"Lunge." Mello gave him a nod in return, several degrees warmer than it would have been for most people. Matt and L knew what Mello had been through, but they couldn't possibly get it the way Lunge did, couldn't share the urgent need to fix this.
His frustration flared again at the question, and he tried not to betray it in his expression. He hadn't made satisfactory progress. Initial contact with a handful of people working on the same problem was all he had to show for several days' efforts. It wasn't enough, and right now, he felt sure the others wouldn't have managed to discover any more than he had. The answers simply didn't exist.
He'd fought against the hopelessness that told him there was no solution in every rational way he could, had started to try a few irrational ones, too. He'd simply have to fake it until he found a way to believe again.
"Some," he replied, which wasn't entirely untrue. "I'd have made more if this place hadn't decided to impersonate an Escher drawing. I'm meeting with the man you suggested later, and I've noted some others with a personal interest in the matter."
Matt would just have to deal with the change of plans. Maybe that ring would come in useful after all. It would necessitate a detour tonight, but would make things much faster in future. Mello idly drew a jagged line to nowhere on the calligraphy paper. Planning that far in advance had been unthinkable only a few days ago. Was it surrender that he was doing it now, or simply realism? He made a straight, thick penstroke off the edge of the page, and looked back up at Lunge. "How about you?"
no subject
His frustration flared again at the question, and he tried not to betray it in his expression. He hadn't made satisfactory progress. Initial contact with a handful of people working on the same problem was all he had to show for several days' efforts. It wasn't enough, and right now, he felt sure the others wouldn't have managed to discover any more than he had. The answers simply didn't exist.
He'd fought against the hopelessness that told him there was no solution in every rational way he could, had started to try a few irrational ones, too. He'd simply have to fake it until he found a way to believe again.
"Some," he replied, which wasn't entirely untrue. "I'd have made more if this place hadn't decided to impersonate an Escher drawing. I'm meeting with the man you suggested later, and I've noted some others with a personal interest in the matter."
Matt would just have to deal with the change of plans. Maybe that ring would come in useful after all. It would necessitate a detour tonight, but would make things much faster in future. Mello idly drew a jagged line to nowhere on the calligraphy paper. Planning that far in advance had been unthinkable only a few days ago. Was it surrender that he was doing it now, or simply realism? He made a straight, thick penstroke off the edge of the page, and looked back up at Lunge. "How about you?"