[Special 008: Voice/Action]
[Voice/Ami]
This may seem sort of a strange question suddenly, but please tell me about your families.
[Ami's having one of those days where the distance between herself and her family and friends seems too vast and too real. Later, to focus her mind, she'll train in the battle dome, partners and visitors welcome.]
( cut for action at battle dome )
This may seem sort of a strange question suddenly, but please tell me about your families.
[Ami's having one of those days where the distance between herself and her family and friends seems too vast and too real. Later, to focus her mind, she'll train in the battle dome, partners and visitors welcome.]
( cut for action at battle dome )
He wants to say sorry so badly, but...
The question. It's an excuse. He answers it stumblingly, haltingly.]
... I was an adopted child, like most Terrans. My parents, Akila and Frederick Hastings, brought me up in Linden for the entirety of my life. They were both very kind people... loving, patient parents who nurtured my love of science ever since they were aware of my aptitude. I must confess that I likely caused them many problems at times with my insatiable desire for knowledge.
...
It... has been awhile since I spoke to them, at home.
A very long while.
[He falters uncomfortably then. Is it strange to not want to talk to them...? To not want to feel that pity, that shame, that undertone of barely-suppressed disapproval?
Or what he feels as such?]
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Mike. He... He makes you smile. He seems to make you happy.
Truly happy.
I cannot do that.
[I'm a failure as your friend.]
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I'm grateful to all of my acquaintances and friends. [She's not good at putting this into words.] They each make me happy.
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It's been so long since I truly had friends and I thought I could maybe become a good friend for you, or something, but Mike is so much better... and... a-and what would you need with me when he makes you happy, and I...
[He doesn't know if he makes Ami happy.]
...
I apologize for my unprofessionalism.
I shouldn't be so... petty.
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If you have bad feelings towards Mike, the one to apologize to for that is him.
[She's not getting it exactly. And it helps, or rather doesn't, that her focus of resentment had been Usagi's friend Naru at first.]
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I...
I'm just a failure...
[And he covers his face with an expression of distress causing his brows to knit behind his fingers.]
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...
[He exhales slowly, trying to push down the urge to cry because it won't help right now; he needs to be coherent.]
... You're certain that there isn't anything I can do? [So he's just going to have to live with the shame of his own incompetence...]
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[He shakes and covers his face a bit, trying to breathe.]
... And... a-and then someone who dislikes me himself becomes your friend so quickly, and does it better... And, and I don't know what to do.
[He is helpless when faced with this. Jealousy, such a foreign feeling, paralyzes him with indecision.]
...
I don't want to be alone again, here... [... or at all?...] B-But, but... [This reminds him so much of why he fears relationships to begin with.]
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And you're not alone. [He has many people. He has Don, of course. Other friends, too. People giving him chances.]
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... You are right. I'm not. [Not right now, anyway.] ... Which is really the strange thing, about this place...
[Now that he has friends and a relationship, which feels impossible still, feels almost like a joke at times - and this is exacerbated by the fact that it was only here, where he was forced to contact other people, that he could actually try to be social again - he isn't sure what to do with them, sometimes.]
...
I just... value your friendship... It is very important to me, because... b-because you were one of the first people here to care...
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[He'd rather know the truth than not, even if it would be painful.
But he hopes it will be "yes".]
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Well, I am glad to hear that. [His voice shakes, though, with his lack of conviction.]
...
Thank you for listening. [Maybe this hasn't solved anything. Maybe Ami still doesn't like him, or... or whatever she feels... But at least Robert got his feelings out, somewhere where they could be heard and maybe understood.
He's grateful for that much at least. It means that they claw less at him, that they aren't embedding themselves in him to that same horrible extent.]
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