At What Price Respect

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity in the forum? Not a strange sight. Verity without coffee? Rather less common. Verity slumping, exhausted, into a couch? Unusual. Verity covered in scrapes, bruises, and dust? Definitely strange.

"Help isn't if it's forced on someone. This is true. Someone not in possession of all of the facts cannot give fully informed consent. This is also true. But nobody can be forced to listen." Of course Verity has things on her mind. Who here doesn't? "How do you reconcile that? Is ignorance truly bliss? Or do you do what's needed to save someone despite their choices?"

((A note before you come to play with Verity: she's got a magic spell stuck in her that lets her always know when someone is lying to her. This includes sarcasm and knowing when someone believes something to be true when it isn't. This doesn't include lies of omission. She can also see through illusions. Please respect this; if your character is trying to lie to her, please make that known so she can react appropriately. [I completely understand this isn't going to be everyone's idea of fun.] Thanks.))

Comments

[onemorebounty]

You can.

*Samus remembers her own long, uncertain road toward a capacity for personal affection. She's not going to dig more potholes in Verity's.*

How'd you do, getting through it?

[brave_heart_verity]

"I stayed back and helped with the wounded. I wasn't in any danger." And since she's not a medic and no help in a fight... or important enough for anyone to call to let her know they lived... it hasn't been a good week for her.

[onemorebounty]

*Samus gives an approving nod.*

That's good. Both that you were safe, and how you helped.

*Looking Verity over thoughtfully, reading the other woman's body language, she follows that up.*

But you feel like you didn't do much, hm?

[brave_heart_verity]

"Well. I didn't." Her curse is really good about self-validating all her subjective beliefs as objective facts. So good luck with that.

[onemorebounty]

*Samus' look speaks volumes, and isn't a lie.*

You did more than you give yourself credit for. Did you run until the sight, sound, and smell of it was far behind you? No. Did you huddle in fear, sobbing and waiting for it to end however it was going to? No. Did you sit around with both thumbs crammed in your orifices, or otherwise make yourself a burden to others? No. You helped. Whatever you did, you helped. Any medico in an emergency is going to need extra pairs of hands around to help, and there are plenty of jobs for the untrained. You did what you could, and it wasn't nothing or less-than-nothing. And you know I'm not lying.

[brave_heart_verity]

It's true that she does know Samus isn't lying, so she doesn't argue.

"I know. I just."

[onemorebounty]

Wish you could have done more?

[brave_heart_verity]

"Yeah."

[onemorebounty]

*She smiles.*

Easy answer: learn to do more, for next time.

[brave_heart_verity]

"...there a nursing school around here?"

[onemorebounty]

Probably. I know some first aid and basic field trauma I could help you with, too.

[brave_heart_verity]

"That's a good start. Is there anything you can't do?" Please say there's something you can't do, bird lady. You've already got Verity paranoid about her breathing for fuck's sake.

[onemorebounty]

So many things. I've been trying for years, and I'm still not a very good cook. I don't have the patience for knitting. The last time I tried to ride a horse... didn't end well. I don't have even the most basic cyberaugmentations, so there's a whole suite of things I can't do because of that.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Huh." She thinks about that for a minute before admitting, "That is strangely reassuring."

[onemorebounty]

Well, good. I'm glad something positive came out of getting banned from that ranch.

[brave_heart_verity]

And now there's more laughing. "Okay, I need to hear this story."

[onemorebounty]

Not my proudest moment, but alright. I spend some of my time on an early-twenty-first century Earth, with a girl scout troop, and one time we took a trip to a horse ranch so the girls could get some riding experience.

*She sighs.*

Someone at the ranch decided to give me a difficult horse--maybe he was itchy, because he kept rubbing up against trees as we passed, trying to scrape me off. By the end of the trip, I was fairly annoyed, and after I got down, I swear he laughed and then took a bite of my hair while my back was turned--so I turned around and laid him out. One punch.

[brave_heart_verity]

"You punched a horse in front of Girl Scouts?!" That may be the funniest thing she's ever heart. Ooooor she might be a little hysterical now.

[onemorebounty]

*Samus sighs, dropping her face into her free hand.*

It's kind of funny how everyone phrases it exactly like that, too.

[brave_heart_verity]

She's just laughing more now.

"How'd the girls take it?"

[onemorebounty]

*That elicits a groan.*

They gave me a stern lecture about not expressing my feelings with hitting. Lost my cocoa privileges for a month.

[brave_heart_verity]

Aaaand now she can't breathe. There's some coughing when she tries to stop laughing.

[onemorebounty]

*Verity can have her hand back if she needs it for flailing or the like.*

[brave_heart_verity]

No, she can flail just fine with the one hand. She'll be okay in a minute.

[onemorebounty]

*Samus will wait until Verity's got her breath again to speak, sitting quietly until then.*

I'm not sure if you're suffering some mild shock, or just very, very amused at my mistakes.