ii. video.

[thanatophobias]

[You can tell something about this message has been a long time coming when it first clicks on, revealing the bust of a young boy with uncertainty in his eyes. The moment he confirms it's recording is the moment he places down the communicator with small hands, before settling back and sitting down. His eyes are downcast, debating - until he gathers some more courage and starts talking.]

Someone died.

[There's a lengthy pause after the announcement. He just... doesn't want this to make him a freak. He has to remind himself he's not the only one with an ability no one else has. That's the only reason he's brought himself to reach out.]

I can see her sometimes. She wants my help, [As all the benevolent spirits who visit him do, in the end,] But she won't say anything.

I don't know what to do.

[Dr Malcolm isn't here to help him. They'd said goodbye once he'd helped that little girl back home, but - he wishes he were here to give him more advice, now.]

Comments

[thanatophobias]

Yeah. But I don't think they care anymore.

[foreshadower]

But perhaps they can be persuaded to care again.

[thanatophobias]

How?

[foreshadower]

Remind them that they were once human.

[thanatophobias]

[oh. That...]

I don't think I'd be good at it.

[teach me senpai.]

[foreshadower]

I have some experience with reminding the inhuman that they were human again.

[thanatophobias]

The inhuman?

[foreshadower]

I was once human, but now I am no longer.

[thanatophobias]

[His voice grows tense.] What are you?

[foreshadower]

I'm not quite sure.

[ Bluntly. ]

Certainly not dead. I'm an immortal.

[thanatophobias]

[It bothers him, but... somehow makes sense. The dead don't always know they're dead.

And meeting an immortal is the exact symmetry of that, isn't it?]

How do you know?

[foreshadower]

That I'm immortal? It's not for the lack of others trying!

I once had a bomb dropped on me.

[thanatophobias]

[In which curiosity slowly turns into skepticism.]

You're lying.

[foreshadower]

I'm not. [ Said simply. ]

What reason would I have to lie?

[thanatophobias]

Lying is easy.

[foreshadower]

Certainly, but it would also serve no purpose.

[thanatophobias]

[Cole isn't sure he feels defiant enough to respond to that. What he does know is that, if there's a purpose, he wouldn't necessarily have to know about it. Adults have a million different reasons to lie.]