[zapdragon555]

Ah, they were cheap? Chroma felt less guilty about it, then. Besides, if he played his cards right, Hori wouldn't even have to pay for a ticket for Chroma. He had his plans, but if all went south, a ticket would be fine. Wait--

"You already paid for them?" Chroma asked, blinking as he looked over at Hori, his mouth thinning with irritation. Ah, he hated that. Being in someone else's debt, especially monetarily, made his skin crawl. He tried not to let it show, instead smiling and peering at Hori's phone over his head, which he very well towered over by several inches. "You don't waste time."

At the name of the company Chroma's expression grew pensive. Liquid Color... Liquid Color... Chroma wrinkled his nose in a kind of distasteful expression. "Ah. Yeah, unfortunately. Never much cared for them. Like sellin' lifeblood, it is. Don't you think that's just the slightest bit fucked?"

[Jaykobell]

He didn't quite like Chroma hovering over his head that way. What an aggravating thing to do. And what an aggravating thing to say. "Do I really have to repeat it?" he asked as he finalized the transaction, still barely paying attention to Chroma; just enough to know the demon was towering over him. "My friend's dying. I couldn't give a shit about money right now."

Oh, but he worried. He really did worry. While the world remained like this, the company made no money. Not a single penny. They had a bit of money they could rely on for the time being, but that wouldn't last forever. And stressful thoughts spiraled in his head, like what if they'd need to resort to a line of credit? To mortgage the company? What if—

It was Chroma's disdainful and bizarre words that snapped Hori out of those spiraling thoughts, in that moment. But they didn't invoke much better ones. "How is what we're doing 'the slightest bit fucked'?" he asked, finally looking away from his phone to shoot Chroma a look of upset. "You'd rather live in this kind of world?" he added, gesturing to the dull, grey scenery all around them.

"That, and all the color items we sell are from..." He hesitated as he searched for the right word. "They're organic. Renewable. So I dunno what you're going on about, about 'selling lifeblood'." Please, did this guy even know what they did? Hori couldn't even tell if this guy was playing him or if he was being serious, either. "Whatever that means."