(Okay, maybe she can be a bit clingy. As a treat! For being so well-behaved!)

"Um." fuck. How to even - "I... shouldn't?" Ugh.

"...ask me again when I'm clear? I can explain it better, then."

"That's kind of been my plan, yeah, I am not sure what your deal is but I do get a more-mental-than-physical vibe and would love to hear from you with all of your brain in working order."

"It's mental, yeah." (And so's she! Haha, get it?) "...seems like most things compatible with loneliness would be?"

"Not necessarily! I met a Brit once I was quite decently compat with whose backlash was anaphylaxis. The galaxy-brained opposites thing can get really galaxy-brained."

"Anaphylaxis. Huh. That's... Huh."

"My guess is that, like, anaphylaxis is about things being identified as dangerous even if they aren't? Swelling up to keep stuff out, rallying the microbial troops to handle threats, definitely not inviting them in for tea and gossip. Tragically the hookup was awful."

Something at the end there gives her some kind of emotional reaction before she tucks it neatly away. "Huh! Yeah, I can see that. ...'s a shame."

(Come on, say something,)

"What were you in Britain for?"

"Wasn't, he came across the pond for a weirdass psychic dungeon."

Wow! Who could have foreseen the possibility a Brit might leave Britain? Not Cara, apparently!

(it feels like we're being a bit melodramatic, here, she thinks to herself. ???fuck you???, her brain replies, which, like. fair.)

She sighs. "Do you ever go overseas for dungeons?"

"Not often but a few times. I did Arrakis last time it showed, in Casablanca."

"Neat! We travel a decent amount for work but never that far, we usually -"

aaaaand now she's sobbing and clinging to him. "I - she's -" 

Hug. Hug hug.

"I c-could see it happening and she yelled at me while I was reaching for it and t-told me not to and I - I -" She's hyperventilating too badly to finish the sentence (which is kind of pathetic, when you think about it shut!! up!!)

"Oh my god, that's horrible."

It takes her a bit to calm down enough to clarify but she really should, so she forces herself to breathe. "S-she said it would have k-killed me to t-try and, I was, I was p-pretty far away, but she -" and oops it's More Sobbing Time! 

"I am so sorry that happened, that's awful."

"It's - if I'd've been closer - If I'd've been faster -" if I had actually cared about her the way she cared about me - 

WOW he kind of wishes he could shut up and merely hug her instead of having to find new ways to say that it sucks when your partner dies in front of you by being a bad triage tradeoff. "Letting somebody go is always the worst even if you barely know them, I can hardly imagine."

Well, Cara can't either! She didn't get to let go! The choice was made for her! (Who are you kidding, you didn't even try to fight it, you let her die-) This is stupid that's not even what he meant, 

She does a bit of a hysterical cry-laugh. "I don't - recommend the experience -" 

"Yeah I can't say you're making it look really appealing." Hug hug.

This makes her cry-laugh much harder! "Well I'm glad I'm not - falsely advertising it -"

She clings to him like he's a log in a storm.

"It'd probably be a really fucked up thing to do if you were doing it yeah."

"They say misery loves company but I cannot imagine this being more fun if someone else was going through it right next to me-" 

(Honestly, it just sounds unpleasantly distracting! Imagine trying to have a miserable pity party and having to worry about Tia's other partner who presumably had a less inconvenient backlash, and therefore -)

"Well, as of my last information all my loved ones are fine."