(no subject)

[theyregooddogs]

Who: Doctors in training and the curious
Where: Clinic
When: Day 123, 7AM Sharp

[Well, whatever way the winds blow on combat in the cooliseum or combat over the next upgrade, someone has decided to be prepared. If more wildlife comes to Imeeji, there could also be some severe reactions to it. So, the lesson for the day is allergies, from the banal to the lethal, including how to do a basic level allergy test. Sorry, it's for skin only; John is not ready to teach anyone how to work with any of the laboratory gear he has amassed for blood tests. There are practice and real epipens for students who want to be prepared . . . ]

[Or you could just gossip after class about why did John have to show that many gruesome pictures of rashes, hives, and sores?]

[[This was announced on Dissonance for anyone to poke their head in and learn something, like all first aid classes. There are some more classes over here, since I fell behind.]]

Comments

[theyregooddogs]

[. . . sighs to diffuse himself]

Then, suggest fertile land the next time. Or invest in several pounds of fertilizer.

[but that gets a roll of his eyes]

Didn't say to protect Wild City, never asked for it, either.

[worthathousand]

A fair few more than several, but.

[ but it's beside the point; it's not as though she disagrees with him on that front in any significant way. ]

As far as Wild City...
Of course you didn't ask, and didn't say. You don't ever ask for things at all.
It doesn't change the fact that we would do it for you. Certainly I wouldn't mind keeping someone like Talon safe.

[theyregooddogs]

[starts but unable to put the words together helpless then switching to tired, as he looks her in the eye for the first time]

I'm not asking to protect anyone, because no one is worth sacrificing. Haven't ever tried to do more than hurt as few as possible. Was happy to walk into a game with LiliS having already played on Wild City.

Can't do a whole hell of a lot for anyone, but I'd like to be able to do someone a small favor when they ask it of me. Didn't realize that asking you to step back from inciting someone was a Herculean effort. Should have realized it, though. I was mad in the moment, still pissed now, but I won't make the same mistake twice.

[worthathousand]

...You think so little of me. [ not said with especial anger, but also not phrased as an actual question. ]

If I had believed Silver's feelings were truly at stake—more to the point, if anyone had shared a concern with me that made it clear this was more than a playful matter for him, including Silver himself—things would have been different.

I am not a petty person, John, much less a cruel one. Stubborn, perhaps, and with less patience than I ought to have. But I would have listened, if you had bothered to explain.

[ she sounds simply... tired. disappointed; no longer surprised or especially interested in fighting him on this. as she speaks, she begins to stack her notebooks together and tucks her pen away behind her ear. ]

[theyregooddogs]

No. I thought better of you.

Don't need to most of the time. The rest, I can tell when I do. But, again, we all made mistakes.

[worthathousand]

No, John.
I have always had to work to prove myself merely decent to you.

[ she lifts the pair of notebooks and taps them lightly on their end against the desk; sets them away beneath one arm ]

If you held me in any genuine esteem, it would not be lost over something so foolish.

Have a good day.

[theyregooddogs]

Mm.

[worthathousand]

[ one last look at him:

her expression carefully still—a conscious choice to take her hurt and put it away, as if in a drawer she's done with opening.

a sense of her evaluating him, and deciding she does not trust him after all. or rather: she had trusted him absolutely, before. and now has begun trusting him less than that.

then she leaves. ]