[CLOSED]

[hypertoxic]

WHO: Vriska and various folks.
WHERE: Ranging around town and into the woods!
WHEN: All throughout December.
WHAT: Questing and catch-all.
WARNINGS: Spiders. Definitely spiders. Probably talk of death at some point. Otherwise, Vriska being her charming self.

Starters below! Feel free to hit me up at heartfuls! Quest info for reference.

Comments

[hypertoxic]

[ Vriska will let go of his arm once they arrive back where they started, and she'll flutter away to sit in midair and watch him, legs crossed and arms resting on her knees. The look on his face strikes at the core of her.

He really has killed people. He has possibly actually killed a lot of people. What shocks her most is how little the idea comforts her.

She'll open her mouth as if to speak, pause, and swallow her words, glancing off to one side. Quietly: ]

"Shinigami"?

[deathscyther]

[To that Duo can honestly only laugh bitterly with a bit of self deprecating humor in the tone. He scratches at the back of his neck under his braid.]

God of Death. I know, I'm lame. I... made a joke once... to Father Maxwell.

[Hey, that's a familiar name!]

That I didn't believe in God because I'd never seen a miracle, but I believed in a God of Death because I'd seen so many people around me die. I took it up when the Operation started some years later. Told Doctor J 'I'd rather be the God of Death than the leader of a massacre.'

It doesn't make what I did any better...

[Maybe... a little easier.]

[hypertoxic]

[ That makes Vriska huff a laugh, though the sound of it is humorless. ]

You literally called yourself a "God of Death"? [ She shakes her head, laughing still, quiet. ] Fuck. I think a long time ago I would have said that was hopelessly pretentious. But it was just mostly fatalistic, huh?

[ Vriska presses her hands together, curling her fingers, cracking her knuckles. Slowly: ]

I won't say what you did was fine, or anything like that. I think we both understand that the choices we made were horrible ones, and we made them anyway, because we had to. It doesn't erase the awful shit we did.

[ ...

a sigh. her shoulders slump a little, and her tone of voice becomes something musing. ]

I was such a horrible murder-happy psycho that everyone I ever cared about abandoned me because I was just too dangerous. In the end, all of my choices left me alone at the end of a broken universe with no choice but to wander the wastes and hope I'd eventually go insane or get destroyed.

[ ... ]

But that's not what happened. Instead, I came here. [ she looks up, her expression indescribable. ] I met you.

[deathscyther]

[He can laugh at himself for it now. That counts for something, right?]

Yeah, mostly...

[She's right, though. It doesn't erase the things he did. They helped usher in an era of peace that hadn't been seen in decades upon decades, but Duo doesn't expect to be rewarded for it when his time finally comes.

He listened to her closely, his own expression stoic and understanding. He gets it. She reminds him a bit of the woman Quatre had faced before the second attempt at a colony drop. She was so utterly convinced that violence was all there was in the world she wanted nothing more than to continue the same painful march in to the future. Duo obviously hadn't been there for the confrontation but the way Quatre explained it she did eventually see the error of her ways.

Hearing "I met you" gave him pause, though. Him? What did he do besides get himself into trouble twice?]

... me?

[hypertoxic]

[ ...

Vriska shakes her head, pulling her hair over her shoulder to curl her fingers in it, idle motions that betray rapid thoughts. ]

I just mean that no matter how final things seem, whatever fated comeuppance we may or may not deserve, it's possible to be surprised. There shouldn't have been anything left for me, but here I am. In this dumb town.

[ She looks up, glancing around. ]

It's somewhere to be.

[deathscyther]

Ah...

[That made sense. If she didn't have anything left where she came from then being somewhere else with half a chance at an okay life was better than what she had been expecting.

Duo wasn't exactly in the same boat there. His life after the war certainly wasn't exciting or anything noteworthy, but he was comfortable and far less worried about someone unscrupulous coming for him.

But if he had to be stuck here...]

We're not alone here.

[hypertoxic]

[ Vriska nods slowly, contemplative, her thoughts obviously far away. ]

It probably sounds shitty, but. For me personally, all the crap this place gives us is a pretty fair trade for what I get in exchange.

[ friends. ]

Listen, Duo. I ain't gonna tell anyone what you told me. I kind of just wanted to know for myself, to be honest! [ A shrug. ] This is definitely fucked up, but it is sort of a relief not to be alone.

[deathscyther]

I get it. I wasn't too bad off when I got dropped here, but it wasn't always like that for me.

[It could have easily been one of the points where he was struggling just to find a meal to eat and a roof that wouldn't leak much on him.]

Thanks. It... might come out eventually, but the less I have to talk about it, the better.