Daan

[residentflorist]

code

Digitalis
Old English folklore said that foxes wore the flowers on their paws
to silence movement and stealthily stalk prey.
Healing, pain, insincerity, insecurity

Comments

[residentflorist]

[she nods, but she puts aside the idea of positive thinking and manifestation for a moment. he asks her that, and there's a bit where she seems to bluescreen because she's not good at saying "i'm not good", so she's squinting with her glowing eyes and gnashing at her lip a little.]

I don't really know? I think...[how to phrase this without sounding insane. maybe she just won't, and the emotional feedback is just...nasty. it's like a nasty, gnarled pit that doesn't quite make sense.] Is it okay if you just stay for a little bit? At least until Cloud's back. [whenever that may be...]

[recession]

Alright, that's fine. I can do that.

[ He'll pull a chair over and sit. ]

I'm afraid I don't make a habit of carrying books around on me. I've got a puzzle cube? If that'll serve as a decent distraction.

[residentflorist]

[she's sitting up a little more.]

Puzzle cube? [there's a very faint blip of interest out of not knowing what the hell he's talking about. it's at least broken through her mess of feelings, so that's nice.]

[recession]

Yep.

[ Produces and hands her a certain all-beige Rubik's Cube. To be clear there are different shades of beige, but it IS all beige. ]

[residentflorist]

[cube :o her expression really is like :o? because this is new, but she does take it even if her dexterity is a little off at the moment. fiddling with this cube...]

...Cloud told me about the thing you guys went through last week. A lot of us have been speculating it's all designed just as a means to make you suffer. And for what, right? [hah.] But I've never heard of six people at a time. Our group was pretty large.

[recession]

That sounds about right, yeah. Haven't heard a single damn good thing about those things. In fact, I don't think there's ever been a single venture with a good review.

Suffering does seem to be the goal here... although what for, I don't know.

[ And then dryly: ]

Entertainment?

[residentflorist]

Dunno...I'd say it was something for the cult to use against us, but people have always ended up in that room at the end with those weird items. Kind of a messed up reward for the things people have to deal with though.

[she shakes her head.]

Ours wasn't entertainment. We had to solve a string of killings and find the serial killer.

[recession]

Doubt the cult would be willing to screw over their own ritual after all the work they put in just because we put up a good show.

A good noir might be entertaining to some, you know... but I was just kidding anyway.

That island, wasn't it?

[residentflorist]

At this point, Daan, I have to wonder if the cult even knows what they're doing. But fair enough point. [there's a half-smile, even if her eyes are on the cube. her emotions have leveled out to something, but uh. the something is that they ain't there, chief. she's just empty at the moment.]

Yeah. I don't know if one of the others told you much about it. [gauging how much he knows before she talks...]

[recession]

I've heard enough context about the island from Lucas and Mathis themselves, and even got a brief glimpse into it from these flickering memories from Izutsumi.

[ Apparently he was there. He liked reading and was religious. Extremely OOC of him. ]

Not enough to get the clearest of pictures, but it doesn't seem like the plot of the ventures in themselves are typically relevant. Sometimes they're related to someone's memory or experiences, other times they're not.

[residentflorist]

[it's fine the church is evil.]

These ones were. I know exactly what these aligned with, and...I don't know if that's better or worse, actually. None of it was great for any of us.

[recession]

Would you rather move on than linger on it?

[residentflorist]

...I don't know, really. [aerith is so great at being nosy and asking questions, but she is terrible at just talking about terrible things.] Feels kind of like these are made so you can't help but linger for a while. Even when you don't want to.

[recession]

[ All he's ever done is linger. He gets the feeling -- or, in another perspective, he hadn't ever noticed that it'd be different. ]

Acceptance and closure needs time to process first. I'm sure you're aware, but sometimes, it takes reminders.

[residentflorist]

[there's a little smile.]

Probably feels a little hypocritical of me to tell everyone else they need time to process and heal and I can't really figure out how to do it myself yet. But maybe it's just...easier, when it's not you.

[recession]

Always easier to espouse your beliefs on what's right to others even if you feel it's hard to act them out yourself, for one reason or another.

[residentflorist]

I guess it doesn't help I've never really had people to act these things out on until recently. Still...figuring it out, I think. What's the line between talking about things and saying too much, you know?

[recession]

Whatever people are willing to lend an ear to.

And I hardly think I'm in the position to judge anyone else on anything.

[residentflorist]

[fidgeting with the cube still...]

Daan, how much do people usually confide in you? In general, I mean.

[recession]

...

I wouldn't really have a good scale to compare it to, but...

It does feel like a decent amount.

[residentflorist]

And how do you feel about that, usually? [daan what is your mental capacity for people trauma-dumping on you, actually.]

[recession]

I don't mind it.

Nice to get things off your chest every now and then. And it's hardly as if I'm going to talk, or think differently of most people unless you've told me something seriously groundbreaking.

[ And even then he doubts he can judge still. ]

[residentflorist]

[for whatever reason, there's a ping of anxiety in her emotions when he says the last part. but she's quiet, pushing that away. that's not important right now. it's fine.]

I have now had sharp objects impaled nearly all the way through my torso three times since coming to this place. [is what she starts with.] Would've died all three times if whatever happened in the bar didn't put us to sleep and close our wounds instead. I think...it's been better here. People are more settled here, but at the same time sometimes it feels hard to vent to people who aren't, like, Famine because everyone has their own stuff going on. I don't like the idea of expressing things and then giving people a reason to hold back on telling me things themselves.

[recession]

It's not pleasant.

[ Getting stabbed through the torso... ouchies. ]

It does feel a bit easier to talk over here, in comparison to where we were. The pressure is less overwhelming when you know one of us won't suddenly disappear on a Thursday or Sunday or even outside of that, and the last thing you said to them was something you won't know if you can ever take back.

...

I probably won't change stances on what I will or won't say though? I'm just not so forthcoming to begin with, that's all.

[residentflorist]

Nope! Pretty unpleasant and surprising all the same, really.

[she says, as someone who has been impaled four times actually.]

That's also true. There were things I said to people before I left that I worry hurt them in the longrun, and sometimes I wish I'd had more time to write a second letter to leave behind. But wishing for that kind of stuff doesn't always help, huh?

It just...feels constant. Like this place will find ways to try and break your trust for the people you care about the most, or trick you in ways that make you question everything you say and do. For instance, I'm still not entirely sure it's just you and me in this room, so I'm not sure how much to try and make sense.

[sure. let's just casually say we're hallucinating, aerith. that's fine.]