paradisa | ♫23 [broadcast/dictated]

So, if anyone has wondered where the music's been, I apparently took an extra long nap courtesy of the castle and came just in time to see that it's sense of humor in terms of Valentine's Day hasn't changed yet. I'm not sure I would have minded letting me sleep that extra day, but on the other hand, I appreciate not having to do the Sleeping Beauty impression for much longer.

It sounds like I might not have been the only one that had something strange happen to them during lunar new year. Or was it just me?

Only here would it be a regular occurrence for people to act completely crazy. So much so that some of us just brush it off. You get a lot of experience in the art of apologizing, and just as much experience trusting that those apologies are real. Because you can't always know whether a person that tried to take a shot at you really meant to do that. The castle can make a convenient scapegoat. Blaming it for all your mistakes isn't possible...but it's sure easy to do when it turns out to be true so much of the time.

What I'm saying is, it's probably best to cut people slack around here, because next time the person acting like an idiot could be you.

[That's a not-so-subtle kind-of apology to the person he really did take a shot at a couple of weeks ago. But the rest of the message is true. The castle probably was to blame for Spike shooting Vicious a few months ago. He'd been angry regardless, and the castle had taken advantage of that.

After he's done speaking, he gets on with the musical selection for the evening, happy to let the music speak for him like he used to]

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[Can't even take credit for a coma. Honestly, it would have bothered Spike less if it wasn't the castle manipulating him. Made worse by the fact that Gren's actions created a ripple effect that did a lot more harm than he's aware of.

Not that Spike will tell him this. Apologies aren't for people like them, and he doesn't feel like encouraging him.]

Scary thought.

It is, isn't it? As if we didn't make enough mistakes on our own.

[He doesn't exactly expect forgiveness but part of him would like it. He doesn't want to keep this private war going, but as long as he sided with Vicious, that was unlikely to change and he knew it.]

[It doesn't help that Spike would rather not blame the castle for everything. Their encounter was too specific to come completely out of the blue.]

I guess it doesn't have the same amount of patience.

[It had pushed to do things he might have done on his own but hadn't, for varying reasons. It was less a matter of patience, of which he did in fact have a considerable amount, and more that Vicious' standing order was to stay uninvolved.]

It doesn't always have to do with patience.

[Gren would probably like to say he was never planning on any kind of retaliation over what happened in the past, but Spike remembers how long he waited for his revenge against Vicious. Considering where those two are at now, he may have just needed to get it out of his system.]

Sometimes it all just comes together.

[He wouldn't be far wrong in that estimation. Gren had the propensity to hold onto things for a very long time. The difference with Vicious had been that, once it had happened, Gren realized he'd been substituting revenge for something else entirely.]

Do you think it's fate?

No. [It's rare that he gives such a direct answer, but Spike has heard that same bullshit from Vicious for years. All that talk about how he was the only one who could kill him and vice versa. Now look at them.] Fate is just an excuse.

[Gren is too much of a romantic, deep down, not to believe in it.]

What is it, then, if not fate? What makes certain people cross paths like that? Two people confronting each for the first time in years at the same time another man hunting a ghost finds them. What drives that kind of serendipity?

So these sorts of things happen often, then? I only barely skimmed this journal thingie when I came in. Good ta know the castle's got such a sense o' humor.

[David's filing this away in his mind in case he ever needs an excuse for any potential "incidents" he might have, in the rare event that his control slips.]

Depends on what sort of thing you're referring to, exactly. And not everyone appreciates the castle's sense of humor. Sooner or later, it will be at your expense.

[ Effy wouldn't be the first to admit how much comfort this broadcast brings her. Like those late night radio shows with hosts who talk to you as if you're the only other person in the room. But some nights she can try to return the favor, now playing this little piece once Gren's music has died down. ]

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