The Reaction | Glowfic Constellation

try-me-later

He reaches out and hugs him. His arms are very weak and strangely jointed so it doesn't feel much like a human hug.

the-final-accounting

Leareth leans into him and weeps silently for a longish time.

Eventually he notices that he's feeling itchy about his lack of appropriate eyes and weapons. (He almost never spends this long in human form, lately.)

:I want to morph Andalite and walk around, I think: he says, reluctantly peeling himself free of Matirin. :...If you have work to do, I do not mind if you need to go back to that: Well, he sort of minds, but not endorsedly.

try-me-later

<- I should think about how this will - play out in the news - but not yet, I think. Let's walk. We could go to Canada. There is never anyone there but the bears.>

the-final-accounting

:Marian might consider that an insult to her country of origin: Leareth starts morphing. :Can you Gate there?:

try-me-later

<Yes.> He is not very good at it, not next to Leareth, but he knows some locations in Canada and he can morph Gifts and start building the Gate, squat and Andalite-sized and wavering slightly.

the-final-accounting

It's honestly very impressive for someone who's been training Gifts at all for well under a year.

<Maybe you should Yeerk me at some point> he says, absently, as he completes the morph. <To get a leg up on mage-skill. I was thinking earlier that I ought perhaps have pushed Cayaldwin to do that before now. It - would probably not have made any difference for this, it happened too quickly, but...>

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the-final-accounting

Leareth follows him through the Gate as soon as it's up.

<I mean, I have not questioned him in depth about it. He used Fetching, from almost a mile's range. Probably Farsight to aim it. The room was not shielded against Farsight since it is not offensive, that is an oversight I should repair in future. It ought have been shielded against Fetching, but - he taught himself to replicate my shielding techniques, and he must have slipped in unseen during the night and replaced that layer with his own work. The substitution was noticeable at a deeper look but not to a cursory glance, he did it very well. In any case, when one is keyed to a shield because it is one's own work, it is possible to route around it. It takes advanced skill - I would not have thought he could learn it in six months, let alone learn it as well as how to exactly duplicate my shield-technique, and sufficient Fetching control to work at that range... But he is clearly very diligent.> A hint of respect, admiration, alongside the pain.

try-me-later

He takes his Gate down. <You do not end up the commander of Andalite efforts on a planet under Yeerk assault by being incompetent or careless.> Tail-lash.

the-final-accounting

<Yes. And - I should have helped Mhalir update the backup. Once it was clear it would take months for the morph-tether work. It was - costly - required equipment concealed on a planet under Andalite occupation - would have been conspicuous, we would have needed to sneak in... Risked revealing the existence of backups, I thought it not worth the risk. But in hindsight I ought have do.> A bitter mental laugh. His tail lashes uneasily. <Hindsight always makes things very clear, though.>

try-me-later

<Yes.> He chops a bush out of their way, startles a squirrel.

the-final-accounting

<Mhalir, you mean?> Leareth keeps wanting to run, he feels restless and itchy and jagged on the inside, but there are a lot of obstacles in the way. He follows Matirin.

try-me-later

<Yes.>

the-final-accounting

<I...think...he would have surrendered anyway. Helped us anyway. Even if - he had known - this is how it would end...> Leareth slashes a tree down that's in his way, not angrily, just efficiently. <At least, I would have, in his place.>

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<He would perhaps not have given Alloran back.> Tiredly.

the-final-accounting

That's the part that hurts the most.

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Sigh. He doesn't finish the sentence.

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Leareth is curious what Matirin thinks but doesn't ask.

<Still feels worth it> he says, dully, wearily. <For the goodwill it bought us. Just - I wish - I am so angry. With myself, not Alloran.>

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the-final-accounting

Leareth falls silent. It doesn't feel like there's really anything else to be said, here. He walks at Matirin's side. Runs, whenever there's enough open space to do so. He's mostly trusting Matirin to keep an eye out for bears.

try-me-later

There are more bears than people but not objectively all that many bears, and Andalites make them nervous (correctly so, he thinks). They can make their way to some wide-open areas, and run. He doesn't have anything to say either. He keeps imagining Mhalir. Probably Alloran would have been quick about it. Probably he did not have much time to be afraid.

the-final-accounting

Leareth runs. He can't run as long as he would like to, Andalites get tired faster than humans, but he can demorph and morph again and not be tired anymore.

He knows Alloran was quick; it took less than thirty seconds for them to reach him, maybe less than ten seconds, and it was all over by then. He doesn't dwell much on it. Whether Mhalir was afraid isn't the point; those Mhalir experience-moments are gone, forever, his pattern erased from the world. The backup, if they can bring him back that way at all, won't remember any of it.

(Mhalir will be scared about so many other aspects of the situation, though...)

That's in the future and Leareth can worry about it later.

Eventually Leareth is both too tired to run in his Andalite form and unenthused at the concept of morphing again, and he stops. Heads back to Matirin, nestles up beside him. <Glad you are here.> His thoughtspeech sounds very very tired, and sad, but the glassy jaggedness is no longer in it.

try-me-later

Andalites do not usually sleep curled up around each other, lying down, but he is tired, right now, and it seems like a good time for it.

the-final-accounting

It seems like a good time for it to Leareth as well, and he's got over a day in morph before he needs to worry about demorphing. He puts up some shields and wards around them, and then snuggles up and waits for sleep to come.

He doesn't sleep all that restfully. For some stupid reason he has several nightmares about everyone on Earth dying again, even though this is in no way related to what just happened.

try-me-later