[Lance nods, giving a small hum of acknowledgement and agreement at the sentiment, because Ian's totally right. Most of the complaints were small, and worse that that, somehow oblivious; so many seemed so focused on only their own problems, unable--or worse, unwilling--to consider others and what they'd been through, or to see things from any other perspective. They'd fight about the smalled issues and then refuse to take the real threats seriously because they didn't fit into their own limited viewpoints.

It was so frustrating to Lance, who couldn't go home and had spent time in Hadriel, and it must've been even more so to Ian who'd had to watch his own world change so completely.

The inability to finish the sentence is a very familiar tell about how Ian is feeling, because it's exactly the same thing Lance does when he can't or doesn't want to find words. So it's very clear to him even though he tries to pretend like it isn't, though that's mostly in hopes that Ian won't feel scrutinized.]

It was all very petty, and the fact that they felt they could afford to let those sorts of things slow them down made it pretty clear how unimportant being there was to them. Too many people treated it like a vacation, or like a game, and not an opportunity that they couldn't waste.

[And he'd had that argument, once, with the Kyna that had been in New Amsterdam, but he doesn't think she ever quite understood what he'd meant.]