soulping | TIAMAT

[ Well. You're in an elevator now. A gross, rusty elevator.

There are buttons on the panel in front of you, all team-coloured and numbered. Above the door are two panels, one indicating what floor you are on, and the other indicating what floor every other team is on.

The voice comes in through the intercom again: ]

Subject has a tendency to subconsciously cast spells in her sleep. This ranges from mildly inconvenient to wildly disastrous, due to the state of altered reality it creates.

The most recent incident involved a scenario wherein several of her classmates, including myself, were on their way to an unspecified business meeting. However, the building was dilapidated and upon entering the elevators we found they did not function as they should. We were, then, told by malicious spirits haunting the building that the only way out was to reach the top and make it to the meeting, by using the control panels to try to drop the other elevators into the boiler room. Where they would, ah, boil.

As you can tell, this is patently ridiculous. Dreams usually are. She has been reading too many horror stories and dramas, I suppose.

The incident previous to that involved --

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Her hooks? What does that mean?

Mmn... she locked onto me early on as someone to dislike. Since then, she refuses to trust me and always assumes the worse.

I mean, we're in a truce right now... but... really, it feels like it's just an uneasy one at best. The next time we talk for real we're probably going to wind up fighting again over some slight or another and we'll be back to where we started: I'm the devil himself and an untrustworthy and unlikeable jerk, and she's got to stop me because only she can see it.

I mean... I hope it doesn't wind up that way, but... Twice, now, the cycle's repeated.

I'm not blind.

You are not a devil, or untrustworthy. She just . . . takes things harder, and does not let go of them. [admittedly, Diamond is a lot worse than Clover is about grudges, and that's not a good thing]

Unfortunately, she will learn that she has to trust you, or she puts the rest of us at risk in the more dangerous games.

She's exactly like her element. A beam of light just goes in a single direction. It's inflexible, determined, and even if something does get in its way it either just rams its head against it or goes right through it.

...And, when a person like that is in a place like this, the only reason for her to care about these games is something back home that she cares about enough to compromise what she believes in.

Except, the problem is... the only thing she seems to care about at all from her world is Ivy. Everyone else from there can burn for all she cares, from what I've seen.

And... she's here. So she has all she needs, because she doesn't care about anyone outside of her own, really tiny, circle.

Someone like me and someone like that are fundamentally incompatible, no matter how hard I try to change that. It hurts, but it also is.

. . . she is, unfortunately, going to learn the hard way that the way she thinks, and the way she acts is not always the right way.

[is what she says, after a few moments thinking over what Ed said]

The way I see it is, that neither of you want to be compatible. Even if it seems as though you try. Because you both grasp too hard to what you believe in, and it clashes.

...I want to get along. I'd really like to be compatible with her.

The problem as I see it is that it's not possible unless I ignore everything I think and go back on a good number of the things I believe in just to make one person happy.

I don't care what she believes. I'd really like to get along with her just how she is! It's just not possible when you're getting your head bitten off for saying something she doesn't like. Then she gets violent, and...

W-well. You saw. I might have deserved it that time, but. She even almost did it while we just were talking in Kaito's room.

You should not have to change just to make a person happy. However, you do say a number of things that are . . . angering. As if you do not think before you speak.

Have you tried saying any of this to her, though? I did not know the two of you had another talk . . .

I tried.

Apparently, it's all my fault.

. . . [she just sighs and shakes her head]

I do not know what advice I can offer. It is not as though I am the friendliest person in the first place.

But sometimes, people do need to . . . bend a bit, in order to get along. Think of it like . . . how I go along with the others in games, despite not believing in what they say.

It does not change how I feel. But it avoids the worse of arguments, yes?

I try to bend.

I try really hard to avoid subjects and things that I think will upset her. But she seems to find a way anyways.

I've been doing my best... but...

[Sigh.]

. . . then here is an idea.

If the conversation is going in that direction, make it go in another. Or simply tell her you do not wish to speak of it.

She pushes the issue on the question she thinks I'm dancing around and pushes it back to one that lets her feel like she's in the right.

Or, she assumes the answer is something she'd hate and tries speaking for me. If I deny it, I'm lying and she pushes for an answer. If I don't comment, I agree and she gets mad.

She's better at speaking than I am. It's... overpowering, almost.

[god damn you children]

Then this is what you say, if that happens:

Diamond, please do not make any assumptions, but I do not want to talk about it. Can we talk about something else?

If she continues to push it, then you walk away. Or . . . you come find me or Kaito.

...Okay. I'll try it.

Thanks.

Mm, you're welcome.

[she rubs at her temples] You could also find Garnet, too. One of us will handle it. I will talk to them . . .

I'm pretty sure they already know... but...

Thanks.

I... I really do want to get along with everyone, y'know.

I know.

...

[So I know we're ankle deep in blood but here is a hug.]

[why????]

—Ed?

...Just.

Y'know.

Wanted to hug you.

Y-you don't have to hug back. I'm just glad you're my teammate.

[. . . words are hard. So she'll just awkwardly hug back.

Awkwardly because you're so short]

[...wow yeah he comes right up to the boob doesn't he.]

[did not think that through.]

[...at least clover's flat right??]

[flat enough that it isn't that weird]

[yes good]

...I'm glad you're my friend, too.

. . . mmm. You, too.

Re: DISCUSSION

fuhrinkaed - 2014-10-19 00:09 (UTC) - Expand

hyanaimne - 2014-10-19 00:16 (UTC) - Expand