![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I think so...but there's another card further in that's meant specifically for advice, so I think it's less a direction to make friends and more...
[She hums under her breath, looking for the words she wants to fit to the idea she has in mind.]
It's more that if we had them, it'd fix the question. Don't you think? Because they're like us. If we had that, everything would be different...which I suppose means that a great deal of the problem we're facing is that, at the moment, we don't.
[She hums under her breath, looking for the words she wants to fit to the idea she has in mind.]
It's more that if we had them, it'd fix the question. Don't you think? Because they're like us. If we had that, everything would be different...which I suppose means that a great deal of the problem we're facing is that, at the moment, we don't.
Oh.
[Dave rolls that around like he would a jawbreaker on his tongue, then nods.]
Yeah. Yeah, it would. I mean, even if everyone else was the same and we still didn't know them, if we had, like. Just one more person. Silver, or Ryoji... yeah.
[It's not like they're fighters like Tucker or Wash, but those two are the ones they've been living with, the ones who, like them, decided, when they had nowhere else to go, to go there together.]
I'd feel better. Safer.
[Dave rolls that around like he would a jawbreaker on his tongue, then nods.]
Yeah. Yeah, it would. I mean, even if everyone else was the same and we still didn't know them, if we had, like. Just one more person. Silver, or Ryoji... yeah.
[It's not like they're fighters like Tucker or Wash, but those two are the ones they've been living with, the ones who, like them, decided, when they had nowhere else to go, to go there together.]
I'd feel better. Safer.
Silver would...he'd take something like this as badly as we are, I think. Oh, not this again, for one thing, but...
[She doesn't finish the thought, but she suspects she won't have to, since Dave will likely be able to do it just as well for himself — that Silver would take one look at the free-for-all that is the grocery stores and the abandoned shops and their wares, and he'd decide that one house wasn't nearly enough. He'd fill one, and then move on to the next, just in case.
And yet, in his way, Silver would be more prepared for this than any of them. Silver had always been the best at surviving. It's why she'd been so shocked when he'd turned up as a ghost right on her heels.]
I wish he were here too. Or Ryoji, or both of them — but even just one. Good things come in threes, isn't that how the saying goes?
[She doesn't finish the thought, but she suspects she won't have to, since Dave will likely be able to do it just as well for himself — that Silver would take one look at the free-for-all that is the grocery stores and the abandoned shops and their wares, and he'd decide that one house wasn't nearly enough. He'd fill one, and then move on to the next, just in case.
And yet, in his way, Silver would be more prepared for this than any of them. Silver had always been the best at surviving. It's why she'd been so shocked when he'd turned up as a ghost right on her heels.]
I wish he were here too. Or Ryoji, or both of them — but even just one. Good things come in threes, isn't that how the saying goes?
That would be nice. Two by two, through and through.
[She leans up to nuzzle lightly against his jaw, just for a second or two, and then goes to flip over card number six.
It's very apparent that her predicting is getting calmer and more laid-back by now; she's turning over the cards and following them to her own conclusions all in the same smooth motion, and letting go of some of the Fortune Teller Theatrics™ that she so often has otherwise.]
Mmm. The "below" is the Three of Wands. Below is about the subconscious, the hidden. It means thoughts of what's underlying our current situation, and the Three of Wands is about...expansion into the future. It's about looking past boundaries, as we see them. And it seems...the greatest "boundary" facing us is the need to feel safe, isn't it? So I think what the Three is saying here is that where it might be our inclination to only focus on the short-term, that might just as well be a folly. We mustn't forget the long-term, either, no matter how compelling it might be to ignore it in favor of the other.
[She leans up to nuzzle lightly against his jaw, just for a second or two, and then goes to flip over card number six.
It's very apparent that her predicting is getting calmer and more laid-back by now; she's turning over the cards and following them to her own conclusions all in the same smooth motion, and letting go of some of the Fortune Teller Theatrics™ that she so often has otherwise.]
Mmm. The "below" is the Three of Wands. Below is about the subconscious, the hidden. It means thoughts of what's underlying our current situation, and the Three of Wands is about...expansion into the future. It's about looking past boundaries, as we see them. And it seems...the greatest "boundary" facing us is the need to feel safe, isn't it? So I think what the Three is saying here is that where it might be our inclination to only focus on the short-term, that might just as well be a folly. We mustn't forget the long-term, either, no matter how compelling it might be to ignore it in favor of the other.
[Dave frowns, opens his mouth, shuts it without saying anything--a Christmas miracle, or an oddity, anyway--and resettles in their seat again, like getting comfier might bring the cards' meaning into focus.
Eventually he sighs.]
I think. I don't totally understand that one.
[Babe, tasukete.]
I get the concept, but I don't know how to apply it in our case. Think of the long-term... beyond safety?
[He'd been thinking of the future--their future--before they'd arrived here, of course, but that's. Complicated, now.]
Eventually he sighs.]
I think. I don't totally understand that one.
[Babe, tasukete.]
I get the concept, but I don't know how to apply it in our case. Think of the long-term... beyond safety?
[He'd been thinking of the future--their future--before they'd arrived here, of course, but that's. Complicated, now.]
I think...mmm. Perhaps it's meant to say something like, "one mustn't sacrifice opportunity for safety". Or at least, one oughtn't do that without careful consideration of everything else.
[She pauses, chiming in with a sigh of her own.]
...Take Giorno, for instance. He frightens me a little, from how...familiar he is, in some ways. Some of his bearing, that is, and some of his...just something about him. So, perhaps I might feel like avoiding him for that. But if I do, I might miss out on far more than I realize, for the security of not feeling...pushed past those very narrow boundaries.
[She pauses, chiming in with a sigh of her own.]
...Take Giorno, for instance. He frightens me a little, from how...familiar he is, in some ways. Some of his bearing, that is, and some of his...just something about him. So, perhaps I might feel like avoiding him for that. But if I do, I might miss out on far more than I realize, for the security of not feeling...pushed past those very narrow boundaries.
...Yeah, he's pretty...
[He's pretty something, Dave's not sure what. Like a lead actor commanding the stage with his very entrance, except all the time. He can't help but remember a certain man climbing up on the table for a speech. Purple Hamlet.
He thinks, Meridiana dredged all that up again for a reason. And that reason is, as uncomfortably familiar as she must have found Giorno, she knows, too, that Dave felt the same way. Wound like a spring-loaded mousetrap, ready to snap shut on the interaction as soon as he got too close.
If Meridiana's going to be brave about it, how can Dave do anything less? How can he ask her to face that struggle alone? He gathers her more closely, but here he is, just proving her point: He's stronger with her here, but more afraid, too.]
Yeah, okay. I get you. [He makes the admission quietly, then releases a breath through his nose.] Also, he's our next-door neighbor now, so he'd be pretty hard to avoid either way. I just.
[He thinks over his words, then forces himself to relax. Yeah, she's got him, here.]
Safety's still the first long-term investment.
[He's pretty something, Dave's not sure what. Like a lead actor commanding the stage with his very entrance, except all the time. He can't help but remember a certain man climbing up on the table for a speech. Purple Hamlet.
He thinks, Meridiana dredged all that up again for a reason. And that reason is, as uncomfortably familiar as she must have found Giorno, she knows, too, that Dave felt the same way. Wound like a spring-loaded mousetrap, ready to snap shut on the interaction as soon as he got too close.
If Meridiana's going to be brave about it, how can Dave do anything less? How can he ask her to face that struggle alone? He gathers her more closely, but here he is, just proving her point: He's stronger with her here, but more afraid, too.]
Yeah, okay. I get you. [He makes the admission quietly, then releases a breath through his nose.] Also, he's our next-door neighbor now, so he'd be pretty hard to avoid either way. I just.
[He thinks over his words, then forces himself to relax. Yeah, she's got him, here.]
Safety's still the first long-term investment.
...Well. At least it's not such close quarters as the hotel, even so...
[Neighbors is something different, fundamentally, from effectively dorm-mates. Living on the same block is a big departure from living in the same hallway.
But for a little while she doesn't really say anything; she just leans against him and sort of basks in him, nebulously gauging all his smallest fidgets and tells with a mixture of her own natural empathy and her long familiarity with his habits and mannerisms.
Eventually, though, she sits up and wriggles lightly out of his hold, in favor of pivoting and clambering up to sit in his lap outright instead of merely leaning on him.]
I know.
[She wraps her arms around his shoulders, weaving her fingers through the hair at the back of his head as she thinks of tattered red armwarmers and a pale face across the trial circle from her, how he'd run to her and longed to save her and she'd slipped through his fingers on a fatal technicality anyway.
Safety, first and for always. No one could survive a murder game and not come out feeling that way on the other side, of course.]
I love you, you know.
[Neighbors is something different, fundamentally, from effectively dorm-mates. Living on the same block is a big departure from living in the same hallway.
But for a little while she doesn't really say anything; she just leans against him and sort of basks in him, nebulously gauging all his smallest fidgets and tells with a mixture of her own natural empathy and her long familiarity with his habits and mannerisms.
Eventually, though, she sits up and wriggles lightly out of his hold, in favor of pivoting and clambering up to sit in his lap outright instead of merely leaning on him.]
I know.
[She wraps her arms around his shoulders, weaving her fingers through the hair at the back of his head as she thinks of tattered red armwarmers and a pale face across the trial circle from her, how he'd run to her and longed to save her and she'd slipped through his fingers on a fatal technicality anyway.
Safety, first and for always. No one could survive a murder game and not come out feeling that way on the other side, of course.]
I love you, you know.
[O-oh. Goodness, he's getting spoiled tonight. He blinks his eyes wide when suddenly!lap girlfriend derails his entire train of thought. The Cognitive Process Express just jumps the tracks like Flipper going after all of Porter Ricks's pompanos like a total asshole, except then it flounders around belly-up and useless, scattering coal and train parts and squeaking pathetically with a sad kind of whistle.
The point is, Meridiana's move effectively TKO's Dave's mood and he doesn't even miss it. He almost starts to close his eyes when he feels those fingers in his hair--wants to savor it--but he catches himself, looks at her. Manages a smile.]
Gasp. No way. I'm gonna tell all the other kids at school.
[He circles his arms around her again and sinks back into the couch. He's mollified, for now; he hasn't quite solved the general issue of plans beyond safety, but he feels safe to do so, now. He feels safe. He leans up to kiss her, grateful.]
Love you, Meridiana. I'm okay. Are you okay.
The point is, Meridiana's move effectively TKO's Dave's mood and he doesn't even miss it. He almost starts to close his eyes when he feels those fingers in his hair--wants to savor it--but he catches himself, looks at her. Manages a smile.]
Gasp. No way. I'm gonna tell all the other kids at school.
[He circles his arms around her again and sinks back into the couch. He's mollified, for now; he hasn't quite solved the general issue of plans beyond safety, but he feels safe to do so, now. He feels safe. He leans up to kiss her, grateful.]
Love you, Meridiana. I'm okay. Are you okay.
Page 3 of 10