seasonsrpg | welcome home

Who: Venti, Yuri, Saya, Lumine, and Kantera
What: A moment of respite
When: March 4th
Where: A house at the far edge of Blossomcrown
Warnings: Probably mentions of previous game trauma/violence

[ Venti has always been the type who wanders to the beat of his own drum, dipping in and out of people's lives as easily as the blowing wind. But Tokyo-F . . . changed things, somewhat.

Though his initial instinct had been to sleep under a tree and call it "home," an invitation to live with old friends put a halt to those plans. For starters, it would be protection from the unpredictable weather in the segments. For another, maybe he did get used to having a bed and a room to call "home," in no small part because of the teammates and friends who inhabited it with him. Now that solitary tree feels . . . lonely, in a way it didn't before.

And so here he is, standing at the threshold of a house full of people he loves and trusts, who asked him to stay . . . it makes him feel his age, but not in a bad way, for once. Nor does he feel that nagging urge to disappear into the wind.

Should he catch anyone watching him, the pensive expression dissolves into a smile. ]

Hehe, is this the part where we fight over bedrooms?

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[ Mmm. ]

It was that bad, seeing her in egg mode?

It wasn't, no. But I knew that was temporary. And that was before I remembered what I - what the real me, if there's any meaning in that distinction - did to Grandfather.

But no weird impulses?

No, none.

...so...?

So it was different.

And I think it'd be different if it happened to her here, too.

...Logically, you are correct. The circumstances are different, the people involved are different - even the 'me' is different.

Getting the sense this isn't much of a comfort.

I am nothing if not extremely good at guilt and shame.

Yeah? Shitty skills to have. We should all probably work on being worse at them.

I'll keep that in mind for the future.

We can compare notes.

I think I've killed more people than you. But on the other hand, nobody I loved. But on the third hand, only the one was out of anything like mercy.

[ Zari's got our kill counts both beaten into a bloody pulp, but this isn't about Zari, for all that part of it is ostensibly about her. ]

It wasn't mercy.

[Sharply and instantly.]

My motives were entirely self-centered.

Entirely?

No part of you thought he wouldn't wanna live like that?

Entirely and completely. Do not dress up a murder as anything softer than that.

[ Sorry, Doc, that is getting a snort out of him. ]

I chased a man into a sandpit and watched him suffocate while he begged for his life.

[ That was hard and cold. He can't imagine Doc's murder wasn't softer. ]

Edited 2023-03-19 21:09 (UTC)

...Did he deserve it?

[ ...No response, for a moment. He's asked himself that a million times. Eventually: ]

Wasn't really about what he deserved. I could've stopped him a dozen other ways.

I am not a kind nor gentle enough person to take exception to causing pain to those who have earned it.

Sure. But there's a difference between hurting someone and torturing them.

If I had the Producers at my mercy, do you think I wouldn't deliberately draw it out?

Have you ever tortured someone to death before?

...No, I haven't.

No bets, then, on what you'd actually do if you had them 'at your mercy'.

[ He hopes, for your sake, that you find you can't. ]

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