Archive of Our Own ^beta

PROPHETIC ESPLANADE – It is not yet the dead of night, but it is dark, dark enough that the few street lights kept on by the Union this far out (for safety reasons, of course, for all the good that it does) are the only thing keeping the endless black at bay. That, and the single flashlight between the two of you: the RCM"s finest, ready for anything. The full force of the People"s Militia poking around the spindly legs of an abandoned boardwalk. With one single flashlight.

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Trivial: Failure] – ...Budget cuts?

PROPHETIC ESPLANADE – Gulls and skuas argue overhead, unseen in the dark but not unheard. Still, you two stay quiet, lest you *actually* stumble upon Ruby"s hideaway, unlikely as that is. It"s been a long day of searching: Martinaise has too many knocked-down nooks and crannies to cover with an entire army, let alone two people and one flashlight, but it"s the kind of work your body remembers how to do: plodding around, poking into every corner, opening every door. Not the lieutenant"s favorite part, but then again, neither is your first love: talking to suspects.

YOU – What is, then?

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Easy: Success] – The standoff. The steady thud of his own pulse in his ears, elbow locked, shoulders steady as he focuses on the gun aimed back at him. Sometimes, in the occasional fit of fancy, he thinks his farsightedness is an act of fate, leading him to this job where the one thing he needs total clarity for is the one thing always in the sweet spot of his vision.

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] – The paperwork. Ticking the last box on a report. The summation of things, neat and concise, put on paper plainly for everyone to understand in its totality, beginning to end. Then, going home that first night, the one night there is nothing to worry about for tomorrow but just enough to distract him from that very same void.

INLAND EMPIRE [Godly: Success] – The title. Something to define himself by. A sense of purpose. Control. A container for his sense of self. Somewhere and how to belong.

ENDURANCE – A decisive wind cuts through the underside of the boardwalk, rattling both you and the lieutenant"s skeletons beneath your skins. Even Kim, with the black flannel shirt he put on under his bomber jacket before you set out on this expedition, is feeling the lack of burn.

LOGIC – For all you have come to know and trust each other innately, you have never seen him in a different set of clothes. You haven"t even seen him with his jacket sleeves pushed down before this. Presumably, his room has a set of drawers with rows of identical white shirts and rows of identical pants.

EMPATHY [Challenging: Success] – The jacket, though, is one of a kind: not only due to its customization under its owner"s hands, but because it is one of the few things Kim allows himself to feel sentimental about. It is an object of comfort, of grounding, and of the past. It is also singularly cool. For all that it is one of many post-Revolution nostalgia reproductions, there is no other like it.

KIM KITSURAGI – He reluctantly removes his gloved hands from his pockets to shift some debris that may or may not cover a hideout.

INLAND EMPIRE [Heroic: Success] – All he knows of his parents is their last name, first initials, and that they were killed. He isn"t even sure if they *were* Revolutionaries, or if they were merely caught up in some Coalition racist"s giddy sweep. Even if they were, his eyesight is poor enough it could only be hereditary: likely neither were ever a pilot. But he wears it all the same.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Detective."

YOU – "Huh?"

KIM KITSURAGI – "The light."

YOU – "Oh. Yeah."

PROPHETIC ESPLANADE – You shine the light over to his point of investigation, even though you both know it will yield nothing. It is as expected. He puts his hands back in his pockets, his sigh billowing between you like the corona of the Pale.

KIM KITSURAGI – "What were you thinking about?"

1. - "You."
2. - "Your dead parents."
3. - "How much I know you."
4. - "How much I don"t know you."
5. - "Do you have any friends, Kim?"
6. - "Can I be your friend, Kim?"
7. - "Are we friends, Kim?"
8. - "Please, PLEASE let me be your friend, Kim, PLEASE."

KIM KITSURAGI – The lieutenant blinks, watching your eyes like a mouse watches a bird of prey. Then he looks at the swish of the flashlight"s beam across the snow-dusted grass. Then, the foggy stars. "Will that help us find Ruby? Or is this for another stereo investigation?"

YOU – "I was thinking about giving you a nickname."

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Trivial: Failure] – You were?

CONCEPTUALIZATION – Sorry, that would be us. The jacket got us onto the sentimentality of objects, which led to questions about the lieutenant"s living situation (tchotchkes, etc), which spiraled into wondering if anyone knows him well enough to give him gifts he considered worth keeping, any lasting evidence of closeness, which led to the topic of nicknames.

VOLITION – There"s a lot going on behind the scenes here, even when it seems relatively quiet. Not everything makes it to conscious thought -- it would be even *more* noisy. This is preferable. You"re welcome, by the way.

HALF LIGHT – Always something churning beneath the surface. Leviathan limbs and far too many faces. Far too many eyes.

KIM KITSURAGI – "What? Why?"

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Trivial: Success] – Nicknames indicate a familiarity and affection between people.

YOU – "Nicknames indicate a familiarity and affection between people."

KIM KITSURAGI – "That is." He clears his throat halfway through. "True."

Then, without saying anything, he takes the flashlight, turns, and continues down the abandoned boardwalk, silently assuming you will follow.

YOU – Of course you do.

EMPATHY – The word giving him difficulty is "affection", both because the lieutenant is more repressed than coal becoming diamond and because, despite the fact that you have known each other for a shorter time than some of your historical benders, he knows you mean it. As if that weren"t bad enough, he also knows that it"s true, not to mention that the sentiment is returned.

DRAMA – He isn"t going to lie, though. He doesn"t like to do that when it isn"t necessary, and he feels bad lying to you in your current state, given his status as your sounding board for the world, the guide you trust to tell you how things work. His pride wrestles with his insecurity on his face as clearly (to you) as an actor"s gestures exaggerated for the back row of the theater.

INLAND EMPIRE [Medium: Success] – Very, very few people have ever been able to read him like you can. Even fewer of them are alive. You are a rare, dying breed: a very discerning club, whose members number in single digits.

KIM KITSURAGI – Ultimately, his aggrieved sigh is warm with sublimated embarrassment. "Alright, then. What were you thinking."

1. - "Kimmy."
2. - "Toolkitsuragi."
3. - "His Almighty Speedfreak Highness."
4. - "The Human Eyebrow."

YOU – "How about a classic? Kimmy."

KIM KITSURAGI – He snorts. "Absolutely not."

YOU – "Aw! Why?"

KIM KITSURAGI – "Too juvie. What else?"

1. - "Kimmy."
2. - "Toolkitsuragi."
3. - "His Almighty Speedfreak Highness."
4. - "The Human Eyebrow."

KIM KITSURAGI – "I don"t know what that means, and frankly am not sure I want to."

YOU – "I"m the human can opener, you"re the human eyebrow. We match."

KIM KITSURAGI – "That explains absolutely nothing."

YOU – "They"re our crime fighting personas! Based on our powers."

KIM KITSURAGI – "We are police detectives. Not masked vigilantes."

DRAMA – I thought it was inspired. Positively supra-héroique, sire.

YOU – Thank you!

DRAMA – The lieutenant, however, is a less receptive audience. The line of thinking is clearly being shut down.

1. - "Kimmy."
2. - "Toolkitsuragi."
3. - "His Almighty Speedfreak Highness."
4. - "The Human Eyebrow."

KIM KITSURAGI – "Ah. I was wondering when the puns would arrive. I assume this is in reference to the Kineema"s toolbox?"

DRAMA [Trivial: Success] – Though his reaction isn"t exactly effusive, he doesn"t look as put out by this option. You may notice he carefully does not turn this one down explicitly.

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] – His MC is the one thing he is most proud of in the world: he is loath to put down anything tangentially related to it.

INTERFACING – And who wouldn"t? A beautiful, well-attended machine, it is the pinnacle of capability, the perfect proof of his skill and knowledge, the attentiveness with which he approaches his work and the control he exerts over his world. Would you not want to be identified by your best work?

EMPATHY [Challenging: Failure] – You meant more than that, but you can"t exactly remember what in the face of his clear interest in the title.

KIM KITSURAGI – "It is... not the worst. But a little unwieldy."

1. - "Kimmy."
2. - "Toolkitsuragi."
3. - "His Almighty Speedfreak Highness."
4. - "The Human Eyebrow."

KIM KITSURAGI – "No." He does not elaborate.

YOU – "But you liked Toolkitsuragi!"

KIM KITSURAGI – "I wouldn"t say that. It is simply the least offensive of the options you provided. They weren"t *good*, but it was the best of the array. This is even worse -- for a start, it"s twice as long and even more ridiculous sounding in casual conversation. If anything, it makes Toolkit sound better by comparison."

RHETORIC – You don"t miss the way he"s already pared it down some to a slightly less ridiculous version of the initial offering. On one hand, he"s undermining your nicknaming reputation. On the other, if you call him "Toolkit" now, you"ll have a slightly better chance of not being shunned forever.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Impossible: Success] – You could see it, though: Kim, crowned King of the Speedfreaks. On a podium high above the rest, overlooking his subjects with the light falling just so behind him so that it looks like he himself is radiating golden light.

DRAMA – If gods and kings didn"t clash with your dreams of a radical free Revachol, you"d suggest he rule the whole thing. No better example of the best humanity has to offer. *Someone* needs to give him a crown.

KIM KITSURAGI – While you"re having your internal conflict over whether it"s praxis to crown Kim king of Revachol or not, the lieutenant himself has noticed something else to poke at in the thin snow under the boardwalk. The flashlight sweeps over the shiny black toes of his boots, quick to dodge to something else, an impression in the snow. He crouches to prod at it with gloved fingers.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Medium: Success] – You"ve never seen his head from this angle. Even with his collar pulled high around his neck, there is still an inch of skin there you haven"t seen before. His shoulders hitch against the breeze but his face remains unmoved. Calm. Focused.

CONCEPTUALIZATION – The cut of his profile was made for portraiture, crowned or not.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Well, they *do* give crowns to the sexiest motherfuckers.

YOU – Huh?

ENCYCLOPEDIA – I think they"re referring to beauty pageants, though I"m unsure if there"s an equivalent for men.

CONCEPTUALIZATION – What, like men can"t be paragons of beauty too? Opinions on international trade, proficiency in baton twirling and yodeling?

RHETORIC – On one hand, designating pageants an activity solely for women is sexist and perpetuates the objectification of the bourgeois woman whose sedentary lifestyle relegates them to mere decoration. On the other, pageants for all genders would encourage hierarchies at odds with true communism. Hm. More research is needed before we can decide where to fall on the issue ideologically speaking.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT – In the meantime, what"s wrong with a babe convention? It"s like bodybuilding -- which you, of course, know all about.

SAVOIR FAIRE – Ah yes, the two genders: beauty queens and musclebound freaks. God forbid men have attributes other than sheer brawn.

YOU – Those are the only options?

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Easy: Failure] – Uh. Maybe?

YOU – "Hey Kim. Are there beauty pageants for men?"

KIM KITSURAGI – The words rip through the quiet, but he merely blinks as he looks over his shoulder at you, used to your non sequiturs by now. An eyebrow goes up. "None of which I am aware. Why do you ask?"

AUTHORITY [Godly: Failure] – Don"t you dare tell him. Do NOT.

YOU – Yeah, I don"t think I get to pick this one. But I kinda feel like I"m already stuck?

RHETORIC [Challenging: Success] – Well. Maybe. But just... Maybe come up with another reason. You"re already stuck with this line of inquiry.

YOU – "I was going to say someone should nominate you for Miss Revachol, but then I thought, well, why isn"t there a Mister Revachol? Because I don"t think that"s a thing, but it"s only fair, right? Best of the guys, best of the girls."

KIM KITSURAGI – "Ah." The lieutenant blinks again, but this time there"s... something else about it. "Well. There isn"t." He stands, brushes his hands on his thighs, and starts walking again. "I"m afraid you"ll have to come up with another nickname avenue."

YOU – Hold on. Record scratch. What was that?

1. - [Logic - Trivial 6] Figure it out.
2. - [Empathy - Heroic 17] Figure him out.
3. - [Perception - Challenging 12] Get more data.
4. - [Shivers - Medium 10] Look for a nudge in the right direction.

LOGIC [Trivial: Success] – Good question. Let"s review: you said something inane out of the blue; Kim asked for context; you gave it; it explained nothing, leaving him to politely dismiss the whole exchange, lest you fall into a rabbit hole. His reaction is theoretically nothing out of the ordinary, pretty par for the course considering the man"s purposefully limited range of emoting, but there is something ever so slightly different about this time. This particular blink and non-committal hum.

YOU – That"s it?

LOGIC – Listen, success is relative. Someone else?

1. - [Logic - Trivial 6] Figure it out.
2. - [Empathy - Heroic 17] Figure him out.
3. - [Perception - Challenging 12] Get more data.
4. - [Shivers - Medium 10] Look for a nudge in the right direction.

PERCEPTION [Challenging: Success] – His eyes, before the blink, were already dilated, so it"s not just the adjustment to a brief but sudden lack of light. The hum is of a slightly higher frequency than average. There"s a tick upwards in the ambient temperature around him as he walks away, but you can feel it from how close on his heels you are: heat coming from somewhere. His ears, maybe? The back of his neck?

1. - [Logic - Trivial 6] Figure it out.
2. - [Empathy - Heroic 17] Figure him out.
3. - [Perception - Challenging 12] Get more data.
4. - [Shivers - Medium 10] Look for a nudge in the right direction.

EMPATHY [Heroic: Failure] – Oh Harry. Like it"s ever that easy.

1. - [Logic - Trivial 6] Figure it out.
2. - [Empathy - Heroic 17] Figure him out.
3. - [Perception - Challenging 12] Get more data.
4. - [Shivers - Medium 10] Look for a nudge in the right direction.

SHIVERS [Medium: Success] – Across the river, men and women dine in shiny, mirrored halls, unaware of the cold outside as the building around them works overtime to keep the climate tolerable for their bare shoulders. They stare at each other across rooms, the distance filled with incalculably cold gazes, eyeing each other like predators on the savannah. On this side, families huddle around fireplaces that are not strong enough to bear their responsibilities but which try valiantly regardless. The metaphoric use of "burning" love to mean sexual desire alone is not the most exact: any desire may be cold, just as any love may be incendiary.

I LOVE YOU. BOTH OF YOU. LIKE YOU ALREADY LOVE EACH OTHER.

YOU – I know that, and thank you. But what"s your point?

SHIVERS – A breeze winds through the legs of the boardwalk like a stray cat, creeping in the open edges of Kim"s jacket and causing both of you to shudder, him in response to the chill and you by proxy. The small space between you becomes smaller, but as the wind continues, it doesn"t make things any colder, not standing a chance against the warmth between your bodies. Two mammal bodies, pumping blood, feedback into each other like a fire and gentle wind: enough oxygen to devour but not enough to snuff it out. A fire, burning.

THERE ARE MANY KINDS OF LOVE.

2. - [Empathy - Challenging 12] Figure him out.

EMPATHY [Challenging: Success] – And suddenly you see it -- or perhaps feel it, whatever the difference may be: whatever metaphor you want to use in this moment for the way you can suddenly sense the intent behind the shifting of his vocal chords. You sense the change. And it makes sense --

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Medium: Success] – Oh my god.

EMPATHY – Because sometimes desire *does* burn.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – OH my GOD.

LOGIC – Wait...

PERCEPTION – Oh. I"m seeing it now.

REACTION SPEED [Heroic: Failure] – Sorry, what exactly is going on here? I missed something.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Oh nothing, just THE GREATEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE, FUNKY-BABY.

DRAMA – Oh, I see. Aha! Everything"s coming up Harry!

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – And not just the parts you remember either! Something bone deep says you"ve never batted this far out of your league before and, let me tell you, this is a high unlike any other. And I would know!

PERCEPTION – Dilated eyes, flushing, and nervousness are physiological indicators of sexual attraction.

AUTHORITY – Absolutely not. He is your fellow officer. It"s completely unprofessional, unbecoming of the badge you wear. Besides, you outrank him! He"s your *subordinate*.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Semantics. Besides, not like it never happened before. Dobreva and Abadanaiz, amiright? Revolutionary Lovers 2.0!

ENCYCLOPEDIA – Yes, unfortunately, he is right. Dobreva and Abadanaiz"s passion for not only the revolution but each other is well founded and oft touted, not to mention backed up by extant copies of explicit letters between the two recounting past and future congresses.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – And by "congress" the bino means "athletic and creative praxis-fueled sex marathons", AKA the kind of fucking that would go down in history books if the Revolution had lasted long enough to write it down. Which *you two* could be giving a run for their money if we could wrap this thing up and get to *acting on it*.

ESPRIT DE CORPS – As it is, their bond persists in the décomptage. He *is* your stabilising other half...

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – That"s as good as an RCM stamp of approval, right there. Let"s get going already! Get up on that! Climb him like a tree!

KIM KITSURAGI – The good news is that so little time has passed outside your mind that the lieutenant hasn"t noticed how weird you"re being -- or at least that you"re being any weirder than usual.

SAVOIR FAIRE – But, apparently, he"s into that. Go figure.

KIM KITSURAGI – If anything, he"s in as deep a time suck as you are, eyes unfocused in the middle distance carefully away from you. He"s thinking about something: likely the last thing you said.

LOGIC – What was that again? Oh, right. The *Mister Revachol* thing.

COMPOSURE [Challenging: Failure] – Oh god, wait, you can"t go back to that now, knowing what you know. You"re going to stick your entire foot in your mouth the second you open it. Curse your inherently flirtatious nature!

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – What are you talking about? This is great! Perfect timing.

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] – The lieutenant *is* primed for the kind of charmed fluster you"re quite good at getting out of people.

VOLITION [Easy: Success] – Or you"re just going to send him running for the hills.

EMPATHY – ...Or that.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Looks like you"re gonna have to pull up your big boy disco pants and seduce him yourself. Oh yeah, baby. You"ve got this.

1. - "Sooooo, is there a *Miss* Revachol?"
   -1 You know there is (a contest).
   -1 You know there isn"t (he wouldn"t have one.)
2. - "That"s a shame. You"d be a shoe in."
3. - "I bet you"re real... *talented*. Want to give me a sneak peek backstage? I might be able to grease some wheels with the committee if you make it worth my while."
4. - Say nothing. Like a wuss. Pretend it didn"t happen and save your ego from the future mortification of being shot down.

SAVOIR FAIRE – You manage to get it out with a combination of sincerity and cool that is heretofore unseen under this boardwalk. Butter wouldn"t melt in your mouth, but it might on the lieutenant"s cheeks, judging by the way he dodges your gaze immediately.

KIM KITSURAGI – "I highly doubt that."

SUGGESTION – What"s that, low self esteem? Not from Lieutenant Kim "Kimball" Kitsuragi, surely. The very idea offends you.

Thought gained: Put a Little "Love" in "Self Love"

Research time: 2h 45m

They say you can"t love someone until you love yourself. You"ve been in the world about five days and you already know enough to know that"s total bullshit: you don"t love yourself in the slightest, but you"ve yet to meet anyone not worth loving (except the fascists, etc). You certainly know Lt. Kitsuragi is worth more than he seems to think, deep inside, beneath the cool facade. Now you just have to let him know somehow. Just remember, the medium can also be the message, and actions speak louder than words.

Temporary research bonus:
   +1 Savoir Faire (Smooth operator)
   +1 Electrochemistry (Think with your dick)
   -1 Composure (Hair-trigger)

YOU – Crack your knuckles and get down to business.

LOGIC – Alright then. What"s our plan of attack?

1. - [Savoir Faire - Medium 10] Follow the script you"ve set up for yourself. Nice and slow, easy rider.
2. - [Drama - Challenging 12] Follow the script -- with flair! Paint him a word picture.
3. - [Electrochemistry - Heroic 15] Pure animal magnetism, baby. Go in for the kill. Put the moves on.
4. - [Composure - Impossible 20] Be yourself.

VOLITION – Uh. Are we sure about this one, chief?

1.- Yeah, on second thought, never mind.
2. - Of course! What"s not to love?

VOLITION – Good call.

1. - [Savoir Faire - Medium 10] Follow the script you"ve set up for yourself. Nice and slow, easy rider.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Medium: Success] – Official detecting business forgotten and mind-project underway, you"re emboldened -- nay, *encouraged* to commit to the bit. Kim is practically asking for you to prove your point. No need to look for an opening: you"re already in there.

YOU – "What"s a beauty contest anyway? A couple speeches about how your chosen charity will save the world, smiling and waving? You"d ace that."

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Medium: Success] – The well-tailored slant of a black silk panel over his moving shoulder blades. The sharp edge of his freshly trimmed hair over his collar.

PERCEPTION (SMELL) [Godly: Success] – You aren"t close enough to smell his aftershave, but you would swear you can, the tingle of pine like a soothing balm against your tensed shoulders.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Trivial: Success] – Menthol is supposed to stimulate the senses, not subdue them. There must be something chemically wrong with you.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Duh.

KIM KITSURAGI – He simply raises an eyebrow. "Ah, yes. "In thirty seconds or less, achieve world peace" is nothing more than the entry exam for international delegates. The bathing suit portion is merely a formality."

YOU – Don"t get distracted by that.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Impossible: Failure] – Too late. Come on! Obviously we"re picturing it. In fact, we"re gonna need twenty hours for another mind-project. Check back in with us later, alright? Or don"t. We"re fine over here.

REACTION SPEED [Challenging: Success] – Luckily, your mouth being faster than your mind works, for once, in your favor. "But eveningwear isn"t."

KIM KITSURAGI – He scoffs, but there"s a smile in his eyes. The flashlight in his hand sweeps idly over the cluttered underside of the boardwalk, alighting briefly on a ragged kite, some arcade prize. "Of course. For diplomatic dinners and such."

YOU – "Besides, can"t have the pièce de résistance without it: tiara and sash."

KIM KITSURAGI – "Only if I win. I doubt anyone who answers the question of why they want to win with "I don"t" gets far."

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] – He says it lightly, but there"s a stiffening of his shoulders that undermines the point. Despite the tone, he believes it. Believes you are only humoring him at best, poking fun at worst.

RHETORIC – Another tactic is needed.

SUGGESTION [Challenging: Success] – Repressed self hatred aside, the lieutenant is not immune to a little ego stroking. Your wealth of knowledge of him is lit up like an aerostatic landing strip, guiding you right to the perfect landing place.

YOU – "And of course, we all know what your talent would be."

KIM KITSURAGI – "Khm." Not taking the bait, but not disinterested in where it may lead.

YOU – "Building a Coupris engine from scratch."

KIM KITSURAGI – He laughs only once, as sharp as the unimpressed look he gives you alongside it, but there"s a flicker of time between, half of half of a nanosecond, where he looks genuinely...

EMPATHY [Impossible: Failure] – Shit. Missed that one. Sorry, gang.

KIM KITSURAGI – "From scratch, hm? That *would* be impressive." The lieutenant lifts up a broken plank from the boardwalk above with the toe of his boot. He finds nothing underneath it, of course, and clicks the flashlight off with a sigh. Not like Ruby was going to be using it as a blanket. "I"m afraid that"s beyond my amateur abilities, but I appreciate the thought."

YOU – Aren"t buying that.

1. - "What, you expect me to believe that? You"re too handsome to be that stupid."
2. - [Authority - Impossible 22] Hit him with the eyebrow.
   +1 Caught him off-guard.
   +1 Noticed the signs.
   +1 Décomptage advantage.
   +2 She is on your side.
3. - Let it slide.

AUTHORITY [Impossible: Success] – Between the angle of the soft white light coming through the boardwalk slats, the tilt of your heads together against the cold, and the newfound ultra confidence in your ability to seduce and destroy, not even the Expression could dull the potency of your own authoritative eyebrow raise. Kim doesn"t stand a chance.

SAVOIR FAIRE – There you go, smooth operator. Those wide eyes aren"t just from the magnification of his glasses.

KIM KITSURAGI – He coughs, careful not to do so right into your face even as he seems unwilling to break eye contact with you. Good thing he"s quick. "Not within the parameters of such an organization"s timeframe, I imagine. I don"t suppose judges would care to sit and watch me connect valves and tighten bolts for hours on end, let alone audiences."

YOU – What, because they"re idiots?

LOGIC – No, they just aren"t pathetically horny for the man.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Their loss! You"re having a great time over here in Hornyville.

AUTHORITY – *Incredibly* pathetic. Brought to your knees over the thought of car maintenance.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Again, not hearing anything that"s supposed to put us off, here!

LOGIC – It"s been fifteen seconds of you staring silently at the lieutenant. Any longer and he"ll start to notice. You might want to say something.

YOU – "I"m sure they"d bend the rules for you."

SAVOIR FAIRE – Good grief...

LOGIC – I should have been more specific: say something that isn"t incredibly stupid.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – IF ANYONE"S GONNA BEND FOR KIM IT"S --

VOLITION – Yes, we get it. Can we focus on the topic at hand?

RHETORIC – Considering the topic at hand is "flirting with Kim", this may be difficult.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – See?

LOGIC [Challenging: Success] – Just because something is difficult doesn"t mean it"s not worth trying.

KIM KITSURAGI – "And to what avail, hm? I win them over with amateur mechanic work only to dazzle them with my personality?"

VOLITION [Challenging: Failure] – Don"t tell him --

YOU – "You won me over with less."

SAVOIR FAIRE [Godly: Failure] – Oh lord. Someone tell me when it"s over.

DRAMA [Trivial: Success] – Tis mere truth, sire! You were bewitched by his presence within hours of knowing him. Nay, minutes.

SUGGESTION – You didn"t have to admit it, though!

EMPATHY – Something about him resonated with something about you. Your vibes, as it were, were immediately synced. You looked at him and saw yourself, before you even knew who that self was.

HALF LIGHT – A sad, lonely man. Work the only thing left in your lives, even as you both fail to remember why this is the thing to which you"ve dedicated your life. As tight a grip on his self control as you have on your self destruction.

INLAND EMPIRE – You, lacking something solid like him. Him, lacking something fluid like you.

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] – But-- Wait.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Medium: Success] – Fog blossoms across Kim"s glasses. He exhales, warm into the night. Sudden but silent.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Oh?" The words, though even, are undercut by the way his fingers twitch as he cleans the lenses, dodging your gaze. "And what exactly would that be?"

EMPATHY [Godly: Success] – He really wants to know.

1. - Tell him the truth.
2. - Tell him the truth, but make it funny.
3. - Tell him the truth, but make it blasé.
4. - Lie.

YOU – "I heard you driving up the road and knew that was a man of taste. Now there was someone I needed to know."

VISUAL CALCULUS [Challenging: Success] – The way he turns his head to direct his uncontrolled smile away from you brings into view yet another a part of his neck you"ve never seen before, usually tucked behind his jacket collar but now, lit by the streetlight far above, is placed almost uncannily neatly in your eyeline.

PAIN THRESHOLD – It"s a good thing he turned away: it"s like looking at a solar eclipse, his smile. It"d burn your eyes out.

ENCYCLOPEDIA – A solar eclipse is when a smaller body, usually some kind of asteroid, comes into alignment directly between the viewer and the source of light. No one knows what Elysium"s moon is. Scientists theorize it has to do with the tides, the shape of the world beyond the edges of the pale. Children dream of traveling there the way they dream of discovering a new isola, enamored by the adventure and unable to completely comprehend the danger that would be involved. The moon hangs there, unknowable. Unreachable.

INLAND EMPIRE – Like him.

ENCYCLOPEDIA – Yes. Like everyone.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Ah. I see. You only like me for my car."

YOU – "Us torque dorks have to stick together."

KIM KITSURAGI – "All of this is avoiding the fact that I am not the sort to enter a beauty pageant in the first place, regardless of how well I would fare, or even whether one is available." The lieutenant"s smile is as warm and quiet as his breath. "And given that all of this is hypothetical, it is immaterial. So yes, let"s just say my talent would be car maintenance. Is that enough of an answer for you?"

1. - "Who would?" [Beat the hypothetical pageant to death.]
2. - Give up the pageant thing but find something else. Keep talking.
3. - "Deal. Walk you back?" [Offer your arm and conclude.]

KIM KITSURAGI – "Who would what?"

YOU – "Who would enter a male beauty pageant?"

KIM KITSURAGI – "I don"t know. Someone who enjoys wearing suits, I imagine."

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Easy: Success] – Who do you know like that?

SHIVERS – A man staring up at a mural. A man sitting in a corner at a desk smaller than his disgustingly sincere smile.

YOU – "That guy at the pier. Trant."

PROPHETIC ESPLANADE – In the quiet of the night, Kim"s laughter is a beautiful gunshot: like being stabbed suddenly in the ears by hope and optimism and all things good in the world.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Of course. No one better suited for it." But he squints, then, with a glimmer of mirth in his eyes undulled by his glasses. "But what about you, Detective Du Bois?" He points the end of the flashlight towards you like an interviewer with a microphone, a small smile on his lips. "How do you intend to "wow" the judges?"

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – He"s flirting BACK??! Be still our congested and strained heart!

VOLITION – Alright, stay cool. This is a rare opportunity to not just flirt but flirt back . Let"s think about this for a moment.

1. - [Electrochemistry - Challenging 12] Who cares? MORE FLIRTING!!!! Our talent is FUCKING.
2. - [Physical Instrument - Legendary 14] A test of strength.
3. - [Hand/Eye Coordination - Legendary 14] A test of skill.
4. - [Logic - Medium 11] A test of knowledge.
5. - [Savoir Faire - Formidable 13] Something suave and mysterious.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Formidable: Success] – Oh yeah. We got this.

YOU – A moment, first, to get yourself in the mindset. Debonair. Man of interisolary mystery. Then, hit Kim with the look: dark and yet alluring. "I know how to kill a man with one thumb."

KIM KITSURAGI – Kim gives you a deeply unimpressed look. "Who doesn"t?"

DAMAGED MORALE [-1]

HEALED MORALE [+1]

VOLITION – Something complicated happens within the confines of your human body. The best way to explain it is that you are both eviscerated and electrified by the lieutenant"s voice.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Actually, there"s a much simpler explanation: you want to fuck him so bad it makes you look stupid.

KIM KITSURAGI – He takes your silence as a concession and pats your arm once, perfunctorily. "Better luck next time, detective."

YOU – "There"s no one I would rather lose to."

KIM KITSURAGI – You mime placing a crown on his head and he rolls his eyes to the stars, but the second your hands retreat, now both metaphorically and physically empty, he reaches up to adjust the invisible crown. "Thank you."

1. - "Who would?"
2. - Revisit the nickname question.
3. - Give up the pageant thing but find something else. Keep talking.
3. - "Deal. Walk you back?" [Offer your arm and conclude.]

YOU – "Maybe that should be your nickname: Mister Revachol."

KIM KITSURAGI – The lieutenant blinks. "I think I preferred Kit, as redundant as it was."

EMPATHY [Godly: Success] – He prefers this one, actually, but decided the alternative was more practical, given that it is less likely to make him spontaneously combust and pray for the floor to open up and swallow him whole every time he hears it and is reminded of this conversation.

LOGIC [Trivial: Success] – That"s not a "no" to the alternative, by the way.

YOU – "Does that mean I can call you Kit?"

KIM KITSURAGI – "If you must."

4. - "Deal. Walk you back?" [Offer your arm and conclude.]

DRAMA [Challenging: Success] – Quite the chevalier, m"lord! Careful not to lay it on too thick, lest the lieutenant"s maidenlike sensibilities give him cause to shy away.

RHETORIC [Trivial: Success] – "Maidenlike"? Wow. Because someone has to be the girl, right? Whatever happened to enlightenment?

LOGIC [Medium: Success] – "Maidenlike" here is in reference to his default state of repression. The emotional equivalent of a corset.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Trivial: Success] – Kim in a corset, huh? Now THAT we could get into.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Medium: Failure] – Oops. Lost control of the arm muscles there for a second. You look twitchy now. Sorry.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Godly: Success] – Play it off. Be cool! You were just offering your arm.

YOU – "Shall we?"

KIM KITSURAGI – The lieutenant still does not blush, though it"s a close thing.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Challenging: Success] – Actually, even then, there"s a faint reddish heat coming off his ears. Wavering like the ribbons of light that hang over distant snowfields. And his hand twitches: like he wants to accept the offer, ridiculous as it is.

KIM KITSURAGI – "That won"t be necessary." His hands fold themselves behind his back. "If anything, I believe I should be the one seeing you home, seeing as I am the one with a vehicle. That is, if it weren"t stuck on the other side of the lock."

DRAMA [Easy: Success] – Your chariot awaits, my liege.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Medium: Success] – Us in the corset?

YOU – "Uhhh....."

KIM KITSURAGI – "....What?"

YOU – Oh, you said that out loud. Cover!

1. - [Volition - Medium 11] Stay silent and hope he misconstrues it as awkward.
   +2 Reacted badly discovering the MC.
2. - [Drama - Legendary 14] Play the blushing belle.
   -1 Actually mean it.
3. - "Oh, nothing. Just thinking about wearing a corset."
4. - "I wouldn"t want you to drive me home anyway! I"d rather freeze to death out here than be with you in any possibly intimate situation. You disgust me."
5. - That"s it? Those are my options?

LOGIC – You have any better ideas?

1. - [Volition - Medium 11] Stay silent and hope he misconstrues it as awkward.

KIM KITSURAGI – The two of you make eye contact that is quickly sliding from charged to awkward as the wheels begin turning in the lieutenant"s head. "Oh. That is to say -- Khm."

You"re about to let the two of you lapse into silence when he adds, "In that case, we should get going," before taking off at a steady clip.

YOU – Uhhh..... "Yeah?"

KIM KITSURAGI – "We cannot drive back to Whirling-in-Rags, yes? And as long as *I* am dictating the pace, it *will* be slower." He turns to give you a stern look over his shoulder. "And I am."

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Yes, *sir*, lieutenant sir.

KIM KITSURAGI – "So here we go." You catch up with him easily, so easily it"s clear that he was merely waiting for you, taking your agreement for granted.

AUTHORITY – Your *obedience*. Not even the threat of a whip and you cave.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Another great idea! Put a pin in that.

KIM KITSURAGI – When you"re shoulder to shoulder, his elbow knocks into yours. Then it"s his knuckles. Then it"s his hand, on the inside of that same elbow. His arm in yours, gloves keeping him from getting any colder despite the back of his hand facing out at the night. The thin skin of his wrist safe against your body.

HALF LIGHT – How easy it would be to sink your teeth in there, feel the hot pulse of his blood evaporating in the winter air. How easy for him to do the same to your tender neck. One twist of his head. A tightening of his hand. He could tear your head off.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – And oh baby, do you hope he does.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Challenging: Success] – Many species engage in cannibalism as either part of copulation or directly after, most commonly insects and arachnids: including several species of mantises and, most notably, the black widow spider.

INLAND EMPIRE [Medium: Success] – Pain and pleasure are wires easily crossed.

ENCYCLOPEDIA – Several theories have been proposed as to why this happens, varying from issues of adaptive foraging to sexual dimorphism. Some believe that some females are simply more aggressive in every way, whether it be with prey or partner. Others posit females eat their mates as a way of rejecting them for being unfit.

HALF LIGHT [Formidable: Failure] – You have been eaten. You did your little mating dance and were found wanting and sucked dry. A walking corpse -- some kind of infection piloting your husk of a body, following old patterns until your body burns the last of itself up.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Khm."

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Failure] – You have the sudden feeling that you missed something: that there was a moment where you were supposed to do something important, but it passed you by without notice. It is the ill-defined anxiety of the locked apartment door at your back, behind which you are certain there is some kind of unfinished business, some stove you forgot to turn off or faucet you have let drip, that will lead to catastrophe. You just can"t put your finger on it.

INLAND EMPIRE – Against your shoulder, Kim is thinking the exact same thing.

SHIVERS – FINE. SINCE YOU ARE SO COMPLICATED.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Challenging: Success] – There is a famous parable about a butterfly: one flap of its wings can change the formation and path of a distant tornado, weeks later and on the far side of the world. It is occasionally employed as a caution against overreaction, tempering one"s outbursts for fear of wide-ranging effects; more often, it is simply used as a practical example of chaos theory, conveying the significance of sensitive initial conditions in a deterministic nonlinear system. What many people don"t know is that the metaphor went through multiple iterations before landing on the butterfly and the tornado. It predates the scientist who coined it as well: a well-known children"s book used a housefly and breeze instead. The scientist, however, began on a less poetic foot. The first example he came up with was a seagull and a storm.

SHIVERS – Across the bay, a skua and a gull are fighting over a shored up pile of trash which may or may not contain two cold and forgotten slices of fried potato. (The slices do, however, definitively contain weevils. That much is certain.) The skua is a hairsbreadth from outright killing the gull, but times are rough, and ceding territory tonight might mean leaving the other bird alive to steal from in the future, but it might mean starving. Before the skua can decide whether or not to evolve into complex reasoning or not, the gull takes the safe bet and takes off. Its wings are smaller than the skua"s, but it has the element of surprise, and it escapes. And its wings flap. And the wind changes course.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Challenging: Failure] – Across the water, the wind picks up, *hard*, enough to send both you and the lieutenant on the back foot. Kim manages to catch himself, but you stumble a little, enough that his arm is tugged from yours. He reaches out again, though, and grabs you as a matter of practicality. All the better to drag you into the shelter of what was once a shack under the boardwalk.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Steady, detective."

INLAND EMPIRE [Trivial: Success] – They sold canoes and boogie boards here. In the off season, local teenagers would meet to take shelter in the shopfront with the broken lock to make out. Many memories were made here, both before and after the halcyon days of the boardwalk"s intended use.

PROPHETIC ESPLANADE – The wind howls as you come to a stop under one of the bigger holes in the boardwalk, where the light gets through. Martinaise wraps her arms around you both, well-intentioned but cold, crowding you together under the white glow of the security light far above. Someone cleaned it recently. The light is so clear that Kim turns off the flashlight in his hand (to save the battery, of course).

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Godly: Success] – When your eyes fall back to the surface, they naturally find Kim"s. There is no delay between seeing this and realizing it means he was already looking at you; instead, you skip right ahead to the crystal clear, completely lossless image of the wide brown of his eyes. Your mind quickly adjusts for the distortion of his lenses, focused instead on the sharp edges of the fibrous colored layer of his iris.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] – The stroma is a delicate interlacement of fibers. Some circle the circumference of the iris and the majority radiate toward the pupil. Blood vessels and nerves intersperse this mesh. In dark eyes, the stroma often contains pigment granules.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Easy: Success] – Cool tans lace over deep browns like the powerlines of a city, a solid mesh of suspension wires over a dark cavern, warm from the heat of the earth. Then, at the center, a wide, unspanned abyss, untraversable and boring to the center of the planet. Widening, as the pupil expands.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Trivial: Success] – Fall into it like the green glass of a bottle. L"appel du vide, my friend.

INTERFACING – His hand grazes yours: soft, but clearly deliberate with the space between you and the otherwise stillness of your bodies. No plausible deniability.

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Failure] – "Kim," you start, before failing to find the words for anything more. But apparently, this is enough.

KIM KITSURAGI – He nods.

1. - Kiss him.
2. - Let him kiss you.
3. - Or?

LOGIC – You really need a third opinion? Fine. A dollar"s worth of free advice: don"t fight the tide.

SHIVERS – Stolid waves in the near distance. Skuas and gulls.

THERE ARE MANY KINDS OF LOVE. THIS ONE IS YOURS.

2. - Let him kiss you.

KIM KITSURAGI – With one blink, indistinguishable from any other, he gets the picture. It"s written all over your face: you"ve always been a pretty open book, but right now you are cracked open beyond repair, spine broken, pages flaking free of their gluey holdings to scatter to the late-night winds that brought you shoulder to shoulder.

INTERFACING [Trivial: Success] – The leather of his glove against your cheek is frigid until -- he presses closer -- you get to the core of his palm. There, the warmth bleeds through.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Harry." His hand moves. When you don"t respond, he adds, "Harrier."

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Challenging: Success] – Despite the formality of the word choice, you hear what he"s saying. The minute pause between his decision to start speaking and choice of actual words, where air escapes without form: a thin, lovely thing. A lapse in conscious thought made manifest. Made of eagerness.

LOGIC – The lack of title says something too. How often does he call you by your name? In which circumstances? And has it ever been the full thing?

EMPATHY [Challenging: Success] – He means to be personal, and he means it, but he"s nervous. Make him see there"s no reason to be.

1. - [Volition - Medium 10] With words.
2. - [Suggestion - Challenging 12] With better words.
3. - [Electrochemistry - Easy 4] With action.
4. - [Savoir Faire - Challenging 13] With your body.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Challenging: Success] – Leaning into the touch, you can"t bring yourself to close your eyes completely -- to look away from him for even a moment -- but your eyelids lower enough. You are making yourself deliberately vulnerable. And he sees this. He welcomes it.

SHIVERS – He loves you.

LOGIC – For a certain measure of love: begrudging infatuation, sincere belief in you and your strange little thoughts, lined with sexual attraction and the heightened adrenaline state of constant terror brought on by the case at hand. Which is to say, he has quickly become irretrievably attached to you, which could develop into the kind of feeling that serves as the basis for the committed romantic relationship people are taught to want.

EMPATHY – He doesn"t love you the way you loved Her. You are very lucky.

HALF LIGHT – He could, possibly. One day. If you spend enough time around each other, wrapped up in each other, boa constrictors and vicious, snarring vines. Just as you could. You could tear each other apart at each other"s altars.

1. - Good. Let him. I deserve it.
2. - No. Not him. He doesn"t deserve it.
3. - No. I"m different now.

YOU – No. I"m different now. My love can be different.

ENCYCLOPEDIA – Forgetting but remembering just enough to know better.

INLAND EMPIRE [Godly: Success] – *This is different,* he"s thinking as his thumb brushes the corner of your eye. *He is different. I am too.*

KIM KITSURAGI – His hand slides to the back of your neck without ceremony, pulling you down through the cold air between your faces. Toe to toe, the difference in your heights is more noticeable than ever, and yet he seems to tower over you, not larger than life but more than he seems. It isn"t until your mouths meet that his composure slips again, the same as that unvoiced breath of air before your name. This time, it is bodily, manifesting in the twitch of his fingers against your neck, like a spasm of a high kicking in.

PERCEPTION – Eyes finally shut, you should not be able to notice lights becoming brighter when he kisses you, colors flashing more vividly when his nose drags against yours, but you do. Things taste more sharply too: namely, the worn out peppermint of the gum he was chewing earlier while you picked your way through the boardwalk now overhead. You are not tasting the gum so much as tasting what Kim tasted of the gum. A sense merely sharpened by proxy.

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] – He chews gum to temper the urge to smoke: the sharp bite of the mint oil (natural, only because they grow in abundance in the wild and a few entrepreneuring scavengers built a business out of using leaves cleared from vacant lots) stimulating the senses instead of nicotine.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] – *Mentha* is one of few plant genera to be found naturally on every isola yet discovered by man. Hybridization occurs naturally where some species" ranges overlap, both within isolas and across the pale, with and without human help. As such, many hybrids and cultivars are known; the lieutenant"s choice, peppermint, is one such hybrid. The derivative organic compound menthol has local anesthetic and counterirritant qualities and is widely used to relieve throat irritation. This, combined with its distinctive and overpowering taste, has led to it being used to flavor cigarettes.

INLAND EMPIRE [Challenging: Success] – He never smoked menthols. He hated associating mint with ash and smoke.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – But you did.

HALF LIGHT – Does he know that?

INLAND EMPIRE – No.

KIM KITSURAGI – He isn"t thinking about any of this. As far as he is concerned, the world has narrowed down to the polar states of places you are touching and places you are not. You don"t need to be psychic to know that: it"s all there in the way he is both pulling you closer into his mouth and leaning back into the hand you have on his hip.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Trivial: Success] – Also, when you sneak a peek, you see his eyes and even forehead are screwed up slightly: paying attention.

EMPATHY – He, like you, is consciously committing this to memory, even though his isn"t as faulty as yours.

INLAND EMPIRE – Good. Someone should remember this.

INTERFACING [Challenging: Success] – Though you aren"t sure when and how it got there, but the hand you have on him is over his shirt but tucked under the edge of his jacket. Even with the layers, you can feel his hip move, the flex of bone and muscle propelling him that much closer, pushing ever forward. This close, you can practically feel his entire skeleton, from the flex of his feet to take him up the last few centimeters of your height difference, to the hinge of his jaw opening to let your tongue follow his back into his mouth. All the pieces of him working together to bring him closer to you.

PHYSICALITY – You, of course, can"t remember anything, let alone this, but I"ll let you in on a secret: your body remembers more than you, and even *we* don"t know the last time you felt this good kissing someone sober.

HALF LIGHT – We don"t remember the last time you kissed someone sober. Period.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Look, even I"ve gotta admit, I"m not really sure it gets better than this! Whatever we can do to keep Kim"s hands on us for the rest of eternity is fine by me. Even if that means sobriety, to be honest. Goodbye speed, hello sexy times!

INTERFACING – He holds you like he can feel the blood pumping beneath your skin, every vessel, every thumping valve, and he wants to follow every path to its conclusion. You hold him the same.

ENDURANCE – But you need air. You both do.

KIM KITSURAGI – His face is visibly warmer when he pulls away, something closer to the usual regular look of his face during the day, when you haven"t been running around in the frozen night looking at empty buildings. He"s lost that brittle, wind-chilled look.

EMPATHY – He has thawed.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Challenging: Success] – May. The ice creaks under the carcass of a Coupris Forty. The sound snaps across the barren shore for the last time, startling the colonies of mud colored fish that have made their homes there the last few months. Then, it is only bubbles of air. The warming water swallows it whole. The fish return.

KIM KITSURAGI – The lieutenant hums.

SUGGESTION [Challenging: Failure] – He wants to say something, but you can"t tell what. Without that, you have no idea what to do to get him to say it.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – We can always try kissing him again.

1. - [Electrochemistry - Easy 4] Kiss him again.
2. - [Suggestion - Medium 10] Ask him what it is.
3. - [Authority - Impossible 18] Make him tell you.
4. - [Composure - Formidable 13] Wait.
    +1 Let him kiss you.
   +1 Let the wind help.
   -1 The cold is getting to you.

COMPOSURE [Formidable: Success] – You stand there, calm and quiet, despite the wind"s best attempts to convince you otherwise. Wind stings your eyes, but you keep them open, and Kim does exactly the same before he finally opens his mouth.

KIM KITSURAGI – "It"s cold."

YOU – "I dunno. I"m pretty warm."

ENDURANCE – You"re REALLY not. If we don"t get moving in the next few minutes, we"ll have to start the pneumonia countdown. We barely have a handle on the shivering.

DRAMA – But it"s a nice sentiment.

CONCEPTUALIZATION – Not fire in your lungs -- at least, not yet. But an ember. A faint glimmer of secondhand smoke cradled in your weak, fleshy chest with all its craven cavities.

KIM KITSURAGI – "You must run warm, then," he says. "That would explain how you are capable of running around in the snow in mesh shirts and no jackets."

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Neither of which are true right now, for the record, but you should let it slide since it means he"s mostly just distracted by the fact that he *knows* you run hot because he was just all up on you. You run SMOKING hot and he has intimate, firsthand knowledge. Also: he just copped to having thought about the mesh shirt. Like, come on.

KIM KITSURAGI – "The rest of us, however, prefer higher temperatures, usually found indoors at this time of year."

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Yadda yadda yadda, is he gonna keep talking about the weather or come get some of that body heat himself?

VOLITION [Formidable: Failure] – No, don"t actually say--

YOU – "I"ve got plenty to spare."

PERCEPTION [Easy: Success] – For a split second, you can see his decision making process scrawled across his face. A brief widening of his eyes: surprise that you said it. A flicker of a grimace: he can"t believe what he"s about to do. In between these moments, just the tiniest hint of a smile. Flattered. Maybe even bashful.

EMPATHY – Sometimes he really can"t believe you. More than that, he can"t believe himself when it comes to you. The things he lets himself feel around you. The things you make seem possible.

KIM KITSURAGI – He clears his throat. "Yes, detective. I"ve noticed."

YOU – "So. I"m just saying. If you wanted to..."

KIM KITSURAGI – "Harry."

HALF LIGHT – His hands land on either side of your face, holding you still -- clearly to kiss you again, but there"s more to it in the way he stares you down first, letting you note the position he has you in. This is the most tender grip you have ever been kept in. You would gladly die in these hands.

INLAND EMPIRE – But you won"t. He won"t let you. And so you will just have to settle for living here instead.

KIM KITSURAGI – Before he kisses you or kills you or anything else, he says, "Be quiet for a moment."

VOLITION [Trivial: Success] – You are. It"s unbelievably easy. Seriously, you don"t believe it. It might be the eyebrow: even without being raised, its power is not to be trifled with.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Yeah, and it"s not just the threat: the reward is pretty sweet too. We can be good for Kim. Oh, we can be SO good for Kim. Look how good we can be.

KIM KITSURAGI – This time, when he kisses you, it is short but overheated. The lieutenant"s tongue meets yours without much ado, tangling in the clouds of hot air stuck between your mouths before he pulls away quickly.

INTERFACING [Challenging: Success] – He did mean to kiss you, just not like that. It"s hard to pull apart when you fit so well together. He didn"t mean to get sucked into it.

HALF LIGHT [Formidable: Failure] – You"re a black hole, baby. Sucking in all the light, everything good.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – But kind of in a sexy way, maybe? Look at his eyes. The lieutenant is clearly under some kind of influence from your presence, not unlike the dopamine headrush you"re experiencing now. He likes being sucked in by you -- and I"m not even gonna innuendo that, it"s bad enough as is.

COMPOSURE [Medium: Failure] – It takes more muscles to follow him than it does not to, yet here you are, chasing the contrails of his breath back to the source.

CONCEPTUALIZATION – He is breathing just as deeply. If he could take you into his lungs, he would. You could live very happily there.

INLAND EMPIRE – You can"t, but you would.

EMPATHY [Medium: Failure] – It"s too close to tell why his eyes are closed. Regret? Pleasure? Plausible deniability? All you can tell is that they are.

PERCEPTION [Easy: Success] – Estuaries of veins cover the thin skin of his eyelids, rivers of iron through valleys of time. If you touched that skin, you would feel the tiny muscles, tiny blood vessels, all working in tandem to keep his eyes shut.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Challenging: Success] – Not working *too* hard, though. Look: he"s not straining or squinting. He"s kissed you fiercely while staying totally relaxed. At ease in your presence.

HALF LIGHT – You never took the lieutenant for a fool, yet here you are. His life in your hands, thudding like a heartbeat: pliant, quiet, trusting. So easily squashed. So easily fumbled and shattered against the pavement.

LOGIC [Trivial: Success] – No pavement here. Just sand and sea-soft wooden boards.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Medium: Success] – A soft place to land.

VOLITION – Let"s not get carried away, alright? You happen to be on the beach. Don"t read into it. Focus on the facts of the moment.

KIM KITSURAGI – The lieutenant has pulled away from you while you have this internal debate, but he hasn"t *pulled away* -- his mouth has left yours but that is really all there is. He"s not kissing you anymore, but he hasn"t left you completely.

EMPATHY [Formidable: Success] – He"s thinking too -- having his own internal debate.

YOU – Oh shit, about what? Is he thinking about me? What do I do?

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Medium: Failure] – Uh. Kiss him again?

RHETORIC [Formidable: Failure] – Lighten the mood with a joke or two?

VOLITION – Everyone shut up, please.

KIM KITSURAGI – He fixes his glasses and starts, "Harry..."

REACTION SPEED – Ah! Do something! Before he gets away! Before he says something!

SUGGESTION [Challenging: Success] – Hold his hand!

VOLITION [Easy: Failure] – Oh. Please?

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Trivial: Success] – You easily intercept where his gait has left his hand swinging slightly in the open air. His gloves are cold on the outside but warm where he was touching you before, kept carefully in his closed fist, like he was holding onto it for you.

INTERFACING [Challenging: Success] – The way his hand closes around yours is not just the reflexive reaction to something coming at him. He squeezes harder than necessary to get a grip on you.

EMPATHY – He likes it. He wants to hold you even closer.

VOLITION – It"s true. Obviously, if you want to keep holding his hand, don"t point it out to him, but it"s true.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Khm. Well. Back to the Whirling."

LOGIC – Oh. Uh. Boss?

YOU – "Wait. I don"t think I paid for a room."

VISUAL CALCULUS – There is five reál in your pocket and two pieces of tare in the bag stuffed alongside it. Between here and the town proper, you have picked up every readily accessible piece, outside of dilapidated buildings you would most certainly injure yourself in with the low light available.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Your shack, then."

ENDURANCE [Medium: Failure] – But it"s COLD...

LOGIC – The stove is actually pretty great, and it"s not like the hole in the window of Room 1 at the Whirling is going to do you any favors.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Oh, but Kim could. Or he could come stay with us in the shack, in our one little bed... All comfy cozy and crazy *hot* under the covers...

VOLITION – Easy, boiadeiro. This moment just now was clearly a fluke. If you ever want to kiss Kim again, don"t push your luck tonight. Bide your time.

SAVOIR FAIRE – The lieutenant is a gentleman. Keep your cool and you can do the mating dance all in good time.

HALF LIGHT – You can"t lose him. You just got him. You don"t have anyone else.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – He would fuck you, though, if you asked. Just so we"re clear. The hold he had on your neck? He was two seconds from throwing you onto the sand and having his way with you.

YOU – And that"s supposed to help me not proposition him HOW...?

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Oh, I don"t give a shit about that. I thought that was obvious.

KIM KITSURAGI – Thankfully, this internal exchange takes you all of two seconds, so Kim cleanly continues without noticing your falter, "I"ll walk you there."

YOU – "What a gentleman."

KIM KITSURAGI – "Khm. Purely as a precautionary measure. To make sure you don"t freeze to death, in the few meters." His hand comes up to fix your tie, as impossible a feat as that is. He ends up fussing with your entire ensemble from the chest up as he says, "It is truly miraculous that you haven"t yet developed pneumonia or something of the like."

EMPATHY – You want to have him straightening your clothes until the end of time. You want to be the one mussing his hair or untucking his shirt in return. You can meet somewhere in the middle.

HALF LIGHT – Someone tugging a scratchy woolen hat over your ears. They are tingling with the freezing temperatures, but you feel them warming up already, though maybe that"s more an effect of the cherished feeling nestled in your tiny chest. Radiating through your bones.

YOU – There"s only one thing to say. "Alright."

PROPHETIC ESPLANADE – Two weary figures pick their way back across grey beach, backs to the wind now as they navigate patches of ice and other forgotten things. No words are exchanged between them until one leaves the other at a doorway. Someone always leaves someone at a doorway, but they don"t always do so with a promise to see them again in the morning -- a promise they intend to keep. Tonight, these two do, and the door that closes between them is enough to keep the warmth of a stove inside until that promise is fulfilled.

LOGIC – Maybe you don"t *love him* love him, not yet. You are too new to everything to be sure of much, still learning so many things, not the last of which is your own name and who you are, let alone anything as complex as articulating your feelings in a decision as weighty as that. But you *could* love him that way, and that is a discovery as equally groundbreaking. It turns out you"re still capable of that.

SHIVERS – Lilliene tucks her twin boys into one bed, then herself alongside her daughter in the next, with the muscle memory of years of nights; a working class woman ties her boots and makes her coffee with practiced quiet while her family sleeps on. In the cab of his lorry, Tommy Le Homme cracks open the glove compartment to a collection of soft-worn photos and letters. In the Whirling"s yard, two children with matching scrawny limbs each wait for the other to admit defeat and head to bed first, both fiercely determined to see the other into a real bed for once, out of the wind. Four people in a tent curl around the machine warm pockets of air and wait for the cold sun to rise so they can set out again, together, to build something profound. A woman stares at an unbroken window. Another whistles. A little girl comes in from the cold to a surprise cup of tea from her mother.

CONCEPTUALIZATION – Love is not a religion of white light and pristine glass. It is a decision made day by day, out of work and determination. It is the choice to end every night in the same place and the profound sorrow when the other finally wakes up alone.

EMPATHY – You haven"t had quite enough mornings with Kim yet, but you are well on your way. Your heart makes decisions quickly, often too much so, and yet stands by them.

HALF LIGHT – Don"t fuck it up.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Formidable: Success] – Tool Kitsuragi: the reason it occurred to you was not just his gearhead tendencies but because of what he has meant to you. He does not fix you himself but rather supply you the tools to do so -- compassion and support, tolerance of your many lingering flaws, a steady hand by which you are steered through the world. He gives you the tools, the space, the understanding, by which you are remaking yourself. He is a font of possibility, in the right hands. And when you act, those become realities. You work together: hands turning wheels turning hands.

EMPATHY – Hands holding hands, even if out of sight.