catchall; valerie

[ohthehumanities]

this one is more for you lisa than for val tbh

Comments

w3, saturday

[huntressinred]

[ nobody look at what used to be here, this was always a saturday pc, and val was always in the vr room

She is absolutely bashing a room full of generic green ghost blobs and mirrors and pottery with a baseball bat. and she is doing some primal screaming.

Until eventually she runs out of air and she lets herself sag in exhaustion to catch her breath. ]

[ohthehumanities]

[This is literally the most valid of moods ever.

Kaveh is headed here too--he falters when he opens the door and sees that it's busy, but Valerie is so clearly going through it that his innate empathy kicks in, so he'll slip inside. He doesn't disturb her, just keeps an eye on her until she slows down.]

Is it helping?

[huntressinred]

[ she looks over at him. ]

...it doesn't help the problem.

But at least it makes me less mad about it.

[ohthehumanities]

Mm. That's fair.

[He will just. Honestly move to go sit down somewhere.]

Don't let me stop you.

[huntressinred]

[ watches him take a seat...then goes back to yelling and smashing a few more things before pausing again and looking over at him. ]

...you want a turn?

[ohthehumanities]

[He doesn't bother her as she does, just sitting with his knees pulled up, staring into space. Disassociating, as the kids say. Though he comes back to himself when she speaks, and considers for a little while.]

...Yeah. Okay.

[It's a breaking things kind of night.]

[huntressinred]

[ offers him the bat ]

[ohthehumanities]

[He gets up, and he takes it! He weighs it in his hand, looking at their surroundings, at all the breakable things.

And then he'll do the same as she was doing, honestly, though with less screams of rage. He puts all his strength into demolishing some of the fake props and whatnot; it's clear that he's used to wielding a weapon, and that he's surprisingly strong, though not to like. Childe's freakish levels.]

[huntressinred]

Hell yeah! Show 'em who's boss!

[ohthehumanities]

[HELP Valerie is so funny. He'll smash a few more things, and then let the bat point down toward the ground, his other fist clenching.]

I still don't understand what happened.

[huntressinred]

You mean in the trial, or Thursday night?

[ohthehumanities]

Thursday night. [He puts the bat down, taking a step back.] Shenhe--you probably know this already, but she was from the same world as myself and Nahida. [...] I wanted to figure it out for her. I should have been able to.

[huntressinred]

[ nods... ]

Same for me and Lambda. We're not from the same world, but...finding her killer is the least I could do for my teammate.

[ohthehumanities]

[Aww, Valerie. His gaze softens.]

It feels like we had so many pieces, and yet we had nothing at all at the same time.

[huntressinred]

Ugghhh, I know! [ kicks the wall--quite hard, too. ]

I just--either we were missing one little thing, or we had everything but were just overlooking the one thing that would help us figure it out--!

[ohthehumanities]

[He should probably stop her from hurting herself, but you know, he's a healer. He can take care of it if it gets too bad. And beyond that--he understands that sometimes, a little pain is the only thing that helps keep your mind clear.]

I think other things were in play. I keep coming back to that flamethrower. [He did genuinely want to help with Lambda's case, too--it's just that Shenhe took his attention. He sighs.] And I suspect teammates were covering for each other. In the worst case, we would've been working against eight people, not just one or two.

[So it's kind of not surprising that they were fucked over, but also, that doesn't make it feel better.]

[huntressinred]

I think it's safe to assume teammates are always gonna cover for each other as long as they know what happened. Even...Buzen did, even though he really didn't want to. And even if they don't know what happened, no one's gonna throw their own teammate under the bus.

[ohthehumanities]

Right.

[He looks very sad at the thought of Buzen, but only briefly, before he pushes it away.]

I keep telling myself that I should be more understanding. That everyone deserves the chance to fight for their life.

[But it's so much harder when it's personal.]

[huntressinred]

I get fighting for your life. I don't get going out of your way to chop someone into pieces.

[ohthehumanities]

No, neither do I.

[Like... he understands that it was probably a tough fight, since he can't envision Lambda giving up easily. But also. What the fck.]