OPEN | prompt three | PAIN

[wrens]

prompt three | P A I N dressing-room style. start your own thread. tag others. wash, rinse, repeat. open to all.

 

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[paraphrases]

[ Thank you, Clint, for yet again reminding Alyosha why he decided to cut you out in the first place. Still there's a measured sort of patience to the way he speaks. ]

Am I going to have to get you a paper bag to blow into or something?

[fumbling]

[He can tell when he's being teased. And it shows on his poor attempts to decide whether he wants to pretend he doesn't care or let the person know how he feels.]

Sure. [No, wait, that's not what he meant.] I mean--no.

[...] Maybe.

[paraphrases]

[ Alyosha opens his mouth to speak and then closes it, opens it again and then shuts it a second time. He's waiting for Clint to make up his mind and when he finally stops, Alyosha lifts both his eyebrows as if to say you finished? ]

You remember the part where we work for MP, da?

[fumbling]

Of... course I do. [But Alyosha still manages to make him question himself. Not that it's very hard.] Why?

[paraphrases]

[ Honestly there are times when Alyosha's not sure whether having Clint out helps or hurts. It definitely tries his patience but— well, there are worse things, he supposes. ]

Because pain, it is business, [ he says, remindingly. ] And we like pain. [ A beat, then a correction, perhaps even offered encouragingly. ] Other people's.

[fumbling]

[It's like a flickering light bulb found its connection again.]

Oh no, no--yeah. I know that. I was just wondering if there was some other kind of meaning. To it.

[paraphrases]

[ He could argue whether or not Clint knew that and generally Alyosha's an argumentative person. Semantics, verbal loopholes, the slice and dice of words and meaning — these are the things that he knows best. But he saves it for somebody else and spares Clint the work out. ]

In a nutshell? Don't get fucked.

[fumbling]

... I can remember that.

[paraphrases]

[ The most speculative of speculative faces. ] You can forget, from time to time. That is what I'm here for.

Just don't do it where MP can hear you.

[fumbling]

Why? It's not like she'll say I... [It started out as a shot at humor, but we know how well that goes when Clint is involved. His short-lived grin gives place to a slightly alarmed frown.]

She wouldn't, would she?