It was strange. How Elliot hated being alone, and yet didn't know how to interact with people properly. Most people liked things that dulled their senses, dulled their intelligence and cut themselves off from pure truths, etched onto the pages of books long since left on bookshelves in abandoned libraries. People lived false lives through their computers without knowing how they truly functioned. And while people left themselves open to Elliot to the point where they only way he could get to know a person was by hacking them, Elliot kept himself closed off. He was a ghost online, and a ghost in the real world, hiding beneath the shadow of his black hood, watching the world with a sideways paranoid glance.
He had zoned out. He wasn't sure if he was trying to block out Merlin now, or maybe just Mr Robot. Either way, he was starting to feel uncomfortable. He paid for their newly arrived drinks and cast his gaze downwards.
"What was your last job?" he asked eventually. He did say he could ask any questions, didn't he? Most people didn't mean those words when they said them. There would always be questions they were not willing to answer, things they didn't want to face.