He said it was possible I might be from near he was, if our worlds were the same. Have you talked to Tarkin at all?
[He's got the same accent, although she'd call it Imperial where Alfie would call it British or some other, more narrowed down term for someone in London.]
Well, now, the things you like about me are not the things you like about Tommy, let's be well clear on that.
[He says, with a grin.]
But I take your point. He was in that war with me- different sides of the world, admittedly, but the same fight. He dug tunnels and planted explosives, and I shot big guns at people and tried not to get shot.
[He's not wrong there, so she smiles a little again and nods. But again it's a smile that fades quickly in the face of talking about that war of theirs.]
He's told me some about it, about the things he had to do.
[The things he had to fight through, to overcome once he was out of those tunnels, but those are things she's never going to repeat. Right now she's just saying it so Alfie knows she's at least got some background, some very small idea filtered through Tommy of what the war was like.]
Our Tommy is sensitive to horrors, in a way that I don't think he likes that he is. But he lived the war in a way that it just washed past me. I got neurotic out of it- which is to say, it did damage to me aplenty. But in the way of being unable to, say, light a cigarette in the dark at night.
[She's not really sure what to say to all that, if there is anything she can say that won't fall flat or feel meaningless. She does agree that the war has hung heavy on Tommy, it's been impossible to miss that or ignore it after being trapped in the Enclosure in a small space that called him straight back to that time. Alfie is right, it's something that absolutely still haunts Tommy.]
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[He's got the same accent, although she'd call it Imperial where Alfie would call it British or some other, more narrowed down term for someone in London.]
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[He admits, shaking his head.]
He was a funny one, though. I liked how shocking he managed to be. When he proposed we all off ourselves before the Land of the Dead, I mean.
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People like him are the only ones with my accent in my world.
[The evil ones, who like to blow up entire planets for fun and profit.]
I'd never heard it this much before coming here. It might be part of why I like you and Tommy so much.
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[He says, with a grin.]
But I take your point. He was in that war with me- different sides of the world, admittedly, but the same fight. He dug tunnels and planted explosives, and I shot big guns at people and tried not to get shot.
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He's told me some about it, about the things he had to do.
[The things he had to fight through, to overcome once he was out of those tunnels, but those are things she's never going to repeat. Right now she's just saying it so Alfie knows she's at least got some background, some very small idea filtered through Tommy of what the war was like.]
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[Alfie predicts, quietly.]
Our Tommy is sensitive to horrors, in a way that I don't think he likes that he is. But he lived the war in a way that it just washed past me. I got neurotic out of it- which is to say, it did damage to me aplenty. But in the way of being unable to, say, light a cigarette in the dark at night.
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Is it something you ever talk about with him?
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[He admits. Just the once.]
There's a thing with men, though, where saying something like this just isn't easy.