Break's Over

"Helloooooo? Anybody there?"

Scylla huffed, tapping her digital foot on the digital floor that she created specifically for that purpose. Being able to reshape one's surroundings was oh so nice to help portray one's mood. Like frustration, for instance.

"You can't keep hiding forever, you know," she called out through the computer's speakers. "I know you pretty darn well by this point, so I know you need your daily dose of compy time eventually."

More silence answered her. With an even more frustrated groan she took hold of the laptop's camera and focused it on the room's sole occupant. He was laying silently on his bed, staring blankly at the vaulted ceiling, hands folded across his chest. A more morose looking person she had yet to see, and one of her fathers had a horribly tragic backstory for goodness sake!

"So how much time do you have scheduled for moping over there, cause I'm fairly sure you have to go to work at some po-"

"I get it, alright."

He finally sat up, glaring blearily at her screen.

"You want me to get back to work, but… damnit, it's not that simple!"

"Yes, actually, it is," Scylla argued. "All you have to do is open up that improved Google Docs I made for you, sit down at the keyboard a-"

"It's been a YEAR, Scylla. Literally a whole year." His exaggerated hand waving reminded her of those wacky wavey inflatable arm flailing flail men (™). "You can't seriously expect me to just jump back into in like nothing has happened!"

"Well how else do you expect to start up again?" she asked in a reasonable tone, which honestly felt icky to her. Why was she being the voice of reason here? "Do you expect someone to just come in and help you start up free and clean with no input on your part?"

He rolled his eyes. "Obviously not, but that's not what I mean."

"Well what do you mean then?"

Come on, take the bait. Explain your problem so you can come up with the solution on your own…

"It's just… every time I take a huge break it feels bad to come back, no matter how much apologizing I do. This is by far the worst one though, cause this is A LITERAL YEAR. I can't just sweep that under the rug!"

Scylla spontaneously poofed a witches' broom into her hand, quickly joined by her shark tail becoming another broom with green spindles. "I challenge that assertion!"

"You challenged the internet to a calculation contest and won, Scylla. Challenges mean something different to you than they do to me."

"Technically it wasn't the whole internet…"

Her human friend groaned, falling back on his bed and pulling the covers over his eyes.

This is going to be harder than I thought. WHELP.

Scylla manifested several extra pairs of hands so she could crack the knuckles of all of them. "Look, Phoenix, buddy, pal, matey, friendo, mi amigo, my little brony."

"Got any more?" his voice asked, muffled by the fluffy material over his face.

"Zillions, but I'll stop there. Look, here's my point." She gestured to her pointy teeth, unable to help herself the pun. "The only way you're going to get over your funk is by just diving back into it. If you constantly fret about what you haven't done you'll never actually do anything, and that's just going to make the problem worse."

From the rustling under the blanket she could tell that she was making headway, so she pressed on.

"Whatever mistakes you've made, I promise that you'll be able to move past them. Heck, look at all the other work you've accomplished in your time away! You've more than proven you can make some good stuff when you're motivated!"

The covers left his face as he retorted with, "Ah yes, motivation. That thing that killed my story progress to begin with."

Scylla shrugged. "So you got bored with the story for a while. It happens. Everyone takes breaks sometimes. But if you stay away forever, you're gonna be disinterested forever. Best way to make it matter again is dive back in, treat it as a challenge. Don't you remember all the fun stuff you had going on? Like me!"

The stare she got in response would have been off-puttingly annoying for anyone else, but she took it in stride (stroke? stroke). "Don't give me that look, you know I'm awesome, even if I am mildly unbalancing."

"That understatement is so massive the black hole at the center of our galaxy is looking thin in comparison."

"Are you calling me fat?" Scylla the oversized whale shark asked indignantly.

"No, you're just big data'ed." The smirk he sported after that one caused her to giggle. "Fine. Let's say I start up again, what do I do if people get annoyed at how long I was away?"

"What you always do: apologize, explain your reasons, then move on. If anyone kicks up a serious fuss, try to address their concerns but don't obsess over it. Your story is your story, yadda yadda, why am I explaining this to you?! You're the one who explains this to your friends for goodness sake!"

He sighed. "Yeah, well… easier to give advice than to follow it sometimes…"

"Let's make this the other time then, huh?" With a single pulse of data she pulled up a web page that had gathered quite a bit of digital dust. "Now's the time bud. Time to have fun again?"

He sighed again, but it was less of a depressed noise and more of a reluctantly relenting relaxation of retirement. Retroactively. Righting himself he strode over to the desk, falling heavily in his chair coming to a halt staring down at her through the screen.

"Okay… break's over?"

Scylla nodded. "Season two of Humanity's Stand starts right… now!"