eudaimonikos | Deer Country IC Inbox

[That's all the answer Vyng needs. After some time, he appears in the house with a barn cat perched on his shoulder.]

What room is the room-hole at

Living room.

I'll just come out, you can't open it.

[He'd drawn the hole on the floor, which made it very easy to just drop down into the little room. Coming out is a tad bit more difficult! Michael hoists himself out of the ground.]

This was stupid.

It was smart when you made it, though.

[Vyng offers a gentle smile...and a helping hand.]

Yeah, save that for when we get Eleanor out of there.

[yeah he had his dog in the hole, what of it?

Once Vyng's helped him out, though, Michael turns around and lifts the warg out of the pit fairly easily. It wasn't that bad!]

Ugh, there we go. I just - yeah, I don't know.

[Francis is his emotional support pig. He gets it. Quietly, Vyng asks:]

Do you want a hug?

[Michael, frankly, is not all that convinced that he deserves a hug. But that's not super new.]

...yeah.

[Those are the times when you definitely need one. Vyng opens his arms to pull Michael close — that is, until he's interrupted when the raven flutters over the couch. The change in perspective is disorienting. But he still successfully closes the distance, clumsy as it may be.

He wraps his arms around his friend's frame...and he holds him tight.]

It's alright. You didn't do anything wrong, Michael.

[The awkwardness is noted, but Michael's too immediately relieved by the hug to comment right now. He sighs, leaning in to rest his face against Vyng's shoulder. It's funny; usually he's the taller one, when he hugs people, but this is nice.]

Feels like I did, though.

[He slowly pats Michael's back the way he does for Billie when he's got a tummy ache.]

You weren't being malicious. You needed help.

[Michael shakes his head, as well as he can.]

I wanted to hurt them. Even before that.

[Maybe he wouldn't have killed that many of them, but he's fairly sure he would've killed some. He'd just been so mad.]

You'd been...like, off, though. All month. I think the blood pollution and negative vibes were making you ill, man.

Ah...yeah, maybe. I can see it looking back.

[It's easier in retrospect. Most things are, he's found, but usually the thing he's looking back on is just...his own emotional issues and bad behavior. The only difference he can find here is that he...genuinely isn't quite sure why he was that upset about some of it.]

I don't know. I was...really upset about the whole Reckoning thing. Everyone going after each other like that. It seemed normal to be upset about. But maybe it wasn't all...that normal.

[Holing up on his own like that for so long definitely wasn't.]

I mean. It's not a bad thing to get upset about — people being dicks to each other. We're supposed to be a community that helps one another.

[Quieter:]

. . . At least, I thought so.

Yeah. [Quieter as well:] Yeah...

[It had been genuinely disheartening. Frustrating, even. The people in Deerington were one thing; they were always like that, and practically robots anyway. But Michael had expected better from the Trenchies.]

But I could have handled it better. Didn't even try to do anything about it, until...that, really zero to a hundred.

Corruption makes it difficult to think clearly. You didn't realize what was happening to you.

I think it's understandable, Michael.

But I should've known better.

[He leans back against the couch, grumbling. Maybe it sounds silly, but he's not just saying that - he's really not!]

I thought I did. The last time this happened, the symptoms were totally different! I thought - if I kept an eye out for that, it'd be fine!

[Vyng loosens his embrace around Michael.]

We've barely been here a year. This is a learning curve. For all of us.

[He sighs, shifting up against Vyng.]

Other people shouldn't have to pay for it. Not for something I fucked up.

They were basically busy shaking down other people for change next to a pillar of fire.

Not saying two wrongs make a right, but...it's understandable that, given the circumstance, it would send you into fight-or-flight mode.

...that's true.

[They were definitely involved in trying to literally burn Vyng alive, so that's...something.]

I still should've...at least tried something else. But - yeah, you're right. I might've ended up fighting them anyway. If they kept doing that. [...] They were probably being affected by that whole Reckoning thing too, though.

Probably.

[As optimistic as Vyng chooses to be, he seldom sugar-coats things.]

You were dragged into my shit, though. So, I mean...you did the best you could.

[Michael lets out a sharp breath. Yeah - yeah, sugarcoating wouldn't have helped anyway, he knew. But also:]

Oh, don't say it like that. Of course I was.

[He wasn't just gonna not get involved, no matter what else was going on with him!]

Yeah. [A ghost of a smile passes across Vyng's otherwise serene expression.] If our positions had been reversed...I would've done the same.

[Fought tooth and nail until Michael was safe, that is.]

[Michael smiles faintly.]

Yeah, sure. [Of course he would.] I hope it doesn't come to that. Probably will sooner or later, knowing this place...just, don't go too far with it.

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