Overnight

[darkest_evening]

There are things to do, of course, besides being Aya's cuddle buddy. Prime is usually quite busy, and now is no exception. Just because he's personally out of mana, doesn't mean he's utterly useless. His plane's got mages in it, after all - and many of them owe him favors or are amenable to being paid. And they need mirrors, for communication. After longer than was strictly prudent spent comforting Aya, he bids her goodbye and goes to handle the less glamorous moments of being him. That is, talking to people, asking for favors, paying favors, persuading them to say yes, they'll use some of their precious magic stores to make mirrors.

Ironically enough, the one thing missing when he's finished is the mirrors themselves. Easy enough to fix, with Revelation. But he'll take care of it tomorrow - he's tired, and it's been a long and complicated and emotionally exhausting 'day,' even if he doesn't properly have them anymore. Sleep, and then he'll get back to dealing with it all. The mirrors, first, they're easiest, then continuing to figure out what to do about Aya.

When he wakes, he goes to talk to a demon about that. Knock, knock, calling Inferno, is Revelation in?

Comments

[namesthesky]

"Were you expecting it to be about you? It's myself that scares me - my moving parts won't move anymore." She shudders and leans on him. "I don't know what sort of project I'm good for right now. Something easy, I guess. Playing tour guide in Tayane and turning my alts loose on anything that requires complex problem-solving, maybe."

[darkest_evening]

"I was expecting emotional manipulation," teases Prime. "And emotional manipulation is very much about who it's aimed at. Tour guiding works, but I suspect there are better options, too. Something easy, hmm. ... I should clarify, I have zero desire to give you a useless busy work project or, for example, make you some kind of secretary. That would be a hilarious waste of your time and talents, and I like being efficient. Please don't worry about something like that, I'm a callous bastard, I don't give people fake work to make them feel good about themselves. There's a colonization effort going on in my Kystle right now, it's rather small scale and people are all very confused about day and night being a thing. I've also been adapting borrowed technology specs for their use, and I'm trying to make a stable supply line so I can get the delightful things called 'factories' up and running. It's going to entice people to lessen the strain on New Kystle's magical resources, because the fancy roads that climate control are not free, and really, Kystle's more livable and better for farming anyway. Do you want to go organize things there and make people all behave, or would you like another problem entirely?"

[namesthesky]

"Are you claiming to have had no emotions in reaction to my little speech? And I think the cultural gap between me and people from New Kystle is more than challenging enough when I'm proselytizing like I've practiced for most of my life and when my brain's behaving itself, so unless you don't have another obvious candidate for the job -"

[darkest_evening]

"I have emotions in reaction. I just shove them in a box and ignore them. I'm offering it to you because you would actually have a basic understanding of how things work in a non-tidelocked planet, which is in short supply. Considering there are about five people alive who have actually lived when it was normal and not bizarre and strange. I'm one of them. The others are: my sister, and Lynn, who are busy, my father, who is still quite culture shocked - and I'm not actually so callous as to throw him at something when he's recovering from being resurrected - and Nereus, who is not allowed to go near anything sharp, ever. Let alone people. Essentially, none of them are in a position to tell people that it's okay for the temperature to change along with the sun disappearing and that it doesn't mean they'll immediately freeze to death. Or - actually, they're not experienced with seasons either, a fourth of them bolted through a portal when winter arrived. There is not another obvious candidate that knows about that sort of thing unless I outsource, and you are my first pick there."

[namesthesky]

"Okay. I can - tell people about seasons. I'm familiar with seasons."

It was part of the plan that she fail at manipulating him. That was the idea. If she truly wanted to succeed she would have done something else -

A box. That's where reactions to her go. Okay.

[darkest_evening]

"Okay. And -" Pause. "... Do let me know if you don't actually want to? Help with things. Please."

[namesthesky]

"I want to help you. Explaining seasons doesn't sound hard. A project might be good for me."

[darkest_evening]

"... Would you be doing it entirely for me?" he wonders.

It's - uncharacteristically vulnerable.

[namesthesky]

"...You already know how seasons work."

[darkest_evening]

"I do," agrees Prime, softly. He - sighs and leans on Aya, pensive and - sad. That's sorrow.

"I have an apology to make," he murmurs.

[namesthesky]

"Hm?"

[darkest_evening]

"Sorry. It seems I wasn't paying attention to what you wanted to do. I hadn't meant to manipulate you, there. I was - trying to help."

[namesthesky]

"I know you were. I'm - I didn't feel like you were trying to manipulate me."

[darkest_evening]

"Okay. Sorry," he repeats. Snuggle?

[namesthesky]

Snuggle. "I can explain seasons to people. That sounds within my current range of capabilities as long as it doesn't take up absurd amounts of time."

[darkest_evening]

"I wasn't doubting your abilities, but I would - I don't want to give you jobs based on just whether or not you can do them, but on whether or not you want to."

[namesthesky]

"My wanting of things is kind of screwed up."

[darkest_evening]

"I - maybe. But I don't think I helped, there."

[namesthesky]

"There might not be a way to help, I might just be permanently screwed up, and if people need seasons explained to them I might as well."

[darkest_evening]

"It's rather important to me that you also be happy," sighs Prime.

[namesthesky]

Aya is silent. Snuggly, but silent.

[darkest_evening]

Prime falls silent, too because he doesn't know what to say. What is there to say?

[namesthesky]

Well, there's:

"I love you."

[darkest_evening]

He's tempted to point out that it's because of a necklace, not because of anything about him, but that wouldn't be prudent. She's hurting more than he is, no need to take it out on her.

"Thank you," he says, instead. And then he kisses her hair.

[namesthesky]

Snuggle.