[She's exactly right. He has to make up for everything awful about last night by being extra perfect now. And pretending it just doesn't exist is half the battle there.]
Of course, please do! Take a seat, make yourself at home.
[He hurries to the corner he's set up with a small sofa and armchair along with a coffee table to clear a newspaper away.]
[Of course she is. Flora, for her part, is polite and light enough for the time being. No need to bring up unpleasantness so quickly. Besides he might get startled and actually run away.
[With a pretty smile, he bustles off to start the kettle and ready all the ingredients and dishes. She has the right idea in trapping him really.
And once the water's finished boiling and he's poured it in the pot, he brings it all over on a tray to the coffee table and takes a seat in the armchair.]
There you are. How have you been?
[Yep just a good host and a very proper gentleman, nice weather we're having, etc. Last night? He doesn't know about a last night. They haven't seen eachother for a while.]
[Good gracious, no wonder Dorian cannot stand to be Victorian anymore, y'all sickeningly repressed. But though she hasn't had to practise them, she was/is a politician. She can bide her time.
For now, she adds sugar to her cup.]
Well, all things considered.
[It's not a lie, she's just fine, that's sort of the problem. It's him she's concerned about. ]
The very same - quite well, in fact. It hasn't been a productive day so-far, but I feel at ease, I suppose it is important to rest once in a while. Especially with tea and a good book or good company.
[Flora has not ceased being concerned but there is...something of a morbid fascination, and for a moment she almost wonders if he's forgotten, but she knows him better.
Boy how do u live.
It seems only proper for her to at least sip some of the tea he's gone to make for her.]
The tea is very nice, by the way. Thank you.
[She sets her cup down, and it might as well be the same sound as a bomb being dropped.]
How are you after yesterday?
I refreshed a few times before actually looking at the email
[He lives quite well so long as no one mentions anything!! Which is why he wavers when she mentions yesterday. That perfect smile falls just a bit as his heart sinks. Why does she have to bring it up when he's so glad to leave it alone and pretend it never happened?]
Oh, I'm fine, thank you. [Better rush right on past that.] Would you like some milk as well?
[He considers refusing, or trying to keep avoiding the topic entirely, but pressing his lips together in silence for a moment, he realises he can't do that.]
I want to talk about what happened and how you are doing, really. Though I'm suspecting it's not well, if you're content to pretend like it never happened.
[Oh, that's right, she knows what he's going through, as it were. But that doesn't mean either of them has to.]
No, I need to be strong for people like us, to find something that might cure us. -Aah, I really shouldn't have taken the day off, I'll get back to work tonight, so you don't need to worry!
It's nothing more than a disease of the mind. One we are all born with which some have the natural ability to overthrow. Others might need a bit of help, if only we knew what that was. But modern science has found medications for the treatment of similar illnesses, I think that proves there's hope!
I wasn't born this way. [There's a flicker of something, but she shuts her eyes to it before opening them once again.]
Not that it matters, anymore, but what we have aren't quite illnesses, not like those. [She's thought of her compulsions as a parasite, and still does from time to time, but she's been coming a bit more to terms with it.]
Unless you intend to cure what it means to be a person. Nobody's perfect, nobody should be perfect, everyone has bad qualities to them, what matters is what we do to recognise, hold ourselves accountable to, and manage them.
That is precisely the reason I say it's inherently bred into people. For yourself, perhaps it lay dormant until recently, as it does for many, but that it was possible at all means there must have been something to latch onto. There cannot exist something from nothing. As I see it, the thought that it's simply a fact of being human is a problem, it excuses such behaviours and allows us to think no attention needs to be brought to it. Only it very much does, such evils have no need to exist, nor any purpose nor place in the world. It can be fixed, and it must.
"There cannot exist something from nothing." That is such an Earth-born human notion. Haven't you seen enough in the place we've both been to know that that simply isn't true?
[She's heard his words and the idea that that part of her may have always been there would have made her far more uncomfortable if he didn't come to that conclusion based on something so patently untrue.
ffs henry you were in the drabwurld for like over a year.]
For me, no, those feelings were never there, not like that. That's why they were able to be born in the first place.
[2 pure sry]
But that's beside the point, and you're conflating issues. Awareness is not condonation; knowing that there is darkness in others doesn't mean that everyone will be complacent with it. There are people who live to fight against evil everyday, but that thinking goes too far.
[Henry, you're human and yet so bad at people why is this.]
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Of course, please do! Take a seat, make yourself at home.
[He hurries to the corner he's set up with a small sofa and armchair along with a coffee table to clear a newspaper away.]
Will you have tea?
no subject
Yes, it's kind of a trap.]
Certainly, if you wouldn't mind.
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[With a pretty smile, he bustles off to start the kettle and ready all the ingredients and dishes. She has the right idea in trapping him really.
And once the water's finished boiling and he's poured it in the pot, he brings it all over on a tray to the coffee table and takes a seat in the armchair.]
There you are. How have you been?
[Yep just a good host and a very proper gentleman, nice weather we're having, etc. Last night? He doesn't know about a last night. They haven't seen eachother for a while.]
these tags are literally hurting me
For now, she adds sugar to her cup.]
Well, all things considered.
[It's not a lie, she's just fine, that's sort of the problem. It's him she's concerned about. ]
And yourself?
me too, this is painful, he must be stopped
i bet u got excited like oh boy a real tag
Boy how do u live.
It seems only proper for her to at least sip some of the tea he's gone to make for her.]
The tea is very nice, by the way. Thank you.
[She sets her cup down, and it might as well be the same sound as a bomb being dropped.]
How are you after yesterday?
I refreshed a few times before actually looking at the email
Oh, I'm fine, thank you. [Better rush right on past that.] Would you like some milk as well?
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[His smile wavers, but her gaze doesn't. Not once.] Henry, please stop. I would like to speak to you about it.
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...Is it terribly important?
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Yes, it is.
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Alright then, I suppose... What did you want to talk about?
2 bad bruh!!!
IGNORANCE IS BLISS
NAH
[She knows the answer even as she asks it, but she cannot help herself.]
And don't apologise, I asked you to, remember.
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[He just needs to be stronger and overcome that part of himself until it doesn't exist at all anymore.
Even if she asked him to. But the reason she asked him was because it was so plain to see that he wanted to!]
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[That has literally never worked for you henry omfg.] You're just going snap and in a very big, very bad way. Don't do that to yourself.
Take it from someone else who knows.
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No, I need to be strong for people like us, to find something that might cure us. -Aah, I really shouldn't have taken the day off, I'll get back to work tonight, so you don't need to worry!
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[She can't blame him for trying, not too much, anyway. She did, after all, and look where it's gotten both of them.]
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Not that it matters, anymore, but what we have aren't quite illnesses, not like those. [She's thought of her compulsions as a parasite, and still does from time to time, but she's been coming a bit more to terms with it.]
Unless you intend to cure what it means to be a person. Nobody's perfect, nobody should be perfect, everyone has bad qualities to them, what matters is what we do to recognise, hold ourselves accountable to, and manage them.
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[She's heard his words and the idea that that part of her may have always been there would have made her far more uncomfortable if he didn't come to that conclusion based on something so patently untrue.
ffs henry you were in the drabwurld for like over a year.]
For me, no, those feelings were never there, not like that. That's why they were able to be born in the first place.
[2 pure sry]
But that's beside the point, and you're conflating issues. Awareness is not
condonation; knowing that there is darkness in others doesn't mean that everyone will be complacent with it. There are people who live to fight against evil everyday, but that thinking goes too far.
[Henry, you're human and yet so bad at people why is this.]