Devil's Nest, Monday, 04/14

[bitten_notshy]

Jack truly regretted spying on classmates during his most boring lectures. It tended to lead to silly games to play on his phone, which itself led to a lot of cursing at a stupid screen when he couldn't get the paired numbers to go past 512 no matter how many times he played the thing.

Tiny, who had been spying on him the whole time, looked at him smugly. "Have you ever tried the doge one?"

Jack put his phone down to stop himself from throwing it and went to find some vodka to organize. That always seemed to need doing.

[OOC: Open club, no OCD!]

Comments

[not_a_whiner]

"Can you get me a scotch?" Kaidan said, sinking into a seat.

Not his usual order, but he didn't think he'd need to explain why.

[bitten_notshy]

"I would be happy to," Jack said. He got the best they had and poured a glass for Kaidan, leaving the bottle within his reach if he wanted more.

No, some things needed no explanation.

"How are you doing?"

[not_a_whiner]

"Better than I was a week ago," Kaidan said. He grabbed the glass and took a quick sip. "Calmer, anyway."

[bitten_notshy]

"That's something," Jack said, though he was eying exactly how fast Kaidan had gone for that sip. "What did you do after we came back to the island?"

[not_a_whiner]

"Got a thorough debriefing," Kaidan said, rubbing at the back of his neck. "After I got knocked on my ass by a migraine, anyway. It's all in the Alliance's hands now."

[bitten_notshy]

"And we all know how attentive they've been," Jack sighed. "Well. Maybe this time will be different."

[not_a_whiner]

"Maybe."

Kaidan set his glass back down. "Did I miss anything back here?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Nothing unusual," Jack said. "Graduation got attacked by garden gnomes, and someone's starting a support group out at the clinic. But it seems like the excitement has mostly been off-island for now."

[not_a_whiner]

"Support group, huh?" Kaidan perked up. "Seems overdue, but that's going to be great for the kids."

He was trying not to make everything about his thing right now - especially when he wasn't sure where he stood on it.

[bitten_notshy]

"I didn't want to take off work today, but I might check it out next week," Jack told him casually. "I don't think it's just for kids, Kaidan."

Even former Victorians sometimes got the idea certain people might need therapy. (But not himself, of course. If you asked Jack, it was everyone else who had the issues.)

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan already had a therapist of his own, but then he'd never been averse to admitting he had problems. "Maybe not," he allowed. "It might be good for you, actually. It's... useful, sometimes, just to put everything in perspective."

[bitten_notshy]

That hadn't been what Jack meant, and he looked surprised for a moment before he recovered.

"I always end up feeling like I had it pretty easy," he admitted. "Most of the awful stuff was over before I remembered much."

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan had kind of known he'd been hinting at something else - he just figured this one was equally important, if not more. He'd been doing enough wallowing in his own crap around Jack.

"You're a werewolf, Jack," Kaidan said dryly. "I'm not sure that's strictly true."

[bitten_notshy]

"Wait, I am?" Jack asked in mock-horror. "Shit, why didn't anyone tell me?"

More seriously, he added, "It's different, is all."

[not_a_whiner]

"How?" Kaidan asked him, skeptically.

[bitten_notshy]

"Derek says it's a gift," Jack said defensively.

The fact he normally thought Derek was being an idiot on this point would have ruined his attempt at an argument.

[not_a_whiner]

"I don't really care what Derek thinks," Kaidan pointed out. Which was true! On... several levels!

[bitten_notshy]

"I didn't think you did, but he still knows a lot about it," Jack said. He'd found a rag somewhere and went to scrub a stubborn sticky spot on the bar with it. "Maybe I'll feel the same in a few years."

[not_a_whiner]

"But you don't," Kaidan said. "I'm not trying to criticize you. I'm just saying, this could be a good step. You don't talk about it a lot with anyone outside of the whole wolf... circle."

[bitten_notshy]

"There's not a lot to say besides it happened, it's terrible some of the time, and there's no cure," Jack pointed out, then drew a deep breath. "But ... maybe it wouldn't hurt to say that in front of a few more people."

He even meant it, kind of.

[not_a_whiner]

"It definitely wouldn't hurt," Kaidan agreed. "And-- how you feel about it. That kind of thing."

Because he'd missed that in Jack's reply.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack thought he heard a question there.

"Oh, God, I'm so bad at feelings," he said. "I feel damn lucky to be alive, astonished to finally have powers -- and furious that they mean I'm not quite human anymore. And some other things mixed in."

[not_a_whiner]

"No one'll ask you to start bursting out into tears in the middle of the group," Kaidan said, taking another - big - sip of his scotch. "But the anger is probably a good one to talk about."

[bitten_notshy]

"I suppose if it's in the middle of a therapy session, no one can accuse me of whining," Jack mulled. "I'll think about it."

[not_a_whiner]

"Good," Kaidan said. He offered Jack something he hoped came across as an encouraging smile. "Talking to my own therapist helped me - a lot. Though I guess I didn't need all of it in the end..."