[This is another moment that he remembers distinctly and with that familiar sinking swoop in his gut. Remembers how he'd been hopeful that Sigrun and the rest would wait for them, that they'd believe Emil and Lalli were still alive and stay behind to wait for them, only for Lalli to tell him they would be stupid to wait. To ask him if he thought they were that stupid. Emil hadn't, and so a lot of his hope had gone.

For a moment, he stands there, wallowing in that moment, remembering that moment of misery before he'd steeled himself and moved on to assert that they'd meet the group at the pickup point instead.]

That was a pretty bad moment. We were far away from where we needed to be, the current brought us in exactly the opposite direction, and like Lalli said, they'd be stupid to wait for us. They'd assume we were dead.

[Emil shifts uncomfortably, momentarily unable to explain why that had bothered him so much, why being left behind and given up on had hurt so deeply for a few moments before he'd pushed on. It had made him feel small. Unimportant. Reminded him of all the times his parents hadn't shown up for dinner or holidays or forgotten his birthday.]

Anyway, that sucked, but we kept going. No big deal. It isn't like we'd just give up, you know?

[It isn't perfect, but the brave, confident front is pretty convincing.]