malphas was recovering from his suicide attempt. he hated calling it that. attempt. he had tried, sure enough, but failed. he failed even in dying. still, though, he was saved by a few people, and that meant that people cared about him. for now, he decided to focus on his medical career. earlier that day, he had thrown all his alcohol into the swamp and left it be. he was determined to be better.

he wanted to talk about it with somebody, but he didn't want to bother morgan- morgan had better things to do than babysit him, and stocking was too good for him. vigenere would just tell him he was a shit person, so who did he have left? nayru was dead and he couldn't find iota. he decided he'd talk to the one person he actually would say out loud he respected- beck.

beck was a strange character- he was pretty secretive and mysterious, and yet managed to hold this little clan together. he respected him, and thanked him for founding tanglewood, but at the same time beck's existence made him hurt. he'd never be as good as beck. he decided to go talk to the leader- see what advice the wise man had for him. he had no alcohol, and thus didn't really have any good gifts, so he came empty-handed to beck's house.

"hey, beck. are you home?" he asked, voice low. "it's uh- me, malphas. i know we don't talk, but... do you have a moment?" malphas muttered, ashamed of having to have beck see him like this.