[ right back at you, scum.

he lets her, like it doesn't even register that she's there. but he does see her. he meets her gaze with the same smile and the same eyes, though there's not the slightest hint of regard for her as a fellow living creature. ]

Oh, no no, you've got it all wrong. I couldn't possibly have any hope of my own. Such a thing... I mean, it'd be terribly arrogant. So I wouldn't call it hope of mine; but hope exists, with or without me.