If only

[Reeves]

When elaborating what had just struck his focus and forced him to cut himself off, his composure seemed to improve, as if momentarily distracted by the growing feeling of confusion and discomfort. "Ever heard of the Widow? A Xeno too, one with a storied reputation for being a capable pilot, more than most. Possibly more than everyone else in the House, freaks from Malta included." He paused again, this time without any interruptions from pain or realizations, he just needed a few seconds to retrace his steps down memory lane and get the details right.

"She came to us with a demand. Something we'd frown at normally. Was the first time I threw my weight around, insisted she could be useful to the cause. It was a gamble then, of course. But I was right in the end, more so than anyone might have expected. She ripped her way up through the ranks, put enemies to shame and made herself someone of notoriety. Became my closest and sometimes only reliable advisor. Somewhere down the line though.. I made the mistake of letting her in. A second's worth of vulnerability. That was all it took." While this all seemed like a fair bit of background and something resembling context, it didn't do anything to explain why he'd started behaving the way he currently was. It was easy enough to make guesses about what might have happened to cause this, the most logical of course being the demise of this person he seemed to be speaking about. But there was a lack of certainty from him too, which was sufficient to dissuade that line of thinking.

There had to have been more to it than that.

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On indefinite hiatus because the current state of gameplay sucks - ping me over discord if replies are needed