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

[Private]

[impure_tale]

[He looks conflicted, and after a moment's contemplation, he seems ready to speak again.]

I wish to say my piece and then I will leave you be. If I may -- given what we have discussed, I believe it is possible that your first instinct is to blame yourself when someone wrongs you. That's painful in itself, especially when sometimes your self is all you may have.

I will say nothing of others, as you asked me to speak not of the past. Assuming that belief is true, however, please understand that I am a man able to make his own decisions and who either understands the consequences of his actions or can be made aware of them. If I were to ever betray your confidence, the fault would lie squarely with me, and you would be entitled to any reproach you saw fitting. If you come to me in conversation or in any other capacity, you are not obligated to expect anything of me save that I treat you with decency, as an equal if not more. If that does not happen, it is my failing, not yours. I will endeavor not to fail.

If my conversation gives you any ease, it is yours whenever you seek it. I promise.

Re: [Private]

[tentacruelest]

You've a flowery speech and a forked tongue. And I can no more trust you than I can my own heart.

[Private]

[impure_tale]

Trust is earned, Captain, and I've never been afraid of high prices. It's not for me to decide what that is; it's yours, and if you never agree it has been earned that is your right.

[Private]

[tentacruelest]

Each time I have opened my heart to another, it has been at first accepted and then stolen. Each time I have given into friendship, I am betrayed and lied to. Each time I have been promised freedom, I have been granted only slavery and servitude. What is mine, I have pried from the fingers of unwilling men who had the opportunity to give willingly and instead stabbed me in the back.

And yet I persist in forging the odd, rare connection. Tell me, is that not some sort of Hell in and of itself? To understand that you will always be alone and yet to keep searching, unable to accept the truth for what it is?

Why are you tormenting me with these offers? Go away.

[Private]

[impure_tale]

Truth can be so painfully relative, Captain.

I am so very sorry for what others have done to you. I will leave you be.

The offers still stand. Not to torment you, but because they are yours.

Adieu.

[Private]

[tentacruelest]

[With an angry noise in the back of his throat to disguise the pain, Davy slams his communicator down and ends the connection]