L's game. Light would have grown accustomed to it, to the point where engaging in it even during seemingly casual and mundane moments would have become second nature. The Bond likely exacerbates it, follows the peaks and ebbs of L's interest and excitement as he engages in it, gauges reactions, discerns what to artfully reveal or obfuscate. A few breadcrumbs here, a dead end there, and it might be the closest thing the strange detective knows to bliss to string Light along on the caper.

He cants his head with a rare, prolonged blink. "You're really interested in this."

It's difficult to gauge whether his tone is amused, impressed, surprised, or flattered. If it's a combination, it's difficult to gauge the measure. The Bond is the only real indicator, the mood overall playful with an undercurrent of strange and restless melancholy. It's notable, in that it probably seems out of place with the other emotions, a washed-out, sick streak of pastel on an otherwise cohesive canvas's bold color story.

"Feeding an appetite isn't the only way to eliminate it."

He might leave it at that, vague and mysterious, but the Bond provides another layer here, as well. The shadowed outline of some hulking beast features, flank heaving under heavy sedation. Its own extracted teeth surround it in a scattered pattern that mocks the stars in L's sky.

"The simplest solutions can be the most elegant ones, at times."