[0] WEEKS WITHOUT MURDER

[maladied]

BONJOUR.

Another morning greets you in [ setting ], and it greets you loudly. A commotion erupts somewhere ahead: voices raised, someone screaming, another shouting for help. If you're unlucky enough to be passing near the infirmary, you have a front-row seat to the chaos.

Fran and Y'shtola are flung from the infirmary like ragdolls, hitting the ground in a tangle of limbs and dust. Something inside is on a rampage— something feral, unbound, and unwilling to be tamed.

The speakers crackle to life, Lobelia's voice far too cheerful for the circumstances.

❝ Bonjour, mes amis. If you happen to be wandering near the infirmary this fine morning, do take care... there appears to be a rather spirited beast expressing its displeasure. Fran and Y'shtola have already demonstrated the consequences of getting too close... quite spectacularly, I might add.

So, unless you wish to go flying before breakfast, I suggest maintaining a respectful distance. C'est simple.

Thank you for your attention, and do enjoy the rest of your morning... preferably from afar. ❞

OOC NOTE: A temporary barrier formed around the battlefield during the fight. Only characters already inside the epicenter were able to participate. Anyone who attempts to cross the boundary will be met with a sharp electric shock and forcibly bounced back several feet.

Comments

[siriuspuns]

What? I can’t have a conversation with your brother?

[hymned]

Was this a conversation? My mistake. You shouldn't try to talk about things you know nothing about.

If you're going to try to point fingers and blame someone for that decision, you'll put it in the right place. I'm the one who forced it, so you'll be fine talking to me instead, surely?

[ His tone is completely bland, cold, clipped, but his expression is still sharp and unsympathetic. Looks like it was the sense of empathy that was lost this morning. ]

Are you done, in any case? Do you feel any better? Are you any less miserable, now that you've lashed out to try to drag everyone down to your own level?

[siriuspuns]

[ Any less miserable? Absolutely not. They haven't felt this bad in weeks. ]

Yeah, sure. But then if I start talking to you, your baby brother's going to get mad and try to jump in front of you. Really, is self-sacrifice all you two know how to do?

[hymned]

[ Behind his glasses, just for an instant, something like confirmation, something like a vehement, gnawing self-recrimination flickers in Julius' eyes,

but it's gone as he smiles with no warmth in it at all, just as plastic and PR department perfect as Siffrin's is hollow. ]

If it is, that's my fault too, isn't it? So nothing changes there.

Just lay the blame at my feet, Siffrin: it'll be easier all around. Take it out on me, if that's what you really want to do. Get it out of your system, why don't you?

[siriuspuns]

Yeah, I'm sure that's what you would like, huh?

[ Teehee. ]

That way, you're the one that can feel good about yourself. I can dig into your insecurities, but nothing I'll say will be anything that you haven't thought about yourself and Ludger can be at peace, too.

[ That blinding self-righteousness that makes one think that they can just save everyone at the cost of themselves makes them sick. ]

But you know what, Julius? You know that this still lives in Ludger's mind. It always will. So even if I spare him, that doesn't mean that your stupidity won't stay even once you're gone again.

[hymned]

You don't know me at all if you think I'm getting some sort of self-satisfaction out of this. You think I don't already know that he would have been better off if I'd never come into his life in the first place? That I hadn't given him reason to mourn? You think I haven't already seen it, the proof that I ruin everything I touch?

[ It's so easy. He deserves this, right? He's the worst. Siffrin sees right through him, right? A clear window that leads them right back through to themself. ]

But sure. Let's play this game. It scares you, doesn't it? That things here might stick. That you're just as useless as the rest of us you're blaming in place of yourself. That everything you do or don't manage to accomplish will also stay, because that's just how things work. That's why I'm saying this.

It's just simple mathematics. You're right, after all. I'm already gone for him, aren't I? Everywhere that matters, Julius Will Kresnik is dead. So anything you do or say to me now won't mean a thing in the long run.

[ The safest, easiest net zero, of actions that won't stick, that won't stay to haunt them in any way but in their own mind. How could it be any simpler?

So lash out, burn out, self-destruct, implode like a dying star. Get it out of your system so they can see if there's anything they can do with the wreckage in the aftermath. ]

[siriuspuns]

[ Julius digs in at Siffrin's insecurities with such precision that they can't help but laugh. Mirthless and bitter, caught red handed. ]

As if. Stop projecting onto me, you blinding coward.

[ Even with their hands shaking, gripping their own arm with enough strength to leave bruises, they won't relent and admit defeat.

But they are tired of hearing Julius' voice, and doubly so of looking at that smug expression that stays in place no matter how much Siffrin lashes out against it. So they turn, with the intention to leave the man behind. ]

[hymned]

[ There's no response from Julius but a soft, quiet laugh as Siffrin turns away to go get into a shitty rogue duel featuring so many low rolls with Thancred. ]