hadriel | [video - for the good of all of us (except the ones who are dead).]

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[video - for the good of all of us (except the ones who are dead).]

Oh Abeegail, what am I to do? I need to help five people and fill them with hope so I can get something that makes me feel like I have a heart again! Because I don't have a heart inside my body, which apparently means far more to me than it does for most of the people in this stupid cave. Hmn? What's that Beeatrice, this trade is basically impossible for me without the thing I'm trading for? Right you are! How smart, and how quickly you realized it, you smart little bee.

[His faux enthusiasm drops and he glares flatly at the camera.]

Come help a witch help you to help himself help us all. I have healing magic and a temper. If you think this is cheating, I don't want to hear it, and I only want things that will actually help. I'm serious, I'm trying to be good, here.

...Oh, and it goes against everything else I'm trying to do here, but I should let you know that the bees I found can't make honey. Maybe if you tell Delight or someone they can, she'll believe you and the copies will be able to, I don't know. I don't really care.

[He's screwed.]

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There is not very much that needs to be done here, yes? So wasting time is not a very big problem.

Maybe for you. Without my heart, it's only a matter of time before you all drive me insane enough that I burn the whole place down. Having my time wasted on something pointless makes that fuse even shorter.

Maybe someone here can build a heart for you until you have your own heart back.

Some people have hearts in boxes instead of proper hearts an they still function.

That's me. You're describing my situation.

[He pinches the bridge of his nose and heaves a sigh.]

My heart is fine where it is, and I'm fine when I'm close to Emma or, to a lesser degree, Ozma. I asked Hope for a...substitute, not my own heart. Just something I could use to keep my emotions under control while I'm away from them. As much as I hate to admit it, he's the best chance I have at having something that does what it's supposed to.

...You can have mine!

Not forever, but for a while. Until you managed to get a replacement from Hope. I don't need it to control my emotions.

But you have to give me something important in return that I can keep until you give my heart back to me.

What?

[this kid is Concerning]

You don't even know what you're doing, do you? Even if you don't die from that, you obviously have no idea what it's like living without a heart. It isn't something you should just do because it sounds like a good idea at the time.

[Give him a moment...

He puts his comm device down and turns away a bit, fiddling with his shirt.

And when he turns back he's sure holding a beating heart in his hand.]

It doesn't make very much of a difference. I've been without it for a few weeks before.

[It makes a difference, but he's always been able to deal with it quite well by just sticking to the principles that always guide his actions.]

[WHAT THE HELL]

Oh -- you put that thing back where it came from or so help me --

[DON'T JUST...REMOVE YOUR HEART... ack this isn't good for his mental health.]

When will you have your own heart back?

[He drops his hand, but doesn't look like he's actually put the heart back. It's just out of sight.]

[child you're killing him]

...I don't know. Maybe never. Hope can't give me my heart, it's somewhere very far away. He's just giving me something else. Not someone else's heart, because they need that. You need that.

[stop!!]

It would only be until you have your substitute from Hope, yes?

[He isn't normally flexible in how he approaches a given situation or task, but he's even less flexible without his heart.]

But you don't know how long that will take! I don't exactly inspire a lot of hope in people, do I?

You might be a lot faster at it if you have a heart, though, even if it isn't your own.

[Even if it is his heart and not Lithuania's - he's sure if it was Lithuania's, he would have inspired enough people within half an hour.]

[nnnnh]

I don't even know how...having someone else's heart would work. It might not. It still has your thoughts, and feelings, and life attached to it... I couldn't really say what happens, except that...the last time something sort of like this happened, the...person getting the heart complained of chest pains.

[Which might not have been his fault, but it was totally his fault.]

You can try it, and if it doesn't work and you're in pain, you can just give it back to me.

[At least we won't create additional people here.]

[He's still not...keen on the idea of fixing his problem at the expense of another, but it's hard to argue with children. Dang things were stubborn. Besides, it was only temporary. That's what the wicked part of him whispers anyway.]

If you insist, I suppose. But keep it inside until you get here, won't you? [He doesn't want a cold, dirty heart, if he has to take some kid's... Oh, and Muscovy will probably be healthier that way, that, too.]

[WOW. He's always careful with his heart.]

I will.

Where are you?

[Yes, offering your heart to strange men who insist they're wicked, so careful.]

I've been staying in the library.

[Well, it can't really get damaged forever, or at least he doesn't think that it can. And to make friends you need to be helpful, right?]

Okay.

[He'll head there and wander in a while later, a little kid with a backpack.]

[don't make friends with strange witch men!!!

Warrick looks up when he hears Muscovy enter, and drags his hand down his face with a groan. He actually came...]

Can't believe I'm even... You're really strange, you know that?

[He studies the kid through narrowed eyes.]

Why does your heart even do that, anyway? Are you cursed?

[People keep saying that, but he's fairly sure that he is entirely ... not normal, but what normal should be like. He's correct.]

Not that I know of.

[You can never know, right? But he should probably have noticed by now.]

It just has always come out very easily. I think it just isn't as well attached as with most people.

Hmmn. [Doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence...] We should probably look into that. After this.

[Now that he's so close to the chance to not feel like this... Ooh, it's tempting. So, so tempting.]

Maybe having it for a while will help me figure it out. [Now he's just justifying it to himself.] Alright, come on. Let's have it.

Well, I have never felt cursed or observed someone cursing me, but you never know, yes?

[Sneaky curses are a real danger in his worldview.

He'll turn away a bit to pull up his shirt and reach under it, fiddling for a bit before pulling his hand back out and offering up his heart to Warrick.]

Even without a curse, that doesn't sound healthy.

[Hearts shouldn't fall out, boy... Or be that easy to take out anyway. He wrinkles his nose as the heart appears, but the care he takes in picking it up has very little to do with disgust and a lot to do with being gentle with something as delicate and important as that.

...Hearts feel super weird. But other than that, nothing really...changes.]

Maybe it takes a while, if it's not like mine.

We are a bit different from humans. Maybe the others can take out their hearts too and just never do it.

[...That is a disappointing, if he reads the reaction right.]

It is a heart. It should be working.

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