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 Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2024 3:56 pm
When Lanting arrived on Earth, he was buzzing with energy. He felt...good. Accomplished. Like he'd really actually done something as a Knight, finally! He'd resonated with the Code, had fixed things on his Wonder, was maybe not a total failure as a Knight!
He waited, bouncing on his toes, for Dunnottar to return--it would be so exciting to get to share their stories of success, to bond over figuring something out together as Knights.
This really, really felt like a step in the right direction for him. He hoped it kept up that way.
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Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2024 4:23 pm
Dunnottar took a moment, albeit a brief one, to try to reign his anger in before he came back to Earth. He knew reacting and acting in anger was never good. He didn't want to be like his father, to do something he'd highly regret. Still, though, as he came back home directly from his Code Piece room, the anger pulsed through his body like standing next to a large speaker blasting bass-heavy music. It roiled through him like a terrific storm, seeking to destroy everything in a torrent of thunderous screams and floods. " You," he seethed out, clenching his fists at his sides. "What. The. <******** trembled all over with the suppressed rage. The storm inside him stirring larger and larger.
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Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2024 4:35 pm
Lanting had been expecting something nice. Fun. Getting to talk and share, maybe dinner after, he didn't know, friends weren't exactly something he was good at making but he wanted to try. It was supposed to be nice. Fun. The kind of thing that people did together.
Dunnottar's anger made him take a step back, and his eyes widened, and he pointed at himself in confusion.
"Me? What...what did I do, gege? Was there something else wrong on your Wonder, or....I'm sorry, whatever it was?"
He wilted, full-body, looking at Dunnottar in abject confusion. What had he done so wrong? Lanting didn't understand. He knew he was terrible and offputting and annoying, but usually people only realized that when he was around and talking at them too much about things they didn't care about. This....this was new. Lanting really, really didn't like it.
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Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2024 4:45 pm
Dunnottar nearly choked as he sucked in a breath to reply, but he took another couple of breaths, trying to keep it together. Even if this Lanting didn't get the memory—the whole past life memories thing seemed rather fickle—even if this Lanting had no idea right now, that didn't mean that this Lanting couldn't be planning something, and Dunnottar would protect himself at all costs. "Don't gege me," he spat. "Don't ever—" He stopped to suck in another breath, to steady his voice, to hide the way it wavered and wanted to crack into a million pieces. "It was your fault I died. You killed me."
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Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2024 5:02 pm
"What?"
Lanting's voice was very small, and very confused, and he shrunk in on himself, like that might somehow make Dunnottar stop yelling at him. Like if he just reduced himself enough, it would fix this, because he was always the problem, Shuangxu was stupid, and annoying, and useless, but--this was---this didn't make any sense.
"Geg--" Lanting winced, guiltily; it had come out automatically, like he could somehow fix things by just being deferential enough, but Dunnottar had said not to call him that, and Lanting was so, so stupid, he couldn't even hold a thought for a full minute. "Dunnottar, I don't know what you're talking about, but if it was something that happened with Zhiheng, he--" Had seemed cold, yes, and bitter, but not-- "I don't think he was a killer, that....that doesn't sound right?"
Maybe he was just stupid. Maybe he was missing context. He only had those few pieces of Zhiheng's life, after all, so what if...what if he just hadn't seen the right parts? The parts where Zhiheng was some kind of monster?
Lanting didn't know. He did know that he could feel his eyes welling up with tears, which was stupid and pathetic, like he was some kind of whiny child and not a grown adult.
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2024 1:00 am
As Lanting recoiled, Dunnottar forced himself to take yet another deep breath. He didn't want to actually fight Lanting, he reminded himself, the new one was still just a kid. It wasn't his fault. Not this one's. Not really. But Dunnottar's anger, his hatred, swirled within him, chasing away any and all logic that tried to form in his head. The gege slip just made him angrier. But at least now he definitely had a name for the face—for the face that killed him. Zhiheng. "Tell that to me when you remember standing over my body," he said with a sneer. "I lay there, dying, and there was Zhiheng, looking down at me with so much anger—how could it be anything else? Don't—don't ever talk to me again." He refused to be betrayed like that ever again. Not in this life. He'd had enough of that this time around, and apparently had had enough of that last time around, too. Trusting people was simply too dangerous, and he couldn't... No. He would never let anyone close again. The second they proved themselves untrustworthy, which people often did, he wouldn't go near them again. He needed to protect himself.
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2024 1:19 am
"But--what if it wasn't that?" Lanting asked, though his voice was small and shaky. "Did he say something? Did you see him hurt--you? Past you? Maybe it was just a big misunderstanding!"
That seemed totally possible, to him. Neither of them had the full story, and these things happened all the time!
"Please, we can talk about this." He stepped forward, and reached out to grab Dunnottar's arm--like that wasn't totally stupid. Like he'd ever been able to talk anyone out of the realization that he was useless and not worth their time.
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2024 1:31 am
He had started to walk away, to try to leave this behind, but then... Lanting grabbed his arm. And with that, he whirled back around and bodily shoved Lanting away from him as harshly as he could. "Don't you ever ******** touch me again," he growled lowly, eyes flashing with hatred as he stared Lanting down. "I know what I felt as I laid there, dying, couldn't ******** breathe—do not presume to tell me I don't know what happened. Leave me alone." With that, he turned to walk away again.
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