[ It's a good thing to know that he doesn't have to explain everything to Chozen starting from the very ground up - though Daniel certainly thinks the other man is taking all of this in much more calmly than your average person. (Especially when he considers the way he himself had been almost agitated enough to shout at the less-than-helpful cryptic people on the beach back then.)
It's a thought he doesn't have much time to linger on in the face of what follows it. Daniel isn't exactly a man who has received a whole lot of apologies, and being smacked in the face by one when he least expected it leaves him startled enough to - at first - be quiet in the face of it. Daniel just ducks his head a little as they walk, like he isn't entirely sure how to process those words.
They feel like a little too much for him. Like he didn't do anything to earn them. ]
If I recall correctly, I just asked you to fly out to California. Not to follow me to some strange squid land where we're all dealing with strange blood.
[ Daniel tries to make it sound a little comical, especially with that emphasis, but it's just his way of dealing with it. And to, at the same time, absolve Chozen of absolutely any guilt here. None of this is your fault.
There are natural words to follow that though, but Daniel hesitates to speak them for another moment. It feels too selfish. Should anyone truly be happy that yet another person is stuck in this hellhole?
.. what would be worse between that, and outright lying to someone he wants to trust, and who he wants to be trusted by?
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Daniel opts for honesty. ]
I.. guess it would be a lie though to say I'm not relieved and glad to see you. [ Especially alive. Unharmed. No longer frozen-- add that one onto the list too now. ] It did kind of feel like we were going to be a team back there.
[ And then it had just been Daniel. Daniel, and a much earlier Johnny, and a town full of danger. And then Robby, and then Terry, and then a mess.
Sure, he may not have had much time to bond with Chozen yet, but he feels like a surprisingly uncomplicated factor in the middle of all of it. An untangled string. Their past may be a mess of its own, but he feels like he knows where he stands with the other. What he wants to give. What he'd like to receive.
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It's a thought he doesn't have much time to linger on in the face of what follows it. Daniel isn't exactly a man who has received a whole lot of apologies, and being smacked in the face by one when he least expected it leaves him startled enough to - at first - be quiet in the face of it. Daniel just ducks his head a little as they walk, like he isn't entirely sure how to process those words.
They feel like a little too much for him. Like he didn't do anything to earn them. ]
If I recall correctly, I just asked you to fly out to California. Not to follow me to some strange squid land where we're all dealing with strange blood.
[ Daniel tries to make it sound a little comical, especially with that emphasis, but it's just his way of dealing with it. And to, at the same time, absolve Chozen of absolutely any guilt here. None of this is your fault.
There are natural words to follow that though, but Daniel hesitates to speak them for another moment. It feels too selfish. Should anyone truly be happy that yet another person is stuck in this hellhole?
.. what would be worse between that, and outright lying to someone he wants to trust, and who he wants to be trusted by?
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Daniel opts for honesty. ]
I.. guess it would be a lie though to say I'm not relieved and glad to see you. [ Especially alive. Unharmed. No longer frozen-- add that one onto the list too now. ] It did kind of feel like we were going to be a team back there.
[ And then it had just been Daniel. Daniel, and a much earlier Johnny, and a town full of danger. And then Robby, and then Terry, and then a mess.
Sure, he may not have had much time to bond with Chozen yet, but he feels like a surprisingly uncomplicated factor in the middle of all of it. An untangled string. Their past may be a mess of its own, but he feels like he knows where he stands with the other. What he wants to give. What he'd like to receive.
It feels like standing with an equal. ]