[OIC] AND THEN THIS HAPPENED.

[corpseknight]

((ooc: Transferring over from lastvoyagesspam because lol OC taking up valuable memespace.

PICKING UP OFF DIS THREAD: Lark and Arthas have a meaningful conversation.))

LARK SAID:
There's not a lot of Ebon Blade who even forgive themselves. It's not a real big virtue when you've decided that the Light's had done with you and nothing in life matters anymore and Death is your only mistress and-- [flaps hands to emphasize the silliness of this]

I can't speak for what the Blade would do if you came to them shorn of all your glory and were just Arthas. But I can say I'd be the first one to stand up and point out it's pretty fucking poor form to turn a blind eye to what all of us did, claiming it wasn't our choice, and then hold you accountable for everything Ner'zhul and that sword made you do. There's just as many of us who were terrible fucking people under the Scourge because we wanted to be and repented of it.

[sort-of "looks" down, ears drooping] And, uh. I think enough of us got shuffled through the Culling at Stratholme by now, thanks to the bronzes, that they'd know you weren't exactly in there for shits and giggles. Don't know that I'd've made a decision that would have saved anyone alive. Uther didn't.

AND THEN ARTHAS SAID:
Then why should I be expected to?!

[Pure whiny child there. He's going to wallow in this as long as he wants, fuckers.]

I'm going to be honest; if I were Varian, I'd have the lot of you executed. I have no idea why the Alliance re-accepted you. We shouldn't be forgiven. If we are, there's no such thing as justice. I spent my entire life seeing to it that the world was rid of monsters. I'm not going to stop now.

- the Bronzes did what now...?

AND THEN LARK REPLIED:
[exasperated:] Because they're a bunch of fucking idiots for doing it? [Come on, Arthas. You're not a fucking idiot, are you? :c] We did what we did and survived it. I won't say we're the lucky ones, but it's past now. Maybe you're right and somebody should have gotten rid of us when we put down our swords and turned ourselves over to the Horde and the Alliance for judgment, but let's face it: The people we killed are still dead. Putting us in the ground for the last time to make the living feel better about that won't bring them back, and it means we won't be there when the next fuck-ugly son of a bitch crawls out from under his Lightforsaken rock to threaten Azeroth again.

I might be blind and half-rotted and stupid but I can still hold my axe and stand between the people who matter and the things that want to kill them deader than me. If you want to hunt monsters there's plenty of them still out there that haven't pledged themselves to killing the bigger monsters than they are.

[...demure cough] Uh. Thought you might've heard about that. Infinites went and fucked with your timeline or something so they started sending people back to make sure you actually did Stratholme right. Didn't get killed halfway through or anything.

Comments

[darknessb4me]

[The corner of Arthas' mouth twitches. Good. Fuck Illidan.]

Incidentally, do you know who finally killed the bastard? Frostmourne felt him go out, but I was. [In a comaaa] Not able to investigate.

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

The Warden. Maiev.

[Another sniff and his ears droop, his tone going flat.]

Suppose you'll want to know what happened to the prince next.

[darknessb4me]

[He registers "the Prince" as himself, but then adjusts because that makes no sense - ah. Kael.]

I've heard the news.

[Kil'jaeden.

This probably means, of course, that Arthas cared at least enough to pay attention to what people were saying about Kael'thas' death, but not Illidan's.

Or perhaps simply that when Illidan died, no one bothered talking about it.]

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

[Any appearance of puffiness around Lark's lack-of-eyes is due to the fact he just got his nose broken, right.

...sniff.]

Good. Easier that way.

[He tucks the blindfold away in a pocket.]

Still sorry I can't be more help.

[darknessb4me]

[Slight irritation, come on don't cry over Kael'thas, he hates Kael'thas.]

You shouldn't be. I dug my own grave. Yours, too.

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

[Kael'thas was his prince, man. He can't help it; the real prince would have died for them all more than once. Losing him to demons was the worst thing in the world next to becoming a death knight.]

No. [He laughs, unhappily.] I did that. The fuckers on the council in Quel'thalas helped. And Mother. You don't get to take that from them.

[He turns his head toward Arthas.] So what if I shouldn't? I am. The living like to talk about the world being cheaper for losing one of them; it's just the same for us.

[darknessb4me]

I destroyed your Sunwell.

That's just the problem. If you ask virtually anyone who the world would be better without, the answer would be me.

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

[Point. He ends up sort of pointing off over Arthas' shoulder.] Not what got me in the end. Think about it. You knew me.

[Then he drops his hand, turning his head away.] If you hadn't been born, maybe, yeah. But that egg's already broken and they don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been the one to take the Scourge. ["So fuck them," is implied.]

[darknessb4me]

The Barge showed me. Renault Mograine.

[He bristles.]

But you can't just say that someone would have ended up as his pet so it doesn't matter what I did then. "They all would have died anyway" - bullshit.

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

[He makes that annoyed-cat chatter again.] No. More would have died. Would've been someone that wasn't you, wasn't obsessed like you were. Think about it. You kept us all in line. You threw us away at Light's Hope, and Mograine was there to pick us up.

You kept Fordring around, too, instead of crushing him. That wasn't Frostmourne, that was you. [He tilts his head toward Arthas.]

Think about it. You made your killers. You knew what you were. Renault was already a fucking backstabbing monster born. You never were.

Think he would have sabotaged himself as the Lich King?

[darknessb4me]

[Quietly, at first:] Everything was me-

[Then as Lark keeps talking it escalates into a roar. There's a layer underneath that shouldn't be there, that sounds like thunder.]

Everything was me! I killed my father, I spoke through Frostmourne. I AM the Lich King!

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

[Oh Light. The bone-shaking roar almost makes Lark break and run; as it is, he drops his head, hunches his shoulders and tucks his ears in. Bow to your king.]

You. Were a paladin first. We were all something else. First.

You were remade. Something remembered enough to fight; not everyone can say that.

[darknessb4me]

That man is dead.

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

[He swallows audibly, then lifts his head and spreads his arms in classic "come at me bro" style.]

Yeah? So'm I. Dead doesn't mean shit with the Scourge.

You're, [oh Light Lark be man enough not to stutter] still him.

I don't always give people nicknames. But when I do, they're stilted.

[darknessb4me]

I killed him. And Ner'zhul. What do you say to that, blind knight?

Stay derpy, my friend.

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

I'd say, [he's going to get his head ripped off for this and he knows it. Oh well,] you don't know yourself as well as you think you do.

[darknessb4me]

How would you know?

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

Told you. I've been there. We all have, who didn't go mad or back to the Scourge.

[darknessb4me]

No. You haven't.

[He seems oddly calm, like he's won this argument, and off the Lich Kingy buzz.]

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

[He bows his head, ears drooping. Slump.]

...Yeah. I have. We have. You were us. You think you're so fucking special after you remade us all in your image?

[He jerks his head up, teeth snapping together.]

Try again.

[darknessb4me]

It's been almost six years since you were a part of the Scourge.

[He almost just said "a part of the Lich King" fffuu]

What the hell's your point?

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

Yeah? And how long have you been free for? Since we killed you? [He draws himself up to his negligible height, teeth bared, ears flattened against his hair.]

How many times have you gone home to have them spit on you and call you a traitor and a killer and a monster? How many friends and lovers have you had look at you and walk away in disgust because the fucking flesh is rotting off your bones? How many times have you done as good or better than any of them and that's not enough, that's never fucking enough because they all remember what you were and won't ever stop blaming you for that? And you remember it too, because you can't sleep, and you don't breathe, and you don't even have a fucking pulse in your chest, and the first thing you think of when you're surrounded by the living is that you've got to kill them and eat them and rip their souls out because that's what makes it stop hurting.

[He's shaking with fury now but doesn't make the mistake of going after Arthas again.] And even the ones that pretend to be your friends, they just think of you as an interesting experiment, like some kind of stupid pet to be tolerated and kept around and pled for if you get out of line. "Oh, he doesn't know any better, poor thing, his brain's too decomposed." They sit there and take every single fucking thing they have about being living for granted and expect you to smile and nod and take the condescension to your face and never breathe a word of what you really think, and you do it because you know what you are and what they'll say if they think you've turned on them.

And when they leave you there's fuck-all you can do because they're the only ones you had, and it's your fault that they left you to the ones who spit on you and know you for the monster you really are.

[Another snap of teeth.] Have you been through that yet? Or are you just stuck on your little boat with people who wouldn't know what a runeblade was if you shoved Frostmourne down their throats?

[darknessb4me]

I'm sure I can't imagine.

Go home, Plagueheart.

[corpseknight.livejournal.com]

[He actually huffs a breath through his teeth, then--laughs.]

That's the whole problem.

You're imagining it all. You're stuck in your head thinking about this shit and not actually living most of it except whatever fucked-up bizarro merry-go-round the boat has you on.

[SORRY ARTHAS NO ONE ESCAPES LARK THAT EASILY.]

[darknessb4me]

[Just looks at him and waits for him to finish. Get it out of your system. Then go home.]