The smile eases its way back off of Rashad's face. If Daniel can see him for what he is, perhaps it is a blessing he lacks the context to know what he is looking at. "I ceased to be all that I should some time ago," he admits sadly. He reaches out to touch the form before him, but holds back his hand a few inches from the apparent shoulder -- he does not wish to disrupt Daniel's manifestation, which seems unstable now that he is able to think outside himself enough to notice these things.

But for him to be such a thing as Daniel himself -- not to be compressed in the mortal-like shell he has too quickly come to accept as his own body as though it were a natural thing. He has always had the awareness that he is not as he should be, that he is less than, but like so many things it should only be a simple matter of fact. He should not be capable of regret.

"This will not last," he reminds himself. "It will end now."