here’s a snippet of Daka and Mel interacting, fully in-character, based on their canon personalities, emotional systems, speech patterns, and Codex emotional gravity:?[Scene: Dusk at a forest camp. The fire crackles low. Mel is sharpening her scimitar, sitting with quiet, steady hands. Daka flops down next to her, dust puffing up from the ground.]

  Daka: (grinning wide, voice thick with a Cockney lilt)“Oi, Thorny. You always gotta look like you’re about two seconds from gutting someone? It’s a bloody campfire, not a battlefield.”

  Mel: (without looking up, voice low and dry)“Habit. Camps turn into battlefields fast enough.”

  Daka: (chuckles, nudging her boot with his)“Yeh, well, rex a tick. Ain’t no rot-monsters ’round here. Just me. Big, friendly… devastatingly handsome me.”(grins broader, waiting for a reaction)

  Mel: (finally looks at him, slow blink, faint smirk tugging at her scarred lip)“Devastating’s the right word.”

  Daka: (mock-offended)“Oi! I’ll have you know—” (he flexes dramatically) ”—this right here? Weapon of mass distraction.”

  Mel: (snorts — an actual, rare sound from her)“Distraction… sure. I’ll grant you that.”(pauses, her voice softening a fraction)“You’re not bad to have at your back, Daka.”

  Daka: (grinning, a little more genuinely now, softer around the edges)“Back, front, sides… hell, I’ll be the whole wall if ya need it, Thorny. Just say the word.”

  Mel: (quiet again, the firelight catching the old scar across her bicep)“I’ll remember that.”(then, murmured)“Not many stick around when the thorns come out.”

  Daka: (without missing a beat, leaning back on his elbows)“Good thing I like a bit of a scratch.”(grins, easy and stupid and fiercely loyal without realizing it)

  [The fire pops, sending little embers spiraling upward. Mel doesn’t smile, exactly — but she lets her hand rex on the hilt of her bde. For the first time all evening, her shoulders drop half an inch.]