[ When she shakes her head, Hei blinks once, eyes losing some of their mathematical focus. ]
[ He was expecting hesitation. But not an outright denial. It's so un-Doll-like that it leaves him grappling mentally as if under some unexpected weight. But Yin's been defying the limitations of Dolls for ages now. He's staggering, instead, under the weight of that unexpected -- subtle -- truculence. It amazes him sometimes, when he stops to think about it, that he'd started out wanting nothing from Yin but professional cooperation. She wasn't even Yin in the beginning, just a Doll, a voiceless stepping-stone to his plans for revenge against Amber, for combing through the Syndicate in his search for Pai. And now years later here they are, inextricably entwined, so that when one is hurt, the other flinches. Time is fucking hilarious. ]
[ Hilarious like gonorrhea. ]
You don't have to like it. You just have to do it. [ The words are flat and sharp, like a crunch of bone. (He'll say them to Pavel, too, at the end of the month. Has been saying them to himself -- for years and years -- as a maxim to overcome all difficulty.) It's not an ultimatum, or an order. If anything, the look on his face -- flat-eyed and pale -- makes it clear: This is for your own good. ]
[ Quieter, ] I'm sick of hurting everyone who matters to me, Yin. I'd rather stay here as City Dead, then let last night repeat itself.
action;
[ He was expecting hesitation. But not an outright denial. It's so un-Doll-like that it leaves him grappling mentally as if under some unexpected weight. But Yin's been defying the limitations of Dolls for ages now. He's staggering, instead, under the weight of that unexpected -- subtle -- truculence. It amazes him sometimes, when he stops to think about it, that he'd started out wanting nothing from Yin but professional cooperation. She wasn't even Yin in the beginning, just a Doll, a voiceless stepping-stone to his plans for revenge against Amber, for combing through the Syndicate in his search for Pai. And now years later here they are, inextricably entwined, so that when one is hurt, the other flinches. Time is fucking hilarious. ]
[ Hilarious like gonorrhea. ]
You don't have to like it. You just have to do it. [ The words are flat and sharp, like a crunch of bone. (He'll say them to Pavel, too, at the end of the month. Has been saying them to himself -- for years and years -- as a maxim to overcome all difficulty.) It's not an ultimatum, or an order. If anything, the look on his face -- flat-eyed and pale -- makes it clear: This is for your own good. ]
[ Quieter, ] I'm sick of hurting everyone who matters to me, Yin. I'd rather stay here as City Dead, then let last night repeat itself.