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May was about to fall back asleep in Ren's arms, and now she is not in Ren's arms, which puts paid to the "fall back asleep" plan.
esper bell drops onto cape lucien (post "ward of the state")
maybeso
"I have the taste of a literature professor, almost anything you get on - does Project Gutenberg exist yet, I don't know how old it is -"
para-industrialist
"Yeah, Project Gutenberg is from the 70s - it started when the internet was just 15 computers and called the arpanet." Lucien knows a totally normal amount of the history of web infrastructure. "My mom keeps trying to convince me to read Utopia by Thomas More? It's a 16th century book about a fictional utopia - I'm not sure how literaturey it is? I could read something Shakespeare instead if you like."
maybeso
"I've read Utopia, it's not very literature but if you'd like it it'd do fine to get me to sleep and I won't even miss whatever parts get read after I'm asleep. I think Shakespeare might suffer from having a single person read it but I do love Shakespeare."
para-industrialist
"If you have a suggestion for Shakespeare that might not suffer too much I could read that? Or uh, I've been meaning to read 'War and Peace' at some point? Or something else - I'm not picky."
para-industrialist
Oh her smile...
He can read her War and Peace while snuggling until he is sure she is asleep, and he definitely isn't having feelings about this - he can do that some other time that isn't this week.
maybeso
Eventually her tired commentary on the complicated Russian novel where everyone has nine different names fade out and are replaced with random nouns. She clings in her sleep.
para-industrialist
Lucien sends an email to his parents with an update, and tells them he misses them but doesn't think there visiting Brockton while it's this much of a disaster zone actually be a good idea even with the recent events.
He tries to figure out if there's anyone else he could ask for advice, ideally someone who has experience with weird cape things, but... he just abandoned his old team (not that any of the surviving members could give good advice anyways) and barely knows his new one. What would he even ask someone, "hey do you have any advice on how to deal with someone with the same voice and personality as your dead crush showing up in desperate need of being cuddled?" - "yeah sure happens all the time." No, he's not getting any help from a friend on this.
Normally to distract himself he'd work on Wards paperwork - there was an endless supply - but that's not an option either. Maybe he can... figure out patrol plans for the territory he is meant to take over once he's ready? That is not the absolute worst idea and if he tries hard enough maybe he can stretch it to fill up a few hours of trying to not let it get too salient that May his clinging to him in her sleep.
para-industrialist
He can stretch patrol schedule for three hours, after which he tries sleeping himself, waking up seconds later after his power chooses to have him start to relive his memories of the Leviathan fight in crystal clear detail.
What if he tries reading Utopia instead of that.
maybeso
Eventually May wakes up, stretches a little bit without letting go of him, yawns. "- thank you."
maybeso
"I need the bathroom. If you would be up for - reading to me through the door or something."
maybeso
She waits till he's got a good head of steam and wants him to walk her all the way to the door to the bathroom and then needs a minute to psych herself up and then she manages to go in alone.
maybeso
She opens the door before she washes her hands and once they're washed she's clinging to him again.
maybeso
"I... don't think most people would be as accommodating, with most people I'd probably have fallen back on asking for an ambulance."
maybeso
"I guess I'm glad I have her reputation to coast on, the most I could expect from a psych hospital in a world that doesn't have espers would be somebody to keep me away from means of suicide."