Be Careful now...

"Well, now." John ambles back along the short stretch of road from where he parked his truck just ahead, hands hooking loose into his belt loops. He stops at the driver side window and, if it still isn't rolled down, he raises his voice just enough to be heard through it. "Having some car trouble?"

MINA was one to have a curious mind, and often times that led her to places she shouldn't be. But what can she do? this was like her to do what she wanted, after everything. "I have a flat tire." she frowned.

"everything, huh?" gen repeated, raising an eyebrow at him as she placed the empty glass on the bar and grabbed at his wrist to bring his arm around her shoulders. tucking herself against ethan's side, she dragged a manicured nail along ethan's skin as she followed him along, letting him direct their course. what was friendship if not making sure he kept his dignity in tact? she didn't think that ethan was too drunk, but it didn't matter because she didn't have great faith when it came to ethan being alone in a bar and making great decisions. "keep going, let's see how long it takes you to make me laugh."

Though right now he figured he could manage to walk, and he wanted to go to the place by the lake. There was a bridge there and a good scenery. Turning to gen and leaning down "D'you 'member that spot by the lake? The lil' bridge… with the view? Can we go there?"" she was tiny compared to him, if anything he really was holding himself up. "Y'know… you smell… real nice, by th' way." he paused when he spoke this, almost causing him to tip to one side.

"i'll give you a distraction. cut down the middle and start removing organs as carefully as you can, but don't disconnect them. relocate them outside the body for now and lets see how much damage you cause." on some level, ari blamed the sausage he'd smelled cooking this morning for his idea and he found himself wondering absently how often human was used in the place of animal when food was scarce. blood pudding, sausage casing… was haggis always the stomach of a sheep? that was something for a food critic to think about, not him, and ari stepped in a puddle of blood as he moved closer. "how long has it been since you cauterized someone?"

He nodded as he followed Ari's instructions and gathered the necessary equipment. various knives, gloves, and a table tray. Now, Ethan was no surgeon, but this took him to a different place mentally. Taking the knife in hand he cut down the middle of the body, it was effortless and precise. He was one to do such things in a clean-cut manner. While he knew most of the body's blood vessels are clamped before being cut, he meticulously cut around the organ starting with the liver. "Wouldn't want them to bleed out just yet."

nothing good will come of this. alan had known that the second he had met ethan's eyes... and nothing had changed. nothing would change. how could it? he's still powerless beneath his father's thumb, choosing instead to attack the bird that had escaped its cage instead of the handler keeping him behind bars. it's more ridiculous knowing that all of this doesn't matter, that nothing he can do or say would even begin to change his brother's mind. he's stuck in his ways—as fittingly as it is ironic, just like their father. "it is over, ethan." somehow, he manages to keep from flinching. your action. he's more worried about what they've imposed upon him than he is about trying to move on from all that. "it's always been over." it doesn't matter if they manage to kill him or not. somehow, someway, his father's cult will crumble. they always do. the worst part is that none of them even want to be saved from the rubble, just left to rot with it. he's starting, he thinks, to accept that. "you should worry less about me and more about you. what are you going to do when dad's gone? have you even thought about it?"

"Do you actually care?" he countered "Whatever happens is not your concern anymore."

JACOB ELORDI as FELIX CATTON in SALTBURN

this isn't the time or place for this conversation, but it never is. ethan has a horrible way of picking fights in the worst places. maybe alan has a horrible way of enabling it, too. he should just be the bigger person and walk away, but it's hard when it seems like he's so close to getting through to him. he can at least admit he doesn't see the meaning. in the same breath, he doesn't seem open to finding one, either. easier to make everyone else suffer, instead. "you're the only that still believes that," he snaps, a sigh following close behind. this is impossible. it's always going to be impossible. "it's not my nightmare. i'm not the one wasting my life because someone else said i had to."

Ethan then laughed, an empty, almost hollow, yet tinged with an unsettling edge—just enough to suggest a flicker of something darker beneath the surface. He just couldn't let it go, if i'm in this hell, so are you brother. "You think it's over?" he states looking at Alan "You think the society is just okay with your action?" perhaps there was something much darker --much deeper than what they could have imagined. "live your life comfortably, dear brother do try." he stated backing away now. Because if there was one thing he would stop himself from doing, is punching his brother in the face. (partially because john would have his head if he did so).

Fingers locking tightly with Ethan's, Luci returned his smile without hesitation, well aware that not enough people got to see the softer side of him and not about to ever let it go rejected. She wasn't trying to blame their dad or anything, but a little extra softness and acceptance wouldn't go amiss in their family, a little more acceptance, although she couldn't really pinpoint the exact time when she started thinking they needed it. (No, she wasn't going to blame it on Alan. If they hadn't needed it before then, surely Alan wouldn't have left.) "Sometimes growth hurts," Luci said simply, sagelike as she tilted her head far back in order to look up at him. "Don't tell me you've never had a knife slip and cut you before." It wasn't mocking, but teasing, a sing song note in her voice as she swung their hands between their bodies. "You pick, but I don't mind paying for gas if you need it." She offered, letting her head fall further back to look up at the sky. The view wasn't as nice as it was from the commune, still too early with too much light from town, and Lucinda thought of the maps she'd seen that talked about artificial brightness and certified dark sky places. "So the most interesting thing to happen in my day is someone asked what the legal number of espresso shots to add to a coffee happened to be, and someone else wanted to know if it was true that drinks ingested anally take effect faster. I told them I couldn't comment, but I get the feeling they're gonna try it. Do you think that still counts as ingesting something?"

"Let's walk." He wanted to take everything in—the lights, the scenery, the surroundings—and just be present. His conversations with his sister were always the most interesting. "Do I even dare ask where you hear this stuff?" he chuckled, feeling a wave of relief wash over him. It was a relief not to feel like he was about to explode, not to feel like he wasn’t enough. Maybe he really was soft at heart, letting his walls come down. Then again, he never hid from Luci. "Considering people can take meds through the rectum, I’d say it counts. It’s getting absorbed." He gave her hand a gentle squeeze as he spoke. "Tell me what goes on in that head of yours, I find myself at peace when you speak." and that was the truth. He hoped he provided something for luci as well.

He was beginning to lean forward onto his knees now, watching the micro-expressions flash through Ethan as if it was a game of poker and everything was at stake. "He's the one that ran...you're the one who stayed. You gotta use up all that anger in you to be better than him, because now that he's gone, you ain't got a choice."

Better than him. He could have laughed, he should have laughed, but ethan knew better than to show that in front of John. Less he wanted anger his father anymore. He stayed. The words echoed in his mind over and over again. no choice. He supposed in this situation he didn't. Maybe he was far too gone, or too stupid to realize what a fucking joke his life is. But in the moment, he accepted it, accepted that he was the only choice. you poor unfortunate soul. He felt his fist tightening, hard enough that it was almost white, but he nodded in agreement with his father. "Then that is what I'll do, redirect that anger."

call it egotistical, but gen knew damn well that if ethan didn't answer the phone for her, there were only a few places that he would be. he should count himself lucky, because chances were she wouldn't drag herself out past midnight for any other man without significant compensation. "what's a joke?" she asked, managing to overhear him as she finally spotted his familiar form against the bar, pressing against his back and reaching around him to steal his drink and down it. "is it the service here?"

Mind raced, as his thoughts collided in a chaotic jumble, the bar's noise muffled them, leaving him unsure if he preferred the silence or drowning in it. The alcohol had already started to take effect, giving him a buzz. When his drink was suddenly taken away, he started to protest, "Hey—" only to turn and see Gen. Well, shit. This could go one of two ways: she'd either join him or drag him out. With a sigh, he muttered, "Service is great," and motioned to get up, feeling the need for a walk. "Everything," he said, slightly swaying to one side.

he grimaces the entire time the drink slides down his throat. he may be starting to get used to it, but... he's still only just starting. it takes a little longer to really make it work. "just don't let me go too hard. my boss will never let me hear the end of it." still, he orders another. "you have tomorrow off?"

Alcohol could take away the edge for a moment, though if Leon was just starting, it could take a while. "so you're telling me you don't know your limit?" he asked with a raised brow. With a small smirk he nodded "I don't, but sure, let's take it slow."

"you seem in a mood." not a question, not him prying or trying to get ethan to talk about his feelings, but simply an observation as the screaming in the underground bunker faded out, the scent of blood and urine mixing together to leave the enclosed area smelling rank. ethan had always been his favorite to work with like this because of his potential and it was interesting to watch him work now on the strapped down body on the table. making someone else bleed and hurt had always been therapeutic for ari, something that made him feel calm and centered, but ethan didn't seem there yet. "this is a good way to use that."

"Same routine, different day." But that didn't justify his attitude or mood. There was a time to be personal, but also a time to stay professional. He wasn't going to let his emotions, as Ari put it, get the better of him. The stench of blood and urine could overwhelm anyone, but he had learned to stomach it. In moments like these, he found it easier to focus on something else, allowing his more artistic side to take over. Ari had taught him a lot, and he knew there was still more to learn. "I'm all in for that."

"dad is delusional." he wants to scream, but his voice comes as more of a hiss. "nobody should have the kind of responsibility he's put on us." to say nothing of any of the rest of it. isolated, paranoid... whatever this new world has given him in struggles, he doesn't miss life on the compound. "it's been thirty years, ethan. when are you finally going to get that he's wrong about all of this?"

Ethan couldn't help but laugh, laugh at the absurdity of it, and at the same time the accuracy. They all were a little mad no? for crying out loud they killed for the good of the society. Ethan was tired, and he didn't have the energy to even argue with alan. "Us?" he chuckled "it stopped being us a long time ago, it was always you. Alan, alan, alan." the obsession and maybe ethan was finally losing it too. "When this life actually has some meaning in it. But until then this nightmare of yours is going to continue." and he'll make sure to remind him every day about it.

"Far as I can tell, he's still an example," John grunted after a few moments of thought, his dark, squinting eyes fixed on a scratch in the weathered hardwood flooring. "An example of what not to do is just as valuable. How disappointed are you, son? If he walked in that door right now, what would you do?"

Jaw tightening as he listened to his father's words, he was correct, alan was 'what not to do' . the question posed various answers, and he was sure that his father wouldn't like any of the responses. "I don't like being in the vicinity of someone like that. so I'd leave, because he doesn't deserve my time."