"Elliot." When he'd arrived he'd considered renaming himself. An alias. Some degree of distance he could impose by choice. But then somehow he — hadn't, and now he has his real name, echoing with certainty: Elliot / I'm Elliot / my name is Elliot.

"Yeah," he adds. "Did you know... the guy? I mean, you all knew him, right, I get that, but," there's this Thing everyone can do, that he can feel her doing, and there's Hadriel, with whom he can do it more and he can't even imagine losing someone you have that kind of intense shared connection with. Bad enough

when it's

your

No, that door is staying shut, for now, not necessarily by Elliot's choice, something protecting itself. Themselves.

"You know," he finishes lamely. "Were you close."