Victory Road IC Contact

[fuelthefire]

You have reached the voicemail inbox of Krieg the Psycho.

Comments

[fuelthefire]

[Skully sees Haunter's cheerful wave, and the tip of her long, heavy tail wiggles in response. She can see it's doing its best, and she appreciates it! Murder Chicken moves to sit next to Krieg and Dolly, tucking his long legs underneath his slender body. Once he's settled, he blinks peacefully over at Haunter, also acknowledging the ghost's actions. Haunter is a good friend.

Krieg watches Shiro sit down without reacting, and hears him talking, and he lets the sound of his friend's words flow over him while completely failing to to process the meaning behind them. He doesn't need to hear Shiro say why he and Armin are here. He knows. He knows why they came to him, and he knows he's done nothing to deserve their worry or their concern. He's just a monster who hurt his best friend, and her abrupt departure from his life is all he deserves.

He sits quietly for a long time after Shiro stops speaking, alternately staring at the ground and squeezing his eyes tightly shut. Finally, though, the words come, as they always do, sooner or later, and they're...not great. His voice starts off low and gruff, and only barely increases in volume as he goes on - the sound of painful vocal cords raw from screaming protesting further abuse.]

Feed me a lead salad. Open my veins and let the blood salt the earth. Burn my flesh and scar my bones and leave it all out to rot and fester where it belongs, all alone and far, far away from all the things it shouldn't have and doesn't deserve. She should have lived! She was so bright! And now she's gone, gone, gone, back to the death she begged for, smothered into oblivion, strangled by the hands that should have kept her safe--

[He's interrupted by an impossibly quiet wail from the Sylveon still in his lap. He cuts himself off abruptly and leans forward out of his sprawl against Skully to hunch protectively over 'Dora, doing his best to console the inconsolable. He looks back up fairly quickly though, a sharp jerk of his head, and his uncovered eye seeks out Shiro's face.]

It should've been me. I don't wanna wrestle. I want to die.

[schachmeister]

[Armin's eyes are on Krieg, but the longer he goes on, the more concerned and distressed his expression gets. He glances at Shiro a time or two, just to see if he'll interrupt Krieg or try and talk him out of it.

At that final line, even though Krieg is looking at Shiro, he can't help but pipe up.]

I don't think that is the sort of thing that Angel would want.

[shiro2hero]

[He can see Armin looking at him. But he stays quiet. He lets Krieg speak. Like he's waiting to see if the words will clear the wound. Venting it out instead of holding it inside. His shoulders square up where he sits, his expression intent on Krieg.]

[... realistically, there's no comparing his situation to what Krieg is going through. No comparing what happened to Allura, to Matt, to someone he barely knew. But the words "should have kept her safe" hit home more than they probably should. He wants to say this Angel could come back. It could happen. "Could" doesn't help now.]

[Armin speaks up before he does. And he nods, in agreement.]

She wouldn't. And neither would the pokemon she left you. You're responsible for them, now. Them and your team. You can get through this, Krieg.

[He meets that stare. Saying the words with the same sort of determination and assurance he says it to the rest of his team. To everyone he cares about.]

I lost my entire team here, Krieg. I lost someone I failed, back home. [No, Shiro lost Allura, it should have been him. It should have been me.] I lost Dorian too. I have one pokemon to remember them by. But you can bet I am doing everything I can to make sure that one pokemon lives up to its potential.

You've got to do the same. It doesn't have to be now. But you can't give up on yourself.

[fuelthefire]

[He shifts his gaze when Armin speaks, and the upset, distressed expression on the kid's face does cause him to feel a little pang of guilt. He knows that his death is the last thing Angel would want. That doesn't stop him desiring it, though. If he were dead, he wouldn't have to feel this way anymore, like everything that once had meaning is now meaningless. The literal, physical sun could be snuffed out in the next instant, and the resulting blackness would seem less bleak than facing the void his sun has left behind.

His gaze twitches back to Shiro as the man picks up where Armin left off. He's not telling Krieg anything new - in regard to the monsters, anyway. He knows they look to him for care and support, for love and companionship. They're the only reason he hasn't gone off the metaphorical deep end, the reason he's still grounded and lucid and even capable of having this conversation with the two of them at all.

...That said, Krieg does shake his head when Shiro tell him not to give up on himself, and looks away. That ship sailed long ago, long before he wound up in this wonderful and horrible place. He drops his gaze to the sad pink lump of a Sylveon in his lap. It's easier to look at 'Dora than it is to look at his friends.]

'M not gonna hurt the monsters.

[In any and all meanings of the word "hurt". What he wants doesn't matter as long as they're depending on him. He knows his death would hurt them, just as much as Angel's disappearance has.]