Comments | taxonomites: 4. [Accidental Visual] [Location: Caritas] Murder, He Sang

greenballadeer in taxonomites

4. [Accidental Visual] [Location: Caritas] Murder, He Sang

May 28, 2010 22:30

Lorne takes the stage, ready to entertain the folks who have come for a celebratory drink after the big rescue. He has a punchy 40s tune planned, something to get the crowd dancing in their seats. The plan is to celebrate, but the musical glitch has finally taken hold of Taxon's most musical resident.

Violins swell mournfully out of nowhere. Lorne ( Read more... )

{ wesley wyndam-pryce, { lorne, @ osten, { the doctor (tenth), { john casey, { cordelia chase

Comments 53

[ voice ] glowingseer May 29 2010, 02:47:44 UTC

Lovely song as always, Lorne. I bet it was better to hear in person.

[ her voice is still a bit weak, but cordelia can't let this transmission go to waste. ]

[voice] greenballadeer May 29 2010, 02:54:23 UTC

Honey, you know I can come sing to you in person whenever you like. Right now, even. I take requests. They can even be songs that aren't completely depressing and spill my guts out for all of Taxon to see.

[voice] glowingseer May 29 2010, 03:06:06 UTC

...oh. I see the musical bug's finally bit you in the ass, huh.

[voice] greenballadeer May 29 2010, 03:22:13 UTC

Yeah, and my ass is a particularly sensitive area, since my heart's in there.

It's not like I wanted to tell all of Taxon that I'm a murderer. And what about if Angel's watching? Sweet mother of Elvis, I need a drink.

Thread 14

[on location] rude_not_ginger May 29 2010, 06:39:40 UTC

The Doctor's in the bar. He's got a banana daquiri with a little umbrella and it is not the first he's had.

He hates it here in Taxon. He hates it so much. This last week is just proof of how much he hates it.

[Location: Caritas] greenballadeer May 30 2010, 15:22:24 UTC

Lorne's at the bar drinking Casey's industrial strength Sea Breeze. The sight of the Doctor is jarring. He thinks of the virtual demigod he saw in Rose's destiny, now sitting before him in the form of a skinny man with gorgeous hair, drinking a banana daiquiri of all things, with an umbrella. He would laugh, except he's really not in a laughing mood.

"I never said thanks," Lorne begins. "For helping save Cordy and everyone else."

[Location: Caritas] notabuymoron May 29 2010, 06:53:22 UTC

"Sure thing, coming right up." Casey calls out. It's not long before he's at Lorne's elbow, offering him a double strength seabreeze.

"You've got some pipes there. I take it that the subject matter wasn't exactly your choice, though."

[Location: Caritas] greenballadeer May 30 2010, 16:17:11 UTC

Lorne nods gratefully, takes the Sea Breeze, and downs almost half of it in one. The burn of the alcohol and the tang of the cranberry and grapefruit feels good in his throat. Then he stares down into the pink depths of his drink as if all the answers to life's questions could be found there. "Got it in one. Looks like the hamsters on high want all of Taxon to know about..." He takes another swig. "What I did."

[Location: Caritas] notabuymoron May 30 2010, 21:04:59 UTC

The bar isn't too busy, so Casey takes a moment to speak to the boss who looks about ready to slit his wrists and ruin a perfectly good suit. "I'm a pretty good judge of character. You don't strike me as the killing type. More the knock 'em dead on the catwalk type. So, you killed someone. Did he deserve it?"

[Location: Caritas] greenballadeer May 30 2010, 22:15:40 UTC

Well, Casey's more perceptive than Lorne gave him credit for, and he doesn't even have the benefit of anagogic powers. He sighs. "I don't know, Casey. I really don't. Back in L.A., you hardly ever knew who the bad guys were. Lindsey did some terrible things, sure, but he had a girl he loved, and a guitar, and the most beautiful voice I've ever heard sing at Caritas. Mostly, when I think of when I killed him, that's what I think about." He glances back at the stage, as if he can see Lindsey there in his mind's eye, playing his guitar.

Thread 17

[Location: Caritas] breakmychest May 30 2010, 01:00:15 UTC

Spike walks over to Lorne after the song is over.

"You know that you're still a good person, right?"

[Location: Caritas] greenballadeer May 30 2010, 16:42:27 UTC

There are so many responses that bubble up in Lorne's head: but I'm a murderer, but I had a soul when I killed him, but I wasn't even sure he was one of the bad guys, but I don't know how I'll ever make up for what I did, but all of those replies fall flat because he's talking to Spike who's done exactly what Lorne did and so much more, and Lorne would never think of the vampire as anything less than a hero. So what can he say to explain to Spike why he can't bring himself to believe that he's still the man he used to be?

Lorne looks around, then draws back into a dark, quiet corner at the back of the bar so that no one can hear.

"Spike..." he begins. "Back where I was from, everyone was a hunter. The most noble thing you could do was fight and kill, and I hated it. Always did. I wouldn't do it. I swore to myself that I would never be like them. I put an anti-violence spell on Caritas. I did everything I could so that I would never become a killer like them. All my time on Earth, I never hurt a living soul. After killing Lindsey...I ( ... )

[Location: Caritas] breakmychest May 31 2010, 00:28:18 UTC

Spike shakes his head. "You're still you," he says. "You wouldn't feel this awful if you weren't."

He frowns and gulps some of his drink before continuing. "Look, you know what I've done, and it's a lot worse than anything you've done. You're not like your people. Hell, you're not even like me. I'm not saying you should just forget about it cause I know that's impossible." Unless your headcount gets up to Spike's level. Then the individuals blur. "Just... I don't know. You're still you, all right?"

[Location: Caritas] greenballadeer June 1 2010, 02:09:48 UTC

He does feel awful. Lorne thinks of how his brother Numfar would look after a kill: triumphant, exulting in bloodlust. He even thinks of Angel during the dark days when he fired Wesley, Cordy, and Gunn. After a kill, he just seemed blank and empty inside. He thinks of the implacable expression on Wesley's face when he killed, in those dark months before the end. None of those reactions describe how he feels now.

Lorne usually doesn't entertain thoughts this morbid, but he has to know. "I'm scared of becoming like Angel," he admits. "At the end, he'd do things like murder Drogyn, and he just didn't seem to feel anything when he killed anymore. I'm scared of becoming like Wesley. You told me he just put down Knox like a dog. Now that's someone who deserved what he got and worse, but… killing should never look that easy. I can't understand it."

Thread 6

[Voice] demonologist May 30 2010, 20:57:03 UTC

Lindsey's dead? [There's a tone of surprise in Wesley's query and also a reluctance to delve further; it's clear that Lorne's revelation was forced from him by the singing glitch currently running rampant amongst the Taxon population.]

[voice] greenballadeer May 30 2010, 22:30:23 UTC

[tersely] Yeah. At my point in the...time-space continuum. Or whatever Fred calls it.

[Voice] -> [Visual] demonologist May 31 2010, 05:46:59 UTC

"I'm sorry. That can't have been easy for you. I know how much you abhor violence."

[voice] --> [visual] greenballadeer June 1 2010, 01:14:22 UTC

Well, if Wes is going to switch to visual, Lorne will respond in kind, even if he looks terribly grim in the dim corner of the bar to which he's retreated. "Wasn't just the violence. I mean, I'd feel terrible about it even if I thought I did it for the best of reasons, but... I'm really not sure I did the right thing."

Thread 14