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[verynormalturnipseller]

H-hello?

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[verynormalturnipseller]

[He's halfway through inquiring about cookies--he makes a lot of snacks, but he's never really taken those up. It clicks for him about the same time it does Chase.]

I'm coming over!

[fifthofthecovenant]

[Great! Exactly what he didn't want Wen Ning to do! But he's actually not checking his phone now because he's busy sitting on his bed staring through the door at his newly expanded bathroom and having a bit of an existential crisis, so he doesn't have the chance to tell him no.]

[verynormalturnipseller]

[He didn't even stop for snacks! There are already cookies, apparently. The knock comes very promptly.]

[fifthofthecovenant]

Chase actually jumps at the knock, and transfers his stare to the door until his brain catches on that it's probably his warden because he'd texted him about the cookies like a moron.

Except not his warden anymore, is he? Oh god.

Chase just groans and puts his head into his hands. The door clicks, though, unlocked but not opened. Wen Ning will have to open it himself.

[verynormalturnipseller]

"Chase'er?" He is trying to be gentle despite his own excitement. Wen Ning's way of being excited is pretty serene, so it's mostly working. He opens the door slowly and approaches at a quiet glide.

[fifthofthecovenant]

"I thought I'd have more time," Chase says without preamble, muffled into his hands. "I only just decided to try and be a less weird and shitty person and was going to come and-- and I don't know, brainstorm what to do about it. And then there were cookies outside the door."

The cookies are now on his desk, over by the bathroom door.

[verynormalturnipseller]

"You have time. You're just a little different moving through it." Time is the one thing that the barge always gives you. (Unless you get lost, but he tries not to think about that.) "Different enough to not need to be an inmate anymore."

[fifthofthecovenant]

"I decided I was going to stay," Chase sort-of agrees. "Get a deal. Maybe not actually die saving my parents. But I thought I'd be better by then." He drops his hands and gives Wen Ning a look that's more open than a lot Wen Ning has gotten in the past, and it's open with worry and the edge of panic. "I don't have any idea how to be a warden. I don't even like most people."

[verynormalturnipseller]

"That's different, then," he agrees as neutrally as he can. He drifts a little nearer, ready to back up of Chase seems to feel crowded. "I had no idea what to do at first, either. I was scared of everyone. And you know how long it took us to get out together." He's becoming disturbingly good at this trap. Chase (probably) won't want to call him a bad warden for these pretty common failings.

[fifthofthecovenant]

"I'm not scared of anyone, I just don't know how to relate," Chase counters irritably, not falling for it this time. "You at least like people, even if you're afraid. I like-- two people. Not counting my parents."

[verynormalturnipseller]

"Liking people is nice if you can manage it." He's got Wen Ning there. Liking people does indeed come very easily to him. If someone is passably decent in his direction for thirty seconds, Wen Ning is already fond. "But I think it's more what you do than what you feel. Try feeding people who are cranky about it."

[fifthofthecovenant]

Chase gives him a look that's half annoyed and half bemused. "I don't cook, Wen Ning. So unless you want to start making me lunch boxes to deliver to people, that's not really going to work."

[verynormalturnipseller]

"Well, I will if you like, but." Sometimes, this child... "Recommend books to people. Offer swimming lessons."

[fifthofthecovenant]

Well, if you're trying to suggest someone play to their strengths, you gotta say that, buddy. "Nobody wants swimming lessons from me," Chase snorts at him, anyway. He might try the book thing, but that also requires-- talking to people. Just for the hell of it. He kind of wants to curl in on himself like a pillbug at the very thought. "Maybe I'll just hope that magically I get the perfect inmate who thinks I'm actually cool and not a complete nerd."

[verynormalturnipseller]

"Inmate assignments usually don't go anywhere. That's not anyone's fault, and it's true much more often than it's not." Wen Ning isn't even a very good judge of when his went badly. So far as he knows, he and Pyotr are still friendly acquaintances at worst.

[fifthofthecovenant]

"Yeah, I mean, almost none of my temps talked to me beyond introducing themselves, if they even did that. Even the guy who had to bring me back from the dead one time didn't even say hi afterwards." Not that Chase is bitter about that or anything. "So I guess I know that much. Check on the person you bring back from death."

[verynormalturnipseller]

Having never been an inmate doesn't make that seem any less sensible. "I don't think there's any excuse not to do that. Even if most of them will just tell you to leave." Often much more rudely than that.

[fifthofthecovenant]

"They might. I mean, I didn't, but I didn't really care, either," Chase admits. He puts his head down in his hands, elbows resting on his knees now. "Be honest. Do you think I can... do this? Graduate somebody?"

[verynormalturnipseller]

While he is of the opinion that if he did it, anybody could, Chase seems to think Wen Ning was to some degree good at this, so that won't work. "It'll probably take a while." He's always a bit jealous when he sees a pair announced for someone who just arrived. "But you'll find the person you can help."

[fifthofthecovenant]

Well, he thinks Wen Ning gets along with people better than he does, and clearly cares about them more than he does. Being introverted is something they both kind of share, and Chase is only not weird and awkward because he has tried very hard to learn not to be, so he gets that, too. But Wen Ning still did help.

"I hope so," he says, though he sounds more despondent than actually hopeful. Maybe when it's not ten minutes out from the event he'll get more optimistic. (Maybe not, though.) "God, I hope Yelena doesn't decide she hates me for graduating before her. She's not crazy about wardens."

[verynormalturnipseller]

"She's always been polite to me," says Wen Ning. News to him. But not noticing people holding him in contempt is pretty normal.

Not-impolite is clearly not what Chase would want from his friend, though. "Well, you aren't so different from yesterday, and she liked you then. Even if you're pretty different from when you first got here."

[fifthofthecovenant]

That brings him up short in confusion. He doesn't feel different. Except maybe for the wanting to see his parents more than wanting to die, thing. "I am? How am I different?"

[verynormalturnipseller]

The very simple answer, you graduated, is too circular. Though it's tempting to Wen Ning's very dry sense of humor. "Initiative. You don't hide out anymore. You try things. You explore. You try to fix things that go wrong."

[fifthofthecovenant]

"I definitely still hide out," Chase counters. He spends a good 75% of his time in the library or his room. But he does have... friends, he supposes. Two friends. If your warden can really count as a friend when he kind of has to spend time with you. "And maybe I fixed things before...." That's a bit of a stretch. He knew how to, you know, magically fix broken glass, but he's learned how to expand that to people. And he did, he has to admit, try to fix his spider explosion.

[verynormalturnipseller]

"You've been changing all along. And not into someone else." Chase is never going to be friendly any more than Wen Ning is ever going to be confident. "Or what'd be the point?"