092014-Lily-Sami

[05:14] GT: Lily is sitting glumly in the kitchen, playing with a pellet of dog food.

[05:21] AA: Sami walks into the kitchen, looking groggy. Her hair is uncombed and her braid is coming undone. Looks like she hasn't gone through her morning ablutions yet.

[05:22] GT: Lily sits up straight. "Who goes there?"

[05:23] AA: "It's just me, Lily." After a moment she realizes Lily might not know her voice yet and remembers she can't see her, and adds "Sami."

[05:24] GT: "Oh. Hey Mom." She groans and flops down again. "Your son's being frustrating againnnn."

[05:27] AA: "Um....wow. I'm not used to being called 'mom.'"

[05:27] AA: "Wait, which son?"

[05:28] GT: "The one with horns." She sighs. "Stupid linguistic barrier. Such bullshit. Very fruatrate. Wow."

[05:31] AA: "Darmok?"

[05:31] GT: "Mm hmm. I was trying to get info on chucklevoodoos outta him, but he just gave me some bullshit koan."

[05:32] GT: "Or maybe it was an aphorism."

[05:32] AA: "Oh....yeah, I've just talked to him. I didn't know about his speech impediment or whatever. It's so sad....but if he needs it as a coping mechanism, I can understand that."

[05:32] GT: "Coping mechanism?"

[05:32] AA: "You know. After all the shit Balish put him through growing up."

[05:32] AA: "It's kind of amazing he turned out as well adjusted as he did."

[05:33] GT: "Ohhh." She grimaces. "Yeah, I can imagine."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:33] GT: "Blargh, but it means I'm still just as in the dark about chucklevoodoos as ever."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:34] AA: "Heh. You and me both. I've been researching them for five years and gotten almost nowhere."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:34] AA: "I'm kind of under a big fuckin' chucklevoodoo curse. Have been since I entered the game."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:35] AA: "Well, shortly after I entered the game."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:35] GT: She perks up. "You HAVE?" She leans in. "YOU MUST TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:35] AA: "My sylladex is infected with it. I can't alchemize any weapons because they all come out as SMILEDOG Sablehairs."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:36] AA: "Like I said, I know next to nothing! It's some sort of magic that the troll purplebloods get up to."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:36] AA: "It might be tied to objects of power? I'm just guessing here, because I got my curse in the form of a really horrific sweater that I got as a present, allegedly from my 'mom.'"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:37] AA: Although the curse didn't really take over until I tried to alchemize it.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:38] GT: "Hmm." She thinks. "Well, I don't really have any objects of power apart from Jackie Junior, and that got stolen along with everything else, so maybe I'm safe?" She groans. "Ugh, this SUCKS."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:38] AA: "You think you're cursed?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:39] GT: "Cursed by genetics, maybe," she says wryly.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:43] GT: She points to her horns. "Good ol' Aggaro genes percolating 'round in here. Gotta love being a possible ticking time bomb."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:46] AA: "Oh....is that what this is about?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:46] AA: Sami sighs, and leans back in her chair.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:47] AA: "If it makes you feel any better....Balish was a really good guy. He had his problems, and he had to be on guard all the time to keep from giving in to his madness....but he did it."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:47] AA: "At least until he died."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:47] AA: "Or at least, the Balish on my side. The Balish on this side sounds like a fuckhead."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:48] GT: "Yeah, I keep hearing that your Balish was this super noble troll. But yeah. This Balish is, well, kind of fucking insane." Her voice goes into a whisper. "He's hatefucking Acenia, and I'm pretty sure it isn't consensual."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:48] GT: "Also he literally locked all the humans in a room and tried to kill us."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:49] GT: "And he was the head of an organization hellbent on taking down the Condesce and killing anyone with human blood."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:49] AA: "I don't understand Kismesis at all. I don't understand how any of it is consensual. I know I'm supposed to 'respect other peoples' cultures', but the whole thing seems pretty fucked up."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:49] AA: "But yeah, sounds like this Balish needs to get his shit wrecked."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:50] AA: "Does this Balish have 'Subby?'"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:50] GT: "Who the hell's Subby?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:51] AA: "It's what Balish called his dark side. Subby taking over from him was like me going Grimdark, except Subby was actually PART of Balish that he kept supressed."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:51] GT: "Oh." She sighs. "Great. That's fucking fantastic to hear about."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:51] AA: "Well like I said, Balish was able to keep it in check."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:52] AA: "And....I don't think that was genetic. I think he told me the highbloods intentionally tried to put it in him. They tried to make him 'The Grand Highblood.'"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:52] AA: "If they had succeeded, there wouldn't have even BEEN a Balish. Just Subby."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:53] GT: "I think that might have happened to this Balish. According to our Sami, Balish was a decent guy until about 15 years ago. Then bad shit happened."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:54] AA: "Hmm. Yeah. I saw a picture of him and other me and Darmok. They actually looked happy."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:57] GT: "Yeah. That was Libby's initial strategy. She reverted him back 15 years with some stim."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:57] GT: "Or tried to, anyways."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:59] AA: "I didn't know stims could do that."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:59] GT: "Stims can do a lot."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:01] AA: "The ones I had just made me feel sexy. But that was just in a dream. And I'm not sure I took them the way twinks do."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:01] GT: "Pffffhaha oh my God. This is a story I'm going to need to hear sometime."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:01] AA: "Long story short: don't accept drinks from Scarlet."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:02] GT: "Don't need to tell me that. She's a bitch anyways."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:02] AA: "Heh. I'm surprised you haven't gone over to her side now that you hate Libby so much."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:03] GT: "Nah, she likes Acenia too much. I'm just 'Libby's daughter' to her."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:03] AA: Sami sighs. "Scarlet seems so nice so much of the time. She's always been nice to me....I mean now I realize she was probably just manipulating me or using me. But she seems so sweet on the outside."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:03] AA: "Until a year or two ago when she used me to try to kill Ryspor."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:04] GT: "Yyyyeah. I think it's basically a rule at this point that all twinks are batshit insane."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:15] GT: (([06:03] AA: Sami sighs. "Scarlet seems so nice so much of the time. She's always been nice to me....I mean now I realize she was probably just manipulating me or using me. But she seems so sweet on the outside." [06:03] AA: "Until a year or two ago when she used me to try to kill Ryspor." [06:04] GT: "Yyyyeah. I think it's basically a rule at this point that all twinks are batshit insane."))

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:15] AA: [08:08] AA: "Could be. I know you're not going to want to hear it, but I honestly think Libby might be the most trustworthy of the ones I've met. Present company excluded." [08:08] AA: "...honestly, I think she started off a lot like me."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:17] GT: "Wow." She shudders. "I REEEEALLY don't wanna know what happened to her to make her like she is." She sighs. "And I guess she kind of is, in a twisted way." She grimaces. "Always makes good on her promises."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:22] AA: "And....she doesn't seem to mind using horrible methods to achieve her goals. But I think her goals *are* ultimately more or less the same as ours. The survival of as many of us as possible, and the completion of this game.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:22] AA: "So she's kind of like me without the inhibitions against hurting people." Sami sounds depressed.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:26] GT: "Oh come onnnn, she's NOTHING like you," Lily says comfortingly. "For one thing, you're not a dick. Hell, I'm having a hard time imagining you being anything CLOSE to dickish."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:30] AA: "Yeah, but what would I be like if I saw the future? And if I had been through billions of trillions of years watching friends ignore me and get themselves killed or worse because just telling them things wasn't enough?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:30] AA: "Billions of trillions of years of horrorterrors using me and whispering in my ear..."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:31] GT: She grimaces again. "Eesh."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:31] AA: "...and watching friends who fail to win their games go through the agony of BECOMING horrorterrors."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:32] GT: "Oh yeah, you talked about that. It's still depressing to hear that all my books are wrong. Guess they didn't know about the game, though, so I can't really blame them."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:36] AA: "It only happens to God Tiers. And I don't think you HAVE to god tier to win the game....Seriad hasn't yet."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:37] AA: "And I probably wouldn't have if....certain events hadn't occurred." Sami sighs and looks away when she mentions this.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:37] AA: Her eyes are watering a little, but she wipes them and stops herself from crying.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:38] GT: She raises an eyebrow. "Certain events?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:39] AA: "Don't worry about it."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:39] AA: Her voice sounds defeated though.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:39] GT: "I'm worrying."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:40] AA: "Well I can't talk about it anyway. You know how it is."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:41] AA: "But....I really wish they hadn't happened. Especially now."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:41] GT: "Ohhhh." She nods in understanding. "And yeah, I know what you mean. I'd give anything to go back to being good ol' Lily Mavico."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:42] GT: She winces. "If only because growing horns hurts like a bitch."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:42] GT: "On the plus side, I won't have to borrow prostheses from Mari anymore, though," she says, waggling her eyebrows.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:42] AA: "I would grow a hundred horns to take back what I did now."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:45] GT: Her face softens. "I know."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:46] AA: "Not just that. Believe it or not I think I've done even worse by Darmok than I've done by you now."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:46] GT: "Whoa, seriously? Are you, like, responsible for the speech impediment or something?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:47] AA: "No....not directly anyway. I think that's because of how Balish raised him."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:47] AA: "But Darmok seems to think that how I god tiered means something really bad is going to happen to him....and I'm afraid I believe him."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:48] AA: "And I'm going to do everything I can to stop it....but I don't think either he or I really believes I'm going to be able to." Sami keeps looking more and more depressed.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:48] AA: "Fuck. For all I know I'm going to be the one to DO it to him. Whatever it is."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:48] AA: Her eyes start watering again.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:49] GT: "Ah shit, are you crying. You're crying." She reaches over and pats her arm. "Shhhh, Sami. Don't...be cry."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:49] AA: "I mean you know, at least Libby did what she did to you to SAVE you. All I'm managing to do is get my son hurt."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:50] AA: "No, no. I'm not." She's clearly lying.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:50] AA: "I'm fine."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:50] GT: "SAVE ME?" She jerks back. "From WHAT? From an 'unsuitable PARTNER'? From a LIFE of happiness, fucking HAPPINESS?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:50] AA: Sami doesn't answer.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:53] GT: "I was HAPPY. I had a DAD who I was WAITING, fucking WAITING FOR with bated BREATH. I had a M-MATESPRIT - " She breaks off to cough. "Wh-who I was SO HAPPY, so MOTHERFUCKING HAPPY WITH." She starts tearing up herself. "And now it's GONE. FUCKING GONE."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:55] AA: "...you're alive, Lily. And Libby seems to think you have a better chance of staying that way now. If I could say the same about Darmok....I don't know what I would do to keep him safe. I don't think I could go as far as Libby would....but I don't know how far I *would* go."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:56] AA: "...just to know he was going to be okay."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:56] AA: "...even if he hated me forever because of it."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:58] GT: "Did you know I begged Thiago to kill me when I got back?" she says calmly. "I pleaded with him to just get it over with, because I could not imagine ever recovering from what she did." She looks down. "I don't think I have recovered."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:58] AA: "I'm sorry. It's not fair to lay all this sort of stuff on you after you've been through so much of your own shit."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:59] AA: "Just....love can make you do stupid things, and horrible things, and horrible stupid things. And Twinks love harder than just about anything else I've ever seen."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:00] AA: "And yet....I can't stop myself from loving people any more than they can."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:16] GT: "But you GET it. You're kind, and caring, and understand that you're probably not supposed to GRIEVOUSLY INJURE the people you love!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:18] AA: "Doesn't help Darmok." Sami sounds sullen.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:19] GT: "Oh p-SHAW. You might've accidentally doomed him to a horrible fate or something, but the key word there is ACCIDENTALLY. You'd never do something like that to him on PURPOSE. And now that you're here, you can make sure nothing like that ever happens again."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:21] AA: "...that's just it, Lil. I can't. I've tried. I've bargained for all this power to save people, and now it turns out that those very bargains are the reason my son's in danger."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:25] GT: "And I keep SAYING, now you can USE that power." She adopts a snobby tone. "Never look back, dahling. It distracts from the now."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:26] AA: "Easier said than done. Look how much you're focusing on your past with Libby."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:27] GT: "I'm focusing on my PRESENT with Libby. She was a great mom in the past."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:29] AA: "Lily....I'll bet you would willingly die to be with Sorser. Would you let him die for it?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:30] GT: After a brief coughing fit, she wheezes, "No, probably not."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:31] AA: "Would you say that what you're going through now is worse than what you would feel like if you had gotten him killed?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:32] GT: "...Yes," she says shuddering. "Knowing he's still there and that I'll have to watch him from afar, never being able to talk to him, o-or see him, or even be n-near him..." She stops, sniffling a little. "I'd say that's definitely worse, yeah."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:33] AA: "That's too bad. You know....a part of me is still scared that Beau's going to end up dead--double dead, I mean--because I'm with him."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:33] AA: "I know that if it does happen, it's going to hurt way worse than being away from him would have hurt me."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:34] AA: "But....I'm weak. It's the reason I let him choose what to do. I knew what he would say when I asked him."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:34] AA: "I shouldn't have let him choose. I should have put my foot down, and said that we have to be apart, for his own safety."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:34] AA: "But....like I said before. Love makes us do stupid and horrible things sometimes."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:35] GT: "Yeah." She sighs. "Yeah, it does."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:36] AA: "I'm sorry this hurts so bad, Lily. But at least he's safe. You can take SOME comfort in that, right?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:37] GT: "I guess." She smiles weakly. "Probably good he can't come near me. It'll stop him from getting involved in my stupid antics again." She groans. "God. You heard I bought a thing of dog piss and shaving cream to treat my wounds just because Acenia said not to?" Her head flops down to the counter, resting between her crossed arms. "I'm a stubborn little shit."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:39] AA: "No, I didn't." She giggles a little. "You know one time I was in the middle of the center of an Inqusition on my planet and shouted out that I was a Witch?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:41] GT: She whistles, impressed. "You know I hijacked a helicopter and set three guards on fire as a distraction once?" She giggles. "I got to operate a laser cannon. Our Sami was PISSED, but it was totally worth it."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:41] GT: "Also, Tethys threw the molotov cocktail, I should point out. I just helped make it."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:41] AA: "You....you set people on FIRE?" Sami looks really concerned.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:42] GT: "Only a little bit! They had raid gear on! I'm sure they were fine!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:42] AA: "They probably had families..."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:43] GT: "They were FIIIINE, MOM. Besides, we had to do it so our Balish wouldn't kill ALL the humans."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:43] AA: "Your dad set me on fire once you know. Well, my dream self. I had to watch my own corpse burn right in front of me. I still remember it sometimes"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:43] AA: "It's not a pretty way to go."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:45] GT: "Eesh. Yeah, I can imagine."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:45] GT: "Sounds like my dad, though."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:45] AA: "Threw piss on me once too. Because he thought I was 'possessed.' Which, I mean, yeah, I kind of am. But I don't know what he hoped to accomplish."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:46] AA: "Made me cry when I found out. Beau was just about read to kick his ass over it, too."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:46] AA: "And Null was SERIOUSLY going to kick his ass. Like to within an inch of his life."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:47] GT: "Hahahaaaa. He did always have this weird obsession with piss, yeah."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:48] AA: "Seems so minor now after everything else that has happened, but at the time I felt so horrible....I thought I had lost all my friends. Especially him and Nate."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:49] AA: "Which....in a way I guess I did, with Nate. I don't think our relationship ever recovered. And since then my friendships with basically everyone else have fallen apart, too."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:50] GT: "Awwww, nooooo." She frowns sadly, starting to pat her arm again. "You're super nice, you've gotta have tons of friends!" She grins. "You have me!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:50] AA: "Now....Maenam and Seriad and I are friends still, and Beau's my boyfriend....Doir's still basically my friend but our relationship is strained, and Ryspor's sort of the same situation."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:50] AA: "Everyone else from the old session....either they died or they stopped liking me or never did in the first place."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:51] GT: "Well, this is a brand new session, with like 20 people! You're bound to be friends with some of 'em!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:51] AA: "Nate hates everyone, but especially me. Rilset and I were never really friends. Meouet lost respect for me after I brought Beau's ghost on board the ark, and even worse when I started dating a boy..."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:52] GT: "Also I am a purple flying hippopotamus werewolf," Lily says flatly. "My transformations are triggered by bouts of extreme pessimism."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:52] AA: "Libby doesn't like or respect me much, and I don't think I like her much either. But we're at least starting to get along as....co-workers, I guess. Scarlet....I thought she was my friend, but she used me to get Ryspor killed."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:53] AA: Sami gives Lily a sideways look. "Fine, fine. I get it. I'm rambling."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:54] GT: She sticks her tongue out playfully.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:56] GT: "But seriously, don't worry! You're a likeable gal, and this new session is the fresh start you need. None of these people know about what you did. They just know that you're Sami Motherfucking Heston, and Sami Motherfucking HEston is a cool gal."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:57] AA: "Maybe they're better off if they don't make friends with me though. They might get hurt."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:58] GT: "Youuuu stop that right now. You keep talking like that, you're gonna be more and more miserable. You'll be like 'this is the skin of a killer' and then later on you'll be like 'why doesn't anyone love meeeee' and it'll just be this whole vicious circle."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:58] AA: "Yeah. I've been like that for like....five years."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:59] AA: "I keep trying to not be such a sad sack. But things keep getting dumped on me. Like I was all set to try to be a good influence and help you guys make it out of this....and then this Darmok thing happens."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[05:59] AA: "How am I supposed to be chipper in the face of that?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:01] AA: "I just want him to be safe and healthy and happy. And now I think the first two are out of reach and I don't even really know how to help him with the last one."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:02] GT: "Just sort of be there is my advice. Get to know him. Be his mom."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:03] AA: "You don't think that'll make it even worse? When whatever happens, happens?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:03] GT: "Nah. I think he'll be happy to have gotten to know his mom before whatever happens happens."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:04] AA: "I hope you're right."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:05] GT: She pats her arm confidently. "It's my job to know these things."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:07] AA: "Pfft. Don't give me that! I know how vague Seers see when they first get started. Meouet was stuck at +1 for ages."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:08] GT: She pouts. "I've been waiting for this like MY WHOLE LIFE. I used to get SO EXCITED when I predicted the weather correctly. Don't you spoil it for me."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:09] AA: "Hahaha. It takes some time to get used to this stuff. I was so bad at Breath at first..."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:10] GT: "I'm pretty sure the whole blinding thing is supposed to make me a better Seer? That's what Libby said anyways. I haven't noticed a TON of difference, though."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:10] AA: "It's like I was telling Rubi though, you've just got to work harder to make things work when you're early on in your career like this. Supplement your aspect with studying and concentration and maybe having your friends believe in you.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:11] GT: "Ooh, I could have Thiago believe in me! He's a Hope player, he's probably good at believing in things. Maybe I'll get, like, special bonuses."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:11] AA: "You may be barely able to call on your aspect at all, but you can use what you DO have to supplement mundane stuff."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:12] AA: "Hope? Hope's really powerful. You can summon stuff up out of nowhere sometimes. That's what Null and Nate did anyway."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[06:12] AA: "What class is Thiago?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:50] AA: "Ah. Well that's a problem then. I don't think Pages can use their aspects at all, until they're Fully Realized. Which I think means God Tiering."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:50] AA: "At least Doir couldn't."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:50] GT: "Oh. Great." She snickers. "Haha, he's gonna be all pissy about it."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:52] AA: "Yeah....on the other hand, once they ARE Fully Realized, they're crazy powerful. Doir made it sound like he can learn to do anything any of the other classes can do. He hasn't yet, but he has the power to."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:53] GT: "Maybe less pissy, then."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:53] AA: "Yeah. He's like a Magikarp or something."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:54] GT: "HAHAAA HE TOTALLY IS. I'M GONNA MAKE SO MANY JOKES ABOUT THIS."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:54] GT: "SO MANY."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:57] AA: Sami shrugs and smiles a little. "I'm glad you're amused."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:59] GT: "I am the MOST AMUSED, MOM." She's grinning widely. "It's good to get him flustered. He's a lot cuter then."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:59] AA: "Oh? You think he's cute?" Sami's grin turns wicked.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:00] AA: "And you think he's flustered now wait till you see him in the Page jammies."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:01] GT: She blushes a bright fuschia. "N-no! He has a matesprit! We're moirails and that's TOTALLY FINE." Her expression turns serious. "Seriously, I've already had to deal with that once. I can't let myself give in." She grimaces. "Especially now I've seen what happens when I do."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:02] AA: "Oh....right. Sorry. That was unkind of me, considering."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:02] GT: She waves a hand. "It's cool. You didn't know."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:10] GT: She sighs. "But yeah, there was...kind of this whole big thing with me and Thiago. It was bad. I thought for a while that I'd lost Tethys as a friend."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:11] AA: "Oh no! That's awful! Who's Tethys?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:12] GT: "Kikate's kid. She's the one I was talking about earlier with the Molotov cocktail. Badass bodyguard-in-training that's kind of insane." She grins. "Also a whole lot more mature than I'm ever gonna be."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:13] GT: "Me and her go waaaaaaay back, so it fuckin' KILLED me inside when I hurt her like that. I'm just glad everything worked out in the end."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:15] AA: "Yeah. I guess I know how that can be, kinda. Tlaloc brought out the worst in me when he would come sniffing around Beau."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:21] GT: "Ahaha. Yeah, he always seemed kind of desperate to me too."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:24] AA: "Well they had a thing, before she and I did. And even though she made it clear she really wasn't interested any more, it just made me mad any time I saw him trying to get close to her."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:24] GT: "You know he ended up being her consort here?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:25] AA: Sami groans. "Yeah."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:27] AA: "This isn't the only timeline either. We met one in a dreambubble once whose Sami had died and had married Tlaloc, too. Sometimes I think there's no timeline out there where we were both alive and also together."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:37] GT: "Well, I mean, the two of you were alive and also together in THIS timeline!" She pauses. "Before she died, anyways. Now you're not. But you're still together!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:43] AA: "Yeah. Things could be a lot worse." Sami looks sad for a moment, but then exhales and goes back to neutral.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:49] GT: "If you're pausing for dramatic facial expressions I'm gonna remind you that I'm blind and literally unable to see it. You can look as sad as you please and I ain't gonna give a shit."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:51] GT: "Besides, it's prolly good to let yourself just sorta flop around sometimes."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:54] AA: "What do you mean?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:57] GT: She poses as if she were a wise sage, and reaches out for where she thinks Sami's forehead is. She hits her cheek instead, but continues, drawing a finger across it. "Be cry, Simba. Or whatever. I'm not good at this and also have no eyes."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:00] AA: "Nah, I don't need to cry about the Beau thing. I've cried my tears about that. I wish he weren't a ghost, but....like I said, things could be a lot worse."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:01] GT: "This is a wise outlook." She nods in a satisfied manner.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:08] AA: "But there's always something else to cry about these days, it seems like." She sighs.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:19] GT: "No kidding." She stretches. "Mm. I should get some real food and then go hunt down Acenia for half-troll info." She makes a face. "Bluh. That's gonna be a dramafest."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:19] AA: "Do you two not get along?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:21] GT: "Understatement of the century there," she says, chuckling and standing. "Shit. No eyes. OK. I can do this." She makes a sharp right turn, walking smartly forward - and knocking the wind out of herself as she slams into the countertop.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:22] AA: "Good luck, I guess."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:22] AA: "And try to make friends! It's no good hating teammates! You don't want to end up like Scarlet and Libby!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:23] GT: She gives a thumbs up from her new position on the floor. "I'll TRY, but apparently it's ~fated in the stars~, or so everyone claims."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:24] AA: "Why would it be fated in the stars?" Sami goes to help her up.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:28] GT: "Cause our parents hate each other, so we're supposed to also. She's kind of self-centered anyways. Don't like her before we even get to the subject of parenthood. She's always bitching at me about something or another." She accepts the help.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:30] AA: "Pfft. Parents hating each other doesn't matter. Friendship isn't genetic. Besides, your moms hating each other isn't even really a personality thing."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:31] AA: "Twinks' culture is built around predation and screwing one another over. You literally can't trust anyone BUT your partner when you're a twink."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:32] AA: "But the fact that you two have friends who you're not in love with at all proves that's not a genetic thing. Or if it is, your human and troll genes cancel it out."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:32] GT: "I dunno, Libby also said twinks're reeeeeally possessive about their quadrants, and I can sure as hell see that in Acenia."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:33] AA: "Well yeah....but so? You're not trying to make out with her boyfriend or anything, are you?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:34] GT: "I was. Now I'm trying to be buds with him because he is now my brother and incest is no, troll or not."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:34] GT: "It was black, don't worry."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:34] AA: "Oh. Well....I mean in her situation I would be pretty upset too."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:35] GT: "Well yeah, but she wasn't just like 'hey don't black court my matesprit', she was like 'NO ONE CAN HAVE MY MATESPRIT BUT ME, BLACK OR OTHERWISE.'"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[02:58] AA: "I mean....I can't promise I would've been at my nicest in that situation either. Just ask Tlaloc."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:05] GT: "Ehehe. Fair enough, I guess." She pauses. "She's still a bitch."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[03:21] AA: "Well try to be friends anyway." Sami sighs. "But I'm not as starry eyed as I was five years ago. I know some people will just never be friends."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:02] GT: "Yeah." She begins walking forward again, keeping one hand on the counter. "It was good talking with ya, Mom!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;">[04:12] AA: "Good talking with you too."