Oh, that's — when I was a fragile hothouse flower in Hightown, my aunt wanted a guardian in the house and I decided to presume on his — very former — connection to my uncle to piss her off by choosing a mage.
( it's a little convoluted, although familiar enough and easy to rattle off that she's clearly picked up again from where she'd been much struck by the news. )
Resultingly, every now and again he comes over all avuncular.
( At the word avuncular, there’s a small exhale of breath which is— well, yes, it’s an exhale of relief. (It’s fine, this is a normal and completely not over-invested reaction, what are you talking about.) )
I can’t imagine you ever having been a fragile hothouse flower.
( Stephen could treat it as an offhand comment, but he pauses to actually consider it, reflecting on and lining up these two hypothetical versions of themselves. )
I wouldn’t even recognise myself. Pre-sorcery, I was a real asshole. I mean, I still am, sometimes, but it was different—
( The arrogant surgeon might have had some limited time for her, but he would have discarded her just as quickly after. It’s a lost cause ruminating on it any further. He glances down at the small glow of the sending crystal held between his scarred fingers, and maybe it’s all the adrenaline and chaos and worry of the day which makes him stupid and sentimental, but he adds, voice carefully neutral, )
( Work beckons, and this ongoing emergency beckons, and this absolutely insane ridiculous week just keeps happening; he should get back to it. So, grudgingly, as they click off the line: ) You too.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
portalling) wrote2022-04-02 01:17 pm
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
( it's a little convoluted, although familiar enough and easy to rattle off that she's clearly picked up again from where she'd been much struck by the news. )
Resultingly, every now and again he comes over all avuncular.
no subject
I can’t imagine you ever having been a fragile hothouse flower.
no subject
( she doesn't sound bothered or particularly critical — it just feels obvious and true. )
I don't know that you'd even— recognise that girl.
no subject
I wouldn’t even recognise myself. Pre-sorcery, I was a real asshole. I mean, I still am, sometimes, but it was different—
( The arrogant surgeon might have had some limited time for her, but he would have discarded her just as quickly after. It’s a lost cause ruminating on it any further. He glances down at the small glow of the sending crystal held between his scarred fingers, and maybe it’s all the adrenaline and chaos and worry of the day which makes him stupid and sentimental, but he adds, voice carefully neutral, )
Glad we met when we did.
no subject
( it's a joke, except that she probably will, and that she's definitely testing the come over— waters, then: )
Got to get up to the eyrie. Stay out of trouble.
no subject
( Work beckons, and this ongoing emergency beckons, and this absolutely insane ridiculous week just keeps happening; he should get back to it. So, grudgingly, as they click off the line: ) You too.