D REALLY JUST SETS DOWN HIS CUP A BIT ROUGHLY. He can’t set it too roughly, it’ll spill.]
Mr. Wolfwood, for once, would you at least pretend not to be a total idiot? Miss Shenhe loves you, and Vash, and Miss Nahri, and I hope you would not take that for granted, or diminish her feelings.
Honestly…
She has a difficult life, and you have shown her kindness and understanding. That means more to her than simply being separated.
[He looks like he almost says something he doesn't want to say, so he sorta folds himself back into Polite Manners.]
Because. Don't hurt Miss Shenhe's feelings by being a typical stupid man if she tells you these things. She already feels like she has been useless to you all, and that she got you killed.
[Before he can add anything else, Wolfwood gets a memory.]
[ He doesn't really get it. Did you know he's been getting a handful of texts that keep apologising to him about this or that, and he literally doesn't know what they're for? ]
That's none of her business. Puttin' aside that the game fucked me over since I gave up tryin' to kill to get our team ahead the start of this week, it still wasn't anybody's decision but mine.
[ It's his only sense of control, a brief word that flickers as a thought before the stupid memory pig bounces around. OH NO NOT THIS AGAIN.
Hmm. ]
Well, shit. Looks like you definitely run way more than just a humble pet store after all.
[Nooo, he has so much to say. Me forgetting to mention the pig. He has to re-calibrate a bit afterward. He doesn't look ashamed so much as... embarrassed at being Seen without it being his choice.
Ha ha, CONTROL.]
...Don't misconstrue my intentions. I had no interest in that boy. It was the Scarlet Scorpion I was after. The one on his chest.
I meant more the fact that your shop could do something like that to begin with. That's fucked up.
[ He means that. Family is important to him even if he technically never had any, but he did come from an orphanage full of kids who struggled with the feeling of abandonment, after all. He does think showing their mother to them... as an illusion...? Would be cruel.
That, and relating deeply to not being able to face your family anymore due to having killed. ]
The shop sells love, hopes, and dreams, Mr. Wolfwood. The people who come in see what they desire most inside. He was a Scorpio's Child. Orphans taken by a place which turns them into assassins without emotions.
But he's still a child, and still humans. Of course he would see his mother in the shop.
[Finally, he will carefully have a sip of tea.]
When Scorpio's Children fail their mission, the only thing left for them is to commit suicide, and that is something he tried. I didn't let him, of course. I took the Scarlet Scorpion from him and turned him over to the police. But without the scorpion, he was no longer a Scorpio's Child.
Why the hell else do you think people go to stores? Charity?
[ It's CAPITALISM, D!! But ugh, he eats this macaron and makes such a dark expression. It's not over the macaron, it's over what D mentioned the kid did as a job, but he will use the macaron as an excuse because he immediately would rather not.
He doesn't have a comment. He doesn't want to have a comment. So D can hear a little snort-oink and get this as a follow-up. ]
[ It was either this or the cutest childhood memories but I decided this one was more topical yeah. Winky wonky.
Wolfwood is grimacing, fingers a little tight on his cup of tea, but he remains behaved. Just annoyed to have it be doxxed... again. ]
I haven't made it a secret. I ain't the kind of world-hatin' nihilist who thinks all humans are outright bad, but humans are also how monsters came to be.
[ The Gung-ho Guns. He means in his world obviously because everyone else's worlds / dimensions are so radically different. ]
[ No, he thinks every single person in the Gung-ho Guns is a total freak and hateful creature. Literally every single one of them are absolutely insane. ]
Sure, yeah. A special squad formed by the lord freak, Legato -- who, by the way, you look a little like him. [ But don't act like him, because thank fucking God you don't. ] Full of former humans who threw away their respective humanity for one reason or another, though I'd say a majority of it is for power.
I snuck into their group 'cause I had a score to settle. Worst people I've ever met and I thought I'd already seen a lot by that point.
[ You're right LA is fucked up anything can happen there. ]
It ain't exactly normal and good conversation to have over tea. All it does is be a downer and doesn't add any benefits.
[ He doesn't think this is necessary information to 'understand' himself as a person either. It's just dredging trauma. His expression twists when D asks this, a mixture of both resentment, irritation, and just the slightest flicker of some kind of deeper, primal fear at the memory -- the necessity to survive. ]
No, or else I wouldn't be here... or I guess, that'd be the story if it didn't turn out that me bein' here isn't 'cause I'm dead. [ Not yet... ] Turns out, tryin' to kill a higher being is a lot tougher to do in practice, and I don't mean just physically.
[ As in, like, they're tough to kill physically. ]
On the contrary, I have conversations like that many times over tea. It does help you get to know who someone is as a person.
It’s part of my job.
[He watches Wolfwood with his mismatched eyes. He gets it’s not a conversation you really bring up with just anyone, but Wolfwood is easy to tease.]
I’d imagine such a thing would be true. You may not want to mention it to Miss Shenhe if you haven’t already. She will probably be as mad about the idea as she always is hearing I cannot forsake my duty to the shop.
I wasn't talkin' about you, Jesus. Read the room, D.
[ SIGHING, in the 'of course you would, you weirdo' way. ]
Sad shit about being mortal and all that. In the end, I'm only human.
But Vash, and Livio, can do it.
[ Which is why, at the bare minimum, he needs them to get back alive no matter what. Bare minimum, because he isn't like most of the self-sacrificial doofuses here. ]
Well, try not to put all of your eggs in one basket, Mr. Wolfwood. Call me paranoid, but the way this all seems to be wrapping up feels... too easy. If someone bothered rigging a game even for amusement, I don't see why they would let it end so nicely for us.
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D REALLY JUST SETS DOWN HIS CUP A BIT ROUGHLY. He can’t set it too roughly, it’ll spill.]
Mr. Wolfwood, for once, would you at least pretend not to be a total idiot? Miss Shenhe loves you, and Vash, and Miss Nahri, and I hope you would not take that for granted, or diminish her feelings.
Honestly…
She has a difficult life, and you have shown her kindness and understanding. That means more to her than simply being separated.
[HE GOT SO PASSIONATE AND FOR WHAT]
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[ WHAT THE HECK!! ]
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Stop acting like you're so surprised!
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[ Wolfwood and his unfortunate habit of not realising how important he can be to others okay. ]
Why are you lecturin' me on this?!
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[He looks like he almost says something he doesn't want to say, so he sorta folds himself back into Polite Manners.]
Because. Don't hurt Miss Shenhe's feelings by being a typical stupid man if she tells you these things. She already feels like she has been useless to you all, and that she got you killed.
[Before he can add anything else, Wolfwood gets a memory.]
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That's none of her business. Puttin' aside that the game fucked me over since I gave up tryin' to kill to get our team ahead the start of this week, it still wasn't anybody's decision but mine.
[ It's his only sense of control, a brief word that flickers as a thought before the stupid memory pig bounces around. OH NO NOT THIS AGAIN.
Hmm. ]
Well, shit. Looks like you definitely run way more than just a humble pet store after all.
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Ha ha, CONTROL.]
...Don't misconstrue my intentions. I had no interest in that boy. It was the Scarlet Scorpion I was after. The one on his chest.
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I meant more the fact that your shop could do something like that to begin with. That's fucked up.
[ He means that. Family is important to him even if he technically never had any, but he did come from an orphanage full of kids who struggled with the feeling of abandonment, after all. He does think showing their mother to them... as an illusion...? Would be cruel.
That, and relating deeply to not being able to face your family anymore due to having killed. ]
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The shop sells love, hopes, and dreams, Mr. Wolfwood. The people who come in see what they desire most inside. He was a Scorpio's Child. Orphans taken by a place which turns them into assassins without emotions.
But he's still a child, and still humans. Of course he would see his mother in the shop.
[Finally, he will carefully have a sip of tea.]
When Scorpio's Children fail their mission, the only thing left for them is to commit suicide, and that is something he tried. I didn't let him, of course. I took the Scarlet Scorpion from him and turned him over to the police. But without the scorpion, he was no longer a Scorpio's Child.
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[ He'll have a macaron. He's still decidedly very unamused and unenthused about it, but does listen along.,/small> ]
Sayin' you "sell" that stuff sounds pretty insincere, you know.
What happened to the kid after?
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It's not untrue. What's insincere is humans coming to the pet shop for their selfish desires.
The detective and his station turned him over to social workers, I assume. He was a prostitute.
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Why the hell else do you think people go to stores? Charity?
[ It's CAPITALISM, D!! But ugh, he eats this macaron and makes such a dark expression. It's not over the macaron, it's over what D mentioned the kid did as a job, but he will use the macaron as an excuse because he immediately would rather not.
He doesn't have a comment. He doesn't want to have a comment. So D can hear a little snort-oink and get this as a follow-up. ]
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Strangely, he is not surprised by this. It's... fitting? It explains some things.]
I see you understand the horrors of humans, too, Mr. Wolfwood.
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Wolfwood is grimacing, fingers a little tight on his cup of tea, but he remains behaved. Just annoyed to have it be doxxed... again. ]
I haven't made it a secret. I ain't the kind of world-hatin' nihilist who thinks all humans are outright bad, but humans are also how monsters came to be.
[ The Gung-ho Guns. He means in his world obviously because everyone else's worlds / dimensions are so radically different. ]
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Humans are often the real monsters.
[SEE]
Was that what they were called…? It seems like you and that boy had a few things in common.
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Sure, yeah. A special squad formed by the lord freak, Legato -- who, by the way, you look a little like him. [ But don't act like him, because thank fucking God you don't. ] Full of former humans who threw away their respective humanity for one reason or another, though I'd say a majority of it is for power.
I snuck into their group 'cause I had a score to settle. Worst people I've ever met and I thought I'd already seen a lot by that point.
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It doesn’t sound all that different than Los Angeles sometimes.
[…]
Your vengeance was that strong?
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...Sure, it's a bit more complicated than that, but we can settle for that.
Killed the man who turned me into what I am now, so he'd never pick up another kid from my orphanage and do to them like what they did to me again.
My next step was goin' to our church's angel and takin' him out while he was still weak.
[ Unfortunately, he arrived at bad timing, and also learned humankind is absolutely outpowered even by a weakened angel. ]
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I see. And here you kept all of these cards close to your chest.
[Teasing. They literally only knew each other for like a week.]
And…? Did you succeed, or were these just your plans?
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It ain't exactly normal and good conversation to have over tea. All it does is be a downer and doesn't add any benefits.
[ He doesn't think this is necessary information to 'understand' himself as a person either. It's just dredging trauma. His expression twists when D asks this, a mixture of both resentment, irritation, and just the slightest flicker of some kind of deeper, primal fear at the memory -- the necessity to survive. ]
No, or else I wouldn't be here... or I guess, that'd be the story if it didn't turn out that me bein' here isn't 'cause I'm dead. [ Not yet... ] Turns out, tryin' to kill a higher being is a lot tougher to do in practice, and I don't mean just physically.
[ As in, like, they're tough to kill physically. ]
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It’s part of my job.
[He watches Wolfwood with his mismatched eyes. He gets it’s not a conversation you really bring up with just anyone, but Wolfwood is easy to tease.]
I’d imagine such a thing would be true. You may not want to mention it to Miss Shenhe if you haven’t already. She will probably be as mad about the idea as she always is hearing I cannot forsake my duty to the shop.
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[ SIGHING, in the 'of course you would, you weirdo' way. ]
Sad shit about being mortal and all that. In the end, I'm only human.
But Vash, and Livio, can do it.
[ Which is why, at the bare minimum, he needs them to get back alive no matter what. Bare minimum, because he isn't like most of the self-sacrificial doofuses here. ]
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I was talking about the principle of the matter. Getting to know someone applies to everyone.
[Stop!!! He can be a weirdo!! Who else will feel these shoes?!]
You are putting a lot on the two of them.
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I'm no expert in time loops or paradoxes or whatever, but does sound to me like keeping the two who survive it all alive is a good place to start.
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Well, try not to put all of your eggs in one basket, Mr. Wolfwood. Call me paranoid, but the way this all seems to be wrapping up feels... too easy. If someone bothered rigging a game even for amusement, I don't see why they would let it end so nicely for us.
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