93. Backdated to the end of the Grey Log

[lamb_of_gold]

[Mu is sitting, damp-haired and smelling of soap, in a quieter corner of the Plane with the cloth of Aries in a disassembled pile in front of him. He seems to be meticulously cleaning one of the forearm bracers, and the cloth which he is using to do so has turned a rather distinct shade of red, coupled with an equally distinct coppery smell in the air.

He's taken lives before, but it never gets easier.]

Comments

[moveslikestrider]

I knew he wasn't going to make it. [Dave says instead of what's on his mind. He killed the man. No one else could hold him down. He killed him. It's not a matter of protecting others. It's the fact his powers were used to kill. He's never killed another human being.

Monsters, creatures, battling noir, yes. But Grey had been human somewhere in there.]

[lamb_of_gold]

[Time to meet the bullshit detector!]

And yet?

[moveslikestrider]

[And yet what? That he thought maybe things would go differently? He knows that's bullshit the moment he thinks back on it. Instead he just rubs behind his shades with one hand.] I've never killed anyone before. And he was terrified, you heard him.

I guess it just feels like that thing wanted that outcome. It wanted us to kill him. And that's been bothering me, you know? Why would it want that? What was the point? [There he goes, dancing around the fact that Grey had sounded so scared and it ripped at him. He'd been innocent and used. It didn't feel like justice. Just cold blooded murder.]

[lamb_of_gold]

To take one of us, perhaps. Grey was looking for "special" people, after all. Or to simply regenerate the body it was in, once we'd left it be and dropped our guard.


That's why I did what I did - To be sure the threat was gone, and... [Was it mercy? Mu's speech pauses, but his voice does not waver.] ... I did not wish him to suffer longer than he had to. "Slowly and Painfully" is not an ideal way to die.

[moveslikestrider]

[Was it mercy? Is the question on both of their minds. Dave is young, even if he doesn't admit it. Concepts like this one and inquires into the nature of a kill are enough to make him bow his head. But because of how he was raised, he doesn't do anything else. There's not even a change in expression. Bro's training is absolute.]

I don't feel like any of it is really over. It was like that guy just didn't have value to that thing.

[lamb_of_gold]

I feel as though Grey was just a host to it - one of many, I do not doubt. Time will tell if what we did was enough, and if fortune favours us, then it was.

[Mu is quiet a long time, judging what he can from Dave's reactions - or lack of.]

The first time I killed disturbed me greatly as well.

[moveslikestrider]

I think he was one of many, yeah. Like the most recent in a long line of farm fresh motherfuckers. He said I was 'pretty close' to what he was looking for.

[He rubs at his eyes under his shades. There's a lot he could say to that. All of it would just be more ways of dodging around what he feels. So he does.]

I held him down so he couldn't keep changing and wrecking our shit.

[lamb_of_gold]

Then you best be careful for awhile.

And still you feel the guilt.

[moveslikestrider]

He was a human being. [Worse, he was innocent.] Guess we can't save everyone. [But he knew that. Sburb drilled it into his head so hard he couldn't even shake when he stumbled across his brother's body.]

[lamb_of_gold]

No we can't. At the end of the day, we are but human.

[moveslikestrider]

I guess. [But it's frustrating. It's like he can never pull the win out of his ass. It doesn't even occur to him that he's a child, to be protected and not handed the world. To him, he is one of eight. He has a job and responsibilites and he dropped the ball. It wasn't even funny how badly it had slipped through his fingers. He rakes his hands through his hair.]

So what now? We fucked up, played right into its hands. What's next?

[lamb_of_gold]

Now we wait. The disappearances that began this have not resumed, so the creature is properly dead, too weak to continue, or trapped in it's own world. In any case, there's nothing we can do for now.

You mustn't be too hard on yourself.

[moveslikestrider]

And why not? I got arrogant and a dude died for it. [Nevermind the fact he was going to die anyway.]

[lamb_of_gold]

No more than the rest of us. He was doomed from the start, Dave, regardless of your actions or lack thereof. You needn't carry all the guilt yourself.

[moveslikestrider]

[He sat in silence this time. There was nothing more he knew to say to that.]