[As the crashing noise fades to a crumbling echo—]
Locked us in... [Distantly, he knows he ought to find that pretty alarming. But Richie was talking at him, and Red is starting them down into the fog in the distance, and it gets pretty hard to hold onto the thought, now that everything is moving and the air is buzzing around him, through him.]
Y'know, you— [Accusingly, almost. In Richie's direction, for not much more reason then because he's in his line of sight. Continuing off in an uncharacteristic ramble.] You remind me...of somebody. That loudmouth Tennegan. You remember him, Red? That guy. Sometimes....
[His tone weaves dizzily from unfocused accusation to wistfully fond to quietly pensive, as he goes. Words carefully chosen with all the earnest deliberation of a drunk leaning too far over the table and taking himself very seriously.]
Sometimes I wonder. If he's still in here. Somewhere. Or if he's just...sleeping. Like...maybe they got him out. And he's up there, with everybody else. [A beat, then—] Like they did for Sybil.
[And Royce, but he doesn't know that. (Can't, until someone sees fit to fill him in.) Out in those pods and whole again. Like they could do for Sybil and for Royce but not for him. He can see Red up there, and Richie, but mostly he sees her, because she is carrying the Transistor and there's a sharpness in her spine and a hard set in her jaw and she's the only thing he really has left to hold onto. He's here and she's there, and there's something wrong but he's still with her so it could be worse. (It could be so much worse. But sometimes she is so far away.)
no subject
Locked us in... [Distantly, he knows he ought to find that pretty alarming. But Richie was talking at him, and Red is starting them down into the fog in the distance, and it gets pretty hard to hold onto the thought, now that everything is moving and the air is buzzing around him, through him.]
Y'know, you— [Accusingly, almost. In Richie's direction, for not much more reason then because he's in his line of sight. Continuing off in an uncharacteristic ramble.] You remind me...of somebody. That loudmouth Tennegan. You remember him, Red? That guy. Sometimes....
[His tone weaves dizzily from unfocused accusation to wistfully fond to quietly pensive, as he goes. Words carefully chosen with all the earnest deliberation of a drunk leaning too far over the table and taking himself very seriously.]
Sometimes I wonder. If he's still in here. Somewhere. Or if he's just...sleeping. Like...maybe they got him out. And he's up there, with everybody else. [A beat, then—] Like they did for Sybil.
[And Royce, but he doesn't know that. (Can't, until someone sees fit to fill him in.) Out in those pods and whole again. Like they could do for Sybil and for Royce but not for him. He can see Red up there, and Richie, but mostly he sees her, because she is carrying the Transistor and there's a sharpness in her spine and a hard set in her jaw and she's the only thing he really has left to hold onto. He's here and she's there, and there's something wrong but he's still with her so it could be worse. (It could be so much worse. But sometimes she is so far away.)
He continues, like a sigh.]
...Sure would be nice to know. About that.
[Then, barely a heartbeat later—]
Hey, where we going?