Origins One-shots

a life, a death (old ver.)

Cal gripped his arms tighter. He was shaking, cold of thought and comfort. There seemed no better way to explain. Tears fell. He let them. No point stopping it, his emotions were out of wack anyways. His head hurt from overthinking, overcompensating, overexerting himself to care. Did he care? By the gods, he hoped so. Confidence in the eyes of Set was an act to keep himself strong. But he wasn't strong. He followed Set. And for what? Another's life? One life, one death. The deal is the deal, as the Kerch say. Set knew him. Set saw him. But did Set understand? Who knows. Who understands, anyway? Inpu seemed to. Inpu seemed a lot. Cal glanced up, still shaking, saw Xylo's hard eyes. He was confused, but mostly mad. Mad at Cal. Mad at Set. Mad at the world. Such hard situations he and others got into. He saw the pain in Cal's posture, his face, but that didn't make up for the dead man before him. This wasn't the end. Set would have more coming. Cal was compromised, Cal was breaki-

"Ǹ̶̼̪ô̷̙̖͑.
N̸̪͙͝ȯ̵̭̿t̷̗͎̃̓ ̷̖̊y̸̜͛e̴͉͗͠t̵̺̔.
H̷̫͗è̸̮ ̴̭̓h̶͔͛a̴̬͆s̸͓̉n̷̢͗'̸͕̏t̷͇̾ ̸̬̍w̶̪̽o̷͚͊ṋ̷̆ ̷̜̆ j̵̙̚u̵͕̔s̶̹̎t̸ ̷y̷e̷t̷."