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[deadelfwalking]

 

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"Leave a message, if you must."

image from obliterating <3

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[deadelfwalking]

Not the timing. The motivation.

[legal_eagle]

Self-reflection and realization of my assholery? I stand by my sentiments, but my conduct was wrong.

[deadelfwalking]

[how should he take this? he's not sure. his head is pounding, and he's staring at the now mostly-finished walls of his newly built cabin. prior to that moment, he'd been sanding the floors, a little too obsessively.]

... Fine.

[legal_eagle]

Okay. Cool. Talk to you later.

[deadelfwalking]

'Cool'? No.

[legal_eagle]

It wasn't intended as a pun, if that's what you're objecting to.

[deadelfwalking]

I was not.

[legal_eagle]

Okay, then what were you saying "no" to?

[deadelfwalking]

I don't know why you've spoken to me now. I know neither your true intent nor your motivation. But your words were too fiery and spoken with too much conviction for me to accept this as sincere. You are not someone who speaks without deliberation. You meant what you said. And how you said it.

[legal_eagle]

One for three. I meant what I said, but I was out of line in how aggressively I went after you.

[The rustle of a shrug.]

And I speak without deliberation all the time. Though I'm flattered that you actually think of me as calculating.

[deadelfwalking]

It is clear to me that you do specific things with the intent of specific outcomes. Perhaps that is calculation. In any case, it's what I've observed.

[legal_eagle]

Aw, stop, you talking about me's gonna give me a big head. So you think, what, I'm talking to you with ulterior motives?

[deadelfwalking]

I think that you are hoping for a specific outcome. I cannot say what.

[legal_eagle]

You can't say what because there isn't one. I mean, think logically about what even could come from me apologizing. There's not much.

[deadelfwalking]

You are correct. Nothing will come of it. It has no meaning, and no substance. You are apologizing over semantics. Not viewpoint.

[legal_eagle]

I'm apologizing because I was rude and mistreated you. Take it or leave it. I don't much care either way.

[deadelfwalking]

Yes. That is obvious.

[legal_eagle]

Okay. So. Happy New Year, then, lots of happy returns, blah blah blah. That's it.

[deadelfwalking]

Ridiculous.

[legal_eagle]

[More sharply:]

What.

[deadelfwalking]

What was the point of this meaningless exercise? You feel no true remorse. You are a case, Ms. Karimov, of someone who hides behind the illusion of speaking plainly.

[legal_eagle]

For fuck's...I acted badly. Where I come from, if you act like a shitheel, you acknowledge that you were a shitheel, and you apologize for shitheeling. Typically there's no subsequent psychoanalysis session.

[deadelfwalking]

[he scowls.]

As you like.

[legal_eagle]

Fantastic. Have a nice afterlife.

[deadelfwalking]

[sharply; agonized:]

There is nothing nice about it. Nothing.

[he grinds his teeth; spits.]

I will have no more to do with Ashraf. Not so long as he spends his time with someone as cruel and honorless as you.