Chapter Text
“C’mon, Pal. Come clean.” Gemini chirped. “No time like the present.”
“It’s the least you can do.” Eugenie glared.
“Ah, come now, mia cara.” Venigni said, watching the scotch in his glass glisten just slightly against the furnace of the weaponsmith’s light. “I too am part of the blame, remember? But eh, compagno, you do owe me one for keeping this secret.”
“You call that keeping it a secret?” Gemini muttered.
Venigni merely shrugged.
Pinocchio hung his head slightly, his longer locks of hair obscuring his face. The two technicians stared him down as he fiddled with his prosthetic hand, clearly wishing to be anywhere but here.
“I am sorry.” He admitted, looking up at Eugenie. “I just… I told you one thing. And after learning the truth and seeing how at peace you were. I didn’t want to hurt you. Really.”
Eugenie’s glare, what was once slightly tipsy and angry, had softened just, her shoulders sagging a little as she let out a long and pent up sigh. “Venigni said the same thing. You boys and your need to be chivalrous.”
“But you see, it’s in our nature.” He leaned in, giving a playful smile. “Even your brother, may his soul rest in peace, knew the importance of a man and his chivalry.”
“I suppose…” Eugenie gave a small smile, blinking away her tears just. “Your breath is terrible.”
“Do not blame me, blame this magnificent bottle of scotch.” He tipped his cup before taking a sip.
“So.” Pinocchio looked between the two of them. “Are… you not upset?”
“No, I’m still upset.” Eugenie clarified. “But I understand why, so I don’t blame you or feel angry. I just need a moment to digest, I suppose.”
Venigni looked at her. She was underselling it, he knew as such. The truth of Alidoro struck her enough to borough a hole in his head from how she stared daggers his way. Even with his shirt now dry, he could never forget the way it got stained wet with her tears and the weight of her head against his chest as she silently broke. He could never forget those feelings.
Eugenie was strong, he would be the first to say as such, but he couldn’t get the image to leave of how absolutely small she looked staring up at that golden tree once the truth had been revealed. Even someone as strong as her was bound to feel the gravity of reality.
Just like Pinocchio, he too wanted to do everything in his power to shield her from that. Even now, he still does. She’s putting a front, he thinks, for not just Pinocchio’s sake, but his as well.
“Are you returning the favor now of drilling a hole in my head, Venigni?” Eugenie side eyed, her cheeks just slightly hinted red.
“Ah, my sincerest apologies.” He cleared his throat and tried his best at ignoring how his face felt slightly flushed at the recollection. It was the drink, he thought. Nothing more. Couldn’t be anything else.
Picking to look back at Pinocchio instead of Eugenie, he noted his posture. He did not look relaxed after apologizing for both the black box and Alidoro’s letter, free of the supposed ‘guilt’ that had him bolt out of the hotel at any moment. Most peculiarly, Venigni had his brow raised at Pinocchio’s expression. “I see you have something still on your mind. Anything else you wish to share, compagno?”
“Hmm.” His eyes went to the lantern, with Venigni and Eugenie following his gaze.
“Gemini?” Eugenie asked.
“There’s… actually one more thing. I’d spill it, easily, but I think that’s for our pal here to decide.” Gemini spoke hesitantly. “Well? What do you think?”
“I…” Pinocchio, fiddled with his hand before sighing. “I did find something else.”
“About Eugenie?” Venigni asked.
Pinocchio shook his head and looked at the inventor.
“O-oh…” Venigni felt a sense of unease, knowing that look was speaking a thousand words in silence.
“Would you want me to share it?” Pinocchio asked. “I can stay silent if you want.”
“No. No, don’t… don’t feel obligated by silence, compango.” Venigni put a smile, trying to ease the uncertainty on his face. “Whatever it is, if you feel this way, it must be important, yes? No matter how hard it is.”
“Venigni…” Eugenie mumbled quietly.
She barely handled the news of Alidoro. He knew that. But compared to how he learned of Geppetto’s corruption of the Grand Covenant, having his perfect mask slip for even a sliver of a moment, how bad could this additional news be?
“I’m all ears, my friend.” Venigni kept smiling.
Pinocchio nodded, took a breath and dug into his pocket, pulling out some pieces of paper and placing it on the table. “I think it would be easier to read it for yourself. So I don’t misconstrue it.”
“Very well.” He nodded and picked up the pieces of paper, adjusting his glasses so he could give it a proper skim. “Oh, this is a letter from…. Geppetto?”
He nodded.
Venigni looked up momentarily at Pinocchio. “More about the Grand Covenant?”
“If only.” He mumbled. “Would be easier to tell you, I would think.”
“A fair assessment. Alright, let’s see.” He read the letter, his lip pursed tightly in thought when his expression, one that was once cautious but warm, dropped slowly. His brows furrowed as he gripped the paper tighter, bringing it closer to his face, thinking he had misread what he did.
“Venigni?” Once more Eugenie spoke up, a gentle hand on his arm, trying to bring him to the present instead of locked in his mind. “What does the letter say?”
His lip twitched, straining to choose between smiling or scowling. “It’s nothing. Just the ramblings of an old man.”
An old, jealous, cowardly man.
“If you’ll excuse me for a moment.” He muttered, gripping tightly still to the papers as he moved off his seat and walked past the three of them. “I need to think.”
Pinocchio turned around, ready to go after Venigni.
“I don’t think that’s wise, pal.” Gemini said quietly.
“But–”
“I-I know. I know, pal, believe me, I know. You want to help him, you didn’t mean to. I know. But this is part of that whole accountability thing we talked about.” Gemini explained. “I promise, you can help him. And you will. But right at this moment, he needs to gather his thoughts alone.”
“If it helps, I think you did the right thing.” Eugenie added. “As much as all of this hurts, it was right.”
“Was it?” Pinocchio frowned and looked at Eugenie who nodded her head.
“Very human of you.” Gemini chimed.
He pursed his own lips, a hand over his chest as he then looked up the stairs of where Venigni went up and sighed. “It doesn’t get easier, does it?”
“Unfortunately not, pal.”
“Hm.”
“There is the old saying,” Eugenie said, “how time heals all wounds. Give him time.”
“I guess.” Pinocchio leaned against her work desk, a hand through his hair. “The letter bothered me a lot. As did the block box and what Ali– Parrot, said. And I figured, if it’s bothering me, it might hurt you both. I really didn’t mean to hurt you two.”
“I know.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “It hurt, but it was kind of you to think of us.”
“Even if it hurt?” He looked up at her.
“Especially so.” She gave a small smile.
“Besides, now we can all sit down and heal from the absolute mess Geppetto left us with.” Gemini darkly joked.
Pinocchio groaned and slammed his head on the table as Eugenie awkwardly patted his shoulder.
—
‘An ambitious man who came to believe his own genius reputation, only focused on one thing: reaching the pinnacle of his field. When I learned of Venigni’s brilliant work, I didn’t want to acknowledge him. How dare he try to outdo me? I was vain, only satisfied when the world’s praise and attention were all mine.’
The letter kept repeating in his head, burned into memory against his will.
‘An ambitious man who came to believe his own genius reputation, only focused on one thing: reaching the pinnacle of his field.’
Did he really think that of him? What was wrong with being confident in one’s own skill? Is it not better to be certain and confident in the arts of puppetry and machinery then unsure? Was Geppetto not like that too?
Wouldn’t he wish to be in the folds of other like-minded inventors?
‘When I learned of Venigni’s brilliant work, I didn’t want to acknowledge him.’
Wouldn’t he want to? Why not? Sure, he could be loud, vain perhaps… but never in his life did Venigni punch down on any one.
'How dare he try to outdo me?'
He wasn’t trying to. He only ever sought to improve, to advance… didn’t Geppetto want the same? If not, why did he say nothing?
'I was vain, only satisfied when the world’s praise and attention were all mine.'
Except for when unleashing the gates of hell to others, then it was perfectly fine for Venigni to take all of that attention and disdain.
Over and over again, the letter refreshed in his mind, seeing the clear writing of the man he thought of as a fellow colleague and friend. Someone he wrote over and over again that he trusted.
“It’s not true… tell me it’s not true…” his smile breaking slowly as he stepped closer and closer towards Geppetto’s table, the crumbled up letters tight in his leather glove grip. “Please… don’t let this be true.”
His chest felt tight as he tried desperately to suck in air.
It was already hell to be known as the cause of the Puppet Frenzy, to have allowed his Grand Covenant to be corrupted right under his nose by someone he respected and trusted. It was torture to learn that it was Geppetto, with the help of his ilk that were the Alchemists, to have willingly try and bring Krat to absolute ruin.
“I… thought… I thought we were… equals…” He said between strained breaths at the empty leather chair, “you said we would work… together… you and me…”
…Hated him.
Geppetto hated him.
He repeated that fact over and over and over again and it stabbed his heart repeatedly.
How? How could this be? He thought… He was certain–
Venigni clutched the letters tighter, his teeth grinding, trying so hard to keep that mask up. Those letters… those venomous letters… Geppetto only wanted to work together for his name and power, to inevitably throw him into the fiery pits of hell that was Krat. To die at the hands of his own creation. The people he wanted adoration from.
Keep smiling.
Why? Why was he given such a cruel hand? What did he do wrong? Wasn’t it enough that his youth was stolen from him? Wasn’t it enough that he had to work endlessly to reclaim his name? Wasn’t it enough that he gave his blood, sweat, and tears into the betterment of Krat? Wasn’t it all enough?
He had to keep smiling.
Over and over and over and over again, Venigni would just try and say that, while he was given such a cruel hand, that while the frenzy was his cause, the burden will never be off of his shoulders for as long as he breathed. That at least he can try and save a handful of people in Krat, puppet or human. That at least he can try to begin to atone for all of his sins. That for once in his absolutely pathetic life, he would fight and not flee, that he would never again let the tragedy of his youth come to the present.
He can’t break. He can’t break. He can’t break. He can’t…
But who was he kidding? Arlecchino tortured him for mere amusements, the Alchemists used him no better than any other puppet. Under his own name and creation, he destroyed his home. And Gepptto… his idol and inspiration… his partner…
…break.
In a blinding rage, roaring out all that he had kept locked away, he knocked everything off of Geppetto’s desk, shattering a few things undoubtedly, before slamming his fists into the table leaving a loud echo that floated throughout the hotel. He kept hitting the table, harder and harder and harder until he could no longer feel his fist, but not stopping. Not for a moment.
“Damn you!” Slam. “God damn you!” Slam. “You said we were partners!” Slam. “You said we were going to change Krat!” Slam. “This Frenzy… it…. it was preventable! It was all preventable, the whole time!” Slam. “I tr… I trusted you! I trusted you and…!
He kept slamming the table before collapsing to his knees, finding it hard to breathe as he curled up, covering his face in desperation.
“I trusted you…”