[ it was a theory that tseng came up with before rufus was here, absolutely, and at the time he'd put it together, tseng hadn't bothered to follow it through to that particular conclusion. having said it aloud now, tseng's mind takes a similar path and arrives at that endpoint, and his brow very nearly furrows in a minute motion.
rufus, then, neatly forestalls any further musing on the subject by making tseng very nearly choke on his bite. he doesn't—in fact, he doesn't even cough—but he does immediately reach for his whiskey to down the rest of it along with the offending bite, which has a side benefit of buying him a moment to compose himself. ]
...Yes, sir.
[ a pause, and then tseng reaches to flip his notebook open to a set of pages in the back, marked by nothing but the feel of the edges. in it he's been making notes of his "activities," although out of respect for his partners' privacy the notes are extremely sparse: just the symbol of their suit, their rank, and a shorthand note to indicate something about time and place.
there are, in total, 33 encounters noted on that page; on the facing page is a balance sheet that tallies up the compensation provided by the house, as well as weekly totals of funds earned from other sources. ]
I also gamble. [ it likely won't surprise rufus to know that tseng has a good poker face. ] So I don't have to rely entirely on—one income stream.
no subject
rufus, then, neatly forestalls any further musing on the subject by making tseng very nearly choke on his bite. he doesn't—in fact, he doesn't even cough—but he does immediately reach for his whiskey to down the rest of it along with the offending bite, which has a side benefit of buying him a moment to compose himself. ]
...Yes, sir.
[ a pause, and then tseng reaches to flip his notebook open to a set of pages in the back, marked by nothing but the feel of the edges. in it he's been making notes of his "activities," although out of respect for his partners' privacy the notes are extremely sparse: just the symbol of their suit, their rank, and a shorthand note to indicate something about time and place.
there are, in total, 33 encounters noted on that page; on the facing page is a balance sheet that tallies up the compensation provided by the house, as well as weekly totals of funds earned from other sources. ]
I also gamble. [ it likely won't surprise rufus to know that tseng has a good poker face. ] So I don't have to rely entirely on—one income stream.