He speaks like someone who’s learning how to communicate again.

There are all these new people, and it’s frightening. They don’t seem to want to hurt him, and it’s confusing. He learns new things every day, things that make him question everything, most of all things he would prefer to ignore, but can’t anymore. They listen to the things he says, and he listens in turn, even if he doesn’t understand a lot of it. They’re in a bad situation, and they’re in it together. He’s trying, even when the fear and doubt choke him sometimes.

He speaks like someone who’s unsure even about what might come out of their mouth.

There’s a lot that’s missing, a lot that might not even be real. There’s a lot of hurt and things he doesn’t want to think about, but are there, constantly just at the edge of his thought. Things bubble up sometimes unexpectedly. He realizes he has lost a certain filter, and he says the quiet part out loud. He’s been alone for too long…

He speaks like someone who hasn’t said a single word to another sentient being in 10 years.

The last person he spoke to was a friend. He screamed in fear and pain. He probably begged for it to end. He doesn’t quite remember how it all happened. He’s been afraid to be seen ever since. He’s been afraid to be heard. He avoided them all.

He speaks like someone who had trouble saying what was on his mind, even before all that.

He was always quiet. He was a follower, not a leader, he followed his friends along and let himself be guided by them. He spoke with them with confidence then, and they didn’t make fun of him for struggling with words sometimes.

He speaks like someone who hasn’t had the chance to grow out of childhood struggles.

He’ll grow out of it, they said, and at first, he thought so too. But the years passed and he still struggled to say words right. They taught him, patiently, when they could, but it all came from somewhere deeper. He felt slow in a fast word, or too fast in a slow one. He tried, and got better, but still, he was a quiet child. They called him shy. Despite that, he made some friends, and they made him feel better.