[The flash of warm light draws his attention away as he finishes the last stupid squiggle in the code. Not enough to derail him—they've got bigger problems. But the flickering freckles aren't lost on him either. Okay. Sure.
More importantly for now: Despite having had a good amount of luck reading Adrian's lips so far, he very mysteriously seems to have forgotten how, all of a sudden. How strange!
He mimes ignorance. Holds a hand up to his ear, blood running down his arm in thin pink rivulets as the rain washes it away. Shrugs.]
Sorry, boss. You’ll have to speak up.
[(What's the worst that can happen, he dies? Hah.) He gives his shorthand one last glance against his reference and figures it'll be good enough. He’d remembered the tail end of the code the first time. The start and the end the second. Surely this time he can get the whole set punched in and get out of Dodge.
He has the absolute audacity to give Adrian a jaunty little wave as he ducks off toward the back of the building, running full-tilt through the rain to the console. It’s swung itself closed again, of course, but last time he took a stab at this he worked out he can wedge the blade of his knife into the lip of the cover to pop it open.
Time for round three. He steels himself, reaches right for the first symbol as soon as the panel opens.
(His vision fuzzes, and he blinks, hard. There's nothing there, except that's not actually true. He can feel eyes on his back, picking up his hackles, making his skin crawl. The symbols on the console burn bright enough to blot all else out. And something about it is so suffocating its almost familiar.)
He shakes himself, realizes his hand is clamped hard against a fresh set of scratches in his arm, and it's stinging like hell. Fingers digging in and deepening the hasty symbols in places, turning a careful cut into a bleeding tear.
The console, though, has all six symbols typed in. (When had he done that? Had he done that?) He hesitates a heartbeat, doublechecking. Then hammers a fist into the input command. The console buzzes helpfully.
Open sesame. Time to go make sure his new friend isn't sleeping with the fishes and not think about what just happened for a while.]
your faith in him is misplaced but touching
More importantly for now: Despite having had a good amount of luck reading Adrian's lips so far, he very mysteriously seems to have forgotten how, all of a sudden. How strange!
He mimes ignorance. Holds a hand up to his ear, blood running down his arm in thin pink rivulets as the rain washes it away. Shrugs.]
Sorry, boss. You’ll have to speak up.
[(What's the worst that can happen, he dies? Hah.) He gives his shorthand one last glance against his reference and figures it'll be good enough. He’d remembered the tail end of the code the first time. The start and the end the second. Surely this time he can get the whole set punched in and get out of Dodge.
He has the absolute audacity to give Adrian a jaunty little wave as he ducks off toward the back of the building, running full-tilt through the rain to the console. It’s swung itself closed again, of course, but last time he took a stab at this he worked out he can wedge the blade of his knife into the lip of the cover to pop it open.
Time for round three. He steels himself, reaches right for the first symbol as soon as the panel opens.
(His vision fuzzes, and he blinks, hard. There's nothing there, except that's not actually true. He can feel eyes on his back, picking up his hackles, making his skin crawl. The symbols on the console burn bright enough to blot all else out. And something about it is so suffocating its almost familiar.)
He shakes himself, realizes his hand is clamped hard against a fresh set of scratches in his arm, and it's stinging like hell. Fingers digging in and deepening the hasty symbols in places, turning a careful cut into a bleeding tear.
The console, though, has all six symbols typed in. (When had he done that? Had he done that?) He hesitates a heartbeat, doublechecking. Then hammers a fist into the input command. The console buzzes helpfully.
Open sesame. Time to go make sure his new friend isn't sleeping with the fishes and not think about what just happened for a while.]