@toestalucia | cont. from ( x )

     Isaac can’t help but stare at the captain. How comfortable they look as they stare at the clouds above them, making the grass look like the softest blanket in the world, all with a smile that eased worry in an instant. Of course, Isaac could never be fully at ease, always some thought or some vague feeling making anxiety take a soft hold over him. The stress of his own upbringing being only for a wish that held the pressure generations over him, of hoping Gwynne was living a happy life without him when he had given her to his best friend, and of knowing how short his life would probably be, even after all the precautions he took to live healthier amongst his work. Though that was the old way of living. Now back from the moon - the place he longed for the most, but then seeing the place as an experimental hell - none of those stresses should weigh his shoulders. But, he supposed, when your life was so tied to the past, the past will cling onto you no matter what. And nightmares of experiences gone by couldn’t be softened by the choice of a brighter future.

     In that sense, he can’t help but compare himself to Gran - How different they felt, yet knowing that the growing captain had their own stresses as a leader. Perhaps even a past they couldn’t quite let go of…Isaac was unsure, not having known them for too long, and being so unused to their kindness and their company - the company of people in general practically made him dizzy every day, yet feeling like a valued part once more didn’t hurt. And he had expected them to be a part of the prying, ever hungry for knowledge youths around them. So the answer only makes Isaac stare more, compare more, hypothesize more on how the captain and he differed. Yet Isaac knew it would be hypocritical to pry himself, when the captain was so nice and Isaac…Never wanted them to know the true horrors of the moon. The glimpses they got through their automagods were enough; none of them ever needed to know how much it haunted him. That was enough prying into the mind of another for eternity.

          “...Thank you, comrade.” is all he can think to say on the matter. Just the thought of everything had made his gaze so distant, yet the captain’s answers brought him back down to earth, an awkward yet appreciative smile replacing any depressive air that had clung to him. Feeling the breeze pick up and tousle his messy hair, he looks up to the sky and takes a deep breath in. “Ah~ well, we shouldn’t waste this pretty day getting serious over nothing then.” A de-facto statement, yet also said the by man that hide in a workshop or his room all day, but that was just another difference between them that they didn’t need to bring up. Stretching a little - spine cracking a little in the process, letting out a gasp of satisfaction afterwards - before looking at the captain again. “Thanks for looking for me and hanging out a little, but I’ll be fine getting back to the ship on my own.” His whole little morning trip to his favorite parts shop stopped short to reminisce on the bank of the river, yet he didn’t think the captain would lounge with him instead of scolding him for being missing. Maybe that’d be saved for the earful he’d get from his little sister…Something that made him never want to walk aboard the Grandcypher again upon thinking about it, yet it also wasn’t unwelcomed attention, so long as she didn’t nag him too much.