[ it's weird, how leo feels the memory shift in his mind as they talk about it. it's also weird talking about actual murder so flippantly like this, but given just how different the lives of those in this tiny-big world were... it shouldn't be a surprise. it's something else, having experienced it firsthand like that... and though he doesn't feel his hand on the knife anymore, he still sees the death.

thanks, cole. the tiniest of nods follows the half-casual response given to leo, with his own half-casual little comment: ]

Yeah. You did. I was kinda surprised. [ ... ] Or... I don't really know you, so can I say that I was surprised? Ah, whatever! I still didn't think the guy who sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with me could do a scary thing like that so easily!

[ yet leo doesn't edge away. he seems pensive, but he's not scared. the only reason for his silence is that he's wondering, again, what to say.

despite cole's thoughts slowly leaving his head, leo finds he can still intimately understand the frantic, co-dependent point of view the most. that's... the least surprising part of all of it. it's why leo is oddly genuine, oddly serious, when he continues. ]

... Hey. Are you still like that, Ko? You said Rhys was your friend, so maybe it's different now... But are you still a sword, a knife, focused on putting down whatever's in the way between you both? Because I gotta tell you... Guys like that don't get anywhere, you know.

[ he

knows that firsthand. ]