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[abrightboy]

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Re: Spam, counseling offices, forward-dated to 11/6

[abrightboy]

"Come in!" Malcolm calls, looking up from where he's re-folding paper stars on his desk and dropping them back into a jar. When he sees it's Avalon, he smiles.

"Avalon! Hi! Come in. How are you? Want some tea?"

[chaos_drifter]

“Tea would be nice.” Avalon lets themself into the office and closes the door behind them. They drop onto the couch across from Malcolm, opening their journal in their lap.

“I was in a coma when everything happened on the Narrenschiff, so I guess someone brought me back here,” they say.

[abrightboy]

"You went into a coma?" He steps out of the office and returns with a cup of tea, handing it to Avalon. "When did that happen?" Because Avalon had helped him out on the island and that was the last time he saw them.

[chaos_drifter]

“Thank you.” They sip the tea, feeling the warmth radiate through their chest.

“I talked to the Admiral when he arrived, but the next thing I remember is waking up in Tendi’s cabin after we got away.” They think it was Tendi’s cabin. They had heard something about her cabin being used as a safe house. “I would have been asleep for about a week, right?”

[abrightboy]

"Yeah. About a week. Someone filled you in on what happened?" Malcolm asks.

[chaos_drifter]

“Not exactly. I know that we escaped, but not much else.”

[abrightboy]

"That's probably for the best, honestly. There was a whole battle. It... wasn't good. It... I feel like there must have been a non-violent solution but....." He shrugs. "How are you doing now?"

[chaos_drifter]

“I think there could have been, but with so many people involved it would have been difficult to find it.” They mentally scan their body. Their muscles are relaxed, not weak like how they had felt on the island. “I might not be feeling anything right now. I like being back, though.”

They look up from their journal. “Which emotions would make you feel cold and weak?” They had been fine, physically. They had been able to get back onto the Enposib, but they had felt like their body was weighing them down.

[abrightboy]

“Cold and weak?” He considers it. “Grief…. Loneliness….. Despair. Are any of those possibilities?”

[chaos_drifter]

“If I am capable of feeling grief, that is a possibility, and so is loneliness.” Despair seems stronger than what they had felt, like it would have kept them from functioning.

“Rawne died when the Enposib flipped. Before Norton and I found him, I think I was worried, but once we did, my body felt empty.” It seems like it would have made sense to feel more at that moment, not less. “It was stronger than what I was expecting.”

[abrightboy]

"A hollow feeling is a very common thing to feel when someone close to us dies," Malcolm tells them. "Like their absence literally leaves a hole in us."

[chaos_drifter]

“It did feel like that, physically. Like I had to do something to remind myself that parts of my body were still there.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nods. “Is he okay now?” he asks.

[chaos_drifter]

“He is.” Physically, they think. Maybe they should ask Malcolm how they can help. “I asked for a revival when the Narrenschiff arrived.”

[abrightboy]

"I'm sorry that I wasn't really... available when you were going through that. Did either of you get hurt in the battle when we disembarked from Narrenschiff?"

[chaos_drifter]

“You had other concerns.” They imagine his boyfriend is more important to him than his client. “No one was permanently harmed, and I learned something from the experience.” Their body can react more strongly than they had thought.

“Neither of us were hurt in the battle, at least not physically.”

[abrightboy]

More like he was more important to his boyfriend.

Fiance.

Malcolm was the relatively helpless one. Will kept everything together.

"I'm glad to hear it. Are you still feeling any of the grief, even though he's alive again?"

[chaos_drifter]

“No, not anymore. I think it faded after the Narrenschiff picked us up.” They run their fingers over the panel on their item. “And I think it would have been different if we had been able to contact the Admiral.” They had been worried about Shaw when they were on the island.