trusthell | WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? OUR TALES RIVAL JUST TURNED INTO A ZOMBIE!

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WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? OUR TALES RIVAL JUST TURNED INTO A ZOMBIE!

[...so, uh, that was a thing that happened. Tarrlok was completely ready to do the politician thing and come up with a speech or something for most of whatever the hell that excuse for a trial was, but everything got all confusing, baffling, and horrifying and completely inexplicably, he can't find the words.

Maybe he just... needs a day. Tomorrow will probably be fine. For now, though, Misa volunteered to make brownies, and he was going to make a Northern Water Tribe comfort food specialty.

...even if they only had shortening and not actual animal fat and it'd been a while since he'd made it, but it tasted... alright? Definitely not as good as the stuff back home, but it was hard to get that good, anyway.

...there's also the matter of setting things up in a location other than the dining hall, because even though that's cleaned up, it still feels pretty tasteless to hold a wake literal feet from the place you found someone's bloody corpse.

So, a little later on in the day, a lovingly personalized note will be slid under everyone's doors:

And if the Survivors choose to head to the library, they'll find a... well, okay, it's a bunch of boxes from the storage room of comparable size stacked up on each other to kind of resemble a table. The dining hall ones don't even seem like they'd fit in the library, so Team Afterparty clearly had to improvise. One side is filled with plates, bowls, and spoons, and the other is filled with brownies, cookies, and a big bowl of berry aqutak. There are also chairs dotted throughout the room in a sort of vague circle --- close enough together that if people want to talk, they can, but far enough apart that it'd be easy to drag it off for some privacy.]

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It would have been the exact same thing.

[Except, you know, worse, since they'd be actually doing the deed.

Bruce stays silent for a good while longer after that response, not quite sure what else to say. It's not that he doesn't understand where Sigrun comes from, and he can see how it makes sense in her shoes - but for Bruce its more than just for the greater good. So many others have done so many terrible things in the name 'for the greater good', including himself.

He thinks of Nick Fury, of Agent Romanoff, of SHIELD and Loki and everything else, the memories playing in his mind. It hadn't been too long ago, and here he was now, trapped in this place, stuck in this cruel, merciless game.]

The way you said it made me think it might've been easier, rather than let the Kingmaker handle it. Which is a little funny.

[And Sigrun's not one to let silences go on for a while, because that does nothing but let people dwell on things they shouldn't, so she speaks up again soon after.]

Why did you give him your sympathy if he didn't want or need it? I won't knock you for having a moral balance, but I think it's a little disrespectful to tell someone that to their face. It's not like bandaging their wounds or anything.

It doesn't matter how it was done. It's already dealt with, anyway.

[His words ring just a little bit hollow, echoing in his own ears. There are already so many mistakes that Bruce doesn't forgive himself for - this will be another one to the mix. And here, perhaps, there had been the foolish thought that maybe Stark and the others were onto something. That maybe...

He should have known better.]

Because the alternative was to simply despise and hate him for what he did. [And oh, it would be so easy to hate, to be angry. It would be far too easy. Bruce knows and lives and breathes anger to know how easy it is to give into it, to let it take over. And he knows better than most how terrible the consequences of that would be.]

There's no reason to hate him or be angry, though. It was a fair fight they both asked for and what was left was a body Kamui could feed off of. One was just stronger than the other and they knew it.

[She shakes her head, chuckling lightly at the two idiots.]

If Kamui had died instead, we would've been putting Zagi to death, and I still couldn't see a reason to feel either of those things.

[Because either way, it was just as it should be in her mind. Zagi lived and breathed fighting as much as she did and Kamui was strong enough to give him a run for his money.]

If there's anyone you should direct those feelings to, it's the Kingmaker, and even then he was only giving us the tools we needed to do what we had to do. [But she's more irritated now, playing with the lighter she got earlier from Mettaton.] It's just unforgivable he'd use Zagi's body that way.

[That's disrespect. You leave the dead.]

The murder is one thing, but--putting our lives on the line still even after the Kingmaker told us what the consequences would be? I understand why he refused to admit it until we found out, but--

[Nobody's life is worth more than another's. Especially that of 26 other people.

Bruce stops himself before he can go on any further and lets out a loud sigh, a hand rubbing the side of his face. He's far more tired than he had been in a good while - which is something considering how exhausted he gets after his transformations. But this is something beyond that.]

But you're right, its the Kingmaker who needs our attention more. [What Kamui did he only did it because he wanted to leave, and being desperate to do that isn't wrong. What's wrong is the Kingmaker forcing them all to this position. To force them to make these choices.] I still don't know what happened down there.

[Exactly. That's the more important part of it, Kamui's decision aside.]

I don't know either, but I don't like it. I'm gonna have a talk with him about it when I'm not ready to wring his neck, [and she sounds venomous enough to do it, staring moodily into the fire for a moment before blowing out.] ... When everyone's had a good night's sleep.

[And then at the meeting she'll hopefully have something to say about it, though Sigrun's not sure how much the Kingmaker will tell her anyway.]

We all need a break after what happened. It's been a hard day for all of us.

[Hard for Bruce too, which is a hard thing to say since he has many hard days. But perhaps this is one of the hardest ones yet.]

You should take some time to rest, too.

Oh, I will. I'm just gonna make sure everyone else is fine before I do.

[As natural as can be, she stretches as if to start on that but remains sitting.]

... That means these guys, too. I'll stay until there's nothing else to burn and then I'll check on our worse cases, see if I can't pull their minds off what happened and help shoulder their thoughts. It's a lot of weight for someone to carry on their own.

[Bruce nods to her words.]

Please do. It would be of great help for those who need it.

[Sigrun is one of those who is dealing with this much better than most of them - its her mentality and her lifestyle that mostly plays into this, from what he can tell - but it helps right now.]

[It is her lifestyle that lends to it, mostly, but having the mentality she does from growing up the way she did doesn't hurt. She glances back up at him, grinning lightly.]

You take care of yourself too, doc. We can't lose our only medic so early on.

I'll do my best.

[A wry smile here. Honestly he'd rather focus on everyone else, but its slowly sinking in how people were trying to depend on him...

Yeah, its not really the kind of responsibility he's prepared for. But without any other choice, its what he has to deal with.]

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