"Not in any detail at all," he says, hurriedly, afraid this was meant to be a secret and he's got the man into trouble. "We just - we were talking about things that people do after they leave the Barge, he said that some people go back with someone else. He didn't suggest that you were planning to go back with him, or..."
He seems to be running out of momentum; unsurprising, since for him it's a very lengthy speech.
"It's alright," she says at once, noticing how he's rushing to explain everything away. "It wasn't any secret that we were together then, he as good as told the whole ship I'd be going to his world with him when he left. It's alright that you know."
Just to be sure, she pats the back of his hand, affectionate and friendly still. He's okay, he didn't do anything wrong.
"It's just a surprise to hear he's been talking about that. You might have noticed he isn't always the most open person."
He visibly softens at that touch, some of his tension draining.
"No, he isn't," Credence says. He'd been surprised by how forthcoming
Tommy had been, as well, even in light of their relatively short
acquaintance. "I think - um. He had a flask with him."
It feels slightly more diplomatic than simply saying he'd been drinking,
which Credence can't prove either way.
"What else has he told you about himself?" She asks him, rather than spilling all of Tommy's secrets, putting some context to the problematic fact that Tommy is drinking far, far too much these days.
At least it puts Credence's mind at ease, knowing that he won't be
revealing any more about Tommy to someone who's already so...so close to
him,
"He...he showed me a picture of his son," he says, and picks up his cup,
letting the warmth of it seep into his hands. "He told me his wife has
passed."
Those are the basics, then, and the rest that she knows are things she'll never repeat. No one needs to know the truth about the priest.
But it's good to know Tommy has been talking to people, letting them in, giving information about his life instead of revealing the bits and pieces of what happened like they're a weapon he can use to shock people into leaving him alone.
And she thinks of how open he'd been in zero with her, with Eggsy right there, and there's a little flutter in her chest that's something like hope, tentative as it is. Maybe this is a sign of a change starting in him.
"When I first met you, when you told me when you were from, I thought it might be a good idea to introduce you to Tommy. I thought you might find some common ground, it can be comforting to have that in a place like this."
From the sound of things, she might have been right.
A small nod, and he sips his tea. It's bitter but very good, and he
relishes the warmth.
"It's good to have people here who...understand," he says, cautiously. He
doesn't just mean Tommy; he means Quentin, and Rey, and Ruby. After a
lifetime of being alone and isolated, he feels surrounded now, by people
who have at least some idea of where he's coming from.
"I wanted to thank you, and to apologize," she says, because that's part of why she's here, with food and tea. "I was too focused on getting my things back, on proving to myself that I-"
She trails off, because this is difficult to admit to herself, let alone say to anyone else.
"That I'm not weak, and that the only reason I was captured was because I wasn't being careful enough. I should have been kinder to you when I was telling you it was okay to go back to your room."
She didn't think he would hold it against her, she was sure he wasn't hurt or angry about it, but still. It was something she needed to say, something to try to draw a line between the dark, angry feelings and thoughts she's been swamped with in the last few days.
She's supposed to be a Jedi, or at the least on her way to becoming one, and she's supposed to be a warden. Revenge, desires to cause pain, relishing in how good it felt to have the power to beat Kylo Ren back, those aren't supposed to be things she clings so tightly to.
"Then I'll just say thank you," she says, giving him another quick smile. "It was good to have you there that whole time."
It hadn't been comfortable, certainly, even compared to his own narrow little cot, but he didn't mind it - and, selfishly, he liked that he didn't have to worry about anyone's powers while he was down there. If he could have thought of an excuse, he might have stayed.
He murmurs a few words of grace, then picks up a sandwich.
It's good he doesn't say it, honestly, because that would start them down a path where she spent the rest of the visit insisting that wasn't true, trying to show him why.
"Would you tell me about him?"
Would you, not can you, not will you. She's not demanding it, not even framing it in a way that makes it seem like he has to right now if he doesn't want to. It hasn't been a hard lesson to learn that Credence will submit to anyone who happens to ask him to and the last thing Rey wants to do is take advantage of that, even on accident, without thinking.
That strikes her as very, very strange. All of the people she wouldn't want here, doesn't want here, are dangerous and bad people in very obvious ways. They don't take the time to be kind to people, not even Unkar Plutt, so the only reason she can think of Credence's mystery person being kind to him is that he must have been trying to trick him in some way.
Which, knowing him now, how he is, she can see that not being terribly difficult.
"He - he bought me food," Credence says, knowing he won't need to explain
to Rey what an enormously big deal that is. "I was hurt once, when I met
him, and he - healed me, with his magic."
He shuts his eyes. He hates how stupid he sounds to his own ears, how naive.
"He said he'd take me away from home and make me part of his world."
He doesn't need to explain. She'd understand just from the fact that there had been food, freely given, and knowing Credence even if there had been a trade he probably wouldn't have realized he'd made it, not when the gesture would have been the only thing he was thinking of. Credence isn't like her, he doesn't see those things through a lifetime of suspicion. Of course he only saw the good side.
Add to that the promise of being saved from what she can tell is horribly circumstances, being folded into somewhere he could belong-
She understands, and she moves her chair closer so she can reach out, put her hand gently on Credence's arm.
"And then, after all that, you found out who he really was."
"Newt was the one who told you," she repeats that softly, almost sadly, because if Newt had never come here how long would Credence have continued to misconstrue that relationship?
What would have happened if that man had come here, without there being someone to warn people? To warn Credence so he wouldn't fall right back into that trap?
"He...he told me he was looking for a child, a very powerful child," he
says. "If I found him, or her, then I would...he could...he said we'd be
free. But Mr Scamander told me that he would have used them to start a war."
And he would have helped. If Mr Graves had just been quiet and patient and
gentle to the end, he really might have.
She doesn't believe that. She has to believe that Credence would have seen that he was on the wrong side, that he would have eventually done the right thing. There's too much compassion in him for her to believe otherwise.
"Why did he think you'd be able to find them?" She asks him, unable to quite see that part of it. What was it that put Credence in a position to find someone so powerful?
"He told me he'd had a vision," he says, which Credence had just accepted,
because how would he know different? What magic could make possible was a
totally opaque world to him. Maybe people had visions all the time.
"He saw the child with my mother, and - he said I was the one who they
would trust. He said he saw us - to-together, in New York."
From the way Rey just nods, visions like that are something she accepts as real. She's had her own, after touching the lightsaber that had originally belonged to Anakin Skywalker.
She also knows they're hard to interpret and easier still to misconstrue as something you want to see rather than what might actually be real.
More important, though, is the fact that seems to be getting harder and harder on Credence, his stammering getting worse as he goes on, and Rey has never been good at noticing these things and more than that, she's never cared to look before, but with Credence? Even without having all that time with him as her company, keeping her sane, she'd still think twice about pressing him for more information.
"Credence, you know that you don't have to talk about these things if you don't want to, right? Your secrets and your story are your own, no one else has a right to them and you can keep them to yourself if you need to. You can tell me to stop."
It's not always healthy, but neither is being felt like you've been forced to say something before you're ready.
Rey says this. Credence hears: I'm getting tired of your self-pitying bleating, please shut up. Regardless, he'd never tell her to stop doing...anything, really.
"They're not really secrets, Miss Rey," he mumbles. Mr Scamander knows some of it; Elizabeth and Quentin and Tommy all know bits and pieces.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2017-01-23 08:18 am (UTC)He seems to be running out of momentum; unsurprising, since for him it's a very lengthy speech.
"He only really said your name."
And he'd been drunk.
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Date: 2017-01-23 08:25 am (UTC)Just to be sure, she pats the back of his hand, affectionate and friendly still. He's okay, he didn't do anything wrong.
"It's just a surprise to hear he's been talking about that. You might have noticed he isn't always the most open person."
no subject
Date: 2017-01-23 08:41 am (UTC)He visibly softens at that touch, some of his tension draining.
"No, he isn't," Credence says. He'd been surprised by how forthcoming Tommy had been, as well, even in light of their relatively short acquaintance. "I think - um. He had a flask with him."
It feels slightly more diplomatic than simply saying he'd been drinking, which Credence can't prove either way.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-23 08:49 am (UTC)"What else has he told you about himself?" She asks him, rather than spilling all of Tommy's secrets, putting some context to the problematic fact that Tommy is drinking far, far too much these days.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-23 09:05 am (UTC)At least it puts Credence's mind at ease, knowing that he won't be revealing any more about Tommy to someone who's already so...so close to him,
"He...he showed me a picture of his son," he says, and picks up his cup, letting the warmth of it seep into his hands. "He told me his wife has passed."
no subject
Date: 2017-01-23 09:14 am (UTC)But it's good to know Tommy has been talking to people, letting them in, giving information about his life instead of revealing the bits and pieces of what happened like they're a weapon he can use to shock people into leaving him alone.
And she thinks of how open he'd been in zero with her, with Eggsy right there, and there's a little flutter in her chest that's something like hope, tentative as it is. Maybe this is a sign of a change starting in him.
"When I first met you, when you told me when you were from, I thought it might be a good idea to introduce you to Tommy. I thought you might find some common ground, it can be comforting to have that in a place like this."
From the sound of things, she might have been right.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-23 09:33 am (UTC)A small nod, and he sips his tea. It's bitter but very good, and he relishes the warmth.
"It's good to have people here who...understand," he says, cautiously. He doesn't just mean Tommy; he means Quentin, and Rey, and Ruby. After a lifetime of being alone and isolated, he feels surrounded now, by people who have at least some idea of where he's coming from.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-23 07:38 pm (UTC)She trails off, because this is difficult to admit to herself, let alone say to anyone else.
"That I'm not weak, and that the only reason I was captured was because I wasn't being careful enough. I should have been kinder to you when I was telling you it was okay to go back to your room."
no subject
Date: 2017-01-23 07:58 pm (UTC)"You don't have to worry about that, Miss Rey. You were locked away, you'd been hurt - you don't need to apologise for anything you said to me."
no subject
Date: 2017-01-23 08:02 pm (UTC)She's supposed to be a Jedi, or at the least on her way to becoming one, and she's supposed to be a warden. Revenge, desires to cause pain, relishing in how good it felt to have the power to beat Kylo Ren back, those aren't supposed to be things she clings so tightly to.
"Then I'll just say thank you," she says, giving him another quick smile. "It was good to have you there that whole time."
no subject
Date: 2017-01-23 08:10 pm (UTC)It hadn't been comfortable, certainly, even compared to his own narrow little cot, but he didn't mind it - and, selfishly, he liked that he didn't have to worry about anyone's powers while he was down there. If he could have thought of an excuse, he might have stayed.
He murmurs a few words of grace, then picks up a sandwich.
OMG GMAIL HID THIS TAG I'M SO MAD
Date: 2017-01-30 07:10 pm (UTC)"Do you have someone like that in your world?" She asks him. "Someone dangerous you wouldn't want here?"
She wants to be able to protect him from them if they do ever show up.
GMAIL >:(
Date: 2017-01-30 07:41 pm (UTC)"...yes," he says, eventually. "There's...there's someone. But he's not - he hasn't - died."
stop hatin on touchfriends
Date: 2017-01-30 07:48 pm (UTC)"Would you tell me about him?"
Would you, not can you, not will you. She's not demanding it, not even framing it in a way that makes it seem like he has to right now if he doesn't want to. It hasn't been a hard lesson to learn that Credence will submit to anyone who happens to ask him to and the last thing Rey wants to do is take advantage of that, even on accident, without thinking.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-30 08:16 pm (UTC)"I..."
His brow furrows. He still can't work out how he feels, what he feels.
"I don't know what to say. I was told he's very dangerous, but...until the end, he was always...very kind to me."
no subject
Date: 2017-01-30 08:20 pm (UTC)Which, knowing him now, how he is, she can see that not being terribly difficult.
"Kind to you in what way?"
no subject
Date: 2017-01-30 08:28 pm (UTC)"He - he bought me food," Credence says, knowing he won't need to explain to Rey what an enormously big deal that is. "I was hurt once, when I met him, and he - healed me, with his magic."
He shuts his eyes. He hates how stupid he sounds to his own ears, how naive.
"He said he'd take me away from home and make me part of his world."
no subject
Date: 2017-01-30 08:34 pm (UTC)Add to that the promise of being saved from what she can tell is horribly circumstances, being folded into somewhere he could belong-
She understands, and she moves her chair closer so she can reach out, put her hand gently on Credence's arm.
"And then, after all that, you found out who he really was."
no subject
Date: 2017-01-30 09:01 pm (UTC)He's maybe taking the notion of his really being someone else a bit more literally than Rey.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-31 07:32 am (UTC)What would have happened if that man had come here, without there being someone to warn people? To warn Credence so he wouldn't fall right back into that trap?
"What was he hiding?"
no subject
Date: 2017-01-31 07:49 am (UTC)"He...he told me he was looking for a child, a very powerful child," he says. "If I found him, or her, then I would...he could...he said we'd be free. But Mr Scamander told me that he would have used them to start a war."
And he would have helped. If Mr Graves had just been quiet and patient and gentle to the end, he really might have.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-31 07:54 am (UTC)"Why did he think you'd be able to find them?" She asks him, unable to quite see that part of it. What was it that put Credence in a position to find someone so powerful?
no subject
Date: 2017-01-31 07:59 am (UTC)"He told me he'd had a vision," he says, which Credence had just accepted, because how would he know different? What magic could make possible was a totally opaque world to him. Maybe people had visions all the time.
"He saw the child with my mother, and - he said I was the one who they would trust. He said he saw us - to-together, in New York."
no subject
Date: 2017-01-31 08:07 am (UTC)She also knows they're hard to interpret and easier still to misconstrue as something you want to see rather than what might actually be real.
More important, though, is the fact that seems to be getting harder and harder on Credence, his stammering getting worse as he goes on, and Rey has never been good at noticing these things and more than that, she's never cared to look before, but with Credence? Even without having all that time with him as her company, keeping her sane, she'd still think twice about pressing him for more information.
"Credence, you know that you don't have to talk about these things if you don't want to, right? Your secrets and your story are your own, no one else has a right to them and you can keep them to yourself if you need to. You can tell me to stop."
It's not always healthy, but neither is being felt like you've been forced to say something before you're ready.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-31 08:29 am (UTC)"They're not really secrets, Miss Rey," he mumbles. Mr Scamander knows some of it; Elizabeth and Quentin and Tommy all know bits and pieces.
(no subject)
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