Emberwood [m] You already know that it's hard to find gold in this crap disco

"I know," he replied, but the smile it brought to his face made it clear how touching he found the sentiment. It was one thing to know it for himself and quite another to have someone else believe the same. "You're pretty cool, too," he told her then, because it would be rude not to, and because his real feelings on the matter were too real.

Too good to be true.

The picture Reverie painted was a familiar one. Not even he had been raised in total seclusion. Once he was big enough to have a name, his parents grew far less violent. Some came. Some stayed. All, eventually, went.

"Well, fuck him," Dusty Rose said for her. "We'll make our own family." With blackjack and hookers! "Or, y'know. Make it bigger."

He looked apprehensive; overwhelmed, for all of a moment.