Welcome to Gaia! ::

The way Pendour pressed her forehead to his shoulder and dug her fingers into her scalp worried him. For one, she was clearly trying to seek some comfort or ability to hide herself considering she did that even despite their height differential. For another? Well, it was the whole digging her fingernails thing, and he found himself murmuring warmer than he felt about everything, "Shh, don't do that," as he tried to carefully pull her hand away from her scalp.

She could dig her fingernails into him if she wanted to. Abzu wouldn't mind that.

He also, admittedly, would not mind going home. For one, yes, the emergency migraine medication helped. Was it a resolution? Not really, not when other things kept tripping the pain response.

But, for another, it was about everyone else. It was about the way Stromboli was wincing, it was about the way Pendour was at her tolerance's end, it was about how Basiluzzo had looked like he was going to cry even if he had said nothing about it aloud. In the end, honestly, beheading an abuser felt like the easiest one of the four memories they had lived through!

"Make sure to bring me back here too Luke, alright?" It felt weird to call him Stromboli with the prior Stromboli right there. "Think I have something to talk about with Thabet myself."

... A lot, if his impression was correct.

Basiluzzo caught Pendour looking at him, caught the message loud and clear. "Dad, I think it's time we go home. It's been a long day."

Stromboli looked between all of them, from Abzu and Pendour trying to deal with the continued aftermath of Basiluzzo's wonder to Basiluzzo also looking at them but looking at him more. He turned his attention to Thabet, who was watching him expectantly.

"I'm not going anywhere," she repeated, pointedly.

"...Yeah, true." He puffed out a breath. "Yeah, let's go home." He turned to the others there, but looked over his shoulder at Thabet. "I promise I'll be back sooner." She chuckled.

"I'll hold you to that."