"If we're going to talk about this? Then yeah." Darcy doesn't even smoke really, except sometimes in college and right now, definitely. She eats the last bit of her dinner and pushes the plate away from her. Less temptation to just pick up crumbs that way.
Severus untucks a pack from his jumpsuit pocket and holds it out for Darcy to snag one before shaking a coffin nail out for himself. He puts the pack away and snaps his fingers, holding out a little magical flame for her to light off of. His own taken care of, he flicks his hand to dissipate it, and sits back in his chair.
"We're not talking about it," he reminds her after a moment. "You're just offering your opinion on if we should."
Darcy takes a quick puff on her cigarette like a test, then tips her head back to blow the smoke into the air. She contemplates what she wants to say while she watches those tendrils curl toward the ceiling and disappear. "I think... I don't know why I was chosen, so maybe it would help to talk to the others. Establish a pattern. But I don't know if I want to talk about what happened to me out there. Maybe the others don't either. So I'm not sure if it would do you too much good, but..."
A shrug, and a look that says what'cha gonna do? "Can't hurt to ask people to come forward anyway. You should talk to Ryuuzaki. I know he'd be interested in helping sort the data." That she's reducing accounts of disappearances into the hallways as data really speaks to how much she's trying to divorce herself from it. It's easier to handle if it's something separate and apart from her. It probably won't help in the long run.
If none of them will talk about it, it'll be a problem - a massive red flag in itself. (But then, he can enlist Charles, Cassandra, even Nuala. Something he's not going to mention to Darcy. Or anyone.)
"Saying you don't want to talk about it makes me think you really should," Severus points out, a little wry. "But we both know I'd be the most bloody awful therapist in the universe, so this isn't me prodding you about it."
"I'm just not ready," Darcy means to assure him. "But I will be." She can't hardly dispense all this advice about how the fuck he should be running his life and not be gracious when he offers his own two cents, can she? Well, she could, but then she'd be a hypocrite asshole, and that's lame.
"He'll appreciate it. I'm sure he'll have more to say about it than I do right now." The inside of her lower lip is drawn between her teeth and worried at for a moment or two. "But, uh... If you wouldn't mind listening when I am ready, I'd like that. You're a good listener."
Severus is no such thing. Sometimes, he wonders if anyone's ever been properly good to Darcy, for her to have such skewed views of people. He consoles himself marginally by thinking that it's not as though he's actually trying to be an asshole; maybe she just has some kind of genetic immunity.
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Severus notices this, yes. It's not unlike the reasons why he's been giving Claire so much space.
"Your opinion, is all."
He's not interrogating her now, after all.
"Do you want a cigarette?"
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"We're not talking about it," he reminds her after a moment. "You're just offering your opinion on if we should."
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A shrug, and a look that says what'cha gonna do? "Can't hurt to ask people to come forward anyway. You should talk to Ryuuzaki. I know he'd be interested in helping sort the data." That she's reducing accounts of disappearances into the hallways as data really speaks to how much she's trying to divorce herself from it. It's easier to handle if it's something separate and apart from her. It probably won't help in the long run.
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"Saying you don't want to talk about it makes me think you really should," Severus points out, a little wry. "But we both know I'd be the most bloody awful therapist in the universe, so this isn't me prodding you about it."
Just putting it out there.
"I'll talk to Ryuuzaki."
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"He'll appreciate it. I'm sure he'll have more to say about it than I do right now." The inside of her lower lip is drawn between her teeth and worried at for a moment or two. "But, uh... If you wouldn't mind listening when I am ready, I'd like that. You're a good listener."
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"Of course."