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[gourmandized]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, BARBARA. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 816.19.528.16 *** wiggles has joined 816.19.528.16 <wiggles> Hello, this is Ima Wiggles. <wiggles> How can I get this machine to stop calling me Barbara? I don't go by that name anymore. <wiggles> If you'd like to speak with me please leave a message!

Comments

[pawntakesking]

[He lines the cards up more neatly, pinching the corners of the pile together before returning them to the box.]

They wouldn't have been our targets. I want you to know that. It wasn't about how people looked.

But I take your point.

[gourmandized]

It's not only your particular group I'm talking about. It's far bigger than that.

[It's why she couldn't sit by and keep her mouth shut.]

A rich young man of what might be called "pure blood" decided he owned us, the bizarre creatures that we were, and when we refused to be cowed he resorted to force. He killed us all, one by one.

That's why I can't afford to keep my mouth shut.

[pawntakesking]

[Regulus is quiet for a long moment, scanning her face, his white eyes narrowing a little, his brow furrowing.]

[His voice, when he does speak, is quiet and apologetic.]

That's terrible. I didn't know.

I'm sorry.

[gourmandized]

[She doesn't go further into it, about the way she had to stand there and listen to many of them die, knowing someone of her size had no hope of running or hiding. Just waiting for her turn in line, then staring down the gold-plated barrel of Dandy's fancy little pistol and trying not to have a breakdown in her last moments alive. It's unnecessary to dwell on all that right now.]

Thank you. [She believes in the truth of this apology too, so there's nothing snide in her thanks.]

I'm relieved that the two of us can move on from here.

[pawntakesking]

[He smiles at that. It's still a little uncertain, and a little sad, but it's undeniably genuine. When he reaches over, touching her hand very briefly, his hand has been warmed by the tea and isn't quite as shadowy and cold as before.]

So am I.

Thank you. I'm not sure anyone's ever given me a second chance before.

[Besides the Fog. But he's got just about enough self-awareness not to turn this into a god thing.]