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 Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2025 2:21 pm
Pyrrhus had missed working with his cousin. Everything worked so much better with a partner. And frankly, having him and Thalassa still alive....it was one of those little miracles, and. Well.
Three out of four wasn't bad.
And tonight, they'd encountered a Lieutenant who had gotten bold with a stolen starseed. Between the two of them, he was down, and Pyrrhus bounced the starseed in his hand before spinning around and tossing it to Troilus.
"Get this back in the poor civilian. As for this piece of Chaos garbage..."
He smiled, in the way of someone who was definitely about to do something terrible. Once upon a time, he would have waited until Troilus was gone, but that would be a waste of time, here. Anyway, surely Troilus had gotten over whatever moral qualms he had about killing after the deaths, at hte hands of Chaos, of his husband and son. Obviously.
"I'll handle it."
"Whoa, whoa," the Lieutenant gasped, scrambling backwards on the ground, "you don't need to--"
"Shut up." Pyrrhus's boot came down on his throat, and he started to press down. Better to just take him out. The type of people willing to rip starseeds couldn't be trusted to keep living.
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Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 2:11 pm
Troilus grinned, catching the starseed. Holding one of these precious little stones of life always made him feel.... some type of way. There were too many complex emotions for him to really know what he felt, gazing down at one of these in his palm. Except for the very nearly irresistible urge to lick it and find out what they tasted like. That was something he didn't want to know, not really. Probably one of those "Nintendo Switch cartridges". He'd heard those tasted bad. And yet, the silly urge hit him every time he looked at one of these. Sighing a little at himself, he placed it on the civilian's chest, watching as it sank back into their chest. He straightened and realized what Pyrrhus was doing. "Pyrrhus! We don't need to kill him," he said, gaping at his cousin. "What are you doing?! We took him down already, we don't need to do this."
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Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 8:14 pm
Pyrrhus did not turn to acknowledge Troilus. He stepped down harder on the officer's throat, eliciting a desperate, choked gasp from the man, and sighed, heavily.
"I'm cleaning up, Troilus. Chaos garbage like this can't be allowed to keep on living. Or do you think he's going to turn his life around if you give him a nice, stern warning?"
If, somehow, Troilus's unrelenting hopeful optimism had survived a thousand years of Chaos, Pyrrhus....well, on the one hand, he'd be happy. It would be sort of miserable to see that ripped from his cousin. But on the other? Coddling that sounded...annoying, to put it as mildly as possible. There was far less room to cover up the messy parts of mercenary work, now. No longer could he sneak back in the night to finish a target, or ensure that Troilus was running a distraction elsewhere while he, Thalassa, and Tyndareus did what needed to be done.
But here they were.
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Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 8:29 pm
"Pyr," he said softly, coming up behind his cousin and placing a hand on his shoulder. He gazed down at the choking Lieutenant. "It's certainly possible. Killing killers doesn't give them the chance to turn it around. I'm not stupid enough to think one lecture from an alien that they're brainwashed to hate means he'll turn over a new leaf, but—" He paused, running a hand through his hair. "Shouldn't we give them a chance?" He didn't understand... Or maybe he did. Pyrrhus had been awake for those thousand years that Troilus himself had been asleep. Obviously something had changed. That was a lot of time to sit and think, completely alone.
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Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 9:05 pm
Pyrrhus let out the most put upon sigh, pressing down harder and making the Lieutenant choke desperately. Hands clawed at his ankles, but his boots were nice and thick, so it was more an annoyance than anything.
"Why?" He asked. "Why should we give people that would gladly kill us a chance? I thought you were all about protecting innocent lives, Troi--so why are you arguing for mercy for someone who has clearly demonstrated a desire to take them?"
Pyrrhus laughed, soft and bitter.
"But that's always been the way, hasn't it. You fight to save lives, you say, but you hate the idea of getting the job done. So I do it for you, and you get to keep your hands clean."
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Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 9:16 pm
Troilus's hand dropped from Pyrrhus's shoulder and he couldn't help but back up a tiny step, ears ringing as he looked at Pyrrhus with shock. "What," he said, blinking. "What do you mean, do it for me? Pyr. Mercy is—it's important. Maybe more mercy in this world leads to kinder souls down the road. You can't know that he won't change his mind. Please, Pyr."
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Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 9:32 pm
"No."
It was a simple answer. Pyrrhus stepped down, hard. There was an awful, wet crack, and the Lieutenant made a little, miserable gurgling noise, and then went still and silent.
Pyrrhus stepped off him, and turned fully to face Troilus.
"How much of our work did you think was bloodless, Troilus? I mean, we certainly worked to keep the worst of it from you, but did you think Thalassa, Tyn, and I were just going around offering people hugs and stern lectures? Don't be ******** ridiculous. And this? Now? This is so much worse."
He spread his arms.
"A thousand years ago, we were dealing with normal idiots. Maybe people who got into magic artifacts they shouldn't have, but for the most part....nonmagical people who simply needed to be removed from whatever equation they were fouling up. But now? Now it's Chaos. And I'm not letting Chaos ruin another ******** world. Not now. Not after everything."
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Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2025 11:53 am
Troilus gagged a little at the sound the Lieutenant made, trying to suppress his shudder. Pyrrhus had just killed a man right in front of him. Yes, that man had been trying to hurt them, but they'd won the fight. They didn't have to kill. "Of course I didn't think you were offering hugs," he said a bit snappishly. "I'm not stupid, Pyr. I know what I was a part of, I know threats were what worked." His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. "But you still just killed someone, Pyr. We need to try to give people a chance. Sometimes people can change. Especially when they are literally infected with Chaos! Maybe we can help them fight it!"
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Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2025 1:05 pm
Sometimes, Trolus's relentless optimism was nice. Right now, though? It was really ******** annoying.
"Yeah, Troi. I've killed a lot of people. And it wasn't just threats. This is not the first neck I've snapped, and I don't just mean all the people I had to slaughter my way through after I ******** up and let Chaos take my world."
There were rivers of blood on his hands. There would never come a day when it was wiped clean. But that was what he had always been.
"So you do whatever you want. You try to redeem them, and see how many other people die because you're so big on saving lives that you'd rather keep your hands clean and let them kill more people than finish the damn job. But don't get in my way when I handle murderous, Chaos-infected bastards in exactly the way they deserve."
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Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2025 8:59 pm
Troilus licked his lips as they dried out, letting them stay parted as he gazed at his cousin and tried not to look lower than Pyrrhus's neck, tried not to see the body still underfoot. "Cousin," he whispered, feeling hollow and horrible. How many people had Pyrrhus killed? How many times had he seen a threat that Troilus refused to see? His tail slowly tucked between his legs the longer he thought about it. How often had he been wrong about everything? How often had be been right?"...I'm going home," he finally said quietly, turning and walking away. He felt... he felt... like he needed a shower.
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