149th Devotion: Pleading One's Case

[favoritetraitor]

[His voice is hesitant, forced. After all, the City isn't so accomodating in keeping it's citizen's private lives private.]

Betrayal? Surely thoughts can't be considered so... a man can't be held responsible for that, can he? For the record, I never truly wanted any of it. My actions were trivial, nothing really.

We should have been a family, as it was meant to be... but she wanted something different. How could I not want to give her her heart's desire? To see her happy. Smiling. Laughing. How can that be wrong?

Comments

[valentineluke]

[Uh oh.]

Solomon.

[favoritetraitor]

Yes?

[valentineluke]

I'm on my way home [To help you deal with the fallout].

(Private)

Anything I should know?

Private

[favoritetraitor]

She couldn't be content... what else could I do? She left, you know. When I returned home. She left.

Re: Private

[valentineluke]

If it were possible to eliminate her, I would.

Private

[favoritetraitor]

Luke, please. You know I wouldn't allow that...

Re: Private

[valentineluke]

I don't want to see you relapse. Should keep your distance from her - both sisters.

Private

[favoritetraitor]

You don't understand. There are sides... there were sides...

Re: Private

[valentineluke]

And you were caught in the middle?

Private

[favoritetraitor]

I made a choice, I had to...

Re: Private

[valentineluke]

All I know is that you left one for the other. Why?

Private

[favoritetraitor]

I fell in love with her, of course.

Re: Private

[valentineluke]

...you can't be serious.

Private

[favoritetraitor]

You don't know her as I do, my friend. She's a truly exquisite creature. Sweet and innocently naive. And yet truly, breathtakingly magnificent when her potential is realized.

Re: Private

[valentineluke]

It's a one-sided affair, Solomon.

Private

[favoritetraitor]

... I know.

Private//

[worldofourown]

[ Time is supposed to be the universal panacea. He should be -- not over the betrayal -- but the embers should've cooled. Except they haven't. Rage is such a funny thing. Just when you think it's gone -- Whoosh. Out it geysers, as strong as ever. ]

It was wrong when you had to cut your own brother down to get it.

Just to save her.

Private//

[favoritetraitor]

No, I can't accept that blame. You were already gone, brother... your own doing. I merely took her back.

[Of course it was what he was intending to do, a fact he's choosing to ignore. Karl's actions just made it unnecessary for Solomon to serve as the actual executioner.]

Private//

[worldofourown]

[ Oh, the tangled web you weave. ]

She wasn't yours to take back, any more than Diva belonged to just one of us.

Why not admit you were as motivated out of blindness and selfishness as I was?

Private//

[favoritetraitor]

[It takes him a moment to respond.] ... is it blindness?

Private//

[worldofourown]

[ Karl's gaze is both bright and bitter, ]

Sometimes, looking at where the obsession has brought us ... I truly think it is.

Private//

[favoritetraitor]

But... the rift between them. It's been mended? It has, hasn't it?

Private//

[worldofourown]

[ He bites his lower-lip, looking away, ]

Only because Saya hasn't yet gotten her memories back.

Private//

[favoritetraitor]

... there's no fighting.

Private//

[worldofourown]

[ There is fighting. And weirdness. And. Other stuff. But it's largely between Karl and Saya. The interactions between the two Queens are far more volatile. ]

...They're not billing and cooing like doves either.

Private//

[favoritetraitor]

It's a start though. We just always have so little time.

I should speak with Nathan...