Eternal questions (Ithea)

[Anastasia]

"She sure as hell didn't come back to them when she had the chance, over and over," Balyss glowers at Ithea now, "You're just enabling her."

[Merc]

"Probably. And you're dodging my question. I can open a gate right now or even whenever is convinient for them. I am fully at your service. Answer the damn question already so we can all agree that the problem isn't really what she just did, but what she hasn't been doing. And then if you want, we can try and figure a way to solve the issue without the stubborn yelling that never gets anywhere? I'm your friend too, Balyss. I can 'enable' you just as much as her."

[Anastasia]

Balyss twitches, opens her mouth - and stops. She takes a long breath and then another. Slow, tense breaths that get expelled with far too much force. In a quieter voice, "What do you think should be done?"

[Merc]

Ithea looks smugly at succeding in 'calming' Balyss. Balyss probably really really wants to punch her, but hey its keeping her off-balance and she's paying attention so that's a win.

"Well, I'm still for bringing them over here. Ninth circle or not, at the end of the day its not something remotely beyond our resources. Sylvie needs to reconnect with them, and if she won't see them, they're gonna have to come to her, hopefully just at first."

"We don't tell Sylvie they are coming, if anything I spring them on her as a reward or something. If she doesn't buy it, then concern over what immortality could do to her bonds. All true really, and hey if she's focused her negative feelings on me they're not focusing on her visitors."

"After that the trick is just making sure she reconnects and keeping her off-balance and distracted from feeling like she's being forced into some sort of intervention. I can keep askig her for information and introductions or what not. Repeat exposure without ever giving her a chance to say to never do it again."

Ithea then sighs and shrugs. "I don't really have better plans yet. We could also ask Jaela and Hanna about their relationship I guess, but I dunno that you want to involve them. There are a few parallels if you squint hard enough. But I think interaction is the only real solution. Telling her to man up and go home just sucks."

[Anastasia]

Balyss gives Ithea a sour look and goes silent for a bit. "I think we should ask a third party before bringing her family over," she finally says. "Hanna and Jaela are busy, but the idea's a good one."

[Merc]

"Adrian and Misalea would be my second thought, Stille my third thought. Adrian and Misalea would be more of a family and stable relationship perspective, I think. Stille would be an unrelated third party in that he's not connected to Sylvie, but has connections to both of us. I suppose maybe Simmer if she knew those friends well?" Ithea suggests some names. "Or do you have anybody in mind?"

[Anastasia]

"Let me think about it." Balyss gets up, "I want to stretch my legs and clean myself up. This can wait."

[Merc]

"Please don't go yell at Sylvie. If you need to vent, by all means keep yelling at me."

[Anastasia]

Balyss twitches again and ever so slowly says, "Am I that transparent?"

[Merc]

Ithea sighs and rubs her forehead. "No, but you're both my friends. I think that grants me a bit of insight into your heads. Look, when you first came to Aurora and did your rant then, it didn't seem to do much, did it? I popped by her room and learned a little bit about Calley, about Whimsical Sweets and Janson."

She makes a face. "She also mentioned an Andrea that was...no, best not to ask," she mumbles as he mind briefly flashes to thoughts of Father and does her best to rip her thoughts on track and focuses on Balyss again. "Look, the point is, she was pretty sure you'd never talk to her again and was probably about to vanish off into who knows where again. I'll admit some good did come out of it, as she did open up to me about it briefly, but if she vanished again, fat good that would have done you, me, or even Calley. At least right now he probably has an idea where she is?"

[Anastasia]

Make a Will save, Ithea.

[Merc]

[19:33] <Merc> roll d20+33+11 will+inspiration
[19:33] <Serith> Merc roll for Serith < 60 > [d20=16]

[Anastasia]

A deep chill washes over Ithea. Her fur stands on end and her skin crawls, but she shakes it off after several unpleasant moments.

"Yes, that's so nice when Calley wishes for his Mom on his birthday, or when he's lonely, scared or sick." Balyss rolls her eyes, "Oh don't worry, your Mom's off on Aurora! Isn't that better now that you know she's on an entire other plane?"

[Merc]

"I didn't say it was ideal, okay??" Ithea bites off in annoyance. "Sorry. Just... sometimes bad news is better than no news, alright?"

[Anastasia]

A pause by Balyss - for 27 comes into the room. He curls up at Ithea's feet, murmuring, "Anarch." She closes her eyes and goes silent for a time, "Let's just drop this one for now. As much good as it did at getting my mind off all I saw...just not this, not now."