[ Another rattling laugh. It's a precarious balancing act, but it's getting easier to remember how he was, or how he is, or...something. It's hard to know what or who he is any more. ]
Y-you can...t-try.
[ He withdraws again, but it's clearly to keep his mask out of easy reach, rather than the instinctive keep-away he's played in Avery's shadow all this time. (There had been kind of a shame in how he had slunk away, like he had understood the days when his friend couldn't bear to look at him.) ]
no subject
Y-you can...t-try.
[ He withdraws again, but it's clearly to keep his mask out of easy reach, rather than the instinctive keep-away he's played in Avery's shadow all this time. (There had been kind of a shame in how he had slunk away, like he had understood the days when his friend couldn't bear to look at him.) ]