[come_sailaway inbox]

[prince_of_beasts]

A synthesized woman's voice picks up the call.

"Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. Two - Zero - Two - Nine - One - Eight - Two - One - Three - Two -- is not available now. At the tone, please record your message. When you've finished recording, you may hang up or press the # key for more options."

Dimitri hasn't figured out how to customize the thing yet.

Comments

[prince_of_beasts]

That might be for the best. I'll still be practicing, but we don't have to meet.

Actually Dimitri would prefer to keep the routine, but he suspects this is more on Phil's behalf.

When should we begin again?

[goodweather]

Dimitri's suspicions are more than correct. It's taking so much out of him just to have this text instead of ditch out like an asshole.

I don't know. Let's see how we feel in a few weeks? Or maybe sooner?

[prince_of_beasts]

Does three weeks sound like enough? That would put us at the 25th.

[goodweather]

Sure, that should be doable. If you do need advice before then, you can still call me, okay?

(And yes, that advice extends beyond just music.)

He obviously won't stop being so damned depressed by then, but it gives him a deadline to stop being so much of a layabout, at least.

[prince_of_beasts]

Thank you. I will.
And the same to you.

A pause.

That is an affirmative not a hypothetical.
I would like to talk to you about something but.
I need some time to put myself together first.

Routines and deadlines are how Dimitri's held himself together all this time, and now he's committing himself to actually talking about it. Even if he doesn't want to.

[goodweather]

Oh, gotcha. Just give me a heads up, yeah?

Fuck now he actually has to be put together at some point.

[prince_of_beasts]

Naturally.
It's nothing that directly involves you, it's just.
Not something most people would understand.

Take care of yourself, Phil.
Let yourself be taken care of. If there's one thing I've learned from all this it's that none of us can do it alone.