Hedgeturtle Senior is mostly right-side-up again

[myironeyes]

[Public text + open spam, the afternoon of Iris's reunion with her bus]

There is fresh pie in the Dining Room.

[Or anyone could encounter Marsh in the stairwells or in the Dining Room itself, appearing in a stern swish of black shrouds to drop them off, one each, steaming slightly, at neat intervals. He needed to do something with his hands, and for once sewing felt insufficient.]



[Private to Kelsier, after Erik's post]

Will you go?



[Spam for Nathan, backdated to about 30 minutes after the joysplosion from Iris's bus.]

[He's not sure what he needs, except quiet, somewhere he can mark out the boundaries of himself, by walking them, in unspoken pain again, somewhere he can be alone among the pieces of his mind without being alone. So he goes to Nathan, and he knocks.]



[Private separately to Ben, Touko, Riddick, Zane, and Sylvanas, a few hours after, around midmorning]

Do you require anything?

[Which means, are you alright? Checking in on everyone he knows has a history or particular fear of mind control, excepting Arthas, who was publically disgruntled but otherwise fine, and Alpha, who Marsh still hasn't really forgiven, and probably never will.]



[Spam for Iris]

[Later, he finds the sticky note. That evening, in neat, tiny inked handwriting, he replies on the back with a verse from a lullaby.]

I

Sing to us, cedars; the twilight is creeping
With shadowy garments, the wilderness through;
All day we have carolled, and now would be sleeping,
So echo the anthems we warbled to you;
While we swing, swing,
And your branches sing,
And we drowse to your dreamy whispering.

[The adhesive is faded and on the wrong side anyway; he leaves it on the floor just outside her door.]

Comments

[Private]

[forsaken_queen]

[What? Why are you contacting her? Wasn't she disagreable enough the last time they'd spoken?]

Nothing you're likely to give me.

[Private]

[myironeyes]

[Nope. Marsh has a high tolerance for grump. He nods. It is, if not concession, certainly an acknowledgement.]

There was a small - psychic disturbance, this morning. I am glad it did not reach you.

[Private]

[forsaken_queen]

[She's actually glad of that too. No thank you. She does not care for her mind being invaded at all, ever. She's got enough of that going on as it is.]

You're glad? Why? What does it matter to you?

[Because it makes no sense. She isn't even nice to you, Marsh. Well, maybe that tiny insinuation that you aren't scary, but really it was backhanded at best.]

[private]

[routemistress]

Love you, Spiny. I'm sorry about earlier.

Want to come exploring, now she's got 'erself back under control?

[private]

[myironeyes]

I put you on my filter.

[Not it's alright, or any other dismissive platitude, because it wasn't really, but also not I forgive you, because he doesn't feel that it was a thing that required forgiveness. But he takes ownership of it, a little; he knew she wasn't always the meticulous sort, and he put her on the filter anyway. And he isn't taking her off, either.]

Maybe another time. You should...enjoy your reunion.

[private]

[routemistress]

There's a planet I found once - I tried to give Zane it for Christmas but the Admiral couldn't fit it in 'is room. It's got some weird tectonic business in its crust, all metal swirls all over the surface. I can take the lot of you to see it now.

And you'd like the Eye of Orion. It's a bit peaceful for me, usually.

[She doesn't exactly sigh.]

I'm not always a safe person to be open to. All I can offer is to do me best to be worth it.

Private

[with_my_teacup]

I'm a'ight. Thanks for the waistcoat. Haven't had a chance to wear it yet.

Private

[myironeyes]

We don't have an excess of formal occasions.

[Which is to say: he's glad Riddick likes it, and he doesn't consider the elapsed time either an insult or an oversight.]

Private

[with_my_teacup]

How was your Christmas.

[He's so deliberately not talking about this morning that the words almost create a negative-space image of it.]

[deadly_ned]

Is there?

Who else is making pie?

[myironeyes]

[For Ned, he switches to voice, his tone warm despite his usual curtness.]

I am.

[deadly_ned]

You are?


What kind?

Private

[onlysurvivor]

I will. I need to be with Mare and talk to Sazed.

Marsh, I want--

You need to let go of the guilt.

[a long pause]

I'll come back. I don't know when but I will.

Private

[myironeyes]

It's mine.

[The faintest growl; he thinks of Sylvanas, forbidding him to ease her pain. Then he sighs. He doesn't want to argue this now.]

You don't have to. Not for my sake. I'd visit you, wherever you're going.

Private

[onlysurvivor]

I don't dispute that. Guilt is only useful to motivate yourself to positive change, beyond that, it's pure lead. [He sighs and leaves it at that.]

I haven't decided where we're going. I wish I could bring Mare here.

[ Private ]

[warisart]

[It confuses him, to say the least. Save when he helped Riddick, Ben has never interacted with Marsh directly to his awareness, which is admittedly flawed at best. He is... unsettling.

So he's confused by this, and it shows.]

Sir?

[ Private ]

[myironeyes]

May I ask.

Where you were, at eight this morning?

[ Private ]

[warisart]

Taking my morning run, sir.

[Of course, that alleviates a lot of the confusion. He does know what happened around 0800.]

private

[inhell]

Um, thanks.

I wanted to say sorry.

private

[myironeyes]

...what for?

private

[inhell]

I was a little bratty about the spikes.

[private]

[persecutioncomplex]

Why? [She knows he's left her food before, packages she eats that day before they go bad, but there can't be any need now. Not unless something's happened that she has to know about.]

[private]

[myironeyes]

There was a disturbance this morning.

[If it didn't catch her - good. Probably.]

[spam]

[neuropathy]

[ It's been kind of ... a week, which is saying something when it's also been relatively quiet; in this state there are some people Nathan wouldn't open the door for. Such are the perks of frosted glass.

Marsh is not one of those people, though, so he makes one of those comfortable 'come in' (or "c'min," because Nathan) gestures with his head as soon as he and cracks open the entrance to the hallway. ]

Hey. You wanna sit down?

[ It's not always easy to tell Marsh's mental state; Nathan just knows that burst of effusive confetti rung his own mind out like a rag in a vice. ]

[spam]

[myironeyes]

Yes.

[Yes, he does. That one word sounds more tired than he normally allows, by leaps and bounds. He isn't shaking - he's past that - but he's still moving gingerly, with a nervous caution that is antithetical to his usual economic precision. ]