"Right. Now that he can make his own decisions, he… well, he likes to. He likes being able to control parts of his own life and choose what he does and doesn't want to do. He doesn't want me controlling every facet of his life like I did when he was still a cat."
"And we shouldn't, of course," Zachary said, "But… we need to help him still. He still doesn't know how everything works, and he definitely doesn't know how dangerous gods can be…" Zachary sighed deeply, shaking his head.
(Asdfghjk I mean, he could always not end up with a god-)
(Or you could just… preferably not comment on the way we're doing things? We're not roleplaying here for your personal enjoyment, you know. We don't have to tailor to your preferences)
"Right. It's good for him to have independence and stuff of course, but… he's kind of like a child. And I'm kind of like his parent. I want him to be able to make his own choices and feel like his own person, but since I'm an authority in some fashion, we'll have to step in on occasion if he's doing something dangerous."
(wait what happened?)
(Don't worry about it)
"And right now, he's doing something really really dangerous," Zachary said. He shook his head, looking towards the door a moment.
"But he's like a teenager who's just got his first taste of freedom- he doesn't want to listen to any advice we give him."
"Exactly. He might see me as a sort of authority figure, but I don't think he would want to listen to you, honestly." Cas sighed softly to himself. "We'll have to find some way to get him to listen to reason."
"Yeah, I think he genuinely doesn't like me," Zachary said softly. "We have to be careful with how we go about this…"
"Right… I'm not entirely sure how he feels about you. I don't think he'd attack you or anything, but he definitely wary at the very least."
"Right, right, I'd never expect him to attack me," Zachary agreed. "But it will be hard to get him to listen. We just have to try, though…"
Cas nodded a bit. "We'll figure something out. I'm just not sure what the best method of getting him to listen would be, though…"
"I don't know either. I really want to avoid scaring him too much. He doesn't need more stress right now." Zachary closed his eyes a moment, resting his head on Cas's.
"Right. I'm worried about him… he's been through a lot already." Cas sighed softly. "It almost makes me wonder if he would be better off if he were just a cat again, but… I don't think any of them would go for that, and I'm not sure it's a good idea anyway."
"I don't think that would do any good for him," Zachary said, voice soft. "The best we can do for him now is help him learn, and keep him safe."
Cas nodded a bit. "Right… hopefully everything will be okay, yeah? We can… w-we can fix it."
"We can, Cas," Zachary said softly. He moved over, wrapping an arm around Cas and pulling him close to his chest.
"We can, and we will."
"Mm… okay… if you say so…" He murmured softly. "How do you propose we go about it?" He asked.
"We… we have to convince him that he can trust us to help him." Zachary let ouf a breath. Easier said than done, he knew.
"Right… that's not going to be easy. He's been betrayed a lot. I'm sure he has issues with trust now."
"Yeah… after everything that's happened, I don't know if he ever will fully trust me. I'm sure he does you, though. You've been through a lot together." Zachary looked to the door.
"Hopefully he still trusts me after all of this…" Cas sighed softly. "He might resent me now."
"Hopefully…" Zachary took a step to the door, opening it.
"If he resents you, I don't know that there's anything we can do…"
"Yeah… I guess I could try and regain his trust, but I dunno. He seems to be pretty stubborn now."
"Mm, he does." Zachary took Cas's hand, moving to the door. "Here, let's try to talk to him before Derlik wakes up."
"Ah… alright…" Cas seemed a bit nervous, but followed Zachary out the door anyway.