bakerstreet | the betrayal/redemption meme

the betrayal/redemption meme

BETRAYAL MEME

You have done something unspeakable to the people closest to you. How did this come to be, and how will you make amends?

Instructions

Post with your character with their name, series, and whether you're the betrayer, the betrayed, or simply leave it blank! Then, either make up your own scenario to your liking, or use our prompts (RNG totally optional) and go wild!

(Example: for organization's sake, denote b3+2 where you killed someone and are trying to hide it or r5+3 for a situation where you side-hopped and now want nothing more than to make things right, so that people know at a glance whether you're betraying or being redeemed and what you did.)

betrayal; you've turned your back on everything you once stood for

1) you're innocent. it's not your fault, but they can never know. maybe you're protecting someone. maybe you're being blackmailed. whatever the case, it's your dark secret.
2) you're hiding. you've done something terrible, but no one knows it yet. how far will you go to bury what you've done for good?
3) you're uncertain. everything is in place now, but nothing's been set into motion yet. maybe it's not too late to turn back. or is it?
4) you're slipping. you thought you could change. maybe for a while you even managed to. but now you find yourself falling back to your old ways, and everyone around you is at risk.
5) you're reacting. they betrayed you first. you're not in the wrong. they deserve this. they brought this upon themselves. you're not really betraying anyone if they pushed first.

redemption; you've done something that can never be forgiven

1) you're trapped. they caught you red-handed, or maybe you turned yourself in. now those you betrayed are free to face you one by one and have their revenge.
2) you're false. this whole betrayal thing isn't working out quite the way you'd hoped. maybe if you play your cards just right, you'll be able to get your old life back.
3) you're selfless. whatever forced your hand to begin with doesn't matter anymore. you'll destroy yourself and play the role of a villain to the very end if that is what it takes to make things right.
4) you're lost. what you did was wrong, and you know that now. you can never be sorry enough, and you've lost your way. all you want to do is find home. won't anyone out there show you the way?
5) you're tortured. you have to make amends for what you've done. you have to. the thought consumes you, possesses you. you have to find them, help them. but after what you've done, will they even want to see you again?

what you've done;

1) you sold them out
2) you killed
3) you joined the other side
4) you stole
5) you lied
6) you simply are. you were never 'good' to begin with.

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[ It isn't what it looks like. Yes, that's Jake lying there lying there dead and yeah, Roxy's covered in his blood, but there's an easy explanation for all this! It was English, you know, the Lord sort not Jake and that fucking ~ath code and an infinite loop with infinite dead and yeah, Roxy's covered in his blood, but there's an easy doomed universes and it was UU! That bitch did this to Jake, made him into a potential host and for what?? That fucked up green monster was gone, into another host when Roxy saw red at the revelation of their deception. He wasn't Jake until that last second when the life left his eyes.

.... Okay, maybe 'easy' is the right word, but trust me. This wasn't how Roxy planned on meeting any of her friends. She scrubs bloody palms over her eyes, ruining already smeared eyemakeup, only then realizing Dirk's arrival when she pulls her hands away. ]

o fuck

[He's not really...sure. Of anything. He'd gotten them in the game, gotten it all started because he knew this was important and that it'd lead them all on the road to their final goal. Everything was doomed anyway, but at least this way, getting everyone connected and running, he'd be with them. His friends, his family. Jake.

But what he hadn't expected to see was Roxy, covered in blood, and Jake. Dead. Roxy covered in his blood. This was eight hundred different kinds of fucked up, but he couldn't...stop. Looking.

Jake was dead.]

Jesus fuck Roxy, what happened.

[ There's an explanation for this. A long one, but it's there. Hadn't they been worried about Jake, wasn't there something weird going on, didn't she KNOW this game was the worst fucking idea they'd ever had?? Riflekind lies between her and Dirk, from where she'd dropped it and approached what a second ago was that monster, that universe cancer that was just messing with them, playing them for a bunch of chumps. Yep, on the chump list Roxy kept, her position had just rocketed to the top with a graceful arc and a resounding pchoooooo.

Roxy stands shakily, hands slipping in the pool of blood around the body, around Jake. Her mouth keeps moving like there's an explanation, some kind of excuse that will make this horrific feeling of YOU KILLED HIM from crushing her chest, but no words come out. ]

it wasnt
he

[ nope nope nope, no way to explain this without the words choking her. It wasn't Jake! He was Lord English! He's loose, we don't have time- Roxy runs a hand through her hair, absently leaving bloody streaks through it. ]

[He could, if pressed, probably rationalize all this out. He's known Roxy for long enough to trust her, he does trust her, so he knows she probably had every reason to do what she did. There has to be a reason for what she did, because Roxy wouldn't do something like this if there wasn't a reason. She knew how he felt about Jake, thanks to his AR and knowing basically everything else about the Strider, so she must have known what this meant, what this was doing to him.

But at the moment, at that exact moment, he didn't really care how she felt. He'll look back on this and feel guilty, once they've moved on down this road, but for that precise moment...there aren't words for what he's feeling. Or maybe there are. Maybe it's betrayed.

With his eyes conpletely glued to Jake's body, lying limp in a pool of his own blood, the Strider slowly made his way over. He doesn't really know how, he can't cognitively control his muscle movements at the moment, so he must be on auto pilot.]

What.
The.
Fuck.
Happened.

[ As previously mentioned, this wasn't how she fucking wanted to meet any of the other kids! These were basically her only friends in the entire world- one of which she just shot to death- so meeting them in person albeit within the game construct was a pretty big deal to Roxy. She was especially excited to meet Strider because even if they didn't have the same feelings, she knew he would be hot. Gay or not, he'd be like a totally smoking fine bro with big muscles and okay only half of that was true and suddenly, blindingly, that earlier excitement at meeting Dirk had faded into fear.

She trusts Dirk too. But you really only need one friend to try to kill you before you start getting paranoid of everyone.

Roxy quickly stumbles back away from Dirk's approach. ]

hes dead okay jsut
stay the fukc over there for a sec whiel
while i fiugre this out

[He can see his AR's chat log blinking in the corner of his glasses, but he doesn't care. He doesn't want to hear what sort of back-handed shit a separate version of himself wants to spew out at him over what he's seeing, what they're both seeing, because that would mean this was real.

Which of course it is, but he doesn't need the reassurance.

So instead he's dropping to his knees next to Jake's body, staring for a moment in silence before leaning down and checking his pulse. He knows where Roxy is, can sense her off to the side like he trained himself to do, and he keeps that in mind as he presses his fingers into the side of Jake's neck, looking for something, anything, and finding a great big wad of nothing.

He takes another moment before leaning back, not even bothering to turn and look at her, his voice much calmer than before but laced with something else. Something unlike him.]

What did you do.

[ What did she do?? That should be pretty fucking obvious, right? I mean, he's kneeling at the body, he's checking him and for half of second Roxy almost hopes there will be good news. you shot him. In the chest Multiple times. You don't have to be a budding rocket scientist to know what that would do to a person, even if he wasn't a person then. He had been that thing.

Unfortunately, there's no way to explain this with the complete lack of energy Roxy's feeling, the way Dirk's voice- that tone- rips through her. The way Jake had looked so fucking confused when he died. It was like betraying somebody twice over, dealing with all this now.

When she speaks up at last, her voice is a lot quieter than usual, much less sure of herself. Maybe it sounds like a lie, or an excuse. ]

i was tryign to make him stop
i fucked it up

[The sound of her voice makes it worse. It really...does. Maybe it's because it's so quiet, so...terrified. She's terrified. But she had ever right to be. Dirk felt a wave of emotion he hadn't felt in a very long time, and while he was doing his best to control it...rage could only be held back for so long. But also, maybe it's because he knows she had a perfectly good reason. Maybe it's because he knows, deep down, that something was wrong, something was going to get fucked up. But why did it have to be him? It wasn't fair. It wasn't. He didn't even get to meet him...

And there it goes again, that moment of anger, of rage, and he turns sharply. He's still kneeling, but it would only take less than half a second for him to be up and lethal and...oh god. He needs to stop because he's actually thinking about killing her when he knows that is the worst fucking idea he's had in his entire life (and he's had some bad ones). But he's not there not, not completely. He voice is a little clipped, now. A little more frantic.]

Make him stop?
Roxy, why the Jesus fuck did you kill him?
Why is he dead?

[ Shrinks back when Dirk turns to her. Yeah, she's scared, but she's still pretty pissed too. Sorry Strider, you didn't get to meet your boyfriend. Sorry she's ruined what could've been a perfect confession with her almost getting murdered by a fucking MONSTER. Sorry you're gay little fantasy life was disrupted by me killing one of our friends, I know that must be sooo inconvenient for you.

This is the least logical way to react to a terrible, tragic situation. But even if this session finds the kids a little older than our last, they're still kids. And that's still a dead body in the space between them. ]

because it wasnt him genius
i mean its him NOW btu
we dont haev time for this

[ Emotional breakdowns later, logic now. They need to find Jane. She'd be the next susceptible one, right? Her connection to the Batterbitch makes it plausible for.. something, what had he been saying? It was hard to listen properly when you were getting the life squeezed out of you.

Lost in this thought, Roxy- still drenched in Jake's blood- actually starts to leave. ]

[You see Roxy, that's not exactly how this gets to work. You don't get to walk in to this game you didn't even want to play and kill the one person Dirk Strider has been pining after for three fucking years and then just turn around to walk off without much more than a very shaky explanation that involved no logic whatsoever. Or at least, none that Dirk could make sense of, and he was basically the king of logic. When compared to the rest of his compadres, at least.

Especially, apparently, Roxy.]

We have fucking time for this.
Because as far as I can tell the body that is currently dead,
The one that used to house the fucking blood on your hands,
Is Jake.
Fucking explain this shit to me Rox I'm not fucking kidding around here.

[He stands quickly, facing her completely now, and has all the mind in the world to ninja-move right in front of her and grab her by the shoulders and...something. He wants to, no, needs to do something, but he doesn't know what. Whatever it is, it involves stopping Roxy from leaving, because they are not about to leave Jake's body lying there. Jake, who has no dream self to turn to, no extra lives. Jake, who is dead, who Roxy killed, and Jesus Fucking Christ she is still walking away.

But then he's moving, walking to catch up with her, grabbing her arm maybe a little too tightly and stopping her in her tracks.]

Fucking stop and explain this.

[ Short cry when Dirk grabs her arm, not just because it hurts but do not try that on someone who just nearly was killed by a different friend, okay! To say Roxy is jumpy would be an understatement at the very least. Thanks to that, Dirk finds himself receiving a sharp fistkind to the jaw.

As quickly as she strikes him, Roxy wrenches her arm back and puts distance between the two of them. Sorry Dirk, you are dealing with a still dizzy, frightened animal. To her it's very clear what happened- the trauma from the fighting aching in her joints, the screaming and the way he turned into that thing with the sound of bones crunching and skin stretching, all that crammed into her ears and her brainbulge, the colors and the honking oh god the HONKS. Clearly this girl's not in much of a state to repeat all the graphic details to you, bro, you'll just have to trust her.

You know, after she slugs you and keeps trying to run away from the mutual friend she murdered. ]

i just DID ok
he wasnt jake tho now he is and if you sooo need more details
i shot him cuz he was gona kill ME and YOU
youre WELCOEM by the fuckin way

[Alright, well, the punch was unexpected. And while at first it definitely brought about an entirely new wave of angry emotions that she might have been able to see if she was in such a state to read context clues, but then it was gone. All of it. All the anger and the hurting and the (okay no that's a joke, it's all still there, just covered)... But Dirk isn't quite sure how to deal with humans. He can see it, he can read it, he can understand subtext through a drunken state of late-night conversations, but he doesn't know how to deal. Robots? Yeah. Smuppets? Sure. People? Naw man, that's an entirely new breed.

But he can put two and two together. Yeah, Roxy's got one hell of a right hook, but she's also shaking and freaking out and wow Dirk, way to be a Dick. This calls for a new plan of action, one that doesn't fall apart because he forgot Rule Number One of the Strider Family: poker-face. So he pulls it back together and calms the fuck down. She should be able to hear it in his voice, seeing as she's having issues with facing him and all.]

Look, okay, I freaked out. I'm sorry.
Just...calm down, okay?

[He's walking back in her direction, closing the distance between them again, but this time not with the intention to...well, whatever his intention was last time. No, this time he keeps some distance between the two of them, like he's dealing with one of his feathery assholes that got itself into the wrong part of the house, or a haywired robot.]

He attacked you?

[ Lalondes are supposed to be masters of holding their emotions in check as well, or at least holding them out of the reach of the other party. Roxy lost any hope of that a while ago, clearly. She tenses as Dirk starts his approahc, still apprehensive about anybody getting close again, but not going to go at him kicking and screaming. She has to admit, the sound Dirk's voice is a little calming. Maybe just because it's been a while since she heard anybody's voice, short of Jake's when they met up, and then his voice.

Small, furtive glance back to Dirk before her eyes sweep the terrain around them again, as if the offending green party could return. ]

no the other thign
jake turned into it ad i tried to outrun him but i cuoldnt
hes already here

[ Raises her voice, turning her back on Dirk and the body to get her riflekind, scrub the blood off it and get back to what's important ]

bulets wont work so we
we ahev to come up wit some other way to kill him

[Well at least she's talking to him, which was one possibility that Dirk had played around with in the few seconds before she replied. But she did, she spoke, and that was better than nothing, even if he had no fucking idea what she was talking about. But baby steps here, Strider. A minute and a half ago you wanted to slide your katana right through her stomach in a fit of rage, so if you can calm down, maybe she can to. Or maybe you should stop trying to force the answers out of her and move on. There's always that.]

Jesus fucking Christ, Rox.
What do you mean he's here?
You already killed him.
It.

[Ouch, just saying that hurt more than he thought. He takes a moment to bring himself back, watching as Roxy picks up her riflekind. She seems calmer, at least. But he can't take any chances.]

You mean they didn't pierce him,
Or he wasn't harmed by them,
Or what?

[ Turns back to Dirk fast when he questions her, gun raised and pointed directly at his chest. ]

NO not jake
ENGLISH

[ If the gun pointed at your vitals wasn't enough of a sign, Roxy is clearly expecting you to understand this statement. Continues on, pushing a hand through her hair and balancing the gun against her shoulder, as if threatening Dirk with it a moment ago had been no thing. ]

he got jake okay
he was IN jake
and wehn i shot him it only hur t
him
jake

[ Deep gulping breath, resolutely not looking at the body between them. Okay, saying Roxy was calming down might have been a premature prediction. The hands holding the riflekind shake as the girl wracks her brain for a solution, only half acknowledging Dirk's questions at this point. She's not her daughter, she can't fall back on the Horrorterrors to deal with this grief and anger. Things would be so much easier if she could go grimdark. Or even grimdrunk. ]

not bulets
sometihng else
that BITCH
shw told me ocne
she sadi if we had a hero of tiem
soemthing about time cuold kill english

[Fuck.

The gun was not expected, to say the least. And he can't control his heart rate when she suddenly turns on him like that, so much that he almost misses her explanation. But as she continues it slowly pieces itself together and Dirk calms back down. Slowly.]

That's fucked up in so many ways...

[And that's when the guilt sets in, because there was no point in denying that Roxy looked terrible. She's shaking so bad that he half wonders just how she can still hold the rifle but then he's moving back closer to her again, this time trying to reach out to her to calm her down, maybe to make sure she doesn't accidentally drop the gun and shoot him in the leg - the last thing he needs is a stereotypical cowboy limp. Those fuckers are more annoying than badass.

Or at least, he's on his way over to her. He hasn't exactly closed that distance between them yet.]

Hero of Time?
We don't have a one of those in our session.
Did she tell you where or when we'd find one?

no there wwer oens but they brought HIM here
tehy doomed us btu
dont konw
i dotn CARE i just
want to fidn jane i want to

[ There's no lashing out at Dirk's approach this time, and Roxy doesnt bother trying to run away. The fight was exhausting, killing Jake was as emotionally draining as the word gets. so even if she wants to fight and cry and scream, but she's just so tired.

Fucked up was putting it lightly. Roxy's gaze finally drifts to the blood covering her, the pool that surrounds Jake, the body itself. weak, choked noise from the back of her throat.

]

i fucked up
im sorry

Hey, hey, Rox. Come on.

[That's when he takes the last few steps and reaches out to grab her wrists - lightly, so as not to scare her again. He's not trying to stop her movements, he just wants to calm her down, let her know she's safe, if only for now.]

We'll go find Jane.
Christ, we can leave right now to go find her.
And then we'll find this fucker who doomed our session and send that fucking thing back to wherever the hell it came from, okay?]

[He moves to meet her eyes, trying to let her know that yeah, this is fucked up. And yeah, he was (is) angry. But not at her, not anymore. It's not her fault. Well, not completely.]

We all fuck up, Lalonde.
We're not perfect, and we were never supposed to be.
This ain't a perfect world, or a perfect session, but we'll make do.
What happened...it isn't your fault.

[ Despite her panic and jumpiness, Roxy lets Dirk take her wrists without another attack. Having him closer it both helpful and painful- of course she wants someone nearby to comfort her, but it's not necessarily been the Lalonde way, offering physical affection for.. well, anything. But having someone else close by, not trying to strangle you or stab you.. it isn't so bad. She had been looking forward to meeting Dirk as much as any of the others. Those feelings help to settle the race of her mind, the jumble of words and thoughts. She hesitantly loosens the hold on her riflekind, letting it fall beside her lightly- don't worry, you won't get shot in the leg. Well, not yet, anyway. Her eyes are lowered, noting that the blood on her hands is starting to dry.

She hasn't cried since the Batterwitch killed her mother, and she isn't sure she wants to break that trend for her own screw up. there were a lot of things she should've done better when Jake-As-English came at her, not the least of which is letting herself get wasted. But for however much longer this session is going to suffer on, they'll have to live with what she did.

Maybe it was easier when Dirk was mad at her. When she speaks, she sounds as tired as she looks, and finally a little more sad than scared or mad. In some way, she knows she needs to channel what her mother would do in this situation if she wants to accomplish anything. ]

thanks fr the peptalk strider
btu perfect doesnt realy cover
"not fucking murdermoding your friends" so

[ Looking back at Jake, for as long as she can without feeling like she's going to throw up. Mutters, dropping her head to try and reach down for the gun, to get free of Dirk's grasp. ]

u can bury him frist but i cant stik aroudn

[He can only imagine what's she's going through. For as long as they've known each other, and for as much as Dirk likes to think he can manage his own when it comes to the Lalonde psyche, he can't read her. Not with what she's feeling, not like this. Maybe it's the whole fact he can't really put himself in her shoes, not yet. Maybe not ever. But he can comfort her, just like all those nights, staying up and talking about their parents, about things neither Jane nor Jake really understood.

If she can't hold herself together after what she did, he'll have to. And even if he doesn't know if he's up for the challenge, he can damn well try.]

Don't give me that load of garbage,
You didn't murder your friend.
You killed English. Jake was just an... [Oh god it kills him to say it...] unfortunate bystander to it all.
Besides, this whole self-loathing image is putting a damper on how much ass we're going to kick.
Everyone knows revenge is sweet.

[He does his best to joke, and it comes off just as dry and nonchalant as if he was actually feeling it. But he's not, not really. There's a part of him that isn't into it, and he doesn't know if it'll every come back. But he's got to remain constant. Normal.

And he definitely doesn't let her get away from him. Not that easily. He holds his grip but not too tight. He just doesn't let her turn away.]

If there's one thing that's going to happen here,
It's that you are not getting out of my fucking sight, ya hear?
If English is here, somewhere, he can show back up at any moment.
We've got to stick together, horror-movie style.

[ She gets what Dirk is trying to do. The crappy thing is it's kind of working. She doesn't want to look like a self-loathing person, even if it is kinda true at this point. She hates what she did and how it happened, and how Jake is never going to say some mess of ole-timey gibberish that everyone has to pretend they understand- Chomps down hard on her lower lip to keep from crying or crying out, not sure which at this point. Only that she can feel like garbage on her own time. Jane is in trouble. They're not going to have two dead friends tonight.

Stares down at Dirk's maintained grip on her hands, his promise to keep her nearby. If she wasn't covered in blood, it'd be kinda sweet.

Weak grin, which is the hardest thing she's done since pulling the trigger. ]

doesnt the gay guy aslways die in horor movies?

[ Little nod, though, he's right. When she speaks again, this sentence is a little harder to ge tout. ]

do u wanna
take him wih us

[If it's working, it's not crappy. It means it's working and that's the point Dirk is trying to get at. If they're going to win this, especially now...without Jake, he's going to need to be able to keep Roxy and Jane together. He doesn't know how Jane's going to react, but he's got to get Roxy back together before he deals with that. One step at a time. The grin gives him some hope, and he feels a bit better. He squeezes her wrists gently before letting them go as he shrugs.]

So does the party girl, which means we'll have to do some major editing to this movie script,
Especially if we want it to even reach decent-flick status.

[He nods back at her, definitely feeling better by this point. They can make progress if they keep...oh. Right. He turns back to glance at the body - he'd almost forgotten about how he was still lying there...but it doesn't matter. They have to move on.]

I have...space. In my sylladex.
I can keep him there until we figure out what to do with the body.

[And with that he stores him. Jake. Jake is in his sylladex because Jake is dead and if he had the time to really think about how fucked up this all is, he might actually care. But he's got to keep it together. He will keep it together.]

Let's get this show on the road.

[ Did he really just- yep. Stored Jake in the sylladex. The situation is apparently more fucked up than words can convey, so Roxy decides not to draw any additional attention tot his jackassery. Keeping an eye on Dirk form the corner of her vision, feels an overwhelming sense of gratitude. This guy could've culled you on sight for killing Jake. you might've shot him if you'd walked in on this shit show. But Dirk listened, even if the situation still doesn't make complete sense, and is working hard to keep you calm.

On top of having just lost one, Roxy is painfully aware what good friends she has.

Okay, they don't have all the time in the world, but Roxy takes the little bit of time to throw her arms around Dirks shoulders and just hug him, just for a little bit. Now you're got an armful of Roxy Lalonde and this shirt is nice and covered in Jake's blood now too. Totally not crying! ]

thanks

OH THAT'S GONNA BE AWKS SINCE HE'S IN DIRK'S SYLLADEX

botmaster - 2012-02-18 16:37 (UTC) - Expand

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the betrayal/redemption meme

Dirk Strider | Homestuck | your choice!

DESPERATELY WANT TO TAG YOU JUST TRYING TO THINK OF SOMETHING

unable to think of something different fjkds - r1 + 2

doesn't even matter omg... <3

oops typo

pfft no problem with the typos. also, so sorry about late reply oh my god I'm a horrible person. D:

aww don't worry about it :D youre here now!! thats what counts

you're too nice to me. D:

oh please. i'll play this as long as you'll have me!!

you're never getting rid of me, then. C:<

kyaaa im holding you to that

/terrible person

just shy of ten days later, will i even remember how this thread went (who am i kidding. yes)

i'm sorry. :c

dont worry your little head about it dude

<3

so much love i will reply to you between classes

I feel so freaking loved you don't even know.

heaps the love all over you

so much love. <3

these poor bbs

I know. So many feels right now. :c

jake wake up :(((

pleeaaaassssseeeeeeeeeee. :c

OH WAIT JAKES OKAY IT WAS ALL A BAD DREAM

OH THAT'S GONNA BE AWKS SINCE HE'S IN DIRK'S SYLLADEX