IC contact for lastvoyages

[cactusy]

[If I don't have an active post up, feel free to use this post to have your character call, videochat, text, or knock on Shaw's door.]

Comments

[cactusy]

Not a single one. I guess... we can just work through it on our own.

[abrightboy]

I wish Neal was here.

[cactusy]

I wouldn't say yes to it being Neal, anyway.

[abrightboy]

Why not? He understands both of us.

[cactusy]

I don't wanna talk about it, Malcolm.

[abrightboy]

A good start to working through things on our own. That exciting new technique of working through things by not discussing them at all. But okay.

[cactusy]

Would Kiryu be happy about you resorting to this literally the second that he left.

[abrightboy]

I said okay.

And I never suggested that I can do this on my own.

But I guess you have nothing to worry about. Kiryu was always happy with your conduct.

[cactusy]

I'm holding up my end of the deal by telling you point-blank when I don't want to talk about something. You need to hold up yours by accepting that without being a dick about it. It's like that thing he said, something about how you aren't owed any part of myself I don't want to give. Except... worded better, and in a Japanese accent.

[abrightboy]

I said okay. I haven't asked the questions again. And you know what? I'm happy to not talk about your things when you don't want to and I've given those questions up easily, every time, but he kind of gave you carte blanche to never talk about anything that matters to me, ever, too. And what do I have?

[cactusy]

You've carte blanche to tell me to buzz off if I want to talk with you about things I want to talk about, but you don't.

[abrightboy]

When have I ever not wanted to talk about something?

[cactusy]

Okay, but that's not the point, Malcolm. You still have to respect people's boundaries, even if you don't like them and even if you don't have too many of your own. "But I don't have any boundaries" isn't a reason to try to push on other people's. I gave you a clear no to Neal mediating. This isn't even the first time I've given you a clear no to Neal mediating. If you don't care that I don't want it, that's not something you can change. But you can adjust how you act and stop asking.

[abrightboy]

I could probably accept it more easily if we could talk about why, but you won't even entertain it. Which is your prerogative, I guess, but it's not very much in the spirit of working things out together of you. 'Working things out together' has gotten exactly as far as never talk about anything at all unless it's... I don't know, is flavours of bubblegum too personal and provocative? Is sports too competitive and aggressive a topic?

[cactusy]

[A pause.]

Do you know Trevor Belmont?

[... Another pause.]

I'm not changing the subject; this is related. How I say it depends on whether or not you know the guy, that's all.

[abrightboy]

I know him. I met him at Kiryu’s cabin. We had drinks.

[cactusy]

He's a hundred times more aggressive and provocative than you. But he's easier to deal with, because he's provocative and aggressive all the time, predictably, and he doesn't care what anybody thinks of him. He's all rough edges. I know where I stand with him, and what to expect when I deal with him. And I can deal with him in my own way without doing him any harm.

You aren't like that. You swing wildly from pleasant to provocative in a way that seems totally random to me. You get me to let down my guard and then catch me off guard. You're soft and squishy with the occasional jagged spike. And if I deal with you in my own way, I hurt you. That's why there's a lot of things I can't talk about with you.

[abrightboy]

I thought the point of mediation was to help us learn to communicate so we could talk. And I thought that the tell me you don’t want to talk about something and I won’t was a waystation until we could get there, not the destination. But that’s where we’re at and you like it here, so I don’t think we’re leaving, to be honest.

[cactusy]

We have to start small. We can't go from zero to Neal in two-point-four seconds.

[abrightboy]

What’s one increment up from never talking about anything?

[cactusy]

Every time I've told you I don't want to talk about a particular thing, we've still talked about something.

[abrightboy]

So one increment up from that is.....?

[cactusy]

I don't know, Malcolm. Deal with this increment first. That's how relationships work.

[abrightboy]

Like I said: we live here now, where it’s comfy for you. And we’re never moving from it because we don’t even know where there is to go.

[cactusy]

You are the only one who keeps saying "never".