[ Lazarus attempts to scrabble away like a wounded and cornered animal. It is honestly embarrassing for everyone present. Well; Paul is having a bit too much of a moment to be embarrassed, so God is embarrassed on his behalf. Paul holds himself as though everything around him is made of fragile glass.
And then he speaks.
It shows in John's eyes, for a moment: he knows this trainwreck. He recognizes the timbre, the split-second resonance through Lazarus's answering stillness. To him it plays out not only as sound to air, but in a cascade like dominoes falling. Motion is arrested by processes too neat to be organic; Lazarus goes still in a way living things can never go still without divine command.
He has heard this Voice. It makes perfect, terrible sense that Paul would exert that will here and now, with the hitch of a sob in his chest. That understanding slots into place somewhere deep. He will examine it, wearily, later.
God steps forward. His hand touches Paul's shoulder, in the same way he had steadied the boy when he crumpled in the kitchen, face scrunched in pain and confusion and soap suds still at his wrists. He has that look now, to his Teacher. God sees no difference. ]
no subject
And then he speaks.
It shows in John's eyes, for a moment: he knows this trainwreck. He recognizes the timbre, the split-second resonance through Lazarus's answering stillness. To him it plays out not only as sound to air, but in a cascade like dominoes falling. Motion is arrested by processes too neat to be organic; Lazarus goes still in a way living things can never go still without divine command.
He has heard this Voice. It makes perfect, terrible sense that Paul would exert that will here and now, with the hitch of a sob in his chest. That understanding slots into place somewhere deep. He will examine it, wearily, later.
God steps forward. His hand touches Paul's shoulder, in the same way he had steadied the boy when he crumpled in the kitchen, face scrunched in pain and confusion and soap suds still at his wrists. He has that look now, to his Teacher. God sees no difference. ]
I can take it from here.