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[hart_or_hand]

Thanks, but I think I'll pass. The only people I'd want to talk to from home are dead. Angel, if you hear this, I hope you spend the rest of eternity getting your heart carved out of your chest.

Comments

[this_corrosion]

What, over and over? Or just once like really slow, like -

[Here, have an exaggerated slow-motion impression of someone being stabbed in the chest, complete with sound effects.]

- aaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuggggggghhhh.

[velocette]

I like that--the Promethean imagery. [He's not laughing, but probably only because he never really laughs. It just gets conveyed in the way he stares.] What'd he do?

[allthatmatters]

[Oh dear fuck.

Well. Might as well be amused.]

Yeah, I'm sure that hurt.

[hart_or_hand]

Repeatedly.

[hart_or_hand]

He asked for my help and repaid me by convincing my friend to murder me before it was over.

[hart_or_hand]

Kate. How do you even know about that?

It'd be even better if they did it with a rusty spoon.

[allthatmatters]

I meant your well wishes. But yeah, I've heard a lot. [Look at all of that sympathy.]

[this_corrosion]

Bit gruesome, innit?

[hart_or_hand]

The Eurotrash deserves it after what he did. What, Angel called you after he had me murdered?

[hart_or_hand]

He has it coming.

[allthatmatters]

Nah, we met after Los Angeles went to hell and back.

[hart_or_hand]

The damn idiot lost, didn't he? And the whole city paid the price.

[allthatmatters]

He did what he set out to do. Killed all the right people. And they retaliated.

We're back to normal, now, but everyone remembers.

[hart_or_hand]

Of course, they retaliated. But he never thinks that far ahead. Unless it's finding an excuse to kill me or do something stupid.

[allthatmatters]

[She can't really argue with that one.]

He's more about heroic gestures than solid plans, yeah.

Could have used a lawyer, if you hadn't gone back to being a jackass.

[velocette]

Sounds like a fairweather friend. Is that how you ended up here? Murdered there, woke up on the ship?

[hart_or_hand]

Maybe if someone had convinced him of that, I would have stayed. [The only reason he'd gone back to Wolfram and Hart had been that Angel turned him completely loose after those kids were safe. Wolfram and Hart would have come after him and he would have been defenseless.]

[allthatmatters]

[Her voice sharpens.] Don't put it on him. You made your own choices.

[hart_or_hand]

That about sums up the story, yes.

[hart_or_hand]

You think I wanted to go back to that hellhole? He left me with no other choice!

[velocette]

You don't seem all that invested in being the one to carve your friend's heart out of his chest, though. That's interesting.

[hart_or_hand]

I'm sure the Senior Partners have other things they'd rather me do. [Such as being tortured himself. Besides, he's a lawyer, a conman, and a magic-wielder, not a torturer. It's enough to know that Angel's suffering.]

[velocette]

Yeah, but they're not the ones who had the unexpected amputation.

[Not that he's trying to convince anyone to go torturing people. It's just...refreshing to know at least one inmate won't reach for the rack the second they feel wronged. (Admittedly, having Two-Face as an inmate has influenced how the Boy sees other inmates and their vendettas, and that's probably unfair.)]

You're not the only lawyer we have on board, but the one I know is biased. What, ah, what do you think of the system that's set up here?

[hart_or_hand]

Amputation? No. It was two bullets to the chest.

[No, Lindsey won't reach for the rack. He'll just get someone else to do it for him.

He shrugs.] It's about what I'd expect of Wolfram and Hart. [Just a little less torture so far.]

[velocette]

[He tips his head, thinking about that, mouthing a few stray words]

Yeah. Yeah it is a lot of heavyhanded 'corporate ethics', isn't it? Gets the job done for some people. Why'd you go into it back home?

[hart_or_hand]

I liked the pay and I'm good at it. [And, initially, he'd hoped he could help some other kid like he'd been - dirt poor and almost homeless. But that had disappeared before he finished college and he'll never admit it. Not ever.]

[velocette]

[It sounds familiar. His mouth quirks, just a bit.]

My old man was an attorney. A good one, I guess, he can debate longer than anyone I know. He turned into a drunk when I was a kid, though, and all I learned from him was money's a poor incentive when you're smart.

You seem too smart to care about dollar signs.

[hart_or_hand]

[Lindsey laughs a bit. But that hits just a little too close to the truth. As much as he liked - still likes - the money, somethings are worth more.]

You'd have to be stupid not to care about them. Ask any bum on the street.

[velocette]

[He almost-laughs, nodding.]

I guess for me money's just a middleman. I cut it out a long time ago. Easier just to take, the things I like never complain.

[allthatmatters]

What, you needed him to be a good person? You couldn't do that by yourself?