"You've been through a lot to get where you are now",

A soft voice chimes, coming somewhere from within, breaking the veil of hard-fought internal silence. Even in this forest, sitting by the same small stream that he seems to never get tired of, his brain seems to always find a way to make so many thoughts so quickly at the same time that it just reaches a point of complete incoherentness, with no real way of telling when one thought starts and the other ends.

"Yes," he meows in reply, without missing a beat "but it's not like theres any end in sight, I still have a life time to go and then some."

He's familiar with this process by now; random thoughts bubbling to the surface of his mind that, in contrast to the constant background noise, seem crystal clear to him, sometimes it makes him question if they're really his own thoughts. It's a game his brain likes to play with him, and most of the time given the circumstances, he has no choice but to play along.

"Just because there's progress left to be made doesn't discredit what's already been accomplished", Replies the voice, much clearer now, and in an almost amused tone.

He often wonders in times like these, why his internal conflicts are presented to him in such a way. But it's not like it's any reason to complain, at least they ARE presented to him without any sort of prompting, which is a lot better than what most can say.

"Yeah, I guess. It's just when you look at such a big job in it's entirety, you start to get a little discouraged", He lets out with a sigh.

He knows that whoever this is is only thinking in his best interest, but he also knows where too much positive reinforcement has gotten him in the past, so much so to the point where nowadays he just downplays it or blocks it out entirely. This recently discovered deep sense of self awareness is something that has been both a problem solver and a problem creator for him.

"Of course! But think of all that's been done in such a short amount of time! Now that you have the past figured out, the future is gonna be so much easier.", The voice replied warmly, and even clearer and louder than before.

It's ironic in a sense, and he knows it. The fact that his debate partner that is presumably himself still always manages to best him, as if theres some much wiser and more knowledge version of himself somewhere inside, trying to straighten him out. He makes this realization every single time this happens, and he chuckles to himself at this.

"Yeahhh I know.", he admits with a slight smile "it's just one of those things that seems like such a chore until you realize that you've been doing it this whole time".

He lets out a sigh of what feels like relief, "what an interesting thing," he thinks to himself, "to reach a point of self sufficiency where your own brain resorts to challenging your way of thinking". But was it his own brain? Sometimes these interractions feel so genuine, it makes him question if it truly is an internal debate, or if someone somewhere is looking out for him.

"Yeah well get used to it," the voice replies "growing isn't something that stops until you're dead.",

That particular wordage snapped him out of the trance he had wound up in, leading him to realize that this voice that had been getting steadily clearer throughout the conversation is now coming not from inside his head, but in front of him. His eyes widen as he looks up from the running water to meet an all too familiar set of eyes from across the stream where he had been sitting.

A reassuring smile and a skip in his chest is all that's able to happen before he's awake again, panting and in a cold sweat. Left with nothing to do but process.