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[hippie_ninja]

This is Jesus. Leave a message.

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[hippie_ninja]

"I've had friends I've known longer, who I trusted with less." Friends he loves, friends he's fought beside, who he would never have told anything he just told K.

"Am I keeping you from the party?" His hand, nevertheless, doesn't leave K's.

[konstant]

"I left it with you," he reminds him, which is also his answer.

He's not going anywhere. "I'm good where I am."

[hippie_ninja]

It makes him smile. "Want to go somewhere you can get out of your uniform, then?" He motions at himself. "I'm not dressed for being away from the pool."

[konstant]

K doesn't hesitate to offer him his towel, too, but he's also already moving for his feet.

"Orla will be at the party until closing time," he offers, or they both know Jesus's place is empty now, too.

[hippie_ninja]

"Let's stop by your place for your clothes then go to mine," he decides. Going to a cabin that is, for the time being, only Jesus's means there's no risk of being interrupted, even if all they do is talk.

[konstant]

It's easy to agree; K ends up just throwing a shirt on over the red and gold pants - they're much cooler than his own sturdy surplus pants, and he doesn't actually mind them if he can add a top - and grabbing his coat and boots, and throws a few toiletry items into his pockets in case he ends up being comfortable enough to stay.

When they step in the door at Jesus's, K automatically glances to the side of the room V had inhabited, but he doesn't say anything. He just looks back at Jesus to see if he can catch a glimpse of how he feels about it.

[hippie_ninja]

There's a barely there reaction: he misses V. He worries about him, and how hard V took the transfer, and how infrequently they're likely to cross paths now that V lives above this neighborhood.

He can't do anything about it, so the response is there and then gone in a literal blink of an eye.

He follows K's lead and pulls a shirt on, then checks that his knife is still where he left it beside the bed.

"It's not as interesting here without Nibbles around," he apologizes.

[konstant]

Whether Nibbles is here or not, K still moves over to where he first folded down to sit that initial visit, and does so again directly beside the bed, his back to it while Jesus finds his shirt.

He shakes his head. "He's okay. We'll see him again."

[hippie_ninja]

"V took having to move pretty hard." He worries but he sounds mostly fond as he says it. He's never met anyone so upset about having privileges.

[konstant]

"He told me that anywhere he finds a system that punches down, it's evil and he punches up against it," K answers, thoughtful.

"He was worried we'd be in danger being around him now. I'm worried he'll isolate because of it."

[hippie_ninja]

"I am, too. I saw him the day after he moved out, but I haven't since then. I don't go to the Up very often." And V might well be isolating himself. "Good reason to drop in on him though, right?"

[konstant]

"I think he'd like that even if he thinks we'd be in danger around him."

And he will, but K remembers how V had calmed down just with someone else in the room. He's confident that will work out.

"Maybe I'll try to get him to come down to Marked."

[hippie_ninja]

He nods, perking up a bit. "Pick a day we're both working. We can hang out together when we both get off."

[konstant]

And maybe having to put the mark back on to come in will soothe something in him; maybe it won't.

"I will," he promises.

"I like having the job. I like being able to expect something familiar."

[hippie_ninja]

It unsettles Jesus, on the other hand. Every day here has a steady rhythm to it and it has sawed away at his already haggard nerves. Every day he has to hold a little tighter to himself to get from sunup to sundown, and every day it feels a little worse.

But even so he's earnest, honest, when he says, "I'm glad." K, at least, seems to be doing so much better than when they first met. "I worried about you."

[konstant]

He doesn't have the same reaction to hearing that someone is worried about him as Jesus had, but it's still strange to hear. He feels better, sometimes, than he did when he got here.

Sometimes he feels like he's still right there in orientation.

"It's... Easier when I'm around other people."

[hippie_ninja]

"I like having you around," so it works out well that way. "I think other people do, too."

If they get to know him a little, they should. They will.

[konstant]

The citizens of Duplicity make the most sense to him, honestly, avoiding being near him, not speaking to or looking at him.

But what Jesus says has some truth, too.

"Is it like that for you? Harder when all you have to do is think?"

[hippie_ninja]

"When I have too much time, I don't think." That's the problem. When he has nothing to work on, he can't focus. "Have you ever meditated?"

[konstant]

K shakes his head, twisting to look up at him curiously.

[hippie_ninja]

"I used to do it all the time. It pulls you back to center--lets you clear your head, calm your emotions." He loves it, has for years. "Only I can't do it here. I can't settle."

[konstant]

"How did you first discover that it helped you?" K asks, folding his legs under him, leaning his shoulders back into the bed.

[hippie_ninja]

He sits on the floor facing K. It feels too odd to sit on the bed with K down here.

"Oh, some counselor when I was a kid recommended it. It didn't work at first because I was impatient. But I kept coming back to it and after a while it helped. It helps with a lot of things--stress, fatigue, pain."

All things he faced daily, hourly, back home.

[konstant]

He tips his head, following Jesus's movements closely with just his eyes - for a couple reasons.

"If it didn't work, why did you keep coming back?"

[hippie_ninja]

"Nothing else helped, either," he lifts a shoulder. "And I was too young to get my hands on the things other people used to get away from their emotions. You know, no one in my house drank, so that wasn't a reliable escape. Luckily for me. But I could control my breathing when I was trying to fall asleep. The rest came with time."