epistemological

I'm going to be avoiding bright lights for a while.

[ a pause, and then: ]

I think I bit Tim.

[ he's going to die. ]

[ from here]

[ ...why does it bother him that Martin had inappropriately attacked someone else? ...he'll examine that at some point. Not now, though.]

What reason could you possibly have to BITE anyone?

He clapped his hand over my mouth when I wouldn't stop talking. I shouldn't have told you this. God, I'm never drinking around you lot again. I'm going to go have some water.

Well that DOES explain the bandage I saw yesterday but I wasn't about to ask him.

[ Talking to Tim was a bit like sticking your hand in a trap with a life wolverine for him. Or, apparently, a live Martin. ]

Now or the next time we decide to break out the drinks?

Oh, no. It needed a bandage??

[ don't mind martin. he's just casually reconsidering every choice he's ever made to lead him to this point. ]

Right now. I'm still sorry I spooked so badly. Thought I'd felt a bug on me.

[ it had been an empty cobweb. ]

It might have been something else. Was it the right hand or the left?

[ ...he really wishes he could maybe possibly turn off both the compulsion he has around ASKING questions and getting them answered.]

Every smell brush against you is not a bug, Martin. Someone's going to think you're rabid if you don't temper your responses just a little bit.

Right hand. And I know. I'm usually better about it. What about you? How are you feeling?

[ let's be real: martin would answer almost anything jon asked of him, compulsion or not. ]

Did you even get drunk?

I've found that drinking beyond a certain point has become less and less appealing. For reasons that I should hope are somewhat self-explanatory.

But I am

Fine, Martin. Thank you for asking after me.

Other than the claw marks, of course.

Good thing you can't fire me, I guess.

If I was going to fire you, Martin, it would be for much better reason than a bit of drunken jumpiness.

That doesn't make me feel any better at all, somehow.

For goodness sake, it would be to get you OUT of all of this mess. Or do you really think that I would terminate someone's livelihood for the great crime of rambling on at the slightest provocation?

I wouldn't call what I do rambling.

[ it is, absolutely, without a doubt, rambling. ]

Doesn't matter anyway. I'm not interested in hypothetical escape without the rest of you.

Anyone aware of the textbook definition of the word 'rambling' would call what you do 'rambling' if they didn't call it something far less... professional.

[ HUFF. Sigh. Dammit, Martin. ]

I should hope if any of you were so lucky to see an exit that you'd take it.

You wouldn't leave without us.

[ a soft challenge, but still a challenge. ]

That doesn't change what I said.

[ If text messages had volumes, that would have been... softer.]

What if the only way out is piecemeal? We don't know. We don't know what it is ahead of us.

If you see an exit, Martin, TAKE it. I'd tell every one of you the same. In fact, I believe I have.

Sure, Jon. If I see a way out, I won't waste any time.

[ because martin's head is throbbing and he's not interested in fighting with jon. not when they both know his own mind won't be changed, anyway. likely best to just change the subject. ]

Thank you for checking in on me.

Do you honestly think that's more convincing over text than it is in person?

[ It's honestly a good thing they're not in person. There might have been shouting by now if it was. He's...

He's worried. And upset. And wishes that Martin wasn't...

Well, not that he wishes Martin wasn't Martin, but he does wish at times that he wasn't quite so much Martin as he is... Martin. Especially when it comes to this. ]

Of course.

Not really. But I'm not really trying to convince you, either.

[ he doesn't really love the determination jon has to go it alone, to try to keep them safe, but what can he do about it? keep the archives running, he reckons. ]

I think I'm going to take a nap. I'll see you at the office tomorrow?

[ There is the [...] of text back and forth for almost a minute as he fights against the urge to ask certain questions, to continue the discussion, to dig in and fight on that point. But after that minute-]

Yes, of course.

OPEN RP

/continues here...

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