a helpful hand.

[bornstrong]

Maybe it's the fact that she's recently learned how to cook here in the Nexus, or maybe it's just that the whole royalty thing doesn't hold much weight any longer, but Iphigenia has (surprise, surprise) a question for anyone in the Forum who will listen.

"How do you determine if you are useful or not?"

She pauses a moment, half-regretting her wording. This isn't coming out right.

"What I mean to say--or ask, rather--is: what is helpful to you, coming from others? And do you let people help you in the first place?"

Comments

[brave_heart_verity]

"Wow, you really don't care about the easy ones, do you?" Heyyyy Iphi. She'll be kind and skip the first question for now. That's not emotional territory she's ready to discuss in public right now.

"What's helpful depends on the situation. There has to be a need, or a want, and also a willingness to accept the help. Sometimes that last part is hard to remember..." She trails off, folding her arms and rubbing her thumb against the inside of her left elbow. "Sometimes. Sometimes I'd rather do it myself. Sometimes the things people offer as 'help' aren't anything I want."

[bornstrong]

"I want to make my questions count, I suppose," Iphigenia says, smiling sheepishly.

"But yes," she continues, nodding. "I think I know what you mean. There were times--I mean, back home--when I didn't want help, and didn't even ask for it, but people offered it anyway."

She shrugs.

"But they were being kind, in their own way, so I appreciated it."

[brave_heart_verity]

"There's not a limit, you know," she points out, hoping it'll be reassuring. "Pretty sure the Nexus cops aren't going to come fine you if you go over. Because they don't exist."

"You're kinder than I am." She has just enough awareness of what a princess is in fairy tales to imagine Iphi wouldn't have had to do much of anything for herself. "How have you been doing? I'm sorry I haven't been around as much... things... got difficult for a while."

[bornstrong]

"I don't think I'm kinder than you. I'm just more practiced at courtesies."

But she smiles again, and this time, it's not the embarrassed kind.

"I've been well." She looks at Verity a moment, concerned.

"Are you doing all right?"

[brave_heart_verity]

"That's also true." Verity relaxes slowly when she sees Iphi isn't so embarrassed anymore.

"I'll be okay. It takes time to come to terms with death. I've never really had to before, all my grandparents were dead before I was old enough to know them and I didn't have a lot of relatives around... that probably sounds strange to you."

[bornstrong]

"It does, a little," she admits, still listening. "But a loss is still a loss, regardless. It's always--hard."

She thinks of her own mother for a moment, and how she must miss Iphigenia. A little lump forms in her throat, but she takes a deep breath and it goes away, thankfully.

"You--if you don't wish to talk in detail about it, I understand."

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity recognizes that look, the sudden hard swallowing. Neither of them wants to deal with this. "It's not that I don't want to so much as... I don't have the words to yet. Maybe when I understand the shape and scope of it better." She can offer a small grateful smile for the kindness.

"So what have you been up to while you've been here?"

[bornstrong]

Iphigenia nods, understanding. It takes time, she thinks. It always does.

"Well," she begins, trying to sound cheerier, "I've been trying to become more independent. In a way." She laughs a little. "I can make porridge now."

[brave_heart_verity]

Time and good changes of subject. "That's a good start. You'll be making all kinds of things in no time, I bet. How does it feel to be independent?"

[bornstrong]

"It's...it's a bit scary sometimes, because I'm not yet used to it. But I think with time, I'll grow to really like it."

But she does miss her family, she thinks.

[brave_heart_verity]

"It can be scary," she agrees, "but I find it helps knowing there are people who will help me when I need it. And you have friends here who will help you."

Skills in circular conversation are vital when you're friends with a trickster god.

[bornstrong]

"I know, and that makes me feel better," she replies. "I guess it's just strange because my whole life, I had--well, I had servants. And now I don't."

She laughs a little.

"I suppose I must sound spoiled."

[brave_heart_verity]

Ver shakes her head at that last part. "No, you don't sound spoiled. Spoiled would be refusing to even try to do it yourself now. It's okay to feel disconcerted when your whole life has changed so drastically."

[bornstrong]

"I suppose so, but I was so privileged, back home. I know that now. I had no idea before."

[brave_heart_verity]

"It's hard to see past the end of our own nose." Verity offers the cryptic advice with a shrug. "We get used to the world we live in, the life we shape within it, that it gets really hard to see past those boundaries."

[bornstrong]

"I guess it takes something big, then, to change things," she says. "Without what happened to me in Aulis, I would have stayed the same my whole life. I would have never have known any different."

[brave_heart_verity]

"Usually, yeah, it takes something big to make a big change. But people change in little ways every day."

[bornstrong]

"Yes, you're right. I know I've changed since I arrived here."

She smiles.

"Mainly because of people I've met."

[brave_heart_verity]

"And because you're willing." Iphi's not getting out of her share of the credit that easily.

[bornstrong]

She blushes a little, ducking her head.

"I suppose I am."

[brave_heart_verity]

"Iphigenia, it's okay to be proud of the things you accomplish. You should be proud, you've survived something that most people couldn't. Not only that, you're thriving." If Iphi's going to blush, she's going to do it properly.

[bornstrong]

And now she's really red, almost teary, in fact--but she's smiling.

"Thank you," is what she finally manages to say.

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity's got pockets full of tissues. She'll pull a fresh one out for Iphi and offers it without comment.

"You're welcome."

[bornstrong]

She takes it, sniffling, and wipes her tears.

"I never thought to give myself any credit."

[brave_heart_verity]

"Because people did so much for you?" It's an obvious conclusion. "Now you get the credit for what you choose to do."