mattersverymuch | 15 ɂ spam & private

15 ɂ spam & private

spam } deck

[The Evil Queen as a trope has become somewhat . . . overused, the marquis de Carabas believes. Admittedly he's biased. He much prefers stories with neither villains nor heroes, just incredibly stupid people being taken advantage of.]

[There is also the small matter of his other bias, but it need hardly be mentioned. The talon marks up and down his arms and cheeks should speak for themselves.]

[He still doesn't consider himself a hero. Certainly not brave. But there is something in him not previously as extinguished as he'd hoped that has been shored up by his time on this vessel. He isn't stronger, he's weaker. It's just that his weak is very different from other people's.]

[He protects those whom he has come to care for, in particular those too stupid to have sense or too slow and weak to be able to fight back. He has some of his magic, but not much, enough for parlor tricks and distractions, for small traps. He uses it sparingly. His warden will take it away if it becomes a nuisance to her.]

[And his warden has instructed him to persuade others toward the door, so that she might stab them in the back and take it. This bores him, frankly. There are things he'd rather be doing, such as literally anything else, and it just proves her cowardice. But he knows how to pick his battles.]

[So he waits by the door, either inspecting it or merely spending time in its presence, for much of the day. This serves her purposes, but it serves his own, too. He knows that this isn't what everyone claims it to be. He is, after all, owed a favor by a young woman who could get here if she really wanted to.]

private } separately to anyone who has exposed themselves as not of this barge

possibly: megamind, nathan, aeryn, slevin, elena, polly - others?

[His voice comes through rich and clear, if tired. Like the beginnings of a story, truncated only because there's really no time for it.]

Lady Mary wanted to see her lover's house, and over the portal of the door it was written, "Be bold, be bold, but not too bold!"

You should be - much more careful than you're currently being. Essentially everyone is Mister Fox. Even the people who would like to help, like myself.

Why are you here?

( ooc; mirrorquis is from a post-canon pull point, after rejoining door in her efforts to find her sister and unite the underside. feel free to assume your character is/has been on his informational network, or is/has been protected by the marquis and his depressing winchester sidekick. ALSO SORRY IF YOUR CHARACTER IS UNAFFECTED AND I FORGOT i still luv u this is open to them to. )

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Reliable in a way useful to this goal?

Nathan. Dean.

Feel free to verify my efficacy and reliability with Dean, then.

I'll wait.

There is no point, now. Perhaps you are lying, perhaps not. What is your plan?

The first part of my plan is to gather information. At this point, I have so little to work with that a single path - or even multiple paths - are impossible to pin down. There are always tens of options that might conceivably work, but now there are thousands. Hence a desire to get any information available.

You could, of course, always lie, and if you're the woman I know here, you will. And then you'll kill me. And the death toll isn't working, which means it might be permanent.

You haven't done anything to make killing you a useful option. Besides not everyone is as observant as you are.

[ Meaning, hopefully, not everyone is aware that she's different; enough are, and what's done is done. But she'd like to keep it a non-public affair as long as possible.

Killing the Marquis would not help. ]

What do you wish to know?

No. They're not. [Which is as close to telling her not to worry as he'll come. That is, not even slightly close. Worry is an excellent response to the current situation.]

Everything you can tell me about the differences between what you're use to and here would be helpful, as well as everything you can remember about your transition to this place. All details are vital, no matter how inconsequential they might seem to you in the moment.

I can, in exchange, give you details of this place and its history. I haven't been here as long as some, but it has - been a while.

The library changed, it's location in time became unstable according to the woman who works there, Chromie. Arya's clothing, some of which she had not even finished making, were found tattered and bloodied in a washing machine that was not running. Morgana found writing backwards on a mirror, I believe in the infirmary. There were communication errors, conversations crossing with outside conversations - David pointed it out, I don't know if others were affected.

In the arns between Friday and Saturday there was a shift. Enough to knock me off my feet. And then I was here.

There the library does not contain a personal assortment of black holes. There the Wardens are there to graduate their Inmates, but the Inmates are those who have made choices that puts them in the wrong - morally, what have you - and the goal is to get them to move past the motivations that brought them there. There the harshest punishment is not a punishment at all, merely isolation. There a cannibal killed several people and was murdered in return, but that was all.

No torture. No breaking of spirits and wills. No starvation. No dying Admiral.

There was a party for Hallowed When recently.

[There the wardens are there to graduate their inmates - that catches him, snags in his heart like a fishhook. To graduate their inmates. And he would be there, wouldn't he. Never that sort of warden or this one, he knows himself well enough to know that. So.]

[A prison.]

[All of this manifests in only the briefest of pauses. He does not sound surprised. Surprise is weakness. Almost everything is weakness.]

A party. How portentous. When you get back, you might look into Samhain. Darker half of the year and all that. But it shouldn't take that long, this place will crumble to dust long before six months pass.

I've been here for over a year. I've seen a great number of graduations. What you see is, essentially, what you get. Truthfully the lack of food hasn't changed people as much as you might expect. Selfishness reigns regardless. It's not sustainable, but egos will do as they will.

[Really, he should know.]

You do realize you're one of the only competent and sane people on this ship, my lady. [This is not a question. It is a statement of fact, and an implication.]

I was not born on a planet; the concept of holidays based on geothermal shifts on a planet's surface are entirely new to me.

I realize that the lack of food is not the impetus for most behaviours I've seen and heard while here. I know the insanity of power when I lay my eyes upon it. The fact that it has gone unchecked for so long ...and that those in power have not recognized that the balance is in no one's favor is the part that confuses me.

Whatever these wardens have arranged to receive, they won't be able to maintain it. I am surprised so few have realized it.

[ Aeryn lets out a small sigh. ]

That does not bode well at all, does it?

I intend to get Nathan through that door. I intend not to tell him until there are no other options. But I do not know what will happen, or if others will follow. I do not know how long the door will remain open.

They're illogical. And many of them are very stupid. A great number are so powerful that even if one of them were to make progress towards superiority, the others would cancel them out. Alliances are rarely formed and much more rarely maintained. It's an exercise in futility and has always been descending into dissolution.

Why Nathan?

So it is a war, with uniquely overpowered combatants.

It is unfortunate all the times they've killed one another it never managed to stay.

Because he is unselfish and would not do it himself. Because he would be fair.

Precisely. Uniquely overpowered, stupid combatants.

There are very few fair leaders. If, in fact, the door does lead to the bridge; if he would, in fact, become the Admiral after all this. You're banking a lot on very little information.

[But then, so is he.]

Wonderful. Though it explains why so little progress has been made during a crisis. They've only gone and fragmented themselves like the poor excuse for an army they are.

If it is a portal through to the Bridge, then I can trust him to act in the best interests of everyone. If it is merely the way back, he needs to return.

I am banking what I have on what I know.

. . . There's worse reasoning.

[If it's the case that whoever goes through will reach the bridge, will become the Admiral, or will face them - Nathan is steady. It's a place to start.]

[And what if it isn't what you want it to be? he thinks, but doesn't say.]

You need little directive. I'll leave you to it.

[And then a mark of hesitation, an intake of breath, a slight sideways motion of his eyes, of attention.]

If you endanger the safety of the inmates on this ship in any way, whether through negligence or deliberate malice, you'll be disposed of.

[Saying inmates is easier than naming names. Certainly easier than saying friends.]

I don't anticipate that this will be a problem. But I felt that in the interests of full disclosure, that fact should be shared.

Understood. [ Aeryn gives one of her tell-tale sharp nods. ]

The goal and intention is to get this done with as little bloodshed as possible. I am not, nor have I ever been, above killing to accomplish my goals.

However ... [ Aeryn takes a breath. ] There is a long list of wardens, and an empty list of inmates.

What do you need from me?

Information. Any and all. If you're capable of moving about mostly undetected, keep me aware of any changes in behavior - especially warden behavior, especially pertaining to activity around the door. Any changes in the door, when I'm not able to be there. Anything you see Arthas doing.

Wardens that pose a significant danger need to be neutralized. I'm moderately capable of doing this. Assist where you can.

The last I saw of Arthas he was raising an army of difficult to defeat undead within the CES, with every obvious intention of brining them out for everyone else to have to deal with sooner than later.

Understood.

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15 ɂ spam & private

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