ad astra ] inbox

[persisto]

@ JOYCE.B
text ✰ voice ✰ holovid

room #025; bunk 38 (formerly with Mrs. Sheringham)
app information | permissions

Comments

[persisto]

...okay.

[It's definitely out of her own sense of normal (although what that even is has been twisting and reshaping over the last few years), but the shadow is recognizable. The manner isn't familiar, but the impulse certainly is.

Her fingers move carefully to brush across the symbols that shape her 'name,' delicate but with an intent of recognition.] I can do that. [And, well:] Thank you, Senua.

[senuna]

[ Senua can afford a shadow of a smile, and a nod to hide most of it. She had been filled with such fondness for Joyce when she had hunted that deer-like creature, when she cleaned and dried the bone and carved the name so carefully. Only now she wonders if intent can ever outweigh the consequences, if it might paint a mark on Joyce. A mark for whom? She doesn't know. Some threat, some nightmare. ]

I need to wait and gather my courage. Out there is a shadow, furious because I have seen it.

[persisto]

You want company?

[Joyce doesn't know all the contours of Senua yet--but then, she hadn't known any of El's before they'd built the pool in the middle of the gymnasium. It's a learning process. It's a bit of touch and go and trying things out until things got properly settled.

Always worth it, in the end.]

[senuna]

[ Her father had wanted a prescription for her troubles, a fix to make it all go away. Senua is starting to learn that it isn't a cure she needs, but a guide, a tether back to the shared world, someone willing to walk the journey with her. But she would not risk a person so good to be hurt because of her.

She casts her gaze down and frowns, wringing her hands, never one to hide her fear. ]

I don't know if I'll win.

[persisto]

[There's no proper road map for this, of course. There had been incredible differences between Jonathan and Will, and none of the other lives that had flitted into hers had wandered any closer a road.]

It's hard to know. [Her own fingers twist lightly around the bone before stilling.] But alone is always harder.

[senuna]

[ Senua can say such things as the seams of this ship are rending or that time has lost its continuity or that she can taste space like metal on her tongue, but how can she make evident the terror that blankets it all? Only the hint of it is writ across her face, painted in the contortions it makes. ]

If he catches you, he will make you see how we are falling through nothing. He will make you think of it every waking hour. And each time you realize you stand on solid ground will be tainted by the reminder that soon he will find you again.

[ This is a deterrent, yes, but also a fair warning. ]

I would not have you battered by fear.

[persisto]

I know you wouldn't.

[It's how strong children with big hearts so often ended up alone.]

But we all get to make our own choices, right?

[And Joyce was going to keep choosing to follow good people down dangerous roads. It's probably always going to require conversations just like this.]

[senuna]

[ She wants to leave Joyce behind, somewhere safe, like a home or a glass box. But that was also the mistake she made when she left Dillion, wasn't it? If he had come with her, he might still be alive. If she had stayed, he might have survived. ( When will you learn? )

And she's right. ]

It's the only thing we have.

[persisto]

[That merits a laugh. Not a robust one, but the sort of quiet huffing thing that shakes a small frame like Joyce's in passing.]

It is. [Her fingers twist around the carving again, feeling the strange comfort of rough and smooth.] And I pick this.

[An incredible number of important choices happen with much less information than their time together thus far, after all.]