Interdimensional gate-crashing is a physical impossibility

[cutting_edgex23]

X slips in through the front door of her apartment, ducking down to bar Steve McQueen's passage out into the hallway.

Farrah makes her own break for it several seconds later.

Apparently she is learning from the best.

X does not sigh.

There would be very little point.

Comments

[ellectrical]

Elle looks to the far wall, of the room, eyes unfocused in thought. Rather than returning the gesture, without seeming to realize it, she moves very slightly away.

"I don't know."

[cutting_edgex23]

X stays where she is, though her gaze flicks toward the far wall as well.

Just in case she is missing something.

"Okay."

Sometimes not knowing happens.

X has learned that, if nothing else.

[ellectrical]

Beat.

"I just still don't like it."

[cutting_edgex23]

There are reasons X likes being busy. Some of them are the same reasons that she likes being around people.

But articulation of her thoughts has never been X's strong point.

Which is why she stays silent for a few long moments, watching Elle.

Then --

"I am supposed to ask? Or it is better to talk about other things."

Segues are also not her thing.

[ellectrical]

"Ask what?"

Elle's still looking at the wall, but there's nothing particularly cold or distant in her voice.

[cutting_edgex23]

It takes a second for X to put better words together.

"If you mind."

Beat.

"Not doing things that other people do. Or doing things that other people do not."

It's something X thinks about sometimes. She is not sure if that is good or bad.

Or useful at all.

[ellectrical]

"It's not about what other people do."

[cutting_edgex23]

"Oh."

X absorbs that for a few seconds, expression pleasantly blank.

Then --

"I do not understand."

[ellectrical]

"It's about trust."

Certainly not something Elle could have pieced together so clearly before. Of course, trust is also something other people do - but it's a little more complicated than that.

[cutting_edgex23]

"Yours. For them."

It's only a little bit of a question.

Clarification is important.

[ellectrical]

"Yes." She says it without hesitation.

[cutting_edgex23]

"Okay," X says, after a moment's pause.

"It is difficult to feel safe."

[ellectrical]

"Something like that," she agrees again.

[cutting_edgex23]

"I do not know better words."

It is matter-of-fact.

These things happen.

[ellectrical]

"I know."

Beat.

"It's hard to know who to worry about."

[cutting_edgex23]

"In Milliways, too."

It is agreement.

X still does not like milkshakes.

[ellectrical]

Beat.

"Then how do you do it?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"I do not sleep much," X says, after a moment's thought.

"And I am very difficult to lie to."

Beat.

"That makes it easier. It did when I was not small anymore."

It was different when she was little. Very, very different.

"And -- "

This is the one that is most difficult to articulate.

"I do not want to be what they made me."

[ellectrical]

Elle doesn't answer.

After a moment, she pulls her legs up onto the sofa, and curls up around them.

[cutting_edgex23]

X does not mimic her movements.

She simply falls silent, stays right where she is, and waits.

[ellectrical]

"That's good for you."

It's entirely true. Elle doesn't know how else to say it.

[cutting_edgex23]

"You are not me," X says, after another moment.

"I know."

[ellectrical]

"I know," she repeats.

Then, Elle abruptly rubs at her face. "I'm sorry."

[cutting_edgex23]

X's expression remains blank.

"Why?"

[ellectrical]

Elle shakes her head, and curls further back into her corner of the sofa.

Still, she asks, "How was it?"