(no subject)

[witnessthis]

[Max stares for the longest time, at nothing - or perhaps at everything at once - just the barest twitch to his eye to suggest he's even there at all. He's lost somewhere inside himself, gaze falling to somewhere near his feet as he tries to match the heaviness settled in his chest to words that might make some sense to someone. It takes a while.]

[At length, he wets his dry lips, the words he's finally settled on heavy on his tongue.] I. I don't think... [But they're reluctant and, seemingly in defiance, they lodge somewhere in the back of his throat, He clears it to make room for them, twitching left and right on the balls of his feet.] ... you fully understand the nature of my... [He flicks a hand at the general space around him, swatting at it, brushing it away.] Situation.

Comments

[witnessthis]

[He suspects he might be dead. Finally. Except that the voices in his head and the little girl staring at him from the peripheral of his vision should be gone, replaced by a calming sense of relief.]

[When all he can really feel is a sickening sense of anxiety rolling through his muscles, making him tense. He clears his throat to unstick his dry tongue from the roof of his mouth.] Everything.

[hismark]

[ The Outsider looks distantly amused, as he often does, arms crossed. ] Is that so? A broken mind, a broken man haunted by his past and thrown to the arid shores without mercy. Chained like a dog and bled dry. Is that not all you are?

[ He knows it's not, but needling is in his nature. ]

[witnessthis]

[That's Max's greatest fear, that his humanity will eroded by circumstance into nothing. That he'll forget himself entirely, with nothing to dwell on but those he's abandoned.]

If I'm here -- [Wherever here may be. Anywhere that hasn't been worn away into dessert or mired in swamp seems almost inconceivable to him and, if he isn't where he needs to be, how can he begin to make a difference?] -- does it matter?

[hismark]

Here? [ His black eyes narrow, and he smiles slightly. ] We are nowhere. Here, of all places, it may be most important for one to know who one is. You wouldn't want to drop your last thread and have nothing to pull you back, would you?