The Reckoning

[Gifted]

Liam was used to this, which didn't make it any less effective. Anger sparked up at his sister, anger and hatred and fear as he forgot that she knew what was needed to keep him sane, that she was helping him. He still remembered the goal, but forgotten that his sister was trying to work towards it, and it wasn’t just a coincidence that her actions helped him. Without that knowledge, that simplest of connections, Liam's feelings towards his older sister changed from love to hate instantly. How dare she treat him how she treated him!
The change also tainted his bonds with his friends, drawing into his memory all the times they disrespected him. Making him feel angry and discard them. He'd once had friendships on which this trick wouldn’t work, but his father had been especially unhappy about that. He'd been especially brutal in making sure those bonds shattered.

His father disconnected him from his love and friendships, but it did not only take. It gave confidence in return. Liam stood up a little straighter, eyes a little more fixed as he stared down his father. Liam still knew his place - and was still pants crappingly terrified of the Recollector - but fear was a weakness, and he would be damned if he let someone else see him afraid. The changes took total hold on him in mere moments. “Yes sir. “ He responded to his dad.

[Raven]

"Do you think she's pretty?" Recollector asked, nodding brusquely in the direction of the dead girl. He was only too prepared to play with this weakness that was above all the others.

[Gifted]

Liam looked at the dead girl closer. Examining bodies like this still made him squirm but he wasn't about to admit that. Even if his dad definitely already knew. "I guess. I know you like redheads." He answered reluctantly, not really meaning it. It was hard to find a corpse pretty.

[Raven]

Kenny changed his pants and took a couple steps towards the entrance of the alleyway. "What about her?" Kenny asked, indicating a girl who was walking down the street.

[Gifted]

"Sure, she's pretty." He guessed. Why would Liam have time for girls, when all of them were beneath him anyway? Not to mention he was only eleven. No one was talking about that stuff yet.

[Raven]

"How do you think it would feel to cut them?" Kenny asked, his tone that of a man asking what flavor of ice cream his kid wanted.

[Gifted]

Liam shrugged. He knew what his father wanted him to say, but he also knew there was no point to just saying that and getting it out of the way. The Recollector could tell he was lying at any and all points. It would make the most sense to just try to tell the truth.
No matter how freaky a prospect that actually was.
"You know I don't think about that sort of stuff like you do. She's not doing anything to us." He shrugged. "I mean, I'd like to work on being a better fighter, but that's more from a not wanting to get robbed standpoint."

[Raven]

"She's inferior. She deserves whatever you want to do," Kenny said.

[Gifted]

"But she's minding her own business. Just because I have the right to hurt her doesn't necessarily mean I should." Liam pointed out. "Why not go after the ones stupid enough to not do that? It'd be funny."

[Raven]

"So who do you want to go after, Liam?" Kenny asked idly.

[Gifted]

"There's no one I really want to go after in particular, really. I mean there's a few people I'd like to punch in the face, but I wouldn't do that to them." He gestured to the body. "But... I mean no one ever bugs you, that would be suicide, even someone like me... I walk down the wrong alley or the wrong street at the wrong time, and somebody decides they think I have cash on me or whatever and I've got a gun to my face. It'd be kind of funny to be able to turn the threat back around on them, you know? They try to attack me and they only hurt themselves. You know how many fights I get in." Kenny also probably knew Liam started most of those fights, and that they had a very different purpose that what Liam was always telling everyone. But that was his story; that he just wanted to get better at fighting and so never backed down from a challenge.

[Raven]

"And you want to win them?" Kenny asked, dubious.

[Gifted]

Liam looked down. "If fights get too easy I can bother more people. I still want to improve." He murmured. Even though he knew the Recollector had to know how hard Liam fought him, it still scared him to acknowledge it out loud. "And I can't fight adults yet. They could actually kill me."

[Raven]

Recollector smirked. "How does it feel? Knowing that you aren't yourself? You know I could make you forget that? I could make you forget to fight, if I wanted to."

[Gifted]

Liam carefully picked up on the tense of those sentences. That he wasn't himself. The Recollector must have done something recently. Even though there was always that nagging knowledge at the back of his mind that he probably had, hearing it confirmed always made Liam shudder. He was missing something. Something important, probably. Who knew much exactly his father had taken from him this time. He wrapped his arms around his stomch, sitting on the cement and looking down.