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[rebells]

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[splinten]

[There's a pause, because he almost says, "I've never tried to date you or the person you're into" but he knows how Jay gets about romantic things, so he holds back. So he says, slowly,]

I think I'm capable of being that bad. Sometimes, I get this feeling that I'm capable of things so much worse than I've even thought of. That's in the context of someone who can think of some pretty impressively bad actions he would consider possible.

[But he has watched Dave. Once before, and now here. He's listened to what Dave said, and what others who knew Dave said. He has an intuition. And that's still him.]

[rebells]

Most people are capable of a great deal, both good and bad. What you choose to do matters too.

[Shirley, after all, was capable of genocide. She just decided differently.]

[splinten]

[Dirk, half-uncurled, looks down at his hands. He pictures a pair of sunglasses there. Cracking.]

Are you scared to not exist?

[rebells]

[Carefully:]

. . . I don't want to die, if that's what you mean.

[splinten]

That isn't what I mean.

[He doesn't elaborate. He thinks Jay understands the question.]

[rebells]

[There's a silence. He looks down.]

I'm . . . fairly certain I exist.

[The question has always been what is doing the existing.]

[splinten]

So, the uncertainty is in the 'I' part of it.

[rebells]

[He looks back at his hands, and doesn't answer.

That might be enough of an answer in itself.]

[splinten]

Sorry. Pushing like that wasn't fair of me.

[What a surprise. Dirk Strider is a pushy asshole. Someone tell the news.

Dirk stops that train of thought and regroups.]

I know you have your own things, and maybe you don't want to talk about them right now, so I'll lay out mine. I think to a degree, everyone, or at least most people, experience splinters of themselves. We behave in different ways around different people or in different circumstances, and there are always possible courses we didn't follow but that we can imagine ourselves in. But sometimes, for me at least, it feels like they're... haunting me. Like I can't get away from them, from myself, no matter what I do. I can't even get high, it just doesn't happen. My mind is just unable to escape itself.

[He lets go of the shades that aren't really in his hands.]

I can't seem to untangle those possibilities from the choices I do make. Like you said, with that mist, the point is probably to accept them. And sure, I know they're part of the holistic Dirk as envisioned by all the possibilities that exist in me, but I don't think anything will make me stop hating them. Still, I can try to accept it. I guess what I'm stuck on is, what do you do after that?

[rebells]

You keep going, I think. You keep living. Keep trying.

[But that answer feels somehow incomplete; he shakes his head a little.]

It's . . . possible someone else would have a better answer for you.

[splinten]

It's also possible that a better answer might not help. I think there are certain things that are easier to help someone with if you're at least part-way into it too. The blind have a better idea what kind of directions mean something to a blind person, so thank fuck they're the ones leading them.

[rebells]

Maybe.

[A small smile, although he can't help the continued conviction that Senel or Shirley would have something more to say.]

. . . you keep trying to be the--person--you want to be. You keep trying until there isn't anything left to try. That's what I think.

[splinten]

It's something concrete.

[He can do that, at least. He can keep trying that. He's so tired, he feels like a failure at every turn. But he can do that.]

[rebells]

[He nods, and is silent for a moment.]

. . . were you planning on going back? We still have some time.

[splinten]

Yeah. This time I'll practice the art of zen shut-the-fuck-up.

[rebells]

[He looks like he wants to say something else, but ends up with a small smile and an,]

All right.

[And one presumes they make their way back to the meeting from there.]