[ The tea is poured carefully, the sugar set out thoughtfully, and Wise — kind of has to bump it against one palm and then the other before he catches that thumb drive, but it's not too undignified a catch, at least. He looks it over with an analytical eye. The pins seem standard, but someone went through the trouble of giving it a custom cable clip and connector shell, which means whatever it is, it's important, and they had the budget to spend on little details — ]
...You came here because you wanted me to decrypt this for you?
[ Oh...
This is the kind of thing that gets his heart racing.
In some ways, Wise has been bored. Oh, sure, he does lots of things nowadays, but none of them are intellectually stimulating. Fairy does the bulk of the work that he and his sister used to handle jointly, and while Wise doesn't trust the AI in the least, he also can't fault Belle's logic in using her. Why not take advantage of her capabilities, seeing as she's already infiltrated their system? Why not use her, when she's seemingly obligated to help them?
So he gets it — but he doesn't. He'd be willing to admit that maybe he's the wrong one, between the two of them. Perhaps Belle has simply not forgotten that they became Proxies to investigate the Hollows, whereas he got mixed up in some sense of having pride in his own work as one half of the legendary Phaethon. Maybe he should never have developed this pride; it's irrelevant to their mission, he knows that himself. But even so, Wise — Wise wants to be something more than someone who relies on a supercomputer to get things done.
Wise wants to prove to himself that he's worth the money he's been chasing all this time.
He looks down at the thumb drive instead of at Hugo's devilishly handsome face (so strangely appraising; why is he always so evaluating? what is there to look at, with those eyes?). Flips it a few times between his fingers, not unlike the way Hugo himself often passes a coin between his digits. It's not an intentional mirroring. Wise is thinking. He doesn't sit down. He's forgotten about his tea. ]
What do I get for helping you?
[ The question sounds quietly cautious, a challenge in the tone of it: Tell me what I'm worth. But it's basically a formality. Wise is already looking at that thumb drive the way some men might look at a lover. ]
no subject
...You came here because you wanted me to decrypt this for you?
[ Oh...
This is the kind of thing that gets his heart racing.
In some ways, Wise has been bored. Oh, sure, he does lots of things nowadays, but none of them are intellectually stimulating. Fairy does the bulk of the work that he and his sister used to handle jointly, and while Wise doesn't trust the AI in the least, he also can't fault Belle's logic in using her. Why not take advantage of her capabilities, seeing as she's already infiltrated their system? Why not use her, when she's seemingly obligated to help them?
So he gets it — but he doesn't. He'd be willing to admit that maybe he's the wrong one, between the two of them. Perhaps Belle has simply not forgotten that they became Proxies to investigate the Hollows, whereas he got mixed up in some sense of having pride in his own work as one half of the legendary Phaethon. Maybe he should never have developed this pride; it's irrelevant to their mission, he knows that himself. But even so, Wise — Wise wants to be something more than someone who relies on a supercomputer to get things done.
Wise wants to prove to himself that he's worth the money he's been chasing all this time.
He looks down at the thumb drive instead of at Hugo's devilishly handsome face (so strangely appraising; why is he always so evaluating? what is there to look at, with those eyes?). Flips it a few times between his fingers, not unlike the way Hugo himself often passes a coin between his digits. It's not an intentional mirroring. Wise is thinking. He doesn't sit down. He's forgotten about his tea. ]
What do I get for helping you?
[ The question sounds quietly cautious, a challenge in the tone of it: Tell me what I'm worth. But it's basically a formality. Wise is already looking at that thumb drive the way some men might look at a lover. ]