original character, on his pb choice

[offs]

—Yeah, and what the fuck do you think is so funny, huh?

Comments

[thumb]

Gonna have to figure it's the name. Who the hell even thinks of a name like Harvish? Was Egbert too classy for ya?

[offs]

Bless my dead mother she gave that name, so watch it. It's a good name.

[ It's distinct enough from Harvey, gdi. ]

[hematoma]

[ When Uncle smiles, there's a small gap between her front two teeth. It makes her look childish. ]

Your face.

[offs]

[ Diastema. Considered a defect among the active affects at Normanport. Army wouldn't stand for that. ]

Your teeth are just as bad. You can't afford to get it fixed?

[hematoma]

[ She only grins a little wider, the pink of her tongue appearing in that tiny gap where she presses he tip of it agains the backs of her teeth. ]

You think they care about shit like this where I'm from, hermano? Bigger fish to fry.

[offs]

[ It's the little imperfections in other people that drive him off-balance; a gap between the teeth, a scar on the forehead, an uneven jawline— Harvish is full of imperfections too, both self-made and natural, but what he cannot change about himself he can change in others.

He's itching to fix that gap, and it shows. ]

I don't wanna talk about fishes. Give me your teeth.

[hematoma]

[ It's not the strangest demand she's ever heard, but something about the simplicity of the statement makes her want to laugh. Give me your teeth, as if it was as easy as that. (For a girl like Uncle, having been forged in the hellpit of a school she called home for so many years, it could be as easy as that if she wanted. Hell, she could even make it tickle just for laughs.) ]

No fuck, no luck, Charlie, [ she declares, and it's difficult to tell just how serious that particular offer is. She makes a rude gesture with one hand like she's jacking off the smallest cock in the world. ]

[offs]

[ Harvish just keeps on with frowning. The human body presents very little joy to a man like Harvish; it's too soft, too easily quashed even under a non-affecting hand. There are no secrets in it that he hasn't pulled out by its roots in his fifteen years of active service to the court; flesh is malleable, bones are breakable, and blood above all is—

He shakes his head, just once, a clipped action. No time for thoughts like that here. ]

Teeth. And then I'll consider thinking about that juvenile offer of yours.

[hematoma]

[ Teeth. Again, he parrots the demand and Uncle wonders if that sort of behavior actually gets this guy somewhere where he's from. If they were back at school, the other girls would have just laughed at him — gotten right up in his face and laughed. Didn't matter if he was bigger than them, if he dwarfed them with his shadow; Academy girls know how to kill at twenty paces, how to tear limb from limb. How incise or deconstruct or just raise hell, depending on the training. (A girl for every scenario.)

If he was an instructor, there wouldn't even be a discussion: Uncle would simply open her mouth and obey. But this guy isn't an instructor, he isn't even Mr. Peek, so Uncle ignores the demand. ]

Whatcha going to do with them? Y'think you're going t'fix me?

[ She almost laughs again. ]

[offs]

[ Practically rote: ] Fix your teeth. Straighten them out. Seal your cavities. Bad teeth are an imperfection, and must be fixed according to standards.

[ The tip of his tongue pushes against the back of his teeth, and Harvish almost gnashes at the feeling of a chipped tooth. The metal stapled to his lip clacks against the enamel, a reminder of what he cannot change—you can only affect those around you, the Captain had said, but never yourself.

You'll never meet the standards of the city that you serve. It's the doctrine of the Captain's unit. He knows it makes them strong. ]

You don't have to take them out if you don't want to. [ To him, these words are kind. ]