[It is just like the moment with his Starman. The truth had crept closer and closer, but he had managed to slip away, right before the blade could strike. Before the hands could close around his throat.
He's always had a lucky streak. Survived what he shouldn't have been able to. Made too many close calls. The thing was, no man could avoid the storm forever.
Metaphorically. Or, as it crackled above them, the real one.
Verity.
The truth.]
We're real, aren't we, John? [John. A name that is both familiar as it is not. Not bland, but plain; he's heard it a hundred times before. John settles in his head, though, not Verity, in a way that makes sense to him -- like he has tilted his head and the edges of a painting have blended in the perfect way to reveal its secrets. When he thinks of his own, it is the same. Cadenza settles something sour, something fearful and unfamiliar.] The two of us? [The way he held John's hands, and how John held him back? Their tales of Geralt, their shared affections -- both for the Wolf's grousing and for his fondness?
Bile rises in his godly throat, an all-too-human reaction. His tightening hands, the sweat in his palms. Even the bite of tears in his eyes.] But not this. Not everything else.
no subject
He's always had a lucky streak. Survived what he shouldn't have been able to. Made too many close calls. The thing was, no man could avoid the storm forever.
Metaphorically. Or, as it crackled above them, the real one.
Verity.
The truth.]
We're real, aren't we, John? [John. A name that is both familiar as it is not. Not bland, but plain; he's heard it a hundred times before. John settles in his head, though, not Verity, in a way that makes sense to him -- like he has tilted his head and the edges of a painting have blended in the perfect way to reveal its secrets. When he thinks of his own, it is the same. Cadenza settles something sour, something fearful and unfamiliar.] The two of us? [The way he held John's hands, and how John held him back? Their tales of Geralt, their shared affections -- both for the Wolf's grousing and for his fondness?
Bile rises in his godly throat, an all-too-human reaction. His tightening hands, the sweat in his palms. Even the bite of tears in his eyes.] But not this. Not everything else.