2024-06-21 - Childish Warding

Mother was upset. The full extent of why was lost to Patchwork but she was.

And Patchwork wanted so badly to fix it! Patchwork's budding capacity for empathy and half-solidified dislike for any negative emotion twisted together into a new desire to cheer up its Mother.

“Mother! I'm here, I'm here! He isn't here but I am!” It clamored for her any time it felt her distress for the seven day without her Pertemarth, not understanding why its own demands for attention failed to make up for her missing mate.

The times her mind didn't feel so close were times when Patchwork settled into itself and took a moment to think.

Mother cared deeply for Pertemarth, so why had he left? Mother wasn't upset at him, just upset about his absence. So … were actions not the same as who someone was?
Words were who someone was, Patchwork thought. Words were ideas were the sum total of who Patchwork was, certainly.

Then there was Mother's thought that she … shouldn't … long for Pertemarth? Patchwork didn't understand. Frankly, Patchwork didn't think it wanted to understand something so needlessly complicated. It just wanted for things to be better without having to know why things were bad in the first place.