Come Sail Away IC Inbox

[crushed_pearls]

Erin's voice mail message is in a weary voice: "Erin Peters. If you called in the middle of the night and I didn't answer, I'm dying. If I pick up and someone on your end isn't dying, they will be shortly. Text otherwise."

Comments

[businessorlibation]

Johnny Summer is experiencing an emotion right now, please hold.

[crushed_pearls]

"...Buddy, if it helps, we can't do it by accident. Usually." Erin tilts her head, birdlike, trying to figure out Johnny's mind. "I don't do it much myself these days. It feels...weird, after all I've been through. But that's my beef, not an intrinsic flaw."

[businessorlibation]

"We can't do it by accident. Fae things."

And he knows there's a risk of hitting her, emotionally, with the way he's having an internal panic over this, that distress of becoming that little much more like her might be seen as distress at her. But he realizes that she just glided past the possibility of this being a Thing without even a moment's thought. So he needs to underline it, at least a little.

He is now a Spring Courtier fae thing that can (maybe) bind a promise, and no longer the most human person on the ship. He's been changed enough here, now, that he isn't just some guy anymore. Sure, the eyes happened, but that's not the same as gaining a supernatural splat.

[crushed_pearls]

"...Mmm. Poor phrasing on my part." Erin clicks her tongue, trying to Think. "The thing is, the mark of the Wyrd is...that whole bit where the living world talks to you, and can be spoken to in turn. And you don't do that. If we were back home I'd say you were some kind of hedge-wizard if you could bind a pact but didn't hear the call of the living world, but here? Who fucking knows. But..."

She trails off. When Erin finishes her voice is very small: "I've always held that I'm still human, Johnny. Why wouldn't you be?"

[businessorlibation]

Fuck, yeah, exactly what he didn't want to do. He stands, stubbing out his cigar. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...I...I'm sorry."

Clearly, his intention is to run away, rather than to try and navigate the narrow, narrow bridge over the chasm he's created.

[crushed_pearls]

"Buddy, breathe. Do I sound mad?" Wait, fuck, Erin's dealing with someone who has the power Fairest fear. "Lemme amend that - I'm not mad. I'm trying to figure out where your head is at."

[businessorlibation]

"I feel like I've lost something. Like...I can no longer tell myself the lie that I'm normal. Human, not human, they're fucking squishy categories on this ship, I know. But I'm hurting right now, and I'm trying not to hurt you with my hurting. I've been changed enough that I feel different and that matters because it does."

He is experiencing this as a loss, somehow.

[crushed_pearls]

"...Yeah, I think I get it. The canoe cannot be a tree any longer; all change is some kind of loss." Erin chews the end of her cigar; she's gonna ruin it like this if she doesn't pay attention. "I'm not gonna hold that against you, Johnny. I don't really think I could even if I wanted to. These..." she folds a wing over, and brushes it gently with her fingertips. "Back home, me putting these on would have been an act of high sorcery. Struggle. Strife. My life on the line. Here they showed up in the mail against my will. Y'know?"

[businessorlibation]

"Yes. I know exactly what you mean." He sighs, turning back toward her. "Of course, you can't say I wasn't kidnapped by an insane being of godlike power to be used for his obscure purposes, slowly having everything that made me normal sucked out of me. Maybe on some level, this is all fitting."

[crushed_pearls]

"Maybe, but you're allowed to feel a kinda way about that, man. I might be shipping out from the Court of accepting that you can't un-change and you gotta be happy as you are now but if anyone rolled up to a Spring Court trying to say it's a good thing they became Lost that person is gonna change into a corpse real fucking fast."

[businessorlibation]

"I'm feeling a lot of contradictory ways, honestly." He lets out a heavy sigh.

[crushed_pearls]

"Ain't that the experience." Erin's ears droop faintly. "...I'm tryin' to be here for you but this is just left enough of my wheelhouse that I'm not sure how."

[businessorlibation]

"Tell me everything I need to know to keep myself out of trouble, given what I'm dealing with. Teach me. And tell me you love me still, that'll help a lot."

[crushed_pearls]

Erin reaches over and squeezes Johnny's hand. "My friend, I've got your back now and always. It'll be alright."

There's more than one way to say 'love'. Erin takes her hand back only reluctantly, but leaves it on the bar in case Johnny still wants it.

"...Some stuff might be easier shown, but are you asking about the vows, the Mantle, or both? The Mantle is more of a hypothetical problem where this ship suddenly crash lands on a world full of the Lost."