driftfleet | Video.

Entry tags:

Video.

Who: Sam and you!
Broadcast: fleetwide
Action: Bloodsport or Iskaulit Bar if you find a way to squeeze in an action thread!
When: Today or whatevs, but backdated stuff is cool too.

[The last week has been really, really rough. Most people probably know.

He's been all but nonexistent for that entire week, and a few days after, too. Buried in hell memories and glitched to the point of barely functioning, he had stayed aboard the Bloodsport mostly with Nami. For the better, he knows later on; Nami understood him best, when it came to that side of him. It doesn't make him anymore ashamed and embarrassed that people had to see that. It makes him a bit depressed in the short time that follows. He wakes up on the third as himself — himself now, anyway. But he decided to just sleep for a day or two and try not to think about all the baggage.

But — he'll get pushed to move eventually, and the bar does need bartenders.

He will be out at the bar as he had been before the glitch.

It was what it was, he reminds himself. It was a part of him, and it's... well, it's not over, it'll never be over, but he's come a long way. He's better than that husk he'd been in the garden. He adapted and he survived. That has to count for something.

Still, there's some things to address.]

[Video.]

Hey, guys, I'm alive. Sorry for being so MIA at the bar, but I'm back now... Let me know if I missed anything.

[He's much better. See?? No burns or scars, and he's got his hair brushed, and everything is A-OK.]

I wanted to... apologize to everyone who ran into me, last week. I, uh, I said some pretty miserable crap and I know I sounded like a crazy person. And I just wanted to thank you guys for putting up with, um... that part of me. It's been years, and I'm much better now, and I don't... want anyone to - [He pauses, wringing a rag from the bar in his hands.] - to worry or anything like that.

I'm okay now.

So If you need a drink, I'll be here.

[A deep breath.]

Well... I don't want to just leave it on that note, so.

... Aaaah, let me think.

...

What's something you've accomplished that you're really proud of?

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What a surprise that is. [She's none too impressed. But she'll take him up on it.] I'll come by tomorrow.

[lol no. See you in twenty minutes.]

[... Mrrrrr. Dammit.]

I'll be waiting the whole week.

[Guess he'll have to steel himself for whatever she may wanna chat about in twenty minutes.]

[Potentially nothing at all. It all depends. He twitched at things he shouldn't twitch at, but she knows precious little about his time in Hell and maybe things are different now.

So when she arrives, she hops up on a stool and crosses her arms on the bar, looking terribly cheerful.] What have you got that I haven't tried?

[Sam is always surrounded by echoes. She'll watch and wait for now.]

[... This is gonna be one of those heavy talks, huh?

He smiles, though, because it's good to see Katie as... himself. Or the him he can work with, anyway.]

There's a whole new inventory with a lot of kick.

I suggest avoiding the top shelf unless you want the worst hangover ever.

Well now, that just sounds like a challenge. [She rests her chin on her hands, giving him a cutesy smile.] But I suppose I should at least pretend I grew up a little. How about half a glass?

[It's fine, Sam! If she sees no sign you're seeing weird echoey shit in this bar or, say, the twitching tip of her tail or some such, there'll be no heavy talk at all.]

[He obliges — gives her a glass of something not too strong, because he can't help but be worried about her a little bit like she's still a kid. Give him some credit, okay, he's doing his best. As he puts the glass down, he does his best to ignore the flickers of echo; he kind of resents it a little, because it's like it's trying to get him all thrown off right now.

He considers something as he places it down.]

Half full or half empty?

[Her eyebrow goes up. Spoilsport. But--] Yes.

{Did you expect a clear answer, seriously. She takes the glass and toasts him silently with it, taking a small swallow. Honestly, she's not one for strong liquor anyway.]

So. You seem to be doing better. How much do you remember of what happened?

Ummm... Most of it. All of it, really.

[He rubs the back of his head, forcing one of his patented force-smiles.]

It sucked. A lot.

Here I thought you'd treat it as a vacation. You certainly revisit there often enough.

[She says it gently.]

Do you remember talking about my ears?

... I might... remember a thing or two about that, yeah.

[He doesn't want to lie to Katie, contrary to it being her favorite naturally endowed pastime.]

It's been kind of a problem for a while now, I guess. Just... smaller.

[She stills, peering over the rim of her glass at him with a suddenly wary expression.]

"For a while."

[He's certainly apologetic already.

Maybe this should have come up, but... she was a kid. It was different.]

Since we left Adstringendum.

[Well shit, Sam. You can see the outrage you didn't tell her flare in her expression, but she doesn't say as much. Instead, she resumes chewing on her lip for a moment, deep in thought, before she finally lifts her hand, palm up.]

Can you see this?

[She summons a wisp of light. Which will then mosey across the room and flare briefly before vanishing in front of another customer. Given it's a spell that only her kind are meant to see, and all...]

[He totally reads that outrage and has the sense to look a little guilty, ducking his chin as he... clearly watches the wisp of light travel, all the way until it disappears. It all makes a lot of sense. It's not like he didn't have his suspicions, but...]

... You were just a kid. What was I supposed to say?

How much of a kid do you really think I was, Sam? [That long. That long means she has to shuffle some of her own memories of events into a different light. This isn't a simple case of accidental enchantment. Not with the timing.] Did you ever think of the timing? Do you think maybe holding a piece of me had come with repercussions? Did that occur?

[She's dreamt of hell. Sporadically, not commonly. She put it down to the fleeting glimpses of Sam's memories she'd seen, and later on her own experiences, but now? She wonders.]

Of course it did.

[He sighs.]

But it was a cakewalk for a while, compared to the other crap. The hallucinations, the — hell. [He swallows.] I don't know, Katie. There's always so much going on, I don't even know where what begins and ends, and I don't even know where to start fixing them.

[She runs her hands over her face, rubbing fingers into the bridge of her nose. Hurgh.]

Is it getting better or worse?

... Worse.

[Said with the best of pauses in an attempt to find an answer that isn't the truth. But alas. He rubs the back of his neck with a frown.]

There was a planet a while back, it did... something. When it released some kind of — magic energy? I don't know. It's been progressing after since. And then when I was... um. The me from Hell, I might have... made it worse.

[There's a few moments where she's quiet, trawling her own memory of time long gone past for Katie. There was a wave of energy, she remembers that. She tried to follow it back to its source like a needy magic addict. Too young to parse the effects.

...ran into Sascha. She remembers that. Let's not think about that too hard.

She owes him an explanation, and it's going to hurt. So she points at the bottle he got the first drink from, speaking placidly.]

Do you know, when most fae are born in my world, they have two souls? You probably realised that from Diereadh, at the very least.

[Given he tore her in half and all.]

[He bites his lip, nodding.]

I had a suspicion. That there was more than just a kid to you, anyway.

I mean... If the rest of our weird time in Adstring was anything to go by.

[But he smiles fondly, despite how... nasty some of those memories are.

For both of them, assuredly.]

A fae soul in my time can't survive on its own. The world is too punishing. So it strikes a bargain with a human soul and they agree to co-exist. Unless you're a noble, anyway. [Her lip curls back, briefly, but the colour is fast leeching out of her face so she sighs and lets that go.]

Over much time, they become one. I didn't--

I didn't think that would happen with a soul I struck no pact with, but I suppose in the end I struck two.

[Hopefully that's enough for him to get the gist of what's going on. And I pointed at that bottle for a reason, give me a refill. Monster headache.]

[.... He thinks he gets it, for the most part.

So he lets the silence settle for a moment, as he pours her a drink.]

Well.

Fuck.

A great suggestion. The only solution, too. [Which would sound more snarky if she didn't take the new drink and down it fast. That's enough honesty for one day. And the court would kill her at home for telling him that much, but what're they gonna do all the way out here? She sets the glass down.]

I have no clue how to fix it. I imagine there are several ways. Have you tried to touch iron lately?

[He'll do her the favor of not totally babying her, when she looks worn out.

It's hard to remember she's a grown-ass woman, sometimes.

Even if that grown-ass woman is right in front of him.]

... Hasn't really been something I think about lately.

[He doesn't exactly hunt here, not often.]

... Should I try touching it?

[That is one possible way of dealing with it. If there's spots of glamour left in his soul, cold iron will kill them quickly enough. But it's a solution she doesn't offer, because (1) it would probably hurt at least on some level, and there are vows in regards to that, and (2) no changeling worth the name ever resorts to iron as a cure.

Those pieces of soul are hers. She won't advocate unmaking them. And besides-- this whole soul mingling possibility isn't just one way.]

I'm trying to work out how deeply the influence goes. I'm rather fond of the stuff, you know. [She shakes a wrist free of its sleeve to show him the burn scarring wrapped evenly around it.] It goes well against my skin. I wondered if it might look so good on you.

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