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"You didn't kill us," Peyton corrected him, voice reassuring. "We're all fine. Besides, there was no way you could have known what those levers would do." As far as battle royale murders went, Roland was actually mostly innocent. It wasn't as if he'd made a conscious choice to put his own life above someone else's. She was guilty of that, and it still weighted on her at times, but life goes on.

She was standing a little behind the other hunter in her coat layered over jeans and long sleeves. The sudden appearance of snow had inspired the desire to dress for weather. Peyton was tiny, she got cold easily.

"The rest of the s**t you listed is all perfectly legit worry material, but you're not a murderer." Thin arms folded.

Soft features started narrow down into stubborn lines and budding impatience. "Was there a sign somewhere by the levers saying that pulling any of them would set off some sort of deadly trap? Stopping beating yourself up, you didn't know. Not like I did." The only ones that had known about the decision she'd made in the maze were Lucky and Taym, at least up close and personally. She'd been told later that apparently there had been a live feed, as well as copies circulating for anyone that wanted to relive that hell. "You didn't pull any of those levers with the undeniable understanding that doing so would take someone's life."

He'd stopped looking at her, so she took the few steps closer that what put her right in front of him, and she reached down to grip his chin and lift his head. "Saying something does not beget intention. It's not like you intentionally killed them for what she'd done."

Peyton hadn't watched the recording of the battle royale, but she had heard rumors about it, about some of the things people had done. They'd all made mistakes, stupid, selfish mistakes. "Of everyone in that classroom, you're probably the only one that was there for killing on accident." Thumb and forefinger tightened, not to hurt, but to get her point across. "Intent matters."

One would think that hanging around Taym all the time would make Peyton a little more patient to self deprecating behavior, but there was really only so much she could handle. Abruptly she released his chin, but her gave hit a firm thump to clack his teeth together. Again, nothing that would really hurt him, but she wanted to make she he was listening to her. Really listening. "Stop it. Finn was on that table because he he's an idiot that thought it would be a good idea to talk back and blatantly disobey when he was already in trouble. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be stupid enough to do that."

Another thump, pale eyes narrowing. She bent at the waist so they were face to face. "You pulled a lever without knowing what it would do. You are not like Finn or Jack, you are not like the rest of us.

"I had a sign. It was very clear. Push the button to exit and purge the room. There were five of us, only three made it to the exit." She still felt guilty about it, but nothing compared to the Mist hunter in front of her. "Intent matters."

She straightened again, frowning down on him, arms tightening. "We're hunters, we do not have the luxury to pull our guilt or misery down around our ears and wallow in it. So snap out of it." She made a gesture towards the snow covering the ground. "Frankly I'm amazed your still this down considering all the JOY saturating the island as of late."

She stood over him with arms crossed as he sat in the snow. There wasn't any sympathy to be seen in delicate features, only a stubborn impatience that would only enforce his assumption that she wasn't about to stand there and let him maintain his pity party. After a moment or so he seemed to accept the inevitable and as he reached up for a hand up she took it.

Then she gave a startled little squeak as she was yanked forward and down, ending up kneeling on the snow with Roland's arm wrapped around her. For a second she just lingered like that, surprised, a subtle wash of color making her freckles stand out, then she wrapped her arms around him in turn, hugging back. "Accurate on both accounts."

She was the one that withdrew first, settling back on her heels. "You said you had my back, that you'd play moon if I needed you to. Well, I've got your back too."

"This life isn't easy," she offered helpfully, folding her hands over her thighs. "We see and do more then no one should ever have to, and a lot of it is dark and awful, but we're still expected to get up and do our jobs every day." It was odd really, how double sided this advice seemed to be. Peyton had been feeling pretty down as of late too, but the more she spoke, the more she felt better. "So I think we need to cut ourselves a little slack, well, a lot of slack," she amended thoughtfully.

She straightened up, brushing her palms along her legs to rid them of clinging snow, then offered a hand down to Roland. "Come on, back on your feet." Small fingers wiggled invitingly. "One day at a time, or the whole world comes crashing down around us."

"Lot's of practice. When we were little I used to have to cheer Astrid up a lot when things got hard." She grinned, turning an otherwise telling admittance into something simple. Only a very few people knew what life was like for the Sun before coming to Deus, and of that select group, only know knew the absolute truth.

Pale eyes flicked down to the hand still holding onto her own, then back up to Roland.

"Yep, now you have a lot of people One big, happy, dysfunctional family." She chuckled, then he was giving her hand a tug and she let herself be pulled along with pale brows lifted in curiosity. "Where are we going?