That silent little motive was hell for some of us, Clarith--Junpei and Nari especially. And he still killed Larimer for standing up to him. Did you forget that, or merely choose to ignore it? I owe PAL something myself, but that doesn't mean I'm blinded to what he's done to all of us.
[She did, admittedly, have a few points Ardyn couldn't counter. Obviously there had been something left to Ardyn worth holding on to, so it was not impossible that the killer AI might potentially have had something to it as well. Queenie would almost certainly have been the only one to live if that vote had locked at a standstill.]
[...Almost?]
[He took a slow breath to stop himself from snapping at her, raking a hand through his hair. There was no outright venom to his words when he continued, but Ardyn's voice was strained with anger he was still trying not to allow to get the better of him.]
This isn't about you accepting everyone's hatred because you think you did the right thing, or sacrificing yourself for our happiness. I'm tired of you martyring yourself and refusing to accept that you might make a mistake in doing so.
This is not about you, your desperate need to martyr yourself, or whether or not it paid off in the end. It's about all of us.
This is about who you chose to believe in. Every last one of us chose to abstain from voting; to act on our vow to refuse to kill anyone else, and accept the consequence even under pain of death.
And you chose to trust in a shred of humanity you couldn't know existed instead of all of us who have struggled with you for these past two months. You saw our resolve and yet you tore that choice clear out of our hands because you needed to be right about him, else all your efforts to reach him would have meant nothing. You turned on what should be your family, Clarith, in favor of something you had no way of knowing was not just abusing your kind heart and lying to you.
[He took a breath, sighed, and asked the one question he was certain Clarith hadn't considered.]
If you trusted him not to kill Queenie, why couldn't you trust him not to kill all of us if we'd deadlocked his vote?
no subject
[She did, admittedly, have a few points Ardyn couldn't counter. Obviously there had been something left to Ardyn worth holding on to, so it was not impossible that the killer AI might potentially have had something to it as well. Queenie would almost certainly have been the only one to live if that vote had locked at a standstill.]
[...Almost?]
[He took a slow breath to stop himself from snapping at her, raking a hand through his hair. There was no outright venom to his words when he continued, but Ardyn's voice was strained with anger he was still trying not to allow to get the better of him.]
This isn't about you accepting everyone's hatred because you think you did the right thing, or sacrificing yourself for our happiness. I'm tired of you martyring yourself and refusing to accept that you might make a mistake in doing so.
This is not about you, your desperate need to martyr yourself, or whether or not it paid off in the end. It's about all of us.
This is about who you chose to believe in. Every last one of us chose to abstain from voting; to act on our vow to refuse to kill anyone else, and accept the consequence even under pain of death.
And you chose to trust in a shred of humanity you couldn't know existed instead of all of us who have struggled with you for these past two months. You saw our resolve and yet you tore that choice clear out of our hands because you needed to be right about him, else all your efforts to reach him would have meant nothing. You turned on what should be your family, Clarith, in favor of something you had no way of knowing was not just abusing your kind heart and lying to you.
[He took a breath, sighed, and asked the one question he was certain Clarith hadn't considered.]
If you trusted him not to kill Queenie, why couldn't you trust him not to kill all of us if we'd deadlocked his vote?