Floor 1, Room 6

[annihilator]

MALICE

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04/18 night of bitegate

[lighthaus]

[ khun sticks around bitegate just enough to see if there's any actual casualties and to poke someone in particular, but after that he's off to see malice.

he knocks politely! ]

[annihilator]

[Malice gets the door quickly, stepping back if Khun wants to enter. We can have this conversation in the hall if you prefer? Totally up to you whether you want to be alone with the other vampire right now.]

How're they doin'? I'm guessin' they're mostly healed up by now?

[lighthaus]

[ wow no, do you think he's a coward. also it's bad vibes to talk out in the hallway where anyone can see? he steps in with a smile. ]

Mostly, yeah. [ the concern you can absolutely hear (none at all) in his voice. ]

How're you doing?

[annihilator]

[0 concern, 0 cowardice... Anyway, he shuts the door behind Khun and moves to sit on the edge of the bed.]

I'm alright. Better than most people.

[Both because he didn't have to exhaust himself healing, he didn't get bitten, and he didn't do any biting. Win/win/win(?).]

I just can't be 'round that much blood without makin' it worse, y'know? Figured it'd be better to wait 'til they're taken care of.

[lighthaus]

[ There's presumably other places to sit in Malice's room but he opts to sit on the bed too, though the other corner. As if that makes his assumptive nature better. ]

It'll be a bit, but they'll mop it up fast, I imagine. There was no shortage of volunteers.

[ of which he obviously was not part of smh. ]

I think I'm beginning to understand why you don't like other vampires though, if this is the kind of mess they make.

[annihilator]

[Yep, there is a chair at the desk, but now here we are on the corners of the bed. Malice doesn't mind, though.]

Glad to hear it.

[But at the second part, his expression darkens a bit.]

Yeah. Usually when we lose ourselves like that, we don't come back. It's like a wild animal you gotta put down, y'know? But Mika's still himself, so I guess that's just another case of vampires workin' differently 'tween worlds.

I'm glad he didn't lose himself, don't get me wrong, it's just... Complicated, I guess. I've always seen losin' oneself as a sign of weakness.

[But it feels weird to say Mika's weak for that? He is a babby vampire, after all.]

[lighthaus]

[ tilting his head. ]

But you don't want to think that in this instance? I haven't spoken to Mika besides a quick greeting here or there.

[annihilator]

Yeah. He's...

[How does he put this...]

I've always been a vampire. Mika hasn't. So he's new to this, an' dealin' with it in his own way. He's strugglin' a lot right now, I think. So I wanna help him out, y'know?

[he adopted a babby vampire, whoops]

His situation's real different from mine, so it's not fair to judge it the same way I'd judge someone from my world, I think.

[lighthaus]

[ khun regards malice's explanation with a smile that's softer than his usual. ]

Despite your name, you're a good person, Malice.

[annihilator]

[...!! praise...?? wait he didn't do anything to deserve it, hold on—]

I'm really not. I've done some truly awful things.

[...]

But I do want to be a better person, I think. So uh, thanks?

[lighthaus]

You're welcome. [ praise isn't rare for khun, but it's not exactly common either. malice deserves it though! ]

But as for awful things, go ahead and try me if you like.

[annihilator]

[But that involves talking about it Khun... It's so hard when you're barely acknowledging that it was actually your own damn fault......]

...I was workin' with human rebels, but I betrayed 'em. I had a chance at power an' bein' accepted by other vampires an' I took it. It didn't end up workin' out, but I think I was regrettin' it even before things went south. The guy leadin' the rebels really trusted me an' kept sayin' I'd never cause them problems... an' I got him killed.

[how could this happen to him, etc]

[lighthaus]

[ his smile comes perhaps too easily. ]

But you regret it, which is the important thing. And you want to be a better person too.

[annihilator]

...Yeah, I do.

[It's easier to admit that now, but it still leaves him feeling... antsy? Frustrated? It's sort of hard to tell.]

At the very least I'm not interested in screwin' over any more humans - or anyone here, though I figure that goes without sayin'.

[lighthaus]

I'll say it again Malice, you're a good person. And a far better one than me.

[ :) ]

[annihilator]

[That smiling is starting to put him on edge, Khun!!!]

Now I'm curious. What did you do, exactly?

[He's not saying he's the absolute worst or anything, but betraying the people who took you in despite being a vampire is pretty scummy.]

[lighthaus]

[ ... ]

Before I answer: do you trust me, Malice?

[ meta text says Malice can probably feel the dialogue box up that says This Choice is Important. ]

[annihilator]

[Hmm!! Don't like that!! He can practically feel that this choice is super important!!]

Well, I kinda have'ta, don't I? We're workin' together toward a common goal, after all.

[Is that a good enough answer?]

[lighthaus]

Hah— [ a breathy exhale, light and breezy. khun's now flopped down entirely on malice's bed, spread out, eyes closed. ]

Do you remember what I told you about my sister, and her endeavor to become a Princess?

[annihilator]

[There he goes... flopped... Malice turns a bit, crossing his legs up on the bed as he watches Khun.]

Yeah, I do. What happened?

[lighthaus]

[ his eyes remain closed and he looks remarkably at peace for what he's about to say. more notable is the lack of inflection in his voice, not quite monotone or flat, but hollow and empty. ]

I was her tactician in that campaign, the one who advised her on her next moves and had her implicit trust. And I was the one who sabotaged her chance, on purpose.

And before you ask, I don't feel any guilt or remorse for it at all.

[annihilator]

[He can kind of tell from that tone of voice that Khun feels no guilt about it. But the question is why; there must be a reason behind it. Killing his own family... but then, Khun's family is very different from anything Malice has ever heard of before, so there's certainly more to the story here.]

Why'd you do that?

[lighthaus]

[ there's a lot of things he could say here that might make the context seem better, more sympathetic, more human.

but he's not going to say to them.

because as valid as those reasons might be, they're not the reason he acted the way he did. he wasn't pushed to the brink, and though his training was inhumane and cruel, he grew up bearing it and never knew anything else. at the heart of it, the reason he made the choice to betray his blood sister and his mother is— ]

There was something I wanted to see happen, so I made it into reality. It wasn't for the greater good or anything like that, but an entirely personal reason.

[ he opens his eyes then and sits up, deep blue pupils focused on the other wizard. ]

That's the kind of person I am, Malice. Who will do anything to achieve what he wants, no matter what that is, with no regard for who gets hurt in the process even if they die because of it. And that's why I know a thing or two about being a bad person and why you shouldn't trust me.

[annihilator]

Huh...

[It occurs to him that Khun doesn't need to warn him. It's not like Rosalie or Lotisse warned him before betraying him. (Though he really should have known better than to trust either of them...) And it brings back memories of telling Cody the same thing. You can't trust a vampire. You can't trust me.]

I appreciate the warnin'. But your goals... can you carry them out here? Or are you just workin' to get home, back to 'em?

[It's not judgmental. He does agree that what Khun did was terrible and that he sounds like a pretty bad person, but the most important thing is how it affects Malice. He'll keep the warning in mind, certainly, but if Khun has no interest in pursuing his goals here, then that likely means that he'll be willing to work alongside them.]

[lighthaus]

[ he smiles now, some of his usual energy seeping back into his voice. it's not a mask really, he certainly wouldn't have told malice any of this if it was, but more like a layer. sometimes it might be hard to see what he's like underneath, but he never really fully disguises it either. ]

I can't. But I think I can use what I'll learn here to achieve them back in my world.