I didn't think it was possible, myself, and I doubt that it would have been to this degree without the unforeseen.
[As gratifying as it would be to be able to take credit, as it is it would also be a falsehood. Intentions aside, he considers it highly unlikely he'd have ever grown beyond an ability to feign appropriate responses where necessary, to remain on the outside looking in.]
Easy, no. Satisfying, quite. A frontier revisited long enough after the fact to feel new. There's very little of this I remember from before.
Thank you. I doubt I'd have embarked on any of it without your companionship and goading. The siring perhaps. Not what started the climb out of dispassion and numbness.
You're welcome. [There's a note of real warmth to the words.] As cliché as it is to say it, that's what friends are for.
[And he knows well that once you've gone gray and reached a certain age, a real friend is one of the more difficult things in any world to find. Someone who can be trusted is even more scarce.
When he arrived in the city, bereft and freshly having decided to keep on trying to live after all, what he'd thought he needed was to recapture lost pieces of himself. What he actually ended up benefiting from, was making a friend.]
But at any rate, now that we've closed the book on our first agreement, once you've parsed your feelings about Jon [he did interrupt Grayson's rant, after all] let's pick the day we take out that creature. It's already spent too much time crawling around the city without some kind of answer to trespassing on my nightmares.
I'll keep a eye on the trail Jon picked out to its lair and make sure nothing changes there. [Because he's physically incapable of not involving himself in the preparations somehow, even if he's useless magically and well aware of the fact.]
What sort of surprises are you imagining? Something along the lines of the trap you laid in the nightmare realm?
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[As gratifying as it would be to be able to take credit, as it is it would also be a falsehood. Intentions aside, he considers it highly unlikely he'd have ever grown beyond an ability to feign appropriate responses where necessary, to remain on the outside looking in.]
Easy, no. Satisfying, quite. A frontier revisited long enough after the fact to feel new. There's very little of this I remember from before.
Thank you. I doubt I'd have embarked on any of it without your companionship and goading. The siring perhaps. Not what started the climb out of dispassion and numbness.
no subject
[And he knows well that once you've gone gray and reached a certain age, a real friend is one of the more difficult things in any world to find. Someone who can be trusted is even more scarce.
When he arrived in the city, bereft and freshly having decided to keep on trying to live after all, what he'd thought he needed was to recapture lost pieces of himself. What he actually ended up benefiting from, was making a friend.]
But at any rate, now that we've closed the book on our first agreement, once you've parsed your feelings about Jon [he did interrupt Grayson's rant, after all] let's pick the day we take out that creature. It's already spent too much time crawling around the city without some kind of answer to trespassing on my nightmares.
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[Some cliches are so for good reason.]
My feelings are well parsed. I'd say sooner rather than later. The longer it lingers, the more time it has to adapt its tactics.
I need some time to perform a few defensive rituals and prepare some surprises for our friend. Three weeks hence should be time enough.
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What sort of surprises are you imagining? Something along the lines of the trap you laid in the nightmare realm?
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[No sense in giving it any sort of advantage.]
You can trust I'll be prepared.
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I don't have any doubts there. Just as long as it's something Toby or I won't accidentally trip through our not knowing about it, I suppose.
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[It's his sardonic Texan drawl when he feels something ought to go without saying. It's gone as soon as it comes on.]
We'll talk again soon.