8th Wave

[tentacruelest]

Th' next time this Barge feels like poking around in my head, I'll be keeping to my quarters. The lot of yeh - useless dregs not fit to scrub a floor. It's bad enough I'm locked in here with you, I don't need to call any of yeh friends.

[Private to Bush]

Was dealing with me yerself so difficult that you sought to work through less offensive channels, Captain?

[Private to Arthas]

A word, my king.

[Can you feel that heavy sarcasm, Arthas?]

Comments

[myironeyes]

I don't plan to force you. I'm simply telling you that - entertaining or not - this will have the opposite effect from what you want.

[tentacruelest]

Nothing else appears to be working.

[Private]

[tentacruelest]

Do not seek to invite me into your company again.

[godsays]

What is the matter with you?

[tentacruelest]

Nothing that women like her have not pushed to this point.

G'dday, Zane.

[text/some time later]

[routemistress]

no. it's not fair that anyone else should have to deal with you because I failed to keep my big mouth closed. I picked the quarrel and you can take it out of me. if an apology is insufficient you may take your satisfaction some other way.

yes, this is an apology. I should have left you alone.

[Private]

[impure_tale]

You might note there was no invitation during our last conversation.

The point of a standing offer is needing no repetition.

And I should remind you that but for this conversation and perhaps one other, you have initiated most every single one.

[godsays]

Remember who you were in that flood. Remember what you told me.

[text/some time later]

[tentacruelest]

I don't recall ever seeing the slightest twinge of remorse from you, Wildthyme. This is a momentous occasion.

[tentacruelest]

I told you nothing but lies. As was befitting a false personality.

[Private]

[tentacruelest]

Then remove your offer from its position.

Well, I.

[Fuck. You've caught him out, Marquis. He does in some way love to talk with someone from his own time period]

[text/some time later]

[routemistress]

I apologised for chucking marbles at you, that time.

I'm not willing for someone else to get it in the neck because I speak before I think. I shouldn't have spoken at all. Taunting you's not what I'm here for.

[text/some time later]

[tentacruelest]

You are one of a dozen souls hauranging me at ev'ry turn. I am fed up with it all. And I am not merciful.

[godsays]

You're lying now. You threaten Iris with despair because it makes you feel better to know that no one else can be happy, if you aren't. What you do is inevitable, so it's right.

Except it's not inevitable. And you're just cruel, for no reason.

[tentacruelest]

I am cruel because it is in my nature; because the world turned me cruel and cruelty is the only thing we may expect. It is the one constant aboard this ship.

Do yeh not despair, Zane?

[text/some time later]

[routemistress]

I don't need mercy. But you can take it out on me, not any bugger else.

[text/some time later]

[tentacruelest]

A soul given is not the same as one taken. I know your heart, Iris Wildthyme; despair is found in the fates of your friends, and not your own.

[text/some time later]

[routemistress]

You know nothing about me or my friends. Well, I apologised and made the offer. On your own head be it.

[godsays]

Yes. You think it's inevitable.

No. No. You look at me. You look at how I found family even on a Barge where cruelty is what's supposed to happen.

[text/some time later]

[tentacruelest]

I can promise you one thing; whatever else happens, it will not be boring.

[tentacruelest]

It is inevitable!

And what is a family but yet another vessel for cruelty in and of itself? Show yourself to me, Zane; I'll teach you where family will land you!

[godsays]

You challenge me. A man who's made it known that he doesn't kill, and if he does it's as painless as possible - on a Barge where death never lasts.

Please. It's cowardice that your only way out is violence. That you can't accept the slight to your ego that words get you.

[myironeyes]

What else have you tried?

[Because mostly when he hears you talk, it's threats. Just saying.]

[tentacruelest]

You kill. You kill when pressed for it. Call me a coward to my face, or suffer hypocrisy.

[tentacruelest]

Being left alone. Ignoring others in the hopes that I too will be ignored.