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

[tentacruelest]

Yeh are near enough to despair already. It's difficult to pull someone from th' brink only to cast 'em back down again.

[myironeyes]

Stop.

The more threats you make, the more people will fuss at you instead of leaving you alone.

Iris, come help me feed Aster.

[tentacruelest]

Only because they feel my threats will go unfulfilled.

[myironeyes]

No.

I've been watching Hannibal Lecter since his release.

More people approach him now. It is harder to cow people who don't die. A few may weary of it, but the most bothersome ones will only see it as a challenge to continue aggravating you.

So stop.

[tentacruelest]

I'd love t'hear how you intend to force me, Marsh. Torturing others is the only entertainment I seem to get these days.

[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.

[myironeyes]

What else have you tried?

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

[voice]

[routemistress]

[It would be stupid to start crying again now. Good thing Marsh can't see the comm screen. She switches it to voice anyway, because Jones can and she has her pride.]

On me way, love.

[spam]

[myironeyes]

[He puts an arm around her as soon as she's through his door.]

[spam]

[routemistress]

[She's shaking with rage and grief, and she clings to Marsh like a child.]

M'sorry. I should know better. Shooting fish in a barrel. Now I might've set 'im on Zane or Rorschach or Chris or someone.

[spam]

[myironeyes]

[He just holds her and pets her hair. She should know better. But, well.]

It'll be alright, Iris.

He acts a bully. It's your better impulses that won't stand for it.

But he acts a bully because he has no power, and you do. Try to remember it.

[spam]

[routemistress]

[She leans against him, infinitely grateful.]

S'good of you to say so. I'm not so sure I weren't just lashing out.

[He does have a point: the conversation took the same shape as other ones have, outside the barge where Iris was fighting for better reasons than a sudden impulse. The same shape, but not the same point. She is capable of better control than this. She's exercised it before.]

...next time I'll try and catch meself doing it before it's too late. I am sorry.

[routemistress]

Despair and me 'aven't ever been on speaking terms, sunshine, not even now. Get stuffed and deepfried.

[tentacruelest]

I hear the wounds and pain in yer voice, Iris Wildthyme. Yeh are too old for this world. How long before all wonder goes out for yeh and all that's left is boredom and indifference? Is that why yeh are so unaffected by my threats? Will the screams of your adopted boys fall on deaf ears, as they did not two weeks ago?

[routemistress]

Longer'n you've got the patience for, Spongebob, no matter where.

Birds to feed. It's been... something.

[tentacruelest]

Go. Ye'll hear from me again. Or from those I send to deliver messages to you.

[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.

[text/some time later]

[tentacruelest]

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

[godsays]

What is the matter with you?

[tentacruelest]

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

G'dday, Zane.

[godsays]

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

[tentacruelest]

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

[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?