IC Contact - Exsilium

[maddeninghatter]

[ Thirty seconds of tuneless humming--beeeeeeeeep! ]

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[maddeninghatter]

Pffffffffffff —

[ No, sorry. He can't hold it in any longer. ]

Ha! Ha! Ha!

[velveteened]

( o m f g )

There's nothing funny about it!

[maddeninghatter]

Ha! Hahaha! Hahahahaha!

[ In nothing resembling a hurry, Break finally manages to catch his breath and leave off laughing. ]

Why don't you come down and tell me what's so not funny.

[velveteened]

( HE'S GETTING NEW FRIENDS.

in the meantime, though, he's scrambling off the top bunk himself, in a jump that's significantly less graceful but gets the job done and anyway who's looking. no one, har har. )

It's not at all!

[maddeninghatter]

Hm, well. Gilbert must have been very tired to fall asleep on his precious master....

[ He looms over Oz, smiling sweetly, arms behind his back ]

[velveteened]

( the only response he gets to that

is the biggest frown he's never seen. )

[maddeninghatter]

We~ell~ if you've got nothing more to say, I'll just toddle off and go find Mister Sleepy-head~♥

[ He swings around and starts out the door again. ]

1/2

[velveteened]

( nnnnNNNNNNNNNNNN )

[velveteened]

( he says, )

They'd never seen an Incuse before.

( a belated answer, sort of, to what wasn't quite a question in the first place. )

[maddeninghatter]

[ Which is why they were so interested in it. ]

What an awful tease you are. Go oooon, I'm all ears.

[ Poor child, to have had to go through this. Guilt is searing through him again. It's his fault, for not being there. ]

[velveteened]

( he hesitates, not having thought out this far what to say; that and a reluctance to talk about the subject at all draw the hesitation out into a pause. )

Project Chimera didn't really need people around; the scientists mainly did their work in the laboratories. But to do that, ( he starts to raise a hand and then drops it, shaking his head ) they had to collect samples to study there — like blood, for instance.

( and presumably what precisely they were doing going at his chest for the incuse will be easy to infer now. )

[maddeninghatter]

[ ...ah.

He turns and reaches out, on purpose to pat Oz's head. But the gesture seems too.... too something (perhaps his hands are too small for proper patting), so he settles for simply trying to push down the wild locks of Oz's hair. ]

Experiences like this...

[ He killed as many UE scientists as he could find, but not nearly enough. ]

They make you stronger. But even so, it's okay to let yourself be looked after.

1/3

[velveteened]

( it's a futile effort, of course, with how his hair is; even with gil's ministrations he'll never have neat hair. the gesture makes him blink, a little distracted from the answer for a brief moment, and perhaps he doesn't need to say that this is most certainly not something he's told gil yet (ever, possibly) nor anyone else. what he does need to say is likely not what his first instinct is — that he hardly needs looking after, that everything's fine, that there's nothing at all to worry about — which would probably garner more accusations of being an uncute brat.

besides, that's not a good answer anyway. even he knows that by now. )

I know, I know. It was just...

[velveteened]

...a little frightening at the time.

[velveteened]

But I knew everything would be okay, with all of you here. That's still true.

1/3

[maddeninghatter]

[ Is that.... was that a feeling? An actual, human(ish) feeling? ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ Oh, you kids. You damn kids. Every time. ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ Brightly: ]

Why, aren't you adorable?

[ It's time, of course, for some aggressive hair-ruffling. ]

Very! Cute! Indeed!

[velveteened]

( THE MOST INDIGNANT SQUAWK WHY DOES HE TELL YOU ANYTHING )

[maddeninghatter]

[ He finally leaves off his kid-handling. ]

Look, since you've accepted that your...

[ URGH ]

....your friends are here to help you, then I think you ought to accept it. Besides...

Nothing makes Gilbert happier than to feel useful. Let him seal B. Rabbit, just for now.

[velveteened]

( he frowns, reaching up in some horribly doomed attempt to straighten out his hair. he doesn't stop frowning as he listens, finger-combing slowing to think that over.

not that there's much to think about, ultimately, because break isn't wrong. )

Fine, ( somewhat grudgingly ) but just for now.

[maddeninghatter]

You know...

[ He seems to contemplate Oz seriously; and then bends down, as if to whisper a secret: ]

There's something else Gilbert could give you...

[velveteened]

Something else?

( he lets his hands drop, looking up curiously. )

[maddeninghatter]

That's right.

[ Wait for it, waaaait for it: ]

A haircut! I believe I've mentioned something about birds nesting~!

[velveteened]

Now you're starting to sound like Gil!

( it's something that's worked its way into his normal list of things to fret over, but not something they've got around to yet either. )