ataraxion | Video: Y'all need therapy

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Video: Y'all need therapy

[Death's sitting in what is clearly a passenger room, but not decorated in any particularly personal way.]

Hey. Bit of a month we've had, isn't it?

I'm not a trained therapist or anything. [Being older than psychology and all] But my job usually means running into people when they're at their worst. So I've gotten pretty good at listening.

I've grabbed room one on deck nine of the passenger quarters if anyone just wants someone to talk to. Or just wants tea and cookies. I promise that at my age, there's pretty much nothing you can tell me that I haven't heard before at some point. And it's never my place to judge or spill your secrets to someone else.

((OOC: Feel free to answer on the network or just action on down to her "office"))

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Jian ta de gui!

Not the exact specifics, of course. But that feeling of knowing with all certainty that you're going to outlive someone you care about.

[Or everyone you care about]

Been there a time or two, have you?

[Not that that's hard to believe if she actually thinks about who she's talking to. But, honestly, since she's gotten on this ship it's been one surreal incident after another after another.

And then she realizes how much she sounds like Mal right then and she misses her oldest friend even more.]

I have family. I spent a long time wrestling with the idea that sooner or later, they would all die.

[And she'd have to be the one who was there for them when it happened.]

No offense, but this is a bit different from that.

[She balls a fist up before crossing one leg over the other. In the safety of the rooms, there's little chance of them being attacked.]

All folks die, sure. Just...never expected one of 'em to be my husband before he had a whole pack of kids to teach about dinosaurs on Earth-That-Was.

No, of course not, it's a little different for everyone.

[Oh, people could try to attack here. But they would be in for quite the reminder.]

I'm not going to convince you that it's right or fair. Who wouldn't want a dad teaching them all about dinosaurs?

[Zoë's a little more worried about someone coming in and overhearing them. She's not too keen on anyone seeing her like this besides Death and her husband.]

Not sure there's a kid in the 'Verse that shouldn't know about dinosaurs. He...he would have made an excellent father. He's much more stable than I can be.

It all just feels backwards.

She'll still have you to tell her about them. Even if it's not how anyone wanted it.

Even if we're not sure if you'll remember any of this... have you thought about having him write a letter to your daughter?

Yeah, I guess that's true, but it ain't the same thing. Nobody talks about dinosaurs the same way that Wash does.

[She swallows a lump in her throat and continues.]

No, haven't thought of that. It's not a bad idea. Might help him some too.

It'll probably help you both to get some of it down. It's never the same, but at least it can be something.

At this point, can't see that it'll hurt anything. It's better than watching eat himself up with guilt and sadness.

It helps to feel like you can do something, however small. A little gesture can go a long way when dealing with something so big.

That's been the hardest part, not knowing what to do. This isn't exactly an everyday situation. Best we've been able to do is not talk about it like it we don't know about it. But it's not helping.

[And watching him hurts her too much at this point.]

It's pretty far from an everyday situation. The closest would be a terminal illness, but even that's a bit different.

Nothing's going to change if you don't find a way to talk about it.

Terminal illness seems like it would be a kindness at this point. My husband's death is ultimately caused by the one thing I hate the most.

[The only thing worth going back for their daughter, the ability to carry Emma, hold her in her arms, have a part of Wash with her forever.]

Hard to approach the subject when I don't even want to think about it. I'm usually the practical one, but there's no way to be practical about losing him.

I wouldn't be surprised if you aren't the only ones in this position, here.

[Because Tranquility is weird like that.]

No, there's nothing practical about it. It's not really about thinking at all, is it? It's about feeling.

Yeah, well, like I said, he usually does all the feeling stuff. I do the practical, logical things.

[Someone had to remind Mal that it wasn't all about getting back at the Alliance.]

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Video: Y'all need therapy

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