Alycia looks skeptical. “You underestimate yourself, I think. I can’t see you as being ‘half of a girl,’ and I doubt either of them would. I could also – rrrg, talk at length, albeit academically, about the social and cultural aspects of polyamory, as a rebellion against societal strictures and impositions, as a trap to enable abuse, and as an interesting problem in multi-body physics and orbital instability … but I won’t. Besides, even with the divergence in your experience and personality, there are enough fundamental similarities between the three of you to throw any existing research out the window.”
She flashes a smile over a fleeting moment, before continuing, “Your situation and options outside of Leo and Aria are more complicated, I know.” She nibbles her lower lip. “Believe me, I know. If not Jason in my case, who would want the daughter of a terrorist and … lunatic killer as a girlfriend. Who could I open up to about my past outside of this weird little world of ours. Hell, I can’t even --” She shakes her head, clears her throat. “So I hear you, and – have no good answers. Keep secrets, even if possible, and the relationship has a crack in it that will someday cause it to break. Wear a sign around your neck saying you’re something weird, and you scare off any possibilities, except, I guess, people with weird pathologies.” An arched brow. “You probably don’t want to be involved with someone whose primary motive in being with you is thinking that robot chicks in anime are_ hawt._”
Alycia abruptly grabs a handful of popcorn and stuffs it in her mouth with vigor. Around it, she says, “I know people run into the same problem with less outre secrets than ours. ‘I was an child abuse victim.’ ‘I was a rape victim.’ ‘My dad did time in prison for armed robbery.’ ‘I have AIDS.’ ‘I was an involuntary commit in a mental hospital.’ ‘I had a radical mastectomy.’ Things they don’t want to talk about, things they are afraid will scare off people, turn off people. And even by saying those things, those examples, I’m denigrating you, because what you have isn’t a problem or a disease or a – a shameful past. What you have is a difference but – a really cool one.”
She gives a small chuckle. “I saw an article in The Daily Star a couple of years back – I was desperate for something to read – with Torchiere. And he said everyone figured that young, handsome super-hero equals chick magnet. But he said that some women were turned off by that – they didn’t want to be involved with a super-hero, too dangerous, or too much secrecy. Or they were afraid of fire, or even afraid that he might burst into flames in the middle of the night, having a nightmare, and burn them up. But he found someone who could love him for who he was, behind the mask.”
She gives Summer a light pat on the knee. “I can’t point you at who’s out there for you, but I know there’s someone who wants and needs and will respond to the good person you are, even the clingy parts.” She leans in, and whispers, “And if you find them, let me know, and I’ll kidnap them and bring them in and tie them to a chair for you to interrogate.” She smiles with a fiendish look in her eyes for a moment, then laughs. “Just kidding. On the kidnap part.”
author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6933681