[ Faith searches her for pain, and finds none. It doesn't make sense. Whatever strange yoyoing of her senses was going on seems to have stopped, and that's more confusing. So has the blue glow in her chest. Then she's doing minor calculations. Faith isn't especially clever, but she can put together a few basic premises:
While they were touching, Faith had been able to cause her pain. Now that they're not, she can't. Laura seems able, on her own, to subvert that pain. She hasn't quite fully put it together with the strange experience of molting into a dragon in Zerzura, but she's got some inklings. The itch of awareness. ]
Yeah. [ She resolves, sort of distantly, almost dissociating as she works through this. Then she reaches out suddenly to close her bare hand around Laura's throat. The choking isn't the worst of it because now -- now, she can do it on purpose. She feels it there, the warm glow in her chest, and also awareness of her senses and of Laura's. Her grip tightens, barely, as she tries to crank up Laura's awareness of her own pain. ] Just one thing.
[ But the empathy bond opens in turn, and Faith feels it. Her own fear and panic and anger and misery pouring out of her, open to Laura's consideration and awareness. It's the worst depths of depression, the maybe it's better just to end it kind, the doesn't care about what happens to her kind. Like maybe, no matter how mad she makes Laura, or how this turns out, she won't be broken hearted. ]
cw: suicidal thoughts
While they were touching, Faith had been able to cause her pain. Now that they're not, she can't. Laura seems able, on her own, to subvert that pain. She hasn't quite fully put it together with the strange experience of molting into a dragon in Zerzura, but she's got some inklings. The itch of awareness. ]
Yeah. [ She resolves, sort of distantly, almost dissociating as she works through this. Then she reaches out suddenly to close her bare hand around Laura's throat. The choking isn't the worst of it because now -- now, she can do it on purpose. She feels it there, the warm glow in her chest, and also awareness of her senses and of Laura's. Her grip tightens, barely, as she tries to crank up Laura's awareness of her own pain. ] Just one thing.
[ But the empathy bond opens in turn, and Faith feels it. Her own fear and panic and anger and misery pouring out of her, open to Laura's consideration and awareness. It's the worst depths of depression, the maybe it's better just to end it kind, the doesn't care about what happens to her kind. Like maybe, no matter how mad she makes Laura, or how this turns out, she won't be broken hearted. ]