(Untitled)

[patriotqueen]

He was drunk, he had lost count on which cigarette he was on, and he was decidedly not letting the piercing sensation behind his eyes win. With no nail left to bit, he had started on a patch of dead skin at the tip of his thumb. He was looking at a page in a book, but had long left his attention to the words afloat.

Getting his mind off of things

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[alittleofboth]

Guy's moods were always dramatic. Moderation was not in his vocabulary, a fact that Anthony was dreadfully familiar with.

But he had not seen Guy quite this bad in a very long time. He was curled in a corner of the cave, and he was a mess, and he was... broken.

Oh God, what now?

"What happened?" Anthony asked quietly as he approached.

[patriotqueen]

He didn't answer immediately. Couldn't even if he wanted to, because there was a lump in his throat that didn't want to go away. "The holocaust, apparently." he said eventually, with a humourless smile that didn't even try to fake realism and a gruff voice that could not feign indifference.

[alittleofboth]

Oh, God.

There had been rumors, those years ago, rumors that darkened as the war raged on, and they four had been more tuned into them than the rest of blissfully and selfishly ignorant Europe. But it was one thing to know what the Nazis might be capable of in the worst of circumstances, and another to see. And when the news footage started rolling in...

His jaw tightened at the memory. They said later that Berlin had been relieved that the Western Front had reached them before the East, because the Red Army had been ruthlessly destroying everything in their path. Anthony thought it was a pity.

He went further into the cave and sat beside Guy, resting his elbows on his knees. "How did you find out?"

[patriotqueen]

Rumours, yes, some, that there were labour facilities and everyone knew that they were treating the Jews horribly, but this? Not this. They didn't know this. The millions of deaths - the yellow stars, the pink and black triangles... they didn't know that.

"Movie. 'Bent'. Thought it was smut." Again no humour, but sparse words that hid nothing.

And he still didn't know all of it. Not by far.