It was never easy to not think about something, especially something important. But there were many thoughts that could break someone if they reached their logical conclusion. The truth wasn’t something people were born with, and it wasn’t uncommon for people to be ill prepared for one truth or another. Emotional stability was difficult to achieve and maintain, so when reality collided with belief, the mind did what it always does: whatever it takes to keep working as intended. Logic distorts, and trains of thought conceal themselves from the person thinking them - or freeze themselves in place, staying forever half finished.
That was option three: what Cedric believed was going on inside Andie’s head. She was actively not thinking something, whether she knew it or not - and something else had gotten caught in the crossfire. A vague and delicate problem. Enough information that Cedric didn’t feel right leaving it alone, but without even a hint of where to start solving it.
How frustrating. Cedric would have to deal with that later, though. Right now Dyllan was the priority.
“For the last time, guys, I’m fine.” Dyllan sighed. “I’ve said it over a dozen times now - what’s it going to take to get you to believe me?”
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“Elaboration - spoken in person and honestly.” Cedric refocused on the topic at hand. Hopefully he hadn’t lost track of the contents of the conversation while giving his attention to its delivery. “After all, ‘I’m fine’ is exactly what you would say if you were very much not fine.”
“That’s… fair, actually. I really am doing great, though.” Dyllan paused. “Like, to an almost concerning degree. This isn’t some cartoon where realizing what the problem is magically fixes it. There should still be years of healing that needs doing, but there just… isn’t.”
“I mean…” Andie chimed in - her usual enthusiasm not absent, but subdued. “You did just light all that trauma on fire. Just, ‘FWOOSH’, and it was gone.”
“And it really did seem that you got all of it.” Cedric shifted his focus from Dyllan’s expression over toward Andie’s. “Finnegan did mention ‘deep cleaning‘ when Dyllan and I first met him. Maybe it has something to do with that?”
A brief stillness overtook Andie as she scanned her memory. “Oh yeah, Grandpa did say that, didn’t he…”
Well. That was odd. Andie could be forgetful at times, sure, but her memory was damn near photographic when it came to certain things. Things like heroes and dreamwalkers. Normally, she would have been the first to bring up what Finnegan had said.