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[aldhani]

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@qimir | text

[snaggleteeth]

Hello, Cassian. I do not have to be anything to you and you are nearly a stranger to me.

But you do have to be something to the people you claim to love. Maybe there was a good reason you've been found dead, alone, by your fiancée. Maybe there was no other way to do what you needed to do. But you know what it is to be used for righteous cause and thrown away. You have lived in three worlds and known the pain of loss in all of them. I invite you to imagine the rest. A future, a lifetime. Gone a week today. Another week, next time. How many more? Your loved ones left incomplete because you do not have the courage to risk grief yourself.

Here, I'm ignorant and weak as anyone. But my belief about this is neither.

Good luck with your rock. Feel better soon.

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[aldhani]

[it's not that cassian ignores this message when he returns to his phone. no, he reads it once, and then again; later, still, he comes back to it, sits with it. one part of it sticks out from the rest.

(you do have to be something to the people you claim to love.)

it's not that he ignores the message, but he doesn't address it directly when he sends something back two evenings after crawling out of the grave.]

I heard what you did. Thank you for helping her.

[snaggleteeth]

[a week and two days is enough time for emotion to evolve. the dark is not static. nothing that lives is.]

You're welcome.

[aldhani]

[it would be sufficient to leave it there. he's said what he needs to say.

but has he, actually?]

It meant a lot to know she wasn't alone.

[that's closer, even if not quite there. his eyes drift back up to the earlier message (you do have to be something to the people you claim to love), his thumb lingering there.

he thinks, a little; more, he doesn't think at all. time passes, enough time that anyone would be forgiven for thinking he's put the phone down — but he hasn't.]

I don't plan to leave her again. I don't want to do that.

[snaggleteeth]

[there's a pause—the stranger wrapping, leaving, fully waking up, shifting gears out of whatever he was doing to pay proper attention to the dead man risen.]

I just helped her dig. Not that I mind the credit. But it should go where it's due. Max is good at making friends.

[there's a vague notion, better than you and i, but is that true? 'friend' means different things to different people.]

Crises in the house will force you two apart some time. Better not to volunteer, yeah.

What happened with Angelus? Can I ask now?