— She sounded tired, listless.
“Fifteen years of trying to do it and what’s it gotten me so far?”

— matching the offbeat rhythm of her window’s loose shutter thunk-thu-thunking in the wind.
All that time, Joanna kept her gaze averted to a dark part of the room, as if something waited there unseen and silent.
“I have something I have to do, well…Need to do. I don’t really know anymore.”
—

Lorelei had that way about her, that way that let her sneak past others’ guardrails. Before you knew it, you were spilling your guts to her and those gentle nudges.
“No, you’re not wrong, it’s…”
She paused, lips twisting into a frustrated grimace.
Her raw knuckles rapped against the table, —

“I think I can only work and thrive under pressure. Wouldn’t know what to do with myself if it weren’t there.”

“I ain’t saying shit.”

“Most noble thing I’ve ever done? I…I don’t know. I haven’t done much just for the sake of being called ‘noble.’ You just…Do things, and everyone else gets to decide if what you did was right.”

“Good or bad is subjective. I’d like to think I’m a good person who’s done bad things. That make me a bad person? Leave that shit to the philosophizers.”

“Ain’t been much of a lover, never really had the chance. So, yeah. Fighter.”

“Isn’t a ‘movie’ one of those old world picture show things? Can’t say I’ve seen one.”

“Legion. You even think the word ‘profligate’ and the last thing going through the pink pile o’shit you call your brain will be a couple of 45-70 rounds.”

“Playin’ cards is a favorite. Trick shooting and anything involving gunpowder and shell casings I tend to take an interest in.”

“…Human? Th’ fuck else am I supposed to be? Gecko?”

“Don’t much care who or what you are as long as you got a nice face and ain’t a total bastard.”

“She-slash-her.”

“Born in New Vegas, actually. Lucky enough to have a doc nearby to help my ma through labor. Apparently I was a fighter.”