tentacruelest | 3rd Wave

[Jones is a deep, deep sleeper but he wakes with the sunrise. Each day is a new, hellish experience on the Barge but he scowls and stomps his way through them regardless.

Imagine his surprise when this morning he opens his door - releasing a small flood of his usual seawater, which, thanks to Maintenance, is contained by a make-shift dam - and spots children running about.

Not the handful of children he knows to be part of the Barge. New ones. And smaller people are easier to bully than full-grown ones.

Resolving to go about his day unbothered by the mechanics of the Admiral, Davy instead storms his way to the mess hall, literally using his claw to forcefully swat aside anyone smaller than four feet]

I'll thank whoever remains their true, full size to keep the vast majority of whelps under control. I've a mind to toss them over the side one by one; no ship is in need of this many cabin boys. No navy is.

Mind your brats. Or I will.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

with_my_teacup

I'd so greatly prefer it if you didn't.

[Riddick's goggles are missing, replaced by Victorian smoked glasses, and his voice has gone... Different. Even his body language, which is fussy and prim instead of feline and sprawling. He purses his lips at Jones.]

We can't help the floods, you know.

From:

tentacruelest

And I can't help how my instinct tells me to react to such floods.

What's got you all twisted round, Riddick?

From:

with_my_teacup

My goodness. Could it be the flood?

[He may have been flood affected, but his core snarky personality remains the same.]

You will have noticed the children resemble our usual friends quite closely.

From:

tentacruelest

They are not my friends.

And if they had half a brain between them all, they'd have realized it would be beneficial to their continued living arrangements on this mortal plane to stay out of my way.

From:

with_my_teacup

They're children. Are you so desperate to prove that you're above it all that you can't make allowances for children?

Leave them be.

From:

tentacruelest

Make allowances for the little ones and the big ones will be sure to follow.

From:

with_my_teacup

Nonsense. They haven't even got fully developed brains until late adolescence, it's ridiculous to hold them to the same standards.

From:

tentacruelest

Life does not care if someone is half or fully grown. The young ones best learn the cruelty of what's in store for them early, so as to better prepare the strong ones and weed out the weak.

From:

with_my_teacup

My philosophy differs. I believe it is the part of the adults in any social unit to protect the young and nurture them.

Leave the children be. You'll move someone to some dreadful violence.

From:

tentacruelest

Who here on this barge is left? I count only a handful of adults, all of whom are caring for their respective broods.

From:

with_my_teacup

In the interim I'm happy to include any of the children into my brood. It's a tendency I've always had. A product of some animal side of me.

I would advise you not to cause an affray in my mess hall. It would be so tedious to expel you from it.

From:

tentacruelest

I never took you for the maternal type.

Then I'll be causing a mess outside your hall instead.

From:

with_my_teacup

You ought to have, Mister Jones. I do take rather a maternal view towards children.

I have been running out of patience with wanton cruelty for weeks and weeks, now. I will ask you politely not to add to the count.

From:

tentacruelest

I suppose next you'll be breastfeeding the littlest ones.

Have ye? And what do these cruelties care for your patience?

From:

with_my_teacup

Physiologically improbable, and happily unnecessary. Though I believe that the thing has been done.

However.

I do take pains that this should not be like the prisons of my own frequent incarcerations. I thrive in those places, but I do not like them. I do not want this to be a place where the strong prey upon the weak, where the less fortunate starve.

I do what is in my power to prevent it, in fact, and that power includes both my own moderate strength and calling for help from greater powers like a rank coward. It is a great convenience to be able to completely swallow one's pride.

From:

tentacruelest

And who do you call for aid when you must swallow your pride, Riddick?

From:

with_my_teacup

Miss Isley seems a likely sort-- and beyond her I would be a fool to name those I know to carry surprising weaponry concealed on their persons.

[And there's always Banner in a pinch, but yeah, he doesn't want to go there if he doesn't have to.

His knives and what he can improvise with a full kitchen are his first resort, of course.]

From:

tentacruelest

This would be the green-skinned witch.

From:

with_my_teacup

It would. One doesn't like to rely on the inmates to keep one another in check.

Although one does like to give them the chance; I preferred to do so myself and they have the greater stake in this place being run in some sort of tolerable order.