#strex!au

NEVER | NOT REALLY | MAYBE | NOT BAD | MMMMM | HELL YES | TAKE ME NOW | THERE GO MY PANTSSereno eyed the weapon in front of him.  He picked it up carefully, checking the chambers for ammunition.  None."How long did it take you to rifle around for the courage for this one, dear?  Because, well, shoot, I'm going to bite the bullet here, I'm not interested in this at all.  Anything that'd work probably would pistol you off when you realized that you'd have to clean and fix this poor thing."  He stuck his tongue out as he grimaced.  "And it tastes disgusting."He set the firearm down again, smiling warm and sweet.  "That said, perhaps roleplaying maintenance, or using one as some sort of surrogate could do the trick.  Provided neither of us damages your guns that way."

Bonus Round:

Strex!AU: NEVER | NOT REALLY | MAYBE | NOT BAD | MMMMM | HELL YES | TAKE ME NOW | THERE GO MY PANTS

Okay, short version: Strex!Sereno is a bad end, plain and simple.  He's broken.  Re-education ruined something in Sereno, and he... isn't quite hollow, that'd imply he can be filled up, but he's diminished and for all intents and purposes, he is not a Desert Bluffs Carlos.   He's still sweet and well-meaning, but he's numb and fixing him would require destruction, time, and forces beyond Sereno's reckoning.  And a shitload of pain.

Sereno in Pine Cliff is different and... more dangerous.  The things that Strex had to break to make him complacent are still whole, the things that helped him stay alive in academia.  Nerves, cleverness, kindness when possible, and a ruthlessness he doesn't like to talk about.

It's frankly a surprise Sereno isn't terrified of claws.  What damaged his left eye was a goddamn librarian's claw.

But it happened so fast that he only registered pain, blood, and darkness on the left side of his vision, and that pain sharpened his focus on surviving.  He knows academically what took out his eye, but there's the small mercy of it not happening slowly.

Sereno swallowed, inching back slowly as he tried not to scream or panic more than he already was.