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Handsome Jack here! I'm way too busy being awesome to answer the phone, but tell me why you're calling and if you're important enough, your people will hear from my people.

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I don't care if you're a shit cook, I'm desperate for anything that doesn't come out of a foil bag.

[Jack doesn't like to eat this way, but he hasn't had much choice. He'll eat whatever the hell she puts in front of him.]

Everything's stocked. Use whatever, I don't care.

[He shifts on the couch, half propping himself up. His head swims and he presses the heel of his hand against his forehead. Shit. He still feels awful.]

Hey, bring me a cola, would you, princess? Gotta take a pill. A cold one, not one of the ones in the cabinet.

[A minute or two later, she returns with a can of cola, just as asked. It reminds her of her original reason for coming by, but... Maybe it's better to leave the wine as a surprise for when he isn't on a high dosage of pain killers.

Once she has handed the can off to him, she continues to hover nearby, fingers twisting into the cloth of her skirt.]

Um... It's okay if you don't want to talk about it now, but when we talked on the phone, you weren't very clear about what happened.

Thanks.

[He pops the can and washes down his handful of pills with a large swig. The caffeine should do him some good. He's at least propped upright now.]

This psychotic chick who's got it in for me decided to use the first flimsy excuse she could sink her fingers into to break into my house and beat me to death.

[It's not like Manaka's a little kid, she can handle the truth about what happened. He doesn't see any reason to try and make it sound like anything it wasn't. Besides, he wants the sympathy.]

Stay away from a woman named Athena. She's...she's no good.

Mm, I gathered most of that, but...

[She purses her lips together for a moment, then offers him a sheepish smile.]

Sorry. I guess I'm just worried. [Nosy is more like it. She still isn't used to not knowing things.] Do you think there's a chance she'll come back, or...?

I dunno. She shouldn't have in the first place, this...this is not her fight. There shouldn't even be a fight, she's all pissed off 'cause of something that she's got nothing to do with.

[Number Two, Timothy L, whoever...he had sold Jack his life. Jack literally owned him, and had full control over his physical appearance. And if he had a problem with what had happened, that was his to deal with. Not Athena's.]

She hates me. She's hated me for years, apparently. Y'see, sweetheart, I'm the guy who not only has to make the hard choices, I can make'em. And she's never liked that, I guess. Thinks she's so much better than me, such a better person.

[Jack snorts.]

[She had been playing around, maintaining this relationship like a tool to be used. That reply strikes something in her, though, in a way she hadn't expected.

To be isolated by your vision. To have those who couldn't grasp it rage against you. She had only done what she had to, and yet...

When she answers, she can feel her heartbeat in her chest.]

Because she doesn't understand. [All at once, her tone is quiet, its childlike sweetness missing.] No matter how clear the truth may seem to you, she could never grasp it. After all... Rats are clever, but they're still just animals in the end.

[Well what do ya know. That's an answer that Jack's not expecting, but is damn pleased to hear. Now that...that is encouraging. He knew he liked this kid for a reason. He lifts a hand and clicks his fingers at Manaka, in the 'you got it' gesture.]

Rats can fetch, you know. Go and get something and bring it back to ya. Athena could fetch, too. Not as well, but.... hell, what did I expect? I knew she was a messed up chick when I hired her, I thought that would work in my favor.

But you...you've nailed it, princess. She doesn't understand, none of'em do. They'd rather wallow in shit and eat garbage on a festering pus hole of a planet than let me fix things! I try and help, I devote my god damned life to helping those ungrateful sons of taints, and this is what I get?

[Talk about skagshit. No. No, this is not gonna stand. None of it.]

Mm, and that's why you're more than they are. Even in a place like this, that hasn't changed.

[Just as quickly as that change came over her, though, it's gone again, a bright smile breaking over Manaka's face.]

—Ah, but I was going to make you something to eat, wasn't I? Rest up, I'll have things ready in just a bit!

[Maybe she'll slip the wine in the fridge on the way.]

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