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[toabsolution]

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[toabsolution]

Alright.

It's a weird trick anyway. You could talk to anyone. Lots of people I don't want to talk to. More than ones I do.

[oohforeshadowing]

Then I suppose it's fortunate that we both had a quiet day of it, isn't it.

[DT are you gonna just say what's on your mind?? ever?? no??]

[toabsolution]

[There's a particular sigh that he reserves just for them. And he makes it now.]

You want to get a drink? Go for a walk?

[oohforeshadowing]

A drink would be lovely, warden. Lounge?

[toabsolution]

Yup. I'll save you a seat.

--

And he does, sitting at one of the tables with a glass of whiskey that he's nursing.

Hat off and on the table, he's got a notebook open that he's reading out of.

[oohforeshadowing]

Trouble sashays in a few moments later and goes to make themself a cocktail.

"Writing your memoirs, darling?"

[toabsolution]

"Close. Readin' em. Before I got my memories back, I wrote down all the shit that happened in breaches after. Kept it from gettin' all mixed up in my head."

He closes it when they join him. "Whatcha make?" he asks, pointing to their drink.

[oohforeshadowing]

"It's called a grasshopper, apparently," Trouble says. It involves creme de menthe and creme de cacao, and comes out looking a very familiar pale shade of green.

"Does it help?" they wonder, taking a seat next to Jake and nodding at the book.

[toabsolution]

"Huh?" He's not really used to people showing too much interest, so it takes him a second.

"Oh. Yeah. It did. A lot, actually. Think I'll keep doin' it, even though I remember everything now."

[oohforeshadowing]

"Well, if you're going to make a habit of misplacing your memories it'll be useful to have a backup. Cheers," they add, and raise their glass before taking a sip.

[toabsolution]

He raises his glass and takes a small drink. "Ain't losin' my memories," he tells them with a huff. "Just got 'em back, after all."

He pauses. "How you been?"

[oohforeshadowing]

"Bored," they sigh. "I've thought about opportunities for performance, but what's the point? A captive audience makes everything so dull."

[toabsolution]

He leans forward. "Yeah? Wouldn't that make it better? Or you want to do somethin' different than gettin' on a stage?"

[oohforeshadowing]

They grimace.

"What could possibly be better about it? All the same faces from day to day. I'm not exactly thrilled by the possibility of gathering an audience by sheer force of tedium."

[toabsolution]

He shrugs. "Ain't never been a performer, so I don't know." He shrugs. "Why don't you just pretend to be someone new for a day?" He's not actually serious, so he continues on. "I don't know, Trouble. You're bored, but it's good that you're bored. It's because you don't need to be here." He taps the table for emphasis. "You're too good to be here."

[oohforeshadowing]

"You're sweet. And don't think I haven't thought about it," they sigh. "But it's neither not particularly rewarding or particularly challenging to take on a new character, here. New people wash in and out of this place all the time."

[toabsolution]

"I'm not givin' you somethin' to do," he tells them with a bright laugh, taking another small drink. "Like I said, if you're bored, then maybe you'll start listenin' to me."

[oohforeshadowing]

They groan and sip at their own drink.

"Fine. I'm all ears. Share your cowboy wisdom."

[toabsolution]

"Already have. Plenty of time." He tilts his glass towards them. "And I know you ain't tunin' me out all the time."

[oohforeshadowing]

"But now that I'm offering you my undivided attention, you don't have anything to say to me?" They roll their eyes. "Ugh."

[toabsolution]

Another laugh. "Trouble, you know what you gotta do. You gotta trust people. You gotta open up. You gotta learn to do things just because it needs to be done. Not because it benefits you."

[oohforeshadowing]

"Why."

They know it's entirely possible that Jake has already explained this at great length but they don't...care.

[toabsolution]

He takes another drink. "I know giving a shit about other people is hard, Trouble. They go and do stupid stuff. They don't take care of themselves or they die or they run off or they hurt you. But it's worth it. There are people who are worth it."

[oohforeshadowing]

Trouble, for a moment, looks viscerally uncomfortable. Then they take a gulp of their cocktail which practically empties the glass.

"...It would have been nice," they concede, "to have lasted a few hours longer."

[toabsolution]

He's not seen that face on them in - well, ever. So he's quiet for a moment, still nursing his own drink. "Yeah."

But then, because he needs this to be something they understand, he presses. "Why?"