Sanguine Cove round here, we always stand up straight

It worked too well. Chan wasn't sure if she'd even heard all of what he'd said, distance consuming her expression as tears formed in her eyes. Whoops. Yet he couldn't help but feel a small, hated sense of relief that at least the gears had changed. It was far easier caring for someone else's problems than to face his own tangle of emotions, and he couldn't help but utilize this opportunity.

He moved forward to stand at her side, shoulder to shoulder so that she might lean against him if needed. Aquene clearly had her own trauma she'd yet to properly deal with, that had always been some measure of evident, but he'd never seen it present itself so severely. He leaned his jaw against her crown, and tried to give her time. There was little else to do, not when she had sunk so deeply into herself.

She couldn’t help but feel the pain radiating in her chest as she processed the words, letting them repeat in her mind over and over again. What if she was the cause of all of this? Did people intentionally avoid her and the aid she could provide because she fretted too much and projected onto them? What if Aleister had done that, and it had resulted in his death? Then it would have truly, wholly and honestly, been her fault.

God, he was right. He was completely right. Her entire body tensed and locked up as his jaw leaned against her crowd, causing her to shake her head, silent apart from the whine that would slip out in a muted distress. None of it was true. All of it was true. She truly didn’t know anymore. It took a few more seconds before she was finding the power to speak, distress still lingering in her eyes.

“I-I’m sorry to have bother you.” The words were a faint whisper before her paws began to carry her away, carrying her towards the den, an emotionally heightened fatigue washing over her for a moment as she fought just to breathe.

Aquene Slayer

Shit. She was practically fleeing, and Chan found himself uncharacteristically hesitant to try and fix what he'd just unexpectedly broken. Were this a younger him, the him before this past year, he would have chased after Aquene and done everything he could to try and get her to break away from her racing thoughts and just breathe. She needed to talk it out, to realize that she could be important without being the only string holding them all up, and, well-

She had Nash for that, didn't she? Chan's ears swept back, and his head lowered as he clenched his eyes shut. He'd caused this, had known better, so what good could he do now? Obviously, one way or another, all he ended up doing was hurting others. His own self-loathing demons were poisoning him as well, erecting vile walls he no longer had the strength to keep tearing down.

Chan left too, in the opposite direction and headed outside of the Cove's reach to regain his grip.

(This post was last modified: Feb 02, 2023, 10:29 PM by Chan.)