Their situations are remarkably similar without Pepper having to draw any parallels on her own.
"Yeah, me too. It's not the only time Keeliai has meant a second chance for someone, either. A lot of my closest friends have left pretty bloody pasts behind them, and everyone here has secrets. The turtle has a type," she says quietly. Her boyfriend tried to end the world twice and had murdered a number of people, one of her best friends had murdered him and tried to end her world, and many of her other friends have a laundry list of crimes that haunt them.
"I know this probably isn't what you want to hear." No one likes being confronted by their problems, especially by mere acquaintances. "And you're right, we don't know each other very well. I'm sorry to bring it up like this, but I didn't want to pretend I didn't know I wasn't getting the full story when I actually did. I told you I'm a bad liar, anyway." Pepper fiddles with her mug for a few seconds, thinking. "I guess what I'm trying to say is... you can tell me to drop it, but I can't. I can't pretend I don't know that something else is going on with you. I can try not to push too hard on the why, but I'll give you fair warning that I don't let go of things very easily." Or at all, really. "I'd like to get to know you better, and that means getting to know all of you, not just the nice parts. I already know the darker bits are there, I just don't know what they are," she reasons. "So. Offer's open, if you want to tell me what's happened, and it'll stay open until whenever you're ready or until you go home. Side note, though. I'm going to keep caring about you even if you don't tell me."
no subject
"Yeah, me too. It's not the only time Keeliai has meant a second chance for someone, either. A lot of my closest friends have left pretty bloody pasts behind them, and everyone here has secrets. The turtle has a type," she says quietly. Her boyfriend tried to end the world twice and had murdered a number of people, one of her best friends had murdered him and tried to end her world, and many of her other friends have a laundry list of crimes that haunt them.
"I know this probably isn't what you want to hear." No one likes being confronted by their problems, especially by mere acquaintances. "And you're right, we don't know each other very well. I'm sorry to bring it up like this, but I didn't want to pretend I didn't know I wasn't getting the full story when I actually did. I told you I'm a bad liar, anyway." Pepper fiddles with her mug for a few seconds, thinking. "I guess what I'm trying to say is... you can tell me to drop it, but I can't. I can't pretend I don't know that something else is going on with you. I can try not to push too hard on the why, but I'll give you fair warning that I don't let go of things very easily." Or at all, really. "I'd like to get to know you better, and that means getting to know all of you, not just the nice parts. I already know the darker bits are there, I just don't know what they are," she reasons. "So. Offer's open, if you want to tell me what's happened, and it'll stay open until whenever you're ready or until you go home. Side note, though. I'm going to keep caring about you even if you don't tell me."