“I wouldn’t say it’s puerile,” I said. “It’s… it’s like stripes. You can make it work, but it’s most often going to be something you work with or build on. Less what you want for a mask unless you want to play it up.”

“Huh. This is going way over my head. But it’s sure great to know I’ve had a stupid costume all this while.”

“Not stupid,” I said.

“Basic,” Vista volunteered.

Rain turned around, looking around until he spotted Capricorn, Lookout, and Sveta. “I think, uh, I’m going to go over that way. Leave you guys to it.”

“You’re fine,” I said. “A lot of costumes are miserable. You’re better than average.”

“I like how you weigh that. There’s a lot of suck out there, so the average is lower than I’d think?”

“You’re better than average,” I stressed. “And we can do better still.”

“Sure,” he said. He held up the phone, the image there. “This? What color?”

“Silver. And if you can do eyeholes or the general shape of eyes, that’d be great.”

The image was of a fissure or crack, like what one might see spiderwebbing across concrete.

He fiddled with his phone and the image.

“You don’t have to do it now,” I said.

“I have three people I respect telling me I’m not cutting it, and we have this talk coming… I’m going to be self-conscious now.”

“Walk,” Swansong said, taking hold of his shoulder. “Let’s go. We’ll give you a look that matches what you have inside.”

“Why do I feel like I’m being insulted?” Rain asked.

“You’re not,” Swansong said. “You’ve showed muster. The mask may be puerile, but masks can be changed, but what can’t be changed is you’ll always know you had something sterner inside you when it counted. Humiliation may be the worst thing—”

“This is the worst thing now?” Rain asked, looking to Vista, as if for help. “Humiliation?”

“Even small humiliations,” Swansong amended.

“Okay, well, great. I’ll walk.”

“Walk and change what you want to change,” Ashley said. “Fiddle with your phone, upload to your mask, do what you’re going to do. I’ll steer you. I’ve done it enough times while walking with Lookout. Not that I need to do it with her anymore.”

“No?” I asked.

“New mask features, when she’s wearing her mask. She can watch what she’s working on while another set of lenses watch the road, another set watch behind her. There’s no need for a guiding hand.”

Our path took us down the side of the hill the Dragon-craft was perched on. Its head followed us as we walked, which was ominous.

“How long until this kicks off?” I asked.

Ashley tossed a stone decorative dart into the air, catching it, then threw again, as we worked our way down the path and around the hill. Her other hand remained on Rain’s shoulder, holding him steady as he set foot on a rocky spot. He kept half of an eye on his phone.