backdated to the return Liminal - filtered away from Pearl

[runs]

[At a certain point in in this conversation Kitty just has to reach out and try for help because she's way too lost.]

Pearl is crying and I don't know how to make her stop.

Does anyone know how to make someone stop crying?

Comments

[smokeandcarbs]

Hug them?

[Not an infallible method, but crying people usually need hugs and Kitty is adorable enough to pull it off.]

[runs]

I don't know, she's really upset and we're the same age so I can't count on cuteness with that. [This is an issue, how do you even interact with well-adjusted children her age???? She can deal with Maria, Maria is fine, but even Kitty realizes that Maria is probably as little of a typical child as she is when it comes to what she considers disturbing.]

[smokeandcarbs]

[ Oh, she even knows she's adorable. Kitty's smartness never ceases to impress him. ]

Still worth a try, I think.

[runs]

[It's her single most powerful weapon in social situations. And to be fair only one of her figured it out herself.]

...Okay.

[She absolutely doesn't sound sure about this, but she's going to give it a try.

Here goes nothing.]

[awitchdidit]

...may I ask why she started?

[smokeandcarbs]

[He waits patiently for her feedback, if she ever feels like giving one. He also hopes for the best?]

[runs]

We were just talking about finding you, and I mentioned why, and then she got upset and started crying!

Just recalled that I don't know Pearl's exact age/canonpoint

[awitchdidit]

Did you tell an ordinary little girl you were going to discuss murdering someone?

I may be a bit of a hypocrite here, but did it perhaps occur to you not to do that?

[runs]

I don't really talk to children my age a lot. [Maria probably doesn't count for the purpose of this.] At least not while I'm ...me. And not pretending to be [what to even call it] someone else. Ordinary? [Since that is the word Beatrice used.]

I didn't mean for this to happen.

But I don't want to be someone else when I talk to her. I did that already when talking to her overlay. And there's no reason to because we're both travelling and she knows that magic exist and I'm not working. I want to be friends, like with Maria.

[awitchdidit]

I'm not going to sit here and devalue the notion of honesty when I know both of us probably don't have a lot of experience with it. It's...a bad thing to completely lose sight of your "true self" if you can survive without doing that.

However...most humans do have topics of conversation they aren't comfortable with. Premeditated murder is a fairly common one. I would suggest an apology and an immediate subject change as a short-term solution.

[runs]

[A good deal of her existence is built on dishonesty on some level. Much less so here than back home, but as soon as they hit a jaunt, that is back in full force. Which makes it even more important to keep sight of that there are actually quite a lot of people here that she can be honest with.

...To at least some degree, apparently. She doesn't like this, doesn't like the sense of ease that she held for the last three months breaking down around her, but there is a weak sense of acknowledgement.

Beatrice is probably right. She needs to be more careful again.]

I'll try.

[triggerhappytraitor]

What happened?

[runs]

We talked and then she got upset and started crying, and no matter what I say it just makes it worse.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Sometimes words just make things worse.

[[Especially when they're from someone who comes from a pretty harsh reality...]]

Did you apologize for upsetting her?

[failgoyle]

Let me, uh, try to come help?

[He is not going to try to mooch off this sorrow, no, no, of course not.]

[pretentiouself]

Why? What did you do to her?

[runs]

...I don't think that will work.

[Eyeing Pearl over here.] I mean, the reason why she's upset would still be there.

[runs]

[Dude, she could care less right now. And the only reason why she would care in general would be that she'd feel like she retroactively won their discussion.]

Yes!

[Someone who should at least get some of it and is also an adult, please take over how desperate do you have to be to consider Jules the adult here.]

[runs]

I didn't do anything! We were just talking about Beatrice and then she got upset about me mentioning that we were discussing assassinating her!

[triggerhappytraitor]

Apologies aren't cures for problems. They're taking responsibility for your actions and acknowledging the hurt that they've caused.

[acapriciousthing]

Sometimes people need to cry for a while and all you can do is stay with them and listen when they're ready to talk.

[pretentiouself]

[Sigh. And she calls him the stupid one.]

That's not exactly the kind of thing that people generally consider an option. Not openly, at least. Why do you think they have to get people to do their dirty work for it when it does happen? It's not exactly like kids go into school and decide they want to do wetwork as a career, or you just wander into a shop and order an assassination. People like to pretend it doesn't exist. Which then means that some people don't even know it exists.

[runs]

...You think it will get better if I just stand here?

[...]

Can I sit down while I wait for her to be done? Will that make it worse?

[runs]

[Because he is.

...Just not now. Because he's right.

Dammit.

And Pearl looks like the kind of well-raised middle class to rich kid who definitely wouldn't know. She should have figured that out by herself. She just... didn't.]

So if this was you when you were a child, what would make you stop crying?

[runs]

...It worked a bit. She's still crying, but she's calmer now.