milliways_bar | (no subject)

"And when you've tried to bring this up he's just . . . outargued you? Said everything's fine?"

"These two, and disctracted me, too," Asar-Suti sighs.

"I never get this far; I end up all over the place before I get to touch a real issue. And no, everything's fine, he's busy, he feeds me coffee and cookies and calls me something nice and goes about his business. I feel very stupid!" he repeats.

"Well . . ." He lets out a breath and rests his chin on his hand. "How about getting him alone somewhere where he's not distracted by work. Sit him down, state your case and don't let him speak until you're done."

The blind leading the blind, thinks Charlie with another sigh.

"I might try that," Asar-Suti sighs. "But if he wants to speak, he will. I'm not going to force him not to. That would be the worst thing I could do."

"Well, not force. But if he keeps trying to tell you you're wrong and won't listen to what you're actually saying, you may need to say first, 'don't speak until I'm done.' Sometimes you have to do that. Let him say anything you want to once you're finished, but first he has to let you finish."

"Ookay, I will try that," Asar-Suti says, in the tone of voice a human might use if his dentist had just announced that that tooth had to come out.

"Communication," Charlie says, nodding with a wisdom he doesn't feel.

"Yes. A good thing, theoretically," Asar-Suti says.

"Better to talk about it than just let things sit and fester." He twirls some of his hair restlessly. He's not looking forward to the talking he needs to do.

Neither is Asar-Suti, who sighs deeply.

"You are totally right, of course," he admits.

"I don't feel it. I feel like a coward. I have no idea what I'm doing to say." He looks deeply unhappy again. "I know I need to. I just--it's him, you know? And I look at him and he's beautiful and gentle--it's just--"

He rubs his face with both hands.

Asar-Suti nods.

"Go on," he says, encouragingly.

He looks at his hands. Picks at his nailpolish. "There's always been somebody else for Bartleby. I've known that since the first night we met. I've tried accepting it. I've tried ignoring it. I've tried convincing myself it doesn't bother me.

"But in the end it'll be between us until Bartleby leaves me or tells the Fool they're through."

"The Fool? Who is that? I don't think I ever met him," Asar-Suti asks.

He nods, understanding very well what Charlie means, otherwise.

"I've never met him either. He left about the same time I arrived. But he--Bartleby calls him 'beloved.'" He shrugs. "B wears a necklace all the time that the Fool carved, and he's some kind of holy person in his world."

"Oh dear, that sounds - decidedly not good," Asar-Suti admits. "That was how long ago that the fool left?"

He doesn't comment on the 'holy person' part. Gods and holy persons are rather common in Milliways, after all.

"Back in October."

Asar-Suti staaaares.

"And people look at me weirdly because I sometimes still miss Lochiel who went away in early March!" he exclaims. "Such attachment is touching, but rather a bother to whoever is trying to love you now."

Charlie chuckles wryly. "Yes. Well. Bartleby hasn't been in love often, so . . . I expect it's just the way he is."

"Poor Charlie - I can understand that you're fed up with contending with that perfect ghost," Asar-Suti nods, sympathetically.

Another dry chuckle. "That about sums it up, I suppose. I mean, there are other issues--it's not all Bartleby's fault, I don't want you to think that--but--I mean, grand gestures are so much easier than day-to-day being in love."

"Yep," Asar-Suti says. "The day-to-day stuff like making coffee and having somebody snore into your ear when you wake, and toothbrushes and stuff, and jobs that steal your time, and the necessity to do the laundry..."

He sighs, then smiles, alost comprehending. "I know I can do all that with Gil; the rest should be easy. None of us ultivates that kind of ghost, of course, who never had to lower himself to that level."

Well, almost.

"Ultivates?"

"Didn't I say 'cultivates'?" Asar-Suti wonders.

[[OOC: Eeeep, mun's unequal fingers tripped up the poor purple deity...]]

"No, but I get you now.

"Months ago the Fool sent Bartleby a stone and a letter, but as far as I know that's the only contact they've had since he left. But . . ." He shakes his head. "He's not that ghostly to me, even though we've never met. He's like a third person in our bed."

[ooc: *pets* typos. bane of our existence.]