'When you lose sight of your goals, that's when it gets you'
'Hmm?'
'Doubt, fear, insecurity; all that good stuff.'
'Good stuff? What the hell are you talking about?'
'We need our demons to push us forward, to shove us over the precipice into the fog below.'
'You sound like a dust jacket.'
'Hey, maybe that fog under the cliff is covering a river..'
'Yeah, and if you hit the river at that velocity you'll break both your legs, assuming there aren't any rocks or the water is so shallow you're dead before you realise you've hit something.'
'I'm just trying to paint a nice picture here.'
'Well cut it out, I've got work to do'
'Why don't you do it in your room?'
'...'
'You haven't been going in there very much these days.'
'I'd rather stay out here. It's brighter.'
'Told you.'
'In the daytime. At night I have to worry about tipping a candle over and burning the building down.'
'Don't you think that makes us move slower, take things easier and be more attentive?'
'I guess.'
'It sure does for me. Night's a good time for that.'
'I sleep at night, when I'm not working.'
'I noticed that. I barely sleep at all anymore.'
'I noticed that; seems like you're always awake.'
'And you're sleeping a lot more than you used to.'
'Between my jobs, it's all I've got.'
'You're not sleeping now.'
'...this is different.'
'Yeah. I know it is. How's Stephanie?'
'We broke up.'
'Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know.'
'Well I didn't tell you so...'
'When?'
'Last week.'
'Over the phone?'
'Yeah.'
'Why?'
'...'
'Why?'
'I really don't want to talk about her anymore.'
'Is it because of me?'
'Shut the fuck up.'
'Is it because of what we're doing?'
'WE aren't doing anything; this whole thing is your great fucking Work.'
'You know I'm doing this for you, as much as for myself.'
'Don't say that to me.'
'I just thought you could stand to relax.'
'I'm plenty relaxed.'
'Focus your attention on something else.'
'Seriously, let's not have this conversation now.'
'If not now, when?'
'Stop. Fucking. Saying that. Why is this so important to you? Why is me sitting on our kitchen floor with all of this, this... in front of me so god damned essential? You think this is RELAXING for me? You think I'm about the undergo some kind of massive revelation, birds in the sky and rainbows and the smell of pine and all that crap because you've had the same experience all on your own? Stop trying to help me, you're not helping me; you're saving your life at my expense and there is NO OTHER WAY of looking at it.'
'I...'
'Shut up. I'm working two jobs I hate, my social life has collapsed, I haven't even talked to my Mom in over a month because I can't pay any of my own bills. You're living both of our lives, our IDEAL lives as proposed by YOU, and I'm supporting us both. I've had to talk to the landlord three times about rent, three times in a row; I've scraped money from wherever I could get it, and we're barely making it. You think we don't have to go shopping because we've got tomato plants? That that little garden you've got on our balcony is going to completely remove our dependence on this city? How are we going to pay for power, to keep your little lights running all year round? When they outgrow their pots, where will we put them?'
'New pots.'
'From where?'
'I'll build some.'
'Out of what? Wood? Where will you get it? Ride your bike down to High Park and cut a tree down? We don't live in the fucking middle ages Robin; we can't just decide one day that we're going to ignore the rules we don't like and screw all of them that don't like it. There are consequences to shit like this man, and I'm carrying all of them.'