Empty chairs at empty tables [closed]

[showsnopiety]

Who: Q 108 Roomanates
When: After Ryder's announcement, before the intro
Where: Halls of Glory, room Q 108
What: Four heroes try to press on after the Operation. Sort of.
Rating: PG so far, maybe more for mentions of death and suffering.



[They still lived together. And the results of the Operation had been...unpleasant. Death, suffering, torture of a sorts; even Caren, who enjoyed some of these things, had been left confused and off balance.

Some of them went to Lasker and back. But they came back, time after time, to this room. To the dorm.

And they had to face each other, and the things they had done.]

Comments

[burlyheart]

Not a very good liar, even nonverbally, isn't he?

Now is the time for his verbal lying to back up this argument. Potemkin jumps a little - a strange reaction, if he really was tranquil - and faces the roommate who had been there lying in bed. He must have completely passed him by. Potemkin feels foolish but he has to speak up soon before things get awkward.

"Yes!" he says, reverberating with recovering shock. "I mean, no, I would not describe it as a "crapper" mission. But I am alright, thank you."

[impulsives]

Yeah, no. He's not. Being a good liar here, but Shinn's going to just roll with it as if he's telling the truth. So he doesn't move much from his current position, still not even trying to make eye contact. But Shinn can sympathize a bit. Trying to look as if nothing's wrong outside after such a catastrophic event is only a natural reaction from most of the soldier he's seen in his life.

"...could've sworn you looked anything near alright physically, but okay. Let's just say that you're mentally okay then."

[burlyheart]

Potemkin sits there blank-faced for a moment, outplayed and outmaneuvered from his spiel he was going to go into on how these were minor injuries and nothing to impede a Zeppian soldier. He can't argue against him, so he refrains from bringing it up at all. He passes on to Shinn's next point which.

"I...can say that I am better off than most, out of those who were involved in recent events." He can firmly consider that the truth, with so many traumatized and grieving right now.

[impulsives]

"...Yeah. Even for an attack, that was really messy."

...Shinn's at least taking that at face value. He's not one to question someone's decisions, after all. But from his next words, it's clear that Potemkin's fiery roommate is actually taking this quite hard too.

"No point, really, involving civilians like that. They should've just attacked us head on. I've seen worse but,"

...

"I don't think the younger Heroes need to live through that kind of experiences. That's why us soldiers are here, to do their dirty work."

[burlyheart]

Us soldiers. Someone involving himself in his same role, his experience, the one he sometimes arrogantly believed he was alone in, resonates with him. The impact it has to the center of his chest causes his feet to slide, barely, back toward the window, and Potemkin can be seen to slump, like Shinn has removed the supports holding him up. Or maybe he's simply being relieved of weight now that Potemkin's finally dropped the bullshit.

"As soldiers," Potemkin speaks up slowly, unsure of how to start, "Is it really not our fault? When an army causes mass destruction, or takes lives along its path. Of course, it was the attacking force that thinks of such things, but..."

[impulsives]

"Partially, yeah, what's not to stop the other side for blaming us from taking away men fighting for their countries from their families? None. Both sides are never right when it comes to war."

Shinn's stare is slightly distant as he said what came next to his mind.

"All there is are senseless and meaningless deaths and sacrifice. It's hard to live through those. I don't want those that haven't experienced wars to have to see the ugly side of humanity that close."

[burlyheart]

Everything Shinn says has truth behind it, tested and inarguable. Potemkin lets each part sink in, which manage to chill a room open to the summer light by themselves.

"I thought this way of fighting a war was a joke at the beginning. The attacks of Noir, and the powers even the strangest heroes have shown, have proven that this is all serious, but that doesn't make it right." Potemkin seems to be calling for justice, but he sounds defeated before he started talking. He's simply rambling in the face of helplessness.