week 6; saturday ( stephanie )

[axilium]

[so. if steph happens to approach the lounge.

she might hear the sound of glass breaking! which is nothing to be suspicious of. definitely not.]

Comments

[axilium]

[sitting in front of her! this is so weird.]

[vigilantics]

[ no it's fine. he's between her legs where he belongs-- don't kill me jan

but she will actually start playing with his hair. ]

If you didn't dress like a weirdo you'd actually be cute.

[axilium]

[bye francy i'm dropping this thread]

Sorry for future Earth fashion?

[vigilantics]

[ i'll kill you ]

Your apology is not accepted.

[ she's just going to. braid it. ]

[axilium]

You wound me.

[if it helps, his original outfit's probably stained with ion's ink and he'll never wear it again.]

[vigilantics]

[ that doesn't help at all. ]

I try.

[ there's a period of silence as she just focuses on braiding. eventually, though, steph is just going to lean over so that she's looking down at him in a slightly upside down angle. ]

Can you stay with me during the execution tomorrow?

[axilium]

[well then i don't know what you want from me!!

he looks up at her, surprised at first, before his expression softens.]

... If that's what you want.

[not like there's any point in hiding things anymore.]

[vigilantics]

It is.

[ she really does not trust herself to fully make it through on her own, and that's not the kind of sight she'd want hikage to see. ]

Thank you.

[axilium]

Don't sweat it.

[vigilantics]

I won't even make you hold my hand in public, because I'm so kind.

[axilium]

You truly are gracious.

[vigilantics]

I thought I was incompetent?

[ :/ ]

[axilium]

You can be both?

[vigilantics]

You're very brave to say that when I have a handful of your hair.

[axilium]

... Have mercy on me?

[vigilantics]

Hm. No?

[ she realizes she doesn't actually have anything to tie the end of the braid with once she's done. oh well. holding onto the end so the hair doesn't get loose, she'll tap him on the shoulder with her other hand. ]

Turn around, but not too quickly.

[ so he doesn't accidentally yank his own hair. ]

[axilium]

Obeying any requests from you seems a little worrying right now, but...

[sure, he'll do as she says.]

[vigilantics]

[ and one he does, she's going to set the braid over his shoulder so she can inspect this Look. her expression is fairly neutral. ]

You know, I suspected that Varian had something to do with it after I saw Evan's body in the case. Plus the fake letter? But I ignored it because I didn't want it to be him. And then during the trial, when he kept saying it wasn't his fault... I just knew.

[axilium]

... He did seem unusually emotional during that interaction.

[vigilantics]

He knew I understood. It was... similar to a conversation I had with him before.

[ and then she just. kept quiet about it, because it was varian.

god, bruce would probably hate her if he knew. ]

[axilium]

... Sooner or later, these things catch up with you. His just happened to be sooner.

[vigilantics]

Evan's my friend too.

[ her neutral expression breaks into a frown. ]

But I was ready to give up on finding his killers as soon as I knew Varian had to do with it. That's pretty terrible. I would have gotten fired again.

[axilium]

... I stopped trying to pursue Jae-ha and Sousei's deaths as soon as I realized Sanji was behind them.

[and jae-ha was his friend.]

We all have our priorities.

[vigilantics]

[ she blinks, and decides that she can't look at him and glances away. ]

... yeah, we do.