20 • [voice|action]

[endthem]

[he'd heard mention of the creatures, but--honestly--he'd paid them very little mind. As silly as it was, it has been dreams that have been taking up the majority of his attention for the past few days.  He knew they were just nightmares, nothing more than figments of whatever lurked around in his somewhat off-kilter mind. They weren't real. They

Comments

[voice]

[thedicearecast]

[Amelia needs to talk to Legato. He is harsh and cold, but he's not what people have been saying--what her dreams have been showing. Just like her father isn't that man, isn't responsible for making her mother suffer just like so many countless others. So when she sees Legato's journal broadcasting, Amelia of course listens--

To those sounds--

Those unmistakable sounds--]

LEGATO!

[voice]

[endthem]

[his voice isn't right. He sounds detached, somehow, amidst the infuriating thrashing and snarling]

Not now, Amelia.

[voice]

[thedicearecast]

Yes, now. Legato, listen to me!

[Please, please listen. Amelia is far from detached, all but on the verge of panic as she practically begs Legato to come off the brink. She knows what this is, why he's doing it--but its not based in reality, even if it somehow feels that way.]

They're just dreams. You aren't that way, so just stop. Please.

[voice]

[endthem]

[just mention of the dreams is enough to bring it back, and he snaps at her]

What do you know about it?

[then he reigns in his voice a bit, but the crack of bone makes up for it]

It's just a monster, anyway.

[voice]

[thedicearecast]

[Amelia forces herself not to react to the way he snaps at her. She can't let herself recoil from him, or else he'll really lose himself, won't he?]

[She tries to steal her voice, to put conviction into words she can't fully say she believes.] I know they're just dreams.

And maybe it is just a monster, but you aren't.

[voice]

[endthem]

[he's quiet for a minute, nothing but the sounds of the creature furiously struggling against his mental hold for a bit]

[finally--] It's too close to the house.

Re: [voice]

[thedicearecast]

[Amelia hesitates; defending family she understands, and she desperately wants to believe that's all this has been--but she knows better, in that same place that twists in knots every time she thinks of her dreams, of what Legato can do and what he's doing now.]

Still...you didn't have to kill it like that.

[voice]

[endthem]

It's the safest way.

[the most efficient. This way, he doesn't have to find a weapon, he doesn't have to deal with his handicap, he doesn't have to give it a chance.

He can pin it down and make sure that it's dead with precise clarity.

Which, by the sound of the final cracks and the silence that abruptly follows, it sounds as though he's finally done]

Re: [voice]

[thedicearecast]

[Amelia can't contain a helpless cry at that final snap, as if so much more than a beast's life has been stolen away. She's silent after that, for a long time, before she slowly shakes her head.]

Why?

[voice]

[endthem]

[again there is a delay before he answers, the journal hanging from his hand while he looks at the broken body of the creature. When he does speak, his voice is something frustrated and cold]

Why not?

Re: [voice]

[thedicearecast]

Because...it was alive. Even if we didn't know what it was, if it didn't actually attack anyone--

And the way you killed it... [That horrible way that made Amelia all but tremble in fear to think about.] It must have been scared, and in so much pain.

[voice]

[endthem]

[he just listens, his rationalizations warring with things that he has no reasonable explanation for, until her last comment. That, at least, is something he can answer to-- so he latches onto it]

It wasn't, if it's any consolation. [though, he couldn't honestly tell himself whether that really would have mattered or not] It didn't behave like a normal animal.

Re: [voice]

[thedicearecast]

But what if it had been? Would you have stopped?

[...before the coffee cup shatters in her hand...]

This is too dangerous, Legato.

[voice]

[endthem]

[the defensiveness rushes back-- not quite snapping, but nearly so]

I don't see why we need to dwell on it anymore.

Re: [voice]

[thedicearecast]

Because I'm afraid for you. [afraid of you.] Everyone is having dreams, and they're so...so...

[Real.]

...You didn't answer my question.

[voice]

[endthem]

I'm not answering your question because it's not worth thinking about.

They're just dreams. They don't mean anything, they're-- [he's beginning to sound a little unhinged, so he again takes a moment to rein himself in] The dreams have nothing to do with anything. They're irrelevant.