Vox Mentis

Say, "Hello, sir"

He's the boss. If it's a staring contest he wants it's a staring contest he gets.

Whatever you do, don't apologize. Thoreau hasn't sent you home, so he's not planning on doing so. Right now you first need to find out what he intends on keeping you for. Jeremy had called you scary, which in the context of this organization says more about your promise than anything else.

do not provoke the shark

Thoreau takes a white cloth and begins to clean the end of his club. This takes a while and his eyes don't move from you, as far as you can tell.

You shift from one foot to the other. "Hello-"

"Vartix ventor mannit wissik. Be still."

Your mouth snaps closed. It happens before you realize what you're doing. The surprise is that it feels like your decision. You really, genuinely want to be still. It's the words, Thoreau, compromising you, you know, but it doesn't feel like that at all. Your brain is spinning with rationalizations, reasons why you should definitely be still right now, why that's a really good move, and it's talking in your voice. You didn't know compromise was like this.

Thoreau takes a golf ball from a basket and drops it to the green mat. He positions himself, raises the club. He strikes the ball and watches it sail into the distance. When it disappears, he returns to the basket and does it again. He's not watching where the balls land, you notice. It's not like he's taking some kind of perverse joy in turning golf balls into bullets. It's more like he doesn't care. You've misjudged this whole situation. You had thought it was going to be about you. That hourglass in the lobby, you realize, that doesn't tilt. It's someone's job to come by twice a day and replace the fish.

Thoreau continues to hit balls, ignoring you.