[Marsh knows all about ripped edges and empty places. His and the ship's don't align, precisely, but there is an ease of sympathy, a cool stinging mutuality of pain, cleansing, like alcohol on a wound.]
Shhh, I know. We'll set it to rights. Shhh, there there.
[He loves the little incomprehensible thing already; he loves easily, and it is a child in pain. He is not enough, he is not who it wants, but he's used to that, too, and nothing in him resents it, not like this. He sends is all care and reassurance and ragged aching affection, leaning against the invisible wall as he soothes and soothes.]
I don't want to leave it.
[Without even meaning to, he makes it sound curt, logistical, as though it's about having finally gotten the thing quiet, nothing like the formless and sincere sentimentality of his bleeding mind, stubborn without plan or recourse. He will have to, eventually, of course. He has dinner shift and C'Rizz to look after and more brass to acquire, eventually. But he doesn't want to. He is, perhaps, obliquely, asking for help, hoping she knows better than he does whether it will understand a promise to return.]
[spam]
Shhh, I know. We'll set it to rights. Shhh, there there.
[He loves the little incomprehensible thing already; he loves easily, and it is a child in pain. He is not enough, he is not who it wants, but he's used to that, too, and nothing in him resents it, not like this. He sends is all care and reassurance and ragged aching affection, leaning against the invisible wall as he soothes and soothes.]
I don't want to leave it.
[Without even meaning to, he makes it sound curt, logistical, as though it's about having finally gotten the thing quiet, nothing like the formless and sincere sentimentality of his bleeding mind, stubborn without plan or recourse. He will have to, eventually, of course. He has dinner shift and C'Rizz to look after and more brass to acquire, eventually. But he doesn't want to. He is, perhaps, obliquely, asking for help, hoping she knows better than he does whether it will understand a promise to return.]