LogFAQs > #911965723

Lawrence is looking at the gun now, and he seems a bit more wary than before. He's starting to wonder if the person in front of him has become his enemy. Even though that's your brother, he very well might be your enemy. "Leone, you're not making much sense. Are you sure you've sobered up?"

"I don't know about that," Leone admits. He presses down on the gun, stopping it from spinning. The barrel is now pointing toward Lawrence. He's not holding the gun, his finger is nowhere near the trigger, and yet still it seems to have a powerful presence in that moment.

The mere fact that it was pointing at Lawrence held its own litany of implications. Oh, they were very heavy implications. They held such a great weight. "But I think I'm thinking pretty clearly right now. Don't you think that's enough? In the moment...?"

Lawrence doesn't say anything for a moment. "I sense you're upset with me, but I don't know why," he replies, coldly. "Perhaps we should just move past it. I'm not going to respond to such provocation."

"No, no, no." Leone shuffles in his seat. He leans forward. "You don't get to decide what we're going to talk about." Leone frowns. "You've always decided, before, haven't you? Now I'm thinking that I'm pretty sick of that."

"You've always been very reliable," Lawrence tells him. "Maybe I took advantage of that because I felt like I could count on you. Because... I know... I can always count on you." That was the politician in him talking. He was saying what he thought Leone wanted to hear.

Firstly, gods, it was so silly, but he actually thought Leone was sitting here wanting appreciation. He didn't at all understand what was happening. Secondly, he seemed to forget that Leone could easily see through such lies and empty words. Leone would just see that Lawrence was being false, and that would only agitate him even more.

The last piece of shit he had a bad feeling about, he had trusted that guy, and it had gotten Torrin killed. It had gotten Jen killed. Now it was about to-... Leone looks ahead, but he finds that his brother is looking away, unable to meet his eyes. "I'll ask again, are you fine with that?"

"I don't follow," Lawrence replies stiffly.

"I said that you SHOULD be sorry," Leone says, angrily, firmly, intensely. "Are you FINE with that, my brother?"

"I told you I am sorry," Lawrence is finally starting to crack and become a bit angry. "What else do you want me to say?"

"Let's talk about why you sent me to that gods-forsaken place," Leone says, now in a cool tone. He feels like he made Lawrence crack and that makes him feel in control of the situation. It feels nice to start acting calm and cool now. Although in reality he's probably sweating buckets.

Leone realizes he still hasn't taken his hand off of the gun, and it's trembling. Rattling against the wooden desk. Clickclickclickclickclick. Heh heh... heh...

"I trust that you understood your mission once you got there," Lawrence replies. "And took care of it discreetly. For such a reason..." Lawrence looks away fully now. "You should understand, as usual, we have no need to talk about it."

"Right, of course. Yes. That's it." Leone nods along playfully. "So you're saying Leone should only be relied upon to do things which we're not allowed to talk about. But... wait a moment..."

Leone leans back in the chair. "Doesn't that sound like you're foisting all of the responsibility onto Leone? Doesn't that sound like poor Leone is the one who is always left with dirty hands, no, sorry, a dirty hand, the one with evil deeds smeared all over him, that can't be washed away... but you never have to say it out loud, so I guess you can keep pretending you're clean."
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~* and now I only see your dull imposter ~*
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