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[stand_unshaken]

 

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[dog_eat_dog]

She nods, sitting in the silence with her eyes on the table, but she looks up when he talks.

"You're welcome. I figured you'd like it, you being sentimental and all," she replies.

[stand_unshaken]

He snorts and flips her off. "Nothing wrong with holdin' on to good memories."

[dog_eat_dog]

"Never said there was," she replies. "You just do it a lot better than most, that's all."

[stand_unshaken]

"Do I? Everyone's got pictures. Even William."

[dog_eat_dog]

She lets out a long breath.

"Yeah, well, you and William both do it better than me, then."

[stand_unshaken]

"What kinda pictures would you want, given the opportunity?"

[dog_eat_dog]

The answer does come easy, but admitting it out loud needs to be forced. She doesn't look at him.

"Family pictures, I guess. My childhood, family vacations, my parents, whatever I had on my phone that last normal year. Joel."

Sounds like torture to her, always being able to look back on that.

[stand_unshaken]

"You had a lot of 'em? Lost after the outbreak?"

[dog_eat_dog]

“Yeah, they’re all still rotting in my childhood house, probably,” she replies. “Assuming the area didn’t burn or flood out.”

[stand_unshaken]

"It's just pictures, but they sure as hell can mean a lot. Damn shame you lost all'a that. But you was a cute kid," he adds, to lighten things a little.

[dog_eat_dog]

That drags a laugh out of her, though it’s well under her breath.

“Yeah, lots of pictures of me from dance classes in frilly dresses, and covered in birthday cake, and swimming and all that.” She shrugs, lets her gaze drift off a moment, comes back sharp. “Stopped being cute a long time ago, too.”

[stand_unshaken]

"Well, that don't matter. I don't think I was ever cute, so at least you're one step ahead of me."

He was kind of a feral kid.

[dog_eat_dog]

“You never needed to be cute, ‘cause women peak at twenty and men peak in their fifties or something,” she replies, wryly. “I’m sure people believed that in your time as much as they did in mine, yeah?”

[stand_unshaken]

"Well, I always figured I was gonna be dead by then, so I let myself go early," he quips. But yes: he recognizes that.

[dog_eat_dog]

“You can’t say that shit after I’ve seen you dressed up nice,” she informs him. “Not that I ever bought into you being ugly in the first place. Top ten, remember?”

[stand_unshaken]

"Right, right. I try not to hang on to compliments too long, less my head get too big."

Aw damn. He reaches out to pat her arm, just because he has to do something.

[dog_eat_dog]

Hard to imagine anyone so self-depreciating having a big head. Hard to imagine anyone getting pissed off at her and coming back and playing nice. God, she could kill Ellie for thinking this guy is anything like Joel. Polar opposites, most of the time.

She doesn’t pull away.

“Uh huh. Top five now, at the least. Geralt went home a while ago. Butcher’s ticking me off. You’re doing just fine.”

[stand_unshaken]

"Easiest way to get to the top - kill off your competition," he says, with a wry little smile.

"Shame 'bout Butcher. What's he done?"

[dog_eat_dog]

She snorts, amused. Not a bad way to get to the top, really. Butcher feels less amusing, her little smile fading as she talks:

“Some shit went down at home for him and I told him to put some effort into the graduation thing. He got real nasty with me.” She rolls her eyes. She shouldn’t have pushed him, probably. “A couple weeks later he had some epiphany and decided to do just that, but his apology blew and he’s been real patronizing since, so...”

She shrugs. After Joel, sticking by someone marginally more open but equally distant doesn’t feel worth it, but maybe she’s bitter, too. She feels bitter.

[stand_unshaken]

"Better get his head out of ass," Arthur grumbles. He isn't too invested in Tess' sex life, but patronizing is bound to get on her nerves.

[dog_eat_dog]

"Yeah, if he knows what's good for him," she replies. She doubts her awful taste in men is even remotely relevant to her being here, so: "It's his problem, not mine, so I'm just going to keep my distance for a bit."

[stand_unshaken]

"And no one else recently made his way into your top ten? No new arrivals?"

He isn't great at gossip, but he wants to know what's going on.

[dog_eat_dog]

“Nope,” she replies. “None that could keep up with me. Challenge me. And that’s alright, I don’t really need that kind of enabling right now.”

[stand_unshaken]

"There are an awful lotta people here who end up finding someone here. Seems like that would just be more confusing than less."

[dog_eat_dog]

She shakes her head.

"Won't be me. I'll worry about that shit later."