( the offer is extended, and in a sudden rush of longing for camaraderie, clarke's kneeling and crawling to settle at his right side. back to the tent canvas and shoulders close enough to brush, she peers over mat's arm to focus on the pendant in his palm. through his retelling, she can sense the — importance. the safety such an object offered, the semblance of control in a world where that sort of authority was so often abused, and self-preservation in the way one lorded items that would keep them safe. she can understand the cruel irony of being dragged into a universe where those resources were zapped of all their influence; had felt almost insulted at being dragged away from killing one hivemind host and plunged into a situation where there was literally nothing she could do to prevent this one from growing. it's a bitter strain of knowledge, chased by a sensation of uselessness. )

We didn't have... magic — ( a word more foreign on her tongue than symbiote and brood had been, but it feels appropriate; an attempt at adopting the terminology in return for his spelling out the dynamics of the one power in laymen's terms, to show she got it and understood. there's a brief distraction from staring at the charm to look at mat's face, to map the lines of distress and unhappiness that were so prevalent in the link between them. ) — in my world. Not like this, we had... Really advanced technology that could get in people's heads and control them.

( there hadn't been a lot of ways to fight alie, either, or to sense her presence until it was too late. this is the two of them, again grappling with similarities between two vastly different realities. but it's easier, trading off pieces of information and making them fit; it serves to heighten the unwelcome but inviting feeling of being one.

absently, clarke extends her hand. )

Can I see it?