“He looked at her. 'In order to finish, I'll have to have defeated six Infected, Dusk, and Vengeous himself.'Yeah. So?'The Infected I can manage.'She frowned. 'And Vengeous? I mean, you can beat him, right?'Well,' he said, "I can certainly try. And trying is half the battle.'What's the other half?'He shrugged. 'Hitting him more times than he hits me.”

“Theres this other half of him i dont know of, its like he is trying it keep it a secret.... if he would just let me inside so i can help”

“His face was pale, and he dropped to the floor so that he was half kneeling, half sitting before her. "Please. I can...help you.""No." She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Her mind felt clearer now. Everything made more sense when she wasn't so hungry. "I don't think I want the help you have."He cradled his bloody arm and tried to stand. "This isn't right. You aren't right. You aren't suppose to be here.""But I am.”

“He wants to get back together," she finished."And you said...?" he tried to keep his tone disinterested. "I haven't said anything," she said. "You interrupted me before I could answer him."He congratulated himself on his excellent timing.”

“Could you try not aiming so much?" he asked me, still standing there. "If you hit him when you aim, it'll just be luck." He was speaking, communicating, and yet not breaking the spell. I then broke it. Quite deliberately. "How can it be luck if I aim?" I said back to him, not loud (despite the italics) but with rather more irritation in my voice than I was actually feeling. He didn't say anything for a moment but simply stood balanced on the curb, looking at me, I knew imperfectly, with love. "Because it will be," he said. "You'll be glad if you hit his marble — Ira's marble — won't you? Won't you be glad? And if you're glad when you hit somebody's marble, then you sort of secretly didn't expect too much to do it. So there'd have to be some luck in it, there'd have to be slightly quite a lot of accident in it.”

“You have to tell this ship to turn around!"He had a feeling she was serious, so he managed not to laugh. Well,he tried-and failed. "I'm sure the 'ship' won't listen to reason. No,really,I'm positive it won't.""You know what I mean!" she shrieked at him.”