Thirteenth Unused Utility Belt | Video

[hellofist]

[Private to the Admiral]
Um... hi? [Do you even do small talk with the Admiral when you have to ask him things? Does he even care if you're polite? Cass has no idea but hey, it can't hurt.] Need Loki to be... restricted. His strength, mostly. Make him... strong as average human. Please.

And, um. Thank you?

[Filtered from Loki]
[Now that that's dealt with, hello barge! Cass is hanging out in the CES today, sitting on a rock so she can get some sun. All that time in the infirmary left her feeling kind of stir crazy, so here she is.]

By now, will have seen... Loki's... whatever that was. Sorry, for him. Would be better if... he'd just bother me. No one else... should have to see that.

But, it's also good. What he wants, it's public. Everyone knows, wants to hurt me. But, he won't attack me. He'll hurt you. Everyone I love, everyone I care about, he'll hurt them.

So, restricted his strength. Which means, most of you? Stronger than him, now. Still, be careful. He's insane, if he wants to hurt, he'll find way. All I ask is... try not to kill him?

That's, um. That's all.

[She waves, then cuts the feed.]


[Private text to Merlin]
<3

Comments

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[takeyouapart]

[For better or for worse, that is his opinion on Cass being friends with Morgana. He can't find it in himself to feel much of anything on Morgana's behalf - that ended with her blood on his hands, her body in his arms. He fears that Morgana will cease to see Cassandra as a friend and start to see her as a weapon to use against him or Arthur, and that's it, really.]

...I did? What was it?

Spam

[hellofist]

Said you'd be Dragoon.

[The reasons why that hasn't happened yet are obvious, of course. Arthur's gone, there have been other much more important things to deal with, there had been mutual avoidance, but things seem better now. It's a good chance to lighten the mood a little and Cass just wants to see Merlin smile again.]

Spam

[takeyouapart]

I did.

[Less than two weeks ago, in fact, though Arthur's disappearance makes it feel infinitely longer. He even had the potions ready, he'd been waiting for a good time to use it, and then - and then.

Things are better now, but it's still tenuous. There's so much wrapped up with his older self that it's not a body he wants to wear. Not right now. And as much as he'd just like to do it to indulge Cassandra and distract himself until the forced jollity becomes real, he knows she won't let him do something he doesn't strictly want to.

After years of deception, sometimes being unable to lie to her makes him feel strangely vulnerable and exhausted.]

And I will. I won't break my promise to you.

[He can at least be ambiguous about the 'when'.]

Spam

[hellofist]

[She's seen what it looks like when patience and tolerance for her abilities run out. Not everyone can find a way to be okay with the fact that there aren't any secrets from Cass, that she can't just turn off her ability to read them when it might really count. It's part of why she didn't have friends before she came to the barge, seeing people decide she was too intrusive and start hating her was too painful.

That isn't what's happening now, but Cass isn't willing to take any chances, not with Merlin. Not when he means more to her than anyone ever has before. She can see she's making him tired and her first instinct is to just go, to leave him be, but that feels too much like running away.

Instead she uses reaching for the tea as an excuse to take her attention off of him, if she isn't looking at him she can't read him.]

Know you won't. But, don't really have... to do that, the spell. It's okay.

Spam

[takeyouapart]

[It's not okay. It doesn't feel okay. And he'd bet all his worldly possessions that she's not thirsty and just wants an excuse not to look at him for a little while, because he's betrayed something she didn't want to see in him. It's her way of offering him distance but that's not what he wants. He wants her to be close to him, he wants her to see into him until his defences burn down and he can be comfortable in his honesty like he's never been able to his whole life, he just -- ]

Would you like to move back into my room?

[He blurts it out, pauses half a moment, and continues more haltingly.]

You said that you - wanted that.

[To sleep by him. And he refuses to question why that's within bounds but words like dating aren't, yet.]

Spam

[hellofist]

[She's not looking, so of course it surprises her when he asks. She even almost drops the tea, but manages to save it at the last second. She's pretty sure Alfred would find a way to get to the Barge just to give her a stern talking to if she wasted tea that way, but Alfred isn't exactly the thing that's on her mind right now.]

Well... bed is more comfortable... than the cot.

[That has nothing to do with it, she's been perfectly fine on the cot and she could continue to be perfectly comfortable there forever, she just hasn't quite found the right words to respond to his question yet.]

You... know the answer. Do you want that?

Spam

[takeyouapart]

Yes. I wouldn't ask, if I didn't.

[It's completely honest, and that's a relief.]

Spam

[hellofist]

[She nods, smiles as she does and reaches out for his hand.]

Do want to. Miss being close to you. Slept better... with you there.

Spam

[takeyouapart]

[He curls his hand around hers and some of the stress drains out of him.]

So did I.

Spam

[hellofist]

[It's difficult to not be sad over that, now that she knows he was having trouble sleeping this whole time too when she was right there every night having the exact same problem. It could have been easily fixed by one of them just getting up and going to the other one, but Cass knows it's because he wasn't ready yet. Now he is, and he's asking, and it's going to change now. They don't have to be quite so lonely anymore. He doesn't have to read body language to be able to tell how happy, how excited, she is about this.

She squeezes his hand and then leans in to kiss his cheek.]

We'll both have... better sleep, then.