AN: Beta-read by
Carbohydratos,
Did I?,
Gaia,
Linedoffice,
Zephyrosis, and
Mizu.
Chapter 125: A Notable Lack of Disaster
I awoke the next morning ready to face whatever crisis had occurred beyond my immediate line of sight. I knocked on Tess's door, then Dinah's (even though she hadn't imported), then Anna's. The first accepted my invitation to breakfast, the second called me a 'godforsaken morning person', and the third didn't respond.
"She's probably down at breakfast already," Tess suggested.
"Maybe." I gave the door another glance, then turned a suspicious eye down the hall. "You don't think she might be in Zeke's room instead?"
"Do you want to find out?"
"My good sense says no, but my nosiness says yes." I was being literal; I still had the shoulder sprite perk active, and the two were saying exactly that. "Let's go with the former, shall we?"
The first thing we saw upon arriving at the Palace was, unsurprisingly, Max, who waved us over from a table near the door with a call of, "Good morning."
"Good morning," I replied, Tess a half-second behind me. "Any disasters, catastrophes, or other emergencies I should be aware of?"
"No…?" he replied, clearly wondering what I'd been expecting.
"The last two breaks began with one form of drama or another and I'm capable of pattern recognition."
Max rolled his eyes. "Relax. Nothing but good news since you moved back in yesterday."
"But there
is news?"
"Yeah. Remember when you asked if telling Tedd about the 'chain was a good idea?"
I sighed. "Yes, I do."
"Well, with the benefit of hindsight, I can tell you it was. Look there." He pointed across the room to a table in the corner, where Zeke and Anna were sitting across from Tedd and Grace.
Tedd and Grace?
"We
left, didn't we?" I asked. "Like, 'doors are closed, next stop wherever' left?"
Max laughed. "Yeah, and they're along for the ride. Probably only for a Jump or two, but I'm happy to host them as long as they want."
"That's the news, then?" Tess asked. "Zeke brought three people along in one Jump?"
"Two Jumps," I corrected her.
"One and a half."
"One point eight, if you're going to be a stickler for precision," Max interjected.
"Point eight?" Tess asked.
"He was there for eight years. No idea why."
"The war probably ended," I suggested.
"Yeah, that would make sense."
"That would make it only one point
three," Tess argued. "One half plus four fifths."
I tuned out their good-natured bickering and looked at Zeke and company again. Their table was full, so I'd have to catch him later.
Maybe I'd been taking Zeke's friendship for granted, because I could already feel the urge to take that personally.
———X==X==X———
As it happened, Zeke wasn't the one I spoke with after his breakfast group split up; I'd just finished my own breakfast when Anna excused herself from her table and walked over to mine. Max and Garrus had left not long after Tess and I had arrived, and Tess herself had headed off soon after, so I was finishing my meal alone.
Perhaps that was why Anna approached me now; to meet one new person at a time.
I kept half an eye on her as she walked up to the table, but I wanted to let her approach on her own terms and so didn't do more than glance her way until she drew to a stop at the opposite side of the table and called my name.
"Cassandra Rolins?"
"That's me," I replied, oddly reminded of my first encounter with Max. "We met yesterday, briefly. Would you like to sit down?"
"Thank you."
Anna slipped into the chair, which appeared to move backwards the bare minimum necessary to accommodate her of its own accord. She didn't need to look at what she was doing, so she kept her eyes fixed on mine the whole time. If I'd expected her to act like a 'normal' person, it could easily have been unsettling; as it was, it was merely unusual.
I waited for her to raise whatever topic she'd come to discuss. She remained silent.
"How do you like your room?" I ventured.
"It is… adequate," Anna responded. "The silence will take some adjustment." She spoke with the sort of precise diction I'd come to associate with Homura, but where Homura was mellow to the point of flatness, Anna's words were short and clipped.
"Silence?"
"The room is perfectly isolated. There are no stray signals. It is unpleasantly like being blind."
"Oh."
Anna didn't offer further commentary or invite a response.
"I'm sure you can have some signals sent to your room if you'd like…?" I offered after a long five seconds of silence.
"Zeke suggested the same thing," she replied, with no indication as to whether she considered it a useful suggestion or not.
Well, there was a topic I could move on to. "How did you and Zeke end up as, uh, friends?"
Anna took a moment to consider the question.
"We were both out of place at the Academy."
That didn't explain the 'how'; it barely explained the 'why'.
"Who approached who?" I asked.
"I approached him."
"Because he was also 'out of place'?"
"Yes," she confirmed. "I was… curious."
"About?"
"Why he kept himself apart."
"I see."
Another long few seconds passed in silence before Anna blinked and refocused her gaze on me. "I'm sorry if this is inappropriate," she said, "but it's strange to be talking to you."
"Because I wasn't there?" I guessed.
"No, I meant you, specifically. Cassandra Rolins. Zeke talked about you often, but he never mentioned your last name. It explains some things."
Now that was a very interesting statement.
I raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Yes. It—" She cut herself off. "Sorry. He mentioned you didn't like to talk about your past."
That was one way to put it.
"Well, the thing about that is that it's
not my past," I explained. "I joined long before I would've done any of the things people would've seen, and I'm not really comfortable being treated like I have, if that makes sense."
"Oh." Anna paused, her face inscrutable. "Based on what Zeke said about you, I'd assumed you had."
"I'm not sure how to feel about that. I don't know much about my not-future and I don't think I want to."
Something flashed across her face too quickly for me to read. "Why not?"
"I didn't want to know how bad things would have gotten without Max's intervention."
"Didn't?"
"Still don't," I corrected myself. "Learned a bit anyway, against my better judgment."
Her eyes unfocused for a moment while she considered that answer before visibly returning to meet mine.
"Do you regret it?" Anna asked.
I waggled one hand. "'Regret' is a strong word. It was not particularly pleasant, but not so unpleasant that I would rather not have done it." After a moment, I added, "I still have no desire to learn more, regardless."
She gave a sharp nod—acknowledgment and perhaps understanding.
"How much do you know about me?" she asked.
That was a difficult and likely thorny question. "Some? I looked into your, well, your 'world' when Zeke disappeared, but I didn't learn a whole lot about you as a person."
"Oh."
If I'd been expecting an offer to fill me in, I'd've been disappointed.
"So," I said, "what is your relationship with Zeke, anyw—?"
"It's not a relationship," she blurted out, then cleared her throat loudly. "
Ahem. I mean, we are friends. That's all."
That was on me. "Sorry, let me rephrase: how would you define your 'interpersonal connection' with Zeke?"
"We are friends," Anna reiterated.
"Close friends."
"Yes."
Anna once again declined to elaborate.
"You must've been very close, to follow him here," I said.
Another expression flashed across her face—narrowed eyes, jaw set—before vanishing just as quickly.
"We made promises," she said. "Promises not to leave the other behind."
Was you coming along you fulfilling your promise, or him fulfilling his?
That was obviously not an appropriate thing to ask.
"I'm glad he had someone to lean on," I said instead, genuine gratitude mingling with a desire to fill dead air. "I can't imagine what it must have been like for him to drop into a warzone without warning. Thank you."
She shook her head. "I only did what anyone would have, and he helped me, too."
"Maybe not everyone
could have. He trusted you for a reason."
"Maybe," Anna allowed, "but I don't think he 'chose' me as a confidant so much as I was the one to pry at the right time."
"Hm."
I was still searching for a way to continue the conversation despite Anna's participation when a new arrival saved me the trouble—and caused a whole bunch more.
"Heeeey, Cass!" Zero called as she hurried across the room, today's sky-blue circuit-pattern sundress swishing furiously at her pace. "Did you hear we got—
is that Anna fucking Sanchez?"
Anna stiffened, which was impressive considering how stiff she'd been
before Zero showed up.
"Yes, it is," I replied, shooting Zero a look I intended to mean 'calm the fuck down', though she either missed or ignored the hint. "Anna, meet Zero. Zero, Anna."
Zero grinned and shot two thumbs up at the Valkyrie. "
Sweet. Thrilled to have you here, Anna. I'm a fan."
"A… fan," Anna repeated skeptically.
"Yeah! Fury of Saskatoon! Hey, would you show me the ropes whenever Mordin gets core production up and running?"
"I… yes, I would be happy to."
"Nice," Zero purred, slipping into the seat beside me. "Anyway, sorry to interrupt. What were you two talking about?"
That was a good question, since we'd been having a conversation only in the technical sense. I replied, "I was thanking Anna for looking after Zeke," which was true enough.
"Oooh." Zero turned a predatory grin on the poor woman. "What's the story there?"
"We won."
Anna's voice had the resentful flatness most people's would when they said, 'We lost,' and did not invite further questions—not that that deterred Zero, unfortunately.
"I bet you did!" she chirped. "But I was actually asking about you two. Who approached who? How'd you get to know each other? What was your first date?"
"I—we're not—!"
Zero opened her mouth to double down. I leaned over and shut it.
"Excuse my friend," I growled. "She doesn't think before she speaks."
Anna's eyes tracked back and forth between us for a moment before she stood up. "Please excuse me," she said, "I, uh… I am going to leave." Suiting actions to words, she turned and walked back to where Zeke had just risen from his seat.
"Mmmmmmmgah!" Zero squawked as I released my hold on her jaw. "Fuckin'
rude, Cass."
"You were just going to dig yourself deeper, and it's not like you couldn't've just overpowered me if you really wanted to."
She laughed. "Yeah, but I wanted to honor your effort. Like, shit, girl, you've grown! Can you imagine yourself trying to manhandle me back when we first met?"
"No, I can't," I admitted. "But I've become a lot more comfortable with violence over the last forty years."
"You consider
that violence?"
"Use of force, then."
Zero shrugged and moved on. "Hey, was it just me, or was that more 'season 1 Anna' than 'season 3 Anna'?"
"She's not from the anime, remember?" I scolded her. "And if you weren't paying attention, it sounds like things got
worse for her as the war dragged on, not better."
It took her a second to catch my meaning. "Ah, fuck. You think the main timeline went
RAVENZ in the epilogue?"
"The hell does that mean?"
"
RAVENZ was all about Valkyrie-on-Valkyrie combat," Zero explained. "You know, 'live' combat, not the fucking tournament arcs in the OTL. Extradimensional invasion happens and people
still fight each other as much as the fucking invaders. Humans gonna human, right?"
I huffed and rubbed at my forehead. "Why the hell is 'everyone started killing everyone else' your first assumption?"
"What were you trying to imply, then?"
"That you should give her more space, mostly. You know, I'm honestly surprised you care this much."
"About what?"
"Anna.
Valkyrie Core. I knew you liked the series, but didn't expect you to be this invested in it."
She scoffed. "Cass, I don't know how you avoided noticing, but I fucking
love videogames. And sex. And absurd weapon systems. And videogames about sex and absurd weapon systems." Zero's grin vanished as her mind jumped to another topic. "Shit, you don't think she's gonna be weird about my name, do you? What with Type Zeros and whatnot?"
"I'm pretty sure she was reacting to your personality."
"Damn, you're catty today."
I scowled at her. "You weren't exactly on your best behavior there, you know."
"I wasn't trying to piss her off," Zero whined. "Anyway, her and Zeke? Dating? How the fuck did that happen?"
"They insist they are friends, nothing more, and she wasn't exactly forthcoming."
"What do you think?"
"I've spoken with them each exactly once since they got back."
"And?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it wouldn't surprise me if one or both were ace."
"Oh, I'm sure they're both aces. Those two must've kicked so much ass—"
"You know what I meant!"
"Yeah, yeah," Zero grumbled. "Still. You really think there's nothing going on there?"
"Not all love is romantic."
"So you
do think—"
"What I
think is that we ought to let them be whatever they want to be rather than telling them their business," I snapped. "Why did you come over here, anyway?"
Her face lit up. "Oh, right! Zeke was a fucking hero and brought back the blueprints for Valkyrie cores! But judging from your company, you probably already knew that."
"Yes, I did."
"What did Anna have for breakfast?"
"You need to slow the fuck down, and why does that even matter?"
Zero grinned. "Like I said, she gave me 'season 1 Anna' vibes, and I was wondering if she was going alphabetically again."
Logically, I knew it was a sorer spot than normal because Anna had just brought up my own show, but Zero's disrespect was really starting to piss me off. "You shouldn't judge her based on the show! Zeke's arrival would've thrown things off track even if he was in that continuity, which he wasn't!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Zero threw her hands up in surrender. "I guess you'd know how that shit feels, huh."
"I was just reminded, actually."
"By Anna? But—no, nevermind, your show would've been airing when
Valkyrie Core did its 'present day, present time' apocalypse shit. The tapes survived the end of the world, huh?"
"
Apparently."
Zero
finally picked up on my mood.
"Ah, nevermind that, Cass," she told me, leaning in to throw an arm around my shoulder. "Look, Mordin says it'll take him a week or two to work out core production, but he's gonna spend all that time fiddling with things that don't matter. I bet I can wheedle a couple prototypes out of him by tomorrow afternoon, so what say we get practicing early?"
I found myself unable to match her enthusiasm.
"Thanks, but…" I trailed off into a sigh. "I dunno. Seeing Zeke with a war veteran's thousand-yard stare makes it hard to muster much enthusiasm for his 'loot'."
"Ah, he'll be fine. We've got six different flavors of bullshit super-therapy on tap."
"Sure, that's good and all, but…" I didn't know how to say it. Zeke would heal, I was certain, but would he ever be the same? The way he spoke now was… it lacked the stiff precision and weird turns of phrase that made talking to him so entertaining, the confident, unqualified bluntness that revealed his exasperation with an illogical world.
Something strange and unique and wonderful was gone, and I wasn't sure it would return.
———X==X==X———
Tedd and Grace were still in the hotel lobby when I finished my breakfast and headed out.
"Hey, Tedd," I called. "Hey, Grace."
The two turned from their discussion as I walked closer. Tedd was a girl today, wearing a tube-top and cardigan over yoga pants; Grace was in her hybrid form, wearing a tank-top and jean shorts.
Tedd raised an eyebrow when she recognized me. "Cassan—?"
She didn't get a chance to finish the question. "I knew it!" Grace yelled, jumping into the air with one fist held high. "I was right!"
I raised an eyebrow as well. "About?"
"You!" Grace cried. "When we first saw you, I thought, 'Woah, weird! She'd be the perfect actress for Doctor Rolins!' I thought it was funny because I already knew your name was Cassandra."
Oh,
that's why she'd been giving me a weird look when she first walked in.
"Then you were all, 'in an infinite multiverse, all things exist, even fiction'," she continued, "and I was like,
holy crap! Maybe it
is!"
"And you didn't call me out on it?" I asked, raising my
other eyebrow.
Grace did a one-eighty from triumph to shame. "What if I was wrong?" she murmured, intently twiddling her fingers. "I'd be
so embarrassed! And even if I was right it would be rude to say so because if you wanted us to know who you were you would've told us yourself…"
"Thanks. I think." I tempered my exasperation with a smile. "Say, uh, I called you 'Tedd' earlier. Is there something you'd rather I call you when you're a girl?"
She shrugged. "I've been using 'Tess' at work, but that's taken, so just 'Tedd' is fine."
"Multiple people can have the same name."
"Not in fiction!" Grace objected.
"Tedd is fine," Tedd repeated.
"All right, then," I said. "How are you doing? Did you get a tour?"
"Yesterday."
"We're going to the Arcade!" Grace told me.
"After we look at that 'Magic School' thing," Tedd reminded her.
Grace turned the full force of her pout on her presently-girlfriend.
"And
then we're going to look at that 'Magic School' thing," Tedd corrected herself.
"Well, have fun," I told them. "And if you need directions, just ask Dragon."
"Dragon?" Grace asked, quizzical-head-tilt deployed.
"Yes?" Dragon replied.
"Aaaah!" Grace yelped, spinning around in an attempt to locate the owner of the unfamiliar voice.
I looked to Tedd. "Max didn't introduce you to Dragon?"
"He did," Dragon said.
"He did," Tedd agreed. "Grace was a little distracted by the geometry at the time."
"The rooms are bigger on the inside!" Grace yelled, waving her arms for emphasis. "Like,
little building"—she cupped her hands around an imaginary object, then threw them wide—"
biiig room! Are they all like that?!"
I nodded. "Most of them, yeah."
"
Cool. Hey, did you bring any of your robots?"
"Uh… no. I never actually built any. See…" There was something undeniably frustrating about having to explain this over and over again. "…so, yeah. No robots."
"Why not?"
I gave her a flat look.
Didn't I just explain—?
"Like, you explained why you hadn't built any
before," Grace hurried to add, shrinking under my stare, "but you could still build one
now, right?"
"I mean, I
could, but…"
But what, exactly? Sure, anything I built would be inferior to what we already had available, but you don't make a hobby aircraft because you want to revolutionize the field of flight.
"It's not a bad idea for a project, I guess, if only so I don't have to keep explaining why I don't have any robots."
"Sorry!"
"It's fine. Occupational hazard."
———X==X==X———
Homura was in her usual post-Jump spot under the cherry blossoms.
"Good morning, Cass."
"'Morning, Homura."
"Sticking with that form?"
I shrugged. "I like looking like me. I mean, I was fine with my other forms"—I added 'mostly' under my breath as I remembered the body Management had stuck me with in
MGQ—"but I like the idea of it, if that makes sense? Kinda makes the whole 'be the best version of yourself' thing literal, you know?"
"I will take your word for it."
I wandered over to the tree trunk and sat down, leaning back against the bark. Homura joined me a moment later.
"You know," I said, "in some ways, coming back here after last Jump feels weirder than ever."
"How so?"
"All the little things I've gotten used to doing are just gone. I don't have to do laundry, or dishes, or wipe the counters and shampoo the carpet."
"Or cooking," she added.
"Or cooking. It's not that I miss doing chores, exactly, but it's weird having them just disappear."
"Is cooking a chore?"
"I think so," I said. "You disagree?"
"I would have classified it as a hobby."
"I'm sure it is, to some people. I like baking better."
She smirked. "You're just saying that to make me feel better."
"Am not! You don't need me to massage your feelings like that, anyway!"
A breeze sent the branches swaying and knocked a light dusting of petals onto our heads.
"Maybe you should set up an apartment," Homura suggested. "Something a little more personal than the hotel room."
"How's that work?"
"Talk to Max. She'll get you set up."
"Maybe I will," I said. "What'd'ya think the next Jump'll be like?"
"I don't know. Normally, after a peaceful Jump like that, I'd expect somewhere war-torn and messy, but Zeke just had that experience."
"Mm."
"Are you looking forward to a less quiet decade?" she asked.
I closed my eyes to better appreciate the simulated sunlight and breeze while I tallied my own feelings on the matter.
"I think I am, actually," I admitted. "I guess I like adventure a lot more than I'd've thought."
"I suppose you're hardly the only person who joined the 'chain for something other than adventure."
"Did I, though?" I asked. "Join for something other than adventure, I mean."
"You would know better than I."
"I think I did join for adventure, sort of. I just had a woefully insufficient understanding of what that meant."
"How so?" Homura asked.
"I hadn't thought through the consequences."
"To yourself, or to others?"
"Both."
"Hmm."
A brief pause.
"Regardless," she continued, "there are countless reasons one would choose to join the 'chain besides 'adventure'. Power. Immortality. Simple survival, in some cases. Leisure. Love—or lust. Or friendship."
"Mhm."
I took a nice deep breath, enjoying the scent of the cherry blossoms overhead and the rosy light filtering through them.
"Anna approached me at breakfast this morning," I said.
"What did she say?"
"Very little. I'm not sure why she wanted to talk to me at all, to be honest. I guess she just wanted to put a face to everything Zeke might've said about me."
"And what would that have been?"
"I don't know."
After a moment spent recalling the conversation, I realized that wasn't quite true.
"I guess I got a hint," I amended. "She said knowing I was 'Cassandra Rolins' explained a few things about whatever he'd said."
"What does that mean?"
"Now
that, I don't know."
I leaned my head back against the tree and closed my eyes again. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but I'd fallen asleep in worse, and was at serious risk of doing just that when Homura spoke again.
"Did Zeke sound different to you?"
A glance to my left showed her in the same position I was in, staring out across the top of the hill towards the horizon.
"You noticed too?" I asked.
"I did."
I sighed and adjusted my posture into a marginally more comfortable position, returning my eyes to the horizon.
"He stopped by my room last night," I said. "It was pretty hard to miss. All his normal verbal… quirks, I guess? Nearly gone. The way he holds himself is different, too. If he didn't still look like Zeke, I don't think I would've recognized him."
"You would have. Max has a perk that helps us recognize each other even when we're disguised or transfigured."
"That's not the point. He doesn't act or talk like he used to at all. It's like he's a whole different person."
"People change over time," Homura said.
"For better or for worse."
"You think this is for worse?"
"No, that's not—gah, fuck," I grumbled. "Is it wrong that I miss the old Zeke? That I'm sad he came back different?"
A few seconds passed before she answered.
"I don't know."
I nodded to myself and closed my eyes again.
"He visited me last night as well," Homura said.
"Oh? What'd you talk about?"
"Past Jumps. Wars I'd seen."
"You've seen a lot."
"I have," she confirmed. "Anyone who imports enough times will."
"Yeah, because we keep importing into wars, chaos, even literal apocalypses. Sure, there are the quiet Jumps, but you've been to
Starcraft and
Battletech and probably worse places than either. 'Adventures', fah. Why do we keep going back?"
"To be heroes. Or for power, experience, and treasure. Or just for the love of fighting."
"Heroes," I repeated. "What does that even mean when we can't die? Can we really claim to be brave when we're not risking anything?"
I felt rather than heard Homura sigh beside me.
"Being a hero isn't just about being brave. It's not about our actions, it's about what those actions mean."
What, serving as an exemplar? A figurehead? That sounded more like being a 'Hero' than a hero to me.
Maybe she guessed what I was thinking. Maybe she just thought she'd not made her point.
"Zeke wouldn't say much about his own experiences," Homura continued, "but he said enough that I know there are things he's proud of doing over the last few years. Things that mattered to him. He was a hero to someone, I think."
"Anna?"
"Perhaps. Perhaps a
kohai of his own. Perhaps just a face in a crowd, thanking him for his service. But it meant something to him." She paused. "There are things we won't regret no matter how much they hurt at the time, aren't there?"
God knew I had more than my share of those; at least one a Jump and plenty before. College—and the friends I'd kept after crashing and burning—came to mind.
"Yeah," I agreed, "there are."
———X==X==X———
I decided to check if Max was in his usual spots—the lounge or library—before asking Dragon to page him. My first guess was half right.
"—with Tess was bad enough, but at least
that was just one of your usual gotcha's!" Max was yelling, voice echoing down the stairs from the meeting room. "Now you're just doing whatever the fuck amuses you at the time! How am I supposed to make any kind of informed decision when I have no idea what kind of bullshit you're going to pull next?"
Management's response was too low to overhear, and I found myself drawn towards the scene like a rubbernecker.
"Bullshit! Every time I ask for the slightest bit of leeway, I hear, 'there are rules for a reason', or 'if I make an exception once, you'll want it every time', or 'work with what you've got'.
I can't work like this! What good are rules if I can't rely on you to keep to them?"
I reached the top of the stairs just as Management finished their response and sidled in next to the door, eavesdropping shamelessly.
"—control," Management was saying.
"Hello, Miss Rolins. Can I help you?"
Busted.
"I was just eavesdropping," I said, stepping into view. "Hi."
Max had been standing on the opposite side of the table, leaning forward on both hands as he glared at the speakerphone. His expression softened into an amused smile as I emerged—because of course I wasn't going to sneak up on an elder Jumper and his benefactor—before returning to a scowl as he refocused on the phone. "Hey, Cass. I was just explaining to our
benefactor"—the word dripped with scorn—"why I took issue with their recent, shall we say, 'improvisation'."
"Good."
"And what is your complaint, exactly, Miss Rolins?" Management asked, clearly annoyed.
"The part where you threw my friend into a war-torn hellscape," I snapped.
"It was hardly a hellscape. I could have dropped him in Muv-Luv."
"You
basically fucking did!" Max yelled.
"Circumstantially speaking, perhaps, but—"
"But
nothing! Who are you trying to make excuses to here? 'I could have sent him somewhere worse'? The place you sent him was more than bad enough judging from how it sandblasted his personality off!"
"'Sandblasted'?" they repeated.
"That's the metaphor you're going with?"
"It fits," I said. "I think it captures the
irreverent, destructive cruelty of the process pretty well!"
"But even
that isn't the point," Max continued. "I've been doing my best to mitigate your 'irreverent, destructive cruelty' for thousands of years, but this time—
this time—you took someone I'd taken responsibility for and threw them into a world where I had no way to reach them without even the slightest pretense that it was something I could have somehow foreseen or prevented!"
"As you have said," Management growled.
"Repeatedly. Loudly, even. But you seem to have forgotten one incredibly important fact. The most important fact, one might argue."
Max and I exchanged a glance.
"I don't answer to you!" they crowed, the previous menace replaced with naked glee.
"You may get off at the next stop, as it were, or you may continue to deal with my 'irreverent, destructive cruelty'. The choice is yours. See you in two weeks."
The speakerphone clicked off.
———X==X==X———
