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[hyperkinesia]

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[arcreact]

[ Tony shifts so that the colorful, dimly-lit stained glass in the background comes into better focus. The former bar/mess, of course. ]

I'm thinking about conducting all my video calls in here from now on. It's very dramatic.

[hyperkinesia]

You need to set up a fancy couch there, then. Something like a throne.

[ He's kidding Tony, don't actually do that. ]

I'll be there in a few.

[arcreact]

Solid idea. I could weld together an actual Iron Throne. It'd catch the light really well, maybe blind my adversaries.

[ He fires off a sarcastic salute before cutting the video feed. Whenever Bruce wanders that way, he'll find Tony standing in the center of the room, eyes fixed on the new glass fixtures like he's not really looking at them. ]

[hyperkinesia]

[ God, what if it was red and gold? Yeah no, better not be picturing that. Anyway.

Knowing the ship like the back of his hand, it only takes Bruce a few minutes to make it to the mess hall. Well, what used to be the mess hall— right now it's just a wide empty room made entirely of colored glass. Beautiful, but ultimately pointless.

His voice echoes around the room when he speaks up. ] Nice to see you up and about again.

[arcreact]

Yeah, I'm sure the past two weeks have been tediously free of interruption for you.

[ He pockets his hands, turning to face Bruce. ]

Congrats on the squishy eyeballs. And heart, presumably. [ He jerks his chin towards the stained glass. ] Love what the Ingress has done with the place.

[ Except he says it like "absolutely deplore what the Ingress has done with the place". ]

[hyperkinesia]

You joke, but they really have been. Kept waiting for you to barge in through the door. The department door, that is. [ Not his bedroom god please no. ]

Everything back to being squishy, yes. Thanks. [ Looking around them. ] As far as residual damage goes, it's not so bad. At least it's pretty. [ And it hasn't affected the ship's systems, so. ]

Anyone caught you up on our little adventure at the slave outpost?

[arcreact]

[ Tony rolls his eyes at 'at least it's pretty', but looks away at the question that follows. If he didn't look tense before, he certainly does now. ]

In very vague terms. [ He dutifully ignores any treacherous emotion that feels too much like guilt. ] I trust you were all fantastically heroic and all.

[hyperkinesia]

[ Yeah well, life on board the Moira isn't easy, Tony knows that well enough by now. Bruce counts this little amount of lasting damage as a small blessing, honestly. They could've ended up with much worse problems on their hands. ]

We were, uh... I guess everyone tried to help in what ways they could. [ He presses his lips thinly. ] I'm not sure leaving so many innocent people behind can be considered heroic, but... we didn't have much of a choice. I managed to get some out of there, at least.

[arcreact]

How many was it?

[ Why is he asking when he really doesn't even wanna know the answer? It's a goddamn mystery. ]

[hyperkinesia]

[ Tony doesn't want to know the answer, Bruce doesn't want to tell him either— in fact he hadn't even think about it in those terms until now. He doesn't particularly like to. But since he asks. ]

I don't know. Hundreds, give or take. I don't have a specific number to give you.

[arcreact]

[ Hundreds. Probably better than he was assuming, but that's mostly because he was picturing some kind of fucked up Deathstar full of slaves from across the galaxy. The truth does jack to actually ease any of his agitation over it. ]

Sounds like a great time. [ The sarcasm is practically a puddle on the floor. ] ... I'm glad you made it out.

[ That part, at least, is earnest. ]

[hyperkinesia]

[ Better than expected still doesn't make it better. It could've been worse. Could've been hundreds of thousands or even millions, but the truth is: in a system where there's a whole outpost dedicated to legal human trafficking, the numbers have to be much greater than the ones Bruce is giving Tony. That's just the outpost. Now multiply it for however many stations, ships and cities in all the planets that exist within this system.

The bigger picture in this case is a horrible one. And what can they do? Nothing, pretty much. ]

I'm glad we all did.

[ It's a very small comfort. It's selfish and self-centered too. The ship's fine, the crew's fine, let's just keep flying by as quietly and discreetly as possible and not call any attention to ourselves. It's all very brave and heroic. ]