[...the cost. And the way Ken holds Wormmon when he says it-]
[Had he hurt Wormmon?]
[It seems unthinkable given their bond, but...this had been years ago, Ken had said, and things can change drastically over the span of years. Siebren knows that all too well.]
[But Ken had been helped. Manipulated by some and helped by others. There is- there is something to that, Siebren thinks, as the melody gets louder and pushes back against his thoughts. It is not unlike Siebren himself, correct? He- he has not been manipulated, only held- but- but he has been helped as well, hasn't he?]
[The melody swells, ever present, ever pushing, subsuming his mind-]
[Hasn't he?]
[Hasn't he?]
[He-]
[He...he has lost the thread, again. Lost himself.]
[He has been staring into the middle distance, blinking but unseeing, lost again in that ubiquitous melody-]
[He shakes his head as if to clear it and hopes neither Ken nor Wormmon have said anything in the interim. Sometimes things do not need years to change, only seconds, and he has completely missed the past few.]
no subject
[Had he hurt Wormmon?]
[It seems unthinkable given their bond, but...this had been years ago, Ken had said, and things can change drastically over the span of years. Siebren knows that all too well.]
[But Ken had been helped. Manipulated by some and helped by others. There is- there is something to that, Siebren thinks, as the melody gets louder and pushes back against his thoughts. It is not unlike Siebren himself, correct? He- he has not been manipulated, only held- but- but he has been helped as well, hasn't he?]
[The melody swells, ever present, ever pushing, subsuming his mind-]
[Hasn't he?]
[Hasn't he?]
[He-]
[He...he has lost the thread, again. Lost himself.]
[He has been staring into the middle distance, blinking but unseeing, lost again in that ubiquitous melody-]
[He shakes his head as if to clear it and hopes neither Ken nor Wormmon have said anything in the interim. Sometimes things do not need years to change, only seconds, and he has completely missed the past few.]