August Catch-All

[loopsiedaisy]

Who: Siffrin + ...also Siffrin Stardust, Shoka, Archnemon, Reuben, maybe more!
What: Quest quests quests, and even some not-quests! There will be top-levels here... in a little bit...
Where: FRESH NEW WILDERNESS, the new Outpost, and also all the way back in the Canopy at the front desk.
When: Throughout August
Warnings: Siffrin's usual warnings, general ~peril~

Comments

[loopsiedaisy]

[Huh??]

[Confusion and alarm for you, Archnemon!]

What feelings?

[They're... getting a bad feeling about what Hatenna means.]

[wovensecrets]

[ Has she said too much already? Probably. She hates that it feels like an obvious weakness, but she still has to spell it out for people. Probably because of everything she's avoiding, herself! What a cycle.]

... Oh, are you not sure? You're feeling perfectly well, nothing bothering you at all, today?

[ When in doubt, sarcasm deflection...? No? ]

Ugh, just finish helping the customer with the saw problem first...

[ She hasn't registered whether or not if had been taken care of yet. ]

[loopsiedaisy]

Nothing bothering me at all! I'm fine!! [Siffrin "agrees," very adamantly. All the while, their anxiety is slowly ramping up...]

[But helping the customer first they can do. They dart over to the pile where they're pretty sure they saw a handle, taking the opportunity to take a deep breath in and let it out. Their nervousness steps down a few stages, but it gets right back to climbing as they trot back and dangle the handle over the edge.]

[Sandshrew accepts the handle happily enough, starting to fiddle with it down below to attach it - and not actually letting the next person in line up to the "counter" yet. Which means Siffrin has a chance to resume darting glances over at Hatenna.]

[wovensecrets]

[ Complete the mission... prioritize the mission... these were goals that felt simple and yet here they were, struggling. Being so disoriented due to a weakness was annoying! And the thought she'd have to explain that to others in some way, or else impede anything she'd tried to do... worse, she has to think about all of this instead of just letting it go. That circling malaise, that anxiety... was it just feeding her own buried issues?

She also realizes no one else has come up yet, which is probably for the better given her current state. Is someone delaying them? Great, that might mean other problems could get backed up. Or she could deal with her other hatted partner here. ]

... Hnn. Right, listen. You're fine, I'm fine, but whatever it is that you're really not fine about -- can you at least try to figure out a way to not worry about it right now?

[loopsiedaisy]

I'm not worried about anything! [Siffrin insists, their smile a little bit more strained.] ...aside from how sawght out we'll be while this wagon is still a mess!

[Pun? Pun distraction?]

[This is... really just their baseline right now, aside from the nervousness at being challenged over it. Sorry Archnemon.]

[And anyway!! This ain't about them!] B-but really, what's wrong? You're swaying...

[wovensecrets]

... I swear.

[ Huff. They're just not getting it, are they... not that she doesn't also play the deflection game, but even so... hard to do the convincing when she's the one being inconvenienced by not being fine. ]

Listen. If you keep finding the items for people like you have been, it'll get better, okay? Just... don't worry about it.

[loopsiedaisy]

[Despite what they literally just said, not worrying about it? Sounds fake. But, at least outwardly, all they express is an uneasy ear flick. It's true that if they were saying they were fine, they wouldn't want someone insistently pushing it...]

[(They think.)]

...okay.

[They can keep working...]

[And indeed, fortunately for Archnemon, as Siffrin keeps at it and they get better at figuring out where stuff is, their anxiety does ramp down to its previous simmer. Unfortunately, that general malaise doesn't leave - that just seems to be their baseline. But they seem to be used to having that as background noise, so maybe if Archnemon sits with it for long enough she'll also be able to tolerate it...?]

[You know. Maybe.]

[wovensecrets]

[ General malaise is generally more tolerable when it's not being projected directly into her brain, at least.

Still annoying, but not... debilitating. Adjusting to the parameters. This is fine . . .

She can tell they've not solved whatever issue it is, but that's on them to solve! She's given the suggestions. Kiefki even calms down from whatever issue they were experiencing to help Siffrin with finding things until Archnemon is able to recover enough to resume directing. The line subsequently resumes.

Progress, right?? It's a long day. They'll figure this out. In light of all this, maybe their "rewards" start to make a little more sense once someone reports back to the organizer... ]