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[Empiricist]

Shef

Nothing recent. Why?

[Strider03]

He took a moment to send a quick reply:

Very weird. Awake, sitting up not blind, but not sure if shes aware of anything

[Empiricist]

Shef

Catatonia?

[Strider03]

Dunno, sorta? Not a doctor, will keep posted

In his departure, Shef left a note behind indicating that Yuki should call him. The anonymity and level of deceit implied by the wording was, of course, purely accidental. Eventually, the call was made, and Shef made no secret of who he was, and set up a meeting in a public park, at which he hoped to indicate to Yuki the severity of her situation.

At the appointed time, he would be found sitting on a bench alternating between appreciating the space and scrolling on his phone.

[Twinwolf]

Yuki had sounded fine, and that probably said more about how not-fine she was than anything. On the phone call she wasn't angry. She wasn't even blustering with her usual chuuni energy. She was distinctly neutral as if it was just a regular phone call, to work or a doctor or some other relaxed matter. Once she realized she was talking to Shef she had briefly tried to put up that normal personality of hers, but failed back to the cold neutrality she'd begun the call with.

Yuki arrived at the park in mundane clothes. The only thing that aggressively stood out was her usual silver twintails, but it was a little jarring not seeing her in her work uniform or some other wild outfit. She didn't say anything, just sitting down on the bench next to Shef to let him talk first.

[Strider03]

Shef watched as she approached, visage stern but—hopefully—not aggressive.

"So. How long has this all been going on?" Shef began simply. No need to to engage in convoluted explanations of his illegal behavior; the man took his usual care to avoid incrimination. There were a few choice points he had prepared in advance for this meeting, but given the unknowns at play, Shef was attempting to remain flexible

[Twinwolf]

"...Years." Yuki said after staying silent for a few minutes. "She was fine for a while. Then she was a bit worse. But then she started... breaking. Stopping. And now..." She trailed off. "...She'll be okay eventually. She'll get better. I just need to keep working and it'll be fine. I-It's fine now, money isn't so tight anymore." Her voice was thin and weak in a way that was jarring from the normal bombastic girl.

The void yawned in front of her. Not the one she'd accidentally made of herself. The one she'd been staving off for years and years. Just keep smiling. Just scream and shout to drown out the silence.

It was fine. It was fine. She was fine.

Yuki wasn't fine.

[Strider03]

Shef's eyes wandered away uncomfortably. How had he expected this to go? The frank truth was he had not considered how this conversation would go emotionally speaking at all.

"It's pretty dangerous to keep her there. At minimum there's going to be muscle atrophy or something that needs to be dealt with. And what if she gets like, cancer or something. She's not going to tell you if she's in physical pain or feels weird or something. Not a doctor, but it's not really safe to keep someone like that on their own."

"I'm sure the AI could arrange to have her institutionalized or something." Shef stated bluntly. "Low cost to you, you'd probably get to visit from time to time, etc."

"Also you stop keeping her a secret maybe you could file her as a dependent on your taxes." This statement was a little too cheery.

[Twinwolf]

Whatever else the statement had done, it had least gotten her to look at him. Yuki stared at Shef for several seconds, with a completely blank expression.

"...I'm not sure if I should be more confused or angry that you would write off my mom as a tax break." Yuki said. Her tone had a little bit more life in it now. Not much, which turned out to be for the best as far as Shef's health went. "...I'm leaning to angry. Frankly, I'm too tired for that though. I'll smack you on the head for it later."

Yuki sighed again, slumping over. _{"I-I can't. I-I have to fix it. It's my fault so I have to fix it."}

[Strider03]

Perhaps it had been a mistake to mention the more pragmatic aspects of the situation. Shef had hoped that by listing positives he might lessen the blow of this secret coming to light. An ill-conceived kindness, but it had been an attempt at such. A little exasperated, he said, "How the hell do you think you're going to fix this."

"Trust me on this one, this solution you think you have, just hiding her under the rug and feeding her and hoping she gets better? It wasn't going to work long term, probably would have ended in tragedy. It stings but this frustrating situation right now probably saves you and her. . .maybe. . . a lot of pain in the future."

"If you really feel the need to smack me later, whatever, be my guest."

[Twinwolf]

Yuki wasn't moving much now. She curled up on her seat, legs tucked in. "...I... I can't..." she said, her voice almost choking. "...I-I can't... she had trouble getting anything coherent out, choking back a sob each time she opened her mouth. She couldn't... what? Couldn't help? Couldn't let her go? Couldn't acknowledge there was even a goddamned problem? She'd made everyhing so much worse, hadn't she? Why couldn't she ever do anything right?

Oh. She's crying now. Great. Or, it might actually be good? At least it's not the emotional deadness she'd arrived with.

[Strider03]

Shef's confusion was both extreme, and fairly temporary, which would have been quite obvious to anyone watching. The confusion was not due to the tears intrinsically, but moreso by the fact that Yuki was crying. It seemed that he had internalized Yuki as being the facade she wore. Baffling, since if he'd been asked any time over the last month, he'd have claimed it obvious that Yuki wore the cheery nature as an obvious, but resilient, mask. This was not the Yuki he'd known for the last few months.

After a few seconds though, Shef found this same thought washing away his paralysis—this was not "Yuki". He'd have to mentally reconcile these two distinct people sometime, but that processing did not have to happen now. This was just someone else, someone who he'd made cry on a park bench.

"Hey. Hey. Doesn't matter. So what if you can't? That's why you've got people to help you out." Shef patted her on the back, hopefully reassuringly. While he felt more comfortable in this situation than he likely would have a year ago, he was certainly not confident. "We'll figure it out, okay? And it's okay if figuring it out takes a little."