The obvious relief in that tiny form was like a stab to the heart, and he wanted to wrap him up in his arms and give him a hug. But the confirmation of that name was even worse, and he felt like all of the breath left like he'd be punched right in the chest, grinning wide as he gave a short, choked laugh.
He refused to let himself cry, no matter how much his eyes burned with it and how the confirmation made him feel both gutted and elated at the same time. Instead, he just nodded, doing his best to shove all of the tangled emotions down into the pit of his stomach so he wouldn't spook him any more than he already was. The last thing Nicholas needed was some weird old man getting even weirder on him , when all he wanted was to find his family. He was so small.
"Yeah, they're just fine, I promise! We can go meet them as soon as you're ready. I'm really happy to get to meet you, too, Nicholas." His smile went a little tight, and he forced himself to breathe in carefully. "Melanie will be happy to see you. She was...really worried about you."
And it was the truth, wasn't it? The looks of horror and worry on all of their faces as they watched Wolfwood give his life for them was still fresh in his mind. Bringing him back would be such a gift, for so many people. He was so loved, precious to so many people even if the man he knew had never believed it. And that thought just made him want to cry even more.
But he continued chugging along, forcing it all down again at the question and blinking at him in mild confusion before he realized that he must not know what was going on. It left him gaping for a few moments, his mouth working as he tried to figure out what to say, how much to tell him and how much he would be able to understand as opposed to how much would be too much. Kids were smart, they caught things adults didn't more often than most people realized. But that didn't mean they should have the weight of certain things put on them before they were ready to deal with them, and more than anything, the last child he wanted to hurt right now was sitting right beside him.
Finally, he nodded and glanced over his shoulder, down the street, and gestured to the curve of SEEDS 3 where it hovered over the far edge of town, and just nearby to the shape of other, less-dilapidated space-faring vessels. To someone who knew the city the way it had looked before, they stuck out like a sore thumb. But he could imagine in the midst of all the people and chaos the city was in right now, to someone so young who'd never seen Octovern as it used to be, they just became background noise.
"Over there," he pointed out the jagged hull of SEEDS 3. "There's one of the old ships from the space-faring age. It still works just a bit, and there are people who live on it. That's where my friends are, it's where Melanie and the kids went, the last time I saw them. And over there are new ships from Earth, where the old ships came from hundreds of years ago. The first ship had been sending out distress signals, ever since the Big Fall, and they finally got a reply, and now there are new people bringing supplies on the new ships."
He let his hand drop and turned back to smile at Nicholas again, and found that answering the question had at least distracted enough for a few moments that he was a bit more composed.
"A few months ago, a couple groups of people started fighting over what resources we have here, and that's why everyone came to Octovern. It was where the last of the Plants were. But the fighting is over, now, and the spaceships came just at the end of it, so now everyone is trying to figure out how to get people back home, and send the Plants back where they belong. And the people on the spaceships are...looking for the two people who caused the fighting. But there are some people who worry they might want to...I don't know." he shrugged, and for a brief second, his gaze went unfocused, a bit fearful, and detached as it was from his feelings surrounding Nicholas, he wasn't being quite as mindful to mask it from view. "The people who were fighting were...kind of powerful. There's some worry that the people on the spaceships want to...make them keep fighting, just not each other."
He shook the fog out of his mind, refocusing and giving him another sad little smile.
"Which is why it's not really a good idea for me to use my real name, if it's the same as one of the people they're looking for. I don't like fighting people, I'm glad all of the fighting stopped. I don't like seeing people get hurt."
no subject
He refused to let himself cry, no matter how much his eyes burned with it and how the confirmation made him feel both gutted and elated at the same time. Instead, he just nodded, doing his best to shove all of the tangled emotions down into the pit of his stomach so he wouldn't spook him any more than he already was. The last thing Nicholas needed was some weird old man getting even weirder on him , when all he wanted was to find his family. He was so small.
"Yeah, they're just fine, I promise! We can go meet them as soon as you're ready. I'm really happy to get to meet you, too, Nicholas." His smile went a little tight, and he forced himself to breathe in carefully. "Melanie will be happy to see you. She was...really worried about you."
And it was the truth, wasn't it? The looks of horror and worry on all of their faces as they watched Wolfwood give his life for them was still fresh in his mind. Bringing him back would be such a gift, for so many people. He was so loved, precious to so many people even if the man he knew had never believed it. And that thought just made him want to cry even more.
But he continued chugging along, forcing it all down again at the question and blinking at him in mild confusion before he realized that he must not know what was going on. It left him gaping for a few moments, his mouth working as he tried to figure out what to say, how much to tell him and how much he would be able to understand as opposed to how much would be too much. Kids were smart, they caught things adults didn't more often than most people realized. But that didn't mean they should have the weight of certain things put on them before they were ready to deal with them, and more than anything, the last child he wanted to hurt right now was sitting right beside him.
Finally, he nodded and glanced over his shoulder, down the street, and gestured to the curve of SEEDS 3 where it hovered over the far edge of town, and just nearby to the shape of other, less-dilapidated space-faring vessels. To someone who knew the city the way it had looked before, they stuck out like a sore thumb. But he could imagine in the midst of all the people and chaos the city was in right now, to someone so young who'd never seen Octovern as it used to be, they just became background noise.
"Over there," he pointed out the jagged hull of SEEDS 3. "There's one of the old ships from the space-faring age. It still works just a bit, and there are people who live on it. That's where my friends are, it's where Melanie and the kids went, the last time I saw them. And over there are new ships from Earth, where the old ships came from hundreds of years ago. The first ship had been sending out distress signals, ever since the Big Fall, and they finally got a reply, and now there are new people bringing supplies on the new ships."
He let his hand drop and turned back to smile at Nicholas again, and found that answering the question had at least distracted enough for a few moments that he was a bit more composed.
"A few months ago, a couple groups of people started fighting over what resources we have here, and that's why everyone came to Octovern. It was where the last of the Plants were. But the fighting is over, now, and the spaceships came just at the end of it, so now everyone is trying to figure out how to get people back home, and send the Plants back where they belong. And the people on the spaceships are...looking for the two people who caused the fighting. But there are some people who worry they might want to...I don't know." he shrugged, and for a brief second, his gaze went unfocused, a bit fearful, and detached as it was from his feelings surrounding Nicholas, he wasn't being quite as mindful to mask it from view. "The people who were fighting were...kind of powerful. There's some worry that the people on the spaceships want to...make them keep fighting, just not each other."
He shook the fog out of his mind, refocusing and giving him another sad little smile.
"Which is why it's not really a good idea for me to use my real name, if it's the same as one of the people they're looking for. I don't like fighting people, I'm glad all of the fighting stopped. I don't like seeing people get hurt."