>>5969043>Wait, so that's not how you talk normally?"It isn't completely different. It isn't completely the same, either. My raw stuff is passed through a kind of powerful sieve, and Richard results from it." (A drag off the cigarette.) "...Also, this is not my native language."
>You talk that way because this Charlotte wanted you to talk like a snake luring a mouse into its fangs?"I'm flattered, but no, not the tone. Moreso the vocabulary. I'm afraid I'm not so mannered, left raw."
>Well, I've seen people do crazier for people they like than change how they talk "I wouldn't say it was done for her. It is done to me. But there are worse things than speaking differently, yes; I can't say I mind."
>I kinda want guys to look at me like that too. Not JUST as the champion, I'm of age to be a mother you know. "In that instance, I wish you the best of luck in locating a fertile young man. I'm sure there's some out there who appreciate an aerodynamic profile, no?"
>Well, you gotta be 'a cold-hearted bastard', as Tanya put it to make it work."I believe my heart's been raised to room-temperature by now, but yes, indeed. If you want to get anything done, a conscience is a terrible thing to have."
>"Me too. What about you, you got any parents? Or are they gone, like my dad's?"It's impossible to say. I could have been spawned directly by the WYRM, or I could've been generated by my fellows long after that. I have no memory of anything beyond a few years ago, though I presume I existed beforehand."
>*You didn't have to kill your own dad like mine did, did you?*Richard blanches.
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"...No. As I said, I don't have parents as you think of them."
>"Wait, nine? What other parts are there?""The blade and the bow. You identified these. Then the shoulder, the tip, the cuts, the code, the warding, and the bitting. This makes eight. The ninth part of a key is its Law. It is what says: this is a key, and not any other thing in the world." A pause. "But don't spread that around, will you? Nobody else has answered me yet. I believe they're unwilling to confront their ignorance."
>"Richard, you don't strike me as a 'fighter'. More like an ambusher, waiting for a moment of weakness to strike somebody you think's a threat."You draw out a dry laugh. "That isn't far off, I suppose. I assure you, though, I don't consider you a threat. We are not competitors, are we not?"
