theshimmer | THE TOWN SQUARE.

[Page silently watches the church burn for a little while, once she's emerged safely from it, before turning away and heading to the town square to meet up with everyone else. It makes sense to rest here, as they did last week, after another town with another tragic story to tell.

At least that time, however, they'd all survived it unscathed.

Once she's made it over to the group, she drops her pack onto the ground and collapses next to it, staring at her feet. It's going to take a bit to...process all of that, and while she'd love to get up in front of everyone and make some kind of rousing speech, she just doesn't have it in her at the moment.

Instead, she'll look up from the stone of the square, eventually, casting her eye over everyone and saying (almost to herself)-]

...I hope everyone is all right.

[That is likely far from true, but...well. They're all alive, Wesker is dead, and that's something. She's trying her best not to look at that little tree-sculpture with the key around its neck.

OOC: Second verse, same as the first! Here's our post-event mingle post, to talk about what the hell just happened in there, lick our wounds, and beg forgiveness from...from Flower Girl. Top-level away; Page will have her own up, if you'd like to talk to her.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No need to. That ship sank awhile ago.

[He glances over at Rideaux.]

I'm guessing the others are fine if you're out here.

[Since you're one of the medics, after all.]

They're both stable, though we're continuing to keep an eye on them, of course.

[ Just not necessarily four sets of eyes all the time at this point. ]

I suppose I underestimated you a bit.

[He nods at the first part; it's not like he really cares, but more people will stand a better chance at taking down the Shimmer.

It's the second part that gets him to glance over.]

Did you?

Well, you're still here.

[ Which should really be reason enough, as far as he's concerned. But after a beat, he continues. ]

I'm not one for loyalty in the first place, and the idea that I should feel eternally indebted to a boss who once did me a favor is one I especially dislike. So to that extent, I believe our views are still at odds.

But if you were willing to act in opposition to him when necessary, and didn't feel some ridiculous need to throw yourself into the fire with him afterward, then that's at least a little more respectable.

[He considers that for a moment.]

Before I met him, I was a soldier. I did a lot of work the US government wouldn't talk about, and during one of those missions I was severely injured. Lost the use of my arm entirely.

[His right hand moves to press just above the inside of his left elbow, which is coincidentally about where the mutation of his arm starts.]

Wesker fixed it. I'd gone to every damn doctor and specialist I could find, and none of them could do anything for me. Wesker found a way, so he earned my loyalty. Without him, I wouldn't have been able to do anything.

[Well, nothing that matters, in his esteemed opinion. Because the only thing that really matters is fighting.]

You could see that as doing me a favor. That's likely what he saw it as. But it changed my life, and I wanted to see this through to the end.

[ His eyes follow that movement, looking over that bizarre arm again. That was "fixing" it, was it? He's sure he could have done a better job himself with his world's technology; that sort of situation was exactly where aspyrixis would typically excel.

In any case, he gives that last part a moment of thought. Objectively, Bisley had changed his life far more drastically than that, but the motivation behind it had made it impossible to feel anything resembling gratitude. ]

What did he want from you in return?

[...okay i promise wesker didn't actually turn it into a bladearm, that was the fault of the parasites anyway—]

Nothing. He did it just because he could, and because I sought him out to ask.

[...krauser just sort of showed up went "hey I heard you deal with some Weird Shit and also viruses that horribly mutate people, can you fix my arm" and somehow this actually worked. Resident Evil.]

I chose to work for him. We spent some time together before he sent me out on an assignment; it was always my decision to do what he asked.

[It wasn't exactly orders, not in the way the damn military did things. It's a small difference, but a massive improvement as far as Krauser's concerned.]

[ okay but what is he supposed to think!! ]

I see.

[ He has a hard time believing it, honestly; that man had seemed every bit the cold and single-minded type of leader he was familiar with, who would use the lives of everyone beneath him without a second thought for the sake of reaching his goal of saving the world -- whether that's by forcing evolution or freeing humanity. That type doesn't do anything for another person without treating it as a calculated transaction from which they can profit. (He should know, he has that in common.)

He could probably write it off as Krauser just not having much of value to offer in the first place, but the fact that he'd been kept around this whole time when his intentions had apparently been known all along instead of being preemptively killed off as a liability nags at him a bit. ]

If that's true, I'm almost a little jealous in that respect.

It was a good arrangement for both of us.

[Back home, at least. Lately... Well, you saw how it turned out. He was just waiting for an opportunity like this to finally finish things.]

What do you intend to do from here? You mentioned you don't particularly care about destroying the Shimmer.

[It's not a pointed question at all, it's curious.]

I intend to stay alive. [ He shrugs. ] Not much more to it. If that means destroying the Shimmer, then that's fine with me. If it means something else, then I'll just cross that... bridge when I get to it.

Fair enough. Good luck, then.

[He's quiet for a moment before reaching to his belt to unsheathe the knife there. He flips it once and catches it easily, then presents it for Rideaux.]

Here's hoping your group is more successful than ours.

[It's a large knife with a snake carved into it; it definitely looks like it's seen some use, but it's been carefully maintained.]

[ ...Huh. Wasn't expecting that, and he's not entirely sure what to make of it, but he'll take it. Not like he has any objections to expanding his knife collection, and this will fill a different niche than what he has now. ]

Thanks.

[ He looks it over for a moment before carefully putting it away with his other weapons. ]

Good luck to you as well, wherever you end up.

Of course.

[And with that, he returns to staring at the flames. It's not an outright dismissal - Rideaux is welcome to stay if he wants - but that's all Krauser has to say, so he falls silent.]

[ Rideaux isn't such a big fan of the smoldering wreckage channel himself, and there's nothing further that he feels he needs to say either.

So he'll just give a slight nod and continue on his way. ]

THE TOWN SQUARE.

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