[The gesture is small, but resonating. The connection grounds them in this time and place, and Thancred’s declaration that they will resist becoming only a shell of their former selves… It feels like a promise.
All at once, Stephen’s throat tightens. The many taut wires which feel as though they string through his muscles, keeping him upright, snap one by one. He sits next to him, finally, his drink jostling in its cup — the sorcerer does his best to swallow down the ball bearing in his throat.]
...Of course we are.
[He turns his wrist, angling his hand so that he can grip Thancred’s more tightly. Reassurance, comfort, and steel for them both.]
I’m not going to forget ever again.
[He can’t. He still has people waiting for him back home. He intends to fulfill his responsibility here by making certain the Singularity’s connection to all magic and worlds does not endanger Earth, but someday he will return to his duties. He can’t abandon them.]
And I want to fight forgetting. I’ll help you, if you help me.
[Maybe it’s best to think of what happened to them as a warning of what can happen, rather than what will happen. One more possibility in a million of them — if Stephen frames it in this way, then maybe it’s nothing terribly new to his experiences.]
no subject
All at once, Stephen’s throat tightens. The many taut wires which feel as though they string through his muscles, keeping him upright, snap one by one. He sits next to him, finally, his drink jostling in its cup — the sorcerer does his best to swallow down the ball bearing in his throat.]
...Of course we are.
[He turns his wrist, angling his hand so that he can grip Thancred’s more tightly. Reassurance, comfort, and steel for them both.]
I’m not going to forget ever again.
[He can’t. He still has people waiting for him back home. He intends to fulfill his responsibility here by making certain the Singularity’s connection to all magic and worlds does not endanger Earth, but someday he will return to his duties. He can’t abandon them.]
And I want to fight forgetting. I’ll help you, if you help me.
[Maybe it’s best to think of what happened to them as a warning of what can happen, rather than what will happen. One more possibility in a million of them — if Stephen frames it in this way, then maybe it’s nothing terribly new to his experiences.]