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[weaponwithoutpurpose]

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[weaponwithoutpurpose]

Guess so. Didn't really think about it. It was with my shit when I got out of juvie and I just - kept it.

[He looks up, immediately pushing back against this line of talk.]

Not everything is that deep, you know.

[pharadyne]

I know, but you wanted it enough to keep it all this time. And to ask for it now. So I reckon it holds meaning, even if it's complicated and layered over the years.

[Because now it also carries memories from Montana.]

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

[Jacob runs his tongue over his teeth.]

Yeah, I guess. Pathetic, though.

[pharadyne]

I don't think so. Wanting tangible objects associated with important moments or memories is a very human impulse. Just look at all the monuments and memorials out there. Keepsakes are the same thing, just on a personal level.

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

Yeah? What do you keep around?

[pharadyne]

I--

I mostly try to avoid remembering things too much. [He confesses.] But I have some things from my time here.

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

[He picks up Mae's ball again and moves over on the edge of the bed, a clear invitation for Norton to join, should he want it. He tosses the ball across the room for her.]

You don't like things tying you down.

[It's not really a question.]

What do you have from here?

[pharadyne]

A few odds and ends. An "iPod." An inscribed silver lighter and cigarette case. A little puzzle box. A blue jacket.

[He pads over and sits next to Jacob on the bed.]

There are other things too, but I don't imagine I'll take everything with me when I eventually go.

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

[He throws, she fetches. He throws. She fetches. She doesn't ever seem to tire.]

Yeah? What do they mean?

[pharadyne]

They were gifts. The iPod has futuristic music on it. A collection of songs from 1955 to the twenty-first century. The lighter and cigarette holder were from my warden.

The blue jacket is basically a war trophy.

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

I know what an iPod is. [He smirks a little at the thought.]

Only you'd think of a jacket as a war trophy. I have - my music box. Nothing else.

[pharadyne]

Hard to keep many important objects when you don't have a consistent safe spot to keep them.

Have you acquired anything special here on the Barge?

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

Nah. Not really.

Well. Mae, I guess.

[But nothing else. Why should he keep anything when it's all going to disappear?]

[pharadyne]

Mae is very special.

And growing up so fast. Before you know it she'll be stepping out with handsome young dogs and breaking their hearts.

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

[The biggest eyeroll.]

She's already got her sights set on Moose.

[He reaches up to his necklaces, where his dog tags are, and pauses.]

Oh. I - got this, I guess.

[He untucks it from his shirt to hold out to Norton. They're his tags, of course, but attached, on a smaller chain, are Miller's.]

[pharadyne]

Moose. [Norton wrinkles his nose and sniffs disdainfully in a manner entirely borrowed from his mother.] I'm not sure I approve of Moose.

[Then Jacob reaches for his dog tags and Norton leans forward to view, all the joking about Mae put aside.]

You've carried that for a long time.

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

Yeah. Carry it for the rest of my damn life.

[He's not talking only about the tags. But they're a weight around his neck, a reminder that his survival was only at the sacrifice of another. The weaker man's sacrifice was Jacob's salvation. The same thing Jacob is doing for Joseph.]

[pharadyne]

Do you have regrets?

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

For Miller? No. I did what I had to. What God asked of me, or whoever the fuck is running things. To survive.

[pharadyne]

I think one can regret something while still believing it was the best course of action at the time. I regret what I did to survive in Ashenden, but I wouldn't change it. It was wrong, but it was also necessary.

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

I don't regret it.

[It comes out in a snap.]

Drop it.

[pharadyne]

Okay, if you insist. [He raises his hands in surrender, ceding the conversational victory to Jacob.]

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

[Jacob settles back again.]

Good. Was there anything else?

[pharadyne]

Not really. Unless there's anything you'd like from me. [He's not in a hurry to leave, has no where else to be, and would rather be with company than not. But he has no reason to stay either unless Jacob wants him to.]

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

[He leans back on the bed, the pillows against his back.]

No. I was going to watch my show in fucking silence. C'mon.

[He takes out his phone and holds it up, inviting Norton to join him if he wants. The screen is small, but still able to play the wildlife show he's seen a dozen times.]