myironeyes | A Crab Dressed like a Dementor, Pack Lunches, and Pie

[Private to Ned.]

I need help.

[Spam for Kelsier]

[He gave Kelsier time to hide, because - well, he's not a complete hypocrite. But he's knocking on Kel's door now, and he's just as willing to pick the lock as he was on the other barge.]

[Private to Alpha]

I can't see anything on the communicator screens, so I don't know what your room looks like. But if you have not yet acquired a replacement for your recessed pit, I could make a fabric hammock.

They're...easier to move around than solid furniture, if you change your mind about what you want where.

[Spam for Nathan, backdated to several days after the mirror even but before White Flag - 5th or 6th?]

[He knocks only once. He has cherry-raspberry pie.]

[Open Spam all over the barge, from a few days after the mirror event through White Flag, particularly relevant to Jean, Cassel, Alex, Zane, and Ryan, because you guys now have a pointy extra shadow.]

[Several months of memories of being used as a brutal nightmare of a weapon have made Marsh even more skittish, if possible, than he was when he first board the barge. He skulks and lurks and generally keeps to the corners of the regrettably well-lit corridors. He ducks into empty cabins when people pass in the halls, and he collects food at odd times. It is, however, less absent than his usual hermitage, because he's actively stalking a few people at a distance whenever they emerge from hiding.]

[OOC: feel free to run into him while he's watching out for someone else, or if you want to say your character was chopped to pieces once or a dozen times by mind controlled!Marsh in the mirror event, he might feel obligated to quasi-discretely check on them too. Just let me know!]

[Open Spam, CES]

[It's pitch dark, except for the small area illuminated by the light spilling in through the open door; Marsh doesn't need light. The CES gave him the rebellion's cave systems today, and although there are torches stashed here in there in the tunnels, Marsh doesn't need them. The rock is solid, cool but not cold, and he's tucked just around a bend, holding still. Letting himself be still. He isn't sure himself if it's comforting or just stalling, but at least it is familiar.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh.

[He just stands there... hugging... his brother. He wonders if he should try to apologize for the other him.] Ah.

I... [feelings?!]

[Probably not. Marsh wouldn't really know how to handle it.]

I'm glad. That you're you.

[He sighs faintly.]

I am too.

[Of course, those three words are laden with how badly that flood affected him.]

[Of course, Marsh preferred crazy Kelsier to dead Kelsier. But he doesn't know how to say that without sounding awful. He steps back eventually, but keeps his hands resting on Kelsier's arms, not quite ready to let him go.]

It gets easier.

[Guilt does. It doesn't get smaller, in Marsh's particular experience. But it gets easier.]

I know.

[He frowns for a brief second then forces a smile back onto his face.]

It's over now. I suppose we should move on?

[He feels a brief, childish urge to just cover Kelsier's mouth with his hand. Smiling is how Kelsier gets through. But it still hurts, watching the moment where he cinches the expression on like armor. He drops his hands and steps back, and doesn't look away, though part of him wants to do that, too.]

If you wish.

[He shakes his head faintly.]

I'm not good at knowing what's best for me anymore, you know that. Everyone else? I can see what they need.

[His smile fades.] I don't know what I need.

[Marsh is good at pretending he knows what's best for Kelsier. He used to believe it, before they grew so apart. He reaches over, pets Kelsier's hair idly, as though neatening it, something he hasn't done in maybe a decade.]

You're allowed to be hurt. And you're allowed to be happy, too. You didn't do anything there that won't be recovered from.

[Kelsier shrinks slightly from the patting because... mom, no. But he doesn't stop him.]

That applies to you too, you know.

[Dryly,]

You don't know that.

[He hopes it's true. But he catches something in Nathan's eyes, on occasion, and he isn't sure. But he doesn't hate himself over what happened on the other barge, at least. it seems easier, somehow, to let other people take the blame for wielding him when he remembers their faces.]

Oh? [Now, he's grinning, way to go Marsh.]

You deserve happiness, Marsh. It's going to happen whether you like it or not.

I'm happy right now.

[More or less. Especially since Kel's perked up.]

A Crab Dressed like a Dementor, Pack Lunches, and Pie

[spam]

[spam]

[spam]

[spam]

[spam]

[spam]

[spam]

[spam]

Re: [spam]

[spam]

[spam] I knew I was missing a kel tag somewhere.

[spam] I knew I was missing a kel tag somewhere.