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If anyone had told Castor that one day, he'd be going about, killing criminals with Wolframite, he'd have laughed and told them they were insane. Yet here he was, killing people, with Wolframite. Well, the former Wolframite. Despite purification, Castor often felt the man hadn't really divested himself entirely of his past.

Pocketing a good number of bills and thinking which brothel to visit later to make a donation, Castor looked to his unlikely companion picking his way through the liquor.
"Cash- A few ladies over on Grant Avenue have been having a rough time- cops been patrolling so their customers aren't frequenting. Let's see what they have though." Joinging him by the wall of alsohol, Castor stopped at a bottle of wine.
"Black- wow. They could afford to blow on the absinthe but not on decent wine." That being said, he reached over, grabbing a bottle of whiskey.

"...This bottle costs 100 dollars.... These men were idiots when it came to drinks."

Running the bottle over his hands, Castor expected Gev had the right of it. Many lacked the taste buds to tell cheap and bland from expensive and complex. That said however, he looked to the choice of his companion.
"..If your goal is to get s**t faced, that's a good one. A better one for flavor is the one on your left. Green cap and black label."

He set the bottle of whiskey down, looking for anything else that would merit actually taking.
"Hookers and family. I'll spare you the details, but in my line of work, I had to know my drinks. Business men puff their egos with who can buy the most expensive bottle of wine at company dinners." He gave a shrug. "Personally I always favored rums and whiskey. Pollux is much more traditional with his wine."
A bottle of Gin, he set that down and proceeded to look for something to mix it with.

"Speaking of, think I should take a few bottles back for the girls? I'm certain they'd enjoy them."

Castor barked a laugh, rummaging around for a clean glass. One found, he twisted off the cap of the gin. “Hardly. I don’t work for rich men, or women for that matter.” He poured a hefty amount before taking it to the tap, tonic water finishing the drink. Simple, but effective.
“I run my business with my brother. Well, he runs it mostly, I make nice while he twists arms so we get what we want. Old men feel that fair wages and decent incentives are unnecessary for good employees. They also hate the fact that my brother may or may not have seduced a fair number of their wives at one point or another. He’s good at manipulation like that.”

A slow sip, Castor emitted a pleased hum, swirling the beverage in hand before eyeballing the knight who’s company he kept.
“I appreciate the offer, but I can just take it to Castor for safekeeping if I need to. As for pawning these off?” He grabbed the jewelry, grinning. “I think I know a few women of the night who would be delighted to find a few gifts from their prince. Besides, less attention if many women pawn things off then just a single man.”

Castor paused a while, drifting over to a barstood and righting it. He wanted to relax a bit, even if their were a few dead bodies around.
“Pollux… could be. The nature of our bond is unique. If he truly wished, he could become a royal, but, we have never been royal at the same time. Killing me would likely allow him to become such, and if he really wanted it… I think I’d let him.” The shrug was heavy.
“It would be nice to have a life where I was not bound to my oath.”

A derisive snort left him, the idea that Marlo somehow took his methods from him laughable. Elzo had done his fair deal of womanizing and killing but-
“If you mean the sleeping around? Adultry isn’t my bag. However, sleeping with the wife to blackmail and manipulate the egotistical old man? He’d do it without hesitation. My brother is ruthless, in a lot of ways I think he resents. I may kill, but I’m practical; I don’t do torture. Pollux? He will, would, and has. He doesn’t enjoy it, but he’ll do it. War maker got his title for a reason. He’ll cross lines and do what he feels he must, even if it makes all hate him.” Another sip, castor noticed the expression on Gev’s face as he drank.
“Try adding a bit of coke. It can help the taste. Unless you grabbed fireball. Then best grab Dr. Pepper.” He smiled, a genuine one, lifting his glass before taking another drink.

“… Pollux would do what is best.” He took another drink, eyes focusing on the ice in the glass.
“I am more... susceptible to chaos than many know. Power is what I crave- control I was a king before a prince, a general before a solider, a veritable god among my people. I lost that, and a part of me wants it back. Chaos… chaos offers much, and if I could obtain that power, I just might. I’d do it. I’d take that pwer so long as it gave the ability to kill Metallia. To end this war and restore the balance. But that’s not how it works, and I know if I fell… He would end my life, because that is our oath. He slammed the last of the gin back, hissing at the sudden burn in his nostrils.
“I hate being royal Gev. I hate it because it’s cost me more than anything.”

He tilted his head back eyes closed.
“I promised her a life where we could be together, and when I thought we had that.. we fell apart. I failed her… In the end she loved you and them more than me, she could not bare the guilt of betrayal, and so… this life was not ours. But-“ He sighed.
“She is alive. I feel her sometimes, here, in the city. I put flowers on the place we used to meet at. I miss her but- she has made her choices. I can not more ask for her back than she could ask me to corrupt. If I could… I’d give this up. All of it up, just to have a life where I could finally love another and not have them torn from me.”

Castor opened his eyes.
“She spoke of you fondly, and mourned your agony. I think, a tiny part of her always resented me for what I did to you officers. That I was willing to go so far.” His head turned and he asked.
"What about you? If you could give this all up, live a normal life, would you?"

“Pollux knows. We’re not… friends, or even good allies really. I know full well you’d kill me if you found a good opportunity. Hence, I tend to alert my better half when I plan to court death.” Castor winked, raising a glass in toast. Purified or not, an unlikely partner in combat or not, under the veneer Gev was Wolf. Wolframite, the agent who swore to murder him and craved the feeling of life slipping from his hands by his blades.
“Besides, he’s pragmatic. He trusts me not to die, but knows it’s better I have company, even murderous company if it means I won’t attempt to kill a general or chaos nobility on my own.” The half hearted chuckle left him, a quirk in his lip the betrayal of the irony that his would be murderer was the one to keep him from being well.
Murdered.

Mulling over what Gev said however, Castor’s humor ebbed, and he slouched in his seat, legs kicked up to accommodate the position.
“Power is power.” He said, as if that answered it all. “You act like the senshi would listen to me.” Bitter anger lanced each word. “We both saw how well they reacted when I tried to warn them of what would happen once we entered the rift. What they had to be willing to do. No, I want them to rally, I must make them yield. Senshi are independent, but crave monotony. They yearn for order, control. What good are soldiers if they can’t follow simple orders? I led armies, I ruled an empire, yet does it matter? No. That life is over, and even when I reclaim my right, my power, they scoff and claim I am unworthy as something as basic as respect.” He hadn’t noticed it, the glass in his hand frosting over in his anger.
“Senshi are weak. All but a handful are useless in this war. We don’t need to kill them all, but we must be willing to. Yet each time I tell them this, they act as if I am a monster for ripping away their rose colored glassed.” He slammed back the rest of the drink.

A soft murmur left, his anger having no outlet, so it was swallowed back up. Sobered by the topic shift to those that had been respected. Loved even.
“She will die, corrupted and possibly damaged. I doubt I will find her again in our next rebirth.” That was that. His story with Lina had not ended… yet it would not continue. Not for a great many years.

“You’re a solider taken from war and placed in civilian shoes. It doesn’t fit because you don’t fit.” He felt like that sometimes, not to the same extend but, he could empathize.
“She deserved better than her fate.” The frost on the glass had melted and Castor rose, refilling his cup, this time with burbon- straight.
“You loved her too, didn’t you?”

She had been loved, yet for all their love… Tanzanite had still fallen and died by chaos’s will.

Castor thought on the words, the means behind them and after a while, he took a drink, the alcohol wamingin his blood, no longer burning his throat.

"You are who you chose to be. So long as Wolframite is a part of you, as long as you use who he was, you will be him. That's all. I don't know a Gevaudan. I know Wolframite. And it's Wolframite I trust to do what had to be done in order to achieve victory."

Another drink, he knew he shouldn't be imbibing so quickly, but, it made it easier in a lot of ways to deal with. To talk about the things between them that was both isolating and comforting in their familiarity.
"I told Ganymede onve that she was a fool for saying she'd not kill- that she hadn't killed, that death didn't cover her hands. She split an agent's skull open before she rose, rendering them a vegetable. Pollux knew it the second he saw- No senshi magic would have saved that agent. No medicine would revive them. She didn't want to face the consequence of her actions, and as a result, Pollux cleaned up the mess." He remembered a anger, of the others, the contempt. Yet in the end, Pollux had done a mercy for them. The agent and the later royal.

"That is a royal. One who should understand that we much be ready to face the reality of what war is. Iris, Polaris- I do not think they would be so willing to face it, but I believe they would understand it. Yet even if they asked to lead, I doubt many would follow."

Too many senshi let bias color them, pride blind them.
Children, playing at war.
A child like him, thinking he could be a hero.

A click, Castor pulled off the tiara, setting it down. Brushing his hair, he sighed, wondering how to explain his own feelings for the general queen.

"Love is complex." Which answered nothing.
"I met her when I was just awoken, new and fresh. Before it all went to s**t. We fought but- we were kids- and we became friends of a sort. I had fun with her, I bonded over being young and reckless by her side, even if just for one night. But then Charonite found out, and she suffered because she gave me kindess." He remembered her pain, the betrayl and anguish on her face.
"Then, I went out with Kunzite. We had the fortune to run into Nealite, and we saw out chance. Kill her, kill Beryl. Tanz showed up last second and the sword that was meant for the queen-"

The blood. The scream. Her body broken on the ground. The pain in his legs and the fear that raced in him as he saw the general king and his queen.

"We could have stopped the war that night. If we hadn't hesitated- she might have been spared. She hated me after that. She found out about Lina and I, and it got worse. I cared for her. I missed her. At times, i could still see her in there. Determined, fearless, proud and strong. I admired her for who she was, not who she became. Not what they made her into."

Castor looked at the former agent, now a knight.
"Tanzanite needed me, and yet I failed her. I couldn't save her, and when I realized that was all she had wanted? I-" He chocked for a moment.
"I love her. Even now, I love her. But I failed her, and when I look back, I realize how badly. Tanzanitye is gone and dead, what uses her body now is... she isn't the woman I love."

A bitter smile graced his lips.
"Linarite. Tanzanite. Alkaid- I love them. And yet, out of all the people, they're the ones I will mourn when I die. Even so, I can't die. Only three people have that privledge."

Castor counted them.
"Alkaid, the one who guided me in another life, and showed me kindness in this one. Tanzanite, who was stronger than any other and saw me as more than a senshi." Blue eyes looked to Gevaudan.
"And you, because no one else has proven to be a worthy enough adversary to call themselves a rival."

The question made him freeze. Then realizing what an opporunity it was he took it and ran with it.

"What do you think?" He made a display of licking his lips.
"A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell."