[Fugo notices everything. That's part of why Giorno reached out to him, specifically. There is no one else better equipped to spot finnicky holes in a plan and able to neatly stitch them up the way that Fugo is.]
[That's the trouble here. Riley is the knife that ripped the fabric, and Riley is the needle. If he doesn't provide the truth, he doesn't know if Fugo will be equipped to help him at all.]
. . . I thought I might not explain. It's very personal to her, but at the same time all of this starts with her. So I'll do my best to balance . . . her privacy, and the children's needs.
[He doesn't need to say anything out loud, so he doesn't; just taps his claws uncertainly on his glass. If worst comes to worst, Riley will not be top priority. Not over children. Once upon a time, he would have thought she'd understand that instinctively. Now he really doesn't know.]
We've spoken a great deal about many very personal subjects. [His fingers still, as if frozen; his gaze flickers up to meet Fugo's.] You may have noticed some similarities between us, with what happened a few months back. Those are the sorts of things we talked about. Things that were and what we are now.
[The same, and the same. Or that's what he thought. Now he really doesn't know.]
She fell asleep. She experienced something. I knew it would be bad when she woke up. But . . .
[The surface of the water, which he's gone back to staring into, is interrupted every few moments by his own breathing. This reminds him that he's present and affecting the world around him in one small, meaningless way. As hopeless as all of this feels, he's not entirely paralyzed.]
Two weeks ago, Persephone Orphanage had three staff and ten children. Every night, Riley is murdering a parent she has hand-selected, then taking their child — or children — to the orphanage, where she threatens those three staff with death if they don't take appropriate care of them.
She is showing no sign of stopping. In fact, if she stops on her own, I'll be shocked.
no subject
[That's the trouble here. Riley is the knife that ripped the fabric, and Riley is the needle. If he doesn't provide the truth, he doesn't know if Fugo will be equipped to help him at all.]
. . . I thought I might not explain. It's very personal to her, but at the same time all of this starts with her. So I'll do my best to balance . . . her privacy, and the children's needs.
[He doesn't need to say anything out loud, so he doesn't; just taps his claws uncertainly on his glass. If worst comes to worst, Riley will not be top priority. Not over children. Once upon a time, he would have thought she'd understand that instinctively. Now he really doesn't know.]
We've spoken a great deal about many very personal subjects. [His fingers still, as if frozen; his gaze flickers up to meet Fugo's.] You may have noticed some similarities between us, with what happened a few months back. Those are the sorts of things we talked about. Things that were and what we are now.
[The same, and the same. Or that's what he thought. Now he really doesn't know.]
She fell asleep. She experienced something. I knew it would be bad when she woke up. But . . .
[The surface of the water, which he's gone back to staring into, is interrupted every few moments by his own breathing. This reminds him that he's present and affecting the world around him in one small, meaningless way. As hopeless as all of this feels, he's not entirely paralyzed.]
Two weeks ago, Persephone Orphanage had three staff and ten children. Every night, Riley is murdering a parent she has hand-selected, then taking their child — or children — to the orphanage, where she threatens those three staff with death if they don't take appropriate care of them.
She is showing no sign of stopping. In fact, if she stops on her own, I'll be shocked.