[Action/Video]

[othersdie]

[Justin, unaffected by the cold induced by sitting near the fountain that the City had seen fit to drop him into during winter, finally tires of waiting for what he’s convinced what must be a trick of the mind to dissipate and resolve itself into the nothingness of death. For a lack of any other distractions, he fumbles with the device he had found in his pocket earlier.

He doesn’t fully understand why he would bother hallucinating what resembles a camcorder. The brain is truly a strange and unfathomable thing.]

Am I dead yet?

[It’s a ridiculous question. He still exists enough to imagine things; the answer is clearly no.]

If not--if not, I hope this doesn't last long.

Comments

[othersdie.livejournal.com]

Then you know about what I've done? [This is important.] It doesn't upset you?

[mumbled_truth]

Of course it does. I mean... I don't really see how it couldn't, but--

But you were here for a long time, and-- well, you'd done a lot here. I don't want to say that it made up for it, exactly, because that would be sort of... well, putting a value on life I'm not really comfortable doing, but...

You took your second chance and made something of it.

[othersdie.livejournal.com]

You're talking a different me. I haven't done anything here. I don't know what to make of a second chance; I don't know if there are second chances.

[somewhat anxiously] Everyone who knew me before is talking about someone else.

[mumbled_truth]

Well, you have a second chance now, whether or not you believe in it. And... if you did it once, there's no reason you can't do something with it now. I know you're not the you that I knew, but you're still you.

[othersdie.livejournal.com]

[This requires contemplative silence. It doesn't occur to Justin to, say, turn off his recorder while thinking.]

Is that enough?

What if I don't want to be at all?

[mumbled_truth]

[That gives Todd pause, too - not quite as long, but a bit. He speaks softly - even for him - and carefully. Never pushing.]

Things can be different here. Maybe... after a while, you won't feel that way anymore.

[othersdie.livejournal.com]

Maybe.

[He doesn't believe it for a second, but Todd sounds sincere--too sincere to argue with.]

Thank you, Todd.