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]

He told me I would be free, once he came into power. He promised me.

[For years, she kept her faith, believing that if she just listened, she would one day see the real world. That she would finally be able to walk around like a normal person, confident that her father could protect her.

But her father had died on Elpis, if he had ever really been a father at all.]

They were right, to give me this title. After everything, I deserve all of it and more. [Maybe even the eridium, the slow creeping death she knew was coming, was deserved as well.

But she didn't say that much out loud.]

[plugout]

... But he broke that promise.

[ Goddamnit. Rhys presses his lips to her forehead. ]

No-- Angel, no. You... I don't know everything you've done, and I'm not gonna force you to tell me, but I know you. I know you wouldn't willingly betray someone. That's not the kind of person you are.

[brokencode]

[A few days earlier, perhaps even the night previous, she would have been overwhelmed by his, admittedly innocent, touch. Now it felt wrong. Why did she deserve happiness, deserve him, after all she had done. It didn't make sense to her.

But disgusted as she was with herself, she didn't pull away. She was a selfish creature, after all. Had clung to Jack despite knowing better. Clung to Rhys despite knowing she didn't deserve him.]

You're wrong. I convinced an entire settlement to trust me. And we razed it. People died brutally because I let them believe that I was their friend. That I would protect them.

[plugout]

[ If she'd drawn away, he'd have let her... but Rhys doesn't want that to happen all the same. There's a part of him that's worried that's what'll happen. Angel's obviously filled with a lot of self-loathing... and it's painful even for him.

He won't deny that he's a little shaken by what she's told him. At the same time... there must be something he's missing. A piece of the story. ]

Did you want to do it?

[brokencode]

[Did she want to do it. It was a question that struck her silent, left her alone with her thoughts. She didn't want people to die, that much was true. Especially not Lilith, whom she looked up to and wanted to call a friend. But saying no... Had the thought even crossed her mind? If it hadn't -- was it because of unquestionable faith, or fear.]

I... cared about the people there. But what could I say or do? I had nothing, and my powers... [She winced, remembering the core.] He had me locked away in a facility on Pandora. It was no longer just... keeping me safe.

But I still did it. I did not question him. I... saw what happened to people who questioned him. And even if he would not kill me... there was plenty of ways to hurt me.

[plugout]

[ Rhys listens to her. As he thought, there is far, far more to the story than she'd initially let on. His blood boils the more she tells him. It's one thing to lock up his own daughter, and another thing to poison her, but... ]

He used your fear to control you. [ He sounds utterly disgusted, and he wants more than ever to throttle Jack. Too bad that's not possible. ] Angel, that's... He knew you were scared. He let you see what he did. He... It might've seemed like a choice, but he didn't give you one. Not really.

[ He shakes his head and sets his hands, gently, on her shoulders to look at her. ]

He used you to do his dirty work, Angel.

[brokencode]

I let him. All along, I believed that what we were doing was right. I might not have been able to say no then, but what of before?

[She shook her head. There was more she could say, more she could argue, but she was exhausted. Whatever the cause, whatever could have been done differently, it didn't matter. At the end of the day, the blood was on her hands, and there was no going back from that.

No, what was more important right now was her fate. Somehow, some way, she was alive. She couldn't say for certain, though, that that would continue to be the case, however. The eridium was killing her, if nothing else, there was no denying that.]

I cannot go back, Rhys. Please, whatever happens, however we get out of this, you cannot let me go back there.

[plugout]

He took advantage of how scared you were, Angel. And-- he's your dad, you... it's not easy to say no to a family member, right?

[ Especially someone like Jack--he probably made it sound like the best thing ever, like what they were doing was a good thing.

Her request makes him pause. ]

I won't, Angel. I-- I don't know how, but I won't let you go back to that. Not if I can help it. [ He looks at her firmly, determinedly. ] I'll make a plan, for-- for both of us. That's what I do best-- plans.

[brokencode]

Maybe.

[There was more she wanted to say, but she didn't want to argue with him. Right now, she could at least stomach Rhys' acceptance. If nothing else, someone in this facility still trusted her. She could question it later. She needed comfort now.]

I... trust you.

[More than anyone who came before him. More than her father, and perhaps even more than the otthers here.]

Thank you.

[plugout]

[ Idly, he reaches up to stroke her hair. More than anything, he needs to let her know he's here for her. Now, always. ]

Hey, you don't have to thank me.

[ He doesn't want to see her hurt. ]

It's just... you deserve good things. To be happy. Even if you don't think so.

[brokencode]

I don't... know what I deserve.

[Not when there was so much blood on her hands. It seemed wrong, very wrong, to be happy like this. To have a boyfriend that cared about her, that appeared to want to stand by her despite all she had done. And friends, she had those too. She didn't know if they would think the same of her, but she would gladly count Nari, Junpei and Choromatsu as her friends, and that was only if she was being conservative.

No. She deserved to be in a game of murderers, deserved to be a victim, to suffer for her crimes. Certainly nothing like this.

But she was certain that Rhys wouldn't agree with her if she said as much aloud. Instead, she simply rested her head against his chest and tried to focus on simply breathing.

[plugout]

Better than what you believe. And... what he's made you believe.

[ His voice is firm, because it's truly what he believes. Despite what she thinks, Angel deserves freedom. He's not sure what'll happen in this place, but he'd do anything to make sure she gets the ending she deserves.

And that ending... is an ending without Jack. Because even though Jack is dead and gone in Rhys's time, he's not sure about Angel. Knowing that, if she returns to Pandora, she'll possibly be going back to a death sentence?

That's not right. ]

[brokencode]

[Several protests began and died on her lips. She wanted to argue that the corpses in New Haven, the families of those who died in the massacre, all might disagree with him. But she didn't. Her mouth remained closed, and for a long while, she simply leaned against him.

Eventually, a voice in the back of her head began to chide her. She wasn't the only one who received memories, at least she was almost certain she wasn't. She lifted her head, giving Rhys a serious look, before laying a hand against his cheek.]

What about you...? Are you alright?

[plugout]

[ He hesitates. It feels wrong to turn attention to him when she's not... doing well at all. Rhys instinctively places his hand over hers, squeezing lightly. She's... asking, so maybe... ]

I... not. Not really. Angel, I did something-- really bad.

[brokencode]

[It was as if Rhys had flipped a switch. Though she still felt her own distress rising up within her, it could at least be ignored for the time being. It was like she had thought earlier -- she wasn't the only person receiving memories.]

What happened? [If Rhys could forgive what she had done, she could at least listen and try to do the same.]