She stared at him for a long moment with the expression of someone deciding whether the situation was funny or aggravating and arriving, as she usually did, at some position between the two that she found more intriguing than either.
"You know," she said, "the other apostles are more forthcoming."
"I don't know any other apostles personally," Rex said. "But eh... they're probably frauds anyway, like the others."
"Apollo sends genuinely heartfelt prayers," she said. "Not to me, of course, but to his goddess, who's a bitch, but the principle holds."
"He says things like 'I am grateful' and 'Please guide my path.'"
"Apollo is earnest," Rex said. "It's his defining characteristic of why he's fucking naive like that while I'm not."
"I know you're not," Lustia said. "I chose you specifically because you're not."
"I would just appreciate occasional evidence that you register my existence as more than a system interface."
