Luceti Appointments

[i_speak_softly]

Need a thread with Don, but don't have a post for it and don't feel like starting one? Stick it here. Please note date, time of day, location, and any relevant circumstances.

Comments

[Action] | February 1 | Morning, before announcement of Giles' leaving

[semper_cogitans]

[Sleeping is hard when you have chronic pain.

It's early, but Robert is in the kitchen anyway, folded up in one of the chairs and staring at his suddenly-cold hands.

There really isn't anything he can do about this. If it's part of this soul that he has - part of whatever the Malnosso did - then no medicine will work to relieve these symptoms. It's just enough pain to be pervasive.

... If anybody is watching, he definitely looks like he's suffering, though he's trying to be quiet about it.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don has far, far too much experience with people who are in pain and trying to pretend they're not. Enough so that being barely-awake and winter-slow don't stop him from noticing Robert's condition when he shuffles into the kitchen on this first morning of February.]

[He shuffles out again, and returns with some blankets from the couch, one of which he drapes over Robert's hunched back before wrapping himself in the other and sitting in the chair opposite.]

I wish Master Splinter were here.

[semper_cogitans]

D-Don...?

[Robert looks up from his reverie, shudders slightly under the blanket that's draped over him, and flicks his gaze down and away when Don sits there.]

... I... I do too.

[... If only to just... help with everything.

Pain like this... he really doesn't know how to deal with.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don tilts his head, studying his partner.]

You don't know how to sleep with it, do you?

[semper_cogitans]

... N-No. [Robert shakes his head. It's hard to admit this, but... well, he's never felt pain like this in his life before.

The withdrawal symptoms were close, but... but those had things he could do to reduce them. This doesn't.]

... D-Do... do you...?

[i_speak_softly]

Of course. You -- [Well. He was going to say "meditate yourself away from your body", but Robert doesn't know how to do that.] Hm. Did you try sleeping pills?

[semper_cogitans]

[The joys of only being good enough at meditation to contact the spirits...

... Also, this is an option. Robert looks thoughtful.]

... Not yet, but... I m-might.

I just... d-do not want to become... r-reliant on them. [Addicted.]

... M-Mostly, I... I am not... u-used to this sort of thing. P-Pain, that is.

[i_speak_softly]

[He nods, understanding.]

Is it the all-over kind?

[semper_cogitans]

... P-Pervasive. It... it is unlike... a-any pain I have ever had before...

... It has no... s-source. It is just... there. [Everywhere. It suffuses him, like coloured water traveling upwards through a piece of paper.]

[i_speak_softly]

Really? Never?

[semper_cogitans]

[... That actually strikes Robert as strange.]

Yes.

... [Does that mean Don has?]

[i_speak_softly]

[A strange look, almost as if Don doesn't recognize him.]

[He tries several times to speak, but what can he say to that?]

[semper_cogitans]

[... Good question.

After a moment, Robert realizes:]

... You... mean that is... u-usual, for you...?

[Unlike Don, all he sounds like is sad, really.]

[i_speak_softly]

Um... [He rubs his head, trying to think how he can explain this gently.]

In training, a sourceless, all-over pain is usually a good thing.

[semper_cogitans]

Ah... w-well. [Robert fidgets a little uncomfortably at that. Yet another thing about Don's life he can't conceptualize properly...]

... I... s-suppose I had never seen pain as... good.

[i_speak_softly]

[He drops that subject for now.]

How can I help you feel better?

[semper_cogitans]

D-Distract me. [It's not usual Robert asks for this.]

... S-Something to think about other than... p-pain.

[i_speak_softly]

[Don gets up and leaves the room for a moment, returning with a chess set.]

Usually I play without a board, but my memory's not that good right now.

[He starts setting up the pieces.]

Shiro ka kuro ka? White or black?

[semper_cogitans]

[Ooh, a chess set. The mun can't play chess, oh god.]

... Do... d-do you have a preference...?

[Robert, of course, is all too willing to defer.]

[i_speak_softly]

[He shrugs.] You can go first.

[semper_cogitans]

[That means choosing the white pieces, doesn't it? Robert considers the board before making his first move, slowly and methodically.

... It's been awhile since he's played chess, and he's never done so with a physical board... it's definitely different this way.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don lets a few opening moves go by - neither of them playing very skillfully, Robert from lack of practice and Don from the effects of winter - before he speaks again.]

Robert... Is there anything you want to talk about?

[semper_cogitans]

... Mm? [Robert's gaze flickers up from the board - he'd been studying the pawn structure, in the hopes he could calculate the efficiency percentages of the next possible moves he could take - and it's a second before he registers Don's words.]

... Well... [... Other than the fact he's got a tainted soul now, and he just confessed his drug history to Helios a day or so ago...?]

... I... I suppose, but... I am not c-certain if I... can.

[At least not the former.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Calculating anything is beyond Don's powers right now - he's making moves more or less by rote.]

[He shrugs, as casual as he can make it.]

I thought some conversation might help distract you.

[semper_cogitans]

[At that, Robert's fingers pause mid-grip on one of his pieces, and he hesitates a moment.]

... W-well. ... Things have... c-certainly been... difficult recently...

... I... I... have spoken to Helios, about... [- and he stumbles for a second -] ... m-my drug history, now.

... It... it was a very... e-emotional moment...

[Not one he really wants to get into too much, but this week is going to be full of glossing things over.]