63 - one hundred and thirty

[sore_feet_man]

...

*the flute is clutched in his hand*

((I'm assuming that there is winter break for school in Memento Eden currently, so there's no work to be absent from.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the closest to "blue screen of death" syndrome that our one-eyed scientist has ever found himself.))

Comments

[roseofcaerleon]

[[Apps can wait for now, right?]]

. . . The story of the piper.

[sore_feet_man]

((omg I swear I will make this really fast and not take up too much time omg I'm sorry I said anything omg waaaaaaah))

*doesn't even turn to face her, but stops whatever he's doing*

...I'm a murderer, now.

[roseofcaerleon]

[[I am staring at the stupid essays right now and thinking, "How the heck do I write a story about a street?"]]

And what does that change?

[sore_feet_man]

I feel... *he whispers the last word* ...tainted.

I'll never be able to forget their face-- *his throat stops him and he breaks off, turning his back completely to Priscilla*

[roseofcaerleon]

[She stares at his back, before stepping closer and reaching her right hand to his left arm in an effort to turn him around.]

Ginko.

[sore_feet_man]

*lets her turn him, though he turns his head to his right, hiding his eye - he makes a strange, cough-like sound, trying to hold back tears*

[roseofcaerleon]

...

[Oh, Ginko, she thinks, and whatever she was about to say is held back now, as her expression softens. She still keeps a firm grasp on his wrist in case he decides to turn away again, and slowly reaches to grab his other one.]

And you would have done the same, wouldn't you.

1/2

[sore_feet_man]

*he tightens his hands into fists*

*quietly* ...It felt like I knew him. He came into town, not meaning to stay, not meaning to make any heavy impact on the place. Then he...then I noticed. They were all so weak, far too weak. It had affected the frail children first, I imagine, and then spread between playmates. If it were to spread any more, it could mean genocide for the entire town. Something had to be done. I had to kill the disease before it was too late. There wasn't time to think of another way.

There wasn't tim-- *he breaks off again*

2/2

[sore_feet_man]

*he lowers his head*

...Goddamn it...godDAMNIT... *his voice raises up to near-shouting* Why?! Why wasn't there another way? Why was I forced to...such a thing...!

*tears are flowing full-force from his eyes, hidden by his hair*

[roseofcaerleon]

...

[There is nothing to say, a feeling she has known all too well. Priscilla simply wraps her arms around him and holds him tight, a lonely man and a lonely woman alone in a troubled world.]

Your humanity and their lives... for our protection...

[sore_feet_man]

*he breathes awkwardly, his inhaling hissing past clenched teeth - and then her words somehow make it through, and he opens his eye*

[Private] For them...

As if I could weigh one life against another. And yet...that's what it came down to, wasn't it? [/Private]

*he brings his arms up slowly and wraps them behind Priscilla's head and around her shoulders, looking almost like a child as he does so*

...Please stay with me, like this.

[roseofcaerleon]

... In the stories, the hero is absolved of all his crimes. Yet, heroes are for another time and place, where the world is simpler and --

[Breaking off her words, she looks into his eyes.]

I cannot offer you absolution. I cannot give you peace. But... I can stay here, with you, for as long as fate... will let us.

[sore_feet_man]

*faintly whispering into her hair as he continues to hold on her like she is life itself* ...with me...