35 - The Sea Forgets Its Cargoes & Rages

[worldofourown]

[ 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 ]

Comments

[private]

[sangreine]

[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...

[private]

[worldofourown]

[ 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. ]

[private]

[sangreine]

[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.]

[private]

[worldofourown]

[ 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. ]

[private]

[sangreine]

[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.]