hadriel | [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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[excuse]

What? Okay, no, what? What does that even mean?!

I presume you have a way of keeping your body functioning without it? You sound as though you're speaking more in ...metaphysical terms than purely physical.

Yes, sort of -- it's both, but I need the emotional thing -- go back to the two hearts thing! I've never heard of anything like that.

It's normal for my kind. I have a more efficient circulatory system than a human - among other things.

But I can also share emotions. I've always suffered from an excess of emotion - I certainly have enough feelings for two.

[let him do some quiet thinky thinks over here a moment]

And how does that work. If it's your heart, it would still be your emotions, wouldn't it?

To start with, perhaps; but emotions are fluid, fickle things. Think of it as jump-starting an engine.

[...hmn!!!]

I think you can't count one of your five down. Even if it doesn't work entirely, I would think it would make things easier for Hope and lower the amount of hope needed...

I shall leave it to Hope to decide if we count. I am very willing to make the attempt, in any case.

Where may I find you?

I don't know, I'm feeling pretty hopeful.

[As much as he could, anyway. If this really did work...]

I'm in the library. That's where most of the bees have stayed, too. [so, you know. get your nerd on, or something.]

As am I. I'll be with you shortly.

[She flashes a brilliant smile into the video feed, and she's there inside ten minutes.

Bianca in the flesh is smaller than she seems on video: slightly built, and only just over five feet in height. The two spotted hyenas walking at her sides make her seem even smaller; but she holds her head high and walks as though she's the automatic centre of everyone's attention.]

Do you know, we never introduced ourselves properly, did we? I am Bianca.

[stares down at her from a full foot taller... yikes]

What are those? [Not dogs...but kind of, in some ways? Hrmn.

...Oh, right. He's supposed to be introducing himself.] Warrick Chopper.

This is Bud and this is Lou. They're Terran hyenas. I stole them from a mad clown in the last dimensional nexus I was trapped in.

[Each hyena looks up, grinning, when his name is mentioned. Bianca inclines her head graciously.]

Well, now. Are you ready for this? Is there a specific emotion you're most interested in?

[Bud and Lou the Terran hyenas... He likes them already. Mostly because animals > people in most cases, but still. Hi, doggish things.

But okay, emotions. The whole reason he's seeing Bud and Lou in the first place.]

I know what emotions feel like. [So saying "interested in" is kind of... Hrmn.] Calm, I suppose. Not anger. I'm very, very tired of anger.

Tired of it? Interesting.

[The concept interests Bianca; she tilts her head, considering it like the startling new idea it is.]

Like a fish getting tired of water. But I do know how to gather calm. Come.

[She finds a bench, sits and pats the surface next to her.]

Sit by me. I will need to take your hand.

[He doesn't follow her right away, once more unnerved by her everything instead of riding the hope train. Eventually, he does sink onto the bench next to her, but he's grimacing.]

Need to? I really don't like to be touched.

[He's wearing gloves, on top of it. Rude boy.]

[She is already gathering herself into calmness, so Bianca doesn't get snappy - or anything but gently patient - at Warrick's reluctance.]

Yes. Unless we were already very close, very accustomed to sharing thoughts, I can only do this via touch.

[nnnh... With a wrinkle of his nose, he offers out his hand like he expects it to be torn from his arm by a slobbery dinosaur jaw. Eugh.]

Okay, alright. Let's get this over with.

[She doesn't laugh aloud, but her mouth quirks with gentle amusement as Bianca reaches her hand out.

Her fingers are dry and cool, her eyes dark and compelling, and her mind reaches out gently: like a scent of honey and musk stealing slowly into the awareness, or like music rising into hearing range. Warrick asked for calm, and Bianca holds calmness around herself.

She is using the image of bees to convey it: the precise, organic geometry of a swarm in motion. It only looks chaotic from outside. Bianca knows bees, and this is why she loves them. Every tiny spark has its precise purpose, every one of thousands moves its wings and body in interlocked harmony with every other one. There is no swarm here, but the living bees' wings oscillate in perfect rhythm with the imagined ones.

Bianca's voice is low and gentle.]

Try to match your breathing with mine.

[The bees are honestly distracting, and it's almost like his mental presence jerks away from hers -- it's always bees? Bee fetishist. He's kinkshaming. But once he digs his heels in and pushes past the kinkshaming, he sees the point she's trying to demonstrate. He breaths in. He breathes out. He tries to quiet those feelings of disgust and annoyance buzzing like wasps amidst the bees, instead using his critical nature to fall into a near-perfect rhythm like she asked.

The act itself is meant to be calming, but with him it's more like just bringing him back to a reluctant neutral. But Warrick's ready.]

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