It isn't strange, but as ever to continue to focus on the wrong thing. [Alhaitham knocks their foreheads lightly as they come together.] You're trying to fix something that isn't yours to fix and interpret it only in the way that removes our own agency in our decisions. Do you think the things Midnight did wouldn't break that trust even if he'd earned it first?
[But Alhaitham, too, can't stand knowing. He wants to know what it is that he felt trust in Midnight in a way he's never known in his conscious memory.]
It would. But Alhaitham - if he had earned that trust from you, then he would never break it to begin with. [ kaveh says this before he's even thought it through - and then knows it to be true. ] That's the sort of man Midnight is.
And you saw that in him, in one iteration, or you wouldn't have, well, [ archons, it's still hard. he pushes out the world at a clip: ] s-slept with him.
Does that absolve his actions in this iteration, just because he withheld in another? Which, may I remind you, is conjecture we're making based on a lack of any further context.
[He smooths his hand over Kaveh's cheek.] ... Is it hurting you that much?
[ kaveh pillows his face into alhaitham's chest. ] And don't start with the 'apparently'. You watched the same thing I did. There's nothing apparent about it.
[Alhaitham puffs out a breath, but the arms around Kaveh are sure, and warm.]
Of course you would take this the worst of anyone. [Also, these arms are not letting Kaveh escape anytime soon.] At best, that was in the past. No matter how it went, we have the decisions we do remember making now to contend with. What else can any of us do with this information except acknowledge it?
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[But Alhaitham, too, can't stand knowing. He wants to know what it is that he felt trust in Midnight in a way he's never known in his conscious memory.]
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And you saw that in him, in one iteration, or you wouldn't have, well, [ archons, it's still hard. he pushes out the world at a clip: ] s-slept with him.
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[He smooths his hand over Kaveh's cheek.] ... Is it hurting you that much?
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[ ... ] Wait, what are we talking about?
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[ kaveh pillows his face into alhaitham's chest. ] And don't start with the 'apparently'. You watched the same thing I did. There's nothing apparent about it.
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Of course you would take this the worst of anyone. [Also, these arms are not letting Kaveh escape anytime soon.] At best, that was in the past. No matter how it went, we have the decisions we do remember making now to contend with. What else can any of us do with this information except acknowledge it?