Marlowe
I threw myself into the final showcase build with a focus that bordered on desperation, hands moving through familiar motions late into the night, chasing the particular relief of a problem I actually knew how to solve while the larger, unsolvable one loomed over everything else.
If the ceremony was coming regardless — if there was truly no safe path around it — then I intended to walk into that yard having earned every scrap of respect this club had ever given me, on merit, with my own two hands, whatever happened once the shift itself demanded something I couldn't deliver.
King found me there past midnight, and didn't say anything about the hour, just settled onto the stool across from me the way he had that very first week, watching in comfortable silence for a long while bef
