As DC seemed to focus more on him, a familiar, unnerving feeling gripped Dwight by the spine, but he did his best to keep calm...Well, at least as calm as he could in the face of his nerves.
"I don't know, maybe you were biding your time? Had bigger fish to fry first?" Dwight held the mop tightly enough that his knuckles were turning white. So much for being calm.
But as DC scoffed and leaned into the bar, Dwight tensed, feeling cornered.
An interesting theory? The barman's eyes flicked from DC's face to the fingers tapping on the edge of her glass, and remained there, staring without quite looking at it. The sense of unease morphed into something else that made his lungs feel a bit small, not unlike the first time he'd been cornered and mugged, back in his twenties, or the sense of feeling trapped when his door got kicked in, and in came collectors demanding their cred back, and he was Dwight Faraday, wasn't he--
He remained still, practically strangling the mop in his hand, feeling as if he was suspended by a thread, ready to fall into a void underneath his feet.
'Are you sure?'
Something about her tone felt threatening, but at her questions, whether Renard and Noir truly gave no guarantees at the security of his staff, a little voice whispered in the back of his head:
You're literally a stand-in for a Bot.
The metaphorical string broke, and Dwight, against all odds, smiled. No, he grinned, even chuckled, a low and manic noise as his nerves somehow looped back into some bizarre sense of elation.
He was cornered anyway, alone in a closed bar with a threatening would-be nutcase and her large dog.
"Listen lady," Dwight said, finally looking at her eye," I'm literally standing in for a stinking bot who can't even be bothered to remember how to mix drinks properly. That bot is, legally speaking, not even a real person."
He marked 'real person' with air quotes, for emphasis.
Dwight continued, grinning through the tremor in his voice. "So if I'm a stand-in for someone or something that's not even a real person, and if bots can just be taken apart and fixed and replaced, then what do you think makes me? Do you really think Noir would feel affected, at all, if I'm here to replace a bot, of all things?"
"I don't know, maybe you were biding your time? Had bigger fish to fry first?" Dwight held the mop tightly enough that his knuckles were turning white. So much for being calm.
But as DC scoffed and leaned into the bar, Dwight tensed, feeling cornered.
An interesting theory? The barman's eyes flicked from DC's face to the fingers tapping on the edge of her glass, and remained there, staring without quite looking at it. The sense of unease morphed into something else that made his lungs feel a bit small, not unlike the first time he'd been cornered and mugged, back in his twenties, or the sense of feeling trapped when his door got kicked in, and in came collectors demanding their cred back, and he was Dwight Faraday, wasn't he--
He remained still, practically strangling the mop in his hand, feeling as if he was suspended by a thread, ready to fall into a void underneath his feet.
'Are you sure?'
Something about her tone felt threatening, but at her questions, whether Renard and Noir truly gave no guarantees at the security of his staff, a little voice whispered in the back of his head:
You're literally a stand-in for a Bot.
The metaphorical string broke, and Dwight, against all odds, smiled. No, he grinned, even chuckled, a low and manic noise as his nerves somehow looped back into some bizarre sense of elation.
He was cornered anyway, alone in a closed bar with a threatening would-be nutcase and her large dog.
"Listen lady," Dwight said, finally looking at her eye," I'm literally standing in for a stinking bot who can't even be bothered to remember how to mix drinks properly. That bot is, legally speaking, not even a real person."
He marked 'real person' with air quotes, for emphasis.
Dwight continued, grinning through the tremor in his voice. "So if I'm a stand-in for someone or something that's not even a real person, and if bots can just be taken apart and fixed and replaced, then what do you think makes me? Do you really think Noir would feel affected, at all, if I'm here to replace a bot, of all things?"
Moderators: AJ_89 Steven (played by Robo-Craig) QnQ Hide Miyagawa (played by Monoclejack)
