'start small'? u_u hermann, please.

[chalkdusts]

Well, you certainly jumped right in feet first, as the saying goes. It would have been wiser, I think, to start with something familiar before you went mucking about with other universes.

Still, I suppose it's a brief respite from impending doom, so perhaps I should thank you for that.

Comments

[ambidexter]

A little optimism never hurt, I'll toast to that.

[chalkdusts]

.. Oh. [ he's aware that there's a divide, of course, that things in his version of earth went quite differently in some ways, but still--. ] It's been.. a very long time. [ a faint, tired twitch of a smile. ] We could certainly do with a bigger dose of it lately. Optimism, that is.

[ambidexter]

Yeah? [ Raleigh's bemusement shows on his face, if not his body language. ] Well, the worst's over, so there's something to feel optimistic about, right?

[chalkdusts]

Oh dear, not for me, I'm afraid. Alternate.. universes, you know. After all, the Rift only connected us to one, but the numbers are infinite.

[ a slightly dizzy pause, rubbing his temple with the hand not supporting himself on his cane. ] .. My situation is decidedly bleak, though I'm relieved to hear that it isn't so elsewhere. Mako would be happy to know that you'd lived.

[ambidexter]

That I—

[ The last two words hit him like the left hook of a level four, to be basic with descriptions, and it leaves Raleigh with his mouth open and his mind steeply blank for a heartbeat or two. Possibly two, and two more, as the words' definition sinks its teeth into the meat of his mind. ]

Is she— What. So I died where you're from?

[ And Yancy? ]

[chalkdusts]

You did. [ his voice is small, exhausted, and he removes his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose. ] So did Newt, I'm afraid. In the Drift. [ a gesture to his own temple. he doubts he has to explain what that means, though he supposes his situation is slightly more complicated, given that they'd been drifting with the kaiju at the time. ]

It all went a bit sideways. I rather like your world's relatively happy ending better.

[ambidexter]

We lost Stacker. And Chuck. Pretty much every pilot that isn't me or Mako, they're gone.

[ It's a bitter pill to swallow, much less have on the tongue. He tries not to think about it too often. ]

How bad is it?

[chalkdusts]

.. Everyone but Mako. Hercules Hansen is Marshall, now. [ a short, sharp little laugh. ] Not that it matters overmuch. The Rift wasn't closed, though the damage done was enough to give us a bit of a break. However, we're only delaying the inevitable at this point. --And Vanessa refuses to allow me to meet my daughter.

[ a pause. ] Not, mind you, that I've given up yet. Mako hasn't, after all, bless her.

[ambidexter]

Same with us, Herc's the marshall now, too.

[ That's one constant, at least. Raleigh doesn't laugh; he tries to smile, but it doesn't reach his eyes when he does. He wants to ask why it didn't close, the rift - did they miss it? Were they late, even by a second? Did the bomb not work, or was the rift too unstable for it to work? How was Mako holding up?

(It's stupid to ask; she would survive, because she's not the kind of person to hide from the things that life throws her way. He knows this.) ]

You've got a little girl?