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(This post can be used for game continuations or one-on-one meetings! It can also be used as a general 'call me out' post for Maya. Please specify in the title if it's an ingame thread or not, and if not, which canon point/RP version you'd like! Feel free to write a scenario for the latter, or let me know what kind of thread you're looking for and I'll set up a scenario for you)

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[It's still unnerving when he looks at her like that. She can't even see his eyes since his sunglasses, but she feels like he's looking right through her, and it makes her self-conscious, especially considering what she's talking about. She glances away, fidgeting, but can still feel him looking at her. He'd probably think it's stupid, right? Even she's starting to think it's stupid, when she says it out loud]

I mean..... I can't fight, or hack, or do anything that really helps in missions, right? [She gets in the way, like Jon said] Sooo, I'm not really any good to the team.

[So maybe Giovanni's not the only one who was raised to believe he was worthless, hmm]

[And yet, when he responds, there's nothing in his demeanour to suggests he believes her concerns to be stupid. Quite the contrary, really-- in many ways, it's a position he understands, something he knows right down to the centre of himself.]

And yet you've made it along this far, haven't you?

[He shrugs, and there's a moment's delay, a fraction hesitation before he continues on because really, he isn't accustomed to speaking like this. But--]

I can fight, but there have been many a time when I felt I served no purpose on this team, where my own skills seemed to be...misplaced, shall we say. Some of our number even told me as much, that my way of doing things wasn't welcome here. But in the end, there have been times where I've pulled my weight. Sometimes in ways I wouldn't have expected, or believed possible, once. I'm sure there are things you can do, or have done, during your stay here. Skills that could be adapted, if remaining here is what you wanted.

[She's pretty surprised by Giovanni's response -- she doesn't believe them to be in the same category at all, since she's always kind of thought of him as very capable, if a little.... weird, and off. She sort of knows what he's talking about, too; how divisive the team was on moral fights and how contentious those fights could be. She'd seen plenty of it even if she hadn't been present when the Perdition's Rest drama had happened -- it had cropped up again, in Woodhurst]

.... Barely. It's not like I chose to be here, and.... well, I might seem like I'm tough, [Does she really give off that impression?] but I.... I don't wanna be left behind, either.

[And she knows he'll get that, and maybe even the implications behind it. Strange as it is for her to process, he seems to understand her point of view, too, from experience -- different experience, same feeling. But Maya doesn't think he was never pulling his weight]

Do you really think so?

[She certainly has doubts]

[Not physically tough, perhaps, not from his perspective. But resilient-- far moreso than he. He knows a thing or two about concealing one's true feelings, about putting on the trappings of strength when underneath lies fractured chaos, but he'd never got that impression from her. She could be irritating, and difficult to understand, but always seemed to come across as someone who knew how to withstand adversity without losing any part of herself. There's a lot to be said for that, as far as he's concerned.

And yes, of course he understands the fear of being left behind, understands it right down to the bones, and he gives her a perfunctory nod at that, just once, sharp and final.

Then her question comes, and at last he shows her his crooked smile. Raises one thin blond brow.]

Do I strike you as the sort to hand out empty platitudes?

[Hint: he isn't that sort at all.]

Well, you don't seem the type to keep flowers, either, but you have them.

[But she gets what he's saying. It's hard for her to process --- she doesn't fully believe it, doesn't know if she can believe it, but she isn't going to argue when he's being kind to her. So she gives him a little wan smile.] ... But thanks.

[It's unexpected, to say the least, she always thought of herself as someone who just annoyed him and nothing more --- but it's not the first time she's seen kindness from people she wouldn't have necessarily expected it from. She pauses]

.... Would you miss me if I left?

[She grins, and says it lightly, like she's joking or teasing, but she does look a interested in the answer]

[Does he look shy when she mentions the flowers? A little self-conscious? Perhaps there's an infinitesimal hint of such things written into the angles of his face, but perhaps you're imagining things.

And he'd understand, were she to say such things aloud, the doubts she can't bypass, a disbelief in her sense of worth. He feels those same feelings down to the centre of himself, after all, knocking hollow against his bones, ever-present and unrelenting. Hard not to, after a lifetime of being informed of one's worthlessness. But she doesn't speak it aloud, instead asks another question, and although the denial is right there on the tip of his tongue, the little scoff, the sarcastic comment--

--ultimately, it doesn't come. Instead there's a heavy moment of silence instead, whilst he debates with himself over whether it's really something he can say. But for all he knows she'll decide to leave, ultimately, and if it can't be said in a moment like this, perhaps it never can be. As such--]

Yes.

[Unlike her, he sounds quite serious. Quite solemn.]

[She's starting to pick up on his little muted gesture, little by little, and him being embarrassed by the flowers was probably the first thing she noticed. He reacts when she brings it up again too, so it's still a sore subject, apparently.]

[If Maya were the type to vocalize those feelings out loud on her own, they'd be having a different conversation. But alas, she's more likely to make a joke out of her own fears and pains or hide them entirely and put on a smile for the sake of the people around her. She's starting to count Giovanni as one of those people -- someone she wants to be strong for, to try to coax him out of his shell a little more.]

[Still, while she was teasing, she's pretty surprised by the answer she hears. At best, she'd considered herself to be a minor annoyance in his eyes, but apparently she did leave some kind of mark. Her eyes widen initially, at the admission --- she's clearly shocked by the answer, and she stares openly at him for a second or two. Her natural instinct, following, is to laugh or make some kind of joke to bypass the emotion, and she uses all of her self-restraint to hold back, because she gets the feeling he wouldn't take it well if she laughed at him, even if it's good-natured]

Weeeellll.......

Lucky for you, I'm sticking around, huh?

[It looks like she did make up her mind after all.] You won't get rid of me that easily, Giovanni.

[She dropped the "mister"....]

[A small and unknown commonality between them then (at least, unknown to him), the propensity to hide truer, deeper emotions behind a carefully constructed facade that one, in the end, comes to expect and believes to be a true part of one's personality. His facade may be quite different, all cold smiles and impassivity, but it's a facade nonetheless, just one he's been wearing for so long that he no longer knows just where it ends and where he really begins.

No matter. He waits out her moment of wide-eyed silence, a further dose of self-consciousness already beginning to sink in before she breaks the growing stillness with her words. No mister this time, no, and he does notice it. Prefers it.

He smiles, small and sharp yes, but perhaps there's something visibly genuine lurking around its hard edges.]

What luck, indeed.

[His tone is a little wry, yes, but the truth is there's more than a small measure of relief in him on hearing her admission.]

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