Sixteenth little lie ♰ Hush now baby, don't you cry; your reward's in the sweet by-and-by

[beingdifferent]

What happened?! [There's a sudden sound of something glass or porcelain shattering against the floor or wall, the sound of books hitting the floor, a music-box flipping open and playing a few notes of "Fur Elise" before the sound of wood cracking and metal gears crushing.]

Tell me!

[Esther loosens an agonized sound somewhere between a growl and a cry. This is followed immediately by the dull pound of her fist against the wall.] Who stopped it?!

Comments

[private]

[beingdifferent]

Of course you are.

I'm not telling you because you're a blind, insensitive, useless old bitch who won't stop harassing a mentally ill woman who has repeatedly told you to leave her alone. I'm not telling you because you assume you know my own life better than I do, and how I should relate to this prison. I'm not telling you because you think you deserve to know. I'm not telling you because you're a bully who is perfectly willing to tell me how stupid I am for being upset over losing the only chance I'll ever have to be happy.

If you speak to me again, I'll murder your lovers.

PUBLIC

[beingdifferent]

Iris. Stop harrassing me. Stop ignoring me every single time I tell you that I hate you and I want you to leave me alone. I've told you this repeatedly, and yet you still ignore me and push all the harder.

You are not helping. You are willfully bullying me.

I don't like you. Stop thinking you're above my disdain, that you can just tell me what I'm meant to do.

I'll kill myself until you leave the Barge. Five times, five hundred... no matter how long it takes.

[routemistress]

You're 'aving a screaming tantrum that you chose to transmit publicly, Esther, and you feel we should ignore that? And now you call me speaking to you - on your comm, which you're perfectly able to stop answering - bullying, while you threaten violence against yourself and other people to try and push me around?

And precisely when did I tell you what you were meant to do? There you are with the words in me mouth again.

I'm starting to think I were dead wrong about you being smart, going by this conversation.

cw: suicide

[beingdifferent]

[Esther switches the communicator onto video and leaves for a moment, coming back with a thin scarf. She locks her door, ties a loop, and secures it to the doorknob before turning to the camera.]

This is what comes of Iris Wildthyme's help.

[Then she slips her head in the noose and goes limp, letting her air supply be cut off and not fighting against it.]