ic inbox ;;

[finewithhalf]

If you're looking for me, I'm out. Drop me a message, and I'll get back to you when I feel like it.

Comments

[finewithhalf]

So wait... [This is hard, and requires paying more attention than she normally likes to pay.]

If you died in a place like here. Then don't you get to do it again? People come back, right?

[catchacold]

Nah. It ain't like that, sorry.

[There are some questions he has regarding his death, but none of them really consider that he might come back somehow. He doesn't buy it. No need to give her any hope.]

I'm not coming back.

[finewithhalf]

Then figure out how to get this place to be forever. I don't do goodbyes.

[catchacold]

I'll do what I can, Maya.

I'd not wanna leave you here alone. But you still got a life to live back home too.

[finewithhalf]

Yeah, sure.

[She looks away from him once more.]

Lots of it.

[catchacold]

[He's silent for a while, finally tightening his hand on her shoulder, just a little. Reassuring, he hopes.]

You wanna talk about it?

[finewithhalf]

There's not a lot to talk about. It's not like I'm gonna go around shooting at superheroes or changing time or anything.

[catchacold]

I see how that seems like you're downsizing. Though I gotta tell you, I didn't do that most my life either.

[He pauses for a moment, then he tilts his head to the side.]

When I was your age, I raised a baby.

[finewithhalf]

Yeah? I'm raising a Riley right now. How'd yours turn out?

[catchacold]

Oh, she's hell. You'd love her. [What else can really be said?]

She can take care of herself.

[finewithhalf]

You're talking about that sister of yours? I wouldn't hate meeting her sometime.

[catchacold]

Lisa, yeah. Think she'd like you too.

[It's not that difficult to imagine, really.]

So, you like Mick? What about him?

[finewithhalf]

[She shrugs then, because it was a lot easier to have this conversation when she didn't suspect that he was just trying to get her to talk about herself.]

He's kinda rough, and kinda broken... But he's working on it. He knows who he is. Not a lot of people do.

[catchacold]

[Look, Maya, everything isn't about you all the time!

Contrary to all evidence in your life so far.]

Don't know if he does. He thinks he's a lot worse than he is. But I know he's better.

He's always looked out for me.

[finewithhalf]

[Lies and slander. This is all going to twist around to the way she was rude to Kanji at their three-day joint birthday party. Maya's just not sure how it'll connect yet.]

Well, broken people gotta look out for each other. Nobody else is gonna do it.

[catchacold]

[How to connect the forty-something criminals to tweens' issues...]

Yeah, you got a point.

Mick ain't stupid or simple, but he likes to pretend he is, so people don't expect more from him. He didn't pretend with you, did he?

[finewithhalf]

Not once. Tried to scare me off, but it takes a lot to shake me like that.

[This is a revisionist history.]

[catchacold]

Just be careful. He's still got a habit of getting into his own way.

[All her history is revisionist.]

[finewithhalf]

Well so do I. We'll just have to see who wins.

[catchacold]

Wouldn't be a winner than, Maya, everyone loses.

But he's with me now. I'm with him. How it should be.

[finewithhalf]

So you stop him from taking things too far. And he works on himself. And eventually things reach a point where they don't suck so much. Right?

[catchacold]

Guess so. But he can't stop me from taking things too far.

[More than one issue at play here.]

[finewithhalf]

Like how? When do you ever?

[catchacold]

What, Maya, you somehow got the idea in your head that I'm the moderate one?

Nah. I'm just more controlled. Issue is, I'm the one in control of it all. When things go wrong, it's on me. And when there's something I can't control, I deal with it.

I ain't very nice.

[finewithhalf]

You're plenty nice to me. Riley, too.

[And really, who cares how he treats people outside of that? He's good where it counts.]