entranceway | Astral Destruction

[ Clementine and Mae appear on the screen. It’s a little girl and a cat girl. They’re standing in a room on the first floor. Clem has a crowbar in her hand, slung over her shoulder. Mae has her trusty baseball bat and a very cat-that-got-the-canary grin on her face.]

Hey, so… Mae told me about how she breaks shit sometimes and how it’s… cathartic? [ that’s the word she used, right? ] And I tried it with a light bulb. It felt pretty damn awesome so we thought it might be cool to have an official place where people could break stuff whenever they needed to deal with bullshit.

[Mae immediately picks up the thread, grinning wide.]

So we are super effing pleased to introduce…The Destruction Room.

[She pans the camera over to the sign on the door. It’s generic and straight to the point. Then she pans the camera around to take in the room. There’s rows of shelves filled with china plates, vases, glass figurines and other fragile-looking items. Along the walls are dozens of light fixtures and free-standing lamps, as well as just a metric ton of lightbulbs, both fluorescent and incandescent. All of it is very precariously displayed and it looks like it wouldn’t take much to just knock some of these shelves right over.]

Isn’t it amazing? We stocked it with everything that could possibly go smash.

[Clementine gestures then to have Mae pan the camera toward the wall on the side which has a giant weapon rack with every blunt weapon imaginable from bats to maces to hammers and more. ]

Over on this wall, we’ve got every blunt weapon you can think of so you can really make the breakables crack into a hundred awesome pieces. Also, it’s on the first floor, room 4 so if you hit yourself in the foot or get glass stuck in your arm or something, the clinic’s right next door.

Yeah, we pretty much thought of everything. Because we’re awesome.

[Mae holds out her hand to Clementine for a high-five. Clementine leans over, high fiving her back, with a smile. Totally awesome. ]

Anyway, yeah, come on down and get your smash on. Work out some of that pre-event anxiety or whatever.

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[ there was a time when he cared. he cared about the people he slaughtered; he cared that he slaughtered them. there is something in him broken from the experience, from the decision, from the repetition. he barely cares about hurting other people.

when he does, it doesn't stop him.

she should care. she should do whatever it takes to survive, but she should care about herself. she should carve a place out in herself to do so, because with pain comes love, and she deserves to accept as much as she has. it is hard to have anything you want when you hurt what you touch.

klaus blinks at the question. he blinks to stay the tears threatening to sting his eyes. ] Yes. It's not a fate I would wish for anyone, nor do I believe you would wish it for yourself.

Edited 2017-08-07 01:33 (UTC)

( clementine is young, but she doesn't know- she doesn't know how much she cares about the blood spilled by her hand. about the blood she watched spilled by other's hands. kenny beat the shit out of carver's face with a crowbar, and she watched.

she stood there. she watched. she didn't flinch. clementine is not good. she examines his expression. her throat locks up. )

I don't think it always matters what we wish for ourselves, Klaus. ( and he knows that too. she senses his knowing, his understanding. it makes her more honest than normal. her chest clenches. her eyes burn as she looks the other way. ) Life happens.

I'm not... good.

[ he does know. he knows from his father's fists and his mother's indifference. he knows that she knows, that the terrible truth of it bears down on him not from his memories but from knowing she carries terrible weight of her own. he can feel it now, as she struggles just as he not to cry, not to crumble.

his smile is watery. ] Well that's okay. I'm not good either. [ he will not argue with her or tell her merciful lies: he will give her acceptance, forgiveness. it's more than he ever had. he will not convince her to believe what she is too smart and too old to believe. ] I don't believe that's all we can be, all we deserve.

Edited 2017-08-07 01:59 (UTC)

Good is overrated. ( clementine smiles softly through an ache. good is not real except with a certain few people who are very, very good despite- despite it all. she swallows thickly, folding her arms tighter across her chest then.

she looks at him curiously. )

So what do you believe then?

[ in this, between them, for her, it certainly is. goodness has often been a luxury, a phantom, a piece of humanity cast out, a relic of times long passed to klaus, but that does not mean it does not live on in others. (in a faint, burning light, in him; though he wouldn't dare to admit it. wouldn't dare to touch or nourish or embrace it but a little at a time, afraid of its light.

afraid of how it has altered him.)

klaus smiles too, a small but genuine warmth offered, and answers after a pause of thought. ] I believe that people are complex. Sometimes they do bad things, sometimes they do good things, and often they do both. But the truth that defines them is their heart. [ a simplified explanation, perhaps, but no less true for it. he believes in her heart—but more than that, he believes in the tangled, twisted part of her that needs love too. ] We can only hope to follow it, when we're brave.

[ he is not always brave. he knows she has witnessed people who are not brave, done things brave people do not do.

perhaps that's why he adds, in a soft and just as curious voice: ] What is it you believe, Clementine?

Edited 2017-08-12 01:16 (UTC)

( clementine quiets as he explains, and it makes sense. she never used to let her think too deeply about it. then she thought about it too much until all those thoughts started to drown her, which led to her anonymous post on the network. it's easier to think about the details after finding some way to let some of that all out.

she nods in understanding, because being brave is not easy. )

It would take being brave just to look inside and see your own heart.

( it would take a level of vulnerability to feel both the weaknesses and strengths, the hopes and the fears, to level the sorry and the guilt. she swallows at the question, shaking her head briefly. )

I think back where I'm from I believe different things. ( she believes it's better to avoid everyone, to make it on her own with aj only, because people die or leave or betray. wonderland has changed her with all the relationships she's made here, all the people who haven't betrayed her. ) But here I think people aren't- They're not only good or only bad like... I'm not.

( it's a very powerful realization given the dark places she's been in, given calling herself not-good moments ago. she's not bad either. )

We do good things and bad things. Sometimes it's more important how we deal with the bad things we've done. Guess that's... following your heart.

[ something vulnerable and touched in his eyes uncovers; she's right. it does take bravery to look inside see the bad, but also the good in one's heart, and the revelation of it reaches into him and stays. (this is what he's been afraid of, for centuries. seeing the horror and virtue inside of himself.

knowing how one has warped the other.)

klaus swallows thickly, but does not speak. he listens instead, lets clementine's own gentle realization come to light. he lets it buoy and comfort him, knowing his own sins and sorrows run far too deep. he's glad for it, for her to find some guidance, some peace.

she should believe that, that she should follow her heart. she should practice that. klaus' expression softens. he nearly smiles. ] You are a very intelligent young girl. And I think you deserve some ice cream.

( clementine can't really imagine what must be going on in his head. she catches the shift in expression even if she doesn't pinpoint the thoughts they're attached to. and she doesn't have to. they've spoken before about regrets and about being responsible for the death of someone they love. this is the first time they've talked about goodness too. sometimes it's really good to think she can reach someone else too. she can help.

she's so used to fight or flight. she's used to survival that means leaving people screaming and dying behind or pulling the trigger herself. it's good to have this reminder of the lighter parts of herself- the softness inside of her, which somehow survived. it somehow wasn't carved out by her harshness.

she smiles, and it's warm. )

You're right. I deserve a lot of ice cream. Do you want some too?

[ the softness inside of him has somehow survived, or it was reborn anew when his daughter was born. it's easy enough to not think of those sins that he committed, again and again, to twist that softness he maimed, again and again. (it was not just mikael who ruined him — he ruined himself too.) it's easy enough because he has someone to smile for, someone to lend and create hope for, in this little girl.

so he does. ] I would never say no to ice cream.

Astral Destruction

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