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[wrackful]

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murphy

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[wrackful]

[There's a long beat. Wrong answers only. Truth is he hadn't thought about it, not yet. This is what he's always done. The regrets tended to come later, after he'd hurt another person he cared about, or wrecked something that might've been a friendship.]

It's been a distraction.

[endow]

[his admittance – wrong or not – almost sounds like a vulnerability to her.]

From everything?

[wrackful]

They've got us playing a murder game where the murderers are brainwashed to do it, the dead are just going to come back anyway, and everyone jumped at the first chance they got to use my brother as a scapegoat. Yeah, guess you could call that 'everything'.

[endow]

Your brother? [a hiccuped laugh at herself (the situation, the place she's been forced to adapt inside of).] This world is strange to me, Murphy. I used your brother too, but I spoke to him afterwards.

[she admits something she is guilty of, but there's a lilt in her voice suggestive of emotion.]

Everyone is using everyone.

[wrackful]

Yeah, everyone using everyone is why he told you it was fine. That is what he said, right? He's had it happen so much he's used to it, won't even bother fighting it.

Me, on the other hand? I've had it happen so much that I'd rather burn everything down, with me in it, than let one more person get what they want that way.

[endow]

He said he would have done the same thing, yes.

Then you are a hypocrite, Murphy. I want to bring the Shepherd down even if it means I'm burning everything down. I can't let him get away with what he's done.

[wrackful]

Because taking him down is nothing. He's just another guy, thinking he's a user when he's the same as the rest of us, one rung up the same crappy ladder. Replaceable. You really want to take down what did this to you? Then you want what he's praying to. And he's the only one around that can tell you what that is or how to get at it.

But realising that would take thinking for five seconds, and you're too busy for that, right? Following along with their game like a good little sheep. Throwing my brother in a cage because they said jump, and you said how high.

I'm not the hypocrite, here.