[ The level of Marcus' focus seems to imply that he is awaiting Bastien's specificity, and so a redirection is less expected. One that cleaves more personal, suddenly, and there is a split second where he must decide if Bastien's teasing him has hidden malice to or is a simpler, friendlier thing.
There's a lot of reasons he doesn't particularly enjoy Rutyer's company. They give him further reason to suspect Bastien's.
But the next breath out is tolerant, deciding that some guarded prickle of feeling could stand to smooth itself out rather than tense and brace. He taps ash, again, off his cigarette, the set of his focus shifting. ]
When there're two of them, [ blondes, presumably, ] changeable moods and a lot of talk is inevitable. You don't know what I like.
[ Sharp on paper, but the delivery is mild without straying all the way into tentative, a faint twinge of amusement as he brings cigarette back up. ]
no subject
There's a lot of reasons he doesn't particularly enjoy Rutyer's company. They give him further reason to suspect Bastien's.
But the next breath out is tolerant, deciding that some guarded prickle of feeling could stand to smooth itself out rather than tense and brace. He taps ash, again, off his cigarette, the set of his focus shifting. ]
When there're two of them, [ blondes, presumably, ] changeable moods and a lot of talk is inevitable. You don't know what I like.
[ Sharp on paper, but the delivery is mild without straying all the way into tentative, a faint twinge of amusement as he brings cigarette back up. ]