poly_chromatic | 35 - The Sea Forgets Its Cargoes & Rages

Current Mood: enraged

Entry tags:

blood plus - karl fei-ong

35 - The Sea Forgets Its Cargoes & Rages

[ See Karl. ]

[ See Karl glowering. ]

[ See Karl livid. ]

I don't care about these damned ghouls. I hope they make each and every one of you squeal like bitty piglets. What I want to know which one of you did it. You know what I'm talking about. Who was it?

[ His eyes glow red. ]

Tell me.

[ OOC: Fallout of the weekend and Hatter's Diety trade. Someone is a ken-doll and not happy. Feel free to poke him, but don't expect an answer unless he knows you well xD ]

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[If he was looking for a reaction, he surely gets one: a flush that's not quite embarrassment and not quite indignant, eyes that divert off-camera.]

I haven't done anything to you except -- what you know of. [Which is enough, certainly.] Why would I punish you for something I did?

Why? Why? [ Ear-splitting decibels, ] Because you're heartless and vindictive and exist to make me suffer!

[Did... she just hear that right? He can't be serious.]

Heartless? I'm heartless? [There is a lot of abuse she'll accept thanks to her cursed actions, but that, from him, is not one of them.] You might punish people by going after them -- or innocent people who have nothing to do with anything -- using underhanded tactics, but I don't.

[ She heard that right. Angry Karl is not a rational Karl. ]

[ Her outburst gets a scoff out of him, ]

Oh, do pull the other one. You've gone after as many innocent people as I have. It's a miracle what a Long Sleep can do to a Queen's mind. [ His lip curls, ] You may not remember Vietnam yet, but with time, you will. And that will toss all pretense of goodness and humanity out of your mind.

One minute you're all too happy to take full advantage of my -- whatever this weekend was, and the next accusing me of doing it just to make you miserable. Do you want me to be heartless, or don't you? Make up your mind.

[Bluntness she rarely shows, you may have Setsuna's influence to thank for this. And the stinging shine in her eyes too, if for an entirely different reason.]

At least then I'll know whether to hate you, or -- [there's some alternative threaded through the triple-knotted confusion of whatever their connection is, but finding a word for it isn't easily done.]

[ Know whether to hate you or -- The rage deflates into a hollow-eyed exhaustion. It wasn't her who did this. He knows that much. Wicked as she can be, wicked as he'd love to see her be, the curse was a fluke. All that's left in its wake is jangled feelings, disorientation and self-doubt. ]

[ Doesn't he still hate her? Doesn't he still want to kill her? ]

[ Of course he does. That should be obvious without the still. But then why am I ...? He shakes it off, meeting her gaze head-on, ]

If it wasn't you, then who...?

[ It's not a question aimed at her. He seems to be asking himself. ]

[Her high temper was fading even before he stopped shrieking in her ear. Her anger comes in flashes, always quick to be snuffed out.]

Was it... [he decides knowing precisely what isn't necessary, because more to the point:] because of me? [He'd thought her responsible, however briefly, so it seems to follow that their actions this weekend may have caused his problem. ~~Of course she assumes it has to do with her, bright shiny center of the universe that she is.~~]

[ A frown pulls his eyebrows and mouth into grim angles. He has no answer to her question. Or, indeed, to any question. But as inevitable as the laws of cause and effect are, he knows this has to do with someone he played with last weekend. ]

[ If not Saya -- then Setsuna. ]

I don't think so. [ He chews the words over, then shakes his head, exhaling, ] No. It wasn't because of you.

[ Although their little dance has left debris and destruction of its own. Just without visible marks. ]

[ All the more deadly, in its own way. ]

[She lets out a breath and fights a niggling irritation that wonders if not her then what, or who -- ]

Is there anything that would help? [Phrased generally and anything but a promise, but there's some small possibility she might offer her help. Guilt at work, of course.]

[ That niggling irritation is magnified tenfold for him. Although inklings are blooming -- a tracery of Who What Where that leads to one person. ]

[ Setsuna. ]

...What? [ As if she's spoken backwards. He doesn't want her help (he isn't expecting it, certainly). The weekend may have blurred boundaries, but they're still enemies, dammit! She can't keep throwing him off-balance with kindness. ] Of course there isn't. I have to deal with this [ and Diva's wrath ] on my own.

[As she thought. Some time, she'd like to be more than just observing as terrible things happen all around.] Okay. [The words are right there, an apology she knows he wouldn't accept, would only make things worse. Maybe nothing won't, just now, but she has to do something -- doesn't she? Have to at least try?]

I don't blame you. [He took advantage, true, but it wasn't as though it was entirely off her mind even before the curse, enough that at the first convenient excuse... and even now when she shudders at the memory, it's not entirely in disgust. A thousand reasons to hate him, and she can't manage it.] It was my -- I mean, I wouldn't have, if I didn't...

[ He shakes his head when she starts apologizing, sudden and sharp, as if shaking off a swarm of flies. Brings his hands to his temples, rubbing as if there's a barrage pounding behind his skull. ]

[ Sense-memory reliving every moment of the weekend, images crackling and popping, leaving delight, confusion, shame and dismay in their wake. ]

Stop talking. [ It's not an order; it's a plea. ] Just... stop.

[ It was a curse. But it was more than the curse. He doesn't fight the sense that something enormous and terrible has happened, bones and nerves shattering without warning -- that everything has skewed and will never quite be the perfect angle again. ]

[This might be a point for her to hang up in an indignant fit, but that would be lots easier to justify if she had the moral high ground. Or anything resembling a good reason, at least.]

[She can't even say she never wanted to hurt him... if that's what she did.]

[So she does what he asks. Stops talking. But she doesn't hang up yet because -- he should be the one, maybe. Or because there's something else that needs to pass between them. Either way, just murky silence on the open line.]

[ She falls silent, but the line remains open. Karl's lips part, as if to ask what more she could possibly want. But he intuits the color and pitch of this silence. Guilt. Expectation. Self-disgust. So many things, unsaid yet obvious, simmering in that tenuous digital connection between them. ]

[ It's a lie that technology blunts the personal aspect of things. Not for a Chiropteran. Not with their heightened senses. He inhales through his nose, then tries for a parting shot. But what comes out is, ]

We should -- [ Stop saying we. There is no goddamned we. ] I'll speak with you later. About the Deity trade. [ If he's still alive after Diva learns of this debacle. ]

[Right. The trade. Because that's what Karl is to her, a means to an end. That's what he should be.]

[It would help if he'd be closer to the monster she met when she hatched, and not...]

[Saya hums her agreement, and disconnects. There's nothing more Karl can do for her, nor she for him.]

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35 - The Sea Forgets Its Cargoes & Rages

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