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[wheyoftheadept]

[Saturday looks like hell.  She's showered, at least - her hair is wet and there's a towel around her neck, but her visible skin is covered in scrapes and bandages, and there are bags under her eyes.]

Hi, guys.  Just got back from - well, I'm gonna be real honest here and tell you my own memories are a little fucked. Jorg pulled me right outta medical to run escort on some civvie caravan.  We ran into a Stuff storm.  They tell me it's been like two months?

 [She runs a hand through her hair, wearily.] 

What have I missed?

Comments

[wheyoftheadept]

Oh - like everything is a flower. That sounds really pretty. [She sounds a little wistful, as she says it] Do you bring like, birds and stuff with you, too?

[takenalive]

Not on military ships, or on ecological surveys. There are some insects, but modified so that they are nonfertile or outright cannot long survive if they leave the installation, to try to forestall invasive spread. Larger animals introduce more variables, and even a Dome is a closed and limited environment.

[wheyoftheadept]

I guess that makes sense.

Anyway, how've you been? Aside from shapeshifting stinkbeasts and all.

[takenalive]

Much as I was. I suppose it was too much to hope for, that I would grow accustomed to being without a master so soon. I was years in the breaking, and I will be years in the mending, especially without mind-body healers.

[wheyoftheadept]

Hey, now, don't be hard on yourself. Not bein' at a hundred percent yet doesn't mean you ain't farther then where you started, right?

[takenalive]

I'm unsure that I have made any progress at all, in fact, except that I've managed not to sing without realizing it so often. But it seems that when I'm confined in place I stop thinking entirely.

[wheyoftheadept]

[Saturday frowns, not knowing what to say. Finally she settles for the truth.]

I wish I knew how to help. If we were back home, I'd know how get you a decent shrink, or something - I'd know someone - but I don't have anything here but me. I'm willing to listen, if you ever want to talk. If you think it might help, or somethin'.

[takenalive]

I don't imagine it would be productive. These are things that take training and an understanding of the Andalite psyche, as well as a professional distance. As with mind-body healers.

It is kind of you to offer though.

[wheyoftheadept]

You never know. Sometimes just gettin' it out helps. Not a lot of professionals where me an' my friends have been.

[takenalive]

And none where I've been, exactly. Some things don't need a direct reflection of experience.

Besides, I've already had a long period of someone knowing exactly what every thought and difficulty was.

[wheyoftheadept]

All right, then.