Roland huffs out a breath, lets his head fall back and studies the ceiling. Of all the things no adult wants a child to say to them, this has got to be the most dreaded. Not only because of the age he's just had to hear in the boy's voice, but because - well, what is there to say to that? What Aang has just said is a fair description of the whole of Roland's life, and it says something that Roland searches a moment anyway through the piled boxes and dusty cabinets of his mind, trying to remember if there's anything he's seen or heard that can dispute it.
"If you figure a way, let me know," he says finally, not without some sympathy. His voice is not so defeated as Aang's seems, but there's a hint of the same sort of weariness in it. "It's a hard thing, isn't it? Losing people like that. Losing them no matter what you try. And going on anyway."
He does eye the spirits now, knowing they look like people who were close to Aang here in this world rather than only in Aang's, that he might have known them, might have passed them in the halls once or twice. If they truly are the spirits of Aang's friends, surely they'll care about what seeing them is doing to him now. He waves his left hand a couple times at them, frowning impatiently. Trying to shoo them off. Doesn't expect it to work, of course. Worth a try.
no subject
Roland huffs out a breath, lets his head fall back and studies the ceiling. Of all the things no adult wants a child to say to them, this has got to be the most dreaded. Not only because of the age he's just had to hear in the boy's voice, but because - well, what is there to say to that? What Aang has just said is a fair description of the whole of Roland's life, and it says something that Roland searches a moment anyway through the piled boxes and dusty cabinets of his mind, trying to remember if there's anything he's seen or heard that can dispute it.
"If you figure a way, let me know," he says finally, not without some sympathy. His voice is not so defeated as Aang's seems, but there's a hint of the same sort of weariness in it. "It's a hard thing, isn't it? Losing people like that. Losing them no matter what you try. And going on anyway."
He does eye the spirits now, knowing they look like people who were close to Aang here in this world rather than only in Aang's, that he might have known them, might have passed them in the halls once or twice. If they truly are the spirits of Aang's friends, surely they'll care about what seeing them is doing to him now. He waves his left hand a couple times at them, frowning impatiently. Trying to shoo them off. Doesn't expect it to work, of course. Worth a try.