[ Krouse leans forward on both elbows to examine the crystal, his eyes sharpened with interest and then widened with mild surprise at how familiar seeming it is. Not just like a cellphone, but like one of the newer, more expensive models, the kind of thing people whip out as a status symbol.

It's cool, and it's contextualizing. Krouse makes another revision to his concept of Spyre, which is already starting to hew closer to the reality of the place than he has a real barometer to judge by. He's preoccupied enough by that to not see what Riz says next coming, and he pulls back slightly to shoot Riz a rare unfiltered look of surprise.

He wouldn't have made the request on his own. He wouldn't even have really thought about it as something he could ask for, which sends a sliver of shame down the back of his throat. But that's soon swept away by the soft yet insistent tug of want, coming on without reason or caveat. ]

Cool.

[ He settles back into his seat, picking at his hoodie sleeve to pull it over his thumb in the spot where he's already working on worrying a new hole. His smile flickers like a candle flame, small but warm. ]

That'd be - reassuring. [ Not quite the right word, but he doesn't know what to substitute. ] Probably. I guess it'd depend on who you'd be calling. I... [ He tucks his chin as he lowers his eyes, huffing a dry exhale that crackles short of laughter. ] My mom would have some strong opinions about all of this.

[ He extends the admission as a sort of reciprocation, a sideways acknowledgement of something that he hasn't heard come up much in the circles he tends to travel in - of course, there's no way of knowing how much of that has been him avoiding the subject in the first place. ]