#lorelei kessler

Lavandar: “...you know? Lorelei? It was fun being with Lyra, seeing her n- not so worried about everyone dying side, that side, but... when you get- when I get down to it, it’s such a relief to be back with you. Feels more comfortable here. More... homely. Home-ish.”

Kira: “I dunno, I liked it. It--”

Lavandar: “Shit I’m not saying I didn’t! No, Lyra’s good! She’s good. It’s just... Lorelei’s super good too and she’s the one I’m...”

Kira: “No, I know. I’m just saying I got a lot out of it - ‘specially from that show we watched.”

Lorelei: “W- which one did you watch? Parks and Rec?”

Eden Lee: “Sorry?”

Lorelei: “Was it Parks and Rec, or--”

Eden Lee: “Wait.” *calling to Lyra* “We could’ve watched Parks and Rec all this time?!”

Lyra: *calling back* “You never bothered to ask!” 

Kira: “ANYWAY, no, it was that Polish one with the love triangle - which is great, actually, cus it... this is gonna sound pretentious as hell, but it reminded me of something I never wanna forget: my principles.”

Lavandar: “Your principles are not to cheat? Th- that kind of seems silly obvious--”

Kira: “No, hear me out! It’s more like... my principles are to not let anything, my personality disorder or my failures or anything else, get in anyone’s way. Like, you know I’m histrionic, I know I’m histrionic - I know I hate being alone. Hate it. Gotta have someone here, in the room, in my life, in my igloo bed - whatever. And I know I’m like Dina in that regard, and... honestly, that scares me too. Because for her not to be alone, she had to screw things over for her ex-husband, for Mortimer, for her son, for Nina even. And-” *looks Lorelei in the eye* “-I don’t want to be a Dina for you. Whether what I do gets me the win or not, great as that’d be, I don’t want it to hurt you the way you’ve obviously been hurt before. And if it comes down to being alone and my dumb histrionic self ruining lives... I’ll take being alone.” 

Lavandar: “...y-yeah. When you say it like that, I - I know what you mean.” 

Eden Lee: *nods* “Only caught some of it, but I agree with what I did get. You don’t deserve to be hurt, Lorelei. Period.”

Lorelei: “G- guys...” *sniffs* *looks down at her food, wiping her eyes* “So- sorry, I shouldn’t be tearing up o-over this...”

Lorelei: “Lavandar!!” *grabs her hand* “We gotta go!” 

Lavandar: *in surprise and alarm* “Wh-?!”

Lavandar: 68.18

Eden Lee: 65.24

*crunch*

Lorelei: *gasp*

Lyra, as sirens rise in the distance: “You… sure did.”

Cathy: “Are you so atrociously naive that you think it’s possible to ‘win’ an MMBC? There’s only two things you can do when the dying begins - lose, or survive.”

Lyra: “Y- yeah - and we’ve survived-”

Cathy: “But you haven’t won. You just delayed the inevitable for yourself another day. Scott is still dead. Toby’s still dead. Felicity’s name is still besmirched, so she’s still as good as dead.”

Lyra: *shaking* “G’h…”

Lorelei: “L- Lyra, we should– she’s just trying to- playing–”

Cathy: “Playing what, Melody? Mind games? You ought to know me well enough that I don’t do ‘mind games’. I steal, I replace, I murder, I threaten, and, yes, I brainwash - but do you know what keeps me going up the ladder? It’s that I always tell the truth. Or, well. A version of the truth. And our truth is, you’re all tainted. Even if you found Elias, he’d know how repulsive his family is, and how repulsive you all are for falling for her tricks. The fact you’re all still lovey-dovey good friends best friends? Useless collateral. You don’t need to be alone to know how small and pathetic you are in the face of–” 

Lyra: “We are not! We’re stronger than you’ll ever be! We- we -”

Cathy: “Really? Then why do you feel that despair closing in around your heart, Felicity?”

Felicity: *indeed clutching at her heart* “N- I’m -”

Cathy: “She knows the truth, Melody. Can you be a good girl and believe her?”

Lyra: *screams, lunges forward*

Felicity: “Lyra!!”

Cathy: “I’ll be damned. Melody Buonarroti, back at last…”

Lorelei: “C- Cathy…”

Cathy: “How long has it been since we set you free? Look at how much you’ve grown. Still so tall. Still so much trembling in those hopelessly high high heels of yours. Still so full of the despair you tried so hard to escape… it’s… beautiful.”

Lyra: “Don’t you fucking dare–”

Lorelei: “I- no. No I’m not. I’ll - I’ve tried to be… I’ve tried to be good.”

Cathy: “–it over to Safehouse F! 

“…no, I don’t care how, break it in half first if you have to - I just need it for our next phase! I’m not wasting a perfectly good– … 

“What? I - fine, Chadrick, do that if you want, now go! Go go go!!”

*thrummmm*

“…heard something coming from up here…”

Cathy: “…There. That ought to do it. The stage is set for a perfect getaway…” *smirks, speaks more deliberately* “Sure would be a shame if someone came by to sabotage it.”

“Th- there! There she is!” “Fuck, she’s even scarier in person…”

Cathy: “Oh, of course, I need to work out what to do with him… Maybe I should just leave him sitting there, waiting for me to get back? He’s already been so starved… shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours for time to finish the job–”

“Ah-!!”  “Lyra, what’re you - you said not to-!!”

*thud* 

Cathy: “–oh~?”

Lyra: *louder, to be heard over the crying* “Lethe? Something happen in there? If - if there’s anything you wanna confess, now might be a–”

…