DAY 4 (POST TRIAL) ALFENDI & ELIZABETH

[selfdenying]

[He honestly doesn't really know what to say.]

[Alfendi has never been a sentimental person. He smiles, he's polite, he knows how to follow proper manners like any good gentleman, but as far as expressing emotions goes? Well, that has rather always been his Achilles heel. Sometimes, he's not even sure if he feels anything at all, so how is he even supposed to show sympathy if the well has mostly gone dry, so to speak?]

[So, when he approaches Elizabeth not too long after the execution has gone down, he struggles with what words he should use. He can't tell her she did a good job bringing down a staff member, since that smacks of being emotionless, considering Lara had to get in the crossfires of the whole terrible thing. He can't just change the topic and focus on the task ahead - she's in a vulnerable state right now, and doing that seems callous. He wants to try as best as he can to say the right thing, because despite himself, he trusts her, he respects her, and to metaphorically smack her across the face with words would be an insult, indeed.]

[But despite his self-doubts, he's here - he notices her walking out of the trial room and approaches her, his tone level:]

Elizabeth. [He says, with a nod.] I'm...sorry you had to go through that. I can't imagine how it felt.

Comments

[tearable]

[ This was different than Daisy. That's how she keeps thinking about it. The guilt associated with killing a woman who almost killed a child... that was valid. But this? She's a survivor - she had to survive. She feels guilt for Lara, having her doubts initially about the girl like everyone else, but in the end... she saved her life.

She honestly did.

Two had to die.

One had to live.

Was it selfish that she was somehow happy it was her? Did she lose her humanity along the way in Rapture? ... Maybe...

Because she's remembering things now...

Things that make her doubt herself and makes the stakes even higher. People were going to get caught in the crossfire but she wished so desperately Lara wasn't one of them.

Elizabeth looks broken, her make smeared and eyeliner running down her cheeks with a mixture of blood. It's a look she doesn't wear well. When Alfendi approaches her, she croaks out a reply quickly: ]

Please... please don't apologize. We're playing by rules we can't control... we're - we're stuck and I had to do it.