#scene in Suceed I've shared a million times already I feel. not that it matters that much ig

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

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Tagged by @diphthongsfordays ty!

Succeed (flashback)

I add chips to the center—calling or raising, I don’t remember, but it leads into us revealing our hands, and I watch his cards flip over, and my heart sinks. A face card that elevates his hand above mine, and he pulls the pile close to him, but instead of taking my cards to redeal, he leans forward and taps mine. I lean back in my chair—it’s lesson time. 

“Just because you have a hand that could win doesn’t mean it will,” he says. “You can’t just be thinking about how you can succeed. Look at the cards that are out, think about my actions.”

“I don’t know your bluffs. You don’t have bluffs,” I insist, wanting to move on, wanting to win back the pile of chips he has in front of him. 

“Don’t consider bluffs,” he says. “Decoding my behavior is good, but you can’t rely on it. Think about the deck,” he taps the stock pile, “think about my cards,” he taps his upturned cards, “and think about the actions, how often I raise. Think about what I’ve done in the past. Think I just win out of luck?”

Fail

“Yes, I understand how a hostage negotiation works, Abigail,” Raymond snapped. He looked at Jodi again, but didn’t say anything for a second, like he was looking her over for injuries. I didn't know if he could tell her legs couldn’t move. It might be more obvious on me, but the ropes made it look more due to restraints. “Terran?” He said, his voice full of concern and no, don’t be concerned for me, I failed you and I was trying to get you out of this and now it’s my own fault I’m stuck here.

Purpose

She crossed her arms. “Find anything in Jodi’s dorm?”

Your brother. “No.”

“You know, I didn't think you were like, completely trustworthy after our talk. But I thought you’d at least play it for more than five seconds.”

I could not do this right now. I could not navigate Mika right now. I had to evade Zachary for long enough to save Raymond. I needed my gun— it was in my desk drawer. She’d gotten in the room enough to block it. I tried to reach around her— she didn't move. Stubbornly. 

She continued. “Like really, what purpose did that serve? You could’ve played your game, strung me along for a while, gotten me to really give you something.”

“Mika, move,” I said. 

She didn’t. “Why did you go in my room?”

There wasn’t much use in denying it and that would take way too much effort right then. “I needed something. And I need something now, move.”

Numb

(Okay. So I'm really surprised that I don't have "numb" given the following scene being part of something major happening. I could give you a scene with "number" but instead I'm giving this snippet that says everything but "numb")

And then, in an instant, it was gone.

My muscles stopped twitching, relaxing in the binds, and almost as soon as they did, it was as if my limbs weren’t there. When I’d flinched I’d closed my eyes, but now I opened them again. My limbs were still there, I could see them, but all awareness was gone. I couldn’t feel them. Not my arms, my hands, my legs, my feet. Not even my chest. Everything above was still here— I was moving my head, I could feel my heart racing through the skin of my face and the air being drawn through my nose and down my throat, the pain in my face from Mika’s punch still radiated, and the caffeine headache was going strong. But everything below it was gone.

Even lacking awareness of my limbs, I tried to move. Nothing, even when staring straight at my legs. The way I was tied I could hardly see much of my body, so I can’t say for sure my fingers and toes didn’t respond, but I doubted it.

Protect

She was, as much as she tried to assert herself as better, part of a world that, like Zachary had, saw love as the only excuse for resisting their authority, and killing anyone who threatened them. I wasn’t even that much better, as I’d be happy, in that moment, to take my gun from her belt and pull the trigger right on her chest if it meant Raymond would be safe. But Raymond was better than that, and that was why I protected him. Abigail would never understand that.

Tagging @drippingmoon @calicojackofficial @oh-no-another-idea and anyone else who wants to (feel free to say I tagged you!)

Your words are: Safe, Strain, Stuck, Sink, Stare