Time is all around, except inside my clock

[changingtheodds]

Ruvin has had several very startling realizations. The first, she's almost seventeen. In just under a week, she will be. She'd all but forgotten about birthdays.

The second--she's been in Chicago for a year, as of today. She's paused where she is, in the middle of crossing a street to look up at the sky in surprise.

Winny is standing in front of

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[savesomelight]

Piper doesn't want a puppet. She wants him to not be so broken. She bites down on her lip so hard that she tastes blood and wonders how she's actually going to fix this. Making people feel certain things- that's child's play. Blanket emotions? Those are simple.

...Reconfiguring someone's entire emotional well-being?

Yeah. She's never done that before. She's tried with Tay a few times. Enough that she worried Tay might have gotten dependent on it, had she not recovered, for the most part.

She swallows and focuses. She just needs to smooth over the rough patches is all, remove the guilt, replace it with something more constructive, give him hope instead of despair. There's a chance it might not last long, that one good break will put him right back where he was like she never did anything. She's not an engineer. She's a teenage girl fumbling with clay and pretending that she knows how to make a vase when all she's really going to make is a flimsy ashtray.

Still. It'll make him feel better... For a little while anyway. Maybe.

....She hopes. She kinda thought the guilt was going to be a good idea until she broke him.

[crimeatthetime]

He's not sure what's going on until Piper is half finished. By then--

By then it's too good to feel good for him to make her stop. He closes his eyes, practically limp against the wall. "Please," he says. He sits up a little bit.

Something small and ashamed briefly twists to life in his chest, wiped away moments later by the little demon. "Do--more. A little bit. Please."

[savesomelight]

Piper's mildly taken aback by that plead. She bites her lip. "...What do you want? I can..."

She can do almost anything, but she only just barely knows where to start smoothing over the broken bits. She doesn't know what to give him and that would be what she wants to give him, anyway. She'd rather, if she has to, give him the ones he wants.

...He's asking. It's okay when they ask. Despite the fact that it means they might become dependent on it.

[crimeatthetime]

A part of him knows how stupid this is. A part of him knows. Most of him doesn't care. It's like right after getting turned out of the camps, wanting anything that could make him feel--

Not even human. Just good. He fixes Piper with a hungry, cold look that Mag would find familiar. "As much as you can give me."

[savesomelight]

Piper swallows hard. "O....Kay. I'm just a kid, though. I don't..."

Right. She needs confidence. She sits up a little straighter and takes a breath. She builds up as much good emotion as she can until it eases into the cracks and trickles down, blunting sharp edges. It has the appearance of someone covering up a broken window with silly putty, but it'll hold for the moment. It'll feel good.

And, for the moment, it's the best she can do.