[ This is honestly the wildest interaction Matt's had in weeks, if not months, and it's only just started. You too good to just hold the damn thing ricochets through his mind like a silver ball navigating a pinball machine--bouncing off insecurities and griefs, swirling around some unexamined abelism, passing through a tunnel of scarlet pain and unraveling and a voice demanding begone--
Matt ends up laughing. Not loud or long, in the grand scheme of things, but longer and louder than he expects to. He can't even bring himself to resist his map being grabbed away, though the fingers of his right hand tighten reflexively around his list.
(The fingers of his left hand want to tighten too. But of course, they no longer exist.) ]
Um, [ Matt says, mouth twitching up at the corners, ] I mean, define progress.
[ He sobers most of the way up in short order. This person seems to be assessing him, and Matt can never tell whether he's being assessed for insufficient loyalty to the secret-policing agenda, or a surfeit of it. His own expression grows searching. ]
no subject
Matt ends up laughing. Not loud or long, in the grand scheme of things, but longer and louder than he expects to. He can't even bring himself to resist his map being grabbed away, though the fingers of his right hand tighten reflexively around his list.
(The fingers of his left hand want to tighten too. But of course, they no longer exist.) ]
Um, [ Matt says, mouth twitching up at the corners, ] I mean, define progress.
[ He sobers most of the way up in short order. This person seems to be assessing him, and Matt can never tell whether he's being assessed for insufficient loyalty to the secret-policing agenda, or a surfeit of it. His own expression grows searching. ]