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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 28, 2019 2:05:48 GMT -5
"And you would come to hate me all the same."
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Post by Teja on Mar 28, 2019 2:08:26 GMT -5
"I would have made you see a goddamn doctor! Why don't you understand? It's something in your head that makes you see every callous thing in the universe as your destiny. It's something like ten percent of the population has it. I have it. And you barely see the sunlight, that affects you. Johannes, please listen to me-"
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 28, 2019 2:10:35 GMT -5
Johannes gave her a skeptical look.
"Look at your city, Teja. Are they in identical distress?"
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Post by Teja on Mar 28, 2019 2:12:07 GMT -5
"Is that a joke? Do you honestly look - look at the effects of terrible housing and terrible jobs and an awful economy and think to yourself, oh that's the human condition, it's not because their lives are making them miserable, nothing to fix here at all-"
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 28, 2019 2:15:40 GMT -5
He grabbed her by the shoulder, and hard.
"It's too late," said Johannes. "I can see that now-"
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Post by Teja on Mar 28, 2019 2:16:46 GMT -5
"But I know I could have saved you-"
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 28, 2019 2:18:19 GMT -5
"I do not wish to be saved! What of that are you failing to comprehend-"
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Post by Teja on Mar 28, 2019 2:20:14 GMT -5
"But you do," she protested. "You're miserable - but you want to be happy, you just told me so-
She tried to touch his face.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 28, 2019 14:27:09 GMT -5
“I think I shall be, quite soon,” he said, his smile broadening.
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Post by Teja on Mar 28, 2019 14:32:34 GMT -5
Teja thought of how short her life was going to be, how unimportant, in the grand scheme of things. How little time she and Loki would have before she matured beyond him and inevitably divorced. Or worse - she pictured his immaturity growing increasingly aggravating to her, and Loki growing increasingly less attracted to her as she aged, and both of them just pretending, pretending it wasn't happening -
She kissed Johannes, sinking her fingers into his hair.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 28, 2019 15:05:03 GMT -5
For a moment, Johannes responded to the kiss- he leaned into it, pulled her against him, gasped faintly with shame at his own inadequacy. But when that moment had passed, he pushed her away from himself and turned away.
“It will not last,” he said. “I could take you with me, promise myself that I will open to you-“
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Post by Teja on Mar 28, 2019 15:07:55 GMT -5
"I can make you keep that promise," she said, without a single quiver in her voice. "Take me with you to Europe; we'll leave this - this mess for somebody else, and after all, it would be difficult to trace to you. Take me home with you."
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 28, 2019 15:11:41 GMT -5
“Europe?”
He laughed. It was not a pleasant sound.
“Oh, no. This is my home. Or should I say, my seat.”
Johannes spread his arms to indicate the whole building around them- or perhaps the city itself.
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Post by Teja on Mar 28, 2019 15:12:42 GMT -5
"I'm being serious. I thought of- I thought of asking you this before."
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 28, 2019 15:15:38 GMT -5
“You might have asked that when I intended to go back, then,” he said, almost primly. “But I’m afraid my ambitions have outgrown paying Bolsheviks for their silence and dining on legend trippers.”
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