(no subject)

[debts]

You have a habit of making things harder than they have to be.

It's not hard to choose one thing over the other.

Comments

[pummel]

[ > hem
> haw
> just fucking say something, frank ]

Sometimes they don't see it that way.

[debts]

I'd take choice over stagnancy.

[pummel]

'S not our choice to make.

[debts]

Judge, jury, executioner.

You should be familiar with the concept.

[pummel]

[ He shrugs. ]

Not when the girl upstairs is in charge.

[debts]

She should know better, then.

[pummel]

Hands are tied.

[ Wait for it— ]

You should be familiar with the concept.

[ NAILED IT. ]

[heracleidae]

Sometimes the choice isn't so easy.

[debts]

That doesn't mean you get an out.

[heracleidae]

Nah, it doesn't.

[ regardless of what the choice is, what you lose in the process ]

[debts]

[ Careful, Herc. Get too philosophical and you might get honest. ]

At least you're in one piece.

[heracleidae]

[ he's probably one of the more honest people you know, Natasha, who are you kidding ]

You talking literal here?

[debts]

Do I look like I talk metaphorically?

[ That's what some would consider a weakness, Herc. ]

[frore]

Isn't it? [ a beat — two, three. ] It's easier not making that choice. Not everyone's so used to the black and white of it.

[debts]

[ She tips her chin, her eyes wide and lamplike. A beat (just a single one, on her end) before she speaks. ]

Maybe not. But someone has to make it.

[frore]

[ that's our job but he doesn't say it, doesn't have to. it's already scrawled in the fine print. choice, though... ]

You can't make it for her. She'll round back, if you do.

[debts]

[ Choice. (Remember that? The lives they had built on the fact that they didn't have any, once upon a time?) ]

I won't. But that doesn't mean I can't give her a nudge in the right direction.

[frore]

[ he inclines his head, lips thinning before one corner of them twitches. (a russian fairytale; cities bled.) ]

Your nudges leave scars, Nat.

[debts]

[ A huff of a laugh. ]

You like that they do.

[hulkish]

[ bemused. ]

It's not?

[debts]

Sure.

[ A beat, then she offers: ]

I hear flipping a coin works for some people.

[hulkish]

And the — consequences, when it lands on the wrong side?

[debts]

[ A shrug. ]

If it's on the wrong side, it's the wrong choice. You flip again.

[hulkish]

Mistakes aren't usually that easy to walk away from. [ a beat. ] The choice, choosing. It sets us in motion down a certain path. Your, your, uh, mun... She fears inertia.

[debts]

Inertia. [ For all the discomfort that may (or may not) be here, in the space between them, her mouth quirks all the same. ] That's a good way of putting it.

[ Even if Natasha's a firm supporter of fixing mistakes rather than being carried away by them. ]