It ws a hint at what he already suspected- my kind. AS though Mister Nihm were more than an old man with vast knowledge and a touch of eccentricity. He'd developed a collection of them, really, with perhaps a burgeoning desire to become one of those creatures. That is to say: William was developing the desire to live to old age. There is the statement and acknowledgement of defiance- how breaking expectations and shattering the things one can rationalize bring about new insight this.
He was listening with the sort of rapt attention that came when one was talking to a person about a subject they cared about immensely, when they were offering a perspective that came from a place nobody else had offered before. As progressive as Henry was, the Order of Hermes had specific ways of thinking of things. They had rules. They had expectations. They were an Order, and there was strength in that but also-
It was like wheels were turning and then abruptly found a stick in the spokes of his bicycle wheel, flipped over the handlebars, and hit the pavement. You become intimately aware of things when you have a great accident- it makes you look at the parts and his brain got to have that one glorious moment of flipping over the handlebars in that moment.
"But waitaminute-" he puts his hands up, mouth drawn in small for a second, "lemme see if I'm on base. It's- what we're doing- I mean- how we're interacting-
"We're trying to take ownership of something you can't own. Like-like with-" William stopped.
Sat there, looked at Arturo Nihm with the bruises and the delight from his mental accident. He dropped his voice and it was almost like he was talking to himself but talking for an audience-
"The Keeper said 'The impermanent are funny things, believing that the world exists but for them, that things beyond their understanding would harm them... as though they mattered so much.' They talked about how we got so wrapped up in ourselves that we didn't care to look at the world- all of the world- as a whole thing. We gave and there was reciprocation- there was..."
More silence.
"So... if we belong, how come it's so hard to get there? Why the petitioning, the rituals, the shallow places and the pushing- if we belong somewhere why shouldn't we be able to go?"
He was listening with the sort of rapt attention that came when one was talking to a person about a subject they cared about immensely, when they were offering a perspective that came from a place nobody else had offered before. As progressive as Henry was, the Order of Hermes had specific ways of thinking of things. They had rules. They had expectations. They were an Order, and there was strength in that but also-
It was like wheels were turning and then abruptly found a stick in the spokes of his bicycle wheel, flipped over the handlebars, and hit the pavement. You become intimately aware of things when you have a great accident- it makes you look at the parts and his brain got to have that one glorious moment of flipping over the handlebars in that moment.
"But waitaminute-" he puts his hands up, mouth drawn in small for a second, "lemme see if I'm on base. It's- what we're doing- I mean- how we're interacting-
"We're trying to take ownership of something you can't own. Like-like with-" William stopped.
Sat there, looked at Arturo Nihm with the bruises and the delight from his mental accident. He dropped his voice and it was almost like he was talking to himself but talking for an audience-
"The Keeper said 'The impermanent are funny things, believing that the world exists but for them, that things beyond their understanding would harm them... as though they mattered so much.' They talked about how we got so wrapped up in ourselves that we didn't care to look at the world- all of the world- as a whole thing. We gave and there was reciprocation- there was..."
More silence.
"So... if we belong, how come it's so hard to get there? Why the petitioning, the rituals, the shallow places and the pushing- if we belong somewhere why shouldn't we be able to go?"