[He was a little surprised at the hand grabbing his shoulder, but when he looked back up at Livio, the look on his face said that the argument to the contrary of the guilt he felt wasn't an unexpected one. He'd heard them enough over the years, and he knew why people wanted to say it, but he couldn't believe it, not after the things he'd seen and done.

Still, he tried to give him a smile, even if it didn't quite reach his eyes.]

Maybe. But if I hadn't been here, July wouldn't have happened. If I'd tried harder, Knives might not have ever started any of this to begin with.

[He glanced away again, reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck, where if he'd had enough energy left, he might have expected to start feeling the first small feathers beginning to form on his skin. That was beyond him, now, at least, so instead, it was just the old, normal feeling of shame that rolled down his back.

The Big Fall, the chaos as humanity tried to rebuild from the ruins of their previous lives, the Eye, the Gung Ho Guns, all of it, he could have done more to keep it from happening, and so many lives could have been saved. But there wasn't anything he could do to go back and change that, now.]

Thank you, though. I want to help, now that things have blown over. It's just a bit hard, with the bounty hanging over my head again.