...answering would require thought but he looks almost tempted to invest it, for a moment.

Oh, Kib, are you there - "You can't hurt me with them."

- nope, thought does not seem to be happening.

"Did Thauron talk to you today?"

"No."

He closes his eyes and builds Lorien in his head. It's not somewhere he ever spent a lot of time. But. "There's something I want you to see, will you look?" and he sends the feel of the memory.

"'kay."

Here they are. Even by the light of the Trees it wasn't too bright. Stunningly pretty. Quiet. Safe. In his own head Maitimo is not an amputee, and his hair reaches all the way down his back, and he's still able to not-even-pretending smile...

Do you want to go back to Valinor?

No opinion.

Angband, then. Stunning, how easily that image forms. Do you want to go back there.

Is a small unhappy noise an opinion? Kib can do "small unhappy noise".

He dismisses it. So if your only moods are 'no' and 'neutral' we can probably eventually get somewhere with that. But if you could add 'yes' we could do it without scaring you, and I don't want to scare you...

Sigh.

Probably won't work. But -

Anguished. I need you to tell me. When I was rescued, was that real?

Yeah.

I'm safe now?

Yes.

Are you safe now?

Dunno. Is that better than not answering?

Yes; makes it feel more like a conversation. When you don't answer I feel like I'm just sitting here clinging to your body.

Oh.

If I thought that were helping you it'd be fine. But since I don't think it is helping you -

...could.

You should. Just to think about where you want to be and what you want us to do.The Enemy does memories, anyway, not surface thoughts.

Do whatever you want with me.