Penance IC Inbox

[deaddrop]

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[hypoxic]

Functionally, a lateral move. Pain makes people compliant. It's better for the forces at work here if we lose hope.

[deaddrop]

Fairly on brand if you believe we're in hell.

[hypoxic]

Still a rubbish belief to have.

[ So he hopes she doesn't. ]

[deaddrop]

[Jury is still out.]

Because you think we should be trying to get out.

[hypoxic]

This isn't the sort of place we should have to stay. And I've had my fill of bouncing around prisons, to be perfectly honest.

[deaddrop]

Maybe it shouldn't be. But it's where we are. It's not so unreasonable to imagine that getting out isn't going to be realistic in the short term.

[hypoxic]

We come from a world that is regularly under threat of destruction by aliens. We've been visited by the Norse god of thunder. Accomplishing unrealistic things is what we do.

[deaddrop]

What we do isn't unlimited, though.

Look, I'm not saying I'm not looking for a way out of here too. I'm just keeping things in perspective.

[hypoxic]

If it takes some time to accomplish what we need, then so be it. Pocket dimensions offer a luxury in that respect.

[deaddrop]

But the longer we're here, the more likely we are to start accepting it.

[hypoxic]

I can be stubborn if you can.

[deaddrop]

The problem isn't that I'm not stubborn, Agent Fitz.

[hypoxic]

It's that you genuinely believe yourself dead.

[deaddrop]

I know that I am. That was the price of victory.

I can't risk losing that.

[hypoxic]

Might not be a risk. You might've stumbled into a loophole instead.

[deaddrop]

I'm not looking for a loophole. That doesn't mean I don't want to get you and everyone else who shouldn't be here out.

Just means I'm not someone who gets to go home.

[hypoxic]

You mean you've given up.

[deaddrop]

If I meant I'd given up I would have said that I gave up.

[hypoxic]

Then stop talking about being at your end. If you can do something, it isn't over.

[deaddrop]

[She doesn't argue wit him further, not seeing a lot of purpose in fighting about it here.

She shakes her head.]

I guess we'll see what we can do.

[hypoxic]

[He's overstepped a boundary. Said something offensive. He accepts her response as shutting him down, and slows half a step, head drooping. He falls silent without a thought to the pace of the conversation, turtling back into his shell.]

[deaddrop]

[Why are men so fragile? Or maybe it's just human beings.]

We weren't coming out here to talk about me, anyway.

[hypoxic]

I suppose we weren't.

[But he doesn't volunteer anything beyond that, settling into his own fragility.]

[deaddrop]

Or we can just walk if you'd rather.

[hypoxic]

Might be best.

[He's starting to feel unhelpful, so he adds a bit more as a good faith effort.]

My mind has been through a lot. Not always the easiest to parse.