Cent's Yuenyeung [ Too Much Tea, Not Enough Coffee ]

"Too much tea, not enough coffee," Cent chuckled, musing a little bit, her body language half-limp and half up. But she felt so composed, even as she felt decomposed, and with her wings folded under her, and her body leaning on the metal rungs of her dad's balcony. He was seated not far away, sipping at- of course- his own tisane.

"Thought you were trying to balance those more?" he said, his mandibles making a smirk.

"Yeah." She stared down into the yuenyeung in her two upper legs. "I just...  don't know. I had a weird week, past few weeks. I got really into old golf videos and stayed up all night watching humans play golf."

Sir Penney nodded. "Like you were talking about. The ants on the golf course."

"Right, and I got really into it," she muttered, still laughing. She was looking off. Maybe right now her mind was supposed to be elsewhere, but it didn't feel like it was... anywhere. "So my sleep has been pretty awful. And since I'm just gorging on tea the whole time, I'm not doing the... email thing at all, or making any headway with that card game I was doing."

"Still at the caffeine plant?" Penney asked. "Is Tieni still there?"

Cent bobbed her head from side to side. "Yes to both. I guess. I'm so zoned out all the time, just kind of trying to go one step at a time. I'm kind of crushing on this girl who does the flight machine refueling, so."

Her dad lit up, warm-- softly laughing. "Oh, that's nice to hear. Is she...?"

"I dunno. I don't know if I'm actually invested or I'm just trying to prove to myself I'm still gay." The roach chuckled with Penney. "Um, but... hanging out with Tieni is still really nice. I'm doing okay. But it still feels like..." She swished the thermos of yuenyeung from side to side, feeling the half-full liquid move around. "...too much tea, not enough coffee."

Sir Penney tilted his head a little bit. He had been getting a little better at knowing what questions to ask. "Do you think coffee-brain would be happy with even a little tea?"

She sighed. "...No, I guess not."

"It seems like you're going to have weeks where you relax, and that's okay, Cent." He threw up his arms with some drama, then went back to take another sip of his tea.

"That's good advice, I guess," Cent said, staring back off at the city, with head still cloudy. "God, but when you get into it, and you have to put the inspirational quote stuff into practice, it feels so hard, and... meaningless, and cloudy, and random. Some days I feel totally hopeless, some days it's great, sometimes I'm just... nothing."

Her dad, without a sage chunk in his chitin, just nodded and let the moment sit for itself. After a beat had passed, and the wind had passed over, too, he spoke with no lack of caution. "Well, if you're nothing right now, I'm still glad you're here."

"...thanks, Dad."

The night was unenviable. It would not go gentle. Cent felt a lack of any good wisdom, but the feeling that she was still present in her own body, and for a little while, maybe it would be good to stop thinking about anything else.