droppedstitch | TLV Inbox

droppedstitch

Text | Voice | Video | Spam

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

From:

flawmaturge

He reaches into his jacket and offers up a file folder, one with his picture clipped to the front.

"My own such file from the Ohkrana, the secret police," to clarity, "stolen from the chief's office by yours truly." He shrugs. "I don't know what's in it, because I'd rather not read what the piece of shit who wrote it thinks of me. And I have been told that there are translating tools in the library."

He shrugs.

"I could get you the medical records from my doctors as well, if you like, but I have been told they may be out of date and unhelpful."

From:

droppedstitch

The secret police sounds...well, it sounds very much like something from home, so he takes the file and places it to the side.

"It's all very unecessary, but I see that you're placing trust in me and I appreciate it."

All very carefully chosen words, cheerfully delivered.

"But I suppose you are able to answer the important question now."

From:

flawmaturge

He snorts.

"This isn't trust. This is mutually assured destruction, which is what we get to have before trust happens."

It's what he's got. So he'd offered it.

"Though I'm curious what you think I can answer, because it only gave me more questions."

From:

droppedstitch

He doesn't set his knitting down, but Wiktor's words do make him laugh. It doesn't dissipate the tension, but neither does it make it worse.

"Why I'm here."

From:

flawmaturge

He shakes his head.

"Oh, no, it doesn't tell me that. You can read through it yourself, if you like. I have ideas, of course, but it isn't written in black and white for both of us."

From:

droppedstitch

"Oh I don't need to read it. I have lived it," he points out.

From:

flawmaturge

He glances back.

"Of course you have, but it's not as if you aren't biased to your own perspective. This would be a different one, I should think."

From:

droppedstitch

"Regardless, I'm not interested in recounting six decades of my life." He does briefly wonder if Mikodez would want to look it over with him. Maybe he could come up with an answer.

He immediately hates the thought and banishes it from his mind.

From:

flawmaturge

He considers that.

"If you change your mind, tell me. I've placed it in the safe in my cabin."

And that is done. Moving right along.

"So. To start. Is there anything you need in your room, any items you'd like to request, or any of the rest I asked before?"

He's well aware that Istradez might not have thought to ask while he was a temp but now they're paired. Permanently, or at least until Istradez graduates. Which is permanent enough.

From:

droppedstitch

He frowns."Hm. Nothing aside from what we have talked about before."

He loops his knitting around.

"I stay with my brother most of the time," he explains carefully.

From:

flawmaturge

He nods. He read the file, after all. What is there to say about that fact? If Istradez was waiting for him to recoil in horror, he'll have to wait a bit longer.

"I'm not surprised. But I did notice that he was paired the same way you were today."

From:

droppedstitch

"Was he?"

He's not even trying to hide the lie at this point. The needles slide past each other, but there's a tremble to his fingers. "I suppose the Admiral wants us both out of here quickly."

From:

flawmaturge

His only answer to that is to raise an eyebrow. Come now, Istra. Is this how we're going to do this?

But that is the whole of his response to that, to the lie. He nods.

"Well, he did assign you to me."

Just a small (prideful) tease.

From:

droppedstitch

He laughs a little to himself when he sees that expression because yes, he is going to be a little petty today. He feels like he's earned it.

"And you think you can unlock my reason for being here?"

From:

flawmaturge

"I think that if anyone is going to help someone like you, it is a thaumaturge. And so, it is not surprising that I was asked to come here and that we were paired."

A pause.

"A thaumaturge, and a twin. One who also understands the bonds between siblings."

From:

droppedstitch

The needles stop for a moment and he looks over at him.

"You left your sister," he reminds him sharply.

From:

flawmaturge

He shakes his head. Firmly.

"My father separated us. It was never my choice. Until he died, I could not return to Warsaw." He looks back. "And I am here for her."

From:

droppedstitch

"How fortunate for her," he says and there's bitterness in his words. Resentment that festers and swarms but is tamped down by decades of discipline and fear.

From:

flawmaturge

He hears it, and he looks over to Istradez thoughtfully.

No words. What does one say to something like that anyway?

From:

droppedstitch

The file doesn't seem to say much about his own personal feelings, then. He's glad for that. He just continues on in his knitting.

"Is there something I can help you with, Wiktor?" he asks, terse.

From:

flawmaturge

What the file did or did not say doesn't have much to do with what has him staring at Istradez for another long moment before he looks away.

Then he speaks.

"This is not something I want told to others. This is something I will tell you, because it will be your graduation that pays for it, and while I am a wastrel, I try to be reasonable about it." He looks down to his hands.

"My father's death was because of a curse, one that would have killed Ligia and myself as well: it's master had died for unrelated reasons, a heart problem, and it was running on the last orders it had been given, hunting for our bloodline. To trap the creature that would have murdered us both, a Flaw needed to be sacrificed, and Ligia, perfectionist that she is, offered hers for the purpose of our plan. She told me that she wanted it gone, that if there was a Flaw to her, it should be removed. After all, she is not a thaumaturge; her Flaw had no use to her, gave her no power."

He breathes out slowly.

"And it worked, of course. We are both alive. The beast was bridled once more and I share a mind with the one who holds it's reins; it will never trouble us again." The drop comes then. "But my sister is not who she was."

He doesn't look at Istradez.

"She is a ghost. Her drive, her purpose, her hunger for success is gone. Her fire is gone." A hard breath. "Oh, she would make a proper wife for any number of Warsaw's bachelors these days, with the family money, the successful store... but her. My sister." He shakes his head. "She's gone. And she is not happy or upset or... anything. She is passive. Agreeable." He swallows. "I'd rather have died than this and rest assured that I do not long for death, far from it."

Now he turns to look at Istradez.

"I had her for weeks after 15 years apart and now, even in death, my father has taken her from me. So yes, Istradez. I am here for her."

Edited Date: 2025-07-10 07:26 pm (UTC)

From:

droppedstitch

He doesn't quite know what that means, what the Flaw means, what the word implies, but he understands this. He understands Wiktor making a choice, a choice that Ligia had asked for, and watching it ruin her.

That parallel isn't entirely lost on him.

"And so you are undoing the choice she made?"

From:

flawmaturge

The parallel wasn't intentional. Even telling him this, right now, wasn't intentional. That's more planning than Wiktor does. But when Istradez had made his shitty little comment, someone who should fucking know better, it had all come spilling out.

Seeing her again to get the donuts had only made the wound fresh again.

"A choice she made with a gun against her head?" He pauses and shakes his head. "No, more important: a gun against mine?" He breathes out in a single, harsh exhale. "She knows what it would have been, for me to give up my Flaw, that I would have been left with nothing, not even my mind." How many of his letters had she read of his lunatic ravings, unable to know truth from vision from dream? Not to mention that thaumaturgy had always been his life. His folly too, but it has shaped him, from the ground up. It is the only way that he has ever and will ever serve as a legacy to his father. "She did what she always does: she looked at the numbers, figured out the best price to pay for what she needed, and she paid it." A breath out. "But she is not a thaumaturge. And she did not know... how high the cost truly was."

He folds his hands.

"If she is returned to herself and she wishes to return to how she has been, without our lives on the line, I will pull her Flaw out from her myself. But I sincerely doubt that will be the case."

Edited Date: 2025-07-10 07:45 pm (UTC)

From:

droppedstitch

It's a lot. All of it. He feels cornered at the moment, like Wiktor is trying to make a pointed statement. That he's trying to push all of this out. And Istra feels something he hasn't felt in a long time - fear. It wells up in his stomach and chest, threatening to burst out.

He reads something in his words, in his story, that he doesn't want to. He reads change. He reads separation. He takes a breath to calm himself.

"Then I will do my best to graduate," he says and even heads can hear the shake in his words.

From:

flawmaturge

And that will earn him a pair of rolled eyes.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Istradez. That's-" he snorts and shakes his head. "No. That isn't why I told you that. For goodness sake, just keep your shitty comments about my sister to yourself." He glares at him just a little. "I just thought you would understand when I said it was for her that it was important."

He looks away then.

"You want to call me a piece of shit because you're frustrated? Call me a piece of shit. But keep her out of it."

Edited Date: 2025-07-10 07:57 pm (UTC)