I don't think anybody thought you were trying to subjugate him. She'd have said that right out if she thought it, Iris doesn't hold things back. As she demonstrated rather terribly just now.
[She sighs. She feels horribly like she's sliding on sliprock into doing the exact same thing, when it's the last thing she wants to do; but she can see him making defensive assumptions that only contribute to his misery, and she wishes she could just yank the patterns of it out. That, she supposes, is why they need training.]
It's not your fault you're unhappy. You're enduring so much, from people wrapped up in their own hurts taking things out on you and from this place that drains people dry and then cracks them open again and you just - you keep taking on even more, because you care so much. It's awful, and it's not you're fault. You're amazing for trying as much as you have.
[She's tearing up a little, and it's in her voice but she doesn't let them fall, because it's supposed to be about him, but she just. She's heartbroken for him, for the the exhaustion and invisible isolation he's confiding in her, and she cares so much more than she expected to, even one month ago.]
I'm so sorry you've had to deal with all of that, Charles. I really am. And about feeling like people wouldn't hear you most of all.
[She comes over to him, hand hovering near his shoulder for a second, not sure if even the small, bracing touch would be welcome. And then, in a typical-atypical moment of recklessness, she decides to just full throttle the thing, and wraps her arms around him in a hug.]
spam
[She sighs. She feels horribly like she's sliding on sliprock into doing the exact same thing, when it's the last thing she wants to do; but she can see him making defensive assumptions that only contribute to his misery, and she wishes she could just yank the patterns of it out. That, she supposes, is why they need training.]
It's not your fault you're unhappy. You're enduring so much, from people wrapped up in their own hurts taking things out on you and from this place that drains people dry and then cracks them open again and you just - you keep taking on even more, because you care so much. It's awful, and it's not you're fault. You're amazing for trying as much as you have.
[She's tearing up a little, and it's in her voice but she doesn't let them fall, because it's supposed to be about him, but she just. She's heartbroken for him, for the the exhaustion and invisible isolation he's confiding in her, and she cares so much more than she expected to, even one month ago.]
I'm so sorry you've had to deal with all of that, Charles. I really am. And about feeling like people wouldn't hear you most of all.
[She comes over to him, hand hovering near his shoulder for a second, not sure if even the small, bracing touch would be welcome. And then, in a typical-atypical moment of recklessness, she decides to just full throttle the thing, and wraps her arms around him in a hug.]