So that's it, then? You're just going to let me and Guri and Anachiel die?
[She looks over her shoulder as men come in, locking the door behind them. When she turns back, her eyes are wide and panicked.] Please don't let them do it to me, Ben. Don't let them hurt me! You know what they'll do!
[Elle screams as the men pull her away, kicking at them and trying to twist out of their grasp as they pull her into the shadows.]
[And then she's sitting behind him, watching the scene over his shoulder as the men disappear into the darkness. She's covered in blood, her face slashed as if by claws.] You ask me, this is what really makes you a monster, Bennie Boy. Will you ever stop letting other people get hurt and do nothing but watch?
You think this is my first rodeo? You think they'll take any suggestion I make? You think I wouldn't rather take your place? You think I wouldn't rather they hurt me instead of you?
People like this have one playbook. "Do what we want or we'll hurt the people you care about, because that hurts you more than just torturing you." It's what they do.
Don't you get it? It doesn't matter. Nothing I do matters. There will always be slaves, there will always be Black Markets and brothels, there will always be Pits. No matter how many I take down, three more will spring up to take their place.
And these people will always, always, always use the people I care about against me. And I... really don't want to think about the solution to that.
[He barks out an entirely humorless laugh.] Going dark? Do you know how may people I've killed in the last year? I've committed mass murder on a scale that puts the worst serial killer in history to shame. My hands are black with blood.
And it's easy. It's easy to walk into a place like that brothel and coldly decide that every human in the place down to the fuckin' janitor needs to die.
And then carry it out. Even if one of those people is a woman and I don't kill women.
[Shai smirks and takes a huge bite of the bloodied hunk in his hand, chewing with his mouth obscenely open.] Well. I don't pick my pets for their brains, Benji.
[Galiel makes a strangled, whimpering attempt to be comforting, and Shaitan throws his head back and laughs contemptuously.] Fuck, you two are pathetic, you know that?
Oh, shut up. Whiny little bitch. "Blah blah blah they killed my girlfriend, blah blah heroin, blah blah blah scars. Waaahh, I follow Daddy's rules, you can't have my soul, I'm so sorry I can't, waahhh waaaah."
[Shaitan sneers.] You could be a fucking god if you'd give in to what's in you instead of watering it down for the sake of some arbitrary notion of "goodness." All that Wrath going to fucking waste. All that strength and all that power untouched and useless. Fucking weak. Ass. Bitch. [And he punctuates each word with a kick.]
But I win, bitch. That's the takeaway point here. [He swallows the last of the bloodied hunk of meat in his hand and bares bloody teeth at Ben.] I'm the only power that fucking counts right here and now. I can do whatever the fuck I want to you and sweet little Galiel.
As long as I don't give in to you, you don't win. And you can't have my soul. Plenty of your brothers have tried. And failed. You're no scarier'n they are.
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Date: 2011-09-30 01:13 am (UTC)He huffs out a gasp. I can't. I am physically incapable of that.
And I-- I'm not playing their game, Elle. I'm not.
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Date: 2011-09-30 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 01:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 02:49 am (UTC)[She looks over her shoulder as men come in, locking the door behind them. When she turns back, her eyes are wide and panicked.] Please don't let them do it to me, Ben. Don't let them hurt me! You know what they'll do!
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Date: 2011-09-30 03:00 am (UTC)I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Ellie...
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Date: 2011-09-30 03:26 am (UTC)[And then she's sitting behind him, watching the scene over his shoulder as the men disappear into the darkness. She's covered in blood, her face slashed as if by claws.] You ask me, this is what really makes you a monster, Bennie Boy. Will you ever stop letting other people get hurt and do nothing but watch?
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Date: 2011-09-30 03:43 pm (UTC)But I can be not evil myself.
Fighting a baby angel would be evil. I won't do it.
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Date: 2011-09-30 03:48 pm (UTC)You just apologized for being so pathetic and did nothing.
Evil, Ben. Very evil. Letting people you say you care for get hurt like that...
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Date: 2011-09-30 04:00 pm (UTC)People like this have one playbook. "Do what we want or we'll hurt the people you care about, because that hurts you more than just torturing you." It's what they do.
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Date: 2011-09-30 04:02 pm (UTC)But you're right. Thinking you would have preferred to take my place, that totally kept me from not dying. That's how much it mattered.
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Date: 2011-09-30 04:29 pm (UTC)And these people will always, always, always use the people I care about against me. And I... really don't want to think about the solution to that.
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Date: 2011-09-30 05:18 pm (UTC)Finally being strong?
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Date: 2011-09-30 05:23 pm (UTC)And it's easy. It's easy to walk into a place like that brothel and coldly decide that every human in the place down to the fuckin' janitor needs to die.
And then carry it out. Even if one of those people is a woman and I don't kill women.
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Date: 2011-09-30 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 01:30 am (UTC)Now. Open up.
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Date: 2011-09-30 01:48 am (UTC)... I can't.
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Date: 2011-09-30 02:00 am (UTC)Don't act like I won't fucking do it, puppy.
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Date: 2011-09-30 02:08 am (UTC)But I can't. I'm sorry, Galiel...
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Date: 2011-09-30 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 02:59 am (UTC)[Shaitan sneers.] You could be a fucking god if you'd give in to what's in you instead of watering it down for the sake of some arbitrary notion of "goodness." All that Wrath going to fucking waste. All that strength and all that power untouched and useless. Fucking weak. Ass. Bitch. [And he punctuates each word with a kick.]
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Date: 2011-09-30 03:40 pm (UTC)[He huffs out a laugh.] But you suck.
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Date: 2011-09-30 07:00 pm (UTC)And I think I will.
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Date: 2011-09-30 07:27 pm (UTC)Less, actually. Some of them had actual finesse.
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Date: 2011-10-01 12:31 am (UTC)You're mine to hurt and piss off and destroy. My plaything. Where your soul goes? Totally fuckin' inconsequential.
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