Day 40: Lunch

[whiny-egomaniac.livejournal.com]

*hobble wobble*

"Damn that SCOURGE!" Starscream cried out, the slowly-filling cafeteria producing a jarring echo of his raspy voice. His limping, already bad enough from not knowing how to properly use his crutches, was now exacerbated from the injuries he'd received the shift prior. Despite the gauges in his non-casted leg so lovingly provided by the aforementioned 'patient', Starscream could still put some weight on it, but not so much that he could really stop and rest; relieving the soreness under his arms was out of the question. The nurse that walked behind him with his tray, already upset at having to deal with yet another troublesome inmate, was growing rather impatient as his charge slowly made his way down the food line.

"Just...give me a standard serving of the aquatic creature's flesh, some of those fried potato slices, two bananas, and three bottles of juice," Starscream sighed, his anger from just a moment ago assuaged by the physical exertion needed to move the way he did. "I'm going to sit down here...bring it to me when you're done."

He was hardly surprised to find that one of the bananas was completely bruised along its inner curve, or that the handful of 'chips' on his plate were all on the small side. Tired and frustrated as he was, however, he could barely muster a 'damned flesh-creature' before moving his fingers to the plate, picking one of the longer 'chips' and shoving it into his mouth listlessly.

There was an unusually high concentration of sodium chloride crystals on it. Of COURSE.

[For Tony Stark]

Comments

[falseblack]

[Free.]

It was only noon, and the day had already grown unbearable.

What was Albedo thinking? Revenge? Simple torment? Nigredo could not tell, and frankly, he had reached his limits in patience to bother. A brother's cruelty was a horrible thing, a fact he had forgotten until Albedo's game, until he saw his title laid out in plain sight by strangers who understood nothing of its origins. Not their fault, yes, but it made him want to forget he ever had blood relations. Or powers. Or anything remotely reeking of himself. The child even considered retiring for the day (no afternoon drills meant no obligations) but ultimately left it alone to keep an appointment with Rubedo.

How funny. In a sickeningly ironic way.

With permission from his nurse (and a promise to eat the entirety of his dinner), the U.R.T.V. choose to have a glass of ice water. He sat down at one of the vacant tables and--with link twitching--stared into a wall.

[purgatio]

[from here]

A brief conversation with the nurse watching him--layered in remorse and words sickly sweet--allowed him to be led to his younger brother and be sat down across from him, a chair away. His untouched tray of fruit was placed in front of him, and the boy held two notebooks to his chest. The nurse watched, waiting.

Albedo watched, too. Watched the brother that had cut him out as surely as another. And this one... This one shouldn't have the right. Albedo should have been the one to cut Nigredo out, in all that he was. But yet, again, Albedo was the odd one out, the one that didn't fit, and somehow this bothered him more than ever right now. The fact that Nigredo wouldn't give him the time of day.

Last night... He had learned from last night, learned from earlier today, and still he didn't know what path to take with this brother. Retribution seemed likely, but he found an unwilling tiredness soaking through him at the thought. No, perhaps what he wanted was--

"Alan."

Albedo looked up, glaring for a moment before remembering himself. He smiled at the nurse, then turned to Nigredo with a pleasant expression, wide-eyed. "I'm sorry for attacking you yesterday. It wasn't right of me." Almost invisibly, Albedo raised an eyebrow to let Nigredo in on the game, something familiar in tricking adults to play with his brothers at the edge of his consciousness. No matter where they went, they were still dancing at adults' whims, still playing their little games underneath the scenes.

The nurse patted him on the shoulder, not seeming to notice the way Albedo flinched. She smiled at Nigredo reassuringly. "We'll be right over there, so if anything bothers you at all, you let us know, alright?" With another smile, the woman walked a few feet off, slightly out of earshot, but deliberately within sight. Albedo was not to be trusted.

This, he supposed, was an intelligent deduction.

The boy looked at his brother blankly. Albedo still hadn't decided how he wanted this interaction to go. "Hi."

[falseblack]

The blissful indifference Nigredo had hoped to know shattered upon the sight of his white-haired brother. What he received instead was a level beyond suppressed rage. Didn't this sibling know when to quit? Had Albedo forgotten to expose another facet he never wanted? The expression on the younger hardened, taking on a guarded, nearly disgusted edge.

Unfortunately for Nigredo, there wouldn't be room for candid reception. The nurse hovered too close, for one. For another, his words were meant to be spoken behind closed doors, not in the midst of a crowded cafeteria. Communication through the link was absolutely forbidden now; in fact, he would rather resort to silence than risk exposing himself to the one who could--and would--make the most of its meaning.

The lack of an outlet sapped whatever anger in the child, whose face drew back to its signature blank. "I accept," he answered dryly. Nigredo hadn't bothered to hear the full apology or attempted to process any wordless gestures aimed in his direction. Nor was this an act of magnanimity. He only wanted the nurse to step away.

Which she did soon enough. His eyes dropped to the space in front of him. "Are you satisfied?" he muttered.

[purgatio]

The low anger pulsated through the link warmly, giving Albedo some sense of comfort. Emotion, he took hold in. The foreign blankness that Nigredo held was not something he preferred. Not something he wanted. Something he, in fact, tried to ruin at every turn. It seemed that today he had, at least, achieved that.

Nigredo's acceptance was shrugged off as easily as the words themselves--that game wasn't for them, at least now, and even so an apology was never something that would ease any sort of tension. Judging from the morning, any kind of contrived friendliness would not flow well at all with the younger, and if Albedo was in a different mood, he would have taken advantage of that.

As it was, Albedo was unsure. "I..." he started hesitantly, before closing his mouth abruptly, sinking too easily into familiar tactics. Why had he thought to come here? Surely his betrayer of a twin would create some kind of false kindness moreso than this wolf in sheep's clothing; the Executioner for the ones deemed too dangerous. Too unstable. Nigredo had no idea.

Albedo arched an eyebrow, voice falling back into his normal mockingly polite tone. "Whatever do you mean, brother mine? The game you refused to play with me? It could have been so fun." The tone, while exact to how he usually spoke to Nigredo, lacked a certain resolve. The boy's eyes weren't as delighted in taking joy from the younger's suffering--this dance he had already stumbled in, and he wasn't that good in regaining his steps.

[falseblack]

The hesitation Nigredo ignored. The response itself, on the other hand, proved far more difficult. It wasn't something to cast aside without some effect, and for this particular variant, he found their influence to be a very serious strain. "Of course," he managed in bitter sarcasm.

Normal children typically wished for the negative aspects of life to disappear. Nigredo had the capacity to do a little more--to transform words into cause--and in the presence of his elder brother, the temptation came through quite strongly. Limits? Who cared. If he sapped every single mental strength to get Albedo to leave him alone, the boy could call the day salvageable.

Such was the fury of a scorned child.

But something about the situation tugged incessantly at the back of his mind. Perhaps it was the link, or perhaps he lacked restraint to force it out of focus. In either case, Nigredo found himself giving into to the last scrap of emotion he had left.

Without preamble, he slipped his hands over his face and went completely silent.

[purgatio]

Conscience aside, the white-haired Variant saw things in a different way, some would say a skewed way, he would most likely answer, 'enlightened'. One of those things was his younger brother. Except for moments of weakness, the middle brother would never see the younger as just a person. Nigredo had been cast the role of the villain in this play, and the thought that what Albedo had done or would do would actually hurt the younger was ridiculous. Nigredo was something wrong, something that existed to hurt and destroy (as they all did, and as they did well), and for Albedo, that made things simple.

Break the black-haired Variant down. Killing Nigredo wasn't good enough. Albedo needed to ruin the child utterly. (This is what he told himself.) Destroy Nigredo before the boy did the same to him.

That Nigredo would leave him alone? Not kill Rubedo? These thoughts were not present, and not accepted as truth. And even so--Albedo's priorities were simple, revolving around one. And until he decided what exactly that meant, what it entailed, Nigredo was a good enough distraction. Something to focus his energies on. Besides; Albedo would have to deal with him at one point.

These inherent truths of his world stopped floating around and sunk down deep within him, festering slowly until his hatred flowed nicely again. Nigredo's sarcasm, touched with hurt? Delighted him. His movements, reactions, all slowing signs of emotions? Excited him. But, no, no. No point in rushing this along, ruining it so soon. He had tried that already, and he had ended up the one lesser--as if he could be lesser. No, his brother, his blood, deserved time.

Albedo slid his elbows unto the table, the notebooks rested between his arms, and threaded his fingers together in front of his face. Violet eyes locked on the other Variant, intently studying Nigredo as the other hid. No, this wasn't the time to push it. This was the time to let it fester inside of the other, like his own hatred, and watch the results to see which way to shift it next. A brother was a fine toy to break, and Albedo was just learning the methods.

This, too, he told himself with utter sincerity. "So," he said blandly from behind his hands. "Maybe next time you'll play."

[falseblack]

The silence acted as a vacuum, stabilizing the extremities and forcing out the air and consequently, the built up pressure. It was how Nigredo heard the words in complete clarity. There existed no white noise, no distractions; the cafeteria and its patrons vanished. Just he and Albedo locked in words.

One green eye appeared between a ring finger and its adjacent middle. "And if I don't?" he asked.

[purgatio]

If Albedo had the capacity, he'd be utterly taken with this Nigredo. All calm fire, and unsaid threats. The youngest was almost a person in this moment caught inbetween the next. Albedo's face lit up, a smile tracing the edges of his mouth. Even thoroughly disgusted with this sibling, Albedo felt a kind of excitement in seeing Nigredo see him. (Perhaps it wasn't what he wanted, but somehow it was enough.)

The boy drummed his fingers on his cheeks, resisting the urge to giggle. No, that would ruin this perfect moment. "If you don't..." he said, drawing the sentence out. "Then you don't."

The white-haired Variant had no reason to reiterate or make new threats. All had been said, as plainly as he could be, with pen and paper, and for all Albedo knew, Nigredo had held on to that private note, written with such care just for him. Albedo opened his hands, spreading his fingers. "Perhaps you'd even find it fun if you tried." A half-smile slid into place. "You never know."

[falseblack]

In contrast, Nigredo's opinions of the albino seemed far less defined. What existed barely scraped the surface of hostility, but he soon found difficulty in keeping it in the foreground. Instead, the anger, the wish for retribution slipped past his awareness, leaving the child with nothing to say.

The sensation was odd, to say the least. He was supposed to hate this brother, for the emotional blackmail inflicted and for thwarting every effort for stability he hoped to find since the Conflict. And he certainly despised the sudden power the elder held over him, as though the younger owed a debt. One so severe, multiple payments could not adequately cover.

Every time Nigredo reached that breaking point in fury, however, it vanished. Even a biting remark felt strangely out of place. And in the variant's mind, what did not fit was not worth bringing up. If Albedo decided on agitating the situation, Nigredo would choose to let it go.

He dropped his hands, eyes blank and unreadable. The sounds of people and silverware returned; the world no longer centered on their little issue. As if to affirm the other's words, the boy nodded once before pulling himself out and away.

"I would like to leave now," he called to a nurse, who wasted no time intervening. Allowing the woman to slip a hand into his, the duo made their way toward the exit. He didn't spare Albedo another look-- Honestly, Nigredo had no desire to meet the face staring at his back.