Okay this is weird, but I have had my feather (real Bluejay feather, not a euphemism) in this page of Clockwork Angel since Friday night because it amused me so much, and I have to do something with it. I'm not going to put quotes around it because that might make it confusing, seeing it's such a long excerpt. I like it because a) I sometimes find myself trying to read in a British accent when these people talk, b) I love how much these two characters hate each other, and c) I love the character of Will because he's a little like Finnick. Only Finnick actually has a funny personality, whereas Will has a dark and serious personality that he masks with jokes. Also Will walks around town aimlessly for hours and then comes back and pretends he went out drinking, the explanation for which I have not yet discovered...
"Nice work in there, Herondale, setting the place on fire," Gabriel observed. "Good thing we were there to clean up after you, or the whole plan would have gone down in flames, along with the shreds of your reputation."
"Are you implying that shreds of my reputation remain intact?" Will demanded with mock horror. "Clearly I have been doing something wrong. Or not doing something wrong, as they case may be." He banged on the side of the carriage. "Thomas! We must away at once to the nearest brothel! I seek scandal and low companionship."
Thomas snorted and muttered something that sounded like "bosh," which Will ignored.
Gabriel's face darkened. "Is there anything that isn't a joke to you?"
"Nothing that comes to mind."
"You know," Gabriel said, "there was a time I thought we could be friends, Will."
"There was a time I thought I was a ferret," Will said, "but that turned out to be the opium haze. Did you know it had that effect? Because I didn't."
"I think," Gabriel said, "that perhaps you might consider whether jokes about opium are either amusing or tasteful, given the... situation of your friend Carstairs."
Will froze. Still in the same tone of voice, he said, "You mean his disability?"
Gabriel blinked. "What?"
"That's what you called it. Back at the Institute. His 'disability.'" Will tossed the bloody cloth aside. "And you wonder why we aren't friends."
"I just wondered," Gabriel said, in a more subdued voice, "if perhaps you have ever had enough."
"Enough of what?"
"Enough of behaving as you do."
Will crossed his arms over his chest. His eyes glinted dangerously. "Oh, I can never get enough," he said. "Which, incidentally, is what your sister said to me when--"
The carriage door flew open. A hand shot out, grabbed Will by the back of the shirt, and hauled him inside. ...
[Note that what Will was about to say about Gabriel's sister wasn't actually true, I'm pretty sure]
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