Soft in the sense that a lot of the physical tension drains out of him. The directionless agitation in his tone. It's impossible to hold onto in the face of that.
Thoughtful in the manner of a person who tried to bail approximately 40 seconds into the process of this incident becoming a bad memory: a stretch of consideration broadcasting that his answer to the question veers more towards "I'd sort of hope they would, for a while."
The sharing would be bad enough. An audience while he licked his wounds and made himself presentable again sounds unbearable.
Different natures, though.
Different sorts of worst memories.
Forcibly retelling being stripped and violently cast out wholesale and some of the terrible things that needed doing to survive after, he imagines, is not objectively a grand time to be left to it.
He hadn't really thought ahead. Most of his stories end with that. ]
Starting to see the, um. The genesis of our impasse, there. I apologize. [ Not for the sake of seeking the forgiveness, more for the sake of being sure it's... known.
Philosophical differences. To put it mildly. ]
I'll figure something out. Shortly. It's in progress. So. [ So. That's that. Solutions. Or at least somewhere to start. If nothing else, part of him is desperately relieved to have literally any other thing than probing questions or anxious spiraling to work at.
He'd be twice as bad off if he left now either way. ]
I... I can promise you it wasn't because of anything that you... told me.
no subject
Soft in the sense that a lot of the physical tension drains out of him. The directionless agitation in his tone. It's impossible to hold onto in the face of that.
Thoughtful in the manner of a person who tried to bail approximately 40 seconds into the process of this incident becoming a bad memory: a stretch of consideration broadcasting that his answer to the question veers more towards "I'd sort of hope they would, for a while."
The sharing would be bad enough. An audience while he licked his wounds and made himself presentable again sounds unbearable.
Different natures, though.
Different sorts of worst memories.
Forcibly retelling being stripped and violently cast out wholesale and some of the terrible things that needed doing to survive after, he imagines, is not objectively a grand time to be left to it.
He hadn't really thought ahead. Most of his stories end with that. ]
Starting to see the, um. The genesis of our impasse, there. I apologize. [ Not for the sake of seeking the forgiveness, more for the sake of being sure it's... known.
Philosophical differences. To put it mildly. ]
I'll figure something out. Shortly. It's in progress. So. [ So. That's that. Solutions. Or at least somewhere to start. If nothing else, part of him is desperately relieved to have literally any other thing than probing questions or anxious spiraling to work at.
He'd be twice as bad off if he left now either way. ]
I... I can promise you it wasn't because of anything that you... told me.
[ "Told." ]