Vance's worst fears. It shouldn't take much imagination to identify those fears, but so many common fears have happened. He's basically lost both parents, he's been to prison and friends funerals way too young to do either - actually, Robbie didn't know if any of their friends were given the dignity of a funeral.

There just wasn't much left to fear, except more of the same. More dead friends and tarnished reputations.

"There's nothing wrong with you," Robbie said stubbornly, even as he sat on objections about how it was impossible to explain everything that lead to these... little personality quirks. He could never make it fit into an hour, and there was no point discussing the mission without the background. Dr. Ryk'rr would never understand.

But he said he wasn't going to tell Vance not to, and he's not. They're just chatting about the latest missions. No judgment. Robbie doesn't know how to keep it going, though. 'Do you want to talk about it?' seemed stupid. He's said they can talk. They're talking.

Asking what the worst fears were - he knew already, and he doesn't want to poke at Vance's wounds. He wanted to respect the calmness that Vance constructed by not shaking the supports.

Robbie decided to cough up information on what had happened on the ship, partly because it might encourage Vance to share. It also was alarming: they both had something get in their head and fuck them up. "There was something like that on the ship, too. I don't know what it was, but it knocked me out and nothing was... right, after that."

Except... it still felt like that was where he should be, and 'reality' was wrong.