[ as soon as aventurine starts cleaning, boothill gets up to swing over the bar and get a rag to clean up with. ]
You get your hand outta the way 'fore you cut yourself open.
[ he'll throw the napkins in a bin and start cleaning. he doesn't look aventurine in the eye—just focuses on the bar, remembering that broadcast in the last few moments of the memory. that ever-present hatred in his human heart flares up again. ]
Don't have to tell me twice. Makes me think 'bout how many of us are out there, though.
[ He's still in a bit of a daze, a heavy fog slowing his thoughts, so it takes a second for Boothill's words to register. When they do, Aventurine looks up slowly, blinking in confusion. ]
How many of us?
[ He hasn't really caught on to what's being talked about. For him, his sister's voice is ringing in his ears. ]
When the darkness fades and they're back in the bar, Boothill has blessedly not crushed his whiskey in his hand. He's just sitting on the stool in front of Aventurine, staring down at the floor, a hand on his knee and the other on the bar. He's scraped his fingertips into the wood again.
He rubs over his mouth and swallows. ]
Fork me. I ain't—I ain't ever gonna get used to that.
[ A massacre, just like Boothill had said. Aventurine is silent when the shadows retreat and they're returned to the bar, his own gaze cast to the countertop as the memory sinks in. The Marketing Development Department had always been greedy for resources. Aventurine had led them on a goose chase with a promise for valuable resources all those years ago, and they'd fallen for the bait like a starving pack of dogs.
But the memory, it shakes him. And why shouldn't it? He's no stranger to this tragedy, and he turns his head away to stare at something else. Anything else. ]
It makes sense, [ he murmurs, more to himself. ] Your motivations... and my own.
[ The Strategic Investment Department is no friend of the Marketing Department, but he can see now how something a little more personal may have tied into their future conversation. ]
[ boothill reaches for his drink and downs the rest of it. despite aventurine averting his eyes, boothill keeps his gaze trained on aventurine's profile while allowing him time to process. ]
That conflict between the Strategic Investment Department and the Marketing Department ain't the only thing that interests ya'. Katicans were the ones who wiped the Avgins, but if you told me the IPC couldn't protect one herd of people from an invasion everyone knew was comin', I'd say you were forkin' full of it.
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no subject
You get your hand outta the way 'fore you cut yourself open.
[ he'll throw the napkins in a bin and start cleaning. he doesn't look aventurine in the eye—just focuses on the bar, remembering that broadcast in the last few moments of the memory. that ever-present hatred in his human heart flares up again. ]
Don't have to tell me twice. Makes me think 'bout how many of us are out there, though.
no subject
How many of us?
[ He hasn't really caught on to what's being talked about. For him, his sister's voice is ringing in his ears. ]
no subject
[ the bar counter is clean soon enough. aventurine's drink is refilled and boothill gets another glass of whiskey.
once he takes his seat again, he raises it to aventurine. ]
The only ones who crawled out the other end of bloody massacres.
no subject
He doesn't raise his glass to the toast. Instead, he watches Boothill carefully.
And then, even more carefully, as if this were a test, he says, ]
It was the Katicans who massacred my clan.
no subject
I know about the Second Katican-Avgin Extinction Event. No one's arguin' against that.
no subject
... And you said our interaction became amicable. In the future where you're from.
no subject
Did remind ya' that I could still give ya' a lead forkin' headache any time I please.
no subject
You never did tell me why it is you're after Oswaldo Schneider.
no subject
Aventurine gets this whole part of his character story.
When the darkness fades and they're back in the bar, Boothill has blessedly not crushed his whiskey in his hand. He's just sitting on the stool in front of Aventurine, staring down at the floor, a hand on his knee and the other on the bar. He's scraped his fingertips into the wood again.
He rubs over his mouth and swallows. ]
Fork me. I ain't—I ain't ever gonna get used to that.
no subject
But the memory, it shakes him. And why shouldn't it? He's no stranger to this tragedy, and he turns his head away to stare at something else. Anything else. ]
It makes sense, [ he murmurs, more to himself. ] Your motivations... and my own.
[ The Strategic Investment Department is no friend of the Marketing Department, but he can see now how something a little more personal may have tied into their future conversation. ]
no subject
That conflict between the Strategic Investment Department and the Marketing Department ain't the only thing that interests ya'. Katicans were the ones who wiped the Avgins, but if you told me the IPC couldn't protect one herd of people from an invasion everyone knew was comin', I'd say you were forkin' full of it.
What do you think?