(no subject)

[sythyry]

Breakup [16 Lage 4385]

Good News: Quendry

The good news is this: Quendry is up and walking. (Windigar and Ochirion have been up and walking for a couple days now; in fact, Ochirion and his family have gone to stay with some friends in Eigrach -- clan-friends of Thiane, I believe. A rather substantial illusion provides Feralan safe movement through city gates and city streets, despite the quasi-tangible black spikes still poking out of his brain in all directions.) This means that Quendry will be fine fairly soon. Not unscathed of course. He'll probably have some troubles for the rest of his life over it -- severe terrors would hardly be out of the question.

Conversely, he'll be as tough as a Gormoror, so, should he decide to be an adventurer (or, more likely, find himself one due to no fault of his own) he's well-started. I suppose that's good.

Bad News: Arfaen and Mellilot Broke Up

The bad news is this: Mellilot has finally and intensely broken up with Arfaen. Their relationship had been in a very fragile state for quite some time, as you surely recall if you have been reading every bit of gossip I write about and many I don't write about and ignoring all the other bits. The causes of this are manifold, but due in significant part to Arfaen's general inability to keep her pants on around other species of primes, and Mellilot's inability to simply chuckle and make a few pointed comments rather than get upset and jealous. Neither of these traits is particularly unusual among traff-folk, nor the cis version among cis-folk; but they are a poor combination. Arfaen and Mellilot have had troubles before over this.

There is a Great Deal of Drama concerning this, since both Arfaen and Mellilot are quite popular on board Strayway. Inconnu has gone off to sulk. Calla is furious with him. Tingula slapped Umbers. Kantele was extremely short with nearly everyone, including me. I will not describe this any more. I have been living it for most of the day.

To give Mellilot credit, she had decided to break up with Arfaen some time ago, but had waited until Quendry was clearly out of danger to do so. She did not want to devastate Arfaen with the loss of her lover as well as the peril of her child at the same time.

Good News: Comforting with Arfaen

And so it came to pass that Arfaen came to my laboratory to see Quendry, who is asleep (not coma'ed) after his exhausting day of walking eight paces while Phaniet held his hand. We talked for a time about this and that, but mostly about that. She scooped me up and put me on her shoulder, which my friends sometimes do when they wish to continue a conversation, and I draped my tail around her neck, which I sometimes do when I am pleased to be shouldered, and we proceeded back to her quarters, which have been largely de-Mellilotted.

Please note that I am quite aware that Arfaen has trouble keeping her pants on around other species of primes, etc.

As the aforementioned pants were about to be flung aside, I felt obliged to have The Conversation.

Me: "I don't generally do this sort of thing with my clients."

Arfaen: "I know, Sythyry. But I am a grownup and I do know what I'm doing, really I do."

Me: "I do understand that your knowledge of this topic has been a matter for widespread discussion all day, hasn't it?"

Arfaen: "Besides, it's not just as if you're just some patron and I'm just some client. You've been working your feathers ragged healing my son. And not for the first time. And I know how much it's cost you -- you even went adventuring to get that Grace!"

Me: "That was Phaniet. And Jyondre, Yerenthax, and Rheng."

Arfaen: "I'm not inviting any of them. Phaniet is a Cani and I don't do Cani any more. Jyondre and Yerenthax are monogamous. Rheng is cissy, and kind of a jerk. Anyways, I owe you bigtime. You paid for the Grace, and all the other things you used on Quendry, I don't know the half of them."

Me: "Well, yes. But you don't owe me time in your bed."

Arfaen: "And you tended him for hours every day. That's not what just any old patron would do. That takes a true friend, and a prime who is decent ... who is noble in the old sense of the term." [meaning "heroic" more or less. -bb]

That got me sniffling, I must say. After my long and distinctly sleazy affair with Thenel, after having to send friends into danger to go hunting the Grace for me, after me extravantly failing to protect my friends' children from the nendrai, and all of that, I haven't been feeling terribly decent of late, much less noble in any sense of the term except perhaps the most parasitic. But I suppose I can see why Arfaen can see my incompetent attempts in a better light than I usually can.

Me: [Sniffling] "But I'd do that for any of my clients, really."

Arfaen: "I know you would. But why on wood do you think that makes me want to sleep with you less?"

I could not, and did not, fault that logic.

And it wasn't much like a patron sleeping with a client, anyways. It was like two friends, both sad from recent breakups, distracting and comforting each other.

Comments

[rowyn]

Awww. Well, better than launching yourselves into a new relationship for no particularly good reason except the other person is available.

... at least, I'm hoping that's not gonna happen.

*snugs Sythyry*

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Aww, darn it. I'm leaky...

[kobolds.livejournal.com]

Even if this isn't a long term thing Sythyry, I'm really glad that for once you get to be with someone that appreciates you like you deserve to be.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

D'aww. ^_^

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

Wow, for once Sythyry gets a hookup that isn't imminently or impendingly doomy.

*hugs*

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Wait for it....

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Um ... I didn't say that. I merely got through the day without visible doom.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

So you're saying that after that last line, she turned the lights out? n.n That would still be *tangible* doom...

Well, except that she's not especially monogamous, so as long as you aren't either it's probably not inherently doomy.

The mists of time part for my visions of the future, however, and my divinations predict that the Strayway will never again lift from Eigrach's soil. v.v

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid that there's plenty of doom to go around on Strayway. The first doomlement ought to be obvious, and I halfway expected it. The second and larger should have been obvious to me too, but wasn't.

At this rate, you're right about Strayway; but I hope you will be wrong.

[rowyn]

Oh, I think the Strayway will lift from Eigrach's soil at *some* point. Possibly not under her own power, and very likely due to some new and awful doom -- but it'll still *happen*. >:)

[rowyn]

I dunno, I think this has a lot more apparent opportunity for doom than Thenel looked to, at first inspection. And look how that turned out!

*fears*

[redbird]

Arfaen has an excellent point there: that you would have taken those chances for other clients is part of her evidence that you are a good person.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I do try to be one ... I seem to have failed, often cataclysmically, more often than I have succeeded, lately.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Whether you are good or bad is not determined by the vagaries of reality, but by your intentions.

It would be fair to say that those have been flawed - sticking with Thenel when you knew it violated the spirit of his engagement being the obvious point. But in the end, you had the fortitude to end that, when he did not; and you got involved in the first place without knowing of that relationship - in good faith.

Where Vae is concerned - you've spent what, a hundred twenty-three years trying to make her a bit safer for primes? And by and large, met with some small successes there, even when considering that Vae is a member of a species which is far more specifically built to trouble primes than are, say, greft or wherriwheffle?

That you are not omnipotent or omniscient does not make you a bad person. That you regret your failings does strongly point to you being a good one, all in all.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I hereby grumble at myself for getting sniffly when monsters say that sort of thing!

Aww...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

How sweet!

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

Yes, this will in no way bite you on the hindquarters later.

Cynicism aside, she has a point. You have gone rather consistently out of your way to take care of your friends. And a sleazy affair does not necessarily a sleaze make. Perhaps you are being a bit hard on yourself; the outcome of incompetence, by my measure, would involve still-dead children. The brainspikes are a suboptimal outcome, granted, but still. Hardly a resounding failure.