cradleproject | WEEK 8

[After the execution is over, remaining in the conference room, in his chair. It takes him some time to regain any of his typical poise, and even so it's still frail; he's slouched in a way he nearly never does, and the typical confidence in his voice is shaken.

But he also knows he owes something. Owes more than Bull did, calmly explaining his actions to a crowd that would jeer him to his death, for his crime of preferring thousands of lives to one, and not appearing suitably remorseful about it. Though not one part of him can find it in himself to think what Bull did was wrong, Bull is also gone now, and he's still here, must be dealt with by a half dozen people with far more legitimate grievances.

So. He doesn't take the action he would like best, to abscond from the conference room with as many bottles of wine as he can carry and wait until the robots force him out. He waits, instead, to see what the others would prefer seen done with him.]

It has been a long day for all of us. Shall I wait around, or would we all prefer to do this at a more civilized hour? I'll leave it to you.

Edited 2016-08-01 06:34 (UTC)

[ Adam is keen on leaving soon as well, but he can't ignore Dorian like this. ]

Arumat was a good person. [ His voice is much cooler than it has been with Dorian, and there's no admiration in his eyes. ] But I think you did what you thought was good, too. Bull took the blame. I don't want to keep feeding into this game by doing something to you.

[Oh, Adam. You hurt him most of all. Because he cares, and also because he knows he spent weeks allowing himself to encourage Adam's admiration of him, because it appealed to his vanity to be admired, knowing all along that he would wind up disappointing him.]

No. I never thought it was good.

But not bad enough?

I think that's accurate, yes. At the time, it seemed that one bad option among many - it didn't matter one way or the other.

I think that's a pattern here. I know people will be angry at you because they didn't have to deal with the situation you were put in, but don't let them kill you or anything.

I'd like to talk with you. Later. But I... have to go now.

[Adam's disappointment is much worse combined with his apparent willingness to understand. He wonders if this is how Alexius felt. He wonders if he did his father too much of a kindness in refusing to give him the same consideration.]

I'd like to talk to you as well. You more than anyone deserve answers, considering my behavior. At your leisure, then.

[he's not going to talk, but he is moving himself to be closer to Dorian just in case. he made a promise to Bull and he's ready to keep it.

he hasn't transformed yet tho but since it's a matter of seconds and he doesn't need to hide it... He hopes it doesn't come down to that, though.]

[She looks angry, but like Adrien, she's nearby in case someone tries to hurt him, poised to transform at any second.]

How much did you know about his role?

[She's welcome to be angry. He's not going to protest. Instead, he'll explain himself calmly, like it's academic]

He told me everything several weeks ago. It was the week after the first trial where he was a suspect. He showed me on the tablet what Alice had shown to him. If he failed to kill when she demanded it of him, what he saw on the tablet would come to pass. I pointed out we ought not to believe Alice. He pointed out he could hardly ignore the risk it was real. I asked him to wait.

The following week, the parasites were revealed. Alice told him he would have to hunt them, but that he might live even if selected for execution if he successfully killed one. [There's a little more emotion in his voice at this; he's angry, more than anything, with this aspect.] She gave him nothing to use, or to go on. As offers go, it was less than worthless. But what choice did he ever have but to try, given what was at stake?

He had a choice. [She mutters angrily!!! She processes the rest of his explanation sourly, glowering at him, but listens nonetheless.]

Are you sure he was acting alone? What about other details of his role? Did he tell you?

Edited 2016-08-02 21:29 (UTC)

Yes, and what a choice it was. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. [Rubbing at his temple; he doesn't want to be hard. Marinette doesn't deserve an ounce of his frustration. There's nothing hypocritical about her anger, to him, not when she's been so brave and has fought so hard all along.] He tried, you know. He didn't come to me expecting an accomplice, he came to me because he wanted me to understand. If he wasn't willing to try something else, he wouldn't have risked coming to me.

I don't know. He didn't tell me many details. But he was shown a video. It seemed from his description he was originally intended as a failsafe, in case no one chose to kill. After Elizabeth and Rhys, she changed her mind, and sent him off to kill aliens with very little thought or planning. That's about all there is to it. He did mention once it didn't sound like Alice was in charge, that she was taking orders from someone.

[There's a part of Marinette that can understand Bull's part in this, that he was being manipulated as much as any of them were, but she's too angry and hurt and upset to acknowledge it. It's so much easier, right now, to try to focus vitriol onto Bull and Dorian, two men whom she'd trusted, who she'd come to see as reliable, who threw everything away to pull off this murder, only for Bull to confess at the last second. If she keeps being angry, then she can't feel hurt, betrayed, or lost.]

And why didn't you stop him? [It's useless to ask that now, but she can't help but snap that one out.]

We guessed that already. The question is who. [She glances back up at Dorian] But he wouldn't have known that, would he?

Ah. Now there's a question. [Don't think for one moment while he was defending Bull's choices he was also defending his own. That's the crux of why it feels easy to blame himself, but he can't be too angry at Bull.] I didn't have the answers he needed to hear. The type of man he was - he couldn't have ever taken that risk.

He didn't know who, no. Or if he did, he couldn't tell me. I had that impression - he was always dancing around things he wasn't allowed to say.

[So he tried. Or he claims to have tried, in any case. Marinette processes this with a cynical little huff, but doesn't comment.]

Anything else?

Something about proof. He said that he was shown proof of some sort. Fool that I am, I didn't inquire further. It was enough to convince him...

[Thinking through that conversation again.]

Kaffas. No, he did say, didn't he? I thought he'd been referring to something else. It was [eyeballs. He'd thought he'd been talking about Maria and Niles, but he puts it together now.] something grisly. Body parts. Of whom I can't be certain, but his men, I presume. [It's clear that's who they would use to hurt him. He has a sudden mental image of Bull, being given an eye, who from, Krem? Now there's a terrible picture. He's sick with anger and horror all over again.]

So that's the sort of manipulation they will use, if they feel they really must. Better to be forewarned.

[Judar looks irritated, though it's not at Dorian so much as it is at this whole situation in general.]

It is way too late for this shit. If someone wants to pick a fight with you for helping out your boyfriend when it sounds like he got screwed by Ass Lice way worse than the rest of us, they can do it tomorrow.

He wasn't my boyfriend, and that isn't why I helped him. [A little sullenly. He knows no one cares about this distinction, but, well, it was true.] But tomorrow sounds splendid to me.

[It's been a long day, and it's late, and she's so, so tired—she wants to go back to her room, she wants to be alone, she wants this to be over, but it's not. While Dorian's still here, it isn't over. Grief piled onto grief piled onto grief, and the last thing Arumat asked of her is the only thing she knows how to do and how to deal with anymore.

Alice gives her the scythe. Clover turns it over in her hands and doesn't say a word, doesn't cry out when she sprints at Dorian and spins to swing the scythe at him.]

[Well, he'd been just about to leave the room, but then Clover suddenly starts sprinting towards Dorian and he jerks up when he realizes what she's planning.]

Are you serious?! You idiot, it's way too fucking late for this shit!

[But a barrier will spring up around her anyway. He won't do any more than that, but considering that Dorian just helped murder someone and he has no idea how the guy will instinctively react to someone attacking him, Judar's not taking any chances here.]

[He isn't not expecting an attack. He doesn't necessarily expect it from Clover. He isn't going to hurt her; he even understands her anger. But he also isn't going to allow himself to be a target. There are things he must do, and things he wishes to do, and then there's the choice Bull made. It's one he intends to respect to the best of his ability no matter how much it hurts to do anything at all.

Fortunately, regular battles have got him in practice enough that his barrier goes up automatically when he senses a threat. It's enough to absorb the blow from the scythe. It may be enough to absorb the blow from another swing. It's not enough to keep holding her off without the risk of significant injury, and it will take him a moment for his mana to recover enough to fade step away.]

Clover. [He's tired, so tired, he doesn't want to do this. But he puts one hand up in a gesture to show he means no harm, though the other goes to his staff.] Please. What's done is done. This won't help him.

[Judar's yell had given Adrien the heads up he might not have had just from Clover's sprinting, and he's already yelling and transforming into a burst of light during her first swing. He doesn't have far to go to step in front of Dorian, one hand reaching behind himself in the same movement to reach and elongate his staff as he brings it in front of him in one smooth motion. He's ready to block another swing if it gets to it, but he's sincerely hoping it doesn't.

At forty percent, they might be able to stop bullets, but he's not that certain for lasers. More than that, he doesn't want to fight Clover.]

Clover, don't. I'm not letting you do this.

[And close to Adrien goes off another light show as Marinette transforms too. She had a feeling it'd come to this, but not from Clover (but, the way she'd dealt with the alien? Should have tipped her off), and as furious as she is at Dorian and the entire situation makes her sick and exhausted, there's no way she'll let him get hurt out of revenge. There's been enough killing.]

[She's flipping in besides Adrien, staunchly between Dorian and Clover, and lets her yoyo fly in a circular motion - fast enough to make a circular shield.]

Clover. Put the scythe down, please. There have been enough deaths.

[She's running all on instinct and impulse, only registering the barrier and Judar's shout in the back of her mind, smashing the scythe against Dorian's barrier and not thinking too hard about what else she can do about it but force her way through—] And is it gonna hurt him?! [—until Adrien's in her way, until Marinette's in her way, and her expression twists into a snarl.]

I don't need you to let me do anything! You'd rather let him get away with it?!

[She feints the start of a run and a strike towards Marinette, steps to try darting around Adrien, doesn't swing the scythe as widely when she lunges at Dorian again.]

[He doesn't answer that, because, well, fair. It won't do him any good. He doubts it will do her any good either, but who is he to say. Instead, he's debating his next move. He's got one spell left, and then he's done; he'll be too drained to move and in even more danger. Better, then, to trust in Adrien and Marinette and what's left of his barrier until he has a chance to generate a new one, instead trying to move out of her way as quickly as he can without magic. He can't help the uncharitable thought that of course she didn't try her little revenge plot while Bull was still alive.]

I don't know if I'd call any of this getting away with it.

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