Asking the literal stuff of nightmare to explain the reasoning of one broken human child is probably a futile effort at best, you know.
[The laugh is so like Dave's. Quiet, voiceless, just a breath pushed through his nose, like when he thinks something's objectively funny but doesn't have the heart to enjoy it.]
We could say a lot. That he was afraid to do anything else, for sure, that he was obligated by the nature of his Aspect. Fate's a cruel goddamn mistress, as you already know, Miss Meridiana.
[After all, they'd been the ones to speak with her, even if it had all been through Dave's automatic responses. They'd been the ones keeping him alive, lighting up the nerves and pathways that had let him laugh again, let him smile.]
But...if we had to pick just one reason. We'd say it's because he loved them, and he wanted them to exist for just a little while longer, if that's all his life could buy them. ...We think that's the impulse we're experiencing now, for instance. Towards you who remain, we mean; fondness, and...an unwillingness to see you hurt.
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[The laugh is so like Dave's. Quiet, voiceless, just a breath pushed through his nose, like when he thinks something's objectively funny but doesn't have the heart to enjoy it.]
We could say a lot. That he was afraid to do anything else, for sure, that he was obligated by the nature of his Aspect. Fate's a cruel goddamn mistress, as you already know, Miss Meridiana.
[After all, they'd been the ones to speak with her, even if it had all been through Dave's automatic responses. They'd been the ones keeping him alive, lighting up the nerves and pathways that had let him laugh again, let him smile.]
But...if we had to pick just one reason. We'd say it's because he loved them, and he wanted them to exist for just a little while longer, if that's all his life could buy them. ...We think that's the impulse we're experiencing now, for instance. Towards you who remain, we mean; fondness, and...an unwillingness to see you hurt.
[...]
It's obnoxious in its own way.