patheticvillain | nine ➢ filter + private

video | 1 friendly conversation filter, sans chris + cass

[Cassel chooses the video option deliberately, as well as the angle: dead on his face with a view of his shoulders and the top half of his torso. His face and posture bleed honesty tinged with regret - a little confusion, too. The confusion's the only part of this that's true, and his anger, frustration, resentment are well-hidden. That's why he's excluded Cass, because she could call him on this in an instant. Chris is out because he doesn't lie to Chris. Everyone else is fair game.]

[He takes a half-breath before he starts, looking at the camera, off to the side - guilt, shame.]

I shouldn't have done that. [Lie.] If I worried you, I'm sorry. [Half-truth, and a self-deprecating smile.] I'm not great at, uh, planning, I guess.

I know there's no way I can make up for worrying everyone, but if it's any consolation I feel like a total ass. Lesson learned, scout's honor, not happening again. [Smile evolved into smirk! Still self-deprecating, though.] I'm also considering putting up a suggestion box. "Shit Cassel should never do" for Barge input.

[And then he gets quiet, tilts his head a little sadly at the camera. Sincere regret, only not.] Seriously. Don't worry about me. And don't take it out on him.

private/video | zane

[Mask down: Cassel is pissed. Royally. About as angry as most people have probably ever seen him. Definitely angry enough to blatantly ignore the previous lie he told, that he didn't trust Zane - he does, and they're clearly the only two people here who have any clue what happened.]

[Again: video, same frame, but Cassel's not looking at the camera; too busy fuming.]

People get in your personal business here. [It looks like that's all he's going to say on that subject, but then a half-shrug:] Are you out of Zero yet?

[The rest is sent as text, more information than he has ever in his life given one person at once, but he's been watching. Zane understands him, he thinks, at least in part, certainly better than most other people do, and he's been inconvenienced by idiots like Rorschach with no intention of even attempting understanding. It's owed. That, and he needs it known, comprehensively, by somebody who understands what it's like to be manipulated.]

I think you like to know things, so here's some info. You chew screws, I wear gloves, because back home everybody wears gloves. It's how we stay safe. Work comes from hands and work can kill you or ruin your life. It can make you forget. That's why if you ever touch me [by which he means bare skin, the punching was fine really] with bare hands again I'll bite your fingers off. Nothing personal, that's just how it is.

Watch out for Barron Sharpe and Touko Fukawa.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She'd die in a cage. I don't want her here.

. . . And if I graduate, I think - I have to let her go.

So no. No, I don't think I'll see her again.

Why?

Why what?

Would you have to let her go.

She's connected to my old life. She's pretty much inseparable from my old life. If I give that up, I have to give her up.

She probably hates me by now anyway. I wasn't supposed to die.

Easy reason to hate someone. [He knows that so damn well.]

What was your old life?

[It stings, but he doesn't dispute it. It's true; he knows.]

I had a couple.

I was useless for a while, and then I tried to be normal for a while, and then I learned I was the most useful person on the planet, and the most powerful. And then I tried to use that influence to fix things. Didn't work.

[He has to smile, just a little at that.] Don't think you could be vaguer if you tried. [But he can't hold that against him.]

What kind of trouble did you get into?

I worked for the mob.

[He pauses.]

And against it. And - alongside it.

I did a lot of things.

Busy young man, weren't you. [Jesus, kid B(]

I try to keep moving.

I also rewrote my brother's memories.

[He's completely unbothered by this. Congratulations, James, you get this nugget of information first after Kon.]

[Well what the fucking hell.]

How'd you manage that?

He's fucked up his own memory enough by wrecking other people's that he has to keep notebooks full of days. What he ate for breakfast. How long he exercised for. Who he killed. I just had to rewrite them - literally.

He found out in the end, but I had to throw him under the bus before he threw me.

[He has never been so glad to be an only child.]

Sounds like a hell of a family.

Big brothers always have your back, James.

[There's the ghost of a smile in his voice.]

So they can put a knife in it? [Wow look at that foreshadowing.]

I'll have to take your word for it.

Or a bullet.

Good place to put one.

Not usually between brothers.

We're closer than most.

[Not a trace of sarcasm.]

You were ready to jump out a window to find him.

[He understands this NOT AT ALL.]

He's my brother. You have to love your brother. That's just how it works.

Not when he betrays you.

Even then. We're brothers. We love each other. That's how it's supposed to be.

Not when he betrays you. [jfc if he ever met Mrs. Sharpe...]

Saying it louder doesn't make it any more true.

patheticvillain - 2013-05-16 08:45 (UTC) - Expand

lastrat - 2013-05-17 04:35 (UTC) - Expand

patheticvillain - 2013-05-17 04:36 (UTC) - Expand

lastrat - 2013-05-17 04:40 (UTC) - Expand

patheticvillain - 2013-05-17 04:40 (UTC) - Expand

lastrat - 2013-05-17 04:43 (UTC) - Expand

patheticvillain - 2013-05-17 04:44 (UTC) - Expand

lastrat - 2013-05-17 04:46 (UTC) - Expand

patheticvillain - 2013-05-17 04:47 (UTC) - Expand

lastrat - 2013-05-17 04:50 (UTC) - Expand

patheticvillain - 2013-05-17 04:53 (UTC) - Expand

lastrat - 2013-05-17 05:00 (UTC) - Expand

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

[Private] i accidentally unsubscribed while trying to reply /weep