Well, hopefully we won't run out of reasonable things to do
[ It's not a terrible tactic at all, slotting logical tasks between herself and that sinking tar-pit blackness just beneath the surface. To a certain extent she's always done this, kept on a pretty poker face, but it had always been for Gwen, and because she's missing. Gone. Probably ceased to--
Okay, yes, hooking up her motorbike and minding the smoke. She can supervise, and she can manage. Most likely. She's so thankful for the easy tasks to latch her attention to. ]
That much I can do, yes. You might be on your own with the hook-up bit. I'm afraid I'm all thumbs with this kind of thing
[ She's telling the truth, but she isn't unaware it falls in line with her favored manipulation tactics, either: men do so like to feel useful. But that's not what she's trying to do! Arthur's skills just so happen to be useful, but friends do help each other, and he offered, so. Why can't she just like him. Why does she have to look so hard at her own ugliness to make sure it's not interfering.
Sally takes another, more reasonable drag of the smoke and pushes her thoughts into the ankle-deep chemical calm that flits across her brain. Christ, she could use something much stronger than this. ]
I think there's a... a knobby-bit? Where the side-car hooks to the side of the bike?
[ She's fantastic at feigning ignorance, but this is not that. She does hate genuinely sounding like an idiot but... Arthur never was as cruel as every other man she'd ever encountered. Like a bloody unicorn and she still managed to nick herself on the horn. ]
God, please don't tell anyone I'm secretly an idiot. What would my many, many admirers think?
[ It's more sarcastic and self-depreciating than truly arrogant. ]
no subject
[ It's not a terrible tactic at all, slotting logical tasks between herself and that sinking tar-pit blackness just beneath the surface. To a certain extent she's always done this, kept on a pretty poker face, but it had always been for Gwen, and because she's missing. Gone. Probably ceased to--
Okay, yes, hooking up her motorbike and minding the smoke. She can supervise, and she can manage. Most likely. She's so thankful for the easy tasks to latch her attention to. ]
That much I can do, yes. You might be on your own with the hook-up bit. I'm afraid I'm all thumbs with this kind of thing
[ She's telling the truth, but she isn't unaware it falls in line with her favored manipulation tactics, either: men do so like to feel useful. But that's not what she's trying to do! Arthur's skills just so happen to be useful, but friends do help each other, and he offered, so. Why can't she just like him. Why does she have to look so hard at her own ugliness to make sure it's not interfering.
Sally takes another, more reasonable drag of the smoke and pushes her thoughts into the ankle-deep chemical calm that flits across her brain. Christ, she could use something much stronger than this. ]
I think there's a... a knobby-bit? Where the side-car hooks to the side of the bike?
[ She's fantastic at feigning ignorance, but this is not that. She does hate genuinely sounding like an idiot but... Arthur never was as cruel as every other man she'd ever encountered. Like a bloody unicorn and she still managed to nick herself on the horn. ]
God, please don't tell anyone I'm secretly an idiot. What would my many, many admirers think?
[ It's more sarcastic and self-depreciating than truly arrogant. ]