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[lifetothefullest]

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[lifetothefullest]

Pancakes are a good choice.

[He distinctly remembers the first time he had them here, after being in Hadriel; Ian had made them one day while staying over at Lance and Kyna's place after the monster attack. Lance hadn't even thought about them as an option until then, still adjusting to the new setting.

That leads into the answer to her question, though--]

I'm always partial to muffins. And blueberries, to hearken back to you mentioning them, but then combining those two things produces blueberry muffins, which are more than the sum of their parts.

[He's joking a little in the sense of how dramatically he's wording it, but not about his love for blueberry muffins.]

[notathreat]

[Joking or not, blueberries are serious business, and so are blueberry muffins. Ellie's small smile grows into something softer, more genuine as Lance speaks, and she plays with the strings thoughtfully.]

Y'know.

That muffin you gave me when I first got here wasn't half bad, either.

[She hadn't said it at the time, and that still haunts her. Just a little. Even if she'll never admit to it.]

[lifetothefullest]

[The comment isn't entirely unexpected; he'd made the same mental connection in their conversation, so the shift in subject is natural. But the way she puts it has its own humor, so casually understated, and he gives a faint laugh even if his attention is still on the piano.]

Thanks. They were batch like, five or something, and I'm just glad I'd managed to make them edible at that point.

[He's exaggerating; the first baking attempt had been edible, just not the texture he wanted. But the muffins had indeed been batch five, left over from stress baking during Kyna's disappearance, and at least they'd served a good purpose.]

[notathreat]

[It's good to hear Lance laugh, even a little bit. They're dancing around the real subject, sure, but Ellie's whole life has been made up of conversations like these, until they slowly become real. A constant dance of remembering to be a person, outside of the things that hurt.]

Do you eat a ton of muffins or hand them out to your neighbors?

[She flashes him a smile.]

Admit it. That's why you really invited me over.

[lifetothefullest]

[It comes naturally to avoid talking about himself, to turn the conversation around, and manage not to have to do any of the things he encourages in other people when it comes to talking through issues and feelings and accepting help. At home and in Hadriel he was usually successful at that without having to try too much, so he often forgets that people here see have been a lot better at seeing through him than he's used to.

So although he's definitely talking around the actual issue, he's also mostly expecting to get away with it at this point. That makes it easy to fall into the act of normal, casual conversation, and at the not-so-serious accusation he gives he a brief glance, raising his eyebrows.]

That's it. You caught me; I was using you prevent myself from having muffins for every meal.

[He's mostly joking--obviously that wasn't the reason he invited Ellie to stay at the apartment--but he's also totally serious that he'll make terrible food choices when left to his own devices.]

Without my coworkers around to shame me, I have to come up with other solutions.

[notathreat]

[Mostly joking isn't completely joking, and Ellie doesn't bother to hide the smile that grows more thoughtful as Lance mentions his coworkers. She doesn't think that he means the ones here -- he hasn't exactly mentioned having any kind of job here -- but it's the first time he's mentioned the people she saw in his dream.

She still remembers them fondly, would recognize them if she saw them.]

Coworker shame; best motivator.

[That, or small-town shame.]

Y'know, maybe you should start bringing them by Red Wings. I think the crowd there would appreciate them.

[Especially the new people.]

[lifetothefullest]

Sometimes it's the only thing that works.

[And sometimes it doesn't work at all, like when everyone in the office was annoyed with him for temporarily bringing in a goat, but maybe FBI agents could stand to be less snobby. He'd gotten to play with a goat all day, so really, who had been the winner here?

The last comment earns an amused look and a roll of his eyes.]

Thanks for the faith in me, I'll think about it. I guess it would give me something to do, though it may have to be anonymous. I think a lot of people who work there find me annoying.

[Which, you know, fair, but still.]

[notathreat]

Fair.

[Ellie snorts aloud though, shaking her head to herself. Oh, yeah. She knows what he means, even if he's been fairly non-annoying towards her in their short acquaintance.]

They can suck it up.

[lifetothefullest]

[He laughs too, because he's realizing this whole scenario sounds like--]

So I'm going to be brazenly ignoring that people find me annoying in order to passive-aggressively force them to accept baked goods. What a weird power move.

[He's not against it because that sounds so ridiculous that he loves it, but still.]

[notathreat]

[Ellie laughs aloud, imagining it, twanging the strings discordantly for a second before she gets herself back. Her laugh is warm and sputtering, much younger than the rest of her.]

I meant like, for the newcomers, but-

[She guffaws again.]

That would be a power move. Waiting for them to cave.

[lifetothefullest]

[He barely avoids hitting a few off keys of his own when she laughs, laughing along with her at the thought of being that much of a menace; not that it would be unprecedented for him, but it would be for such a mundane goal that it would be really funny.

Though the mention of the new arrivals reminds him of one of the more serious goals he's inclined to be a problem about.]

Unfortunately, if it's for the new arrivals it'd probably be better if I just took them straight to the safehouse. It's back up and running for the newest round of people.

[Does he sound vaguely displeased about that? Definitely.]

[notathreat]

Huh. I keep forgetting everyone else wasn't just locked in a bar for their first stretch here.

[Lance has a good laugh; and it's good to see him able to get to that point. Last night was shitty, yeah, but he'll be okay.

Ellie's shoulders relax still more.]

No luck on busting them out?

[lifetothefullest]

Haven't tried, though I'm tempted. I kind of want to see if anyone'll do anything to stop me.

[He'd originally planned to give it a try this round, but with what just happened he hasn't been sure he can muster up the energy. But he might, both for the sake of the new arrivals themselves and for what he'd just told Ellie; he wants to see if this is another case of how most things seem to work around here, which is through social pressure rather than any actual actions. If that isn't the case, it'll be interesting to draw out more of where the line is, and who's willing to do what to maintain it.]

[notathreat]

Well, shit. I got out and the world didn't end.

[Ellie sighs deeply, and riffs through something on her guitar, just some thing old and familiar, throwing it in because she likes it, more than because it fits.]

Did some shit happen to make them decide on that, or are they just worried it might?

[lifetothefullest]

I think some new arrivals were arrested once, but I'm pretty sure they very dramatically drew attention to themselves and I'm not even sure if they were unregistered at the time.

[He only barely skimmed that post when putting together his information guide, and doesn't really remember. He does remember deciding for the sake of his sanity not to read too much of the conversation, though.]

But as far as I'm aware, they're mostly concerned about something that might happen. Arguing that this method of doing things might cause psychological trauma to new arrivals doesn't seem to matter to anyone, though.

[So you know. Selective risk assessment going on here.]

[notathreat]

[Ellie nods to herself, thinking back to Jackson, and her first days, first months there. She'd been struggling to follow the rules, to do well, but she'd also felt the walls all too keenly. She'd been used to taking care of herself and Joel if it came down to it, and couldn't appreciate the way no one seemed to trust her to handle herself.

She remembers the resentment that built up, the lack of trust, until she'd forged it over time. Maria had done no small amount of work there. And she'd had every reason to believe she was safe and cared for.]

Don't think I'd have trusted a single fucking one of you as far as I could throw you, if you'd kept me locked up.

[lifetothefullest]

Right? If I hadn't immediately run into someone I already knew from Hadriel, I would never have agreed to go to the safehouse in the first place. I trusted their judgement that it would be okay, but only because I'd known them for years, and I still hated the whole experience.

[If he'd arrived here and it had just been total strangers, they would've had to use the compulsion drug's effects to get him to go with them, because no way is he going to let a bunch of strangers tell him 'oh it'll be fine we'll let you out in a few days' and trust that. What a thing to ask--or expect, considering there's no asking--of people who just found themselves in another world after being drugged and operated on, not to mention whatever experiences they may have gone through in their own worlds.

Of course, the weirdest thing to Lance is that hardly anyone else seems to find this whole way of doing things strange, so when Ellie agrees it's a bit of a relief. No matter how confident he usually is in knowing what's right, that can still be a bit rattled when he finds himself in an extreme minority on something, especially when 'it's wrong to hold people against their will for days' is something he'd expect to be pretty widely agreed upon.]

[notathreat]

Exactly. Besides, look at the kind of crowd we have out here. Locking these kinds of people up, especially together, could be a goddamn disaster.

Like, shit, I didn't even make it inside before someone took a swing at me. And I did hit Bellamy, but that was his own fault.

[... Ellie. Ellie that's not normal, stop saying that so casually.]

[lifetothefullest]

[He's about to agree, and add that it's probably a miracle no one's felt the need to try to fight their way out of the safehouse, but the latter part of what she says catches his attention. He doesn't care so much about hitting Bellamy, as he only vaguely knows of Bellamy and he's willing to give Ellie the benefit of the doubt that he totally deserved it, but--]

Who took a swing at you?

[Who does he need to judge intensely?]

[notathreat]

[Ellie almost laughs aloud at Lance's reaction- it's more in line with Tommy or Joel, instantly on her side- while Dina or Jesse would've wondered what Ellie did this time.]

Just Callisto.

[Ellie doesn't sound too perturbed by it.]

If it wasn't me, it would've been someone else.

[lifetothefullest]

I haven't met Callisto.

[But Ellie definitely doesn't seem to bothered, even if Lance is far less sure it's nothing to be concerned about.]

What do you mean that it would've been someone else?

[notathreat]

Y'know the type.

[He's a criminal profiler, right? Even in the comics Ellie's read, she figures it gives him some insight. Even beyond that, she's betting that he's run into his share of bullies.]

Somebody who can't stand feeling weak, so they turn around and hurt somebody just to make themselves feel better.

[lifetothefullest]

Oh, yeah, my favorite type of person.

[The sarcasm is surely obvious, even if his tone is laced with fake cheer.]

Did they arrive in the same group that you did?

[notathreat]

Isn't it everybody's?

[Ellie responds with a bang-up impression of the same tone, rolling her eyes to the strung lights across the ceiling.]

Yep. Before we even got inside.

[lifetothefullest]

As though the whole arrival process isn't unpleasant enough.

[At least she doesn't seem too horribly upset by it, but still. As they talked about, Lance is very concerned about what the new arrivals have to deal with and the impact it might have on them, and things like this happening are not great.]