[The event's pulling words out of him faster than he can string them together, or worse, check to make sure they're safe.]
I don't know if its...got one. Like, one--one it picked, or whatever. A real one. [His voice drops to a low mutter.] Doesn't call itself anything. Doesn't talk.
It's just...it's...I can't remember...I can't really remember seeing it, most of the times I saw it. 'S like it's not real half the time. Most of the time. And if you're making like it's not real, then why...why even talk about it, right?
[He cuts himself off with a choked, anxious huff of a laugh. That's enough, right? That's all he has to say, right?]
[...Right?]
Not everybody...thinks the same way. [No. Come on. Come on.] I got talked into...Tim's Mirror, he said giving it a name makes it so you're...so you're not scared of it, right? I think--I think it's wrong, it's fucking wrong, but Alex and Brian, they...
[Does she know Brian? Did she meet him? Did Alex ever talk about him?]
They called it something.
[Stop. Stop. Stop right now. Stop. You can't. You can't.]
[Jay grits his teeth, shaking. A shock of pain jolts up his jaw and down his neck. The hand holding the camera comes up to cover his mouth, hard plastic pressing lines into his skin. The other hand curls against the wall behind him, nails digging into the paint.]
[████████]
[He can't do this. He can't do this. He can't do this. He can't--]
[His hand's moving. It's been moving.]
[Shaky letters have been scratched into the paint: O P E R A T O R]
[Always made more sense in writing, didn't it? The Mirror's words didn't ring the same way when spoken aloud. Had to write them down. That's why he started keeping notebooks, all those months ago.]
no subject
I--I, I...
[The event's pulling words out of him faster than he can string them together, or worse, check to make sure they're safe.]
I don't know if its...got one. Like, one--one it picked, or whatever. A real one. [His voice drops to a low mutter.] Doesn't call itself anything. Doesn't talk.
It's just...it's...I can't remember...I can't really remember seeing it, most of the times I saw it. 'S like it's not real half the time. Most of the time. And if you're making like it's not real, then why...why even talk about it, right?
[He cuts himself off with a choked, anxious huff of a laugh. That's enough, right? That's all he has to say, right?]
[...Right?]
Not everybody...thinks the same way. [No. Come on. Come on.] I got talked into...Tim's Mirror, he said giving it a name makes it so you're...so you're not scared of it, right? I think--I think it's wrong, it's fucking wrong, but Alex and Brian, they...
[Does she know Brian? Did she meet him? Did Alex ever talk about him?]
They called it something.
[Stop. Stop. Stop right now. Stop. You can't. You can't.]
[Jay grits his teeth, shaking. A shock of pain jolts up his jaw and down his neck. The hand holding the camera comes up to cover his mouth, hard plastic pressing lines into his skin. The other hand curls against the wall behind him, nails digging into the paint.]
[████████]
[He can't do this. He can't do this. He can't do this. He can't--]
[His hand's moving. It's been moving.]
[Shaky letters have been scratched into the paint: O P E R A T O R]
[Always made more sense in writing, didn't it? The Mirror's words didn't ring the same way when spoken aloud. Had to write them down. That's why he started keeping notebooks, all those months ago.]
[Practice.]