Duplicity IC Inbox

[beautifulviper]

 

Don't expect me to pay any attention to this ridiculous excuse for wasting time. I don't understand what this is meant to do.

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[beautifulviper]

[Laurent hated his communicator, and before he was a SIN guard he never checked it, but it had become habit since then to check it. He saw the message and frowned, wondering what the bastard wanted.]


What do you want Ransom? Trying to gloat again over your Dominant? I assure you, you're the only one who gives a damn who you live with.


[Hardly. Laurent hated the idea that Ransom spent so much time with someone else. Someone he apparently liked. It made him sick, feeling jealous over a man who thought he was nothing. The man didn't care about him! Ransom didn't give a damn about him! But Laurent thought of the asshole often. Much too often. Why was it so easy with him? Why?]

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[dramamama]

No, I'm not here to gloat. I'm here to talk.
I know you'll listen.

[ Ransom was absolutely not going to say what he thought about how attached Laurent was. Not now. He was smart enough to know that fighting wasn't going to get him what he needed and what he needed was someone to be there for him. ]

I was at that damn party and they laced by drink.
Now I have to tell someone something that I can't.
It has to be you.

You're the only one.

[ He could tell his Dominant. K wouldn't give a shit but he had the feeling that it wouldn't work. Part of the 'magic' of Duplicity. ]

[beautifulviper]

You want to talk? About what for the gods sake? What makes me someone you think would take your confession? Why the hell should I care about your secrets?


[The words were difficult to type when what Laurent really wanted was to hear every secret Ransom possessed. Did the man really think him worth something after all? He'd been so sure it was nothing but an arrogant and easy lay for Ransom. The fact it ran deeper than that for Laurent was an embarrassment and completely baffling. He still had no idea why in hell he had an emotional attachment to a man that barely acknowledged his existence. Only when Ransom had a use for him did Laurent seem to be on his radar. Fucking bastard.]

[dramamama]

About what I've done.
What will it take for you to listen to me?

[beautifulviper]

And what is it you think you've done Ransom? Seduced an innocent young lamb? Caused a pretty woman to lose her head?


[Bastard! Fucking bastard! Making him sit there and listen to god knows what sort of asinine "confessions" the man might come up with! All about someone else no doubt as well. Ransom just wanted to make him suffer, well aware he was too weak to simply stop replying. And weak he most assuredly was! Damn himself as well!]

[dramamama]

Yes, but that’s not what I want to talk about.

They gave me something at the party.
I have to bare my soul and tell the truth.
I have to.

And it can’t be to just anyone.

private video

[beautifulviper]

[Laurent's jealousy and anger went way down at those words and he perked right up, curiosity consuming him. He even decided to switch to video, hoping the man would show his face as well.]


Ransom. You're telling me you've been drugged into being honest? About what? And why me? What makes me the one you must confess to?


[Was he special to the man after all? It didn't seem possible, but maybe . . .]

private video

[dramamama]

[ Ransom switches time video, if only to appease Laurent. It won’t make any of this easier but it might persuade the blond to be more receptive. ]

Yes. About who I really am. Why you? That’s simple. It has to be someone that I feel like I have control over. A person that makes me feel strong and powerful.

[ His lips press firmly together and make a light popping sound when he pries them apart again. ]

This will make me weak. It’ll put us on even ground.

[beautifulviper]

[The expression on his face was all too telling. The man was still just insulting him, using him. Bastard! God damned fucking bastard!]


You're slime, you know that? You have no redeeming qualities at all! I hate you! You make me sick!


[And even saying that, even feeling it, Laurent didn't disconnect. He didn't even look away from the damned screen. He couldn't. He had to know. Had to. Fuck him, but he had to know!]

[dramamama]

Yeah and I don't care that you feel that way.

[ The truth bug was hitting him hard but Ransom might be this honest with Laurent any other time. It was always up in the air how he'd feel in the moment. ]

You know what I'm like. You know that I use you. And you use me, too, just the same. [ His tone goes low and soft. ] I'm the only one that can make you feel good and that's the reason you come back again and again.

But I didn't come here to talk about you.

[ There's no hesitation. ]

I'm a murderer, Laurent. I'm responsible for my grandfather's death and I killed the maid who worked for us. He tried to take away everything that I had so I tried to kill him. It didn't pan out but he died anyway. But the truth, the reason I can't stop talking? I liked it. The control I had over someone else. That I could act and that'd be the end of them. I don't regret what I did.

[beautifulviper]

[He shuddered at the soft words, as much for the truth as the horror inherent in it. Laurent closed his eyes, turning his head away, though again, there was never a doubt about him leaving. His head whipped back around at the confession, eyes narrowed and glittering with malice.]


That's it? You killed two people and you're troubled by liking it? That's all? I've killed dozens. Probably hundreds. You're soft Ransom, to be guilty over a little satisfaction in a job well done. Pitiful. I should have known you wouldn't tell me anything meaningful.


[The ability to snipe at the man again, to have just a little of himself back, was a relief. It was also something he didn't think Ransom expected. The man did seem to be at least a little worried by the murder. Most people were soft compared to the life Laurent had led, so it really didn't surprise him the man would see it as a detriment. The softer parts of Laurent, the things he kept carefully hidden, didn't approve of such things, but he wasn't the one telling secrets and the practical parts of him didn't give a damn if the man had killed someone back home. Strangers meant nothing to him in the city.]

[dramamama]

Why'd you kill them? And how can you claim not to know exactly how many? It doesn't work that way. You know. You always know.

[ Ransom was livid. He hadn't expected a pity party and he didn't want Laurent to offer him a shoulder to cry on, but he didn't want a one up. He'd wanted... Laurent to be disgusted. To hate him for the monster he was. ]

So it means nothing to you that I'm a murderer. That I killed for selfish reasons and that I would do it again.

[beautifulviper]

It was war. I don't count every blow in a skirmish. I don't even count the ones I killed outside the battles. What would be the point? And I certainly didn't keep track of the ones trying to assassinate me.


[His smile was cruel and smug. Amused. And he lied.]


You really are bothered by this, aren't you? That you took a life? Two? That I can kill without a blink and never spend one moment questioning it? Poor little Ransom. You thought I'd turn away, didn't you? That I'd berate you. That I'd give a fuck.

[dramamama]

That’s not the same and you know it. I’m not talking about war or the lives lost in battle. Hands on, down face to face murder.

[ He could be just as cruel and now that’s he’s admitted the truth, there was no reason not to be. ]

It’d be too much to expect you to be honest. Oh wait, unless, you are and you’re trying to cover it up. Do you care that much about me that it doesn’t matter what I’ve done?

[beautifulviper]

It matters so little to me because I hate you Ransom. When will you get that through your thick head? And what makes you think I don't face the men I slaughter in battle? How else would I kill them? I don't ride at the rear of my forces eating their dust, I lead them.


[Laurent was giving the man a lazy smile, though it was just a show. Ransom got under his skin in the worst way and it was only a matter of time before it came to the surface again.]


I have killed outside battle you know. Drawn my knife across a helpless man's throat without pause and watched him pour out his life's blood at my feet. Is that what you want to hear? That we're the same Ransom? That we're both monsters? Please! As if I ever claimed to be anything better!