Week 5

[airlockedmods]

[As with the weeks before, life in the Fantasy Sweet returns to something resembling normalcy with shocking efficiency. The second floor rest area and Adventure Zone Death Orb Room are spotless again, the demon glitter has been vacuumed, the deflated orbs have been replaced. It's like none of it ever happened, like three more friends aren't dead and stored away in the guest house morgue.

There's a new floor to explore, their "reward" for a job well done.]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday



[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your activity for week 4, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]

Comments

[brokencode]

[While Angel dreaded the very idea of talking to anyone about what happened with anyone, she dreaded the conversation with Junpei the most. OUt of everyone, he was the most cynical, the most likely to hold her accountable for her actions. Like with anyone else, she wouldn't have blamed him if he decided to sever ties with her. Perhaps, though, he would be the one she would regret losing most.]

Hi, Junpei. I am... glad you came. [A pause. Where she had jumped to the point with Heart, when it came to Junpei, she was a bit more eager to procrastinate.]

How are you feeling, my friend?

[misanthropicprinciple]

Uh, I'm all right. I mean, sore, but it's not a big deal.

[And he has some thoughts about that, but now isn't the time. What's important is trying to gauge how Angel's doing, what brought this on, why she's retreated to the far corner of the garden like this.

How could he be a traitor?]

Are you all right?

[brokencode]

Sore. [She nodded, looking a little grim, but saying nothing more. Beating around the bush wasn't going to send the best of messages. And getting it done and over with was sure to feel better in the long-run, even if it did result in losing her friend.]

I... am not sure. I remembered a great deal last night, and... none of it bodes well for me, I am afraid. [She sighed, wincing at the ache in her chest.] Where did we last leave off when it comes to these memories?

[misanthropicprinciple]

Your dad got you to trick some vault hunters into running after some kind of incredible weapon-monster because he wanted to climb the company ladder.

[He'd taken notes, after all.]

That's about the gist of it, right?

[brokencode]

Yes, you are correct. Suffice to say, we were successful. The result was him being put in charge of a space station, and that station being put into orbit around Pandora. You... might have heard Rhys talk about it -- Helios was its name.

Though we defeated the monster within the vault, one he wanted to capture and use for power, he salvaged the monster's eye and equipped the station with it. He... was quickly garnering power. [At the time, the eye had at least slightly more benevolent uses. He certainly wasn't the one who actually used it to try and destroy a planet. Or a moon. Same difference.]

After one last bid for power, he was attacked. The result was a final descent into madness. Jack, that is, my father, decided that he would destroy Pandora and its population. He... wanted to 'scorch the planet in fire.'

His hope was to use the woman who attacked him, a siren like me. To get to her, he... had me befriend those in charge of the settlement where she lived. He had me get close to the vault hunters again. And when he was ready... I had them drop their defenses.

The entire place was razed to the ground because of me.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[That's heavy. Junpei listens, and it's obvious when what she has to tell him hits that sore spot: when she tells him what Jack had her do to the settlement. He closes his eyes, rests his hand before his mouth, and breathes out slowly, letting that weigh on him as it should.]

How many people? How many... died there.

[brokencode]

[There was the reaction she had been waiting for, the one she hadn't gotten from Rhys or Heart. She hesitated only a moment, still trying to make sense of the information that had been presented to her. Judging by the size of the town?]

Hundreds, if not thousands lived there. I believe that only a handful of people survived. Once their defenses were lowered, Jack made sure to send in his best.

[misanthropicprinciple]

['So... to kill one person, you'll sacrifice six billion people?'

It's not really comparable. Not only the scales, but the supposed motivations... and yet. And yet.]

Did you know what would happen to them?

[brokencode]

I... had my suspicions, yes. But there was little I could do otherwise.

[It felt wrong, adding that in. It felt like a ploy for pity, which she knew she did not deserve.]

I knew how far gone Jack was. If he went through with his plans, destruction would be absolute. Rhys can attest to that much.

[misanthropicprinciple]

What would he have done if you didn't help him?

[If it's not her ploy for pity, it still might be Junpei's attempt to find some. After all they've gone through, he doesn't want to go back to mistrusting Angel.

And also--as always--he has to know. He has to know the whole truth.]

[brokencode]

I don't know. I was moved to a new facility, doubtless he had many fail-safes installed for when I failed to listen to him. But the biggest one, that collar I wore... he hadn't put it on me, yet.

It doesn't matter, though. I never considered saying no. If I had... [Every ounce of emotion that she had felt earlier in the day came rushing back. It took everything in her power to swallow it down, at least until she finished speaking.]

I should have took whatever he doled out. He wouldn't have killed me -- I was all he had. Not as a daughter, but as a weapon. He wouldn't have sacrificed that. No matter how much pain I was in for refusing, I still would have lived through it.

And then... they could have too.

[misanthropicprinciple]

...Is that how you really feel about it? That you regret it, and you would do it another way if you could go back?

[The question is carefully neutral, when Junpei is neutral about so very few things in life.]

[brokencode]

[Angel couldn't say for sure what Junpei was feeling. That only made her all the more nervous, all the more afraid of what might come once he finally finished drilling her on her past. Wouldn't it be ironic, if she thought she lost him to a murderer, only to lose him to her own viciousness?]

Yes. If there were any way... yes.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[He breathes out, and if this were any less grim, if they were anywhere else, it would have been a cartoonish phew of relief. As it is, it's sad; it's complicated. But it isn't angry.]

Then... thank you. For telling me, Angel.

[He rubs absently at his left wrist.]

I'm not saying that your autonomy or your... your physical safety or anything else is worth more than all those people's lives. But it's also not nothing. And people have done worse things for worse reasons than wanting to protect themselves.

People use other people... for worse reasons than wanting to protect themselves. And your dad sounds like a dick.

[brokencode]

[It wasn't quite condemnation, but unlike those that came before him, it wasn't outright forgiveness, either. And if she wasn't going to hear someone judge her as guilty, this would have to suffice. As it was, Angel let out her own held breath, then nodded to him.]

Thank you.

[His last statement made her cringe, however. There was no changing her blood ties to Jack, but... she didn't even want to think about them anymore.]

It's Jack. Not 'my father.' Jack.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Jack.

[The way he says it, correcting himself without a single hesitation, says he understands.]

I knew someone like that, too. Someone who stopped at nothing, who used everyone at his disposal to get what he wanted. So I don't... those people are all still dead. But don't think I don't understand.

[brokencode]

I thought... one day, I might find a place without people like him. It seems though, that they are more common than I thought.

[A breath escaped her, one filled both relief and sorrow.]

I am sorry you knew someone like that, too.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Yeah. Humans... aren't as beautiful as I once thought.

[How can he imagine they are, after everything he's seen, the blood he's waded through to unearth the truth?

His voice softens.]

But being here's reminded me that maybe they aren't so bad, either. That... maybe there's something worth hoping for in us, still.

[brokencode]

I honestly hope that you are right, Junpei. But if I am honest... [Her gaze shifted to the side. Rhys had promised to keep her safe, to keep her from going home. But the more things progressed in this hellhole, the greater her doubts grew.]

I am starting to lose faith.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Surprisingly, he chuckles a little and pushes his hair back from his face.]

You start to lose faith and I start to get it back... We're quite the pair, aren't we? The traitor and the betrayed.

[brokencode]

[A bitter smile worked its way over her lips.]

If nothing else, I am glad I met you, Junpei. And I sincerely hope you do not lose your faith again.

[misanthropicprinciple]

I guess ideally, we'll meet somewhere in the middle. Eyes open, but not openly misanthropic.

[brokencode]

That... would be nice, I think. I just hope I can reach that point.

[That, at best, her world view wouldn't be permanently damaged, and at worst... At worst she would not live long enough to see it changed.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

[He pauses, hesitates, and then extends a hand to her--just like she did towards him almost exactly three weeks ago.]

You already know you won't be the only one working to get you there.

[brokencode]

I know. I... believe that.

[It took her only a few seconds of hesitation before she reached out and took hold of the man's hand. If nothing else, she felt good, seeing how much Junpei had changed in the past few weeks. Even as she sank lower and lower, some people managed to stand up just a little bit higher.]

Thank you. You are a good friend.