Welcome to Gaia! ::

The disgruntled sulkiness had either resurfaced or never subsided at all - being teased about this, even so slightly, earned an insistent nudge from Mimsy's elbow. She would probably have been dangerously close to groaning 'shut up' or 'uuugh' had his explanation not sunk in by then, stealing her attention with apparent contradictions.

Every blank she filled in seemed to prompt her to fill in another. How did anyone keep track of this? Now crying could come from sadness and happiness and fear and what else? How could anyone possibly identify with any amount of certainty when another person was feeling something specific? This was an even more vast void of knowledge to address than she'd thought.

It was comforting, at least, that it was not only her own emotions that she could not confidently label.

But that feeling of comfort had to struggle to survive as he reassured her. She had no trouble allowing leadership positions to be picked up by other people, but putting that much trust in someone to lead her, for the rest of their lives...

Smile, swallow the doubt, and address it later. What harm was there in letting this happen for now? She should have expected him to say things like that, without knowing the projected end point of this. Letting it affect her in such a way would just be careless, especially considering the risk of more (and more serious) comments of that sort in the future. Anyway, it undoubtedly encouraged a great deal of emotional growth, progress towards that optimal moment she was waiting for. His claim that he didn't mind answering all of those infinite questions now was already quite the achievement, she noted.

She refused to think back to identify the point when she'd started taking this so seriously, when it somehow seemed less like playing a part in a game with her own rules.

"Thank you." She smiled, just like she'd told herself to, stomach tying itself in knots. "Is there anything else that you require in return, or is that need already fulfilled?"

Fair was fair, usually.