Find the Word: Tag Game
Thanks to @aohendo for the tag! My words are problem, thought, caution, and ship.
I'll tag @jess-p-edits, @ryan-shepard-writes, @athenixrose, @tryingtimi, and @author-a-holmes. Should you choose to accept them, your words are lungs, laugh, long, and luck.
Problem
“Sometimes, I remember how much this position asks of you,” Eckehart said. “It’s a lot of pressure.” Martin grinned and waved his hand dismissively. “What did I tell you when we first met?” he asked. Eckehart sighed and sat back. “I seem to remember an exhausting elevator pitch.” “I told you that it doesn’t frighten me to solve big problems with high stakes,” Martin said. He sipped at his coffee. “I also told you that the work comes easy, when you’re hungry for it.” Eckehart watched him carefully. “Are you still hungry for it?” he asked. Martin blinked slowly, cat-like, smile fading slightly. “Insatiably,” he replied, “Same appetite, different diet.” “Vegetarian?” Eckehart asked. “Cruelty-free?” Eckehart took a moment to consider how they’d changed one another, and saw Martin doing the same.
Thought
Seung nodded. She stood and padded across the floor on bare feet to stand in front of him. “Desperation is a good motivator,” she said. “Adapt or fail—those are your choices.” Ehren frowned. “Is that supposed to help me?” “No,” she replied, “it’s just a fact.” She looked out the open door of her room, out into the morning sunlight and the apple orchard. “You have time though. Whatever you’re afraid of, it isn’t here.” But it is. Ehren thought of blood on the floor. Skin parting from skin under Chul’s blade. Seung’s empty eyes, staring through the floor and into nothing—gone of the focus and light he hadn’t noticed there until it had been gone. What I’m afraid of is right here.
Caution
Belks had gotten far too comfortable with Martin’s side-stepping, his charming winks of reassurance and his low tones of confirmation-- always to what Belks had already said, never stating outright. He couldn’t be sure what had done it, whether it was a sudden insight on his part or a slipping of Martin’s mask, but Belks’ sense of self-preservation had begun to twitch. If it were at Martin’s usual deviousness, Belks would have pushed the feeling aside-- Martin, for all his charm and smiling attitude, was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and Belks preferred him that way. No, this feeling tugged at his ear in Martin’s presence and whispered a caution altogether unexpected: He’s grown a conscience, the voice whispered. The monster’s shown his belly. It was a thought that smarted, moreso because once he had seen it, he could not unsee it. It had become impossible to see anything else. Belks had sat on the plush couch of his office in this same way many times before, puzzling over problems that normally ended in blood. This would be no different. A test of loyalty would be required to test the waters.
Ship
Seung could reach across the table, find an exposed bit of Ehren’s skin and flood him. He would know the stakes then—enough to back down, to allow Seung to leave quietly with them and plan a regrouping later. But he would see the rest, too. He would see Seung’s first transference, the visit to the Clever Nightcap she’d kept from him. He would see what bit at the back of her mind like a dog at her heels: Elder Tomly’s croaked voice, and his telling of a broken future with Seung at the helm of a war ship.