041 - Macintosh Apple

[deadly_ned]

I don't...expect there to be anyone. From my world, that is.

There wasn't anyone last time, but.

Hope's a hard thing to squash.

Comments

[composited]

Hi, Ned. Say hi, Ditto.

[ There's a dog nose in the screen, over Alpha's arm. ]

Why haven't you gone home yet, piemaker?

[deadly_ned]

Hi, Ditto. Say hi, Digby.

[Digby sluggishly gets up off the bed to come sit his head in the Piemaker's lap]

...I don't know. I wanted to look after Dean and I kept expecting to be re-paired. Neither of those things happened.

[composited]

Two inmates means you don't have to worry about the barge anymore, Ned... You've done your time. Don't want to keep your lady waiting, do you?

[deadly_ned]

...No. No, I do miss Chuck.

I'm worried I'm stuck in a rut. Change doesn't come easily to me.

[composited]

The only way to get out of a rut is to jump it, Ned. Climb up over it, leap across, keep going.

[deadly_ned]

That's easy to say and far less easy to do.

[composited]

True. But I have faith you.

[deadly_ned]

I wish I had faith in me.

[composited]

I do too, Ned.

[deadly_ned]

What do you think I should do?

[composited]

Same thing I thought when I left: that you should go home.

[deadly_ned]

Just like that?

[composited]

Letting go is simple. Just uncurl your hands.

[deadly_ned]

I'm frightened.

[composited]

That's natural and normal, Ned.

[deadly_ned]

Change was never something I was very good at.

[composited]

No? You don't say.

[deadly_ned]

Can I ask how you're settling into your new life?

[composited]

I'm settled. [ He can't call it much of a life, after the Thoughtpocalypse, but it's his. ] It's-- been a few years. Since we spoke last.

[deadly_ned]

A few years?

That's.

Wow.

I'm touched you still remembered me. People fall out of touch after only months.

[composited]

Have I ever been most people? I mean -- I guess I'm compromised of people, but event they aren't 'most people'.

[deadly_ned]

It still means a lot. I must have had a bigger effect on you than I thought.

[composited]

If you only knew, Ned. If you only knew. [ He's both wry, and a hint self-depreciating there. It's funny, how things worked out, he thinks. Funny. ]

[deadly_ned]

It..isn't just a one-way street.

You really helped me to be braver. I don't know if I ever thanked you for that.

[composited]

Well, you helped me find a new way to be. So thank you for that.