What Are Friends For?|Sensatiamens, Sensatia

[Kender Bard]

Libre teleported to the first place he thought to find comfort--the temple, amongst the Soahcians. Not that he really cared about any of them; he just wanted to see Smoke.

"Smoke?" he called out, looking around for his best friend. One of the other priests drew close to him, an older woman with a few scars to mark the fights she'd been in, including one ragged one over the Mind sign on her knee.

"You look fit to be tied," she remarked, looking at Libre carefully, taking in his tense posture, the way his jaw clenched and his closed fits. "Want to work some of that aggression out?"

"Leave me alone," Libre told her curtly and continued to look for his friend. She stepped into his line of sight. "I said leave me alone."

"Make me," she taunted, aching for a fight, even with a boy who barely qualified as a man.

For a moment, it seemed as though Libre would oblige. He hunched his shoulders a little and his eyes began to glow faintly. The Wrathful licked her lips with anticipation.

Letting out his breath in a hard sigh, the glow fading out of his eyes, Libre let go of his aggression. "It's beneath a man of my position to get into brawls with the likes of you," he told her coldly and teleported a few feet away. It was smack in the middle of the Curious, who of course began to ply him with questions, but they were easier to ignore. ~Smoke?~

[Darastrix]

Libre? Where are you? Smoke's thought was tinged with laughter, a common occurrence. Though he dabbled in this or that as an Addict, he'd settled on the giggle-inducing smiley smoke as his first drug of choice. I'm in my room, he added. From the sound and "feel" of his thoughts, one familiar enough with him could tell that he hadn't gotten deep into his smoke yet and could probably yet shake himself into seriousness.

[Kender Bard]

~Good~ Libre answered and teleported straight to his friend's room, leaning back against the wall and bringing up his hands to rub his eyes firmly. "I did not want nor need to be greeted so sweetly by your Wrath. Today's shaping up poor. Please tell me you have something to take the edge off things for me?"

[Darastrix]

"For you, always," Smoke told him, trying to sit up on his bed and succeeding on the second try. "Even if it was my last. I've got plenny of smiley smoke if you want to laugh a little," he said, offering up the lit pipe. "And a little bit of mindmelt if you want to just relax. Got some mushrooms, too, but they can make you see things." He stifled a giggle and shook his head a bit. "If you're having a bad day, you prolly don't need that."

[Kender Bard]

"Probably not," Libre agreed, looking at the pipe but holding up a hand. "I suppose I could use a laugh but I'm so upset right now that I can't bring myself to even think about cracking a smile. A little bit of Mindmelt, please. Maybe I'll hit the pipe once I've managed to unwind a little." He sat down on the bed as well, sighing again. "Flame's still not talking." He grit his teeth. "She won't even say why. She won't even say one word to get me to leave her alone."

[Darastrix]

Smoke reached over and squeezed Libre's shoulder for a moment before setting the pipe on his nightstand and hanging off the edge of the mattress to open a small chest that was only halfway under the bed. "Juuuuust a little bit," he murmured to himself as he pulled out a little piece of parchment that was twisted into a makeshift pouch. Maybe it wasn't properly Soahcian of him, but he didn't really want to see Libre overdo it. That family had enough problems at the moment.

"Here," he said, carefully sitting back upright and passing the twist of parchment to Libre. "That ought to do you. So she still won't talk either way?" Smoke tapped his own temple to show he meant mental speech as well.

[Kender Bard]

Libre did manage a weak smile for Smoke in way of thanks as he took the mindmelt. "No," he answered. "She will write me notes, though." He closed his eyes and remained quiet until he could start to feel the drug work its magic. When he spoke again, his voice wasn't quite so tight. "I'm going to have to drag her kicking and screaming to a Mind healer, I just know it. She keeps saying she's fine, that she doesn't need it. Then in the same breath--er, note?--that she still won't talk and that she won't tell me why."

He made a pained expression. "She's so... Selfish! No... But I don't know how else to put it." He drew up his knees and hugged them to his chest. "I just want to get my life back to normal. As much as it can be. I don't think the hurting will stop for a very long time, but I'm ready to move on. If she's not, I want to help her. Instead of letting me, she's just making it impossible for me to do anything but agonize over her."

[Darastrix]

As Libre talked, Smoke listened quietly and rubbed circles on his back with one hand, touching his sign with the other to warm his hand up. "Just because you're ready doesn't mean she's gotta be yet," he murmured. "I think you're being a little of the same...selfish-not-selfish. You can't make someone else fit how you think things oughta be. And...okay, bear with me. Maybe it's not the best comparison, but it's the best I've got. It's like me. I'm amelor. 'f I'd stayed with Fira, my family would've been trying to make me fit whatever made their lives easier, never mind what was good for me."

Smoke rubbed his forehead, trying to clear his thoughts a little. "It's not fair. It's not nice. Not for you or her. And maybe she does need a Mind healer, but maybe it's just not time for that yet even if it's time for you to go back to normal. So maybe something else is gonna have to be your normal for a while."

[Kender Bard]

"It's not fair," Libre said quietly, leaning against Smoke a little. "And I can't stop worrying about her." His eyes grew hot but he didn't tear up. "I'm worried about Father, too, but I don't feel like there's much I can do to help him. But I should be able to help my own sister. But maybe you're right... I don't like feeling so useless with her though."

[Darastrix]

"Have you tried 'talking' with...with emoti--sympath--empathy. That's it," Smoke said. "Maybe if she won't give you words, she'd be okay with sharing emotion?"

[Kender Bard]

"I don't know," Libre sighed. "Maybe. I haven't tried it. I doubt she will agree to it though. I've been short tempered with her lately because of this whole ordeal."

[Darastrix]

"Well, take a rest and unwind a little before you bring it up," Smoke suggested. "Let things relax a little between you two. Being tense about things never helped anyone."

[Kender Bard]

"You're right, as usual," Libre remarked with a small grin. "If it weren't for you, Smoke, I'd be as stiff as a board, I swear." He grinned. "Hey, is there anywhere in the world you've always wanted to go before?"

[Darastrix]

"There's a few," Smoke said, shifting to stretch out on his stomach. "There's Flux, of course. And Humontis. Not so much because I'm an Earth as because they've got herbs and things there that don't grow anywhere else. Anarlina, too, because the whole worshiping Love thing is just so strange, I'd like to see it for myself."

[Kender Bard]

"Pick one," Libre told him. "And we'll go there soon. Not just yet; I'm helping my father a lot with his work right now while he... Investigates some things. But when he's done, we'll go together on a trip. How does that sound?"