// I tried to scream but my head was underwater //
'Idealist' sounded a lot better than any of the things the ancient had called her. She'd rather be that than uptight or closed off or 'too moral', whatever that meant. All over again something childish and petulant within herself wanted to huff and sulk and make it everyone else's fault that things had turned out this way... but despite how tempting it would be, that's not what Liam's outstretched hand was offering.
A treacherous flutter of moths started up in her stomach. He... cared about her? She supposed she knew that, but when he said it like that... it almost sounded like he meant something other than the friendly support she found in people like Hadama and Elizabeth. Accepting the outstretched hand and allowing him to pull her to her feet, Maea felt decidedly warm in the cheeks. Murmuring a quiet thank you, her facial muscles were wreaking havoc on her expressions – unable to suppress a silly little smile. Likely it meant nothing at all... but it still made her happy to hear him say it. He cared. About her.
"I do want to make up for my mistakes... but you're right. Fretting about unfinished business won't help me change."
Pointing out a tunnel in an intersection where she recalled seeing green stones before, Maea walked beside her friend for a while, processing what he'd been saying. "I think... most of my problems come back to fear," she told him - surprised to realize that she didn't mind him knowing that. It was such a weakness, yet nothing about Liam kept her on edge for long. "It's kind of taken over... I hardly realize the ways it's holding me back. Especially stuff like losing control... it makes me freeze up completely." Then her mouth started going off, and it was downhill from there.
Pausing to scratch at a spot on the wall to see if the reflection had been a prism or not, she was disappointed to find only bedrock. A wry smile at Liam tried to lighten the tone of the conversation, or perhaps take the edge off of her revealing confessions. "Not sure how to get help with that... Should I ask you to command me?"
A treacherous flutter of moths started up in her stomach. He... cared about her? She supposed she knew that, but when he said it like that... it almost sounded like he meant something other than the friendly support she found in people like Hadama and Elizabeth. Accepting the outstretched hand and allowing him to pull her to her feet, Maea felt decidedly warm in the cheeks. Murmuring a quiet thank you, her facial muscles were wreaking havoc on her expressions – unable to suppress a silly little smile. Likely it meant nothing at all... but it still made her happy to hear him say it. He cared. About her.
"I do want to make up for my mistakes... but you're right. Fretting about unfinished business won't help me change."
Pointing out a tunnel in an intersection where she recalled seeing green stones before, Maea walked beside her friend for a while, processing what he'd been saying. "I think... most of my problems come back to fear," she told him - surprised to realize that she didn't mind him knowing that. It was such a weakness, yet nothing about Liam kept her on edge for long. "It's kind of taken over... I hardly realize the ways it's holding me back. Especially stuff like losing control... it makes me freeze up completely." Then her mouth started going off, and it was downhill from there.
Pausing to scratch at a spot on the wall to see if the reflection had been a prism or not, she was disappointed to find only bedrock. A wry smile at Liam tried to lighten the tone of the conversation, or perhaps take the edge off of her revealing confessions. "Not sure how to get help with that... Should I ask you to command me?"
Maea
// They called me weak, like I'm not just somebody's daughter //
