bodilesswarrior | 30

[Spam for Cass]

Barbara comes back to herself slowly. Comas aren't like sleep - they last too long, go too deep. She can't just snap back to awareness like she usually does. Her eyes are open, but the world is blurred and distant. Her senses are awake, but they register things that aren't there - damp stone and stale air and kevlar on her skin.

She's just coordinated enough to pull herself into her chair (made much easier, nowadays, with the telepathic circuits), and then she's going mostly on instinct. Check your parameters. Make sure the cave/tower/castle is safe.

The door opens with a wave of her hand, and she's intent on going through it.

Except, suddenly, she's got a lap full of Cassandra.

[Private to Iris]

[She still looks pretty bedraggled - her hair is a mess, and her cheeks are wan, and she needs to keep blinking the fuzz out of her vision.

But she's smiling, fervently warm.]

Miss me?

[Private to the Emperor]

[She waits a bit longer, for this - she wants to be more alert, more perceptive. She's still weary, but it's easier to focus, easier to act.]

How are you?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She's been keeping herself too busy to fret much - or so she thinks, until she sees Barbara's face, alive, awake, here and every bit of the worry and misery she'd been setting aside rises up into her throat and bubbles out of her eyes.

She wipes her face with the back of her hand and lifts her chin.]

What'll you do to me if I say no?

[It takes her a moment, but then her lips quirk into that coy, mischievous smile.]

I don't know, tie you up somewhere until you do?

Didn't miss you at all.

[Still snivelling a little.]

Well, we'll have to fix that. [Her smile is softer, now.]

Your cat shredded a copy of The Left 'And of Darkness. You can 'ave 'er back now. And Zane's got a bunny with your name on it. I'm on me way!

[He answers in video because he doesn't care enough to switch. His hair is a mess, his eyes are shadowed, and he's a little thinner after a few weeks surviving on tea, the occasional apple, and very little sleep. It's not enough of a difference for most people to notice, but after over a year of his appearance never wavering, it's distinct.]

Disintegrating.

Again.

[Blunt, without the dark resentful venom she might expect. He's just answering the question.]

Sleep well?

[She's good, usually, at shielding the emotions she doesn't want people to see.

Right now, she's too tired. So she looks crestfallen, and guilty, and irritated.]

No, not really. Where are you?

In the greenhouse.

[Deciding not to eat certain of Ivy's plants he's dutifully preserved and studied. Deciding not to over and over. It wouldn't help, and it would upset people. Running though the logic is comforting; he is still capable of logic, he still remembers his own priorities, what he has left of them. Melchior is chasing a bee, while Adelaide purrs quietly in his lap.

Some part of him that cares for her registers her expression.]

It wouldn't matter much if you were awake. It's the mirror barge again. I'll be completely mad in a week, if the trajectory holds true.

[Clemency, or something like it. They both value information.]

Edited 2014-09-21 23:24 (UTC)

Goddammit. [She knew something was going on, she remembers - had she suspected the mirror Barge? She's not sure. It doesn't matter.]

I'm coming anyway.

I'll be here.

[Unless he forgets his promise and decides to wander off, but the latter, at least, seems unlikely at the moment.]

Okay.

[She takes a few minutes, after she signs off, to do some quick
exercises - just get the blood pumping, get her more energized. Then she sets out towards the greenhouse.

Barbara breathes deep, as she enters. Even in Gotham, she wasn't often surrounded by nature; her place was in the bustling chaos of the inner city. She appreciates the tastes of it the Barge can give. (She still remembers the precious rarity of fresh fruit in No Man's Land, and the catalogue of flora in Dinah's head.)

She smiles, as she approaches him, worn and worried.]

[He blinks, frowns slightly.]

...you're awake.

[Her smile doesn't falter. She doesn't let it.]

Yeah, I am. I'm here.

Oh.

I'm losing my mind again.

[Something like the tone of a first grader reporting on his day, this time; perfunctory and yet prim. He pets his cat.]

I noticed. [Her tone, too, is almost casual as she reaches out to Adelaide.] I think you should stay with me, again. Until we fix it.

How tedious.

It's not as though I'm a danger to myself or others.

I mean, I am, probably, but not because of that. And not with any sort of stakes.

Are we not waiting it out this time? Morgana's magic doesn't help.

[He can't remember what he tried last time, science-wise.]

[It's Cass' own fault, really. This is what happens when you take it upon yourself to guard every person who falls asleep on the barge, just in case. Or at least, it's what happens to Cass when the small number of people she cares about fall asleep within weeks of each other for a month. More than a month. She's losing track at this rate.

All that matters is she's taken to standing in front of Barbara's door every day and this time, she might have dozed off while leaning against it. And that may or may not be why she is now looking at Barbara from the other woman's lap now.]

You woke up.

[Barbara blinks hard, a few times, and then she's grinning. She's adrift, confused, but her daughter is in her arms and that matters more than anything else.]

'Course I did.

[Her voice is hoarse, but warm.]

30 - Spam+Video

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tw for suicidal ideation

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it's the present icon because barbara is the best gift

awwww