[PRP] Excuses, Excuses (Piper + Brenley)

[Smerdle]

"He wasn't..." Brenley huffed a short laugh out through his nose and shook his head. "I'm sure he was larger than a fracs when he took me. Or maybe he had help." He felt so removed from all of that now, sitting on a bean bag listening to pop songs with... well... interesting lyrics. He was smiling and it wasn't an act, no matter how feeble it was.

"He locked us in, hurt some of us, and then had the rest of us scrambling around looking for a way out, mostly at the expense of each other. Social. Like, 'how do you feel about getting stabbed so that I can earn my ticket home' kind of interaction." Bren's smile was gone, and his toes had curled up instead of his fingers, as he was still conscious of Hati in his lap. "I didn't want to talk about it, so I kept to myself once I was well. I don't know how I would have brought it up anyway."

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

He locked us in, hurt some of us—

"Oh." Immediately Piper's grin was wiped off, and she felt a all sting of wow you stupid insensitive b***h stab her. Awkwardly she dropped her gaze for a moment to Hati, the only one who was enjoying herself still as she continued to croon softly. Piper intently traced her minipet's colorful pelt with her eyes; her hair seemed almost poofier from some built up static of awkwardness. So Brenley had to deal with that on top of the tower? And here she just lost her s**t midbattle like a coward...

"Sorry," she mumbled, unsure of how to proceed. Her idle imaginings of a protective hawkish mother stealing her son away for a week home seemed all the more silly now. In a weak attempt not to look even more stupid, Piper added in a stronger voice, "So you totally rocked that, huh?"

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Don't be sorry," he interjected, going silent again as soon as he had spoken. When she continued, he raised his head slowly, his toes releasing their death clench. That was certainly an interesting way to put it.

"Sure. You could say that. I made it out, but I drowned trying to get to shore." He shrugged, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "Desert. Anyway. I stabbed one of our classmates? I don't remember doing it, only what came after. And I'm not really all that upset about that anymore. The one I stabbed... he didn't seem to mind that much." The act itself wasn't what had stuck with him all this time, even though visions of gore and his own viciousness had been his subconscious mind's preferred method of punishment for quite some time. He'd known he was capable of deliberate acts of violence ever since his first successful spar. The problem was, that prior to his decision to murder Pachua, all of the captives had all been assured that anyone killed in that place wouldn't come back. That mermaid had remained cold and dead in the middle of the room for the entirety of their stay, a grotesque reminder of the truth in Parker's words.

"I'm more concerned that when it came to choosing between him and myself, I didn't hesitate... apparently. I knew he wouldn't dissipate there and I didn't even try to find another way to escape. I just... eliminated him, and underneath it all, I'm not sorry. If I could do that... what if the choice was between you and me? I couldn't..."

Bren finally held his tongue, the urge to get up and leave almost overwhelming. He shouldn't have said all of that. He should have kept his story simple. 'I did something bad and I apologize.' He could almost see his messy confession hanging in the air between them, and he couldn't stand to be around it anymore.

Ol-j-man

knock knock captain monologue stopped by oh hey cap how's it going GET OUT

 

[medigel]

The wow you stupid insensitive b***h meter had risen to new heights and along with it the what the hell meter as well, to the point that Piper didn't know what to feel for a while. Brenley's story continued without an interruption, her gaze glued to him more and more like it was the first time she had ever laid eyes on him, suddenly finding little details more interesting than his face to look at.

On the one hand, he was obviously made of sterner stuff than her to go through that, acting on gut responses to survive. On the other, being about as apathetic to killing someone was...and not dissipating...? Wh-What...? Was feeling sorry appropriate here or would Brenley just shrug that off too? Or should she be angry that he had murdered someone? Or relieved he was fine? Was he fine? Piper wasn't so sure...But she was even less certain of how to respond with all of the thrown at her, not the least of it the mention of herself in the equation.

After a moment, she breathed in and sighed through her nose. "Hey, I'd pick myself over someone else too," Piper said in what she hoped was a bracing tone, though it was a little higher pitched. "Sorry, I wanna live. But I mean, you were in a psycho's game, Bren. It's different. You do what you gotta do, right?" Not dissipating...Her skin crawled at the very idea, and the ghoul fiddled with her bangles. "I'd rather you than someone else get out and all."

Smerdle

shhhhh <333

 

[Smerdle]

He nodded as her words sank in, reinforcing the conclusions he'd reached and dropped and reached again a number of times over the past few weeks. Circumstances had influenced his reaction. He no more wanted to harm anyone around campus than he wanted to go back to the place where he'd been compelled to.

"Thank you," he finally said. "It's like I'm a scareling with a skinned knee sometimes. All worked up over... well, not nothing exactly. Another learning experience. This school seems to be full of them. As long as you..." No. He wouldn't tell her what to feel. Bren quieted himself with a dismissive gesture, lowering his hand to run over Hati's fur. "I just hope it never happens again."

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

"Um, Bren, if I got told I had to kill someone to live, I'd probably cry a lot and be useless until someone tried stabbing me," she admitted with only a little shame; there might have been more had Piper not already publicly shown her cowardice. She stroked Skoll's head and made a face. "You sittin' here all calm and stuff? That's no scareling attitude: that's B-Ren badassery."

Piper paused, considered something, then nodded to herself. "Alright, a welcome back present: you don't gotta be my bet slave anymore." A great sigh left her.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

For the second time this visit, Brenley was forced to consider an interpretation of events that wildly differed from his own. In this case, he couldn't say that he agreed, though he did hope that Piper might actually believe what she was saying. He had his doubts.

Instead of voicing them, he said, "Well, you beat me when we sparred. You must have badass in you too." He chuckled. "And that's a fine welcome home gift, so... thank you. Again. But you know you really don't need me to be your slave to get me to do things. If I'm not..." stranded on an island killing people "...busy, I'll answer whenever you text me."

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

Yeah, sure, I can beat you in the gym . . . Just not anything out there in the real world where it actually mattered. Piper was dangerously close to feeling sorry for herself again, so she latched on to Brenley's offer with extra enthusiasm.

"Good boil~" she purred. "That's what I wanna hear." Brenley was out of range for a friendly punch sadly, so she exchanged it for a pleased smile. "I guess the same goes for me too, huh, since we're friends and all. Unless you open a can've whupass on them again!"

Since we're friends. She didn't even want to touch the subject anymore today, not after all that heavy stuff. It looked like it'd just have to lump around in her chest some more until she stopped feeling like a p***y.

"You should prolly let Iggy know you're good sometime," Piper commented offhandedly. "Y'know, before he breaks into your room again just to be sure."

Smerdle

have I mentioned yet that i'm the worst sob /clings

 

[Smerdle]

It would have struck him as condescending coming from anyone else. Maybe it still did when she said it, but any exasperation stemming from her teasing praise was drowned by a wave of giddy pride. He was a good boil. He tried not to dwell on the silliness of it or his resulting grin, thinking instead on how well this visit had gone, all things considered. She hadn't told him to go, even after what he had told her, and he...

"Hm?" Bren raised his head when he realized she had stopped speaking. "Oh. Yes." Ignatius was a friend now as well. He really wasn't used to having so many. "I'll tell him I'm back as soon as I can. I can't believe the two of you broke in," he said, amused. He wanted to ask her if she'd done things like that before, but everything was so calm now that he didn't dare stir it up again.

medigel

no that title is mine you can't have it phhbbbbt /clings

 

[medigel]

"That's what friends do, right? Break into each other's rooms when they don't answer texts and steal their pets and take care of them and poke around in their super nerditorium." Piper flashed him a grin. "Seriously, you have like a mad science lab in there."

She made it sound like something to be embarrassed about.

"I mean, that's how we figured something happened anyway. We, uh, looked around like I said. I touched something, and I think it, like, gave me a small flash of where you were or where you used to be or something?" She stroked around Skoll's horns as both he and Hati, like true siblings, began to curl up at the same time in their respective laps. "There signs and stuff that someone kidnapped you. We almost went to the Boogies . . ."

But that was going back to the still kinda creepy topic, so Piper quickly switched to something else. "So you still write to your mom, huh?"

Smerdle

fiiiine i'll just be superbly awful then /clings

 

[Smerdle]

"It's not mad, it's highly disciplined," he replied, his affronted irritation clearly an act. "Highly disciplined science." He refrained from adding what he knew would be a petulant, I like science, certain that she was already quite aware. "Hm. The scrying orb." It hadn't worked all that well for him, but maybe with a little more experimentation... "I've been testing a couple of things that might even help me break into here. You know... when you aren't answering your texts." Why did such things sound thoughtful and concerned when she said them, but when he did they sounded like that?

Clearing his throat, Bren struggled to remember what the letter he had left behind might have said when she had been in a position to read it. He had finished it and sent it off since his return, but if he recalled correctly, the whole thing had remained rather innocuous, even after it was complete. No nicknames from his scarelinghood, no dark family secrets. Just a letter.

"I don't want to encourage her to call," he finally said, watching Hati as she settled. "She's sometimes hard to take on the phone. The letters and packages assure her that I'm all right while maintaining distance. But she's really not that bad anymore." Not since Scarentines and that awful lock. "She just misses my father when he's away and I was always there to...um... dote on." Obsess over, was more like it.

medigel