scrapdraught | Karlach

I didn't like it from inside either!

[She's shaking. Petrified. This isn't fair. Why her? Why did it have to be Karlach?

The woman was a pillar for everyone to lean on. Most people wouldn't be making it without her. Daan wouldn't.

Camille's skin screams at her. Worthless. Deceitful. Ignorant. Liar. Waste.]

Is this...fucking Christ, I don't know what the hell this thing is making you believe, but I'm not here to gloat, or grovel or, god, I don't even know! I hated every second of it. And I never, ever wanted you to have to go through it.

[she cackles again, and it dissolves into something horrible and painful, coughing. it's almost a fit, her engine flaring bright, sweat dripping down her forehead.

and as it subsides, she spits blood to the side. pants, for a second.]

Can't. Can't fix this. [she says, giggling.] Oh, my mechanic is going to be so angry.

[Her own heart stutters along with it. Her eyes flick to the light within. The blood she spits aside.]

Then maybe you should cool it for a second.

[Please. Please.]

Karlach, you can't burn yourself out tonight. You'd be taking someone else down with you.

You think I don't fucking know that?

[she snarls.]

You think I'm not - stuck, I'm stuck? You all have me. You have me because I can't fucking go. You wouldn't let me go. I already took someone, I already hurt him, I can't - I can't --

[she's wheezing, her hand coming up to hold her chest.]

But you didn't want to. Not the real you.

[A tear cuts loose. One breakneck run down her cheek, nascar reckless and dashing into nothing against her sweater. There's still glitter on it. She just can't wipe the stuff away.]

I don't want you to be stuck like this either. Not for their sake, or for yours. It's hell. I'm...I want to help you. Somehow. I don't know how yet, but I want to.

[she coughs - and then laughs, wheezing again.]

All of you gonna add me to the fucking spider club, too? Stab me and pull me back up six days later?

[There's another tear. Something uncorks in the bottom of her heel, and the rage and the fear start to leak out of her into the ground below. A stream of hateful gasoline, purging. Draining the fight out of her in a steady drip.]

I didn't get a say in what happened to me, Karlach. I don't want that for you.

...But I know asking you right now isn't going to give me an honest answer. Your tag-a-long's in the way.

[silence, for a moment, and then - soft, dangerous:]

All I've wanted, sweater weather. All I've wanted since I pulled myself out of the Hells was to die on my own terms. [a little smile, sweet and poisonous.] But that's stolen from me, too.

So I'll live. And I'll fucking make it everybody's problem.

I don't think that's exactly true.

[Camille draws a long breath. Weariness has gripped her. As has the liquor. She closes her eyes a moment, turns her head. Another breath. It's such a chore, carrying on. She's so, so tired.

They're fire and ice. Same predicaments, only flipped, and their temperaments edge away from either like repelling magnets in kind.]

You'll be mad tonight. Maybe mad tomorrow. And then Monday will come, and you'll feel like shit. Maybe it'll rise and fall stronger than mine did. I think you've got a hotter head running the show. Might make a bigger ruckus, fight harder to hold on.

But you'll find time when you're yourself. And I don't think it'll be the same answer. Not exactly.

[another little laugh, and she sinks down to sit, hand on her side.]

Yeah, okay. Whatever makes you feel better. That's what I'm good for.

You really think that? That people just want to use you to feel better?

[silence, for a minute.]

Doesn't matter what I think.

It does to me.

[She sits too, slowly, folding legs and hunching. Leaning forward. Her head begins to pound and she blinks have a drowsy drag to them.

Yet she stays on it.]

And it was pretty even stevens, if you'll recall. Tit for tat. I think any one of these people would come running for you the second you asked.

[watches her for a moment, eyes sharp.]

... You make sure you find someone to make sure you don't choke tonight. [dodges,]

[She laughs.]

If this is the bender that kills me, Karlach, I'll be the most pathetic baby drunk that ever lived. They don't even have one spirit in the cellar.

[She props her chin her hand. Watching her back. There's tears again, silent types now. Where the last had raced these creak down the curve of her cheek. She doesn't seem to notice them.]

I love you, though. [It comes out so easy. When it's the least useful, when the ears are the deafest.] I don't have much for friends. Or any. I don't make them any more. It's too hard. And it hurts.

Sometimes, it hurts with you. But it felt nice. To be there for somebody else for once, when shit's tough. To have someone asking me to dance.

[huff of a laugh, at the first part.

she's - less. it's less, now. the horns, the fangs, all of it. it's easing up. she looks a little more like herself, engine chugging, blood dripping slowly from her side to the ground.]

I love you too. [she says, finally. easy. it is, for her. even when there's a monster trying to dig at her spine.] Sometimes all you need is someone to reach.

[Karlach slides back into herself on a slow roll, but Camille is grateful for any change. She smiles as the words come back at her. Often longed for, rarely heard. The blood drips from her side and Camille wants to press cotton to the wound. Keep her together.

The best she can do it put a hand to the barrier. Let her fingers linger where it thickens on air. A saving grace and a cuck in one.]

Sorry I wasn't so good at reaching back.

[after a moment, karlach reaches and puts her hand on the barrier, over camille's. they'd touch, if not for the barrier in the middle.]

You didn't have to. Love's not transactional.

Karlach

tfw you do not have enough icons of real fury

taps my pointer fingers together...

smacks them

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject