IC: CONTACT

[vartex]

"First Lieutenant Messer Ihlefeld."

[ voice | text | video | action ]

Comments

akshun; ~20th or so

[axi]

[Kaname requested that Messer meet her in the dance studio, a place where few rarely spend their time. When he arrives, she has a blanket spread on the floor with some food and drinks. If she's gonna have a serious talk with him, it might as well be comfortable.]

Hey, have a seat.

[vartex]

[Considering it's Kaname, this feels weirdly ominous. He'd come assuming she needed help practicing some dance maneuver, but this is decidedly different.

It's still Kaname, though, so he sits down, brows furrowed.]

Is something wrong?

[axi]

[Well, that's not fair. At all.

She gives a defeated chuckle, nodding when he sits. Here, have a sandwich. He's expected to eat it.]

Not wrong, exactly, but I have been thinking.

[vartex]

[He accepts the sandwich, but he doesn't eat just yet. You can't just sit him down for some kind of Talk and expect him to be in a snacking mood.

He does have a drink, though, because even mild stress gives one a dry mouth.]

Thinking about what?

[axi]

Our situation here, mostly. [Kaname does stop to take a bite. It's lunch time, and she is hungry.]

You arrived when here when we first got to the last system, but a good portion of the time, we're in ships like this, just drifting.

[Now her turn for a drink.]

[vartex]

Are you concerned about my adjustment?

[Because it doesn't sound like it, but that's the first thing that comes to mind. He hasn't had any other issues, though now that there's no planet to pilfer and no combat from home, he's going to need to start thinking of ways to keep occupied.]

[axi]

[A head shake.]

Not at all. I know you'll be all right in time.

[Kaname sighs, putting down her own sandwich, and looks at him.]

It's about the Var. [His condition.] We need to tell your captain and first mate.

[vartex]

[Ah. Yes. In retrospect it's the obvious answer, but this whole month he hasn't had a single outburst, and after the increasingly bad state of his condition up until his death back home, he'd... kind of hoped he would be back to remission when separated from the Song of the Wind and the Windermerans. But that's the sort of blind optimism that has never suited him. Probably got him killed, even if he doesn't regret what he did. There's no cure, and he can't control the Var- certainly not on his own. And he can't really ask anyone to call for help if they don't know the situation.

His expression sobers immediately, but there's only resignation there, no anger or resistence.]

It's an unusual ship. They'll likely take it well.

[They've got a contingency plan for a werewolf, after all.]

[axi]

[The resignation alone makes her hate this even more. She reaches over and places her hand on his arm.]

I wanted to avoid this, I really did. I kept hoping your transfer requests would go through eventually. [Yes, she knows about those. Of course she does.] But we can't rely on hope and good luck, not with this.

[Kaname withdraws her hand after another moment.] I've already talked with someone I trust regarding Shiro and Ulaz. They're a good pair, so we won't have to worry. A meeting with them is scheduled to discuss all of this. Only the four of us, on your ship, nothing over the network.

[If Messer looks at her, he'll be able to tell how guilty she feels over all of this.]

I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I just needed to get it started. [Otherwise, she doesn't know how long it might've taken.]

[vartex]

[He does look at her, but he didn't need to, to know how she feels about this. She's doing this because she's a leader, because she's pragmatic in a way that many others are not. It doesn't mean she enjoys it.]

It's all right. I shouldn't have let it go so long that it became your responsibility. It was foolish of me to pretend this wouldn't become necessary.

[This is his problem, first and foremost, and just because he hasn't had an outbreak yet doesn't mean it'll never happen. He's been far removed from stressful situations that might induce one- no dogfights, no battles, nothing more than a bit of practice or a spar. To properly test his limits they'd need to face a real attack, and if that happens, they need ways to prevent him from hurting someone if it all goes wrong.]

Thank you for taking initiative.

[axi]

It's foolish of you to think it's your burden alone.

[Kaname nods to the still untouched sandwich in his hand. Eat it.]

You know very well it's both of our responsibility, and that it has nothing to do with how things are here. [He's important to her, so of course she's with him on this.]

It's a good ship for you to be on from the looks of it. I hope you'll feel at ease there.

[Or as much as he can.]

[vartex]

[He's not going to address the first bit, opting instead to eat his sandwich so she'll stop fussing. It's been his burden for a long time now, so it's force of habit that keeps him so closed, especially related to the Var issue. It's true that the upper levels of Xaos had been in the know, though, so this is fitting.]

It seems to be my fate that I stay there, so I'll make it work somehow. I have no complaints at the moment.

[Except for maybe the werewolf chap getting way too chummy with his quarters.]