"Okay," Galea says, from her position over in front of the computer screen. "I don't think keeping you hooked up is going to make this data start making sense any time soon. Klaus, you want to unhook him?"
Klaus nods and steps up to Asch as Galea does soemthing to save the measurement she's taken and turns towards you. There's something carefully controlled in the worry in her face as she says, "Jade, why don't you go show him around? I'm sure we've taken up too much of Citan's time today as it is."
"I'm sure," you agree. "I'd be happy to."
"We still have a lot of work to catch up on after the fire," Citan says. "I'm sure someone else can give Asch the tour just as well."
The tone is warning and, you think, an indication that he doesn't want you to have any time alone with this blade. But Galea cuts in and says, "That's exactly why you should have given him a day off today! I know you work like a machine, Citan, but not everyone can be that centered immediately after something like that - " She didn't put a self- before that centered, but you hear it in the tone, and it jolts something inside you that instantly turns fearful and then gets smothered, too. " - and Jade was right in the middle of it. Give him a break, for Architect's sake."
You don't really expect Citan to concede, and it looks like he doesn't intend to, but at this point, Klaus is done unhooking Asch from the computer. He has far more confidence than a blade at most two hours old should have, and simply walks past Citan and both scientists while saying, "Well, he's already here, and I don't feel like waiting."
It should feel impertinent. It should make you freeze up. But the emotional bleed is even and steady in a way that's too even and steady, like someone taking a calculated shot.
And you see Citan weighing the benefits of keeping this new blade on a tight leash versus letting him have some lead now, but whatever he's thinking is stopped by the way Asch comes up close to you, well within the space that most people keep, and although he doesn't actually grab you, it arrests your thoughts as though he had, and you wind up following him out of the lab before you've entirely realized what you're doing.
It's the first time you've gone against Citan's suggestions in... months. Since Mythra, at the very least, but probably longer. And it just happened to you, like a storm descending, like the fire consuming everything you'd left to yourself, with no way of stopping it.
It's everything like Mythra, and what puts weight into your stride until you're properly walking with Asch instead of following after him is the knowing that you won't survive doing this again.
So you just have to kill Citan before that happens.
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Klaus nods and steps up to Asch as Galea does soemthing to save the measurement she's taken and turns towards you. There's something carefully controlled in the worry in her face as she says, "Jade, why don't you go show him around? I'm sure we've taken up too much of Citan's time today as it is."
"I'm sure," you agree. "I'd be happy to."
"We still have a lot of work to catch up on after the fire," Citan says. "I'm sure someone else can give Asch the tour just as well."
The tone is warning and, you think, an indication that he doesn't want you to have any time alone with this blade. But Galea cuts in and says, "That's exactly why you should have given him a day off today! I know you work like a machine, Citan, but not everyone can be that centered immediately after something like that - " She didn't put a self- before that centered, but you hear it in the tone, and it jolts something inside you that instantly turns fearful and then gets smothered, too. " - and Jade was right in the middle of it. Give him a break, for Architect's sake."
You don't really expect Citan to concede, and it looks like he doesn't intend to, but at this point, Klaus is done unhooking Asch from the computer. He has far more confidence than a blade at most two hours old should have, and simply walks past Citan and both scientists while saying, "Well, he's already here, and I don't feel like waiting."
It should feel impertinent. It should make you freeze up. But the emotional bleed is even and steady in a way that's too even and steady, like someone taking a calculated shot.
And you see Citan weighing the benefits of keeping this new blade on a tight leash versus letting him have some lead now, but whatever he's thinking is stopped by the way Asch comes up close to you, well within the space that most people keep, and although he doesn't actually grab you, it arrests your thoughts as though he had, and you wind up following him out of the lab before you've entirely realized what you're doing.
It's the first time you've gone against Citan's suggestions in... months. Since Mythra, at the very least, but probably longer. And it just happened to you, like a storm descending, like the fire consuming everything you'd left to yourself, with no way of stopping it.
It's everything like Mythra, and what puts weight into your stride until you're properly walking with Asch instead of following after him is the knowing that you won't survive doing this again.
So you just have to kill Citan before that happens.
It's almost simple, when you put it like that.