[Hm. He presses his lips together, not-smiling.] Good for you. I'm pretty good at keeping quiet.
[Which isn't the point. Steve knows what he's up to because he has cheat codes. It should be more annoying than it is, which is maybe five percent. He does wonder why this doesn't feel as threatening as it did with Riley, given that they have the same information. Maybe it's the deliberate way Steve has been proceeding, or the fact that here there's less to lose, or the tension of his and Riley's too-alikeness.]
[Maybe it's because he's got cheat codes, too. Either way, it's obvious this is the answer he wanted to hear, because he does allow himself to smile after all.]
Then later is fine. Come on.
[No points for guessing where he's taking them: it's the garden, because of course there is one. It's not far from the front entrance in the grand scheme of how big Hill House is overall, and as they pass other doors and halls it becomes clear the place resembles an expansive, well-lit warren more than anything else. The path from the front door transitions smoothly to the garden, vegetation cropping up on either side until suddenly the path is replaced by cobblestones and everything is green. Daylight creeps in through what look like bubbles in the ceiling. The moment they cross the barely-perceptible threshold, Giorno's smile widens, and he hums, seeming instantly more relaxed.]
[There's a short, bushy tree in one corner, which also contains a messy patch of vibrantly-colored plants. He makes a beeline for it and, eschewing the perfectly reasonable adjacent stone bench, just sits down cross-legged in the roots of the tree.]
no subject
[Which isn't the point. Steve knows what he's up to because he has cheat codes. It should be more annoying than it is, which is maybe five percent. He does wonder why this doesn't feel as threatening as it did with Riley, given that they have the same information. Maybe it's the deliberate way Steve has been proceeding, or the fact that here there's less to lose, or the tension of his and Riley's too-alikeness.]
[Maybe it's because he's got cheat codes, too. Either way, it's obvious this is the answer he wanted to hear, because he does allow himself to smile after all.]
Then later is fine. Come on.
[No points for guessing where he's taking them: it's the garden, because of course there is one. It's not far from the front entrance in the grand scheme of how big Hill House is overall, and as they pass other doors and halls it becomes clear the place resembles an expansive, well-lit warren more than anything else. The path from the front door transitions smoothly to the garden, vegetation cropping up on either side until suddenly the path is replaced by cobblestones and everything is green. Daylight creeps in through what look like bubbles in the ceiling. The moment they cross the barely-perceptible threshold, Giorno's smile widens, and he hums, seeming instantly more relaxed.]
[There's a short, bushy tree in one corner, which also contains a messy patch of vibrantly-colored plants. He makes a beeline for it and, eschewing the perfectly reasonable adjacent stone bench, just sits down cross-legged in the roots of the tree.]
Tada. Comparatively weirder, or less weird?