post-jump scare. Un; Aleksander

[cruelyethuman]

Has anyone tried to leave town?

More importantly, is it possible?

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[cruelyethuman]

Not at all.

[The hard pavement gives way to the soft dirt under his boots and the sharp clicks are replaced with softer swooshes of too-long grass getting trampled beneath his feet.]

This could have been your second or perhaps third one, as well.

[It seemed to take a while, for the reality of the deal they made to sink in. The futility of it.] How far are you willing to go, Clayton, to undo your regret? We have all asked ourselves this very question, and the answer-- changes. A little more with each mission.

[dr_unconscious]

[The question catches him off-guard, in spite of the fact that it's not the first time he's had it asked of him before - well, kind of. He listened to Ed ask it of himself just before mission start. Clayton had been more than happy to brush it off at the time, hoping that being vague and emphasizing Ed's inherent usefulness to the mission would help him feel better about how much harder it was apparently getting for him to deal with the requests the orbs were making, but he hadn't paused for a second to consider how he'd answer the same thing of himself.]

[Getting his first personal mission had made finding that answer more pertinent. Abandon someone in need. Sure he'd been able to find what felt like a reasonable workaround, but how many more missions would he be able to do that on? What if it doesn't work? What if he can't get away with it in future?]

[Clayton's expression has gone from concerned to downright anxious at this point.]

...I dunno. I'd like to say I'd do what it takes, but... [He shakes his head, tucked into his raised shoulders.] ...Everybody's got their own limits, and...I ain't sure I'd be able to live with myself if I went past mine.

[That's what his regret is, after all: Finding that limit and going past it because he thought, at the time, he had no other choice. If he did it again, here, just to undo the first, then maybe things back home would be different, but personally? He's not sure the trade would be worth it.]