[ Like before, Ephemera watches him for a long, silent moment. ]
I'm not trying to.
[ Strangely, he's not. He would have, a while back. In those days when the threat assessment was simple in its brutality. Any advantage you can take is a good one. That was the sergeant's way. Hunter was the one who tempered that, drew up lines when Chica would have wrecked the world to get it done. She would have killed Felix at the first pass. Ephemera knows that. Cut his head clean off with one of her knives and said fuck it to the consequences. That was her way. And Ephemera thinks this might be his.
no subject
I'm not trying to.
[ Strangely, he's not. He would have, a while back. In those days when the threat assessment was simple in its brutality. Any advantage you can take is a good one. That was the sergeant's way. Hunter was the one who tempered that, drew up lines when Chica would have wrecked the world to get it done. She would have killed Felix at the first pass. Ephemera knows that. Cut his head clean off with one of her knives and said fuck it to the consequences. That was her way. And Ephemera thinks this might be his.
This quiet, in the aftermath. ]
What'd you want, Felix?
[ If he even knows. Ephemera doesn't. ]