She lifted her foot, Yan unclenched it, and the beetle stabbed down with another pointed forelimb to pin it to the ground.
Another thing that helps show how out of it Taylor is: She’s casually inflicting pain, barely even acknowledging what she’s doing, while carrying an unrelated conversation.
To be fair, she is good at multitasking.
“What are you doing?” Yan asked, a note of desperation in her voice.
It kinda looks like you’re getting crucified. To the floor. Which kind of disqualifies it from being called crucifixion, but still.
At the very least you’re being restrained.
Skitter didn’t respond. “Sierra? Charlotte?”
Charlotte didn’t venture a reply, but Sierra managed one. “Yeah?”
Were it not for the accompanying buzz of the bugs, Sierra suspected she wouldn’t have heard Skitter speak. “You’ve been working hard. Thank you. I didn’t expect to have anything to come back to.”
Oh man, those are some words that say a lot.
We’re getting a really good look at Taylor’s feelings here despite not being in her head. They’re easier to understand than most times this sort of thing happens because we’re used to the way her mind works, but she’s still being incredibly expressive in her lack of expression, if that makes any sense. She’s so mentally exhausted and that’s before you add her concern over being responsible for the world ending sooner.
Which she’s not. But that rarely means she’s not going to beat herself up over it, and that’s exhausting in its own way.
“It’s okay,” Sierra said. The words were a bit of a non-sequitur, but Skitter seemed to accept them.
The words, perhaps, but not the sentiment. It feels like Sierra picked up on the implicit “I’m sorry I left you to deal with my mess” and responded in kind, even if she doesn’t quite consciously know why.
“Thought you would have left,” Skitter said.
That’s.
Actually a good point.
They both could’ve left, easily, if they thought Skitter wouldn’t return. In theory, Skitter was supposed to be the only thing keeping them here. But they stayed and made the most of it, tried to take care of people and restore the community.
They too have grown to care about this place and its people.
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