8 [@necromantica: video]

[burntbridges]

[Well, this is different. Letha is bristled with indignation, and the reason is somewhat obvious - her hair has turned snow-white, and her eyes are pale blue-violet with red pupils. Her skin even seems a bit paler; she's turned fully albino.]

What's going on? [Her tone is snippy, and just a little bit desperate.] My hair's looked like this since I woke up- I went out and bought hair dye and it just soaked in and disappeared! I couldn't even dye it with ink! How do I get rid of this?

[She hates how her hair looks, and keeps running her fingers through it as if that will somehow turn it back to black... and worse than that, her eyes are hideous! And she doesn't trust contacts enough to try them, especially knowing that trying to turn her hair back had done nothing. What if they melt into her eyes?]

Private to Ragnar: Audio

We need to talk about Winter. Do you have a moment?

Comments

[alchemyfreak]

[Oh, he is curious, but he understands complicated so Edward has no intention of pushing the topic. Then Letha begins speaking at length despite her initial statement and Ed can only feel sympathetic at just how complicated it was. Of course if they were dead back home they couldn't return there, that much made sense, but it didn't get any less painful to see how many people here would be met with that same fate. Going home just wasn't an option for so many, regardless of if they did miss it.]

You can't go back with her because you wouldn't exist in the first place, that makes sense. Even if you could get around that though, your family... Then is her condition something that's happened before on your world?

[It seemed odd to imagine that babies were born after dying often enough for this mutation to have such predictable reactions, but if there were stories of similar situations "monsters like her" then it seemed to be common enough, at least to warrant them.]

Your hair-

[Yeah, he's definitely noticing that, and might even be staring a little. Ed switches the feed to private, cutting himself off.]

Look, I know what it's like to think you can leave and it'll just be better for everyone. I did the same thing. I didn't enjoy it but I did what I had to, what I thought was right...

[So he can relate, even if he was only gone for about a week this time. Being separated without the ability to get back hit a little close to home for him considering he knew what his own future held. He knew Ivar, the information that he had about him included his ability to be stubborn, his protectiveness of Winter and a few other key details. He knows he's capable of holding Winter, but it must be hard to suck the life force out of metal.]

Have you told him? Have you talked to him about the future you want to have together, and why Winter is so dangerous? Does he know the stories? Besides, how do you know she doesn't like you...? Maybe she just can't control it-

[Now there are tears in Letha's eyes and he's not sure that he's imagining they're a different color considering her hair has definitely changed by this point. He doesn't know how to respond to that though, to want to be close to someone but also push them away so everyone involved could be happy... Ed knew that feeling all too well too, once.]

Don't apologize. You're right, it's not my business...

[Which meant she didn't have to tell him, but she was telling him and he wasn't going to stop her, not if there's a chance it was helping. Ed was a problem solver, even if he couldn't fix the problems between Letha and Ivar, if listening was all he could offer, he wasn't going to back off just because it wasn't his issue to deal with.]

I don't mind, really.