Broken Boulder spin for you like your favorite records used to

for what it's worth, he is a fairly good actor: the smile does not fade from his face until the word fuck and even then his expression slips into something unreadable, appropriately attentive, not at all hurt. because he has no reason to be hurt. of course. it's a lot of information to process at once (thankfully he's pretty good at that, too) but what sticks out is: oh, alarian cheated. or not -- not cheated, but was with the.. cheater? oh this is all very complicated and thank god he'd already decided he didn't have feelings. it's pretty easy when you do that.

also: morningside. he knows morningside. "i know morningside," he says, obviously side-stepping, "they took care of anatha -- the girl who visited -- it's a long story. i can, i can talk to them, probably, smooth things out." 

he's quiet for a moment, ready to -- drop it, make some flimsy excuse and retreat. but he can't without, just, he likes clarity. and the way alarian told the story makes him nervous, so: "with aditya, it wasn't.. i mean, it was -- consensual?" he doesn't want to talk about it he doesn't but he has to be sure of that at least, because if it wasn't, he'd -- well, fuck, probably do nothing, but! -- but. he has to be sure.