caughtinanetwork | [action/anon text] - Struggles - 020 [Backdated to afternoon of 4/2]

Gnomeday, Gnome Redecan 02, ND 2018

[The first thing Guy noticed upon waking up was how unbelievably sore he was.

The second? The barrier on Zelda's bed was gone. He could easily tell - he'd sprawled out a bit as he started to wake up, mixed up in the covers and the remains of the uniform he had last remembered wearing. He hummed wearily, giving a confused and clouded glance around the room as he propped himself to his elbows.

Had he fallen into a coma again? Guy grimaces, rubbing a crick in the back of his neck. He'd left Zelda here alone like this again, of all times? Damn it. How long had he been out?

Worrying wasn't going to help matters, though. He heaves himself out of bed, stretching his arms above him, straightening his back, and adjusting his clothes enough so that he could wander the house without being too embarrassed coming across another housemate (if they were awake by now.) He pads across the floor with bare feet, descending the staircase about halfway before finally bother to call out.]

"...Zelda? Hey, are you around...?"

----

[It's only after he' had a good share of time to talk to Zelda and get his bearings that Guy finally picks up his SFC, opting to keep himself anonymous this time around. There was too much that had happened while he was gone. It would just be nice to get a general sense of the city, if anything else.]

Breaking the ice around strangers is pretty hard, isn't it? I know we all have to do it all the time around here, with everyone coming and going. But it doesn't make it any easier.

Some people take to it easier than others, though. And I'm sure some of you have learned ways to interact with a new person just by being in this crazy place.

So tell me, Vatheon. How would you treat a stranger?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[All of this from Lloyd? Mmm... Guy could probably believe it. He seemed to be a kid pretty focused in the here and now. Very idealistic, maybe... but a pretty nice person to have at your side, it sounds like.]

Just another piece to the puzzle, I guess. That sometimes, it takes more than just one person's will alone to make them think better of things.

You had a pretty good first friend, it sounds like.

I think so! He was the first who called me Colette outside my family so...

[She's not going to explain what other people called her so hopefully either this person knows, or they won't ask.]

Being told what you have to do from a young age kind of makes it so you don't think you can do anything else. That makes sense, right?

It does make sense.

But Lloyd... he helped you learn that you could do other things. He taught you a lot, even if it was small things.

Right?

Right! "But you can't" isn't something Lloyd really understands, I think, but that's part of what made everything work out the way it did! If he listened to "people don't do that" or "you can't", we wouldn't have even tried a lot of what we did. If we didn't try, things wouldn't have gotten any better... Nothing would have changed.

Hmm. Maybe it isn't a matter of not listening. If he remembered what was said, he listened. He just chose to follow his own path, despite what was being told.

Isn't it strange how things like that can affect you so much? Even little things like how you treat strangers.

You mean he disagreed, so he did what he thought was right? Yep!

That's right.

I hope you never take him for granted, Colette. He's a good friend if he's taught you all of this.

I don't want to ever take him for granted.

[There's nothing you can really take for granted, not even being able to do things after all.]

Good.

...

Thanks for talking. I'm glad you chose to pipe in.

Thank you for asking. It's good to think about things like this sometimes.

[action/anon text] - Struggles - 020 [Backdated to afternoon of 4/2]

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