[Video] [Filtered from Lup Taaco]

[barold]

[There's a fidgety middle-aged man on your screens, a bespectacled man who looks like he has absolutely no clue what he's doing. Evidenced by the fact that only about half of his face is even in frame.]

Hello. Uh, no that's... G-Greetings! No that's worse...

[He sighs.]

Okay. Say that you, uh... completely hypothetically... haven't really seen your significant other in a while. Couple months. 'Cause of somethin' you did. Hy-Hypothetically. And you're hypothetically lookin' to get'em a little somethin' now that you're uh, back together again. Just a little present, like, nothin' special, j-just somethin' nice t'show y'love'em.

Your hypothetical significant other also already has everythin'. And they're magic.

[Barry hasn't gotten any answers yet, and he already looks demoralized.]

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Uh. Thanks for yer time. How do I make it stop record--

Comments

[barold]

[Barry appreciates Drake telling him this privately.

The younger man speaks, and Barry sits very quietly and listens, nodding softly at each of his points, unable to look at the screen. There's nothing he can add here. He did screw up. He did run away. Like the incurable coward he is, he bolted from something that frightened him and only managed to make things worse. It's what he's always done. Hid. Cowered. Waited for situations to resolve themselves, for the storm to blow over so he could return when it's safe. It's so easy to run away. But it doesn't fix anything. It never has. And this time, it almost cost him dearly.

He could've lost her. He knows that. He goes to bed every night thinking about that.

Getting back together has been so hard. Barry has had to bottle up and push past his fears, the swirling anxiety making his head cloudy and his heart clench painfully in his chest, to get even close to okay again. By some miracle, she has let him. But it doesn't stop at just reconciling, it doesn't stop at her letting him back in. It doesn't stop at just okay. He's going to be atoning for what he's done for a long, long time. He's going to have to keep working hard in order to even begin to make amends. To keep the love of his life by his side.

Lup is worth all that work, all that fear. He knows that.]

That's a good idea. Thank you. [He takes a deep breath. His chest hurts.] I'll uh, get in touch with her. Get her Lup's measurements.

... Thank you, Drake. I mean it.

[braveoff]

[ Barry might not have responded to the lecture itself, but seemed to take it in this time. Hopefully, anyway. He nods back at the thanks for his suggestion and is going to wish him luck and leave the conversation there, but then... Barry thanks him again, and it doesn't seem like it's for the gift idea.

Hmm. ]

You're welcome.

Look, you're probably feeling a little like nobody's in your corner at this point, huh? I know you're a decent guy, and you're trying. So if you ever need to talk to somebody, my phone's on and my door's open.

Being brave doesn't mean you don't get scared, it's just that you understand what's more important and push through anyway. Not everybody's gonna be manage it in every situation, and sometimes it never comes naturally, but you can always just start off thinking about this stuff in terms of payoff and consequences. Like whatever it took to make this post -- I'm sure it sucked to ask for help but you pushed through it to maybe get a good suggestion. That's payoff. Screwing up and getting your ass beat by that angry guy, or running away from your problems and losing your wife? That's consequences. Which things are scarier, and which are worth it?

[ It feels... pretty weird to be giving life advice like this to a guy who's something like 120 years his senior, but. He feels like good people are capable of far more than they think. God knows it took him awhile to get his head on straight. ]

From here it seems like you've got your priorities straight at least, it just takes work. Good luck, Barry.