ACTION | ❝ you don't have to go home but you can't stay here ❞

[11ady]

[Let's go the multiple choice route like a bad dating sim that leads nowhere.]

❶ morning; coffee shop

At the counter, you'll notice Elle digging through her purse and paying for the cheapest drink in spare change. Damn, is she short a nickel again? She's just trying to justify hogging a table for the free wi-fi so she can get her paper done. Never mind all the weird chat windows and video feeds constantly popping up or the weird texts to her phone. She has responsibilities, ok?

❷ noon; still at the coffee shop

The lunch rush is pouring in and there's a desperate need to clear the tables. It sure is awkward being asked to leave by the manager. What do? A little intervention would help but the kindness of strangers is a myth, isn't it?

❸ closing time; yep still at the coffee shop

Look she just has one page left to polish? Can't you just let her stay ten more minutes despite the fact that she's only bought one small coffee but stayed almost 12 hours? This isn't awkward to watch at all. To think she was on top of the world barely six years ago and now she's been reduced to this.

Comments

[secondcomingof]

[ Surprisingly, Casval smiles. Out of everything, that seems to have gotten her message across. ]

I see. I believe I understand where you're coming from now.

[ The same place he knew best. Guarded. Shut off. Alone. He wasn't going to get anywhere like this, trading insults. He sets his coffee down, lowers his voice from the higher, grittier pitch it had assumed. ]

My mother insisted on braiding it when I was a child. I suppose it was a habit that stuck with me, somewhere along the way. Something to remember her by. Truthfully, I don't pay much attention to it. It's not important.

[ Leaning on the table, Casval stares eye-to-eye with her, insistently. ]

Answer me this, at least. Please. [ He can be polite when he wants to. Honest. Though now, he's sounding slightly desperate, a nervous tick to his fingers. ] You didn't feel what I felt? That hollowness, that sudden rush of something that shouldn't have been there? For just a second, like you were being tossed outside this world into another? Tell me honestly you didn't, and I will leave, and you will never hear from me again.

But otherwise—otherwise, tell me who Char Aznable is. [ This isn't the composed man on the network, or even the smarmy one from a few seconds ago. He looks... afraid, of all things. ] If you know. Because it won't go. I've tried. There's something to this, I... there has to be.

[11ady]

[There's a certain sincerity that moves her. Starved dogs have a habit of baring their teeth when facing strangers. They try to look so much stronger than they actually are.]

Why is anything I've felt of any concern to you? I can't say I know the name.

[It's a start. She's not denying anymore.]

[secondcomingof]

[ She's in good company, as far as starved dogs go. Some just do a better job of hiding it than others. ]

Because I can't be the only one. Experiencing this... dissonance. This disconnect. There has to be an answer. That is what I'm trying to find. That is what I have to find. And I know you want to find it, too.

Don't you? So help me.

[11ady]

[Modesty's never really been her strong suit and the night is late. No harm in it, is there? She starts unbuttoning the buttons on her blouse, showing the lace trim of her brassiere underneath. That's not what she means to display though. There's a prominent bullet scar on her chest.]

I've never been shot.

[If that doesn't scare him off, maybe he's worth speaking to. She doesn't have time for pussyfooting around.]

[secondcomingof]

[ Casval's kneejerk response is to raise his palm in protest, move to preserve that modesty she's throwing away, shout no, this wasn't what I meant, but then he hears it—

I've never been shot.

—and he stops short.

This was it. One step closer to an answer. ]

Something that never should have been.

[ Char Aznable...

Someone he never even was.

Casval shakes his head. His fingers are twitching again. ]

Don't think I don't know what it is, to be powerless. I can change that for you. Tell me your name. Tell me what I can do. Help me find this answer. For that answer—I'll pay any price, any at all.

[11ady]

[Her fingers are nimble enough to button up her blouse again with efficient speed. She doesn't really care about the fact that the cafe staff is giving her weird looks. For all intents it purposes, it appears as if she's just flashed a stranger. The possible judgments and opinions don't seem to faze her though.]

Don't speak so rashly. I might very well ask more than you're willing to part with.

[secondcomingof]

Everything has already left me.

[ Funny. Casval doesn't seem to be paying them much mind, either, or much mind to his words. It's as if Elle is the only person that exists in his world now. Tunnel vision. This isn't the first time, and it won't be the last. It's dangerous.

But he can't stop. Not when he's this close. He keeps pressing on. ]

You ask for nothing I haven't lost once before.

So ask.

[11ady]

After I graduate, I want a guaranteed position with the weapons manufacturer that supplies Fort Turner.

[Can't fault her for being ambitious, can he? She knows the state of the economy and she's eager to climb up the rungs of the social ladder again.]

Show me proof that you can give me this and you'll have my aid.

[secondcomingof]

[ Casval physically starts before he can help himself. ]

...a weapons manufacturer?

[11ady]

Antebellum Industries. I want in.

[They used to deal with her father's firm before the market crashed. She knows they're well-funded.]

[secondcomingof]

[ There's something more to this. Something she's not saying. He should've expected it, by now.

Casval narrows his eyes. Rises to full height, makes for the door, apparently having lost interest in his coffee. ]

We shouldn't be discussing it here.

Outside. Let's go.

[11ady]

[With a shrug, she packs up her laptop and follows. The manager's just happy he can close up now.]

I suppose we can speak freely now?

[secondcomingof]

[ Oh, he would be. Hope you don't mind Casval standing awfully close, but his interest's been pinged and he's a hard man to shake once that happens. ]

Indeed, I'll be frank. What is your relation to Antebellum Industries?

[11ady]

My father's company used to work with them. Before the market crash.

[secondcomingof]

So this is personal for you.

[11ady]

They're a company worthy of my talents.

[secondcomingof]

...you still haven't told me your name yet.

[11ady]

Surely a man of your capabilities has the means of learning it.

[secondcomingof]

Surely you don't intend for me to call you "young lady" until then.

[11ady]

What would you know about my intentions, Captain Mass?

[secondcomingof]

I know that the world you are wishing to enter is dangerous. That it could consume you, without the slightest provocation, and leave nothing in its wake but ashes.

My world is not a world for children simply playing at being adults. And I assure you, young lady— [ bending down and forward, within a hair's breadth of her face ] it is a world over which I have absolute authority.

[11ady]

[The smirk playing on her lips is a cold one. She didn't mingle among the 1% for years without learning a thing or two.]

Are you a king or are you a god?

[secondcomingof]

[ He'll raise you exactly the same for exactly the same reasons. ]

Something in between. With the vices of both and the virtues of neither.

[11ady]

One who cannot kneel then. Those are the most satisfying to break.

[secondcomingof]

Is that a challenge?