Luckily for Silco (and Ekko, in the long run), he's not really a spontaneous fistfight kind of guy. That's not to say he wouldn't ever initiate one, but his first instinct when given an option is always going to be to beat a retreat, then come up with a plan and have the fight on his terms in a location he can use to his advantage. And with backup, thanks.
But boy, if anyone could tempt him, it's definitely Silco. It turns out, there is something worse than his previous comment, because it felt pointed but it was also very... general. Ekko now finds himself regretting turning towards him even though the alternative is having his back to the man who is responsible for not just the deaths of so many of his Firelights, but also, you know, Benzo. He really does not have enough of a poker face to deal with hearing Benzo's name out of the man's mouth, not anymore.
He used to hear variations on the question a lot when Benzo was still alive, usually proceeding a promise of safe passage (however grudging) because even people in the dog-eat-dog Undercity didn't mess with Benzo any more than they messed with Vander. Then after he died, it was a lot more fraught—either someone was about to take pity on him, or someone was about to try to tie up the loose end he represented, and often it was hard to tell which would be which. Then folks stopped asking, either as Shimmer stole their memories of what Zaun used to be like before Silco climbed to the top of the pile and claimed the whole thing for himself, or as almost everyone who had known and followed the old guard started to get too old to survive daily life in the Lanes.
So his fist clenches around the USB connector and he struggles to fix his face, succeeding enough to jut his chin out defiantly. "If you want that information, it'll cost you." The question alone means that Silco likely has the answer, and Ekko's initial stricken expression was probably just as much confirmation as any verbal answer would be, but that's whatever. He pushes through it, because what else is there to do? When in doubt, be pointlessly confrontational—that's Zaun 101. "I don't do freebies."
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But boy, if anyone could tempt him, it's definitely Silco. It turns out, there is something worse than his previous comment, because it felt pointed but it was also very... general. Ekko now finds himself regretting turning towards him even though the alternative is having his back to the man who is responsible for not just the deaths of so many of his Firelights, but also, you know, Benzo. He really does not have enough of a poker face to deal with hearing Benzo's name out of the man's mouth, not anymore.
He used to hear variations on the question a lot when Benzo was still alive, usually proceeding a promise of safe passage (however grudging) because even people in the dog-eat-dog Undercity didn't mess with Benzo any more than they messed with Vander. Then after he died, it was a lot more fraught—either someone was about to take pity on him, or someone was about to try to tie up the loose end he represented, and often it was hard to tell which would be which. Then folks stopped asking, either as Shimmer stole their memories of what Zaun used to be like before Silco climbed to the top of the pile and claimed the whole thing for himself, or as almost everyone who had known and followed the old guard started to get too old to survive daily life in the Lanes.
So his fist clenches around the USB connector and he struggles to fix his face, succeeding enough to jut his chin out defiantly. "If you want that information, it'll cost you." The question alone means that Silco likely has the answer, and Ekko's initial stricken expression was probably just as much confirmation as any verbal answer would be, but that's whatever. He pushes through it, because what else is there to do? When in doubt, be pointlessly confrontational—that's Zaun 101. "I don't do freebies."