The screaming The screaming the screaming the[i]screamingscreamingscreaming--[/i] … The screaming? The screaming. The screaming isn't in her ears. It's not in her ears and she blesses the quickness of the quiet sheep that, she notes, is being so quiet that you might miss that he's not here if you stop to listen, if [i]she[/i] stops to listen-- She coughs, dry heaves, and spits, "Oh, like [i]your[/i[ shit doesn't stink!" The words sound phony in her ears. Fake, trembling, like a scared little girl trying to stand up to mommy. But she says them anyway, because… Keep her here. Keep her angry. Keep her distracted. Keep her paying attention. Time to dance, once more--dance on the edge of disaster, dance just forward of the crest of the wave, dance without the purple pounding in her temples-- Do you think it hurts to disintegrate, or do you even have time to notice? "Talking about instincts, responses, programming, pineal glands, camouflage!" She can feel the rant building, feel the panic rising, feel the urge to shut it down, be normal be--No! No! Louder! Harder! As annoying as possible, weaponizing as many of the-- Think of all the times she's found an invisible line where apparently politeness turns into friendship-ruining rudeness, and push those buttons for all she's worth, and-- "Do you [i]never[/i] shut the fuck up? As if you're not dancing on any strings of your own! No, no, of course, how silly! You, alone out of anyone--out of [i]everyone[/i], gods, mortals, administrators, servitors--in the entire universe are truly able to see the whole picture and make the hard decisions that nobody else understands, free of the sin of being manipulated!" She's not arguing well, but that's the [i]point.[/i] She's never going to convince this asshole, but she doesn’t [i]have[/i] to. She's coiled like a spring next to a barrel of gunpowder for the moment Demeter moves, but-- Hell, this is fun! She's having fun, see? See her [i]laugh[/i] at you, Demeter? See these big rosy cheeks, doesn't it just--Doesn't it just make you wanna smite her? Smite her! Do it! "As if that fuckin' [i]matters![/i] As if you, and every one of the gods, aren't just as emotionally compromised as we are!"