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

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Terry. Love. [Luci comes around the corner with her whiskey and the bottle in her other hand.] Why am I even here if not to listen to your shit? I could be blowing up a bar right now, and several months ago even I'd wonder why I'm here instead.

[She rolls over the back of the couch, somehow keeping her whiskey upright, and lands next to Terry right in his personal space.] But what can I say? You were good to me, and I want to be good to you.

[traumatizing]

This is being good to me.

[The good being the bottle he takes from Luci and puts a leg down to accommodate her all in his space.]

I should be used to this stuff anyway.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Mm. [She lets him have the bottle and takes a generous sip from her tumbler.] We lost a lot of people, but each one was pain of a different kind. Getting used to it would mean everybody meant the same thing to us.

[She slings an arm around his shoulders again.] I would be deeply disturbed if you became used to people suddenly vanishing out of your life. It hurts because you care, that's not a bad thing.

[traumatizing]

Kinda the norm, even before I got here.

[Terry shrugs a shoulder, looking down at the bottle in his hand.]

Mom's in an asylum, Dad sent me off like he couldn't wait to forget about me-- not that I really blame him. First day of training... [Oof, there's one he's never said out loud. Terry takes a deep swig of his drink and sighs.] Got another recruit killed on the first day of training.

[Yeah, he needs another big gulp of that whiskey.]

Losing people is kinda my thing at this point.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Point still stands. [She puts her fingers under Terry's chin and gently encourages him to look at her.] It may be your thing, but you don't get numb to it. That matters. I like that about you. You care about all this dumbass paperwork weeks after everything ended because it could get better for somebody else.

You talk a good game about loss being your 'thing', but you like to build, don't you?

[traumatizing]

I want things to be better.

[Terry frowns back at her, sad and tired.]

People still need this place, or something like it. I just... [He sighs and shakes his head.] It can be something good. Not what it was before.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

So why does it have to be you, hm? Why not let somebody else take point on all of this? You're not directly obligated to give anybody something better.

[traumatizing]

Because the last person we trusted to run this place was using us all as cosmic batteries for some kind of weird inter-dimensional ritual?

[Not to mention the shit she pulled on a personal level.]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[She sighs, long and aggravated.]

One of these days Terry, I'm going to hold you down and not let you up until you admit I have a point. I'm making good points here.

[traumatizing]

[That one actually gets a laugh out of him.]

Once I know what I need, I'll ask for help. I just need to figure it out first.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

If you don't ask, you know what'll happen. [She grumbles into her glass and eases up on the personal space invasion.]

Maxxie would be disappointed if I let you beat yourself up like this, I'm not facing that boy's wrath without making some sort of effort.

[traumatizing]

[Wow, low blow. That good mood he was cultivating evaporates and he clenches his jaw.]

Well none of us are facing anything from him, so you don't need to worry.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Oh I'll believe that when I see it. I've been yanked from home and had a whammy put on me so hard I forgot I was a fucking god. [She takes another drink.] After that, my motto is 'Anything Is Possible'.

[traumatizing]

He's got a good life waiting for him. No death sentences on the horizon.

[He sighs over the lip of the bottle and takes a deep drink.]

Unless someone's planning to kidnap him again he's staying put.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Could be fun. [Luci shrugs.] He never struck me as a damsel-y type, but I can see it. Against all odds, you run through a hailstorm of laser beams to reach him-- I of course get hit and give you a very inspiring speech with my last conscious breath-- and it gives you that last bit of hope to get you to your dearest.

[traumatizing]

[He doesn't even know what to say to that, so he just rolls]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

'Terry, thank goodness you've come for me!' [Luci is just barely dropping her voice to mimic Maxxie as she crawls over Terry, whiskey still in hand.]

'Of course I did, I'm the badass Mister Fix-It now, and when I heard about this bus full of orphans I knew someone was up to something evil nearby. I just never expected...'

'Neither did I! Funny how this works out for us just because we're decent humans. Speaking of decent, where's Luci?'

'Luci...'

And then you look sad, and he looks sad, but you both know I wouldn't want you dwelling. How am I doing so far?

[traumatizing]

Oh my god.

[He shakes his head and sighs, totally put-upon even if he's also very accommodating of Luci crawling over him.]

You missed the part where I bring you back to life to lecture you for three hours about taking irresponsible risks.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Three hours? Is that really necessary? I was just dead.

[traumatizing]

That's what you get for getting shot by lazers.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

In the name of love.

[traumatizing]

I've got enough dead friends, so you get lectured.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

...I'll listen for one hour, and then I'm zoning out.

[traumatizing]

As long as you stay put, I can't stop you.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Are you going to take my phone?