"Well. That aside..." Linden says, inherently uncomfortable with the thought that others are regarding him as mentally frail or incompetent due to trauma. It's charitable at first glance for people like Torin to handle it gently and offer reassurance that there's blame to go around, but Linden would almost rather that everyone believe the act was as deliberate and malicious as possible. Violent Victors are treated with respect by default because they're feared; crazy Victors are given a wide berth out of pity.

"He should have known better than to hit the Avox," Linden says, his steely way of expressing that he meant it and feels no regret for his actions.

"What sort of good word?" He asks, leaning against the wall, seeming to mentally weigh whether or not such a venture would even be worth it. "My feeling is that Jason is spreading word of this high and low, and that I'm not looking very good. It's definitely not doing 6 any favors, even at the best it could possibly go."