Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. Just playing with them for a while.

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The thing about spending all of your time out in the black is that it leads to some crazy-making introspection. The kind of introspection where you spend so much time thinking about things that you forget where you started and can’t keep your eyes open to reality and yet...

The pieces that worm their way into your head are the little ones - ones you normally never notice. The offensive clunking of boots echoing through cargo bay silence, the slight shudder of your ship shifting into autopilot, the slow and steady thrum of blood passing your temples.

It comes on so fast - so fast that suddenly you’re standing in the middle of the stairs and you have no idea how long you’ve been there; still, motionless, with who knows what kind of expression on your face. It has to have been a while, because your gunman is in front of you, one eyebrow raised, in an uncommon moment of passive curiosity.

“You OK, Cap’n?” he asks as your eyes un-cross and reality comes shooting back like an elbow in the gut.