Fray-Adjacent

Ronan finally reached the end of the spell, and with a quick word sealed the spell. The world returned to normal. "Try it now?" he said. "It should work now."

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Okay, so apparently he'd ~~pinged~~ spoken too soonas Ronan's spell hadn't finished yet. So he tries again.

//Xander? Can you hear me?//

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"Sorry, what?" Xander cups his hand behind his ear. "No reception. Going through a tunnel."

You know how the fingerwiggling is encoded in Bridge's genetic makeup? Guess what's encoded in Xander's.

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Cue the wee ferret flail. //It didn't work!//

Seriously. He never learns.

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Cue big human nose coming in contact with wee ferret nose. "Hi."

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Ronan rolled his eyes, but smiled. "I'll just leave these here, shall I?" He held up the bundle of Bridge's clothes. "The gloves are rolled into the middle, so don't let them drop out when you're unbundling."

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//Thank you!// Bridge says to Ronan. For possibly like, the tenth time that night. //You are so mean,// he informs Xander with a wee ferrety glare.

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"He sounds just like himself!" Xander? Is a dork. </newsflash>

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"Yes, he should. So I'm happy that's working out." He holds the bundle of clothes out again.

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Xander takes them, careful not to fumble the bundle. "Thanks, seriously. Last time... there were a lot of paw-motions and tiny ferret eyerolls."

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Which is not to say that there *won't* be any, this time. But this just means they won't be happening as a result of Xander not being able to *understand* him. //Charades is *hard* with paws.//

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"I can imagine," said Ronan. "So, uh, look me up when you're human again? If you... don't mind talking some more."

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//I will,// Bridge promises. //I hope you figure can figure out how to fix things, but in the meantime, yeah, if you need to talk? I can listen.//

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"Thank you." Ronan smiled. "I've got a good place to start, now, and that's more than I had before."

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Xander filed the conversation away to ask Bridge about later, but didn't push his way into it. "Thanks for getting him back here," he told Ronan instead.

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"It really was no worry at all." Ronan nodded. "It was a pleasure to meet you both," he said.

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//Same here,// Bridge says, and he would've smiled, but ferret-facial-expressions are sort of limited that way. //See you later, then?//

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"Absolutely." Ronan waved to Xander and Bridge as he departed.

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Xander closes the door behind him, then looks down at the ferret on his arm. "...If it didn't involve a tree, do I want to know what it did involve?"

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//Do you want me to start from the beginning?// Bridge asks.

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"...Sure." Xander is fully aware that with Bridge, that might mean ...and the morning and the evening were the first day... but he's willing to risk it. He likes the sound of Bridge's voice, after all. Even if it currently seems to be issuing from a ferret.

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//I was just out in the Preserve, because sometimes the cabins are just... too many people, all at once, you know? And just thinking about stuff, and then Ronan was there, and he seemed pretty upset.// he pauses, trying to figure out how much detail to go in to without actually betraying Ronan's confidence. //He'd made a really hard decision pretty recently, and was dealing with the after-effects of it... kinda badly.// Not that Bridge knows at all what that's like. //So we talked for a while, and then I leaned back against a tree and was a ferret again. Only Ronan says the tree said it wasn't its fault. So apparently this was just completely random.//

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