[Rolled off like blood on oiled leather and painted over a smile that's sharper than their knives. It's just how she is. How she was. He's not sure how she is NOW and that's- disconcerting. He used to know all the paths, all the patterns, every last tumbler to the locks that hold the tension in place and how to pick right through by feel. All of that's jammed up or dusted over or the ground just isn't fucking there anymore. He's trying to recover, she's trying to change, they're on different books in entirely different libraries.
And he's not helping.
Shit. Damn his mouth.]
Look. You don't owe me anything. Let alone an explanation. It was hell for me alone and even then, I had D. I can't imagine what you went through. I'm not going to because when I tried? Gave myself night terrors. But you made it out. You. The best of us- not because of any damn leaderboard or any special treatment or blood but because you got steel where everyone else has bronze. You've always been the best of us and it has nothing to do with equipment and everything to do with just- you. Last man standing.
[He hesitates for half a second but- in for a penny, in for a pound. He reaches up, tugs off his dogtags and loops them around her neck before she can tell him to not.]
So you gotta keep being number one. Best of the best. Because they're gonna be scared shitless out there but for you? This is wednesday. This is nothing. Bring those- and bring yourself back? I'll take you to all the best bars and we'll celebrate you making it out like we should have when you got here in the first place. Fair?
T^T so dumb ugh
[Rolled off like blood on oiled leather and painted over a smile that's sharper than their knives. It's just how she is. How she was. He's not sure how she is NOW and that's- disconcerting. He used to know all the paths, all the patterns, every last tumbler to the locks that hold the tension in place and how to pick right through by feel. All of that's jammed up or dusted over or the ground just isn't fucking there anymore. He's trying to recover, she's trying to change, they're on different books in entirely different libraries.
And he's not helping.
Shit. Damn his mouth.]
Look. You don't owe me anything. Let alone an explanation. It was hell for me alone and even then, I had D. I can't imagine what you went through. I'm not going to because when I tried? Gave myself night terrors. But you made it out. You. The best of us- not because of any damn leaderboard or any special treatment or blood but because you got steel where everyone else has bronze. You've always been the best of us and it has nothing to do with equipment and everything to do with just- you. Last man standing.
[He hesitates for half a second but- in for a penny, in for a pound. He reaches up, tugs off his dogtags and loops them around her neck before she can tell him to not.]
So you gotta keep being number one. Best of the best. Because they're gonna be scared shitless out there but for you? This is wednesday. This is nothing. Bring those- and bring yourself back? I'll take you to all the best bars and we'll celebrate you making it out like we should have when you got here in the first place. Fair?