blackleatherassassin:

tamosgi:

“I… I know,” Tamos said. “You do not need to… apologize. It… it is not your fault.” It dipped its head again, ‘forehead’ against its knees, and turned up its fans.

With an audible whirr, hot air escaped from the hidden vents in its torso and slowly it began to cool. It was like taking a deep breath, and it steadied itself accordingly.

In answer to her question, it nodded. “Yes, I… I would. Very much so.”

The whirring and the warm air startled her a little bit — wasn’t it bad when computers and stuff overheated? — and she looked him over to make sure he wasn’t having some kind of malfunction or something. When she realized he was doing that on purpose, Jesi relaxed a little bit.

“Sit down on something like we are right now, right?” She sat up and put both hands on the carpet underneath them. “And keep your hands down like this, so you’re touching something, or if you’re with a friend, hold their hands or hug them, ‘cause it’ll help bring you back to reality, and you just list all of the things you see around you.”

She pointed toward the carpet.

“Carpet, wall, window, people, sign…”

Then, she looked back over at him with a smile. “It sounds ridiculous,  but it really does make the anxiety go away.”

Tamos followed where she pointed, acknowledging each object. When she finished, it nodded slowly, relaxing its legs and planting its hands on the ground as hers were. “I… I will try that. Thank you.”

It glanced around the room, flaps fluttering in interest. “It inserts logic. Basic facts repair faulty processes by establishing reality from the ‘ground up’. Fluorescent lighting fixture, approximately two-point-seven-three feet by one-point-four-two feet.” Its gaze landed on the light in question, and optic brightened minutely to match its fluorescence. It nodded, enjoying the cool slide of logic over its hectic sub-processes. It could literally feel its mind putting itself back together. “Faux mahogany table on four metal legs, approximately three-point-two feet high with a diameter of approximately four-point-eight-eight feet.”

It glanced back to her shyly, head dipped and flaps lifted in a gentle smile. “It does help. Thank you, again, ma’am.”

Source: tamosgi