The effort to take the bad news in stride doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated, Jess regards the man with a small smile. "You can say that again."
This, all of this... it's easy enough for Jess to handle, bitter mouthful though it is to swallow; his youth means only that he's had to pack plenty of other bitter experiences into fewer years. When stacked up, they make kidnapping and imprisonment seem more or less like the next step in a progressively worsening situation. If not these mysterious kidnappers, the Library would've made a move on him eventually. He's alive. That's something a part of him hadn't expected he'd still be after all this time.
But not everyone's faced these kinds of poor odds before. That the man stays calm and keeps his wits about him does him credit. Jess thinks he'll probably fit in quite well. This town sports a number of surprisingly tough and resilient people.
"And yes, two," he answers. "One with some survival gear, and one with another change of clothes. It's like we're rats in a maze, pushing levers for cheese. They're biggest move to date has been to leave a number of crates with primitive sorts of weapons inside for us to find, color-coded by our scrubs. Other than that, your guess as to who's behind this is as good as mine."
no subject
This, all of this... it's easy enough for Jess to handle, bitter mouthful though it is to swallow; his youth means only that he's had to pack plenty of other bitter experiences into fewer years. When stacked up, they make kidnapping and imprisonment seem more or less like the next step in a progressively worsening situation. If not these mysterious kidnappers, the Library would've made a move on him eventually. He's alive. That's something a part of him hadn't expected he'd still be after all this time.
But not everyone's faced these kinds of poor odds before. That the man stays calm and keeps his wits about him does him credit. Jess thinks he'll probably fit in quite well. This town sports a number of surprisingly tough and resilient people.
"And yes, two," he answers. "One with some survival gear, and one with another change of clothes. It's like we're rats in a maze, pushing levers for cheese. They're biggest move to date has been to leave a number of crates with primitive sorts of weapons inside for us to find, color-coded by our scrubs. Other than that, your guess as to who's behind this is as good as mine."