#(( i couldnt resist the opportunity to write a sb verse reply SORRY they

[slaughterlocked]

i guess ‘lived’ may be the wrong term.

THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES DIALOGUE PROMPTS / always accepting!

A THIN-LIPPED SMILE IS ALL MICHAEL'S GRACED WITH. At least initially. Despite the years, William (can he even still call himself that?) hasn't lost his inability to keep his mouth shut - neither has Michael. An insufferable Afton trait neither of them have managed to escape. Leaning forward, weight shifting to his toes, and then, as an afterthought, back again, the eldest Afton's smile twists, tight and terse. "Weeeeeell," he evades, "what does it really mean? To be alive."

Family dinners in a house long since sold. Or maybe destroyed. Gathering round blueprints now collecting dust, sharing laughter and ambition. Holding your first child in your arms and feeling nothing but joy.

"You're one to talk, you know." A retort instantly rises, on the defensive. William can't help himself - he's going grey, he's going to lose his job because of a stupid glitching rabbit with his name, he's going mad and hallucinating his deceased son (one of them, anyway) - he's earned some rudeness, in his opinion. "I remember you. Quite the little arsonist when we last met." Something like guilt pools in his stomach, and he snaps, thin shoulders hunching: "Besides, I don't think you're here to argue the semantics of my existence. You're here because you want answers. Proper answers." And I have less of them than I'll ever admit. Like announcing a bedtime story, William eyes Michael with the temerity of a cornered rat. Of an old man who can't quite live up to his own memory. "You couldn't be content to let things lie unanswered. [...] Not my son."