AUDIENCE 🚀 GREGOR

[dropoffs]

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[dropoffs]

[ leaning back into the couch with a long breath, the question takes a moment to register, but they look to him eventually, eyes kind of scanning a moment. ] Not exactly something I like having in common. [ what about hobbies. what about favorite flavors of ice cream. not nightmarish memories of that turn out like this. their gaze shifts, tired, he can still see it, blue, blue, blue. it's stifling. a quiet rage simmers, but never leaves them, their voice soft as they shift to hold their head in one hand. ] Feels like hell... take it easy...

[verminous]

...I'll be all right. I've-- seen a lot, at this point.

[also he was just 14 again for several hours. god. what a couple of days it's been.]

We both have.

[dropoffs]

To step into your own mind like that...

[ you really were 14 like a couple minutes ago they will not forget that. it makes it worse to think about. ]

May I ask... Who was that... who put you through that? Who did that to you?

[verminous]

Did what to me, this?

[gesturing to the arm, before his gaze flicks over to the tattoo on his arm.]

...her name's Hermann. Used to be a director of G Corp, before it fell-- she's the one who operated on me.

She came out better than just about anyone else, after the former G Corp went under. Still around, still... just as powerful as she was then.

[dropoffs]

[ makes a face at that because like. of course people who torture other people just get to do whatever the hell they so please. ]

Testing and training...

[ they glance toward the other arm briefly but just settle back. ] That as well?

[verminous]

Well, it wasn't me who left that mark, I'll say that much.

[lighting the cigarette and taking a long drag.]

...Ungeziefer. Vermin, in our language.

[dropoffs]

[ they hum and go silent a moment, watching him smoke.

I keep thinking the world can't get crueler, that maybe it's reached its limit.

[ for anyone, here, home, all-encompassing. ]

[verminous]

People are inventive, Io.

[there aren't limits for that.]

[dropoffs]

I'm well-versed in being let down in this way, hah.

Call me foolishly hopeful.

[verminous]

... it's not a bad thing. Just means you still have it in you to have that hope.

[dropoffs]

Mm. To press on is all I've really known.

[verminous]

Sometimes that's all you can do.

... we're still going, though.

[dropoffs]

We are. [ a faint, tight smile. ] And I'm glad for that. For us both. These things, they make up a part of us, terrible though they are. We can use that.