The Beach [Thursday afternoon]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max had decided that with the weather beginning to shift he should enjoy the beach as much as he could. Not that it wouldn't still be nice when it was cold, but it wouldn't be the same, and that was a shame.

So he was sitting on the sand with his feet resting on that transitional zone where the waves washed up and then flowed back out.

Life? Was good.

[It's an open beach!]

Comments

[trigons_child]

Oh, look, there was Raven, walking along the edge of the water. Azarath didn't have beaches, so she enjoyed exploring this one.

"Professor Maximus," she greeted Max.


[will be slow for a bit -- just got home from work and I must shower and stuffs. :P ]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Hello, girl whose name he still didn't know." He turned to look her up and down (careful not to let himself notice that she was rather attactive). "How have you been?"

[trigons_child]

Fortunately as a rule, Raven didn't show an excess of flesh.

"Well enough," she said. "I have been trying to experience new emotions, as you suggested."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"And what have you learned?" Max was seriously hoping that it hadn't done more damage.

[trigons_child]

"I told a boy something and he later admitted I was right," Raven said. "I felt...smugness."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Smug is an interesting one. Did you enjoy it?" Max felt that smugness was a perfectly healthy emotion, in moderation.

[trigons_child]

"I did find it enjoyable, yes," Raven said, remembering the feeling. "It was similar to pride."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Anything else?" Max asked, making a note to explore the smugness thing a bit more later.

[trigons_child]

Her brow furrowed as she thought about how to explain. "I tried to tease, I think," she said.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"You think?" Max asked, eyebrow raised. He was going to hope she meant teasing in the friendly and harmless way rather than the more... complicated way.

[trigons_child]

She wouldn't know how to do the more...complicated way. That would require a different sort of teaching.

"I think that is the word to describe it," she said. "It was a playfulness." She wasn't going to call it flirting.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"And what did you think of that?" Max probed. "Was it fun? Did the person you teased tease you back?"

[trigons_child]

Probed? Diiiiirty.

"I did enjoy it," Raven said. "Though it was mostly one-sided."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"And was there anything you didn't enjoy? Any new experiences you half-, or fully- wish hadn't happened?"

[trigons_child]

"I have been experiencing frustration due to people refusing to let me heal them," Raven said. "But that is not any emotion that I sought out to feel."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Those emotions are going to be just as important to understand, perhaps moreso." Max smiled slightly. "Remember that one of the things we're trying to teach you is how to handle an emotional attack based on new sensation."

[trigons_child]

"I do not like it," Raven said. "I would much rather feel satisfied."

Oh, Raven.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"That's human," Max shrugged. "But do you think you can deal with it? Live with it?"

[trigons_child]

"It will not cause me serious harm," Raven said, "but I will seek to alleviate it.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Again, that's human."

Max studied her again. "What have you learned more generally? About yourself, about other people, about emotions?"

[trigons_child]

"I have learned that people can be very stubborn about admitting they are suffering," Raven said. "And even more so about allowing someone to help them. I do not understand it."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?" Max smiled just a bit. "And you found it easy to come ask for my help?"

[trigons_child]

"That was because it was your other self that damaged me," Raven said quietly. "It made it hard to be in your presence."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"But asking for help was easy? You didn't have to push yourself to admit that you needed help?" He wouldn't be precisely surprised if she hadn't. She'd apparently had a very odd upbringing, after all.

[trigons_child]

"I have been reluctant to reveal exactly what I am," Raven said. "But that is not the same as denying I need help." It totally wasn't. Really.