suitedreams: Rupert

[battling]

don't run me over (with a horse)

Comments

[agleam]

What's so funny about the way I talk, huh?!

[battling]

's like a puppy tryin' to be aggressive!

[agleam]

I'm not a puppy! Stop acting like you understand anything about me!

[battling]

What are you? Fourteen?

[agleam]

Shut up! You know how old I am!

[battling]

A teenager!

[agleam]

I'm not fourteen and you know it!

[battling]

Twelve.

[And then another shower of stardust.

Snow, White, Mithra, Owen, Vincent, Drummond and the sage are all sitting around a feast with you.

The atmosphere is already tense.

Snow speaks first, "Our natures aren’t that warped. We’re twins: we know the joys of co-existence."

Despite their words you cannot find it in you to believe them. You know how easily the twins abandoned the towns they said they loved. You know they're just as fickle as any other wizard. If it doesn't align to their tastes, they'll throw it away.

White, "We wanted to teach other wizards the joy of living together too. That’s why we simply watched over them in silence, but............"

Snow, "Every last group fell apart. It could take as little as a few years; the more fortunate ones lasted for decades. It would have been a miracle for one to survive past a hundred years."

"Then my gang of bandits must’ve been a miracle. We lasted over four hundred years." They were yours.

White, "You’re exceptional. Even Central wizards, who are used to working in groups, have failed in establishing countries — and yet a Northern wizard like you pulled off quite the feat."

Despite yourself, you can't help the pride welling in your chest. Those were your bandits. "Well, yeah."

Snow gives you a haughty look, "Hmph. You wouldn't call that an organization. You were simply the magnet that held the sand together. Hence, it collapsed the moment you were gone. And returned to mere nameless sand." He hurls his insults so easily. Calling your own incompetent. You're bound to your promise, you have to serve the rest of your sentence or else you might fight them here, no matter how foolish that would be.

You're angry. Just where do the twins think they get off. Your eyes narrow and your voice lowers to a growl. "You were the ones who turned my underlings to stone."

Snow's eyes glitter, "Ohoho, indeed!"

You're angrier than you've ever been.]

[agleam]

[ah. well, whatever he was doing a moment ago has stopped, immediately, as he looks towards bradley with a horrified expression.]

To stone—?!

[battling]

They killed them.

[He doesn't need emotionshare week to see the way Bradley's angry at those twins.]

They love pretendin' they're kind and carin'. Liars.

[agleam]

...Is there a way to change them back?

[he can guess the answer, he thinks, but it seems important to ask.]

[battling]

D'ya remember what happened to my body at the end of trial?

That's what happens when wizards die. We aren't supposed to leave behind a corpse. Death is the end.

[agleam]

I think I was getting taken away when that happened, so I didn't notice, but...

[his expression is sympathetic all the same.]

I'm so sorry... That's awful. They're awful.

[battling]

[Bradley's bandit group was made up of bandits, of course. Trying to capture the rest of them wouldn't be nearly as effective as just killing them. They got the head of the organization. His group was scrambling, they were easy targets.

The twins could've just let them dissolve into obscurity into the North.

There's a nod in response. The twins are awful.]

Humans get tricked by 'em all the time.

[agleam]

Why? What do they have against humans?

[battling]

They say they "love" humans and care for 'em. They've made plenty of towns in North protected by them... until they don't like how it's goin' and abandon them. Least Owen and Mithra don't put on airs.

[agleam]

...It would be better never to offer them protection in the first place. That way they'd learn ways to defend themselves.

[battling]

's too late for that. Just their own egos showin'.

[agleam]

Either way... I'm really sorry you—

[he's interrupted as the dust settles around them again, though, and another memory (cw: mass death) begins.]

[battling]

[... Rupert lost them. Bradley lost them and there wasn't anything you could do. There was no shadowy darkness in Bradley's world. He knew the twins did it. He know the twins acted deliberately.

He knew he couldn't fight it, trapped the way he was. If you can't change the past, the most you can do is learn from it. This memory... he's not sure about.]

That's the shadow thing you were talkin' about?

[agleam]

[it's quiet, uncharacteristically so, when he answers. he has to take a sharp breath before he can get the words out at all.]

Yes.

[battling]

Might not mean that much comin' from me. [He's not from his world. He's well aware of death happening at all times in the North.] Sorry ya had to deal with that.

[agleam]

[he can't say it's alright - not about this. but, after another pause to find the best words for this:]

It does, actually. Mean a lot coming from you, I mean. [...] Thank you.

[battling]

[Does it? He wonders why.]

... Yeah.

[agleam]

[after another moment of pause:]

We don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to. I know it was - a lot.