@lerevers / a reunion some centuries in the making has managed to white out thought - coop steps back in a daze, tension swimming under his skin enough to make him feel like some nervous colt in spite of the years on him.
it's spite that has him opening his mouth. he'd known going in that she'd recognize his voice, if nothing else, provided cryo ain't left barb her life but taken her mind. there's a part of him that wants that recognition to be the first thing she hears. show her what vault-tec's done to the world, done to him. another, quieter part can't stand the thought - and maybe the sight of her frozen face has brought it back to the surface, but it's overridden in the moment.
"welcome back to the land of the living." being the product of vexation, one might think it'd take that shape and stay in it, but it ends a little crestfallen.
coop looks away for a beat, clears his throat, rallies.
then he takes a step back and introduces barb to gunpoint. "where in the hell's janey? she here?" there must be a directory of some sort, but he's not found it yet. had spied barb and gone off like a bullet wrestling her out of her self imposed long winter. poor strategy maybe. but it ain't as if strategy were included in his expectations - couldn't be, in imaginings governed by some mix of grief and fury and, in the underneath, fear.
