week 5, tuesday

[vigilantics]

[ sometime in the evening, steph is going to track belph down to drag him somewhere.

the lounge. she's dragging him to the lounge. ]

Let's have a drink, my friend.

Comments

[axilium]

"So" isn't a full sentence, Steph.

[vigilantics]

Who are you, my English professor?

[ ... ]

Belph, what's going on with you?

[axilium]

Yes. So, I'm going to say that you'll have to be more specific.

[vigilantics]

You're killing me.

What did you mean when you said you were like Hikage?

[axilium]

[he shrugs.]

I'm a pretty terrible person myself. I'm just still at the point where I can restrain it, unlike him.

[vigilantics]

[ she takes a sip of her drink. ]

Why?

[axilium]

[...]

Do you believe in nature or nurture? Well, scientifically, it's both, but humour me for a bit.

[vigilantics]

You kind of just answered it for me. I've seen both, it depends, I guess...

[axilium]

[he's quiet for a moment, before his eyes flit elsewhere.]

I envied you, you know—as ridiculous as it sounds. Your family was a villain, and yet you turned out differently.

[vigilantics]

It's not that ridiculous.

[ hikage said something similar to her. ]

[axilium]

... Heh. Maybe.

[he just smiles sadly.]

In the end, though, I wasn't strong enough to do the same.

[vigilantics]

Um, who was it? You mentioned your dad before...

tw that i meant to throw up earlier: suicide

[axilium]

Oh, my dad's dead. He killed himself when I was a kid.

[vigilantics]

[ a pause. ]

Sorry. [ she's not sure what she's apologizing for, so she shakes her head. ] Then-- who?

[axilium]

It's fine. I don't really remember him, anyway.

My uncle. He pretty much raised me.

[vigilantics]

...

What was he like?

[axilium]

... Well, I used to think he was the greatest person in the world until I learned that my family had been screwing over the world for generations and he was A-OK with that.

[vigilantics]

[ she frowns. ]

What were they doing?

[ she knows his world is kind of ruined horribly but. ]

[axilium]

Come up with a new energy resource when humanity had run out of everything else—and conveniently neglect to mention that it was poisoning the earth.

After all, why would it matter to them? If the world was ruined, they could just rebuild it to their liking.

[vigilantics]

Well, that's shit.

[ she probably could have replied in a more eloquent manner. ]

What about... you?

[axilium]

[...]

I've accepted my place.

[though there's an odd note in his voice that suggests it's... complicated.]

[vigilantics]

And... what does that mean?

[ she's biting her lower lip, and has to take another sip of her drink to get herself to stop. ]

[axilium]

[...

he smiles grimly. all things considered, he's still rather calm.]

It means I betrayed my friends, wrecked everything that I actually cared about in my life, and pretty much agreed to sell my soul to him. It means I gave up, Steph.

[vigilantics]

[ there's a pause before she carefully sets her glass on the ground. she'll actually reach over to grab belph's as well, stealing his drink from him to put it next to hers.

once that's out of the way, stephanie basically launches herself at him (as much as any seriously injured person can, anyway), wrapping her arms around him. ]

You idiot.

[axilium]

[he freezes—he wasn't expecting the hug. ... but he doesn't fight it.]

... Yeah, I am. I've known that for a long time now.