dropoffs | AUDIENCE 🚀 GREGOR

[thank you he flops right into that seat. maybe faintly sweaty from exertion. sometimes you go hit things with your work wife to feel better and it doesn't entirely work.]

...hey, Io.

[ just holding that cup a little tighter. ]

Frays the nerves, yeah? You try to work some of that out?

[ teej in fear every fucking week. ]

Went with Rodya, yeah. She's been in a pretty bad mood since the end of it.

[it helped a Little.]

I can only imagine.

[ it's bullshit haha. sometimes. you keep your anger, right here /points to chest and you let it sit and fester there. hehe. ]

And you? How is your mood?

It's bad, Io.

[he's not gonna lie to him.]

I'm-- frustrated with him. With how he let that end, not saying anything until it was too late. Could've ended a lot different if he'd been listening. But there's nothing any of us can actually do, right now, except sit around and stew in it.

[ nodding slowly. because the frustration sure is fucking mutual. something about the way that all ended felt so needless. they shift to just set the cup on the table, resting their cheek in their palm as they look at him. ]

How do you think it could have ended otherwise?

[ a tired, but genuine question. ]

The uncertainty of it all... can't say it doesn't worry the hell out of me.

...I think if he'd admitted to what was going on sooner, more of us would've voted for Princess after all. We'd only have to lose her. But we don't-

If there's a way to save her, we don't know it, so now we've got him in trouble and no idea what to do about her, unless it's letting her die, in which case we've probably lost two lives because-- what, he didn't trust us to let him live?

It makes me wonder just why... why he wouldn't say something sooner than he did. What made that knowledge, that secret so precious that it was worth the scene that happened tonight.

[ closing his eyes and letting out a sigh. ]

Whatever tomorrow brings, we know it won't be in our favor or good or right... it never is. [ squeezing their eyes shut now. ] As a doctor I've never felt so useless.

Wish I knew. But I'm not gonna ask him myself.

[it'll make things worse, he's pretty sure of it.]

...feels useless even for the ones of us who aren't doctors, trust me, so I'm sure it's worse for you.

Losing lives is bad all around, no matter what you are or what you do... To have to persist afterwards can feel like a prison itself, yeah?

[ the spinning of wheels over and over again. they take a long pause. ]

It's hell for all. I just hope to make it even an iota better. Somehow.

You do, y'know. We know you care-- I know some of us weren't sure about trusting you all at first, I wasn't much different, there.

Actions say a lot, though.

[and io's have always said plenty for him.]

Don't blame you at all for... all of that.

[ it was. very touch and go in the beginning, and io just kind of tiredly gives a faint smile to that. ]

Hell... I didn't trust Gloriana at first... she had to hose me down to get me to listen to anything she said.

Seriously-?

[faintly amused, there.]

I know you can be stubborn, but I honestly wouldn't have figured.

[ a low chuckle. ]

Yeah... didn't want to listen to a thing she said, but. I realized she wasn't there to hurt me, but to help me. Perhaps we weren't in the best condition to do so at first ourselves, but...

[ it's affection week so i'm sorry taking both hand and claw carefully in both his paws... carefully, gently. ]

I strive to offer the same now. You gave us the chance. Worked with us when the odds were hardly in anyone's favor. So I'm grateful. Always.

[ah...

well-- at this point, io is one of the few people who has claw rights, so he's allowed to hold it along with gregor's normal hand.]

You've been doing just fine with that, I'd say. I'm- glad we ended up giving you guys more of a shot, y'know? This place would feel a lot different without talking to you.

[...]

You, specifically, not just... all of you guys.

I would... miss this if things had turned out worse.

-yeah. I'd miss you too, bud.

[ it's. affection week. i keep saying to myself to justify just leaning forward and giving gregor a very gently forehead-to-forehead headbutt. like a bull. just bonk softly. buddy. ]

[you're killing me, and also gregor, who blinks at first, but then just. lets his head rest there. it's affection week and it's nice.

like this it would be very easy to-

nope that's not a thought he's acknowledging after the most awkward week of his life]

[ i am not killing you i am just here minding my business. you're the one who tucked him in with a bug after this on sunday. FINALLY LOGS INTO MY ACCOUNT. in any case, he will eventually pull away, just a little bit, to give him a weak smile. ]

Sorry. Just felt good to do that for a moment. It's been a long day... hasn't it...

...too long, if you ask me.

[still giving him a little grin back, though. it was nice. maybe he needed that, after a day like this.

he's not letting go of his hand.]

Don't have to say sorry if I don't mind it, y'know.

Then... I suppose I take that back.

[ gentle squeeze. to both. ]

It amazes me, how despite all the violence there is still enough in people for this sort of thing. The waves and... everything aside. There is a gentleness in all of it that people desire, I think.

Yeah. I think it's a little bit like...

[mm. he's quiet, for a few moments.]

Well, you saw that I was... different, when I was younger. After the war, I grew to crave the kind of liveliness I'd been missing, living in a nightmare like that. I picked up a real fondness for humor.

I think we all want something like that, whether we realize it or we don't. Something to help ease the hurt from the rest of it.

It's hard to heal from everything we see during hard times - war is like that... even then, the wound doesn't heal all the way.

[ but they nod, because he's right. he's hitting the nail on the head, really! ]

Sometimes humor's all we got, huh? Can't seem to find any bad jokes to make here... but if I could, I would.

[ lifting a hand but just kind of trying to still hold both hands with one. how? he's trying. he's just trying. just kind of gently boops gregor's chin. ]

We'll just have to keep our heads high.

Could just call this whole situation a bad joke of its own, 'ne?

[chin booped... his head tilts up slightly with the touch, and after a brief moment of surprise-- it gets a little grin out of him, a half-laugh at the gesture. a faint dusting of pink over his cheeks.]

... always keeping my head high, Io. How else am I supposed to look anybody in the eye?

[too damn many tall people on this ship.]

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