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The penthouse has been mostly quiet as of late -- and more unusually, devoid of the usual clouds of acrid smoke that Leta frequently fails to remember to scrub from the air.
In fact, it's probably been about three days since Leta's done anything besides go to work, eat Top Ramen, or sleep. Today when she came in from the University, she barely even said hello. Just went directly to her office and face planted onto the couch in silence.
She's been a real mess lately. Hair crazier than usual. Gaining weight. Hardly giving a remote shit about her clothes -- not even taking the time for her usual cute or quirky outfits. She rolls over to place her face against the back of the couch, squeezing a stuffed kitsune to her chest...
Pap pap pap. On soft little feet, the fox stalks in to the room once Leta has faceplanted in it. This isn't her first rodeo with this sort of thing: she's got Vasha's ring melded with her flesh, after all. The Acanthus isn't exactly the peak of human stability.
pap pap pap across the wooden floor, soft and light, and then Fox gently alights the couch by her feet, slowly climbing up Leta, just walking along her side, because foxes are just cat software running on dog hardware. She puts her butt down on the curve of Leta's waist, lays down along the line of her body, and then very delicately puts her cold little black nose in Leta's ear.
snf snf snf
Leta isn't exactly in a position to provide scritches, but she wriggles a hand free from the tangled ball of Mastigos, and offers Fox a weak little pat pat pat before her hand slumps back against the cushions.
"Mrrrnggghhhhmf."
There's a subtle shimmer of Life magic, and a flare of Fox's Nimbus. "If you get up off the couch," comes the soft high voice in her ear which is the distinct voice of Fox-as-Fox, "I will make us a bath in the big giant tub, and we can eat some delicious sushi naked while you tell me what is going on in your head that's making you sad, and I fix your hair. I ordered sushi an hour ago, it's in the fridge. I slightly misjudged when you'd be home."
Leta's grumbles are muffled by the mouthful of stuffed animal and couch cushions she currently has. Which is probably for the best, because one could easily imagine that her response would be something grumbly.
... but her stomach wins out in the end. Reminded of her need for food, Leta's tummy rumbles, and she rolls onto her back. Her makeup is smeared -- she didn't take it off when she came in -- and it looks like she probably hasn't taken off her eye makeup in a day or so, if the ridiculously smokey eye is any indication.
"Mmmmrrrkay. I'm getting up, but you gotta get off of me first. I don't think I can get up with you on top of me right now..."
"You don't usually complain when I'm on top of you," Fox sasses, and then licks Leta's ear before alighting delicately from the couch. Hop! She pads away from Leta, and her body flows upward like some sort of reverse human waterfall as she pads buck-ass naked into the kitchen. Fetching the prepared platter of sushi from the fridge, she adds two bowls, two sets of chopsticks, and a bottle of soy sauce to the tray before carrying it off to the bathroom with the ease of someone who has done their time in food service.
This was all planned, you see. The Hearthmaster has a job to do, and she does it. The immense Japanese style bathtub in the shower enclosure is already filled, and the heater set to the proper temperature. Fox sets the sushi tray on a table outside the bathroom, and goes to get a jug of ice water and two glasses.
"We'll want to shower first, so we don't marinate in ancient makeup and our own sweat," she calls, setting that down too and starting the shower within the enclosure. There's good fancy soap that smells like lavender and mint - relaxing and balancing. There's a perfect bath waiting after a shower. Tend the body, and the mind follows, or so seems to be Fox's philosophy.
Leta isn't the best about being an adult human at the moment, so it takes her longer-than-average to roll out of bed, and a puff of laughter is all she can really offer in response to the crass little joke.
As Fox pads out of the room, she undoes the zipper on her leather skirt and steps out of it before rolling out of her hose, and discarding her shirt and underclothes in a pile by the door. The laundry can be handled later. The Mastigos wanders over to the bathroom, fetching a towel and wrapping it around her waist to await Fox's return with the sushi. She's just sorta... slumped against the doorway, and she offers a nod in Fox's direction.
"Shower... good. I should probably wash my hair," her voice is tiny and tired, and her hair is tangled and stressed from repeatedly tugging it into ponytails. She plucks a piece of sushi from the plate, and -- committing sushi sins -- takes a bite out of it rather than putting the whole thing into her mouth. "... sorry I'm not doing well today. Or... week."
"You should, but even better than that, I should wash your hair." This is a ridiculous bathroom, so there's a bamboo seat under the rain shower head, and Fox picks up a piece of sushi and crams it in her toothy maw before padding in to the bathroom and picking up a washcloth and a wide toothed comb. "Into the shower, you," they direct, and then they pad in themself, as unselfconscious as a person can be. The water runs down over her, and she points to the chair. Here is where a Leta sits and gets taken care of.
"You don't need to apologize for having a bad week. That's what I'm literally here for. It's my whole job." A soft, lopsided smile. "Come sit, tell me what's going on?"
Leta isn't keen on losing her towel, but she does eventually let go of it in favor of climbing into the absurd shower with Fox. She takes her circular-framed glasses off, setting them on a table away from the shower where they can get fogged up in peace before stepping in and taking a seat.
She slumps forward, shoulders slack with her forearms resting against her thighs. "I dunno," Leta nurmurs. "I don't feel like anything even should be wrong? Work is... normal. Life is... normal. It just feels as though my head is a balloon floating a few feet above my body. That I'm watching myself, and I notice everyone's little reactions to everything I do. I know I'm not substandard, which is why I am so frustrated about the fact that I can't shake the feeling that everyone is just waiting to replace me with a newer, better model."
Fox listens. That's the first thing. Fox listens. She doesn't jump in with ideas or try to help too quickly. While Leta talks, she dumps heavy conditioner onto her hands, and goes about gently massaging it into Leta's hair. Trying to wash her hair right now, after all, would just ruin it, putting shampoo on tangled hair like that. And as her hands smooth over Leta's hair, there's another rush of magic, Matter and Life working together to heal and restore her hair, to help it untangle.
"That sounds really frustrating," Fox answers, as her little fingers massage Leta's scalp. She leans to kiss the top of the Mastigos' head and then wipes the conditioner off her lips with the back of her hand. "It sounds like your brain is being mean to my love and my friend, who I desperately cherish, could never replace and would never want to," Fox answers. "Possibly your brain chemicals are unbalanced. Maybe something happened to trigger that, maybe it just happened. Is that why you haven't been smoking much lately?"
"Maybe. I'm usually hyper aware of my brain chemicals," the Mastigos chuffed. It seemed like she was practically melting under the cranial assault, but to be fair, she'd been practically melting before. "Maybe not like. The chemicals themselves, but the effect they ought to be having on my mind."
Leta offers a little shrug. "Smoking takes energy. Cleaning up takes energy. Cleaning up is work, and honestly thanks to the associations with my Legacy, smoking feels like work, too."
The twiggy little Mastigos chews her lower lip. "... I worry I might be burning out."
"Burning out in what sense?" Fox asks. They don't push too hard, just gently work the conditioner through her hair, focusing on that part of caregiving. The comb comes into play next, as she starts carefully working it through Leta's hair.
"That all makes sense. If you're burned out or depressed, everything is work." Another kiss to the top of her head. "And that sucks."
"I'm not even sure, honestly. I just... the world feels like a lot. I have a responsibility to keep a large number of people safe, and it isn't easy to do so. We all know it isn't easy, but I used to have pretty boundless reserves of energy, and now? I just feel... really crispy. It's heavy. I'm tired." Leta props her chin up on her palms, elbows resting on her thighs as she melts under Fox's fingers. "It does suck. I wish that I could just count on other people to be good. To me, at least, it doesn't seem all that fucking difficult to be an upright person, and not hurt or exploit others for power or money."
"The world is a lot," Fox answers, carefully working the comb through Leta's hair, unsnarling knot upon knot, smoothing out her hair. When they're done with that, the comb gets set aside, and she picks up a washcloth next. Soaking it under the rain head, she cups her hand underneath Leta's chin and tips her face upward so she can start carefully cleaning off the caked-on old makeup. "You don't need to count on everyone to be good. You need to rely on just a couple people. Your cadre, for one. Maybe you need to just... take some time off from all the things. And rest."
Leta looks up at Fox with all the weariness and weight that one might expect to see on the face of someone who just said the things she said. She sighs as the mask of gross makeup is removed. "I know -- and I know I can rely on the Firebirds, I just... it would be nice if the world wasn't so dark and terrifying. If there were no Seers. If there was no politicking or power mongering or... bullshit."
Leta trails off, face scrunching up. "Yeah. I haven't really been resting. I should do that."
Calm and patient, she washes her cadremate's face, gently scrubbing away all the gunk, both metaphorically and literally. "Close your eyes," Fox directs gently, and then wipes away the eye makeup with gentle swipes from the inner corner of each eye outward. "It would be nice," he concedes, "but highly unlikely. So in the meantime, we have to do the best we can with what we have. It sucks, like, a lot." A pause. "Let's take a week off. You and me. The rest of the cadre, too. We never really celebrated when Mei's case was dropped, either. We can order food, lounge around, purge our bodies and minds magically, go to that Ninja Warrior taping and eat hot dogs and watch people fall in the water... "
Leta does close her eyes upon request, leaning back and letting Fox take care of her as she leans her head against the little Thyrsus and relaxes for what might actually be the first time in days. "I... I know. I know it isn't likely, it would just be nice is all." There's a pause, and Leta opens whichever eye isn't currently being excavated of it's smokey eye, and peers up at Fox. "Could we maybe rent an Air BnB out somewhere outside of Philly and stay for a little bit? I'm getting tired of being in the city, I think. I really miss being in Texas. If we portalled to Austin, I know of a handful of incredible places to eat. Plus, we could watch Ninja Warrior at the AirBnB..."
"It would be nice," agrees Fox. "But since I can't make everyone stop being an asshole for a while, I can at least make sure that you rest and recharge your batteries." Once the makeup is cleaned off, she leans down to gently kiss the tip of Leta's nose before moving on. Time to shampoo and then recondition, and no one gives scalp scratches like someone who is developing claws due to her overuse of her Legacy attainments. "I think that sounds like fun! Maybe find a big house in the middle of nowhere so the stars at night can be big and bright." She lands another kiss on the top of Leta's head, and once she's done reslathering in conditioner, she says, "Stand up."
"If you want to go to Austin, we'll go to Austin. It sounds really good. I bet Vasha will have a great time being an obnoxious cowboy." Fox pantomimes six-shooters, pulling them off her hips. Pew pew.
"Honestly I wouldn't even mind having to deal with Vasha's terrible impression of my accent if it meant I got to go to a Kerbey Lane and have queso. Fuuuuuck," Leta melts even further in response to the scritches.
She stands -- though it's a very slow process for her right now -- as instructed, waiting to be ushered towards the next phase of her not-so-self care.
"There're places out near Enchanted Rock that would be amazing. It's a bit of a drive from Austin, but I used to drive out there with friends and do illicit substances under the stars. I bet you'd like it. Plus, there's a Vodka that's native to Austin -- Deep Eddy's -- and I want to see what Vasha thinks about it."
The rest of the preparatory washing is gentle and not at all sexy. Well, maybe a tiny bit sexy, but for Fox? Not really. "Like you could stop Vasha from mocking your accent? That's how you know he's flirting with you," Fox laughs softly, finishing up the washing-off and turning off the shower. "Go get in the bath. I'll get the food. We're going to be indulgent."
The bath has its heater set to "hot enough to really feel it, your muscles WILL relax, dammit," and Fox comes back carrying a little table to rest the tray on. Setting it up, she makes a second trip for the water and glasses.
"I bet he'd love it. And he'd love even more that you thought about him. That's a thing Vasha loves." Fox absently turns the ring on her left ring finger and offers a smile aside. "I love this plan."
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