>>5377094"Oh, I think everyone knows what my aim is by now, right?” You fire back with an easy, oft-practiced smile. “You recognized me, I'm sure there's no need for one of my speeches at this point. Yeah, it's a long shot, but as you said: all we can do is try, and hope."
Iris returns your smile with one of her own, a soft, furtive thing…one that runs away as quickly as it came when you continue; "So, why did you make the call to open fire on those three girls? If you're capable of spotting me and mine from such a distance, you must have known I was just talking with them."
“...Wass’he talkin’ ‘bout, Iris?” Grunts Brig, swiveling her bulk towards the girl in question. Sauti tilts her head towards her companion, and though she doesn’t wish to show it to your face you can’t miss the slight, curious crease between her brows.
“I’m with Brig on this one, chief. Thought you said we were clearing traps.” The Armorer tersely inquires, flexing the fingers of one ivory-covered hand. “Why didn’t you tell us we’d taken someone out?”
“Three people, actually.” You clarify once more. “They didn’t have any business being here. They were too low level, as is.”
“The Captain doesn’t pay you to ask questions, Breech.” Iris says, pointedly ignoring your addition.
“Last pow-wow we had before coming here, I don’t recall her saying we got paid for executions, either.” The other woman icily counters, with Brig struggling to swivel her attention between them.
“Wait, you guys are gettin’ paid?!” Brig exclaims, any further lines of inquiry cut short when Sauti steps forward, the Skintalker’s body reverberating with a single note uttered with such perfect and incomprehensible clarity that even you’re dumbstruck by its reverb.
“Regardless of what’s transpired here…” She begins, the woman’s caramel eyes flicking towards Iris before shifting to you. “...the fact remains that we are all here, now—in the most dangerous place on earth. There’s safety in numbers, Defiant; we’d be honored to help you cross the wastes as far as you’d like.”
Iris steps back, as though wishing to fade entirely from the turn this conversation has taken. Her colorless lips form a thin, humorless line to mirror the rigid spine of the Calcite Armorer who hasn’t stopped staring her down since Sauti cut their argument short.
Their proposition’s a tempting one, but given how the atmosphere’s palpably shifted from one of genial, if cautious diplomacy to a series of guns, half-cocked, well…
…you have to wonder if this solution won’t bring its own set of problems.
>>Accept the offer, and have them pick you up.>>Decline, and continue West…well away from their shelling, of course.>>You’re onto something, here—press the offensive against Iris’ call to kill those three girls, and Sauti’s attempts to sweep it under the rug.>>Write-InYOU ARE IN CONTROL
