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"Look," he begins, "not that I expect I'd find this convincing in your position, but -" and then the ground shimmers under them and half a second after that it's not there at all.
They fall.
The ground they hit instead is cold and muddy. The stars are exceptionally bright, and close overhead.
" - what?" says Ryan.
Alex doesn't answer him. Alex is looking out into the darkness, horrified.
Handsqueeze.
(She can do this, she can do this, she can do this, she can do this - )
She follows him back.
" - yeah. Maybe. Uh, do we...?"
She's not really even sure how that sentence is supposed to end.
He waits a bit to see if she's going to finish that sentence. "We can keep talking about comic books.
Technically you can take surprisingly little clothing off, if that's more comfortable."
She's kind of very tempted to accept this offer. It also kind of sounds like a coward's way out. She wishes the butterfly-knots would stop so that she could think better.
"I think - I think it might go better without them. Maybe."
"Okay. All covered in blankets is also an option if that works - as well and feels less avoidant or something -"
" - yeah. Maybe. That sounds like it might be a good idea." Maybe if she says more words it'll be less obvious that she isn't saying anything with them.
She heads for the bed.
...well, Karen, if you're gonna take your clothes off then you're gonna need to take physical actions to make that happen. She can do that. She can. She's weirdly aware of every motion she's taking, like a robot that has to execute each specific command precisely and that can't do tasks as large as 'take off shirt' as a unit, but she can and she does. And now she is naked and on a bed. This is probably progress.
"I think so. I think - slowly. But yeah.
" - I'm really glad you're here? In the sense of - there are a lot of random people on Earth and probably a lot that work at the Bureau facility. And I think you're probably a lot nicer and more understanding than most of them. And I like you better than I would have liked most of them. So - I'm glad you're here."
He gets a blanket. - actually why not two, if the weight is reassuring or something. He tucks it in around her, taking longer at this than actually necessary. "You're - I think a lot of people would have an easier time with this but I can't imagine any trying harder. I'm - I'm impressed with you."
He slips his hands under the blankets to give her a back massage. "If we haven't gotten anywhere in two hundred I think I might suggest we call it quits."
Half-laugh. "All right. At that point we should maybe move on to whatever plan B is."
She is maybe kind of excessively tense. If she focuses on loosening all of the knots inside herself then she can make some progress there, though.
He doesn't comment on that. "I asked what they did last time and they said they just kind of besieged Angband for four hundred years until something happened. Not really the kind of plan humans would come up with."
"I think humans are pretty neat. Not just because our babies can be used for rituals, either, that seems pretty unrelated."
"We are pretty neat. We went to the moon that one time, I thought that was cool of us."
"Gosh. The other Tyelcormo did tell me that the world was flat, I guess."
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