amicably_absent | (no subject)

"Did I?" He pauses. "There I go, glitching again."

He smooths the ribbon down in the book, closing it and then laughing as Jeb speaks. "No, it doesn't. It sounds terribly dull and boring to anyone not in the field." He folds his legs upon the large seat.

Okay. So, he's nothing like Jeb's mother. Check.

But maybe that's okay. He just isn't sure he's ready for it to be okay. He shrugs. "What if I meant it like they do in the West? Interesting times, you know."

"Interesting as a euphemism for dangerous, chaotic and troublesome?" He thought about it. "Probably closer. Most of it's outdated now, though. I haven't had the brains to write something like this in years, and Azka-D's techs had time to work."

His finger taps his lips. "Though there were certain inefficiencies in their machine..."

"Yeah... I heard something about the start up sequence being the same as the one for shutdown. Bad for them, good for us."

Chewing on the inside of his lower lip, he looks out over the lake. Whichever one it is, there's so many of them around here.

"So, uh, we got loads of fish today. Loads." Once they started paying attention to what they were doing instead of horsing around and/or bickering about stuff. "Wyatt said you like fish, so... And we're having fish for dinner. He's helping in the kitchen."

"Not that. Their use of moratanium, there's much more efficient ways to..." He pauses, grasps for it and sighs. "Nope. Gone again."

He pushes to start swinging back and forth a bit. "Fish are great. Did you know, fish have a bladder of air that they use to control their buoyancy?"

"Of course I know that." He may have been a bit obsessed with fish as a kid, especially after his father was taken away. He may have been obsessed with a lot of other things as well over the years, but they're not talking about that.

"A lot of people don't," Glitch points out. He swings a bit more, dropping books to the ground in a pile. "You're clever, like your dad."

He's quiet a bit longer. "You don't really like me and your dad, do you?"

Clever... Yeah. He's clever, like his father, but he never expected to be confronted like this. He could say it's none of his business. He could come up with some kind of excuse, but it would just not be right.

He tilts his neck to the side and back again, feeling the vertebrae crack more than hearing it. "It's awkward, seeing him with someone else. Not Mom."

Glitch nods, not so much watching Jeb as just watching out into the world absently. "Awkward is okay. It's better than dislike or hate or revolted or anything like that." All in perspective.

"I just don't want to make things hard for or between you and Wyatt."

His chin tilts down, wondering if he really heard what he thinks he did. He turns around, watching this, this strange guy who somehow stole his dad's heart away. There's nothing wrong with stealing hearts if...

"Why would I hate you?" He feels guilty now, like a hot, glowing branding iron pressed to his forehead. "Why would I be revolted? That's crazy!"

"Because it would be really easy to see me as a cheap replacement, someone trying to butt in where they're not wanted, in a lot of ways. As the person Wyatt's with, as someone competing for your time to get to know him again after so many years..." He shrugs. "Emotions don't always make sense. That's why they're emotions. I wouldn't blame you for feeling any of them. I just, wanna know. Because I don't want to make things hard for you. Or between you."

Aw, man...

He did not see this coming. He didn't not see this coming, and now he has very little idea how to get out of it. He'll have to explain himself, and that means figuring out what exactly he feels, and he's rarely made time for introspection.

"Okay, look." He walks over and holds on to one of the thick old ropes keeping the swing above ground. "I thought he was dead. The Longcoats took him away, and we never heard from him again, and I don't know how long the bitch kept him imprisoned. Then one day, not even a month after my mother dies, we set up an ambush for a prisoner transport. Longcoats, and three high priority prisoners."

He sighs. "Dad's there, one of them, one of you. Looking exactly the same as he did when I last saw him, and I don't mean that like people do when they lie to people's faces about not aging. He hasn't aged one day, Glitch."

"No, of course not. That's the design of the suit. Perpetuity. Harnesses the natural inclination of the Outer Zone for graceful aging and long life, exceptionally long life compared to the other side, and enhances it. You're too young to remember, but all the O.Z. used to be like that. People lived long, long lives. Death is uncommon here. The magic of this land makes us that way, and it made us able to handle those long lives in relative peace."

He looks out. "I haven't aged really since I was... however old I was when I started working with moratanium." He looks back up to Jeb. "The magic is leeching back into the world now it's not all bottled up in those girls."

It sounds like some of the stories his mother used to tell him when he had trouble sleeping, after the Longcoats had driven them away from their home. Of giant men with whiskers for beards and a city entirely made of emeralds... He knows some of it was taken from the history books, but he can't believe it was all real. He can't believe the ramblings of a headcase, no matter how lucid he seems. But even that isn't the point.

"My experience with magic isn't all that memorable, but that's my point. Mom kept on hoping he'd come back any day. I thought he was dead, and he isn't. That's the first thing I have to come to terms with. Then there's the fact he's changed, we've all changed, and I have to get to know him all over again, and it just feels so strange having a dad again.

"And then there's you..."

"The headcase."

He looks back over the lakes. "I wasn't always a headcase. I dunno how much your dad told you... or I told you, frankly, but I used to be the Queen's Personal Adviser. We were like that." He twists two of his fingers together. "Before they took my marbles."

He rubs the zip and sighs. "I'd probably be worried to in your position. If I could remember long enough to worry."

"That's not what I said, Glitch," Jeb replies with the air of someone much older than his years. "I know you're a headcase, and I know you're Ambrose, and I am worried. I have the right to worry about my father going head over heels because of someone who struggles with his own mind half the time, and is someone completely different the rest."

He smiles slightly, amused for some reason he can't think of. "And it's not what I was going to say, either."

"No, it's what a lot of people have said though. Your dad did. Wouldn't let me travel with him and DG at first, because I was a criminal headcase. Guess that was probably before the political headcasing days..."

He looks to Jeb and laughs, swinging himself a bit more. "I wouldn't tell you not to worry. He's your dad, you have that right. It's a bit of why I want him to go with you. You two need that time, just you, without me hanging around like a bad smell with a perpetual tendency for breaking bones."

"Oh, come on! Stop with the tongue-in-cheek pity party." He grins, giving the swing a push, then stepping back.

"Aren't you even the slightest curious what I was gonna say before you went hunting conclusions?"

He looks away, the grin fading to something softer, something much more vulnerable. "In a way. I find reaching conclusions on opinions first saves a lot of hurt though. If you assume the worst, anything better is a blessing. I've never been very good with people."

His voice is almost whisper soft and shy, not looking up to Jeb.

Jeb, unlike his father, doesn't notice the shift at all. He thinks, and who wouldn't were they in his shoes, that he's simply said something very, very wrong. Though, with all the other things he's said already, he has no idea why he's gone too far now.

"Hey..." He reaches out, placing his hand on Glitch's arm. "I'm sorry. No one should ever have to feel that way. I was going to say you make him smile like it's the easiest thing in the world, and I have no idea how you do it. And, that I'm actually kinda glad you do. He needs to smile more. Be happy."

"Glitch has that effect on a lot of people, I notice. I don't really understand how he does it, I was never like that before."

The fluidity of pronouns is confusing, even for the man using them. Then the bright smile is back. "You're sweet, like your dad. Thanks." He closes his hand on Jeb's and pats it softly.

"So...we're okay? You know, with me being awkward when you guys go all fluffy with each other and stuff?"

He thinks he can feel a headache coming on, though he has no idea why, other than he feels terribly confused. Wyatt never did get around to explain about the whys and what fors of Glitch and Ambrose switching places.

"I'm not revolted. And I don't hate you. I just don't know you well enough to really like you yet, either."

"That's fair." He keeps swinging, back and forth. Back and forth. "I like most people on first impression. All of them. Every time. Until they're horrible to me. Which usually doesn't take long, but sometimes-"

He blinks and goes silent for a moment, then looks to Jeb and smiles. "Hi!"

"Hey."

Yeah. That's a headache, alright. "But sometimes, what?"

"Sometimes what what?" He blinks again. "What are you talking about?"