A.Journal

Checks

Challenging

GROTESQUE MISUSE OF PARTY COLOURS.

Medium

He averts his eyes from you and your attempts to converse.

Medium

He is very excited to say the word 'legit'.

Challenging

Trying to think of an insult. He doesn't like that your name is cooler than his.

Medium

His voice lowers an octave.

Medium

You've asked an open-ended question to a teenager. Try again, laser focus.

Challenging

He turns his head to look sideways at you, like one might at a crackhead or a priest.

Medium

He widens his stance, stretching his layers taut like a molting beetle.

Medium

His voice breaks as he speaks.

Medium

He doesn't know what apathy means.

Challenging

Medium

Medium

"I'm sea-riously into you"!

Medium

"We're two peas in a pod". Shit, no. Fuck off.

Medium

LOVE IS BOURGEOIS.

Challenging

He'd rather have the girl.

Formidable

A high dose of adrenaline from such a small source. You were like that before the world got to you.

Medium

And what? We can get big headphones. Bigger ones.

Medium

Like a pig looking at wind, trying to contemplate the invisible force pushing against it.

Medium

He's certain of his skill, as amateurs often are.

Medium

Aw, give him something.

Medium

You try to picture any of your old assets saying those words -- and come up blank.

Medium

Doesn't know much, this one.

Medium

You're scaring him.

Easy

Impressive. No way this kid's a board inspector; whoever sent him on this 'mission' is way scarier than any pencil pusher.

Easy

Interesting... his controller must be far more frightening than a medical board executive.

Easy

He's willing to bleed for this; whoever sent him is way scarier than any board inspector.

Easy

He is seventeen years old. He is not with the medical board.

Easy

And what if he pretends to know less than he does?

Easy

School can be crüel.

Easy

This boy is not a board narc, CASCADE.

Easy

Medium

He keeps glancing left to right -- nervous, cagey. But he seemed to add that last bit out of a sense of moral duty.

Medium

That did not look cool at all.

Medium

"Brace yourself." (Pry him.)

Medium

Medium

Medium

PROUDLY PROLETARIAN.

Medium

"What mission are you on? Who sent you?"

Easy

He shrinks, as if someone let the air out of his jacket.

Medium

Impenetrable armour.

Medium

We're not crying we're squeezing out fucking heart toxins or some shit. Fuck this guy.

Medium

He doesn't know what 'mercurial' means, you nonce.

Challenging

That's a word he learned very recently.

Easy

He twitches sheepishly in his armour of puffy fabric.

Medium

Finally, some fucking fanfare around here!

Easy

'Embroiled' also didn't land.

Medium

SO HE HAS BEEN WORKING FOR THE GOVERNMENT FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS.

Easy

This persona will serve the boy well.

Medium

Must be. Yana trusted him too.