The Girls of Virtue

[11-1] It's All Instant Tragedies

Beginning leaves the church behind as quickly as she can. No matter how much willpower she has, no matter how calm she feels, there's something all-too-chilling about being anywhere near Judgement. She's still considering what she should do. If there's anything she can do. Judgement really is as good as a god within their world. Beginning would be burned to nothingness if she tried to stand against those flames for even an instant.

As much as she wants to think about these things, about how she's supposed to keep herself, the parts of her that want to be kind, intact, Beginning also kind of wants to find a small, dark space to curl into and not have to face the monster that is Judgement ever, ever again.

There's only so much she can do. Beginning sighs to herself. She's just not strong enough. Compared to the others, compared to Judgement, can she really consider herself anything but weak?

Just as she's turning a corner, though, a voice shocks Beginning out of those thoughts like a knife cutting through the eternal fog.

The voice is easily recognizable as Selfishness-- the vicious, self-assured tone echoing through the fog clear as a bell. The question now is who she's talking to. Beginning creeps forward little by little, finding a corner to hide behind as soon as the voice seems close enough.

She probably shouldn't be eavesdropping, but to be fair, such a thing has been exactly how she's made some of her greatest breakthroughs so far. And anyway, she might be able to find something to do with herself.

"May I ask why you're wasting your time with me?"

The voice to become audible is soft and muffled. The tone is low, and the words are slurred just enough that Beginning quickly gets an idea of who it is. Only one person talks with that particular lilt-- and that's Secrecy. Secrecy, who's been... downright dismissive of Beginning so far. The last time they talked ended in a thinly veiled threat to take Beginning's head off.

"Hah?" Selfishness scoffs. Peeking out from behind her corner, Beginning can see her toss her long, white hair over her shoulder. "Wasting my time? The fuck're you on? I'm sick of your attitude and that's it. On the mission, y'know? Where you acted like such a know-it-all."

Selfishness is leering, crowding into Secrecy's space. Selfishness has the upper hand in height by at least half of a foot-- not counting her horns--, but Secrecy appears to be holding her own just fine. She's standing as tall as she can get... even if she does appear to still be hiding in her cloak. Beginning is starting to wonder if she ever takes that thing off. The air is crackling with tension, though, two headstrong gazes meeting in the middle of a conflict that Beginning has a serious feeling might come to blows.

"Me? A know-it-all? I wonder where you're getting that idea..." Secrecy says, trailing off in a way that even Beginning finds annoying.

"Oh, you know exactly what I'm talking about! Quit playing dumb already," Selfishness growls, taking a step forward into Secrecy's space. "You kept trying to tell me what to do. Me. As if you thought you knew better. 'Cause newsflash, bitch, no one orders me around!"

"Hm, that's quite the attitude you have. Why, I'd be surprised... if you hadn't been on the same tirade for as long as I can remember. My apologies, but I'm not impressed." One of Secrecy's blind eyes slits open.

Selfishness's expression quickly morphs to one of fury, baring her teeth and sneering. She looks like she wants to take Secrecy's head off. At this point, Beginning wouldn't be surprised if she tried. Selfishness is behaving exactly how Beginning would have guessed, but Secrecy is surprisingly nasty. Nowhere near the unaffected, all-knowing calm of before.