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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 18, 2011 1:57:07 GMT -5
Something in Adrien's stomach pulled back. It wasn't the sensation of butterflies. It was pure anxiety and terror, and he didn't want to feel it every time he and Adrian tried to be loving to one another.
"Adrian..."
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 18, 2011 1:59:01 GMT -5
"Yes?"
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 18, 2011 2:00:21 GMT -5
He pulled away from him jerkily.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 18, 2011 2:01:18 GMT -5
"Adrien-"
He stood.
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 18, 2011 2:01:56 GMT -5
He turned his face away grimly.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 18, 2011 13:36:15 GMT -5
"...I just want you happy. Even if it's not here."
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 18, 2011 13:43:07 GMT -5
"How am I supposed to be happy? You kill people for world peace, I can't tell anyone.... and it's.... it's hard to go back to things the way that they were. I mean. Not long ago you told me you'd nearly killed me..."
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 18, 2011 13:46:02 GMT -5
"I know. I know..."
He started moving back toward the desk.
"All the more proof that you'd probably be better off without me. You're still very young, after all, and I'm... well."
He sat down.
"I don't want to hurt you any longer, and it's becoming painfully evident that I'm absolutely no good at upholding that sort of promise, no matter how hard I try."
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 18, 2011 13:48:15 GMT -5
"You knew you couldn't uphold it," he said softly, looking back at him. "You knew what was coming."
Adrien certainly did look young, but not so young as nineteen. Tired as he was, and trying to remain composed, he looked a few years older and a good deal more cautious.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 18, 2011 13:49:36 GMT -5
"I'd hoped you'd understand it-"
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 18, 2011 13:52:35 GMT -5
There was a long silence as Adrien's brain stopped wanting to function.
"War is.... war is terrible," he said quietly, though he knew he'd only narrowly escaped one himself, through means no one understood, or looked into. "But you only managed to stop it through an act of war. People want peace - only because they're terrified. You haven't saved the human race, Adrian. You've just scared them into doing what you want... even if what you want is good."
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 18, 2011 13:53:36 GMT -5
"That was all I could do," said Adrian.
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 18, 2011 13:54:32 GMT -5
"....maybe they didn't deserve it then," he said in a small voice.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 18, 2011 13:56:40 GMT -5
Adrian leaned forward, his forehead in his hands.
"What's done is done, I'm afraid."
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 18, 2011 14:07:07 GMT -5
Adrien leaned back against a chair, slumping partially.
"When I was a kid I thought people were good somewhere down, even somewhere down deep. I guess that was why I spent so much time around bad people - why I was pretty bad, for a while. The idea that no matter what a person does there's actually something good about it, and its natural person-ness. The idea that there isn't really any evil, maybe there are evil acts, but people are still kind of innocent, even when they've killed somebody. Maybe even if... they've killed a lot of people."
He shut his eyes, thinking of Roger Marchetti, the most "naturally" bad son of a bitch he'd ever met, which maybe made him the most innocent of his own damn actions.
"But I was a kid after the Great War. You know, that was supposed to be the last war." He opened his eyes. "No, apparently there was an even worse one right after. And now I'm here in the 80s with you, only to find everyone is on the brink of annihilating themselves and you almost kill me trying to help me and you kill a bunch of them trying to help them. I don't even know if it will work. We had a war to end all wars already. That didn't work out so well. They knew a war now would kill everybody; they didn't care. Why should a threat of death put people off causing lots of death in general?
"And if it does work? Even if it does, was it worth it? You laid your soul down for soulless people. You laid my soul down. I think.... maybe I still think people are innocent of all of this stuff. But I don't think they're good anymore. I don't think you're good anymore."
He looked back at him, arms going around himself as though he were cold. It was a little true; he felt something of a chill. "But you see.... that goodness? That I thought was there? That was why I loved you."
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