[ He'd offered to share it, but actually doing so was another thing. Would she look at him differently? But that doesn't matter. This isn't about him.
He takes a deep breath, jaw set, and he doesn't glance away, no matter how the onset of lingering guilt makes him feel like he should. ]
That ghost looked like someone important to you, didn't it? [ Whether it was someone she cared for or not, it had to be someone that had a measure of influence over her to get her to follow it. ] That sort of thing...seems to happen kind of a lot around here. It happened to me when I was in the jungle a few weeks ago on an expedition. There were these trees, and...
[ His fingers tighten on her shoulder, just a hair. ]
They tricked me into seeing my family, and when I followed them away from the group, I found a monster instead. A lot of people got hurt by it, and I felt like I was responsible for what happened. That's why I wanted to forget.
[ His voice quavers, because this isn't easy, and he has no idea if telling her this will even help. But it might, and as long as there's that chance, he has to try. So he swallows, and goes on. ]
In the days after it happened, I felt like such a failure for letting myself be tricked like that. I felt...useless, because I wasn't able to do anything to change what had happened - what I thought I had caused. I'm still not really...it's still tough. But the thing is, the thing my friends told me over and over again after it happened, is that it didn't make me weak because I followed them. Whoever you saw, they were important to you, weren't they?
It doesn't make you weak because you followed them. It doesn't make you a bad person, or a mistake, or anything like that. All it means is that you were willing to believe in something, in someone, that you were probably only following because you felt compelled to help them, because that's the kind of person you are. [ Then, he manages a crooked smile. ] The same kind of amazing person I think you are.
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He takes a deep breath, jaw set, and he doesn't glance away, no matter how the onset of lingering guilt makes him feel like he should. ]
That ghost looked like someone important to you, didn't it? [ Whether it was someone she cared for or not, it had to be someone that had a measure of influence over her to get her to follow it. ] That sort of thing...seems to happen kind of a lot around here. It happened to me when I was in the jungle a few weeks ago on an expedition. There were these trees, and...
[ His fingers tighten on her shoulder, just a hair. ]
They tricked me into seeing my family, and when I followed them away from the group, I found a monster instead. A lot of people got hurt by it, and I felt like I was responsible for what happened. That's why I wanted to forget.
[ His voice quavers, because this isn't easy, and he has no idea if telling her this will even help. But it might, and as long as there's that chance, he has to try. So he swallows, and goes on. ]
In the days after it happened, I felt like such a failure for letting myself be tricked like that. I felt...useless, because I wasn't able to do anything to change what had happened - what I thought I had caused. I'm still not really...it's still tough. But the thing is, the thing my friends told me over and over again after it happened, is that it didn't make me weak because I followed them. Whoever you saw, they were important to you, weren't they?
It doesn't make you weak because you followed them. It doesn't make you a bad person, or a mistake, or anything like that. All it means is that you were willing to believe in something, in someone, that you were probably only following because you felt compelled to help them, because that's the kind of person you are. [ Then, he manages a crooked smile. ] The same kind of amazing person I think you are.