"It's not soothing but it's not actually unhelpful per se."

"If they can stretch the time dilation this far at no cost then it seems like the guess most consistent with -" handwave - "all of this is that they're trying to wait you out. In a thousand years you'll think you're likely enough to be out that you'll be willing to do things. I don't think they can stretch the time dilation that far - Sunset, now that you have the memories back how long were you in, subjectively -"

"Six, seven Years?"

"I think I can detect time dilation but I've never had the luxury of trying to do it within a given hallucination, it's just discernible in retrospect."

"That's interesting. How -"

"Dreamed back memories go when they belong, I can sort of feel the same when-ness even if I didn't have to dream it back if I try, and some of it's squished. The dreams care about real time too, I can get weeks of compressed stuff in single nights. But I've never noticed this independently while I didn't think I was in Angband and usually when I do know I'm in Angband I'm not thinking at all."

"That was a really good idea."

"Thanks."

They stay and sing and cuddle and tell harmless stories until Aydanci wakes up. 

"Love you, Kib."

"Love you." He has installed a teakettle in the room. He fixes tea for Aydanci.

He watches Kib watch Aydanci and reminds himself it's not real.

Kib waits for Aydanci to drink his tea and then grills him on what he dreamed (lots of staring at the wall brooding about Aly being dead, some work on the vaccine golems) and satisfies himself that his husband has not been replaced in his sleep.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," he says to Aydanci once Kib is satisfied. "We'd pulled critical people out of the city when the shuttle landed, but we could've put you back and scared you less. We were asking Kib if you two would rather get caught up on the dreams all at once - Cam can keep you healthy -"

"Thank you. ...I have more to catch up on than he does."

"Yeah. You could wake up when he's caught up and then keep catching up yourself. Or not do it at all, I don't really know what you're assuming is going on here or what you need."

"I think it's more likely than not that I'm not in Angband but I can't rule it out. Kib?"

"You shouldn't take my word for it on the time sense thing. It might be really hard to notice if you haven't been scrambled around..."

"...I can't say it's really obvious, admittedly..."

"You actually shouldn't take my word for it on dreaming back deletions at all."

"That... follows. I mean, I still don't think I've most likely been captured but if you don't want to sleep for years..."

"It's the sort of thing that would... It'd change something and this one's comfortable and you're still okay..."

Nod.

"It's not a bad idea I'd just need to think about it more," Kib says to Findekáno, squeezing Aydanci's hand.

"Whatever works for you. Really. It's not that I want you in a coma for years."