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tbh it’s very difficult to explain mara without sounding like i’m exaggerating, and i don’t want to do that because the truth is already enough.

“You move through the garage like it belongs to you,” he says at last, voice even, almost conversational, as if this were an observation made in passing rather than something chosen. “People adjust when you enter. They slow down, sometimes they correct themselves.” A faint pause, his attention sharpening just slightly. “It is useful. It keeps things from breaking in ways that are difficult to repair.” Cassian fingers tap once, lightly, against the surface of the desk before stilling again. There is nothing restless in the motion. Everything about him remains controlled, deliberate, contained. “And yet,” he continues, leaning back just enough to study him properly now, “there are things beginning to slip.” He doesn't raise his voice to Elias, Cassian has learned how to command respect without needing to yell for it. “Sector two, for example. The tire response, the timing on entry....small inconsistencies, the kind no one else would notice because they are too busy watching her win.” A faint shift of his expression, not quite a smile, not quite anything at all. “I notice.” His gaze does not leave Elias. “She doesn't make mistakes like that,” Cassian says, more quietly now, though the weight of it lands heavier for it. There is something almost clinical in the way he speaks of her, but it does not quite hide the undercurrent beneath it. Not to someone like Elias. Not to someone who has been watching as long as he has. He rises then, unhurried, crossing the room with the same quiet precision that defines everything he does. He stops a short distance from Elias, close enough to make the space between them feel intentional. “You have been with her longer than anyone here,” he says, tone shifting just slightly, not softer, but more pointed. “Long enough to know the difference between pressure and decline.” He lets the words settle, a pause for anger. “Which makes this your responsibility before it becomes mine.” His gaze flicks briefly toward the glass wall, toward the distant outline of the track, before returning just as steadily. “I invest in outcomes, Elias. In consistency. In control.” A faint tilt of his head, studying him now with something quieter, more deliberate. “And she is the most valuable thing this team has. And I do not tolerate instability in what belongs to me.”