[it doesn't take long before anna realizes she's said something wrong. it's not the first time. she never did know how to act around the geteilts, and she's out of practice.]
[but things get so much worse as she watches everything drop. the cool, collected front. the logic, the reasoning, the cast iron pan. the words about the atrocities that zero has committed—that rose fought back against every damned day of her life while that flower lived inside of her—those drop too, like leaden weights inside of her chest and down to her stomach. and the last thing she watches drop is the hand from her collar, no matter how long it may take to find her freedom from this person's hand. she's quiet, and no matter how much she would love to keep her face neutral, more meteoric realizations crash through her reality. flaming rocks from the sky hit her one after the other like raindrops.]
[it's truly the most human she's ever seen jasmine look. which is a shame.]
One.
[perhaps it's not the apocalyptic realization that it could have otherwise been, that this is not the jasmine she knows. this is the person jasmine was trying to prevent from coming into existence. and even after this small amount of time, she can tell why. her hands stay at her sides; she won't escalate, not physically. she wouldn't win.]
The version of Zero I knew wanted to save all of you. You, Two, Three, and Four. [if she's really as smart as jasmine, she'll be able to extrapolate from incomplete datasets.] Without getting any of you killed. You wanted a plan to make sure the city could kill you if it got out of hand.
no subject
[but things get so much worse as she watches everything drop. the cool, collected front. the logic, the reasoning, the cast iron pan. the words about the atrocities that zero has committed—that rose fought back against every damned day of her life while that flower lived inside of her—those drop too, like leaden weights inside of her chest and down to her stomach. and the last thing she watches drop is the hand from her collar, no matter how long it may take to find her freedom from this person's hand. she's quiet, and no matter how much she would love to keep her face neutral, more meteoric realizations crash through her reality. flaming rocks from the sky hit her one after the other like raindrops.]
[it's truly the most human she's ever seen jasmine look. which is a shame.]
One.
[perhaps it's not the apocalyptic realization that it could have otherwise been, that this is not the jasmine she knows. this is the person jasmine was trying to prevent from coming into existence. and even after this small amount of time, she can tell why. her hands stay at her sides; she won't escalate, not physically. she wouldn't win.]
The version of Zero I knew wanted to save all of you. You, Two, Three, and Four. [if she's really as smart as jasmine, she'll be able to extrapolate from incomplete datasets.] Without getting any of you killed. You wanted a plan to make sure the city could kill you if it got out of hand.