[Break lets out a hum that's a little more emotional than his usual agreements. He does know what he'd do with himself if everyone he's come to care for her returned to the sea tomorrow -- he'd stay exactly where he is, all alone, keeping things ready in case any of them ever returned like a lighthouse standing tall in the dark. Being a fool, he'd probably be falling all over again for a new gaggle of loved ones at the same time, constantly setting himself up for more of such feelings.

It's not a fate he wants even as he's accepted it as an inevitability if it's what this world decides to give him, and in fact the reminder of it causes a palpable surge of melancholy over the blood bond. He takes a long sip of his tea as he gets it under control, and the silence drags itself heavily across the moment.]

...I don't believe that my Remnant self had reached that point yet. [It's a soft admission.] I say as much because...it was my kids who taught this "real" me such, and -- late enough that I have not been able to fully embrace such until...arriving here. The difference between having a role in the story that one is content enough to play and...caring enough to try to write a different ending is...