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[serialskiller]

Messages will be answered when I'm done with this episode of my serial.

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[serialskiller]

Murderbot sends its drones out across the ship to try to find Dimitri, concerned.

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri's not leaving that stairwell. He picks his head up at the faint whirr of a drone, glaring at it with red-rimmed eyes. "I'm going to care," he snarls. "Whether you want me to or not."

[serialskiller]

"I know you are. I know I can't change what people feel."

There's a vague undertone of exasperation, though the drone's tiny speakers render it a bit hard to tell what it's emoting beyond that.

[prince_of_beasts]

"It hurt to watch someone I care about die. It hurts that I couldn't do anything to prevent it. Does that make sense? Am I insane? Why does no one seem to understand that?"

Dimitri buries his head back in his arms.

"Glenn, and Dedue, and Darcy, and you. What do I have to do to believe that the people I love won't die the moment I turn my back? Why do you all keep insisting it's okay?"

[serialskiller]

"Love?"

That's not doubt, that's confusion.

"What do you mean?"

[prince_of_beasts]

"I don't know! I don't know why I love people, it just happens -- oh, yes, and Ossie going out to find Ginger without asking for help like he promised, why does this keep happening? -- you're kind! You care! You want to be more than what you were made for and, and you made me feel like I could, too, and I love you for that!" Dimitri sniffs and scrubs his wrist across his eyes. "I don't. I don't wish I loved less than I do. But Saints alive it wouldn't hurt so goddamn much."

[serialskiller]

The drone hovers silently for several minutes.

And then Murderbot it-proper-self turns up. No blanket. No supplies. Just. A murderbot that was never meant to be loved. In a stairwell with a prince with too large a heart.

It doesn't know what to say. It doesn't have answers. But it is here.