Tch.

[This scoff of a noise is Break for "and just what are you going to do about it if it is", but it won't be empty. Not because Gil said so, but because it isn't Break's style. The inability to drink to get drunk means knocking things back is just a waste of time and booze. No, if Gil has any familiarity at all with whiskey, he'll understand that Break has acquired the good stuff -- smooth and rich with a vanilla sort of warmth -- and he is savoring it.

He is absolutely the sort of guy who would be swanning around parties with strange colorful cocktails with little umbrellas, but this is the drink that best suits what's underneath.

When Gilbert returns, Break makes no move whatsoever to reach for the food, even though he hears the plate click against the table as Gil sets it down. Nor does he greet his young colleague. But then, Baltus growls low in his throat, and Break sneers a little as he engages in a silent mental argument with his omen. He loses it, apparently, because after a few moments of this he concedes to feel around until he runs across a piece of toast, and sullenly eats it. The growling subsides. Baltus is very good.]

[It's a good thing Break is now preoccupied with his toast. If he had the glass in his hand still, he'd surely be squeezing it hard enough to crack it. Baltus growls again in response, turns it into a doggish sneeze, and gets up to prowl restlessly around the perimeter of the room.]

...I'm well aware.

[The answer is dripping with sarcasm, but without realizing it, Gilbert has just punched him directly in an open wound. At any other time, it is the sort of thing he'd need to hear. That has been made ruthlessly clear to him today, and that's what he's actually angry about.]

Listen here, Gilbert. I feel no need to tell the others this as of yet, but as you'll no doubt be his primary support when he returns, you need to know it. What happened today was not a single incident. He and I spent the afternoon caught in a time loop courtesy of one of those blasted Pthumerians, reliving the afternoon over and over.

[As ever, Break does not appreciate being grabbed, especially when his only warning is the thump of the glass and the sudden rustle of Gil's clothing. His hand closes over Gil's wrist entirely on instinct, and Baltus abruptly stands at attention, ears erect. But what Gil actually has to say is so opposite to anything Break was expecting that it cuts right through his gloom, enough so that the lingering sounds of a crackling fire sputter into silence.]

-- holy shit. [He picked this cuss up from Qrow.] Did no one think to tell you this? That death isn't -- it's not permanent, here...?

[Break can't help it. He cracks up. There's no joy in how he laughs; if anything, he sounds close to tears himself, hysterical. To be knocked out of his own head in such a way leaves him feeling more idiotically giddy than alcohol has ever managed, and he isn't so self-absorbed that he doesn't realize immediately how Gilbert must have been feeling these past several hours. To be reunited with Oz and the others only to lose him again so quickly, to think that was that, after everything --

He moves his hand from Gil's wrist to his shoulder and squeezes it, in a gesture meant to be reassuring.]

Ohh, Gilbert. Yes. If things go as they typically do in this place, he'll be back within a week. [He can't help but add the disclaimer because it's one of his own fears -- that someone might die and then never return.] His -- body will crystallize, and hatch into a squid, and he'll transform back into himself from there.

[At least, if nothing else, Break can give somebody good news in all this.]

[So energetic, still, these young people, with their leaping about and rallying for their causes and all that. Break remains slumped where he is, propping his head up with one hand. The smile he casts unseeing in Gil's direction is a nasty, bitter thing.]

I'm afraid I lost count. Enough times that we were able to whittle away every single decision that could have led to that ending, and come to understand that -- it's the use of his Chain powers that cause corruption in him. That last time, the time you remember, he knew exactly what would happen and chose this fate on his own terms. So you see, I'm well aware that it wasn't my fault.

[They eradicated every single way it could have been Break's fault, and Oz acted independently. Break drums his fingers just once against the arm of the chair and reaches again for his whiskey glass.]

I don't feel sorry for myself at all. Rather, if I thought for a single second it wouldn't bring further suffering down on those precious to me in this place if I did it, I would dearly love to kill that Pthumerian, for putting us in a situation where we had no choice but to change the past for its satisfaction.

[Do you remember, Gilbert? Do you remember that time when Break had good reason to believe Reim had been murdered, and proceeded to lose his mind and try to kill some Baskervilles all alone? This is just a milder version of that same temper tantrum, and blessedly, he is actually thinking about consequences this time and staying his hand. By that same token, though, he can't find an outlet for his rage outside of the burn of the alcohol.]