i'll be needing stitches

ZEPHYR

It's been a long couple weeks, and for no good reason except that at 36-years-old you still can't handle your own shit.

Admittedly, it's been a while since you've had someone to share said shit with. So it stands to some amount of reason that when it comes up you just kind of... don't. You shut down, lock off, because it's what you've always done, and the result? Well, the result is that you and Vai have been living weirdly parallel lives where she deals with her arguably much more pressing trauma by taking care of everyone else, and you drown yours in work and the bottom of a bottle. A+ husbanding, Zeph, really. 10/10.

No wonder El couldn't handle it anymore.

It's late when you get home, which is not unusual. You've got a hip flask in your hand and the glow of someone who doesn't need to drink more spread across your bronzed cheeks. Without much fanfare you chuck off your shoes, slinking into the living room before settling heavily on the couch. Vai's probably with Jata, or Remi, or one of the other superpowered kiddos who constantly need her attention. You'll talk to her tomorrow. Or one of these days.

see that young man who dwells inside his body
like an uninvited guest?

Vervain

This is how it is these days. And for a while, you know, Vai actually swallowed it. Took it on her shoulders and carried it like it was her own. But it's not hers to carry, and the woman she'd been long before coming to Torchline finally wakes up to this fact, finally packs her bags, and finally prepares to go back to where she belongs. So this time as Zeph comes swaggering in, too late to spend an evening together, Vai isn't tucked up in bed asleep.

Indeed, as he slumps inside and down onto the sofa, she's on her way down the stairs, a bag slung over her back with as good as it gets in terms of her worldly possessions these days. Felix spends half of his time in the Greatwood as it is, so it won't be much of a surprise for Vai to turn up.

What is a surprise is that Zeph is actually home to witness her leave, and she sighs as she spots him. He'd probably not have noticed if she slunk out in the middle of the night, but it's kind of hard to hide it now. And so, "I'm going," she says, already heading for the door.

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!