war table: one giant leap.

[propulsion]

WHO: Intrepid heroes
WHAT: Forging a path to the second Crossroads Gate, and then poking it with sticks.
WHEN: Late Drakonis
WHERE: The Crossroads
NOTES: n/a

Comments

[heorte]

There's no humor in this moment, not really, but some shade of amusement shifts the expression on Ellis' face. This is a little like a joke Abby's telling to him, without anyone in earshot who might advise her how useless it is to implore Ellis to think about what he wants.

She is young, Ellis thinks. He had known this of Abby, though she is taller than he is, capable with a weapon, hard and unyielding in a way that tells him she's been through hardships of her own. But she is still young. And this entreaty—

It isn't enough to shift the calcified core of resolve that Ellis has carried for nearly half his life. But it does hold him there, watching her, while he tries to work his way towards some kind of reassurance.

"I chose this."

It is true, to some extent. Ellis chose to become a Warden. His reasons for doing so are not pertinent to this conversation.

"You're kind to worry," he tells her. "But I'm not afraid. It's what a Warden is meant for."

And he's a Warden. (And he hasn't care what happened to him for a very long time. Barely cares now.) There are very few of them among Riftwatch who can attend to this, and it would be unforgivable if he were to shirk that duty.

[armd]

I'm not, is what she opens her mouth to say. Not worried, but–

Is it so bad that, over time, she's grown to like the people that she works and shares a living space with? (Yes. But that has nothing to do with this moment, and everything to do with old, ingrained fears, she knows that. Maybe she shouldn't let that affect her so badly. It does anyway.)

Ellis is looking at her. He's got a strange expression that Abby can't read perfectly, but she's gathered that he thinks she is being naïve.

"... Okay."

She doesn't know a lot of things about being a Warden. He does, it's his call to make. Her attention flickers toward the blighted Rift, and she wishes she had something to do, some part to play. "What are you going to do?"