The thirty-something really didn’t know how to take the phrase, instead labeling it as some semblance of a joke. It drew a small smile and a shake of the head. “…probably.” He murmured in reply, stealing a glance at his muse in the process.

How quickly things had changed. He had been well-set on the idea of being stumped, reaching that point that practically every great discovery hit before the breakthrough, bleak nothing. But..with the discovery of a muse, and said muse proving himself as exactly what he said, Ford Pines hadn’t really held anything back.

Voicing concerns or irritations over this theory or that, voicing his own no matter how skewed without being judged…it was more than comforting for a mind which had always spent far too long trying to keep opinions of itself from others high enough.

POSSESSION STARTERS || STILL ACCEPTING.

Well, since that I’m dealin’ with some triangular demon thatwants to see the world burn, maybe I should be. But as far as I’m concerned, there ain’t nothin’ you can do to me thatI can’t handle.

[A balled-up fist readily punched the palm of his spare hand,indicative of his fighting spirit.]