Cam nodded as Darkeye spoke. Privately, his statement about medicine rubbed them the wrong way a little -- they'd heard too many people say that they should be able to live without "all those pills" -- but they didn't show it. They could hear that there was no malice in the man's voice, that he just wanted people to be healthy, even if he perhaps hadn't examined what that meant the way Cam had. "Yeah, everything as a price. In this case, the price of me living a good life was, well, my blood. My mortality. My humanity, some people would say." For a moment Cam watched Darkeye work with an uncharacteristically dark expression. "But I don't feel inhuman," they said at least. "I feel like me. Not just that -- I feel like a better me, someone who isn't tired and miserable all the time. Honestly, a lot of the things that I 'lost' from being Ascended, I just don't miss that much. Eating, sleeping, walking in the sun ... " They shrugged.
"Do you want me to take a swing at that, by the way?" they asked, watching Darkeye work. They never really liked to just sit and watch while someone else worked -- it made them feel awkward, lazy. But they didn't have a pickaxe of their own, so they couldn't just jump in.
Again Cam nodded. "No one's perfect, and anyone who says they are ... they're usually worth avoiding. And I get what you mean, feeling insecure because you don't know what's going on here. When I got here ... " They shrug again. "I always felt so incompetent. I could barely manage my own life, let alone contribute to anyone else's. I was honestly afraid I'd just wither away and die here. But I didn't ... and that is largely thanks to the Voice. Even before I Ascended myself, the people who talked to me, checked on me, came to help me -- they were Ascended."
"Do you want me to take a swing at that, by the way?" they asked, watching Darkeye work. They never really liked to just sit and watch while someone else worked -- it made them feel awkward, lazy. But they didn't have a pickaxe of their own, so they couldn't just jump in.
Again Cam nodded. "No one's perfect, and anyone who says they are ... they're usually worth avoiding. And I get what you mean, feeling insecure because you don't know what's going on here. When I got here ... " They shrug again. "I always felt so incompetent. I could barely manage my own life, let alone contribute to anyone else's. I was honestly afraid I'd just wither away and die here. But I didn't ... and that is largely thanks to the Voice. Even before I Ascended myself, the people who talked to me, checked on me, came to help me -- they were Ascended."
cameron ?
"Cameras" by Ennev is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
