He's not sure how to extricate himself from the situation either. 'Not really in the mood for a party' makes it sound like he wants to be alone.
But saying 'I'll just go,' feels sort of abrupt when Miguel just sort of opened up? Like 'You just admitted you're grieving on a special grieving holiday with an altar dedicated to grieving but it's super awk so I'm leaving immediately.'
In a weird way it's like Branch's catankerous asocial-ness is clashing with his trollish sense of how he's supposed to over-aggressively empathize. Supposed to. Even if he's always been bad at it.
But. Branch has also been on the other end of that when he wanted to be alone.
Counterpoint: he also sometimes thought he wanted to be alone when he really didn't want to be deep down.
(Why leave the door open? Forgetfulness? Wanting to let people in but only people other than Branch?)
He thinks of something.
"My people like to give gifts. Back home, people would still leave gifts for someone they didn't really know for something like this." He doesn't know if it's okay or not. "On this holiday, can anyone leave a gift for a person who's gone? Even if they didn't know them? Or would that be, like, offensive?"
no subject
He's not sure how to extricate himself from the situation either. 'Not really in the mood for a party' makes it sound like he wants to be alone.
But saying 'I'll just go,' feels sort of abrupt when Miguel just sort of opened up? Like 'You just admitted you're grieving on a special grieving holiday with an altar dedicated to grieving but it's super awk so I'm leaving immediately.'
In a weird way it's like Branch's catankerous asocial-ness is clashing with his trollish sense of how he's supposed to over-aggressively empathize. Supposed to. Even if he's always been bad at it.
But. Branch has also been on the other end of that when he wanted to be alone.
Counterpoint: he also sometimes thought he wanted to be alone when he really didn't want to be deep down.
(Why leave the door open? Forgetfulness? Wanting to let people in but only people other than Branch?)
He thinks of something.
"My people like to give gifts. Back home, people would still leave gifts for someone they didn't really know for something like this." He doesn't know if it's okay or not. "On this holiday, can anyone leave a gift for a person who's gone? Even if they didn't know them? Or would that be, like, offensive?"