audio;

[fadeling]

[Cole's been doing some thinking. Always a dangerous proposition, but unavoidable, really. It hasn't been all that long since the fire, but...well. Maybe it could have been worse, but it could have been a lot better too.

At least he's managed to make this audio. Probably entirely by accident.]

I can't tell if it's better. Is it better? [He doesn't specify what "it" is. But there's a pause for a few moments while he considers what else to say. It's hard to verbalize what he's thinking, his thoughts pulled in a thousand ways at once like they always are. He doesn't make sense at the best of times, and now he's trying to find words that probably don't exist.]

The whispers are worries, but the calls are clarion and confused. Did I do the right thing? Is it good at all?

[Another pause, longer than than the last one--almost long enough to wonder whether Cole has hung up.]

Maybe this time it's different.

Comments

[fadeling]

I don't help how you want. I help how you need.

[puzzlingly]

... Touché.

[fadeling]

Sometimes it has to hurt first. Break a bone to put it right. [He doesn't like it, but it's true.]

[puzzlingly]

「 Sorry dude, he laughs a little, but it's not true and it's a little bitter. 」

I would have thought that I had enough of that.

[fadeling]

It doesn't make it easy. I know.

[puzzlingly]

No, it actually is easy, I mean, after all this time... I should be used to it.

「 Except, he wasn't alone last time. 」

[fadeling]

That doesn't mean easy.

[puzzlingly]

Will it ever be?

[fadeling]

Maybe. But probably not.

[puzzlingly]

「 You're a little frustrating, Cole...

But also right... meh. 」

Brutally honest, are you not?

[fadeling]

You need to know.

[puzzlingly]

I already know.

[fadeling]

Then lying won't change it.

[puzzlingly]

It's not lying, Cole, it's giving people hope. Something to look forward to.

「 Damn, Yugi, he misses you so... 」

I thought that you, the helping one, would know that.

[fadeling]

It won't help to believe blindly.

[puzzlingly]

It does, it does help to believe in something.

[fadeling]

Not if it makes you forget other things.

[puzzlingly]

What things?

[fadeling]

The rest of your life.

[puzzlingly]

「 Lawl... 」

My life ended long time ago.

[fadeling]

You're still here.

[puzzlingly]

Yeah, yeah, I shouldn't but I am.

[fadeling]

You shouldn't waste it being blind.

[puzzlingly]

How am I being blind, exactly?

[fadeling]

I don't know. I'm not supposed to listen without asking.