tucky | IC contact for lastvoyages

Axel ain't a good example.

[Mostly because people - Tiffany included - treat him like a child.]

[He raises an eyebrow triumphantly.]

And I know neither of them.

If you only show people what they expect to see 'ow will they ever learn?

But I s'pose it's 'ardly your job to teach 'em. Just makes me sad to see anyone not liking what they are, is all.

But you're, like, a shapeshifter, right?

[She's still a bit confused on the mechanics of this.]

Both forms are you?

[He folds his human arms, which take to the motion much better, and stares at her with a vaguely nasty defiance.]

No.

[He's prepared for her to turn on him for this admission.]

[She doesn't, but she does look a little confused.]

Can you say what you are, or...?

[She won't demand that he does; to her, whether he tells or not tells is his choice.]

You have seen what I am. And I would never say I did not like it.

[The issue is other people.]

My perception filter simply allows you to experience me in a way you can accept.

I accept you. I can't, like, speak for anybody else, but I do.

[He rolls his eyes.]

In a way you can recognize. I am to you now as others of my species see me.

[A young man, fair, tall, and still slightly gangly. Prone to moodiness, and with a face that is neither plain, nor ugly, but which has just a bit too much character to be classically handsome. A deep, smooth voice. Thick and glossy in the places where he should be. Good teeth.]

Nah, I mean I accept you the other way too.

[He eyes her suspiciously, unsure how to take such a declaration. On the one hand: of course she should accept him. Nothing about him is unacceptable. On the other: it is not something he has previously experienced. He sounds vaguely annoyed as he explains:]

Yes, that is the point of the perception filter. You can claim to do so because we can speak; because you know me. You would not have otherwise. Things would be quite different had I come upon you as I truly am, while you sat alone in the dark and leaked.

... Yeah, I know. I wouldn't have acted the same.

[She won't deny that.]

But I think we would've figured it out, and I wouldn't've hurt you.

That is not the same.

[Not hurting a creature, is not the same as befriending it.]

It is not enough to be the dog you do not kick. I am more than that.

I would've learned that. It wouldn't've taken long, either.

You do not know that. You would never have even known my name.

So?

You do not think that I should care?

No, I'm saying I still could've cared. Even if I didn't know your name, or couldn't understand what you were saying.

And I care to be understood. And I want to go home!

[He does not mean his cabin.]

I ain't trying to convince you to be without the filter thing, okay? It's your choice. I'm just saying I don't think you're a monster, and I wouldn't've thought you were a monster if I saw you the other way first. I want you to know that.

I wish I could send you back.

[He does not know how to deal with being told this either, beyond clenching his fists impotently and looking visibly uncomfortable, and then pretending she has not said it because it's too much.]

I don't understand why she has not come for me. She should have come for me by now.

The Barge ain't an easy thing to find, Francesco. There's different dimensions, and time gets fucked up.

She has overcome such things before. Even as our planet was destroyed around us.

Francesco love, I can't pull people off the barge and I've got a timeship. You might 'ave to settle for leaving the oldfashioned way.

Yeah. She ain't wrong. I'm not gonna tell you to give up 'cause I'd be a hypocrite if I did, but Iris is right; nobody's ever found a way.

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