I just hadn’t wanted it like this.

Ah, yeah, the whole debacle with the Nine kind of sours it, doesn’t it.

“Mm hmm.”

“We can give them the location of the Nine if they’re interested.”

Can you? They just relocated, you gotta find them again first.

“Should I give them your contact information?”

Oh man, if she does this, it might only be a matter of time before she gets a call from Dragon.

“They have enough tinkers that I’d be worried about them tracking me down.  No.

Fair enough.

If they want to get in touch, I’ll leave it to them to figure it out.  Not going out of my way.”

“Alright.”

“And one last thing.  Tell them ‘thanks for the help’.”

Ahaha, there we go, there’s the sass I was waiting for!

(Although the Protectorate did very indirectly help, by way of being at one end of the conversation that inspired Trickster to come up with the plan to save Grue.)

“Cranston here,” the woman on the end of the line replied.  “What can I do for you, Skitter?”

Oh yeah, that’s her contact at Coil’s base, right?

Cranston was the woman Coil had assigned to me, as he’d assigned employees to the others, so he wasn’t personally dealing with each of us when he had other things to focus on.

Yes.

“Need glasses.  Coil has the prescription on file from when he got me my contacts.”

While I absolutely understand the desire to get away from the hell-bowls as soon as possible, there is a stated risk of Shatterbird getting out of Regent’s control.

Also, you’re going to need another pair of lenses, for your mask. The old corrective ones would’ve been caught in the Shattering, just like your glasses.

“I’ll have them for you by morning.  Anything else?”

“No- wait.  Yeah.  Can you pass on a message to the PHQ?”

Ooh, I’m looking forward to seeing what choice words she has for them!

“Coil has contact information.  Hookwolf’s contingent exchanged contact details with the other teams, including the PHQ.”

Nice.

“No.  I mean, without going through Coil’s channels.  I need to give them a message from me.”

Hmm. Might have to seek them out on your own.

“That can be arranged.  I have a pen and paper, if you’d like me to take dictation.”

Alright, nice. Going into how she got this message to them outside of this phone call would probably be narratively pointless anyway.

“Tell them Burnscar’s dead and Bonesaw’s missing a pair of hands for at least a little while.  Four and a half members left.  If they were being honest about waiting for the right moment to strike, this is probably a good one.”

Oh yeah, that’s a good point! Let’s get them in on this at last.

“It’s not your job to look after me.  If you want to get on my case because I’m putting you and the others at risk, that’s fine.  It’s your right to yell at me for that.  But don’t make me feel bad because you can’t be the macho guy, protecting me.”

I don’t think that’s the point, Taylor, but I see where you’re coming from.

(Also, isn’t it part of his job, as leader of the team, to look after his teammates? Maybe not to this extent, but I’m just nitpicking Taylor’s claim.)

“That’s not-” he stopped.  “No.  I’m trying to say I think about you more than I should.”

Aw 🙂

I’m not entirely back on the ship yet, but it’s entirely possible that we’re heading into territory that remove the main reason I left it, namely that it was explicitly not mutual. I leapt overboard when the canon sunk it at the harbor, and now the ship is being raised from the depths using ping-pong balls.

I doubt I’ll be going back on board, mainly because since the sinking, Taylor and especially Brian have started displaying contrasting traits that make me less keen on the two of them together. If canon supports it from Taylor’s side again, I might change my mind, but for now I don’t think I’ll ever be as into it as I originally was.

Brian is a sweet guy, though, when he’s open enough to show it.

I looked away.  I might have asked whether he thought about me more than he should because he cared, or because I was a fuck up.

Have you been listening?

I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer, either way.

Fair enough.

I folded my arms.  This was uncomfortably close to what he’d been saying before.

Yes, he’s saying it again, but in a much more respectful and caring way. He did mean the core of what he was saying, to some extent, but not for it to come out the angry, hurtful way it did.

“I start thinking about how I’m supposed to protect you, get you to stop, get you to focus on a goal that’s actually attainable, because you’re so capable that you could be amazing if you stopped acting suicidal.

So…

I was so certain Taylor would blame herself for what happened to Brian, and you’re telling me it’s the other way around entirely?

He’s blaming himself for what happened to Taylor, for not being able to stop her from getting herself and the rest of the party captured by Bonesaw (among other risky plans), to such an extent that he may have had his trigger event more over that than over Aisha being in similar danger?

Dammit, the one prediction I thought I had on lockdown and Wildbow flips it completely. 😛

Then I get pissed at myself and I get pissed at you, because I can’t figure you out, and you move forward so fast that I can’t keep up.

Oh yeah, she’s quite fast-paced compared to slow-and-safe Brian over here. She skitters ahead.

I let my guard drop for one evening to focus on other things, and then I find out you’d gotten in a fight with Mannequin.”

Whoops.

I swallowed.

“I won’t lie and say I’ve suddenly realized I’m in love with you.  I don’t really know what I feel, so I can only comment on what I think.

This is relatable, honestly. It can be a gradual thing, and it’s not always easy to tell if that’s actually what it is.

I can say I respect you on a lot of levels, even if I can’t figure you out.”

Was any of the stuff you said before a reflection of your real thoughts on Taylor? Because that question is very relevant right now.

“Sure as hell didn’t sound like you respected me thirty seconds ago.”

Exactly.

“I worry about you.  You throw yourself into these situations like you don’t care if you die, like you’ve got nothing to stick around for except for those people you insist on protecting.

Ahhh. And that kind of worry can turn into anger towards the person you worry about very easily. “Why can’t you see that you need to be careful?! That I care about you?!”

And it’s worth noting that Brian is right here. Taylor has been acting, thinking, like that, and it’s been worrying me too from time to time.

Dinah, the people from your territory.  People you barely know, if at all.  And then you actually make it out okay, so you do it again, only more so.  Riskier stuff.”

Her heroic side is dangerously strong.

“And you can’t stop thinking?  I feel like that, all the time, and I have for a while.”

This might be good. Give him someone to relate to, even if it’s just a bit. Just make sure it doesn’t come across as “suck it up, I have it just as bad” and you’re good.

“They had Aisha.  So much of what I’ve done, I’ve done because I wanted to support her.  Make up for the fact that I wasn’t there when she needed it, before.  Only we’re putting her in more danger, and she doesn’t respect me enough to let me keep her out of danger.”

I feel like the bit about not being there when she needed it is even stronger given the information that Brian’s trigger story was somewhat embellished. I do think it goes beyond that one moment, though, into all the bad days Brian didn’t know Aisha had before it came to that head.

I turned around.

“And as long as I’m being honest and upfront,” he said, “I was thinking about you when I had my trigger event.”

And the shippers go wild. 😛

(I was a little confused for a moment, until I realized he was talking about his second trigger event.)