The Ballad of Adler Young, Canto 2.5

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>Adler: You read her thoughts, it's difficult to make out. It's a garbled whirlwind of emotions: sorrow, anger, and self loathing; all wrapped up in a healthy dose of shame. You should calm her down soon, her snot and tears are starting to soak through your clothes and into your fur.
>Vernier: Once you finally manage to calm down, a long awkward silence follows as you notice that everyone is staring at you. Your face is burning red with shame, you're a complete mess, and the fact that your choked wailing has given you a case of the hiccups isn't helping. You also really, really need to blow your nose.
>Adler: In an attempt to break the awkward silence you clumsily point out that Vernier shouldn't bottle up her emotions or outbursts like that will keep happening.

Vernier's thoughts were a garbled whirlwind of emotions. I immediately regretted prying. I got quick whiffs of sorrow, anger, self-loathing and shame before darting back out of there. At least it seemed she was being honest, and the lachrymal fluids that were starting to seep through my jacket were not crocodilian in origin, as Burnside had implied. I continued stroking Vernier's head and whispered a calming Gramarye.

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"I'm -hic- sorry about that," Vernier sniffed as her sobs subsided. "I made a spec -hic- a spectacle of myself yet again."

"Durn tootin' you did," Burnside snorted.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

"I think -hic- so, but now I have hiccups," Vernier answered. "And I need -hic- to blow my nose."

I absentmindedly apported a handkerchief and gave it to her.

"You know," I opined while she blew snot into the fine elvish linen, "you really shouldn't bottle up your emotions or it will only lead to more outbursts like that."

>Rebecca: You point out that you really don't think she's bottling things up. She had crying fits more than once when the hair cult was in the final stages of falling apart. It really didn't help matters since she was the one trying to hold everything together. You were starting to get worried she was going to get a bald spot with the way she kept pulling out her hair. Some people just crack under pressure. You immediately stop talking when you notice Adler is glaring at you.

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"Actually," Rebecca called from her seat in the grass, interrupting the strange look Vernier was giving me. "I don't think Miss Vernier can really be accused of bottling things up. She was a complete wreck during the collapse of the hairdressers' cult. It was doubly concerning because we were all relying on her to hold things together, and ... uh ... oh no, Miss Vernier, I didn't mean you made things worse! Don't start crying again! I only meant you don't hold things in! It's healthy to give vent to your emotions!"

>Burnside: Is everyone here to have a group therapy session or are you all trying to get work done? All these feelings are making you sick.

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"FUMA'S SAKES!" Burnside exclaimed. "What is this, a therapy session? We all gonna sit around an' share our feelin's til we can't feel no more? I can tell you, I been subjected to plenty of those an' it ain't nothin but a sickenin' waste of time! We got work to do! Let's quit feelin so dadgum sorry for ourselves an' get back on track!"

"I found another 'lorem ipsum' passage in here," Rebecca meekly added.