Re: [quicklog: the lookout]
Some people have no choice. Thinking back on it, I doubt she wanted the job. There aren't many things you can do in Repose, if you don't work at the facility, or at a shop. I do wish she'd picked something else.
[He opened his mouth, closed it again, thought a moment further.] I've never been religious. I think she scared me off. And my mother never was. Not for the usual reasons a scientist doesn't believe in God. I know there is more than the world I can measure. I have to. After where I went to school, I mean. I think I saw the worst of what faith can do to someone in her. I never wanted to have it, after. But I do think she realized I was different. She caught me, once or twice, I think. [His brow furrowed.] I must have been doing something abnormal, with natural magic. Children do, apparently. I don't remember exactly. But she interpreted it through her faith. As people do.
[He couldn't remember the last time he had said so many words out loud to anyone at a stretch. He and Newt didn't talk much anymore, not face to face, a thought which tugged sharply at his middle, yanking down.] I wouldn't have either. [He glanced over at Patrick.] I hope it doesn't offend you if I say I thought he was frightening. That's one of the only things I remember about him. He was very remote, it seems to me now. I can count on one hand the times I saw him.
[He didn't need to be asked twice to partake of the view. The river would rush well into the winter before the cold slowed it to a stop, and it was soothing to watch the water flowing over rocks, spinning leaves and debris downstream.
He pulled himself up on the rock beside his brother - no trouble, though he was smaller, and more careful about where he put his feet. Patrick climbed up as naturally was walking.] You're good at this. [A small smile.] Do you come here a lot?
[He settled on the rock and watched the rushing stream.] Not to hold it against her. But to move in so soon to help her with him? Most men wouldn't. [He braced one hand against the rock, the other tucked in his pocket for warmth.
He didn't reach after Patrick. He looked at the water flowing over his fingertips instead, slipping inexorably over as smoothly as they flowed over the rocks.] About...Nameless. This other person. [He blinked, proceeding slowly from one idea to the next.] I don't like him. Or what knowing about him makes me feel. [He leaned forward, contemplating the base of the rock.] When they let me go, they asked me to look into the obscurus. To research it, as I would any other variable on the stability of genetic material. I thought I would find that it corrupts or destroys healthy cells, healthy DNA. I can't prove it, though.