Her fingers do relax a fraction at the touch, but she doesn't look up at him. Not until he gets deeper into the story, and tells her -
Tells her that he only exists, is only alive, because someone desperate and lonely wanted someone else. It shatters all the determination to withdraw back into herself, and when she meets his gaze her expression is the most open it's ever been outside of the dreamscape.
It's easier to listen to people when you open yourself up, as it turns out. She doesn't realise it, but her hands ease entirely by the time he's finished, only gently clasping her arms. When he finishes she even snickers, low and soft, and there's a brightness back in her eyes.
"I - " It comes out rougher than she expected, and she swallows the sudden lump in her throat with a frustrated grimace. "I suppose. That all makes sense." The breaches are even fuzzier than the rest of her Barge memories, but she knows - she knows, somewhere deep in her gut, that she loved people in those too, and learned things, and carried both forward. She knows they made her more and not less.
"...I want you to keep reading. Just a bit further, I think, and you'll know why."
Just a bit further indeed. When he gets to everything with Nate, well. He's left staring at the page for several seconds before looking back up at Madelyne, eyes very wide.
"Oh." He looks at the file, then at her again. "I... Oh."
"Yeah." The rueful, crooked little smile looks strange on her face; it's the sort of expression she wore far more easily in the old days, when she didn't have anything to prove.
"Nate...he didn't really know what he was doing. He wasn't cruel on purpose." Looking back on it now, with all of her history intact and feeling truly whole - god, he was so young. "I don't even know where he is, these days."
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2024-07-23 12:45 am (UTC)Tells her that he only exists, is only alive, because someone desperate and lonely wanted someone else. It shatters all the determination to withdraw back into herself, and when she meets his gaze her expression is the most open it's ever been outside of the dreamscape.
It's easier to listen to people when you open yourself up, as it turns out. She doesn't realise it, but her hands ease entirely by the time he's finished, only gently clasping her arms. When he finishes she even snickers, low and soft, and there's a brightness back in her eyes.
"I - " It comes out rougher than she expected, and she swallows the sudden lump in her throat with a frustrated grimace. "I suppose. That all makes sense." The breaches are even fuzzier than the rest of her Barge memories, but she knows - she knows, somewhere deep in her gut, that she loved people in those too, and learned things, and carried both forward. She knows they made her more and not less.
"...I want you to keep reading. Just a bit further, I think, and you'll know why."
no subject
Date: 2024-08-03 04:21 am (UTC)"Oh." He looks at the file, then at her again. "I... Oh."
no subject
Date: 2024-08-18 08:35 pm (UTC)"Nate...he didn't really know what he was doing. He wasn't cruel on purpose." Looking back on it now, with all of her history intact and feeling truly whole - god, he was so young. "I don't even know where he is, these days."
No one has told her, and she hasn't asked.
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Date: 2024-08-30 06:10 am (UTC)He's distracted though, chest squeezed in a way that would make it hard to breathe if he needed to.
"D'you... d'you want to talk about it, any, the... the circumstances that brought you back?"
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Date: 2024-08-30 08:01 pm (UTC)"It's - all a bit moot, now. I've died and come back twice since then."