oh TRUST i will be coming to collect you and your little gremlins !!

Her eyes don't meet his when the door opens. Spike immediately catches sight of the tape in her hand. He says nothing at first, just moves toward the couch, lighting a cigarette. Only the soft hiss of the lighter can be heard between them for a long moment. "Trouble's just a matter of opinion." he doesn't look over to her now, watching the smoke rings before him. "Some folks risk their necks for cash. Others for kicks." he shrugs, "Guess today it was for home movies." That'd been through half the solar system at this point. By now, he's casually walking over, "Don't know if that makes it better or worse." the cigarette dangling from his lips, "Mind if I.." slipping it from her hands carefully. With that, Spike turns it over once, examining it as he stands over her. "Huh." Turns it over again, handing it back.

He watches her for a moment as she admits she doesn't know what to do with it. "Then don't do anything." he takes another drag as he gestures towards the tape. Not everything had to mean something right away. "No one's stopping you from holding onto it 'til you figure it out." he shrugs, "Or you don't. That's your call."

as for Ein, he smirks to himself, closing his eyes a moment, "He's got better taste than that."

there are only a few things worse than spike than having a smoke and not her— such as spike being the voice of reason. who else would know best about risks if not him, really. in truth, a part of her is relieved to not hear him agree, even if she had braced herself for it. who knows the lengths she would’ve gone to find the beta player herself if she had let herself find out what it contained. she would do anything if it meant reaching the truth she can’t access by herself, through herself.

“well, it’s hard to resist the past when it calls, wouldn’t you say?” she says, half teasing, half a jab at him. if she focused intently, she could replay vicious’ voice message to gren. machinery, yet again, trapping people in a moment in time. faye finds a spot on the couch, kicking off her shoes and folding her legs. “it’s not fair. by now, you know more about me than i do you.” though, if anything, she should be discouraged; every time he has brushed shoulders with his past, someone gets hurt. somehow, she has come unscathed; in body, perhaps, but gren was a loose end that weighed heavy on her mind, still. even so, spike spiegel’s past had been the proverbial spaceship crash she couldn’t look away from.

“hey, just answer this for me, okay?” her voice again, but this time, quieter. she turns her head to stare at the screen despite it being turned off, as though something else might start playing again. “you think we would’ve gotten along as kids? i mean, now you know what i was like.”

@lustraveil + starter.

there’s comfort to be found in the corridor’s quietness, her back pressed to the steel as she sits on the floor. her fingers don’t quite know how to hold the video tape. the cassette feels foreign,and not because it doesn’t belong to this era.what she has seen… faye wonders if she would ever know. faintly, she hears steps nearing. by the near imperceptible quality of them, she knows who they belong to. “not the kind of movie you’d go all that trouble for, huh.”

holding the tape up for one last time, she hugs it close to her, finally sparing him a glance. she supposes she should feel embarrassed by the fact they all had watched something so intimate, but the truth is, she doesn’t know what to feel at all. more importantly: “…i don’t know what to do with it,“ and the admission is so plain that it borders on dumb, even to her. it’s true, however, that if she can’t guess an object’s value by a glance, it’s as good as useless. she thinks, humorlessly, that it’s a shame technology hasn’t been able to put a price on memories, then.

her head tips back, groaning, "you think ein might like to chew it?”