[He sits very very still and quiet in his chosen study room in the library for an hour, simply breathing as his senses slowly cascade into being, and as the world around him filters slowly back into his awareness, awash in the heady scents and colors and flavors of the power that animates the universe. It's like he's been simply looking at a photograph of the world, beautifully and immaculately rendered but utterly devoid of life, and suddenly he's stepped through the frame into a fully realized world with depth and texture and substance.
He can feel the currents of power swirling through the halls and brushing across his skin, smell the icy cold of the darkness between the stars, hear the whispers of life from every corner of the ship. And so he sits there for an hour, and then for another hour, breathing slow and steady as he acclimates to being at least something close to fully himself again... because if he tries to do anything else right now he is mortifyingly certain he'll break down and cry.
And then he gives himself another thirty minutes to fully master himself before packing away his things and returning them to his desk in Zhao Yunlan's quarters, every movement measured and precise as he allows himself to revel in the rightness of the world around him.
And only then does he reply again to xiao Jedao on the network.]
[text]
May I please speak with you in person?
This is not something suitably conveyed over the network, and his earlier thanks were a paltry thing relative to the enormity of the gift his warden has given him.
Backdated to 10/18, when his senses were returned
He can feel the currents of power swirling through the halls and brushing across his skin, smell the icy cold of the darkness between the stars, hear the whispers of life from every corner of the ship. And so he sits there for an hour, and then for another hour, breathing slow and steady as he acclimates to being at least something close to fully himself again... because if he tries to do anything else right now he is mortifyingly certain he'll break down and cry.
And then he gives himself another thirty minutes to fully master himself before packing away his things and returning them to his desk in Zhao Yunlan's quarters, every movement measured and precise as he allows himself to revel in the rightness of the world around him.
And only then does he reply again to xiao Jedao on the network.]
[text]
May I please speak with you in person?
This is not something suitably conveyed over the network, and his earlier thanks were a paltry thing relative to the enormity of the gift his warden has given him.