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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[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!