Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-25582638-20160610195851/@comment-5999656-20160617184629

Automne looked at the headless corpse of her last victim. He really didn't seem like much in this form.

"... You know, every time I'm about to fight someone, I tell myself, 'OK Automne, there's no need go all out, remember'. But when a guy's shooting at me with a machine gun with full intent to kill, I change my mind. I already know what I need to do. I'm not gonna hold back on someone who isn't holding back on me."

Automne looked at Cyzarine, then shook the blood off her saber before sheathing it at her back. Red droplets spattered the concrete. So she and that other man had taken care of the rest of the criminals, as expected.

"I'm fine. I'm just not happy about how things worked out. Look, I'm really sorry you had to see me like this, and I swear I can explain some of it at least, but not out here." Knowing that the police were going to be here soon, and knowing they were going to question her made Automne's heart sink. If her friends or her grandparents found out about this... there was no one to help explain what the hell was happening.

'Let's go back inside." She wasn't gonna run, not quite yet. Automne was already thinking of how she could dismiss the carnage as an accident, even though the damage was far too clean to have been unexpected killing blows. Then again, Cyzarine was here, so it wasn't all clean... she could spot the damaged foes rolling around. Wait, rolling? So even the mentally tortured girl could hold back, unlike Automne.

Automne went back into the cafe, which offered some solace from the morbidly curious crowd on onlookers who would soon gather. But how was she supposed to explain that this wasn't - that she had grown accustomed to -.

Just be honest.

That trait was what had gotten her this far with Cyzarine, so she would keep this way. She turned to face Cyzarine.

"In the years since my confinement, I've learned how to hide the ugly part of me, for the most part. I fit in at Beacon, I've got a cool group of friends. I said before that I wouldn't let what that man did to me define who I was. That's right - I'd been seeing ugly things before he got his hands all over me. 'Never go out by yourself at night', they say. Well what if you've got no choice?"

Automne was staring straight into Cyzarine's eyes. It seemed like she was glaring at her, daring to judge, but in actuality this was a story she'd only ever shared with her adoptive grandparents. She was begging Cyzarine to understand.

"I felt horrible the first time I took a life. This sick hobo tried to choke one of my friends when we were looking for a place for food late at night. Said we'd 'entered his territory', some bullshit like that. So we jumped on him with our knives that we'd found in the dumpster. I was shaking so hard once I'd realized what we'd done. I felt so bad. But here's the thing: it happened again. And again. And I realized, when somebody comes at you with intent to kill, then they've pretty much given you the right to kill them."

Automne took a deep breath, breaking their eye contact.

"I don't know what Fen and Platinum told you to make you stop killing, but I'd take their words with a grain of salt. When you've got no family to fall back on, and you're outnumbered, you learn not to give your enemies second chances."

Automne glanced outside.

"I mean, I know I'm not alone anymore, that things have changed, that Vale is a much more developed region than Menagerie. But when this scenario crops up, sorry, I've already got a solution worked out. Besides, those guys out there aren't going to come back after us, not  after what we did to them ."

Automne trailed off. What she'd just said wasn't right. She should try to put her past behind her, she knew, and build a better future. But until she confronted her past, and went back to Menagerie, it was going to keep haunting her.

"Believe me when I say I'm fine. Just please don't tell anyone about this, I've had a clean slate for seven years now so I don't want to feel like it's coming back. It being the young me. And... I know this is a lot to ask, but I don't want to stick around here any longer. Would you happen to know a place around here where I can clean up?"