reverie overflow.

[vecna]

i still haven't put something less stupid here

Comments

[vecna]

[Don't give him too much credit. He is half of the argumentative equation, one hundred percent of the time.]

...Love? Affection?

[Strange words to roll off of his tongue. But he's filling in the blanks.]

If it makes you feel better, I've never been very versed in them, either.

[velluminous]

[ tucks the kerchief into her palm, and just holds it like that ]

It looks as though that is changing.

[vecna]

[That is an odd thing to hear, so much that Henry does have to stare at the handkerchief just sitting in her palm for a moment as if to parse her meaning. But then it seems to register, and he glances away, not out of embarrassment, or agitation, or shame, but a strange, strange realization that maybe something’s shifted somewhere inside, so slight that he could not even perceive it happening.

Time truly is the enemy here.]

You think so?

[velluminous]

[ she's no mind-reader. she doesn't know what that expression means. ]

Don't you?

[vecna]

[Guides his look back to her, purposefully chasing away the wrinkle in his browline, yet it remains.]

I don't know. [Twists his fingers to pull on his black strings without even really thinking about it. These must remain solid, or else too much has shifted, and it's ridiculous to think that they might up and disappear, but at least they haven't.] I think I understand a little better something you've said.

[velluminous]

Oh no? Which part?

[vecna]

That it was easier in the beginning. [But he hasn’t been here as long as her, so he clarifies:] That this place wheedles in and changes things.

[velluminous]

[ that's so—

a frown pinches her brows; her eyes flick subtly down to look at the colours of his threads again. surely he must have a thread that bothers him, if he's saying that. red, or... purple...

but... ]

Because... you have acquaintances.

[vecna]

[Hers is the purple one. There are a few green strings that are straining to turn yellow, as though they were trying to mimic dying vines. He definitely does not have a red one.]

You say it like acquaintances are so easily afforded to anyone and everyone.

[velluminous]

So why don't you sound happy about this?

[vecna]

[Because if his misanthropy is undermined, what was the point?]

Because people have always been disappointing to me, and except for you, I don’t want to be proven wrong.

[velluminous]

[ do you even understand how unnerving that is to hear, Henry? the kind of artificial pressure that creates? the sense of being the one thing keeping another person on an even keel? how you can't disappoint even once, and you don't know literally any of the parameters of that to begin with? ]

Why? Why don't you want to be proven wrong?

[vecna]

[It’s either that, or he lies. Can’t have both — which is better?]

Because I’ve made decisions based on the idea that humans, and the lives they’ve made for themselves, are broken.

[velluminous]

What kind of decisions? It cannot be too late to alter your perspective.

[ lol ]

[vecna]

[lmao. Glides over the first half of that.]

I don’t want to alter my perspective. That’s the point.

[velluminous]

But you are advising me to alter mine!

[vecna]

[Good job, you found a point of hypocrisy, Sprezzatura!]

That isn’t the same thing.

[velluminous]

Oh? Why not? I would love to hear.

[vecna]

Because you aren’t wanting to change because you’re afraid. Isn’t that right? Afraid of losing the people you’ve grown attached to here.

I refuse to think I’ve been wrong about everything all this time.

[Oh, it sounds awful just to say it. His mouth twists.]

[velluminous]

That--you cannot frame mine as fear and yours as righteous choice! If I say I refuse to be hurt again, but you are afraid of being wrong, what then?

[vecna]

[This conversation has quite suddenly become unpalatable.]

Then I guess we're both stuck.

[velluminous]

[ oh, she does not like to be looked at like that. draws up, her nostrils flaring ]

I suppose so.

[vecna]

[GOOD TALK.

Drawing up some of his sickly green-yellow threads, and there they are, slowly mottling with flecks of purple.]

[velluminous]

[ her gut does a terrible wrench—she's done that, she's tainted that—but she doesn't say anything. ]

[vecna]

[Oh, no. He should thank her for this.

They twist in the light, shining their hues. He murmurs-]

We really do need to leave this place. As soon as possible.