I am becoming something else.

[youarefalling]

Perhaps my greatest comfort through all of this is that I always knew it would end this way.

Recant. They asked Galileo to recant and he did, but I am not Galileo, and I have nothing left to live for, nothing keeping me here. I have learned things. I have learned that, cruel though it sounds, cruel though it is, that day on the bridge happened so

Comments

[texas_forever]

Tim's heading up the path toward the Compound for a shower and he's nearly there, taking his time because there really isn't any kind of hurry in this place. His head drops for half a second, just checking the ground in front of his feet and when it lifts again, there's a flicker and then-- then a man who definitely hadn't been there just a second ago.

At least he's pretty sure of that. Or maybe he really has gone crazy.

His pace slows and his brow furrows as he gets closer, watching the guy carefully as the guy apparently... stares at the wall.

"Hey," he says, quietly, but not exactly friendly from just behind him. "You okay, man?"

[texas_forever]

That sounds dangerously close to preaching for Tim's liking and that uncomfortable feeling grows a little, but he nods a little. For lack of anything else to do, really.

"So, were you in Boston?" he asks because things still aren't quite adding up right. It could just be John, though. From what little Tim knows of him so far, he's getting the feeling he's not quite like anyone in Dillon. "Before here, I mean."

[youarefalling]

"Yes." I sense that I've made him even more uncomfortable, but it doesn't bother me; I've become used to making people uncomfortable. Occupational hazard, you might say.

"I was in prison, actually." I smile. "I was going to be executed." For making people uncomfortable. Now that's almost funny. I try not to laugh; I suspect it would just be unsettling and I don't really want to unsettle him any further. Sometimes you have to tell people things they don't like hearing, but it's not kind to try to unsettle them.

Though, it's interesting how unsettled people often get when you tell them that they should make being kind to each other a priority.

[texas_forever]

This time, it doesn't strike Tim as completely surprising, but he still has no idea what to say, his eyes still furrowed as he watches John, still aware of how much space is between them and what kind of brute force Tim may have to use if he ends up being spontaneously attacked.

"Oh," he says finally, nodding again. "Sorry. That's gotta be rough." And it explains why John thought he may be dead.

[youarefalling]

"It wasn't too bad." Nothing really is. Everything is so wonderfully temporary. "They didn't exactly know what to make of me there. It wasn't their fault, you understand. I tried to explain things to them, but..." I shrug. "Different frames of reference, I guess."

Something in his stance catches my attention and I tilt my head at him, still almost smiling. For some reason everything around me is striking me as slightly funny.

"Are you afraid of me, Tim?"

[texas_forever]

"No," Tim replies automatically, his lips curving into a deeper frown. It comes from years of being a leading blocker, years of drunken brawls in pool halls, years of being a big fish in a little pond. Tim's not afraid of anything.

He makes his shoulders relax a little, putting on his own air of calm. Or, trying to at least.

[youarefalling]

Of course he's not. I was never that big, not even when I was his age and much fitter than I am now, but I wouldn't have admitted to being afraid of anything.

So.

"I didn't hurt anyone," I say, intending to reassure him that I'm not dangerous, whatever he claims. "I said some things that made people uncomfortable. Apparently that's enough to kill a man for these days. Or it is there, anyway."