Topaz and Haller | The Box
Jan. 8th, 2024 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsHaller relaxes in the Box, Topaz crashes in for a Long Sleep. Backdated to early January 8.
The Box was a respite. No pulses of emotion so painful they were indistinguishable from a migraine, no cacophony of foreign thoughts suddenly screaming in his brain like a poorly tuned radio blasting at full volume, just him.
Him, and the lecture he was getting from himself.
Your shielding's worse because you're exhausted. Hiding in here's not going to fix that. What you need is rest.
"I know," Jim muttered as he massaged his temples. "But at least in here the only voices in my head are you."
Jack gave a grunt of disgust. You don't start taking care of yourself, I'll do it for you.
The telepath leaned back in the chair and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. He swore he could feel his heartbeat in his own brain. The acetaminophen hadn't even made a dent. He sighed.
"Promise?"
Topaz had been warned someone else might be in the Box, and she had considered just going to her room. But the Box turned out to be closer than her suite, and that was the deciding factor. Hard to climb stairs when her eyes wouldn't stay open. The med lab seemed like a safer destination.
She wasn't really paying attention when she walked into the Box - she just went straight for the bed, paused slightly when she saw Haller, then pivoted and went for the couch. She wasn't sure who had put a couch in here - it had been awhile since her last visit - and she wasn't sure what Haller was doing there, but she also didn't care. She thought she heard Haller say "Promise?" and wondered if she'd managed to say out loud that she would keep it down.
"Sure, mate," she mumbled, dropping onto the couch and curling into a tight ball in the corner.
Jim blinked up from his headache, briefly running the phrase through his internal interpreter. Her British accent was so thick he barely understood her.
"Topaz," he said to the tightly coiled knot of limbs that was the empath. "Long day?"
Oh lord, was he going to continue talking? Topaz pressed her head into the back of the couch to hide from the light and took a deep breath. "Broke my head. Not bad enough for a coma, unfortunately."
The social conditioning was strong: briefly, very briefly. Jim considered asking how. Then he realized that not only did he not really want to know, Topaz definitely didn't want to tell him, and allowed this knowledge to set him free.
"Same," was all the telepath said. He paused and offered one final inquiry. "Blanket?"
Topaz was quiet long enough that Haller would have been forgiven for thinking she fell asleep. But finally she gave one, tiny nod into the couch, mumbling, "Please," as she curled in a little tighter on herself.
Jim got up, fished around in the room's shallow closet, and extracted a pair of blankets before shuffling over to the couch. Topaz was still coiled tight. The telepath put one blanket over his shoulder and fanned out the other, which he then awkwardly draped over the exhausted woman like he was laying a tarp over a pile of wood.
"Night," he said, and returned to the chair. He didn't even have a chance to take the blanket from his shoulder before he'd fallen asleep.
The Box was a respite. No pulses of emotion so painful they were indistinguishable from a migraine, no cacophony of foreign thoughts suddenly screaming in his brain like a poorly tuned radio blasting at full volume, just him.
Him, and the lecture he was getting from himself.
Your shielding's worse because you're exhausted. Hiding in here's not going to fix that. What you need is rest.
"I know," Jim muttered as he massaged his temples. "But at least in here the only voices in my head are you."
Jack gave a grunt of disgust. You don't start taking care of yourself, I'll do it for you.
The telepath leaned back in the chair and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. He swore he could feel his heartbeat in his own brain. The acetaminophen hadn't even made a dent. He sighed.
"Promise?"
Topaz had been warned someone else might be in the Box, and she had considered just going to her room. But the Box turned out to be closer than her suite, and that was the deciding factor. Hard to climb stairs when her eyes wouldn't stay open. The med lab seemed like a safer destination.
She wasn't really paying attention when she walked into the Box - she just went straight for the bed, paused slightly when she saw Haller, then pivoted and went for the couch. She wasn't sure who had put a couch in here - it had been awhile since her last visit - and she wasn't sure what Haller was doing there, but she also didn't care. She thought she heard Haller say "Promise?" and wondered if she'd managed to say out loud that she would keep it down.
"Sure, mate," she mumbled, dropping onto the couch and curling into a tight ball in the corner.
Jim blinked up from his headache, briefly running the phrase through his internal interpreter. Her British accent was so thick he barely understood her.
"Topaz," he said to the tightly coiled knot of limbs that was the empath. "Long day?"
Oh lord, was he going to continue talking? Topaz pressed her head into the back of the couch to hide from the light and took a deep breath. "Broke my head. Not bad enough for a coma, unfortunately."
The social conditioning was strong: briefly, very briefly. Jim considered asking how. Then he realized that not only did he not really want to know, Topaz definitely didn't want to tell him, and allowed this knowledge to set him free.
"Same," was all the telepath said. He paused and offered one final inquiry. "Blanket?"
Topaz was quiet long enough that Haller would have been forgiven for thinking she fell asleep. But finally she gave one, tiny nod into the couch, mumbling, "Please," as she curled in a little tighter on herself.
Jim got up, fished around in the room's shallow closet, and extracted a pair of blankets before shuffling over to the couch. Topaz was still coiled tight. The telepath put one blanket over his shoulder and fanned out the other, which he then awkwardly draped over the exhausted woman like he was laying a tarp over a pile of wood.
"Night," he said, and returned to the chair. He didn't even have a chance to take the blanket from his shoulder before he'd fallen asleep.
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Date: 2024-01-16 02:43 pm (UTC)