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[oceantier]

[There's a blue lady on the comm's screen, not looking like she completely trusts it -- or that she quite likes being so visible. She has something to ask, though (as much as it feels like an exploitable vulnerability to ask) so she stays. And it's fair that others should see who's talking.]

Hello.

[. . . Knowing how to start is harder than anticipated, and considering the last time she was on the comm was to apologize, it feels even more awkward. She swears she can feel eyes looking at her. Unconsciously, her arms tuck into a cross.]

I heard there are "missions" every month. Where we're supposed to infiltrate, or something attacks.

. . . This time there was water in the city. In the pipes. And the sewers. But people say it's not always a city. Locations are different every time.

I need to be able to access some when it isn't there naturally.

I need . . . help.

[Silence for a moment. That was extremely uncomfortable to say, and the next question isn't much better for her.]

Also . . . I'd like to know what people do to find their own space. Where they can sometimes be alone. When . . . they need to.

. . . Thank you.

Comments

[irrationally]

[ It's slightly tempting to reply with another sarcastic quip - maybe wondering if, along the same lines, Lapis somehow seems to think Alice draws people in.

Because she knows she doesn't. She knows it's the opposite, if everything back home was anything to go by. It's like she actively repels people through an unpleasant attitude, through her resting bitchface, through her past. ]

You don't need to be anything you're not.

[ It doesn't sound like a direct reply to what Lapis is saying, but it's more a reply to the undercurrent in all of this. There's no reason to behave a certain way just to make people like you, she means. ]

Just be yourself, and see how that works out for you here. [ Because just being herself has worked out differently for Alice here - if not just slightly - compared to back home. ]

[oceantier]

[If she had said such a thing, she would have received an even, quiet "yes" -- because one, Lapis does believe others do it better, and because two, Alice has been quite kind to her, and Lapis has appreciated both that and the tone with which she's done it. She's frank, she's honest, and while she supports, she doesn't over-sympathize or fuss.]

[Softly,] Thank you.

[And maybe because it's easier to say in the wake:] I . . . don't know what I am. How I am. I've learned, I think, some of the things that I'm not.

I hope that's enough.

[irrationally]

It's a start.

[ She doesn't ask why Lapis doesn't know what she is.

After all, Alice went through the exact same circumstances that could cause the same thing. The only reason she does know what she is - or likes to think so, anyway - is because she desperately clung onto the last remaining parts of her mind and built it back up from there.

Lapis can do the same. ]

If nothing else, you will have plenty of time to figure out exactly that in this place.

[oceantier]

[There's the faintest flicker -- almost invisible -- of an upturning of Lapis' lips.]

[And a nod.]

Thank you.

[Not for the fact that they are in this place and have the time to figure it out, of course. But for Alice herself and her responses.]

[irrationally]

[ Alice waves a hand, slightly dismissively. And while it's easy to just take it as a rude gesture on her part in the face of this, there's a faint hue to Alice's cheeks that indicates it's just because she's embarrassed and doesn't know how to otherwise deal with this. ]

It is nothing to thank me for. You asked for help.

[ So she gave it. ]