The One Eyed Bandit
rotworm
ANNA GARDENER
SCENE:
Mutual Assurance
TIME:
Post Arc 1/Pre Arc 2 — Sometime After September 17th, 2021
LOCATION:
Outside Lab Icarus, North District
PARTICIPANTS:
Raphael
Elenion Aura
, Anna
MUTUAL ASSURANCE
Anna shifted in her seat, the dilapidated bench she was perched upon creaking under her weight. Ever since that day, grey skies had made her uncomfortable. Rain, even more so, and while thankfully the weather had not devolved to that point yet, her charge for the day was doing well enough to compensate.
His eyes bored into her, and his words even more so. At Raphael's mention of the incident a few days prior, she just about choked on her other breath, covering the inside of her mask for the day in a layer of thin, violently discharged spit.
Gross. She hadn't even bought a spare.
"Could we... Not talk about that? It wasn't really a good day for me..." Anna half begged, and half mumbled, a fresh wellspring of guilt bubbling to the surface within her as she recalled her particular contributions to the events at Mach Sling. It was another mistake on that list of manslaughters that she'd managed to go so long without adding another entry to. Time had already dulled the memory enough for it not to set her head completely spinning within a roundabout of self-admonishment, but it was still something she'd rather not think about.
Though, now that she was thinking about it, this place, this industrial jungle was hardly helping either. There was the rain, there was Raphael, and there was the lab. While she might have been missing a Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, she had two Ghosts of Christmas Past to compensate, and worst of all, one dreadfully real Ghost of Christmas Present that was all too eager to do his job.
"Um." Inside of her head, Anna sorted through her memories of just how exactly small talk like this was supposed to work. It was strikingly, and probably to any proper person, depressingly hard for her to dredge up the last time she'd had to talk to someone just for the sake of it like this. Outside of her own family, at least.
How long exactly had it been? Two years? Three years? Even within Anna's dull, repressed heart, something was left buried deep and forgotten that ached at the thought.
But not enough for her to acknowledge it.
"What uh- What do you think of the weather lately?" Sadly this was quite genuinely the result of Anna doing her best. She wasn't much invested in Tri and the Serpent Queen's relationship, but a job was a job. "A-awful, right? I hate the rain."
His eyes bored into her, and his words even more so. At Raphael's mention of the incident a few days prior, she just about choked on her other breath, covering the inside of her mask for the day in a layer of thin, violently discharged spit.
Gross. She hadn't even bought a spare.
"Could we... Not talk about that? It wasn't really a good day for me..." Anna half begged, and half mumbled, a fresh wellspring of guilt bubbling to the surface within her as she recalled her particular contributions to the events at Mach Sling. It was another mistake on that list of manslaughters that she'd managed to go so long without adding another entry to. Time had already dulled the memory enough for it not to set her head completely spinning within a roundabout of self-admonishment, but it was still something she'd rather not think about.
Though, now that she was thinking about it, this place, this industrial jungle was hardly helping either. There was the rain, there was Raphael, and there was the lab. While she might have been missing a Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, she had two Ghosts of Christmas Past to compensate, and worst of all, one dreadfully real Ghost of Christmas Present that was all too eager to do his job.
"Um." Inside of her head, Anna sorted through her memories of just how exactly small talk like this was supposed to work. It was strikingly, and probably to any proper person, depressingly hard for her to dredge up the last time she'd had to talk to someone just for the sake of it like this. Outside of her own family, at least.
How long exactly had it been? Two years? Three years? Even within Anna's dull, repressed heart, something was left buried deep and forgotten that ached at the thought.
But not enough for her to acknowledge it.
"What uh- What do you think of the weather lately?" Sadly this was quite genuinely the result of Anna doing her best. She wasn't much invested in Tri and the Serpent Queen's relationship, but a job was a job. "A-awful, right? I hate the rain."