Message 04. Vital Information for Your Everyday Life

[unrecovered]

[Wash is in full armor, helmet on. There's a reason for this; nobody needs to see that he hasn't really slept for about 72 hours. Those who have a bit more experience reading his body language can probably tell from the set of his shoulders and the incline of his helmet that he is Not Very Happy. Of course, then he opens his mouth and removes all doubt.]

This is just to let everyone know that there are no Nightmares in the Traverse Town hotel. Because they don't come inside. Ever. Anyone who says otherwise is paranoid. Or an idiot. Or both.

Probably both.

Comments

[unrecovered]

[He goes silent again for a few more long moments, thinking, trying to process that.]

I trust her.

[And it's true - he trusts her to have his back in battle and not put bullets into it. He trusts her to keep the bits and pieces of his secrets that she's already heard or figured out and not to broadcast his weaknesses to anyone who could be an enemy. For Wash, that kind of trust is hard to come by and something of a big deal when he does extend it to somebody.]

[What he doesn't say is that he doesn't trust himself not to falter or fail or mess this up in one of hundreds of possible ways. He's the unsteady link in this potential relationship and he knows it.]

[allfunandgamesuntil]

[York hears it anyway; a lot of times it is easier to trust other people than it is to trust yourself, especially when your brain has failed you once already.]

So think about it and go from there.

[unrecovered]

I-

[-don't have a good track record with this was what he was going to say, but he bites those words back. That was a very long time ago, and York already knows that; it's hard to miss the end result of a relationship when you former romantic partner up and betrays your entire team. He can't stay stuck in those memories forever; instead, he tries something else.]

I can do that.

[Whether he will is a different story entirely. He knows the option is open to him, but he also knows how much he stands to lose if it goes south and that scares him more than he'd like to admit.]

[allfunandgamesuntil]

Great. You might like the results.

[If he can let go of his concerns about screwing it up. Which, given York's track record - note to self, share all relevant information in a coherent way, if you want to communicate - York can completely understand.]

[unrecovered]

Maybe.

[Or it might be another complete disaster with ramifications Wash isn't sure he can entirely withstand. He's never going to stop being afraid of fucking it up; not until the day he actually succeeds, and he doesn't expect that day to come for...ever, really. At all.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

I didn't mean to hit you upside the head with that, sorry.