[ He can barely choke that out. For a moment, he feels dizzy, his throat tight with tears. Get it together, Mark, he thinks fiercely, but for just a moment he wonders what he would have been like on Beta. No one's property, no one's prisoner, the victim of just a few off-comments...He thinks of his whole creche, all of them, on Beta. Imagines all of them alive. Dozens of friends, laughing and jostling and playing like they used to when they were all little together. He can almost feel all of them around him for just a moment, or the ghosts of them, filling in the spaces around him...
He lifts his napkin to his lips and tries to turn a choked half-sob into a cough. He breathes heavily as he can, slow, to swallow down his feelings. After a few moments, he coughs again, this time more successfully, and lowers the napkin. Change the topic, he needs to change the topic - ]
Uh. Your...work here. In this...world. What are you going to do?
no subject
[ He can barely choke that out. For a moment, he feels dizzy, his throat tight with tears. Get it together, Mark, he thinks fiercely, but for just a moment he wonders what he would have been like on Beta. No one's property, no one's prisoner, the victim of just a few off-comments...He thinks of his whole creche, all of them, on Beta. Imagines all of them alive. Dozens of friends, laughing and jostling and playing like they used to when they were all little together. He can almost feel all of them around him for just a moment, or the ghosts of them, filling in the spaces around him...
He lifts his napkin to his lips and tries to turn a choked half-sob into a cough. He breathes heavily as he can, slow, to swallow down his feelings. After a few moments, he coughs again, this time more successfully, and lowers the napkin. Change the topic, he needs to change the topic - ]
Uh. Your...work here. In this...world. What are you going to do?