and so...

... so, very cautiously, he leans over that extra inch and slips his arm around Mikleo. He keeps his eyes forward, not that it matters much, but it'll give Mikleo some illusion of privacy, probably.]

[nerdeology]

[Mikleo goes still as he's suddenly hugged, genuinely startled. He's been held and cared for almost endlessly since his return, and he hasn't exactly resented it, but it's been strange and unusual. He can't help feeling that he really must be a mess if everyone has such a great need to coddle him like he's a glass thing about to shatter. He hasn't needed anything like this since he was little. And yeah, he hasn't given them any reason to believe otherwise- his fragile physical state, the hallucinations, the fever, the nightmares... still. Has he really become so pitiful that even Dezel feels the need to hug him?

Almost immediately after the thoughts come to mind, though, he feels ashamed. Dezel doesn't pity him. He's probably the last person who would. After all, he's been through something like this. He'd died in malevolence. He'd been pulled back from it after the fact, revived and remembered. He'd dealt with the aftermath, the words, grief, and sympathies of those who'd lived without him.

It's not pity. This is understanding, in its purest form.

After a long moment he very gently leans his body against Dezel's, buries his face against his knees, and hugs them a little more tightly to himself. This is fine. Maybe it's something they both need.

And if he trembles a little, if his shoulders shake, well, at least no one will see it.]

[sylphystia]

[Dezel doesn't pity him in the slightest. He sees himself in Mikleo, and he's sure that others have, too. They both sacrificed for the humans they chose-- and when a seraph chooses a human, it means everything. He can feel Mikleo's trembling and he knows he was there once-- maybe more than once. When he woke up and realized he was alive but cut off from the world, alive and dead at the same time...

He holds the water seraph a little tighter, curling about him with a warm summer wind. He thinks Mikleo might be close to crying. He reaches up with his other hand and gently slips the hat off his head only to plunk it down on Mikleo's, brim tilted downward to hide the boy's face.]

[nerdeology]

[He hadn't wanted to cry. Had been fighting it, in fact; there's no need to burden Dezel with that, when he's already doing so much. The whole point of this had been to show his gratitude to the other seraph- not just for what happened, because more thanks and apologies were unwanted, but for being a friend, for caring. This was supposed to be a gift.

But then Dezel had to go and do that, and Mikleo knows what the hat means to him. Even if it's just a replica, he'd seen the look on Dezel's face when he'd received it. It's so much more than that.

Shifting one hand very slightly, Mikleo touches the brim with tremulous fingers, holding it in place. It's too big for him, and the material is soft and warm against his hair. Too big... which means it's just big enough to hide the tears he can't hold back anymore.

Maybe he doesn't deserve this after what happened, but he'll sure as hell take it.]