[Social] Expressive Iteration

[Will Stanton]

"Getting the urge to turn me into a waste-basket without consequences again, hrm?" Will teased.

[Miriam Bell]

"And escape this gruesome fate you've concocted in your mind."

[Will Stanton]

"I am sure your girlfriend would not mind you showing up in heroic spandex. Ooh, and a cape," Will continued to tease. "Can't be a half-decent hero without a cape."

[Miriam Bell]

"You're just angling to be the spandex. And who the hell knows if I have a girlfriend. That whole situation is... complicated."

[Will Stanton]

"I'm fairly sure every situation you could find yourself is complicated, unless you cut through it enough to simplify. Have to figure out what you want and then grab it.

And, please. You think I want to be pressed up against you? Skin-tight and clingy, as you sweat from exertion and excitement? You think that's what I call a good time?"

[Miriam Bell]

"That's exactly what you call a good time. In fact I'm starting to think this whole line of conversation is just because you do want to wrap yourself around me but you better come up with something more stylish than that if you want to act on that. Something with more lace and sheer perhaps." she smirks, placing her index-finger on the soft-spot underneath Will's chin.

[Will Stanton]

"This entire conversation is to help you feel better after going through some hell with some carte blanche to indulge yourself. Because left to your own devices, you're going to wrap yourself into a ball of worry and self-doubt and retreat into your shell. Like, you don't even what you and Sam are? You don't even know what you and I are? Girl, you have got some shit to figure out. Your mind seems to be coming up with ideas of it's own," he added, reaching out and plucking one of the mindscape flowers, tucking it behind Miriam's ear (all without moving because, hey, shifty arms are useful things to have!)

"And I'll help you as you bring yourself back to the world of the living, but the person you've got to let like you the most is you.

And if the way you like you is lacy and sheer," Will continued, with that same smirky grin, before beginning to collapse over Miriam's finger, rapidly shrinking and flattening out to dangle there.

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam rolled her eyes a little at Will's speech, but can't quite hide the smile on her face.

"Look there's not exactly a label for this. Except for the 'Stanton Design' ones I'm sure you have somewhere on here. I like you, I like Sam, I just don't know what that means yet." she says, shifting the garment on her finger to rest on her palm and running her thumb over it.

[Will Stanton]

Soft between her fingers, delicate and see-through, and high-enough quality that it'd surely be worth a pretty penny or three, Will may not be ideal for public display, but would certainly reach his regular standards of comfort and quality, and probably would be more durable than fancy underwear of similar quality you could get from a store. He was even black rather than green; how considerate of him.

It means different things, for sure. And that's good, and important to remember.

[Miriam Bell]

"That's as unhelpfully vague as you are intimately delicate. Serves me right for seeking relationship advice from a piece of lingerie." she jokes dryly.

[Will Stanton]

You want specifics? I can give you specifics; I just figured you were the stubborn type that wanted to figure things out for yourself. Besides, you had months to test and poke and prod various options; don't tell me nothing worked!

[Miriam Bell]

"I did not, in fact, work up the courage to ask anybody to be my official anything only to have it ripped away the next morning. I guess that does answer some things on it's own..."

[Will Stanton]

See, there's the difference between you and me. I would have used the no-consequences part of things to push boundaries, with the knowledge that I couldn't break anything forever. I get the fear about going too far, and the ability to probe the borders? Catnip to me.

[Miriam Bell]

"Boundaries keep me sane. I guess at some point I started applying that to everything else, even when my boundaries don't line up with those of the people around me."

[Will Stanton]

Different strokes, I suppose. I mean, figuring out what's OK and what's a no-go is an important part of being with someone. And, at least from my experiences, Sam doesn't exactly have normal boundaries said the telepathic underwear.

[Miriam Bell]

"Sure, let me just navigate this maze as I'm learning how to walk, that sounds great." she mutters sarcastically. "I hope your underband has more support."

[Will Stanton]

Oh, please Will thought, dismissively. I'm more than sure I can handle anything you can throw at me. Snug and tight, lift and seperate, right? If you don't think I can handle that job description, you'd be better off using me as a rag.

Alright, let's try a different tact here. What are your boundaries? What do you need from her? Or from me? And where should either of us stop? If you can't walk the maze yourself, maybe I can help tug you along.

[Miriam Bell]

"When I cross a line. The both of you are soft and sappy at heart, even if Sam dresses it up as righteous battle. I need to trust you to stop me from losing myself, to care enough about me to pull me back." she tries to sort it out as she talks. Then when what she said actually parses she frowns a little out of embarrassment. "Do not tell Sam I put it like that."

[Will Stanton]

My lips, were I to have them, would be sealed.

You want to be Miriam, not Melpomene. You want to make sure you don't fall into that darkness, even if you're not a fan of the bright light.

[Miriam Bell]

"Yes, even if it's hard to admit that your stupid moral compass has it's uses."

[Will Stanton]

And you also don't want to be Miss Goody Two-Shoes, either. If Sam or I are magnetic north, you want to be led towards us, not camp out there like you were Santa Claus or something. You just need breadcrumbs to find your way back...

[Miriam Bell]

"Okay your metaphors are getting worse by the second. No wonder you're always looking to somebody to give your mind something to structure itself on or your thoughts would be a free-for-all pandemonium. More so than they already are."

[Will Stanton]

That's why the mirror helps slow things down, Will acknowledged. Easier to deal with part of me a time than the intrusive and conflicting thoughts I deal with on a regular basis.

But I also don't think I'm wrong, yeah? You enjoy being a little bad, just as long as your slate gets wiped clean at the end of the day.

[Miriam Bell]

"Maybe I do, but how in the bloody hell do I not make that sound incredibly conceited. Oh yeah, I just think I should get to be an asshole sometimes."

[Will Stanton]

Will is silent for a moment.

I can't speak for Sam. But my issue with you, at the club? Was involving people who didn't want to be involved. That we'd leave, and never see them again, and whatever happened would...just have stuck.

But so long as you clean up your mess at the end of the day, I don't think letting you indulge yourself is so bad...

[Miriam Bell]

"That was just surface thoughts. The deep changes I'm worried about happen when things are closer and entwined, more intimate."

[Will Stanton]

And you're afraid that if you're intimate, you're going to hurt or change something you can't fix? Or that the hurt will make some permanent scar that ends things?

[Miriam Bell]

"I mean I screw things up plenty without that, but yes. You might be flexible enough for your mind to wrap itself around anything and come out mostly okay but most people aren't. They just break and for all the metaphorical dressings we put on things, you can't just imagine a magic hammer that puts things back together. You break or change a mind too much and what was once there is just gone."

[Will Stanton]

Yes. You'll break Sam if you do that too much Will agrees. And that's a bridge too far to cross; something you can't come back from.

Which is why Sam and I are different, yeah?

[Miriam Bell]

"Yes. You're you and somehow you always are no matter what happens to you. Sam, well... two of them are well, if you count her holding a fragmented mess together with sheer force of refusal to not be okay. One has never heard of personal hygiene or morals and the last one I can't even begin to wrap my head around. My point is she's like one of those glass droplets you can hit with a hammer but if you as much as touch the wrong spot the whole thing comes apart. And you can call me many unflattering things but a hammer I am not."

[Will Stanton]

I don't think you need to treat her with kid gloves, either, but I see your worry. I know relationships always have the possibility of hurting someone, but things are a little different when you bring in crazy mind juju into the mix.

I can't really offer much advice there. All I can give is the frankly generic advice that if you trust one another, you can find areas you can go that end up alright in the end. And as much as you hate communication...

[Miriam Bell]

"Yes, yes. I will try to occasionally listen to my emotional support underwear."

[Will Stanton]

You've got the Redhead on your mind, I can tell. Believe me, I've been in the same boat.

We can table this until you deal with Her. You've got this.

[Miriam Bell]

"You're easier to deal with, in a way. You've seen me at my worst and somehow that makes this something I can handle."

[Will Stanton]

Plus, you want to deal with Sam on an equal basis. For better or worse, dealing with me is...different. Easier in some respects, sure. Harder in others.

[Miriam Bell]

"You mean because you're a full-time simp and Sam's a bit more... combative?"

[Will Stanton]

I mean, I can be brattier, but yes. Basically. If you want to put it like that.

[Miriam Bell]

"I have no doubt you're capable of calibrating your brattiness to perfection." she says, perhaps for the first time pausing to think about this beyond just letting less coherent urges into the driver's seat. "But it'd feel... perhaps not fake but construed? It's not really you. At most you're... cheeky." Somehow talking to a piece of clothing makes this easier, even if she's well aware of the conscious mind within it. Simply not being face to face with another person lets her pretend she's just talking to herself. "Sam I want to push because she'll push back or at least bristle at it. You I want to make squirm..."

[Will Stanton]

There's a difference, there? Just in levels of resistance, you mean?

[Miriam Bell]

"No. Yes. I don't know... It's not just that. It's what you and her want out of it as well, I think? I feel like with Sam the resistance might be part of the point? With you the point seems more... fuck I don't know how to put this. You're genuinely happy being at somebody else's whims? That's the whole point for you, that I do what I want but not maliciously because what I want is also for you to be happy I'm doing what I want and it's... like a loop. And that is scary because we both know your capacity to enjoy it can go far, far beyond what you're okay with. Especially when somebody else is pushing you."