violet. (orderup) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-12-13 12:32:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2019 [12] december, viktor scherbatsky, violet holladay |
Who: violet holladay & vic scherbatsky
Where: greenbelt
What: questions needing answered
When: 4 december 2019
It wasn't as though Violet had been avoiding the Hellhounds since her talk with Mina, it was just that she hadn't really had any real reasons or openings to be around any of them. Not anything beyond serving them at Burgatory when things were busy and it wasn't the time or place for any kind of questions to be asked. Besides, she didn't want to throw a bunch of questions at just anyone when she felt like they would best be answered by those who were clearly at the top. That was why when she saw Vic come in by himself, and there were barely any other customers needing tended to, she figured it was time. With a basket of fries in hand, she went over to the table where he was sitting waiting for his food to be ready, offering him a hesitant smile as she slid the fries in front of him. “Hey, do you have a minute?” Vic looked up at his phone, curious about the sudden company but not at all minding it. "Yeah, what's up?" he asked, his gaze shifting now to the fries. He'd ordered some, yeah, but he'd expected them to be with the rest of his takeout. "Those for me?" “Yeah, for while you're waiting.” Violet shifted down into the seat across from him, hesitating because she didn't really know how to ask anything without sounding accusatory and she definitely didn't want to do that. “You guys are good neighbors to us,” she started, because compliments were always good, right? “Like, have been from day one. And I know things were a lot different here before we came down, and it was hard to get by. I never…” she paused, nipping at the inside of her lip. “I never want to judge someone by how they look so you guys being all big and bikers, I didn't want to make assumptions. But someone told me some stuff recently about you guys, from before.” "Oh, yeah?" It wasn't much of an offer of information, but Vic didn't want to tell her more than what she either already knew or wanted to know. He couldn't help but feel kinda anxious about it, though, as they looked back at each other. He hadn't exactly meant to hide anything from her or her friend, but it had also been nice to have someone around who didn't judge him the way the others did. And he was fond of her, too. He didn't want to lose that. "What'd you hear?" “Well, that the people who were running the city before basically waged war on you guys,” Violet said quickly, earning a nod of confirmation from Vic, because that point hadn’t gotten lost on her with everything else Mina had said. It wasn’t exactly an excuse, but it was something to take into consideration with everything else. “But also,” she went on, a little quieter and more hesitant, “that you guys killed people, and sold drugs.” While her gaze was fixed on him, her expression didn’t betray anything that would indicate she was scared, or upset. Honestly, Violet just wanted to hear about it from him. He reached one hand forward to scoop up some fries, hoping they'd fortify him before they went into this conversation. "Yeah," he said simply, shrugging his left shoulder in a reflexive gesture. The gesture caught Violet’s eye, and she tried not to register it as dismissive because what he was saying wasn’t something she would easily shrug off. "We did. I did." The drug stuff hadn't been something he'd been too deeply involved in, but the killing and maiming and physical intimidation had been something that'd fallen right on his shoulders. "Whatever you wanna know, I'll tell you. But we don't do that shit anymore." It probably didn't matter, though; she knew, now, and this was probably as far as this neighborly friendship went. “Was it because you had to?” Violet asked, resting her forearms on the edge of the table and leaning against them. Survival was something she understood, and she didn’t necessarily think that selling drugs to people was something that could be tied to trying to survive but she didn’t know anything about what their lives had been like before. "That's what it felt like." Vic had followed where their Dog King had led, obeying as best as he could without even stopping to think about what his actions would mean. "We didn't have any food besides what we could get on the streets, and the easiest way to do that was by hijacking the Capitol's resource trucks." He skipped over the fact that the only reason why they knew the truck routes was because Max had been feeding them intel from UMCB. "The Ghouls -- the people who lived in the tunnels back then -- they were our main competition for supplies, too. Couldn't go into any of the stores looking for things without them coming after you and what you had. I dunno who started the war with them first, us or them, but once Rodeo found the Prax we started selling it to the Ghouls for whatever supplies they had." His mouth settled into a thin, firm line of obvious disapproval and discomfort. "If we hadn't done any of that I dunno how we would've lived." Violet stayed quiet as she listened. Obviously murder and selling drugs weren't things she condoned, but it's not like they'd been out there doing it just for kicks. At least, not from what it sounded like. The last part of what he said was what stuck in her head, because she couldn't imagine trying to live like that. It was hard enough trying to get by in a world where zombies were walking around, no one needed other things on top of that. “But you don't do that anymore?” she asked, nibbling at the inside of her lip. “Like at all?” "No. We burned up the Prax in May and there ain't been anything else like that. If someone's getting drugs from someone, it's not coming from us." Vic studied her for a moment, quietly, before he added, "I got too much to lose now to do any of that shit anymore." The stakes had been heavy then, too, but they weighed more even now, once he'd had a taste of normalcy. It felt like a weight had been lifted off Violet’s chest as she listened to him, because she really wanted to believe they were better. She knew that didn’t change what had happened in the past, but at least it meant they were moving forward in a better way than they’d lived. There had been proof in her own life there in Austin, but it was nice to know it wasn’t just when it came to her and Ryan as their neighbors. She hesitated, a bit of anxiety welling up in her. “You wouldn’t ever hurt us, right?” Violet asked quietly, swallowing hard to try and fight back the feeling like she might cry - not because she was upset but just sitting there, talking about such touchy topics with someone she didn’t want to make upset with her. “I know that’s not fair, you all have never done anything to make us think you would, I just… I need to hear it?” Vic winced as he looked back at her. The guilt felt like it was damn near close to swallowing him up, but she was right to ask. He leaned into the discomfort, knowing he'd only brought it on himself. "Never," he promised, trying a smile but abandoning it quickly. It felt too much like a falsehood even as he knew he'd do everything he could to make sure she and her friend never got hurt again. "No one wants to see anything bad happen to y'all." “Okay.” Violet had known that, truly, but it had been important to hear it from him as someone she’d known since arriving and someone she’d considered trustworthy. It was strange to think that way knowing what she now knew, but based on her experiences with the Hellhounds, she wasn’t worried for her wellbeing. She offered him a flicker of a smile and briefly gave his hand a light touch. “Thank you - I’m sorry, I know you came here for food and not for me to ask you all this stuff. I can go check on your food, it should be close to done.” "It's okay. Didn't mind talking to you or answering your questions." Vic paused for a moment, wondering if he should say anything else -- something to better plead his case, maybe, or some kind of additional explanation -- but he didn't want to push the bit of acceptance he felt he'd possibly gotten from her. It wasn't right, the stuff she was trying to think through, and it wasn't anyone else's fault but his and the rest of the gang's. For the first time, thinking about the last three years, he couldn't feel anything but regret about the way things had gone down. "You just let me know if you wanna know about anything else, all right?" “Will do.” Violet nodded and got up from her seat, moving the chair back into its place and giving him a bit of a grateful smile - grateful that he had been willing to talk about everything, and grateful to know they weren't doing the same things they had in the past. With that, she went back to the kitchen to check on his food, knowing that was the reason he was there in the first place. |