Quoted By:
His train of thought comes to a sudden halt, as if tugged from behind by a rope. Something startles him. He is juggling his eyes between you, the camera, the microphone on his ear, the world around him.
Raw instinct tells him that he is being ensnared into something. Though you are just pointing at him in reality, he knows you have him by the neck.
Lalli shirks back and stiffens his face. The snake molts its skin, slipping through your grasp as he withdraws through the tube of its former self. Kiikoinen may refuse to see the snake, but that snake is him. Recoiling like a battered dog to a gentle touch. Or warm fingers across sensitive scars.
"That's not important. We need to go. You need to be on IV. You can't be like this for our next mission."
<span class="mu-i">Next mission?</span> Oh, gods. He's trying to slink away from this like a skink dropping its tail. You know it's not good for him to keep hiding like this. You want to strangle him and wring this stupid shit out of him. But he's clearly not ready to have his ribs torn open and let his heart out. Confrontation like this right here and right now won't do any good.
You can only hope you made some progress.
"What mission? I thought we weren't fighting anymore. Not..." you watch your language. "These guys."
Kiikoinen answers the question in his now familiar style. "While there were operations expected to come, they have been postponed because the birds are coming."
"The birds?"
"White Death."
