[ she crossed her arms now, huffing in amusement when alex says the last of his words. yes — the age gap between them and those here in the temple has not been lost on her. it surprised her, to see so many teenagers running around. it also made her a wary, really. in a way that she hadn’t been when she was in remis and saw children there, be it born or brought. perhaps due to her own age and belief in good and right and good endings in the world.

she knows better by now. ]

If I wanted to babysit, I would have called Laura or Leeds, asked them if they wanted to finally have a date night with their partners.

[ it’s said in jest, of course but there’s a certain truth to it for her. children are no longer something she’s an ‘expert’ in compared to her younger self. she had to shave away the softer parts of her in order to adapt to the world of politics and social manoeuvring, cast away things that may hold her back in making choices and decisions that were important but not right.

for a second, she wondered if this is what the others felt when she first joined the lornful light, small and slight and having just skated into the age of eighteen, the recognised age of her world. something to ponder about later, she decides. she doesn’t want to leave alex hanging. ]

Though I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. Long as they’re open to the idea of wanting advice or opinion from us, of course. From my experience, be it observation and experience, any teenager is going to be sure of certain things and will not hear out to anyone.

... Is something the matter? [ she noticed the second, the split change that most wouldn't notice if they hadn't been all but trained to watch out for those sort of things. ]