vermintide | duplicity / inbox.

[ he knows she has good intentions in those words. but he doesn't know what else he could be if he isn't that, if he isn't the colonel who's supposed to take care of everyone.

considering what's happened to him, what else does he have left? ]

It's my job. I'm here to look after you guys.

[ even if he's not too sure he's doing a good job at it anymore. ]

We can look after you too
I think we all wish we had

I do

[ She could have stopped it. Besides Peacemaker, only she saw Flag's body before rubble buried it. Of the entire squad, no one had more of a chance to save him than she did. She failed. ]

[ cleo had been one of the last faces he'd seen, unaware of what had happened to her when the tower had begun crashing down. it was only later, from harley, that he'd learned she'd made it out, granting him a release of relief he hadn't known he'd needed, a sliver of hope after his own had dissolved to nothing.

but he wonders what it is she might have seen before she'd escaped there. how she'd been able to tell everyone what peacemaker had done. ]

What happened wasn't your fault.
I made my bed a long time ago, Cleo.

[ working for waller, he had the chance for an out. doing her bidding until it was far too late to make the alternative choice, that's on him. ]

[ She's no stranger to death. She had encountered it before it claimed her father. His friends, similarly burdened, and later, her own, and interspersed among them were people she never got to know. Some, as he says, "made their bed," and some were seized without warning or reason. Neither loss is any less senseless. ]

i don't believe that makes a difference
pain is pain

[ Fear is fear. ]

[ she shouldn't be the one comforting him through this. he'd set out to establish his position, to be the one to take care of his team, to make sure that they not only stayed alive but that they were reminded as constantly as possible that their lives mattered.

ironic for it to be happening in the reverse now. ]

Whatever happened to me, I'm still proud of you.
Knowing what happened afterwards, the way you all pulled through -
That's enough for me.

you're not disappointed?

[ This is absolutely not the point of this conversation but it's something that's been rotting away in her brain for a while. ]

that we kept the drive to go free

I'm not.

[ there's a part of him that is disappointed that they couldn't find a way for the public to find out about it, that the cycle of waller's deceptions continues on, but — ]

It kept you all alive. Couldn't ask for more than that.

[ because they'd never have survived getting out of there otherwise, not if waller knew what their intentions with the drive go. then they'd just end up dead like him, with nothing to show for it. ]

[ She doesn't fully believe him. He gave his life for the truth, while they bought theirs with it. Those are the odds they continue to exist at, no matter how well they came together as a team. How much they all came to mean to each other. It hasn't had much time to haunt her, and it would weigh on her far less if she'd never found herself here. Which is a bit cowardly of her; always the knowledge would be there but she could ignore it without him around. Nothing makes her feel like a villain quite so much as that. ]

you could
but i think tonight you're right
being alive is enough

will you tell me something about yourself?

[ he's tried not to think about it too much really, about what it means that he gave his life for something that didn't even come to pass, that the lies would still carry on even if he'd fought to get those dirty little secrets to come to light.

but it isn't cleo's fault. not even harley's or dubois'. he couldn't ask them to carry on something that was his responsibility to start. however much he wanted to take care of them, he still allowed them to be in that squad that gambled their lives away. ]

What would you want to know?

duplicity / inbox.

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