the punchline to the joke is asking "someone save us"

[traumatizing]

STILL HERE, HUH?

Looks like you're still on Tera. By choice, or maybe you missed your chance to get home. Doesn't matter really, you're here now and you gotta deal with the fallout one way or another. Here's hoping that works out for you.

Comments

[traumatizing]

Haven't been to bed.

[He looks up at Jamie and holds out his mug in a request for a refill. He looks like shit and he feels like it too, but coffee will obviously help right.]

[raynos]

[That earns Terry a disapproving frown as Jamie takes his mug, a look Terry has no doubt seen multiple times in the past few weeks as he buries himself in his work.]

Well you should sleep, y'know. Sometime. Not gonna do anyone any good if you drop dead from exhaustion.

[He busies himself with the coffeepot for a few moments and then returns to the table strewn with papers, handing Terry a fresh cup and taking a swig of his own.]

Making any progress?

[traumatizing]

[Terry waves that off with a dismissive hand and thanks Jamie when he presents him with a fresh coffee. That new coffee smell is his new favourite thing in the world and he holds the cup in both hands to inhale deeply.]

No. [he shakes his head] I don't understand any of what I'm looking at.

[raynos]

Maybe.

[It's not meant as a put-down; so much of this shit is out of their wheelhouse that Jamie wouldn't blame anyone for getting a little lost trying to make sense of it.]

Orrrr maybe you've just been staring at it for too long and you need a change of pace.

[Hint. Hint-hint.]

[traumatizing]

No... [he shakes his head.] That's not it.

[raynos]

How do you know? Have you tried, I dunno, walking away from it for a while and coming back to it?

[Jamie has a feeling he's going to lose this battle because Terry is a stubborn jerk with no sense of self-preservation, but he keeps trying as he goes back into the kitchen and rummages through the fridge, producing a carton of eggs.]

'Cause that's what happens with me sometimes. Happened. Back home, working on strategies. If you obsess over stuff too long sometimes it all just blends together.

[traumatizing]

I don't think I'm gonna suddenly understand ancient space magic if I take a break, Jamie.

[What he's looking at is actually a bunch of accounting stuff, but the point stands. He's not gonna suddenly learn accounting if he takes a break and comes back, that's not how brains work.]

[raynos]

[You say that as though accounting and ancient space magic aren't basically the same thing.]

Well, it's still not gonna hurt anything if you ease up for a little while. Go outside, get some fresh air, pet a dog. Something that's not sitting in here, hunched over that stuff.

[He goes quiet for a bit as he fusses around in the kitchen but soon enough he's got toast dropped and some eggs scrambling, and the he continues his badgering.] C'mon, just promise me you'll take a nap or something after breakfast. You look awful.

["And I'm worried about you" goes unspoken, but is heavily implied.]

[traumatizing]

[UGH.]

[Terry scratches his chin, still a little unused to having all this hair on his face. His eyebrows have grown back in too, it doesn't really look like him whenever he catches his reflection, but Terry thinks that's a good thing.]

[Those thoughts go away faster than they sprung up when he smells the food Jamie's cooking and his stomach gurgles in a request for something more substantial than granola bars.]

I'll try. That's all I can promise.

/busts in here nine thousand years late

[raynos]

[Jamie hums under his breath, but whether it's a noise of dissatisfaction or acquiescence is unclear. The food's done in a couple minutes more, anyway, and Jamie dishes it up onto two plates and brings them to the table.]

If you need help getting to sleep I could probably do something. Y'know, music magic...stuff. [Not that he thinks Terry needs the help, given how exhausted and shitty he looks, but still.]

SCREAMS

[traumatizing]

[See, look. He's putting the papers aside. Maybe he'll actually sleep if he eats. Maybe he won't just lie there feeling that acute sense that something's missing and stare at the wall for hours until he gives up.]

[Either way his stomach starts kicking up a racket again now the food's here and he looks down at it with a frown.]

I might be able to handle it without a magic lullaby.

[It comes out a little short, but Terry catches it and looks at Jamie with an apologetic frown.]

Thanks though.

my goodness

[raynos]

[Jamie sort of bobs his head as he slips into a chair, not unaware of the slight edge to Terry's tone but not really offended by it, either. He's smothering sometimes and he knows it, so he can't blame Terry for chafing a little.]

I know it's kinda dumb, just - I mean, nobody else is gonna look out for us so we gotta...take care of each other.

[This comes out in sort of a mumble as Jamie focuses intently on his breakfast. He chews a mouthful of toast and shoots Terry a glance.]

How're you doing? Not regarding this stuff. [Gesturing at the mess of paperwork.] Just...in general.

[traumatizing]

[It's mostly the whole 'music magic' thing, seeing as any time anyone's used it on him it's been extremely bad, the idea's a bit of a sore spot. But he doesn't get into all that, just frowning guiltily at his plate until Jamie's question.]

Probably about the same as you.

[Which is to say, not great.]