kayakking | (no subject)

Is that a challenge, Algric? There's more boxes.

You're joking. You must be joking.

Two words my friend: Outdoor decorations. I've spared you in my mercy.

And I am very grateful. Good lord.

Not to worry, always next year. Have to build it up slowly.

[ That makes him stop, awed at the thought of ... well. ]

Next year...

Yeah.

...

It's .. so, everything's changed? It's insane.

... But this? This is good, you know?

It's - it's really good. Amazing. I never thought I'd actually have this.

... You know? Me either.

R-really? I always thought you were more put together than - well. The rest of us.

Yeah, well... After Danny...

[He gives a lift and drop of his shoulder. Some of that desperate, driven grief had been burned off, thankfully, but that didn't make it easy to talk about.]

... Ah. That's - yes. I suppose that's true.

I never had any siblings, but ...

.. But some things are universal.

[Even without the horrific circumstances... well, that Tim knows of, anyway.]

I can imagine. Yes.

Anyways. All of us were a hot mess in our own ways. I just kind of lit my whole, you know, life on fire back then.

... Guess it's a theme.

Mm. Yes. Just like I retreated away from everyone around me, and Jon became a paranoid mess ...

[ He rubs at this face. ]

I, ah. I suppose that's the best argument for my arrival here being a good thing.

Among other things, yeah. Cut right through that building storm of insufferable.

Heh. I suppose - I suppose you wouldn't have listened to anyone save an actual ghost of Christmas future.

... You know, I DID actually think you were a ghost. Proper haunting and all that.

You mean when Jon first brought you over to see if he was crazy or not?

Yeah. That bit.

Probably not the most stress free of times there.

W-well. No. With everything going on at the Institute, and all. And then here was Jon acting weirder than usual on top of that.

NNnnnnope! I absolutely assumed he'd DEDUCED the mystery. Didn't actually connect shit. And we were going to go into accusation round two of this terrible game of Cry Wolf.

[ Algric chokes out a laugh at that. ]

Oh - oh god.

Picture it. He's been on a nasty tear all week. Being a verbal snapping turtle any moment he's not metaphorically hiding under bedsheets with a torch-

And suddenly. One day he comes in in a good mood.

Jonathan "thinks a lumpy pile of file cases is a good spying spot" Sims thanked Martin and asked how his day was.