[private] I'll cross that line

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you Gale tries to imagine watching the morning sun rise in Loess, when the cast of the sky is a soft pale pink. He cannot recall the way the air had tasted (fresh and cold, the last bit of winter not yet driven out by the spring winds) or the sounds (a distant kookaburra and the wind in the trees and along the red rocks). But it is a pretty sight even without those memories, one that has always been able to hold his attention and prevent distractions. He still thinks it could, but his trouble now is looking there, when his eyes and attention are on Mazikeen. The brindle stallion’s valiant effort to be a statue wavers in the face of Mazikeen’s scowl. Why can’t she just kick him, like in a real fight? That at least he would know how to counter, instead of scrabbling for a reply to her accusation and coming up with nothing. She isn’t wrong (he does try to look at other things), but he’s visibly startled by the question of what he is avoiding. “I thought they had a lake in Hyaline.” He replies, and though his tone is sharp, the image that he sends with it is not. It’s Mazikeen, as Gale sees her. Which is mostly as she is in front of him now, though there is somehow also fire and lightning and the image of the world around her moves as though she is the center of all its gravity. He feels oddly exposed in sharing it, having never done such a thing before, but it had felt like the right thing to do in the moment, to show her what she asked. The image is what he has been trying to avoid seeing though, and he releases it fairly quickly. That serves only to remind him of where he is truly standing, which is still leaning against Mazikeen and she pushes back against him. “You are the most frustrating creature I have ever met.” he tells her, and though the words are gruff and his eyes narrowed, he is more baffled than angry. Why can she not just do as he says, and leave him alone? Why does she insist on staying when he has asked her to leave? @[Mazikeen]