<strong>"I don't need leverage against <em>them</em>,"</strong>Doll emphasized to Nei about deleting things from the chip.<strong>"I'm leveraging <em>my</em> 'associate' with the promise of undermining his foes... and I'm not about to spread the knowledge about how to make those things."</strong><br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>"Were fighting, yes, same side? Eh, close enough,"</strong>Doll answered at first as she worked; it really wasn't terribly difficult; it was just machinery, and she knew machinery.<strong>"She's not captured... I spared her, saved her even."</strong><br/><br/>Listening to her son as she worked, he really wasn't telling her anything she didn't know. Then at the mention of thievery her worked paused for the most split of seconds before continuing. She didn't say any thing after he was finished, not until she'd put her shoulder back together, tested it, approved of the motion, and set down her tools. Even then there were a few seconds more of silence before she began speaking, not yet looking to her son next to her.<br/><br/><strong>"Do you really think that's why I'm not telling you things?"</strong>she asked in cold, crisp Elven, her phrasing suggested it was rhetorical in nature, so she continued.<strong>"<em>Lealvrordrusross Dol</em>, the things that I don't tell you - about my work, about what I do - have absolutely nothing to do with whether I think you'll think less of me or not. What I left out today was that I was asked by my debt-holder to kill one of Nei's boyfriends who headed a drug-peddling gang. The end result was that in less than forty-seconds combined, I killed more than two-dozen young men and women, two of which were Nei's boyfriends, one of which was the target. During this Nei accidentally blew up one of her boyfriends after missing me, and the other she finished off when she missed me with a crossbow bolt, hitting the one boyfriend whose life-saving drugs I'd stopped. The last thing Nei saw of both of the people she cared for was me cutting down one, then her bomb blowing him literally apart into unrecognizable pieces, and the other flailing blind, deaf, and completely helpless as the drugs were the only thing that let him function due to an illness and accident that left him a quadraplegic... then she watched him die in front of her when her crossbow bolt struck him right in the face. She was begging me to kill her, to spare her the misery of knowing that's she'd been the one to kill the people she'd loved, and the only reason I didn't is because after I queried her she begged me not to do it, stating she wanted to live... then we blew up an old-town church, faked her death, and here we are, me helping her to have a second chance..."</strong><br/><br/>She glanced sidelong at her son, her pale green eyes cold, not sad, but the corner of her lips tugged up as she observed her son's features through the makeup he wore.<br/><br/><strong>"Ask Nei about how things came to be if you want; her story is a heart-wrencher,"</strong>she added, gently reaching out to cup her little princess' cheek, her metallic thumb rubbing at the cheekbone.<strong>"You'll feel sorry for her; it's quite a tale of tragic circumstance, and the whole tale really makes your heart ache and eyes fill with tears... but during the whole thing, largely even now, the strongest thing I felt was <em>recoil</em>...<br/><br/>"Lea... you care about people, you have a great sense of empathy, and you can feel their pain... it's what makes you good at your job,"</strong>she's switched to Common now, then shifted up to give her son a kiss on the forehead as she was want to do.<strong>"I don't tell you the details because I know it will hurt you to hear them, and that is the absolute LAST thing I ever wish to do...<br/><br/>"So please my little princess, trust that because mommy loves you, she will give you all the details that you need to know to make knowledgeable, aware decisions that will keep you safe and happy, and everything about what is going on... but that the things I don't tell you will do nothing but bring you pain unnecessarily."</strong>she wrapped up, reaching her other hand up to hold her son's face gently, moving to press her forehead to his own.<strong>"Now we need to talk about the <em>larceny</em> you've apparently been committing as part of your job..."</strong><br/><br/>Her fingers dug into his jawline a little bit as her soft smile faded, and her eyes hardened into a glare as she stared into Lea's beautiful blue eyes; she was<em>not</em>happy about this...