Arrival fallout

[cardinalsinned]

[Two Cesares and a Juan walk into a bar Canada. It may not end well.]

Comments

[cardinalsinned]

I would appreciate some sort of proof that you are who you say you are. You are happy enough to work on the assumption that we are the same man at different ages, but I am not yet convinced.

[maleborgia]

"Happy enough"...?

We are obviously not the same, if only that your eyes are brown and mine are blue. What I mean more precisely is that every man has a role, and we seem to have been given the same one. Our genealogies are the same, as are the basic facts of our lives.

[cardinalsinned]

That only makes this more suspicious. How can two men share the same past and different lives?

[maleborgia]

There are two different stories of the creation of man, and yet we do not doubt that we walk upon this earth.

[cardinalsinned]

We have a similar way with words.

[he's amused, but still has that slightly dangerous look.]

[maleborgia]

I would be disappointed if we did not.

[cardinalsinned]

We can trade witticisms another time.

How are you with a sword?

[maleborgia]

As good as I hope you are with a bow, or a lance.

[cardinalsinned]

[good answer]

And have you used it?

[maleborgia]

Of course I have.

[cardinalsinned]

Good. Then this may work out between us yet.

[maleborgia]

Oh?

[cardinalsinned]

I suppose Juan told you how things ended between us.

[maleborgia]

He didn't have to.

[cardinalsinned]

Oh? I had no such notion at your age.

[looking away] Of the depths he was capable of.

[maleborgia]

*turning away, getting a book, handing it over* Look.

[cardinalsinned]

[reading]

... Is this supposed to be a joke?

[maleborgia]

Here we are men of ink and paper, not the flesh and blood.

[cardinalsinned]

[throwing the book down]

Lies and slander. Only I will say how my life is lived.

[maleborgia]

Then you have no one to blame but yourself for what you have done.

[cardinalsinned]

Juan has only himself to blame for his death. Or did he not mention his betrayal of our family when he explained what happened?

[maleborgia]

He has to carry the fault of his betrayal, yes, and it is a heavy one to be sure, but he is no more guilty for the act you carried out than he would be were he a prisoner and you his executor. If you feel it was just, then it is a matter to be sorted between you and God, but the weight of fraticide does not fall on him.

[cardinalsinned]

If you believe this, [he indicates the book he threw down] you will follow the same path.

[maleborgia]

No, I did not say that. We are all accountable for our past actions. I have not yet killed my brother and with God's grace I never will.

[cardinalsinned]

God's grace has nothing to do with any of Juan's actions.