ryland takes the opposite tack, a back - and - forth they have always been capable of rearing its head again. he is quick to demean the gravity of the situation in public, and while he wouldn't think he outright lies, he certainly sugarcoats. there is no productivity in panic, news outlets blasting alarm of the looming apocalypse when in reality any decline would not be so drastically overnight. it would be drastic, sure, but ryland is perhaps foolishly hoping it never actually comes to that. he knows better, has done the calculations.
the stall of nabbing caffeine is accepted eagerly, ryland watching rex make his order with that curious and idle interest that takes over someone when in a natural habitat, taking in mannerisms that have never truly changed, a steadfast request for black coffee that he's seen a hundred times before— rex looks back at him and ryland's gaze averts quickly, too quickly, fumbling through a menu as if he even needs to look at the options. ❛ uh, death by caramel. latte with as many pumps as you'll put in. please — thanks. ❜
of course stratt paid. everything falls under stratt's umbrella in the end, even the most negligible factors that i'd thought entirely separate. when i found the vat's gym empty and surreptitiously open after hours, it was stratt that had made it so, that had learned my routines. when rex orders me a drink, well— let's just say it's not like old times. his choice of words nearly makes me laugh : the last time he and i had anything resembling a 'regular thing' it didn't go well, so i can't imagine this time will be any different.
❛ five years ? ❜ his disbelief is palpable if not entirely visible in his expression, shock shooting his eyebrows up and parting his mouth. ❛ christmas eve. would it kill you to have some faith in— ❜ he nearly says 'me', cuts it off at the root with the notion that it is entirely discrediting of the task force as a whole and shakes his head instead. coffee comes and he seizes it greedily from its saucer, the liquid entirely too hot once he gets past the foam, scalds his lip and tongue and winces as he tries to think and alleviate the burn of his impulsive sip at the same time. ❛ if nothing was done to resolve it— and i mean if— then we'd maybe be looking at a rate of, say, earth's temp getting a degree lower every two, three years. ❜ he doesn't mention this drop might be exponential, that the current estimate is a fifteen degree drop within thirty years. ❛ but there are plans in motion, not just to investigate the astrophage itself, but to delay the temperature decline's rate even if research doesn't catch up in time. which it will. ❜
