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[redknives]

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[redknives]

Who am I gonna tell? I'll be too busy kickin' everyone's asses for being a bunch of useless losers. They won't hear about it from me.

[But it's still. A little disquieting.]

You okay?

[priscilla]

[....more silence. She keeps staring at her hands]

No. I’m not okay.

I hate... being afraid. I hate that people can hurt me, even if it’s just a few people. I hate having two lives and only one head, and only one me. And I hate feeling fragile. I hate feeling like I’m made of glass. I hate... that I can’t do the things I know I’m supposed to be able to do. I hate that I can’t fly. And that I’m so slow. I feel...

[She presses her lips together. Hard.]

I feel weak.

[redknives]

[He's frowning now, and watching her closely.]

Nobody likes being weak, you know? But we all are, one way or another. We still deal with it. And you're a hell of a lot less weak than most, so don't act like you're so delicate now. You'll be fine.

I mean, unless you really think bein' a tough guy's worth giving up your humanity for, huh? Not to mention the diet.

Do you?

[priscilla]

[Honestly? She pauses.]

I don’t know.

Humanity doesn’t have the lure that it used to.

...anyway. The war ended. That was... a month and a half ago. And then people started vanishing. Zack, Naruto - didn’t you call him Canary, once? In the beginning?

I haven’t been paying attention as much as I should have been. I guess I’ve been too distracted by me.

[redknives]

Parakeet.

[It'd been a while, but he says it reflexively. And then rakes his fingers through his hair.]

Droppin' like flies, huh? Shit, that's all the people who were here the longest. That only leaves...

[priscilla]

Elena. She’s the longest term resident. And then me. And then you.

When I told Elena, she said she had to get some things done before she disappeared, too. I have to admit... sometimes I feel the same way. And then I think about what would happen if I were gone. The Patrol would be okay, I know. Arthur would take care of that, and Riza.

But Isley. I worry... about what would happen with him. What he’d do.

[She rubs her face, keeping her eyes off the screen.]

As long as Raki is here, it’ll probably be all right, but...

...anyway. Oh! And then the dating happened again. I mean, the blind date. Thing.

[redknives]

Doesn't mean we can't come back though, right?

...wait, dating thing? You don't mean-- that crap with the strings and shit? Oh gimme a break, what the hell?

[...]

So who'd you get stuck with?

[priscilla]

[such a sad story. Priscilla taps her fingers. Two of them.]

Tseng. ...and Clare.

….....and Arthur got Isley.

[HE ALWAYS DATES HER DATES.]

[redknives]

[...]

[Well now Senji just starts laughing.]

[priscilla]

I went on a ride with Clare but we didn’t really talk. ...what’s so funny!

[redknives]

What? C'mon, you don't see how crazy that is? Besides, they're both so annoying, I'm surprised they came out of it alive and in one piece.

[...]

They both did, right?

[priscilla]

Yes. Everyone came out intact. Arthur couldn’t hurt Isley even if he tried. and Isley wouldn’t hurt Arthur. He-- [She bites her bottom lip, because this will never not be a bit awkward.] --he still restrains himself when it comes to people like Arthur. [People close to her. Then again...] ...actually, he’s pretty restrained in general.

So, yes. They were both, um, successful at living through it.

And so was Clare.

I promised Helen that if Clare came after me again I wouldn’t kill her. One time.

….but Clare is gone now, so I guess it doesn’t matter.

[redknives]

Her too?

[Not that he'd known Clare, really. But she'd been one of those Someones he was aware of, when she was around. And now she was gone too.]

Listen, before we move on with the history lesson, is there anyone else missing I should know about?

[priscilla]

I don’t think so. I don’t... think there was anyone else you knew, really. But... there were a lot of people. I can’t really be sure.

[She pulls the cat closer, hiding her face behind its ears.]

And I’m not sure how much more history there is. Right now, the city is doing that... thing where people turn into younger versions of themselves again. [Here she tips her head a bit, peeking out from behind the cat’s ear.] Do you remember last time? You turned into a heroic law enforcement agent, and we--

[....awkward.]

...w-well. I guess this time you’re unaffected.

[redknives]

[...definitely awkward. But to his credit, he tries not to show it too much.]

Yeah, I remember. Some hero, hidin' my lame ass in a cave the whole--

[WAIT NO that's uncomfortable too, isn't it.]

Anyway, I noticed everyone else gettin' their dose of crazy. Asellus asked me to take her to see ghosts. Like I even know where the fuck to find those things. I'm not a goddamn babysitter.

[priscilla]

Well... there are ghosts in the ruins...

In that orphanage anyway.

[much better topic.]

[redknives]

[He goes silent. That bad, probably planning to do something dangerous now silence.]

Yeah... you're right. They got those freaky kids there, don't they? And I haven't been out that way for a while.

...Haven't been out any way for a while, I guess. Hey!

You still owe me a dead cat... thing. Didn't forget, did you?

[priscilla]

[She laughs softly, and looks down.]

I didn’t forget.

Are you free right now?

[redknives]

[He holds a hand up.]

As a fucking bird.

Speakin' of which, I also wanna see that stupid parakeet or whatever the hell you named after me. If it sucks I'm giving it a new name. No arguments.

[priscilla]

It’s a finch. And its name is Crow! Accept it!

[She angles the Forge so that the camera catches the somewhat-far-away bird cage.]

[Not that it helps, since he can’t see it. Well.]

...but you can come over if you want. I’ll introduce you. I don’t think finches are supposed to talk... and yet, it does.

[redknives]

It does? ...What’s it say?

[priscilla]

...mostly, “Worktime.”

A lot.

[redknives]

[...]

Your bird sucks.

I gotta fix this thing before it gets any worse.

[priscilla]

Well, I think it just kind of picked up the word from--

--what do you mean fix it?

[redknives]

What d’you mean, what do you mean? It talks, doesn’t it? I’ll teach it to say somethin’ else. Something cool.

You’re not keepin’ that bird and having it say stupid shit like worktime.