Taura's stomach was growling, but she could be patient. Her nails were still tacky; she'd rather wear nail polish and eat lunch than vice versa
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Objectively speaking, the snow and the cold were indicators that the weather was changing--or at the very least, it was capable of changing, whether or not everything around Yomi was nothing more than an elaborate illusion. Other than that, she wasn’t very concerned by the temperature and continued to walk around town at her own pace, hands in her jacket pockets. She’d discarded the bagged lunch as soon as she’d gotten off the bus, which just left the coupons and the credit card.
Regarding the latter item, Yomi had seen other prisoners going in and out of stores, some with bags, but she herself had yet to try hers out. Even assuming she was one day able to get a higher limit or add to the one she currently had, exactly how far was money going to go? On the surface, they were patients to the townspeople; selling a sick person a knife wasn’t likely to happen. It’d be easier to go through a spectre once the sun went down. And if they got back on the buses and were searched, items would have to be pretty small and well-hidden to go unnoticed. How were they to keep the supplies they might want to buy? That was the question Yomi was considering at the same time she thought out her options, being on a $15 budget. If nothing happened, the cards were just a wasted exercise, but if these soldiers were letting their pets arm up, she could get her hands on something she might not normally get unless she returned to Doyleton at night and stole it…
She was admittedly curious, and in possession of a weapon that could use some additions. The hardware store was a solid choice to scope out a purchase.
Walking down the main street, it was impossible not to notice the growing number of Doyleton residents leaving their homes like ants from an anthill. Odd. What remained about the same was the way they reacted to those from Landel’s--an awkwardness she’d seen during her past trips. She didn’t much mind the ducked heads and the short glances. Discomfort was something she created by nature now, she figured. She crossed the street at a crosswalk and turned in the direction of the hardware store.
Speaks of devils and yet they appear. Dark hair swinging slightly against a back called familiarity, and he considered briefly, before moving to intercept. He was bored, and hadn't spoken to the other in quite some time. It was possible she had something of interest to share--something more than the basic chatter he was given hours ago.
He stepped a few feet away and raised a hand to gain attention. "Aren't you looking well," he gave pleasantly, smile leaning into a smirk. "How have your days been?"
Considerably better than his, one might imagine. It wasn't nearly every day that a heartbeat bounced from one to two to one in a maddening repetition, or a younger brother declared affections to one bleeding out in the snow. However. Who was he to complain, mm?
She’d lived too long with a guarded awareness of what went on around her to be able to turn it off and be an oblivious, untrained civilian. Even so, the sesshouseki had given her more security, security and perhaps arrogance. Enough not to worry too much about what might try to get under her guard.
At the wave, she stopped and turned to look. From the suddenness in which he appeared, the little one must have been on the street and just spotted her first, before she him.
How long had it been? Ah, yes, she remembered. The boy hadn’t factored into her time much at all lately, replaced in part by the History Club and other inconsequential strangers. And the absence of faces, too. Some moments interesting, some not, like her time with Albedo. But here he was again, giving her a brave face.
A smile touched her lips, too. “Better than you were last time, anyway. My week has been normal, give or take. What about yours?”
At the remark, he allowed the expression to reach his eyes. "Well, now. We can't all be flawless all the time, or something said close to that, right?" Of the other... How long had it been? The last moment clear in memory had been in this town. And what had been happening then? Ah. That was right. Rubedo had vanished. And Albedo had realized he could be killed. Such a pleasant day that had been, and here was last night, reflecting the latter at least. The former, as well, if one considered the conversation earlier in the night.
And now? Now only silence rang. Again, in pattern, in tedium, reptition of nothing and something, there existed a lack of duel hearts. He wondered, idly, when it would begin again. He wondered if his twin would ever again be seen in this place as he was.
Still, he considered her question. Fine was too boring a response. "A bit destructive in nature," he replied truthfully. "I've had some fun, though, but not to any satisfaction." Both Klavier and Rika were still alive, after all. At least the girl was nowhere to be found. "The new arrangements are a bit irritating," he added dryly, glancing at a 'nurse'. Ironically, he had been sedated less in the past couple of days.
That was part where Yomi was supposed to laugh, or perhaps applaud the boy’s tenacity and whoever chose to dress him on days like this. She did a little bit, through her smile. The humour of perfection wasn’t lost on her. And neither was his short summary of events over the past week.
Monsters with the time to live and interact. It was ridiculous and yet here they were, acquaintances on a street corner.
“Oh,” she said. “I guess you’ve bounced back without hugs, then.” Though depending on Albedo’s willingness to cooperate, his issue with their overseers was probably a superficial thing. “Landel probably say the same thing about his time as head of the Institute. Not liking his replacements, not even a little bit?”
He gave her a dry look, mildly amused. "More or less," he responded. A bit both ways. He had been comforted more than he was used to in the past few days, by blood and not alike, and it was a bit disquieting when he looked back (a bit wholly wanted, in fact), but it had moved him to this point, now hadn't it? Something to be considered, at the least.
The boy sighed. "Mm, it depends, I suppose." On treatment and outcome, more than anything. "They're more outright than the previous group; of that, at least, it's a bit more simple. Lacks some of the idiocy of the prior claims." There were less of the coddling nurses, speaking in hushed tones of 'poor dears'. He should be glad of that, if nothing else. As well, of a man over the intercom being more outright with his wantings--of them to perform like proper little dogs, fighting well and moving the pieces set. Better than the ramblings of the prior, yes. Gave a bit less annoyance, despite the forced methodology of stricter uniforms and light punishments.
Outright? Maybe so, given that they did not uphold the daytime façade as resolutely as Landel’s day staff did. The prisoners weren’t so much patients in the military’s eyes as detainees. Particularly with this new credit card system, Aguilar and his soldiers were also making the curtain separating day and night somewhat porous--if someone were to buy, say, supplies that no “normal” mental patient had reason to have, like splints for injuries or rope for climbing, it was an admittance of what the nurses had never been capable of saying, that was there were other levels to Landel’s Institute.
The one thing Albedo didn’t say about the military was that they were interesting, but that rather went without saying, didn’t it? There were people who loathed the kind of chaos Landel’s instigated, and then there were others who merely suffered it in wait for their opportunity. Utilized it and thrived on it, in some cases. These latter people could appreciate qualities that the former couldn’t, and if Yomi had to say there was one thing she and Albedo had in common, it was that they were on the same side of that line in the end. Even if they weren’t the same kind of creature.
That similarity was what kept these exchanges going, time and again. Less so with Albedo’s black-haired doppelganger, but he was a different matter.
“And what else have you been up to?” Yomi began walking again, slowing her gait for him to follow if he wanted.
She moved forward, and he slid into step beside her. She was interesting, far more than most; a fellow monster in an environment becoming familiar. And her more than he--a devil hiding in disguise, and he wondered in part, not for the first time, what the disguise covered. Sins of the grave or unwieldy ambitions, or something a bit less human entirely. He couldn't know, and why ask, really? There was all the time in the world, moreso for creatures cut from the coil, and all things eventually came up with time.
He sighed as he trailed her, head angling as he watched the pedestrians on the opposite side. Comparatively, they were strangers still--knew nothing but nature and of folding paper. And of possible kindness, if memory held, though that could not be taken entirely as truth. Albedo wondered if Yomi really wished to know, and passed on asking. It would pass the time and was close to meaningless--an office chat of two fellow workers. The weather was fine, I tortured a man last night, his screams were ever so delightful. He laughed at that on a breath and decided to answer.
"One of my siblings is gone, so I have been caring for another." Said so carefully, wasn't he proud at that? "I'm have a few discussions with an acquaintance of ours that ended in him a bit worse for the wear. Hm. And I keep getting injured lately, for some reason. Large beasts and telekinetics seem to dislike me." He shivered a bit at the memory of the night prior, and yet still grinned. "Or like me too much, I suppose."
Their shared prison and the sorts of delights that came out after dark were certainly more beneficial subjects to hear about, but when the boy mentioned his relatives right off the back, Yomi looked over at him. It sounded like the truth. Nigredo couldn’t be the one gone, and so it had to have been the other boy, but that was assuming there weren’t more somewhere that Yomi just hadn’t seen yet. But why tell her at all? Family had enough of a resonance for her that she didn’t question its value, and had to wonder why he would share those privy moments. At least to her, there was a personal element to family still, one that had made Kagura’s presence unmentionable while she‘d been around… though Yomi herself didn’t completely comprehend why she had been so protective of a phony sisterhood at the time.
And even now, when the older Kagura was long gone, she couldn’t see herself admitting as much to Albedo, no matter how casually. It was a secret. It didn’t deserve scrutiny by an outsider.
“Your brothers?” Silence had seemed like the best response at first, but that it wasn’t the only response upset the sesshouseki’s equilibrium. Albedo’s “discussions” were another breadcrumb, but less charged. “Our acquaintance?” she repeated questioningly. His injuries was the most matter-of-course piece of news, which she guessed had more to do with his shivers than his thin clothes.
The question asked no specifics, and so he offered none. "Two were here," he said simply, nothing in the sentence. "You've met Nigredo." And the other? Gone, as if he had never been there to begin with, and with what was known now? Albedo wondered if that was perhaps true entirely. A different reality, a different time, a different person, and the games that the institute played. All of those were proved facts, so why not place them side by side? See it that way and it was far simpler; line the pieces, and the parts fell into place in a simpler way than what given truth had offered, a ripping and tearing at wounds already there. A hatred reburied and a faulty love. Wasn't Albedo the fool in this play?
He swallowed, pressure behind his eyes and a widening of lids. No, it was that... He would not accept anything of that one as truth without more proof behind it. Foolish, foolish--believing a doppelganger because their heart echoed his.
Of that, perhaps, it was lucky she offered another query. One far simpler--straightforward in the means and motions. He kept looking to the side for a moment, then glanced at her. "You've met him, too," he answered. "Klavier. The blond idiot."
The red-headed one, then. Out of what was it, six hundred or so? Surely they weren’t all loved enough to be missed, though. Even the purest heart didn’t have an endless amount of love, and Albedo wasn’t a pure creature by far. The way he had sometimes “cared” for Nigredo was proof of that.
In the end, was having a brother much different than having a sister? The pain looked the same.
Two separate layers of memories prickled at the thought, her old memories and Yoshiko’s, an unspoken sign that she was veering into dangerous territory. The sesshouseki was like a blood red light in the dark, drawing her away the subject. What had Albedo’s kin ever had to do with her? One childlike face gone from the crowd meant nothing. She didn’t have wants or wishes beyond the venom in her gut, making blood just as thin as water when it came down to it.
“Ah…” she started. “That guy.” The one who had comforted her when he’d thought he’d seen an ailing person. “You’ve been picking on him? You’ll give him a complex.”
The boy took a breath, letting it out in a sigh. "That guy," he echoed, and glanced at her again. "Technically, by age, I could claim he was picking on me." Albedo smiled at her, teeth and promises. Which Albedo had already done once, though that encounter was best forgotten; an obnoxious start to a relationship somehow still continuing. He'd be better off--
Well. He'd be better off taking some action. He'd speak with Nigredo, and see how it went.
"A complex is likely what he needs," he murmured. "It might allow him to stop trampling over everything in sight like a child."
By age, was it? Though Albedo and Nigredo were babies at heart, Yomi wasn’t quite convinced. Nothing was entirely outside the realm of skepticism. But assuming Yomi was right in thinking Klavier was a human through and through, he was a baby, too. Just a different breed from Albedo.
A moment passed, then she smiled back. “But now why would someone think to pick on you?” she asked with a mock disbelief that was clearly teasing. “A handsome child, and smart, too. What would an adult have a problem with?” Other than that perhaps an adult like Klavier was outmatched by a young boy from the future who was not completely a boy. And if Albedo was bored or inclined to let his darkness out, there could be something more to worry about than just what crawled out of the woodwork at night.
“What are you two disagreeing about that he’s made you so unhappy?”
And here was something a bit more familiar. Something loosened in him, and he rolled his eyes in exaggeration. "Yes, why, I wonder. Couldn't be that I have a different outlook than his and refuse to fit into his constraints of reality, mm?" He stretched his arms in front of him, fingers lacing together. "Though later it was probably the broken bones and scars," he added cheerfully. The only thing that was delightful about their earlier meeting. Seeing that Albedo had at least left one permanent mark. Though he'd have rather it have been something else.
Her actual question gave him pause. What, indeed. Much of which had to do with what he had just touched on, of course. The central fact of the fact revolved around that very thing, and whether the man was trash or hated, that didn't change. Klavier could accept no viewpoint than his own, whether on existences, sibling relations, or judgment. Albedo was something 'wrong', which was in no way a new viewpoint, but that the man thought to separate him from his siblings for it? Pathetic. And altogether faulty. Something that couldn't succeed in any form. And would likely end in something that man would not want.
"Hm," he gave finally. "It could simply be that he thinks he can press his way into others' affairs and call judgment on what he sees there. He's easy to play with, and reacts wonderfully when prodded at, but he's becoming... Less amusing." He was silent a moment. "He touches things he has no right to. And I think I'll kill him soon if he continues."
Malicious and altogether volatile. Yomi would have recognized Albedo’s temperament as a dangerous combination in any non-human before, and she still did to an extent, now that she saw their was no union between humans or monsters. But she had stepped across the line now. Changed her reality like Klavier, the foreign man with the playful alter ego, hadn’t and abandoned certain ways of thinking.
There was a feather-light stirring in her mind that she couldn’t identify, and as it brushed passed the sesshouseki’s eyes were on it, pulling at it, choking it. A feeling. A familiar thought.
“That’s the thing, isn’t it?” she replied when it was her turn to. Her tone was so light and soft, it gave her words the appearance of an idle comment, meant to fill space. “People like him can’t understand people like you.”
Whether across the line or on one side of it, the conflict was the same, wasn’t it? The inability to put oneself in another’s place. The boy couldn’t understand the human’s point of view, and the human couldn’t understand the boy’s. The same fight, played out over and over again. And when it wasn’t, it was still too late. Someone‘s way of life had to triumph over the other‘s; Albedo’s confession of violence was the natural step. So that’s what he and Klavier were at odds about. Well, that was bound to happen the longer prisoners stayed around each other, and worked their way into each other.
At Albedo’s ultimate threat, Yomi looked at him. Nothing about his explanation perplexed her. “I see your point,” she said. “Kill him.”
People like him cannot understand people like you.
Wasn't it more than that in the end? Wasn't it that people like that couldn't accept beings like Albedo? Like Yomi, possibly, probably. Like Nigredo as well, but to a different degree--if pressed, Nigredo could and would act as a human. Albedo had no want or desire to--and likely couldn't have passed as 'normal' even when defined as something more innocent. And perhaps it was something past that. Just as he could recognize prey, there were some that recognized predators. Human shift and reject things adverse to their nature. Far be it to be a change here.
So what was the point, in the end? That there was none, most likely. And yet, it was said idly like a fact, light enough to be past simple observation, and he wondered. Wondered, in fact, about one he had been around lately, and had felt the differences between them despite Ritsuka's continued kindness. Was there a point in the end? Because wasn't the rule that it would indeed end, by rejection, abandonment, or death, and then Albedo would be--
Alone. Alone yet again. Was that the point in this?
He swallowed all responses to the statement, his expression less lax and more bordering on troubled. Though when she spoke again, he glanced up, surprised at the answer none would dare say--a simple solution to a simple problem and all others he knew would shift him from it. The simplicity given was so inhuman that he was grateful for her in that moment--for something like him at least in mentality, enough to place before him something wanted.
He smiled brightly, nothing false in the expression, looking a bit too happy to be discussing murder. "I should," he responded pleasantly. "We'll see how things move."
Regarding the latter item, Yomi had seen other prisoners going in and out of stores, some with bags, but she herself had yet to try hers out. Even assuming she was one day able to get a higher limit or add to the one she currently had, exactly how far was money going to go? On the surface, they were patients to the townspeople; selling a sick person a knife wasn’t likely to happen. It’d be easier to go through a spectre once the sun went down. And if they got back on the buses and were searched, items would have to be pretty small and well-hidden to go unnoticed. How were they to keep the supplies they might want to buy? That was the question Yomi was considering at the same time she thought out her options, being on a $15 budget. If nothing happened, the cards were just a wasted exercise, but if these soldiers were letting their pets arm up, she could get her hands on something she might not normally get unless she returned to Doyleton at night and stole it…
She was admittedly curious, and in possession of a weapon that could use some additions. The hardware store was a solid choice to scope out a purchase.
Walking down the main street, it was impossible not to notice the growing number of Doyleton residents leaving their homes like ants from an anthill. Odd. What remained about the same was the way they reacted to those from Landel’s--an awkwardness she’d seen during her past trips. She didn’t much mind the ducked heads and the short glances. Discomfort was something she created by nature now, she figured. She crossed the street at a crosswalk and turned in the direction of the hardware store.
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He stepped a few feet away and raised a hand to gain attention. "Aren't you looking well," he gave pleasantly, smile leaning into a smirk. "How have your days been?"
Considerably better than his, one might imagine. It wasn't nearly every day that a heartbeat bounced from one to two to one in a maddening repetition, or a younger brother declared affections to one bleeding out in the snow. However. Who was he to complain, mm?
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At the wave, she stopped and turned to look. From the suddenness in which he appeared, the little one must have been on the street and just spotted her first, before she him.
How long had it been? Ah, yes, she remembered. The boy hadn’t factored into her time much at all lately, replaced in part by the History Club and other inconsequential strangers. And the absence of faces, too. Some moments interesting, some not, like her time with Albedo. But here he was again, giving her a brave face.
A smile touched her lips, too. “Better than you were last time, anyway. My week has been normal, give or take. What about yours?”
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And now? Now only silence rang. Again, in pattern, in tedium, reptition of nothing and something, there existed a lack of duel hearts. He wondered, idly, when it would begin again. He wondered if his twin would ever again be seen in this place as he was.
Still, he considered her question. Fine was too boring a response. "A bit destructive in nature," he replied truthfully. "I've had some fun, though, but not to any satisfaction." Both Klavier and Rika were still alive, after all. At least the girl was nowhere to be found. "The new arrangements are a bit irritating," he added dryly, glancing at a 'nurse'. Ironically, he had been sedated less in the past couple of days.
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Monsters with the time to live and interact. It was ridiculous and yet here they were, acquaintances on a street corner.
“Oh,” she said. “I guess you’ve bounced back without hugs, then.” Though depending on Albedo’s willingness to cooperate, his issue with their overseers was probably a superficial thing. “Landel probably say the same thing about his time as head of the Institute. Not liking his replacements, not even a little bit?”
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The boy sighed. "Mm, it depends, I suppose." On treatment and outcome, more than anything. "They're more outright than the previous group; of that, at least, it's a bit more simple. Lacks some of the idiocy of the prior claims." There were less of the coddling nurses, speaking in hushed tones of 'poor dears'. He should be glad of that, if nothing else. As well, of a man over the intercom being more outright with his wantings--of them to perform like proper little dogs, fighting well and moving the pieces set. Better than the ramblings of the prior, yes. Gave a bit less annoyance, despite the forced methodology of stricter uniforms and light punishments.
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The one thing Albedo didn’t say about the military was that they were interesting, but that rather went without saying, didn’t it? There were people who loathed the kind of chaos Landel’s instigated, and then there were others who merely suffered it in wait for their opportunity. Utilized it and thrived on it, in some cases. These latter people could appreciate qualities that the former couldn’t, and if Yomi had to say there was one thing she and Albedo had in common, it was that they were on the same side of that line in the end. Even if they weren’t the same kind of creature.
That similarity was what kept these exchanges going, time and again. Less so with Albedo’s black-haired doppelganger, but he was a different matter.
“And what else have you been up to?” Yomi began walking again, slowing her gait for him to follow if he wanted.
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He sighed as he trailed her, head angling as he watched the pedestrians on the opposite side. Comparatively, they were strangers still--knew nothing but nature and of folding paper. And of possible kindness, if memory held, though that could not be taken entirely as truth. Albedo wondered if Yomi really wished to know, and passed on asking. It would pass the time and was close to meaningless--an office chat of two fellow workers. The weather was fine, I tortured a man last night, his screams were ever so delightful. He laughed at that on a breath and decided to answer.
"One of my siblings is gone, so I have been caring for another." Said so carefully, wasn't he proud at that? "I'm have a few discussions with an acquaintance of ours that ended in him a bit worse for the wear. Hm. And I keep getting injured lately, for some reason. Large beasts and telekinetics seem to dislike me." He shivered a bit at the memory of the night prior, and yet still grinned. "Or like me too much, I suppose."
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And even now, when the older Kagura was long gone, she couldn’t see herself admitting as much to Albedo, no matter how casually. It was a secret. It didn’t deserve scrutiny by an outsider.
“Your brothers?” Silence had seemed like the best response at first, but that it wasn’t the only response upset the sesshouseki’s equilibrium. Albedo’s “discussions” were another breadcrumb, but less charged. “Our acquaintance?” she repeated questioningly. His injuries was the most matter-of-course piece of news, which she guessed had more to do with his shivers than his thin clothes.
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He swallowed, pressure behind his eyes and a widening of lids. No, it was that... He would not accept anything of that one as truth without more proof behind it. Foolish, foolish--believing a doppelganger because their heart echoed his.
Of that, perhaps, it was lucky she offered another query. One far simpler--straightforward in the means and motions. He kept looking to the side for a moment, then glanced at her. "You've met him, too," he answered. "Klavier. The blond idiot."
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In the end, was having a brother much different than having a sister? The pain looked the same.
Two separate layers of memories prickled at the thought, her old memories and Yoshiko’s, an unspoken sign that she was veering into dangerous territory. The sesshouseki was like a blood red light in the dark, drawing her away the subject. What had Albedo’s kin ever had to do with her? One childlike face gone from the crowd meant nothing. She didn’t have wants or wishes beyond the venom in her gut, making blood just as thin as water when it came down to it.
“Ah…” she started. “That guy.” The one who had comforted her when he’d thought he’d seen an ailing person. “You’ve been picking on him? You’ll give him a complex.”
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Well. He'd be better off taking some action. He'd speak with Nigredo, and see how it went.
"A complex is likely what he needs," he murmured. "It might allow him to stop trampling over everything in sight like a child."
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A moment passed, then she smiled back. “But now why would someone think to pick on you?” she asked with a mock disbelief that was clearly teasing. “A handsome child, and smart, too. What would an adult have a problem with?” Other than that perhaps an adult like Klavier was outmatched by a young boy from the future who was not completely a boy. And if Albedo was bored or inclined to let his darkness out, there could be something more to worry about than just what crawled out of the woodwork at night.
“What are you two disagreeing about that he’s made you so unhappy?”
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Her actual question gave him pause. What, indeed. Much of which had to do with what he had just touched on, of course. The central fact of the fact revolved around that very thing, and whether the man was trash or hated, that didn't change. Klavier could accept no viewpoint than his own, whether on existences, sibling relations, or judgment. Albedo was something 'wrong', which was in no way a new viewpoint, but that the man thought to separate him from his siblings for it? Pathetic. And altogether faulty. Something that couldn't succeed in any form. And would likely end in something that man would not want.
"Hm," he gave finally. "It could simply be that he thinks he can press his way into others' affairs and call judgment on what he sees there. He's easy to play with, and reacts wonderfully when prodded at, but he's becoming... Less amusing." He was silent a moment. "He touches things he has no right to. And I think I'll kill him soon if he continues."
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There was a feather-light stirring in her mind that she couldn’t identify, and as it brushed passed the sesshouseki’s eyes were on it, pulling at it, choking it. A feeling. A familiar thought.
“That’s the thing, isn’t it?” she replied when it was her turn to. Her tone was so light and soft, it gave her words the appearance of an idle comment, meant to fill space. “People like him can’t understand people like you.”
Whether across the line or on one side of it, the conflict was the same, wasn’t it? The inability to put oneself in another’s place. The boy couldn’t understand the human’s point of view, and the human couldn’t understand the boy’s. The same fight, played out over and over again. And when it wasn’t, it was still too late. Someone‘s way of life had to triumph over the other‘s; Albedo’s confession of violence was the natural step. So that’s what he and Klavier were at odds about. Well, that was bound to happen the longer prisoners stayed around each other, and worked their way into each other.
At Albedo’s ultimate threat, Yomi looked at him. Nothing about his explanation perplexed her. “I see your point,” she said. “Kill him.”
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Wasn't it more than that in the end? Wasn't it that people like that couldn't accept beings like Albedo? Like Yomi, possibly, probably. Like Nigredo as well, but to a different degree--if pressed, Nigredo could and would act as a human. Albedo had no want or desire to--and likely couldn't have passed as 'normal' even when defined as something more innocent. And perhaps it was something past that. Just as he could recognize prey, there were some that recognized predators. Human shift and reject things adverse to their nature. Far be it to be a change here.
So what was the point, in the end? That there was none, most likely. And yet, it was said idly like a fact, light enough to be past simple observation, and he wondered. Wondered, in fact, about one he had been around lately, and had felt the differences between them despite Ritsuka's continued kindness. Was there a point in the end? Because wasn't the rule that it would indeed end, by rejection, abandonment, or death, and then Albedo would be--
Alone. Alone yet again. Was that the point in this?
He swallowed all responses to the statement, his expression less lax and more bordering on troubled. Though when she spoke again, he glanced up, surprised at the answer none would dare say--a simple solution to a simple problem and all others he knew would shift him from it. The simplicity given was so inhuman that he was grateful for her in that moment--for something like him at least in mentality, enough to place before him something wanted.
He smiled brightly, nothing false in the expression, looking a bit too happy to be discussing murder. "I should," he responded pleasantly. "We'll see how things move."
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