Walter can't hear Russell, now - or, well, he can, each phoneme being engraved in what feels like minute detail, but whether that's an effect of this hollowness or just the cake being itself is a fact lost in the ether, being drowned in the memories of everything else.
Being five years old, asking why they have to leave Mossgate, she was just fine here! "But we have to, Molly. It's... destiny," her mother states, eyes looking somehow distant despite her matter of fact tone.
He'd thought he'd gone over this... Been done with it.
Being eight years old, now, and perfectly capable of handling herself in the woods, even able to take care of those in the convent younger than her if she needs to. Never having to worry about the outside world, even that one time she fell in a river and a cut got infected. "Oh, she'll heal just fine," their leader had said, and she had, but it always felt weird walking on that leg afterwards...
Why was it all coming back now? He'd steered clear of even controlled substances, only taken certain meds when it'd been Absolutely Clear that was the right avenue and he'd gotten second, no, fifth opinions... He'd gone through with therapy to address these things, even!
Being seventeen, staring at the dress in the mirror in her family's new small apartment in London and thinking, "Oh, this just isn't my style..."
People were only supposed to experience their life like this once - and even then-
Twenty-one. October 6th, 2012. Looking up just what on earth 'being trans' meant, and suddenly being accosted by a memory of a different time, a different being, two halves becoming whole...
WHAT WAS THAT.
Walter blinks twice, without even realizing Russell had asked him to do that exactly that.
TL;DR attack! Also, trans-character-identity-pronouns warning?
Being five years old, asking why they have to leave Mossgate, she was just fine here! "But we have to, Molly. It's... destiny," her mother states, eyes looking somehow distant despite her matter of fact tone.
He'd thought he'd gone over this... Been done with it.
Being eight years old, now, and perfectly capable of handling herself in the woods, even able to take care of those in the convent younger than her if she needs to. Never having to worry about the outside world, even that one time she fell in a river and a cut got infected. "Oh, she'll heal just fine," their leader had said, and she had, but it always felt weird walking on that leg afterwards...
Why was it all coming back now? He'd steered clear of even controlled substances, only taken certain meds when it'd been Absolutely Clear that was the right avenue and he'd gotten second, no, fifth opinions... He'd gone through with therapy to address these things, even!
Being seventeen, staring at the dress in the mirror in her family's new small apartment in London and thinking, "Oh, this just isn't my style..."
People were only supposed to experience their life like this once - and even then-
Twenty-one. October 6th, 2012. Looking up just what on earth 'being trans' meant, and suddenly being accosted by a memory of a different time, a different being, two halves becoming whole...
WHAT WAS THAT.
Walter blinks twice, without even realizing Russell had asked him to do that exactly that.