tɦɛ iɳquiรitѳʀ (freemarched) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-07-14 19:04:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, maxwell trevelyan (the inquisitor), vanessa cleveland |
Who: Max Trevelyan & Vanessa Cleveland
What: Vanessa requests a meeting and assistance
When: Before the Breach plot
Where: Baxter's Bakery
Rating/Warnings: Mostly low - mentions of sexual slavery and psychological trauma
Status: Complete
Trevelyan had never been to Baxter’s before, but he’d heard all about it. Usually he preferred the more ‘off the beaten path’ places, even the completely 100% French-themed place with the owner who often tended to be hilariously exasperated by the idiocy he’s seen over the years (and who could blame him, really) - but they served a really good café au lait, and he’d often stop and get one plus a tartine, which was a baguette sandwich with salted butter and jam, on the way to his office in the morning. Just not every day - usually only when he had sessions back to back, and he needed a lot of morning fuel because lunch was likely not going to be a thing. But now, at Baxter’s, he didn’t think he was adventurous to try a latte that sparkled - so he settled for a regular coffee, black, and he’d put his own cream and sugar in it. Vanessa wanted to meet him and so of course Max would oblige. He wasn’t sure what she wanted to talk about, but he was open to discussing most anything - if he had to guess, the request to meet probably had to do with Nasir. Max knew that they were close, he and Vanessa, and it was always nice to meet more of Nasir’s friends one-on-one anyway. He selected a table by the window, settling with his coffee. Being that he was a little early, he didn’t mind people watching for a bit while he waited for her. *** Meeting guys in coffee shops was apparently turning into a routine for her but Baxter’s wasn’t a bad place to meet someone. They had some really good pastries here and their coffee wasn’t all that bad. Maybe one day she’d be brave enough to try the sparkling lattes but she wasn’t there yet. Contacting her friends boyfriend like this to set up a meeting had used up her share of bravery for today. She took a deep breath as she pulled open the door, looking around until she saw him sitting by the window and gave him a small wave before going to place her own order and carried it over to the table. She swallowed as she slid into the seat across from him. “I hope you haven’t been waiting too long,” she said giving him a half smile as she wrapped her hands around her mug. “You’re probably wondering why I asked if we could meet outside of your office,” she said, looking up at him and trying to figure out how to bring up what Nasir had told her about his past. She just wanted to find out if there was anything she could do to help her friend. She didn’t think the abuse he’d lived through was something you could ever really get past but she hated thinking about him...trying to suffer through it without people who cared about him. *** “No, not long at all. It’s nice to meet you in person,” Max responded with a smile; it was warm, and reassuring. Really, Vanessa needn’t be nervous or anything - meeting in his office might have just made that worse, especially at first, and he considered this more of a social call rather than anything business-related. If she wanted to meet in his office later, for sessions, to talk about her - of course he’d be glad to do that too. He uncurled his hands from around the heated coffee mug, picking it up by the handle to take a sip since it wasn’t scalding hot anymore - maybe he should have gotten a plate of pastries to share, since they did look delicious. They might need those anyway, depending on what she wanted to talk about. Food was always good at soothing the soul. “What can I do for you?” *** Vanessa let out a quiet breath when she saw that warm smile, forcing herself to relax when she saw that warm smile. She sat up a little straighter and uncurled her fingers from around the mug. “Actually - I wanted to talk to you about Nasir. He told me some things about his past, about what happened to him when he was a teenager.” She said, deciding it was for the best just to jump right into it. “I guess saying I wanted to talk about him isn’t exactly true. I want to talk about if there’s anything I can do to help him. When he told me - a scene in a movie we were watching triggered him.” She took a small sip of her coffee after blowing across the mug to cool it. She didn’t know how much Nasir might have told him, and even if she had - details wasn’t something she wanted to go into with him. Not in public. Mainly because it wasn’t her place to go into detail. *** Oh. Max’s brow furrowed - and while he figured this was about Nasir, he couldn’t have guessed the subject matter, exactly. “He told me everything he could remember,” Trevelyan responded, thinking back to that night - it had been when they first cemented their relationship, and everything about that story, about Nasir’s past, was heartbreaking. It also planted that need to go find the person who had done those horrible things to him, and learn blood magic just to kill them in the worst way possible, but the man was rotting in prison anyway. Of course, he wouldn’t detail what exactly Nasir said - he’d started with the first meeting in person and could recall the car ride to the man’s house, and certain things from then on, but Vanessa knew the gist overall, there was no need to rehash things. “The roots of those triggers are buried deep - the trauma is buried deep, and he can’t recall certain things because the mind protects itself. Sometimes those defense mechanisms are healthy, because they allow us to deal with the stress of everyday life without those emotionally difficult situations being at the forefront.” He sounded like a therapist, sure, but he was one - and he just wanted to explain things a little from a psychological standpoint. Though obviously Nasir was more important than the textbook definitions of everything, or they both wouldn’t be here. “There are ways to free one’s self from conditioning like that, those triggers, but it involves a lot of rewiring in the brain - with tricks learned in therapy, nothing medical,” he added, just in case. “As for what you can do, just be there for him. He’s a brave person and he’s getting his life on track but he’s always going to have the scars from those experiences. It’s not something you just get over. Though if he ever has a panic attack around you, I can give you a few tips if you want?” Max was glad Nasir had good friends like this, like Vanessa, who wanted to help - it was nice to see. *** “He filtered it when he told me what happened,” Vanessa said softly, understanding exactly why Nasir had done it. She might not have known him very long but she’d picked up on the protective parts of his personality. “And I’m probably a horrible selfish person because I’m glad he did. Not just because it would probably have hurt him to hash it all out, even though I know it would have, but because it hurt me to hear just the parts he told me about what he went through.” She didn’t think she could have survived what he’d been through. She wasn’t strong enough. Just hearing that he had gone through it had hurt her bad enough. Vanessa appreciated the fact that Max was taking her concern seriously, taking the time to explain things to her with talking down to her. If she did end up needing to talk to someone about these dreams herself - she could see herself being comfortable talking to Max about things. The few she’d had so far hadn’t been too awful but everything she’d read on the network led her to believe that was the exception not the rule. But she’d asked Max to meet so they could talk about Nasir and how to help him - not about her. “That makes sense - the brain needs to protect itself from things so we can function. Especially with the things that happen here.” Blood rain. Crazy ass birds. Storm troopers. She didn’t even want to think about what the next round of insanity might bring them. “I think I’d be worried if he did just get over it,” she said, rolling her mug between her hands as they sat there. I think he had something like a panic attack that afternoon before he told me. It worried me and I just - the only thing I could think of to do was turn off the movie and hug him and then put on cartoons. So - tips would be a good thing I think.” Hopefully one of them would be to call Max since she had already pretty much decided that she was going to do that if Nasir had another attack around her. *** “Don’t leave him alone, first and foremost - even if you feel like you’re not doing anything useful, just being there is important,” Max pointed out, and it was true - otherwise, Nasir would fall into his own thoughts, and things would take a bad turn. “In public, a crowd can make things worse but in private it’s important to have someone there.” He sipped his coffee, pausing to collect his thoughts. Of course he was trained with handling this sort of thing, but with Nasir, it was so personal - originally, he thought he had too much baggage to be considered needed and wanted, but Max scoffed that off. Trevelyan wasn’t going anywhere. “Also breathe with him, in and out at the same time, maybe count backwards from one-hundred as a distraction. Panic attacks can make the person feel really heated as well, around the face and neck, so a cold compress can help sometimes too.” *** “The one he had because of that movie. I wanted to hug him but I wasn’t sure if I should or not. I didn’t want to make what he was dealing with worse by accident,” Vanessa said, looking into his face. “If he ever has a really bad one and none of this seems to help - what do I do?” she asked him, holding her mug between her hands for a moment before taking a sip. *** Max smiled a little - she was sweet, very much so. He could see why Nasir liked Vanessa a lot. “The most important thing is to just be whatever he needs in that moment,” he said. “If it happens again, ask him if he wants a hug. I think you’re close enough to him, to be able to ask that. If he doesn’t want one then he’d tell you.” Touch was iffy with someone like Nasir, given what he’d been through - and Trevelyan could see it going either way, during a panic attack. Sometimes he’d want the contact, other times he’d shrink away from it. “If nothing seems to help, then feel free to call me. I’ll drop what I’m doing and come over.” There was no question about that. *** “I can do that. I just...I didn’t want to do something to hurt him by accident. And we’re definitely not playing Netflix Roulette like that anymore. I’ll have IMDB pulled up on my phone just to try to avoid those kind of storylines,” Vanessa said. It might not be able to totally eliminate the chances but it should lessen them. And make them both of them a little more comfortable. She didn’t know what had happened with that teenager in the movie and she didn’t really care all that much. “Thanks Max. For agreeing to talk to me and telling me how I can help him. I can see why he likes you.” *** He hadn’t been there for the Netflix Roulette, but that was probably a good idea - even if sometimes you just never could tell what would trigger someone. Everyone had their own personal triggers, and they were valid. “I’m glad he does,” Max chuckled, feeling a flush warm his cheeks, as he clenched the mostly-empty coffee cup. “The feeling’s mutual.” Nasir, the relationship with him, had been very unexpected and sometimes Trevelyan felt guilty or like he wasn’t being fair - since he’d been working through feelings for Dorian, and laying all that happened in the dreams to rest because he wanted to move on in this life. But Nasir hadn’t seemed to mind, he’d been patient and understanding. “I can see why he likes you too, Vanessa. We all need to stick together. It can be troublesome here sometimes.” Wasn’t meant to be a doom prophecy for the future, just a fact - allies didn’t hurt, not in a place where your worst nightmares could literally come alive. But they’d get through it, that was one of the certainties here in their strange and wacky surroundings when not much could be considered certain at all. |