#no no it's fine go ahead make this first impression. worse. d;flkj;ldkfsjg;ldkjfg

[havenofseven]

  Everyone's got plans, so that makes it a game? Phantom's smile is slow curling, formed together from the cruelty of recognition. The knowing of an echo. He wonders, while he snorts in her face, derisive, if every mirror in her home on the far side of the wall is covered? Or are they smashed? Maybe both.

  “No wonder you're losing.”

  He makes a gesture, dismissive — walk on. He's been plain. If she chooses to believe it's pointless, or somehow veiled, and that she's some kind of pathetic little pawn too beaten to be responsible or bother trying, well. To each their pathetic own. He turns, reaching into his pockets to light up as he goes.

Anger snaps, and her mask cracks a little further. “Everything is a game,” she simpers, voice oversweet but disgust and something akin to hatred darkening her eyes. “Whether you want it to be or not. If you’re not playing, then you’re a pawn in someone else’s gambit.” She does her best, but she can't quite keep the bitterness from her voice.

She’s tired, now, too tired to be insulted at the insinuation she means harm to any of them, but especially the children. Her head tips back against the wall, more support than protection. “I don’t want to talk to ‘the littles’,” she sighs. She doesn't want to risk growing attached. She’s not going to waste her breath defending herself to him if he’s never going to believe her. He doesn’t need to know she doesn’t even remember how to want for herself.

“The faster you get me back to the City, the faster we both can forget this nightmare.” She gestures in the direction she’d been walking. “Now, can I get back to it before I go stir-crazy and do something you really don't want, like get involved in things? Or do you have more pointless questions and veiled threats to deliver?”