@valorsworn *
and then he does the opposite, and she can’t vouch for not intending it as an exercise in reverse psychology. to take or not to take her work home is not a choice when her work is her home.
(she keeps track of which boxes he ticks.)
❝at least until the contracts run out.❞
clint is a freelancer. him still 'here' is a pattern. a good one.
it makes her — or she lets it make her, because nothing can happen without one’s say-so in discipline, including internal bleeding or fainting — sad. that steve needs structure. that they all think they’re each other’s, and she keeps putting off revising her exit plans, for if, because she doesn’t have the heart.
in the program, when it still existed, steve’s mind would have been called vulnerable to suggestion. a lot of stripping and breaking would’ve had to happen, as well as some very unrussian ego death to the graycoats before they realized they couldn’t take brainwashing credit. steve’s mind is a glancing mirror and the only suggestion he’s vulnerable to comes from himself. he’ll believe it if he’s ready to believe it.
the internet calls it coping, now.
❝it’s not a blame game if it happens, you know. there’s no winner to point to,❞ even if this is the one area he likes being self-centered.
