His mind's still trying to put all the details here together. Not easy to work around all the other shit crowding up his head right now, but it keeps trying anyway. Little easier in here. Might be down to all the wood and paper, even if it still smells weird in here. The smell's probably down to all the metal.
Wood, paper. Different furniture. Different enough from everything else outside the room that it's all probably pretty expensive. Being able to slot even that much into place relaxes him a little, and he tries to focus on that while he watches Aden pour the drinks.
Pours them out in the open, not adding anything else. Smaller glass for himself -- glass, that mean expensive here too? It would have back home -- and bigger one for the Bull, where lots of guys would have poured equal sizes to try and prove they can drink as much as he can. Aden's too confident though, real confidence, so Bull already knew figured he isn't the type.
More relaxed look to him than he Bull's used to, in a way that lets him piece things together in retrospect. He's seen that kind of change in guys whose injuries never healed right, the way they held themselves before and then after. Never enough aqun-antaam to go around back then, so you did what field healing you could and then just learned to keep an eye out for it. What's gone from Aden now is a particular kind of tension, a pain that's different from the slow undercurrent of the aches and pains that the Bull's more used to, a pain that sits on the body differently. Would make the Bull feel a little better too, figuring that out, if he had any idea if it was important or not.
Next, and this one he knows is important: Aden talks about the people he gives orders to like they owe him, instead of the other way around. Fits in with the leader he saw out there who casually stabbed one of his own guys -- still got to figure out what healing's like here, still got to figure out if he can handle figuring any of this out because meditation hasn't worked right since he left the Qun so nothing short of getting knocked over the head and dosed with something is going to give him a break from any of this.
He takes a slow, heavy breath, takes the bigger glass when it's handed to him, forces an empty space into his thoughts while everything else presses in on every side. Focus on his hand on the glass. The smell of it. Familiar smell, if he had to guess he'd say some kind of whiskey, the kind you're not actually supposed to pour in big glasses like this. Hard not to appreciate the fact that Aden poured it all for him anyway. Can't actually say what's expensive and what's not here, but it smells expensive.
Another slow breath. The smell of the whiskey, that odd background smell of the metal in the air. Feeling of the wall at his back. The focus of holding glass in his hand and knowing the slightest twitch could break it.
Okay. Priorities. Find out how things are run here, what Aden's attitude toward his own guys means. When Aden's approval's the only thing keeping him alive out here that's going to be tricky. Can't figure any of it out now, so don't. Right now, figuring out what the goal needs to be is going to be enough.
"I lose it and people tend to die. Don't want to risk it near any of your people, camp or not." He takes a moment, and another breath. Smells the whiskey, keeps that space in his thoughts clear. "Thanks, though.
"So," he tries, because there's one thing he actually can ask Aden about. "Time went a little funny on me, right? Remember you being back there in the uh, the Void or... whatever with the rest of us, but. Kind of feels like you've had some time to settle in." He blows out a vaguely amused breath. "Always like that with the shitting Fade, huh? Thought I was done with all that messed up time bullshit."
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Wood, paper. Different furniture. Different enough from everything else outside the room that it's all probably pretty expensive. Being able to slot even that much into place relaxes him a little, and he tries to focus on that while he watches Aden pour the drinks.
Pours them out in the open, not adding anything else. Smaller glass for himself -- glass, that mean expensive here too? It would have back home -- and bigger one for the Bull, where lots of guys would have poured equal sizes to try and prove they can drink as much as he can. Aden's too confident though, real confidence, so Bull already knew figured he isn't the type.
More relaxed look to him than he Bull's used to, in a way that lets him piece things together in retrospect. He's seen that kind of change in guys whose injuries never healed right, the way they held themselves before and then after. Never enough aqun-antaam to go around back then, so you did what field healing you could and then just learned to keep an eye out for it. What's gone from Aden now is a particular kind of tension, a pain that's different from the slow undercurrent of the aches and pains that the Bull's more used to, a pain that sits on the body differently. Would make the Bull feel a little better too, figuring that out, if he had any idea if it was important or not.
Next, and this one he knows is important: Aden talks about the people he gives orders to like they owe him, instead of the other way around. Fits in with the leader he saw out there who casually stabbed one of his own guys -- still got to figure out what healing's like here, still got to figure out if he can handle figuring any of this out because meditation hasn't worked right since he left the Qun so nothing short of getting knocked over the head and dosed with something is going to give him a break from any of this.
He takes a slow, heavy breath, takes the bigger glass when it's handed to him, forces an empty space into his thoughts while everything else presses in on every side. Focus on his hand on the glass. The smell of it. Familiar smell, if he had to guess he'd say some kind of whiskey, the kind you're not actually supposed to pour in big glasses like this. Hard not to appreciate the fact that Aden poured it all for him anyway. Can't actually say what's expensive and what's not here, but it smells expensive.
Another slow breath. The smell of the whiskey, that odd background smell of the metal in the air. Feeling of the wall at his back. The focus of holding glass in his hand and knowing the slightest twitch could break it.
Okay. Priorities. Find out how things are run here, what Aden's attitude toward his own guys means. When Aden's approval's the only thing keeping him alive out here that's going to be tricky. Can't figure any of it out now, so don't. Right now, figuring out what the goal needs to be is going to be enough.
"I lose it and people tend to die. Don't want to risk it near any of your people, camp or not." He takes a moment, and another breath. Smells the whiskey, keeps that space in his thoughts clear. "Thanks, though.
"So," he tries, because there's one thing he actually can ask Aden about. "Time went a little funny on me, right? Remember you being back there in the uh, the Void or... whatever with the rest of us, but. Kind of feels like you've had some time to settle in." He blows out a vaguely amused breath. "Always like that with the shitting Fade, huh? Thought I was done with all that messed up time bullshit."