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

[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?

[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.

[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.

[tentacruelest]

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

[godsays]

Back down. This doesn't end well for you. Taking the blow to your ego now is braver than forcing it.

[tentacruelest]

This is not about ego. This is about freedom.

[godsays]

You're not free. And even if this jail was gone, the one you've built for yourself would be as unbroken as ever.

[tentacruelest]

No, I am not free. And I haven't been free in decades. This is only one instance of a never-ending line of humiliation.

You keep your unfounded opinions to yerself.

[godsays]

If you stop threatening my family, and threatening me, I will leave you alone.

You do this, and I won't.

[tentacruelest]

To keep up your pestering will be your undoing, boy.

[godsays]

To follow through on your threats would be yours.

[tentacruelest]

They are not threats. They are promises. Prophecies of pain to come.

[godsays]

Why don't you find someone who wants to fight with you?

[tentacruelest]

From your lip, I took that to be you.

[godsays]

I wanted you to leave her alone.

[tentacruelest]

And I wanted to go throughout this day unmolested.

private

[godsays]

Remember what you said, once, about men being unable to endure pain?

[He pulls aside his tunic, and shows the end of the metal spike, embedded.]

It goes through my heart.

I feel it. I feel my heart beating around it.

Private

[shakenandlimp]

Zane, lad, please. Reminding him he is powerless won't be what causes him to back down. It will only make his bluster turn real.

Please, Zane, I don't want you harmed and he will regret, someday, that he did it.

Private

[godsays]

First, I think Iris is more worth your time than me.

Second, I wasn't just doing this to try to stop him. I want him to fight me, if anyone, because he won't have to regret that in the future. Fighting is something I do very well, and if I get hurt, I won't be any more angry at him than I am from him saying those things.

And finally: I won't stop telling him he's an idiot just because he doesn't like it.

Re: Private

[shakenandlimp]

I am glad you think so because it's her I contacted first.

Secondly, it is my business that he learns to do anything other than be cruel. And I don't know how, Zane. I am sorry to put some of the burden on you, I know it ain't fair, but he is an inmate and it's to wardens not to rise to him as long as all he has is words.

Tell him he is a fool, but not that he is weak. I made him weak, was me asked the admiral to take much of his strength away.

Re: Private

[godsays]

...good.

But he shouldn't have threatened my family.

Private

[shakenandlimp]

No. But he hates, proper hates that no-one is afraid.

I will try to distract him. We could all use that.

I've seen you speak to him before. Lord, I have been grateful most times, you have been so sensible. But I've got to try to be his warden. To keep him from murder, and murder from him. I'll own I ain't good at it, but I've got to try.

Private

[godsays]

You know I'll try not to kill him, if he does come after me.