[ She steps back, and immediately Hei feels bereft, unsteady on his pins. Her words make his breath catch for a moment, as if snagged on an unseen nail, on regret that has sharpened up unexpectedly. ]
[ He is aware how time can fork, run at different speeds in different dimensions. But he doesn't think he can grasp, emotionally, how much time he's lost to that space warp. He knows the number of years, he sees the changes in this world -- those in Korra. She's held on to that sweet bodily wildness he'd surrendered to, but it's wintrier now. Older. His mind can barely grasp the enormity of it. Perhaps it will make him insane if he absorbs it completely. ]
I --
[ He has no idea what to say. What to feel. Three whole years, and they've dribbled away like nothing. She tells him, I thought you were dead. It sounds like a rebuke, but also a plea, and at the same time a dismissal. ]
[ Maybe he shouldn't be here? What if she'd grieved and moved on, put him away in the less-trammeled sections of her memory -- an enemy-turned-ally, for a little while, a lover, a curiosity she'd welcomed despite the ruins and risks, a strange presence who'd left her life as disastrously as he'd invaded it -- as he'd always predicted she would. ]
[ Maybe she's otherwise situated now? Maybe... ]
I ... went across galaxies. Different planets. Across and through, with Chekov. [ He huffs out a laugh, or something bitterly close to it, like he's aware how it sounds. Like that dumb Beatles number. Across the Universe. ] Time isn't absolutely linear. I knew it might be a while before I got back. But...
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Date: 2014-12-02 01:42 am (UTC)[ He is aware how time can fork, run at different speeds in different dimensions. But he doesn't think he can grasp, emotionally, how much time he's lost to that space warp. He knows the number of years, he sees the changes in this world -- those in Korra. She's held on to that sweet bodily wildness he'd surrendered to, but it's wintrier now. Older. His mind can barely grasp the enormity of it. Perhaps it will make him insane if he absorbs it completely. ]
I --
[ He has no idea what to say. What to feel. Three whole years, and they've dribbled away like nothing. She tells him, I thought you were dead. It sounds like a rebuke, but also a plea, and at the same time a dismissal. ]
[ Maybe he shouldn't be here? What if she'd grieved and moved on, put him away in the less-trammeled sections of her memory -- an enemy-turned-ally, for a little while, a lover, a curiosity she'd welcomed despite the ruins and risks, a strange presence who'd left her life as disastrously as he'd invaded it -- as he'd always predicted she would. ]
[ Maybe she's otherwise situated now? Maybe... ]
I ... went across galaxies. Different planets. Across and through, with Chekov. [ He huffs out a laugh, or something bitterly close to it, like he's aware how it sounds. Like that dumb Beatles number. Across the Universe. ] Time isn't absolutely linear. I knew it might be a while before I got back. But...
[ I didn't realize how long. ]