[ Trevor is different at the knitting group. They're warm, familiar, and they bring out something that he probably ought to have been, a part of him that he was robbed of. He makes stupid puns and he listens intently to stories about friends of friends of friends and he volunteers for little jobs that will come up during the week, from the Belmont-relevant to things fixing a roof before the stormy season or helping Florence with her broken car. He smiles in ways that aren't sneers and he talks about dogs and complains about the heat even as the rest of the group laughs at him because summer is only just starting. Even Alucard's presence doesn't affect this, and he talks to him as he would to anyone else in the room. And he's bright, and he's warm, and it's gone the moment he leaves.

Florence rides back with them, and he keeps up conversation with her easily enough, but it's stiffer now. Cooler. And then once she's gone, the struggle returns. He's not talking to Adrian, who Bunicuta knew since he was three, any more. He's talking to the lord of this city. The man who has to keep this shit under control. And so the only thing he can force out of his mouth is intelligence. ]

It doesn't do permanent damage, that spell on Godbrand. She's been doing it since I came here. And he knows. He just won't do anything about it, because Agatha terrifies him.

[ Conversation is hard. ]