inbox.

[heorte]

Comments

[heorte]

[ He could maybe make a guess at the context of this, but he refrains. There's a beat of contemplative silence before he questions— ]

You flinched?

[propulsion]

Yep.

There was a rift, and it was only me and another shard-bearer, and you need more than one to close one of those bad boys. Had to show up and I didn't.

You ever had that? I mean, of course not, right.

[heorte]

Yes. I've had that.

[ the blight is different than a rift, but what tony describes here comes to the same thing as far as ellis can tell. ]

Was anyone hurt?

[propulsion]

Mm.

[ His tone makes that a 'no'. ]

Freak development bailed us out. Baudin was talking about it on the crystals, dunno if you tuned in. And if she'd chosen some other time to do something unprecedented, I don't know. Could have been bad.

I don't know if it's just 'cause I'm here or what but it's not me. I'm not that guy.

[heorte]

It's human, or so I was told.

[ ellis hadn't found that much of a comfort either. credit to warden joppa, he'd tried. ]

It will lessen in time. [ unspoken: if you're lucky ] In the meantime, you can plan for it, so you're not caught off-guard again.

[propulsion]

[ Unseen through the crystal, Tony half-smiles at the qualifier to this first thing. Relatable content. ]

And how do you do that, chief?

[ That sounds more specific -- does an Ellis do that, rather than any figurative person who might freeze up when the going gets tough. ]

[heorte]

[ Surely not process trauma in a healthy way. ]

Make sure you have someone on hand who can act when you cannot.

[propulsion]

[ That induces a weird pang outta nowhere that Tony doesn't appreciate. (Outta nowhere, as if feeling homesick and missing the people who were in your life is somehow unwarranted in this circumstance. Gross, though.) ]

Okay. Hey, thanks for volunteering.

[heorte]

[ Oh.

Ellis knows he'll make it weird if he says the first thing that comes to mind (I'm honored.) so he doesn't. There's a contemplative pause instead while Ellis rides out the rush of surprise and guilt at this sentiment. ]

You're very welcome.

[ In the extremely literal sense that Tony's welcome to prevail on him. ]

[propulsion]

[ That feels like it should be followed up by a real thanks instead of, like, A Line That Dimly Implies The Real Thing But With Extra Deniability, and Tony hesitates over that contemplation before it's dragged to the mental recycle bin. ]

Yeah, you kind of remind me about someone I guess. Tell you about it when it gets extra maudlin sometime.

[heorte]

I'll gladly listen.

[ even if he will suffer by comparison, most likely. ]

We'll need drinks for it, I assume.